Dear JPS Families,

Can you believe we’re almost at the end of Term 3? The weeks have flown by, filled with exciting events, achievements and so many proud moments. It’s been a wonderful term, and there’s still more to come as we head into the final week!

Production

A huge congratulations to all our students (and teachers) for their fantastic matinee and Thursday evening performances. You should all be incredibly proud. I’ll be there on Saturday night, and I’m very much looking forward to bringing my Mum, Nan and Pap to see the show. 

State Dance Festival

I was thrilled to hear that Zahli and Ella, as part of the Southern Stars Performing Company, have been selected to perform at the prestigious State Dance Festival at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. I can’t wait to hear all about it when they return to school on Monday. Well done, girls! We are very proud of you!

Interschool Sport

Best of luck to Maleah and London, who will be competing during the school holidays in the Berry Interschool Equestrian Championship at the Berry Equestrian Centre. We look forward to hearing about your experiences and successes!

Surf Talk

On Monday, students will have a Surf Talk around beach safety with a Kiama Lifeguard. This will go for about 30 minutes. 

Kindergarten Orientation

Kindergarten Orientation kicks off this Monday from 2-3pm. Parents and carers will meet in the hall, while our pre-K students will head up to the Kindergarten classroom with Year 5, Mrs Galea and Mrs Caulfield. We can’t wait to welcome our new Kindergarten friends to Jamberoo PS! It’s looking like we’ll have 24 Kindergarten enrolments for 2026. This will be our biggest group in many years, at least the largest in the past 7.

Mufti Day

Next Thursday 25th September, Year 6 will be raising funds for their formal. Students are invited to wear mufti clothes and bring a gold coin donation to help get year 6 decorations and a photobooth. 

Warm regards,

Katie Louttit

Relieving Principal

On Monday of Week 9, 34 Year 3 and 4 students, along with Ms Peterson, Ms Louttit and me, hopped on to the bus bright and early and headed to Mt Keira Girl Guide camp for a geography excursion that supported and extended this year's geography unit, 'The Earth's Environment.'  A big focus of this excursion was the Illawarra rainforest environment. This excursion was led by Ben and Maddie, two wonderful teachers who are with the Illawarra Environmental Education Centre (based at Killalea).

We split into two mixed groups and headed off to do a variety of activities in these groups, coming back together for Crunch and Sip, lunch and recess. The activities included a plant ID activity, where students had to check out a variety of trees in the rainforest and identify them in their booklet by looking at the bark and leaves, etc. They also did leaf rubbings, which many of them had not done before, and they loved! Another activity was a walk along a rainforest track where students had to use their five senses to observe nature around them. We had a discussion about what we noticed. 

Another activity involved placing a white sheet under a tree and shaking it to find insects. Alternatively, students could use gloves to grab some leaf litter from the forest floor and put it through a sieve to find the insects that help break down the organic matter on the forest floor. We also spent some time looking at historical artefacts from the Dharawal people's many thousands of years in this area. The rainforest was their grocery store and chemist shop and they were able to live in this area, using and preserving the rainforest at the same time. Many students' favourite activity was the drama activity that followed European history in the region, which has resulted in 85% of the original rainforest being lost to human occupation. Students got into groups and acted out one portion of European settlement for the whole group — from the early coal miners and other settlers, to dairy farmers and finally on to the conservationists who have tried to limit the destruction of the rainforest.

Students also used scientific weather instruments to compare the air temperature, wind, soil temperature, soil moisture and humidity on the grassy area to that in the rainforest, and found that the rainforest was significantly cooler, less windy and more humid, with a lower air and soil temperature and much greater soil moisture.It was a fantastic day and I hope your child gets a chance to tell you  bit more about it. I'm thankful we didn't run into any snakes! We did enjoy seeing a brush turkey and a duck that was nesting up in a tree hole.

Mrs McCormack

Get ready for a night of hilarious murder and mayhem! Our school production, Murder at Hotel Crumbhorn, promises plenty of laughs, mystery, and unforgettable entertainment. We have 1 more performance on Saturday 20 September at 7pm.

Tickets are on sale now from the hall before the show (limited amount):

• $20 Adults
• $15 Concession and students 12 and under 

If you are unable to make it, please let the relevant staff member know as soon as possible:

• Actors: Mrs Behl-Shanks
• Dancers: Mrs Green
• Props: Ms Peterson

Thank you to the Kindy students who came to gardening club this week. They helped plant dahlia bulbs, fertilised them with compost and watered them in. They also helped in the Jamberoo history garden (in front of the K/1 classrooms) to fertilise, weed and water the area. They took home flowers, lettuce and lemons. A big thank you to this enthusiastic bunch of students who love their gardening!

Mrs McCormack

Kindergarten had a very exciting week with a visit to the Healthy Harold Life Education van. Some children felt a little nervous before going in, but they quickly discovered how enjoyable the session was. Everyone was delighted to meet Healthy Harold and learn about the important topic of safe and unsafe situations. The children came out smiling and eager to share what they had learned.

In English, the focus has been on using adjectives and expressing opinions about stories and characters. We have been practising writing sentences such as “I like…” and “I dislike…”, using descriptive words to explain their thinking. It has been wonderful to see them grow in confidence as writers and speakers.

In geography, we have been exploring special places and learning about why they are important. The children have also discussed ways we can take care of these places at school, at home and in the community. Their thoughtful ideas show a growing understanding of responsibility and care for the world around them.

In maths, our learning has centred on volume. The children have enjoyed hands-on investigations, filling and comparing containers to discover which hold more or less. This practical work has helped build strong foundations for measuring and comparing in real-life situations.

In Birrahlee, to compliment our maths units of work, we have been consolidating our knowledge with Daily Reviews. This is a brief (7-20 minute) daily session at the start of a lesson where students practice previously mastered math skills and concepts, often using retrieval practice and spaced repetition to boost long-term memory and automatic recall.

Also, this week we visited the Life Education Van and met Healthy Harold! We talked about what good friends do and played some games. It was great fun and Harold was super cute and funny!

It has been a very busy and exciting couple of weeks in Nanga Mai! Last week we enjoyed our history walk around Jamberoo. The students did so well walking in the heat, and we learned so much about our local history. A big thank you to Jess for coming along to help – your support was greatly appreciated.

In English, we have been working hard on writing our persuasive travel brochures all about Kati-Thunda (Lake Eyre). The students have shown creativity and strong persuasive language skills to encourage people to visit this special place.

We also had a wonderful time with Healthy Harold, where we learned about being safe online. The students were so engaged, respectful, and contributed thoughtfully to the discussion. Well done, Nanga Mai – I am proud of how hard you have all worked over the last two weeks!

We have one more exciting P&C barbecue coming up – always a rewarding way to support our school while raising important funds for our students.

Upcoming BBQ:

• Bunnings BBQ – Saturday 26 October at Albion Park Bunnings

To make this event a success, we need volunteers to help run the BBQs in 2-hour shifts. They’re always fun days, with plenty of laughs and a great chance to meet other families while giving back to the school.

If you can’t make it on the day, you can still support us by donating soft drinks for sale – every contribution helps!

👉 Click here to sign up to volunteer or pledge a donation

Thank you for your support – every snag sold makes a difference for our kids!