Fortnightly Newsletter

I trust you all enjoyed a relaxing Easter break and took advantage of the beautiful weather! It was wonderful to see so many of our parents and carers on site last week to enjoy the fun and frivolity of our Easter hat parade coupled with our monster Easter raffle draw, organised by our P&C. Congratulations to all of our lucky prize recipients and a sincere thankyou to all of our wonderful parents and carers, our organising staff, our fabulous students and our hardworking P&C for making this happen.

PARENT / TEACHER MEETINGS

This year our school has again facilitated the opportunity for parents and carers to meet with their child's class teacher during Term 1. This opportunity allows parents and carers to connect with their child's teacher, share information about their child and discuss their child's learning needs well before the mid year academic report goes home. I would like to gather some information from our parents and carers regarding the value of this opportunity, by requesting you complete a quick feedback survey. The information gathered from this survey will be anonymous and will assist our school to further tailor these opportunities for our school community moving forward.

GUIDELINES REVIEW

Our school is currently in the process of reviewing our guidelines for homework and student behaviour. 

• Our current homework guidelines were due for review in 2023. This review was put on hold last year and will now take place this year. Our review will involve gathering information from our students, our parents and carers and our teachers, as well as sourcing current research on homework to build an evidence base. 
• Our current student behaviour guidelines are due for review this year in line with department requirements. A new Student Behaviour Support and Management Plan (SBSMP) will be developed ready for implementation from Term 1 2025.

Guideline reviews will be a consultative process involving input from all stakeholders. We will be keeping our school community informed at each stage of the review process.

VACATION BREAK

A reminder that the last day of Term 1 is next Friday 12 April. Term 2 commences on Monday 29 April which is a pupil free school development day. Students return to school next term on Tuesday 30 April.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our families a safe and relaxing holiday break and we look forward to seeing your children back at New Lambton Public School on Tuesday 30 April, well rested and ready for Term 2.

Yours in public education,

Justine Abell

WEEK 11 - April

WEEK 1 - April / May

WEEK 2 - May

The department recognises that family breakdowns take place. Unless there is formal notice otherwise, it is assumed that both parents have shared and equal parental responsibility for their children and both parents have been involved in decisions regarding their children’s education. This also means the school recognises that each parent has equal duties, obligations, responsibilities and opportunities relating to matters involving the school.

If changes occur in your family relationship which might impact on the relationship between the school and your family, you should advise the school immediately. This includes providing copies of any relevant court orders.

Kind Regards

Rebecca McCully

School Administrative Manager (Rel)

Students from New Lambton Public School joined over 350 000 students nationwide on Friday March 22, for National Ride2School Day. Despite the rain, many students and teachers remained committed to riding, scooting, or walking to school, and they were rewarded with fruit and hot cross buns for their efforts.

Max from 3E rode his scooter to school and shared his enthusiasm for Ride2School Day, saying, "It's an opportunity to not come to school by car which is great as I find it much more enjoyable riding. It only took me about 7 minutes to ride my scooter to school today, and it was so much fun!"

Miss Lauren Gallagher

Coordinator

On Wednesday 27 March students participated in the school cross country at Kentish Park and Ford Ovals. All students navigated the 1.1 km loop around the grounds and it was a fabulous day out in the local community. Thanks to our wonderful community for coming out and supporting the event. Congratulations to all participants and well done to our Newcastle City PSSA team (see the list below).

Thanks to our whole school community for assisting with sport for this term. The students are thriving on the sports field so we say thanks!

Cricket trials

Congratulations to Chris G for being selected in the Hunter PSSA Cricket team. Chris will now compete for the region at the NSWPSSA State Championships.

Rugby League trials

Our school has held selection trials for both U/10 and U/12 Gala Day teams. These teams will compete at two upcoming gala days and we wish them the very best of luck!

Upcoming Events:

• Thursday 11 April - NLPS 3-6 Athletics Carnival at Hunter Sports Centre Glendale
• NRL U/12's Knights Challenge (mixed) - Friday 12 April at Cessnock
• NRL U/10's Knights Challenge - Thursday 2 May at Windale

Have a great fortnight!

Mr McMahon

Sports Coordinator

On Friday 22 March some of the year five and six girls travelled to Kurri Kurri to compete in a rugby league gala day. We played 3 games. We played against Saint Patricks, Saint Pauls and Raymond Terrace!

We won against Raymond Terrace 5-3.🎉🥳

We worked well as a team and all pushed each other to do our best. We constantly helped each other by encouraging and committing to working together.

Well done to everyone who gave it a shot!

TEAM:

• Mikaela
• Pip
• Maddie
• Billie
• Willow
• Ava
• Savannah
• Wren
• Layla
• Hazel 

A big thank you to Mrs Green and Andrew Johson for looking after the team.

Thank you!

By  Maddie and Willow

The Premier's Spelling Bee is now open. New Lambton Public School is participating in this year's competition.  

Teachers and students can now access the word lists for the Junior (Years 3-4) and Senior (Years 5-6) divisions of the competition at this link: https://artsunit.nsw.edu.au/program/nsw-premiers-spelling-bee. Year 2 students are also invited to enter the Junior division of the competition. 

The password for 2024 is: beeline

At NLPS, students will have the opportunity to participate in a class final in Term 2. Two representatives from each class will then compete in a Junior or Senior final at school. The winner of each final proceeds to the Regional final, to be held online.

Mrs Vale

Spelling Bee Coordinator

On the 21st of March 2024, 8 students from NLPS were selected to compete in an all day academic competition at Bishop Tyrrell Anglican College. These students included Banjo.B, Ben.W, Harry.O, Amelie.B, Sarah.L, Chris.G, Austin.B, and Campbell.B. Hence the name decathlon -  there were 10 subjects they competed in, containing Art and Poetry, Legacy, Mathematics, English, Ideation, Cartography, Engineering, Creative Producers, Science, and Code Breaking.

It was the first time NLPS had entered the Da Vinci Decathlon and there were 18 other schools there. Despite our low chances we did surprisingly well and came 3rd place in 3 subject!. These 3 subjects consisted of legacy, cartography, and ideation.

This was an enjoyable experience.

Written by Ben and Banjo 6P

Year 6 have been involved and engaged in a variety of STEM activities in Term 1, including maths problem solving and Maths Olympiad preparation. The Olympiad team will sit their first Olympiad in Term 2 on 31 July. Good luck team!

Students have started the Australian Institute of Sport’s Problem Solving Program. This is an interactive health and wellbeing program that encourages students to engage in design thinking, problem solving and learn from high performance athletes.

Students were excited to have a visit from Olivia O’Rourke, who is an Olympic Diver at the Institute of Sport. Olivia spoke about the importance of being a balanced athlete and ensuring she prioritises her wellbeing, sporting goals and education equally.

She spoke about how being an elite athlete means you are challenged mentally to be resilient and think outside your comfort zone. Being a part of this program is a great opportunity to encourage the next generation to think outside the box, challenge themselves and become creative.

Students are now in the process of finding a solution to this problem, using the STEM thinking process and they will share their plans with Olivia when she returns in Term 2.

PROBLEM:

Less than half of Australian children participate in organised community sport. 

The AIS wants you to design an exciting new sport (or improve a current sport) that will attract young people to participate and be included in the next International Sporting Competition in Australia.

All Year 6 students have had the opportunity to design a bush tucker garden for our new Yarning Circle. They are in the process of using the Edu Creations app to draw their designs.

The students have spent lessons measuring, researching, thinking and collaborating and they plan to take their creations to Ms Abell and the Aboriginal Team soon.

Some excited students have shared their designs below. 

Well done Year 6!

Mrs Macdonald

Welcome back to all of our families for the last part of Term 1 after the Easter break!

EASTER RAFFLE

A HUGE thankyou to all of our parents and carers for their generous donations of chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies and other Easter goodies. Thanks also to those parents who volunteered to help sort out the Easter donations and wrap all of the raffle prizes. With the many dontations and invaluable volunteer support the P&C was able to provide 147 prizes for our Easter raffle and we raised over $7000 for the school! 

P&C PRESIDENT

The position of P&C president is still vacant and we are hoping to fill this sometime during the next school term. Please feel free to contact Katie Frankiewicz if you would like to know more about what this position entails.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Our P&C meetings are held on a Monday evening from 7:00 pm in the school staffroom twice each term (Week 4 and Week 8).  Everyone is very  welcome to attend.

Our Term 2 P&C meeting dates are:

• WEEK 4 - Monday 20 May
• WEEK 8 - Monday 17 June

We look forward to seeing you at our next P&C meeting!

Mrs Katie Frankiewicz and Mrs Lexie Wadsworth

P&C Vice-Presidents

Exciting news for students - the canteen is now open for lunch time sales for all food items! 

This fortnight we have added a new item - frozen and fresh banana with the option of Biscoff spread to give it something special. 

But wait... there's something even more exciting! Something that has had many students asking for and cheering when they have found out. The canteen is bringing back slushies! Slushies will be returning at some stage in term 2, with the date still to be confirmed as we are waiting on the arrival of a new slushie machine.

In term 2 we need to make some changes due to health star ratings. Unfortunately our chicken chippies no longer meet the criteria. Chicken chippies will be replaced with chicken goujons. They are crumbed and very similar to the chippies. 

Due to low demand for sushi, we have had to re-evaluate it being sold regularly. Sushi will now be available for order during week 5 and week 10 of next term.  

I will also be making up a paper menu for everybody's fridge that will be handed out in class soon, ready for next term.

We are still seeking helpers and support in the canteen, so please sign up if you are available to help (short shifts available also!) https://signup.com/go/vradNYV

Casey Sherry

Mr Stephen Gibberd has received some interest in Coding Club from students who are not part of the original Rusty Coding Club (which commenced in 2023).

Rusty Coding Club will start a class for new members on Friday mornings in the Library from 8:00 am to 9.00 am, commencing in Week 8 (Friday 22 March). If your child is interested in mathematics and computers, then this is a free club to learn programming skills and apply mathematics using multiplayer games. It is targeted at years 4 and 5, with a limit of 16 students.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER or email questions to stephen@gibberd.id.au