Dear Jamberoo PS Families,

I apologise, I'm running a little behind as I've been unwell again with another flu/virus. I'm hoping to be back on board at the end of the week as our school engages in Policy Curriculum Monitoring. 

Trivia Night

A huge thank you to our P&C, families and community members who supported our recent Trivia Night. It was a fun and entertaining evening that brought our community together, and we are so grateful for the effort and generosity that made the event such a success. Please see below for the flyers and also a link to view photos. 

Last week, Mrs Peterson and I had the privilege of attending Leading Aboriginal Education with our peer principals and colleagues. This was a valuable opportunity to reflect on the important work taking place and to strengthen our commitment to embedding Aboriginal perspectives and practices here at Jamberoo Public School. 

Our Book Parade was a wonderful celebration of reading. Thank you to Mrs Green for her organisation and leadership, to all our teachers for embracing the “Secret Teacher Swap,” and to our students and families for the creativity and effort that went into so many outstanding costumes. We also appreciate the support of families who attended the Book Fair throughout the week. Profits from the fair go directly back into our library, helping us to provide even more opportunities for our students to engage with books.

A special thank you to our Kindergarten parents for catering such a beautiful morning tea for Grandparents Day. It was heart-warming to see so many grandparents and grandfriends join us to enjoy the student performances, visit classrooms, and spend time with their grandchildren at school. Your presence and support made the day truly memorable for our students and staff. Thank you to Mrs Peterson for all her efforts in the lead up to the event, Mrs De Las Haras for setting up the event in the hall, the teachers for making it a fun time in classrooms and practicing items with students, and of course to our students for performing wonderful songs/poems/dances on stage. 

We Need Your Help 

Our P&C has two important fundraising barbecues coming up, and I encourage everyone to get behind them. These events not only raise valuable funds for our students but also bring our school community together in a fun and relaxed way.

Upcoming BBQs:

• Kiama By-Election BBQ – Saturday 13 September at Jamberoo Public School

• Bunnings BBQ – Saturday 26 October at Albion Park Bunnings

To ensure these days run smoothly, the P&C is seeking volunteers to assist with the BBQs in 2-hour shifts. If you’re not able to help on the day, another way to contribute is by donating soft drinks for sale—every little bit makes a difference.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and support. I know our P&C would love to see some new faces alongside our regular helpers, and every sausage sold will directly benefit our students.

Father's Day Stall

This Thursday, students will head down to the library to pick a gift out for someone they love! Don't forget to jump onto the Jamberoo P&C website to purchase a gift if you haven't already. 

Kind regards,

Katie Louttit

Relieving Principal

On Sunday, seven of our talented students – Elsie, Indi, Zane, Kiara, Zahli, Cate and Maeve – represented Jamberoo Public as the Full Cream Team at the Regional Tournament of Minds competition, held at the University of Wollongong.The team tackled the demanding Language Literature Challenge, creating and presenting a ten-minute performance which they had created without any outside assistance. Inspired by Shaun Tan’s The Rabbits, they explored the theme of colonisation through a modern twist: the infiltration of AI into our society. Their performance was imaginative, thought-provoking and powerfully delivered.In addition to this prepared challenge, the students were also required to complete a spontaneous challenge, which tested their ability to think quickly, collaborate and respond creatively as a team.We are thrilled to share that Jamberoo’s Full Cream Team received Honours – an outstanding achievement, particularly as the Language Literature challenge was the most competitive of all, with 14 teams from across the Illawarra participating. We are incredibly proud of our students’ creativity, teamwork and perseverance. The Full Cream Team will be showcasing their presentation at next Friday’s assembly (12 September), and we encourage everyone to come along and celebrate their achievement.

Mrs Behl-Shanks

We are incredibly proud of Zahli and Ella, who were both successfully selected to join the Southern Stars Performing Company this year. This elite company is made up of talented students from across the Illawarra and South Coast, chosen through a highly competitive audition process in dance, drama, vocal, choir and instrumental music.

As part of the Southern Stars spectacular, Zahli and Ella danced in the Friday performance and then lit up the stage in two huge shows on Saturday. To be chosen as part of such a prestigious production is a remarkable achievement, and we are thrilled to see our Jamberoo students representing their school community with such talent and dedication.

Well done, Zahli and Ella – you should be so proud of yourselves!

A big thank you to everyone who supported our students in getting dressed up for the JPS 2025 Book Parade! It was such a fun afternoon seeing our students proudly parade as their favourite book characters. The creativity and effort that went into the costumes made the event extra special and truly brought the magic of books to life. This year’s Book Week theme, “Book an Adventure”, was a wonderful reminder of how stories can take us on incredible journeys — and our students’ costumes showed just how many adventures await inside the pages of a book! We were also delighted to welcome special visitors from our local Jamberoo Community Preschool. Thank you for joining us — it was lovely to share the excitement of the parade with you!

Mrs Green

As part of our Book Week celebrations, JPS students had the chance to dive into this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) shortlisted books. Each story gave us something new to think about, from exciting adventures to meaningful lessons about friendship, resilience, and the world around us.One of the highlights of the week was our teacher swap, where teachers visited different classrooms to share a shortlisted book with students. After enjoying the stories together, classes participated in fun and engaging follow-up activities inspired by the books. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the joy of reading while exploring the rich variety of stories on the CBCA shortlist. Book Week was a true reminder that stories have the power to connect us, inspire us, and spark our imaginations!

Mrs Green

This week, Mr Reed and I had the joy of bringing One Little Dung Beetle by Heather Potter and Mark Jackson to life for our kindergarten students. After enjoying the story together, Mr Reed took the children on an adventurous beetle hunt around the school grounds. The students were absolutely thrilled to discover creepy-crawlies in their natural habitats! Meanwhile, I worked with our kindergarten artists on a fun, step-by-step drawing lesson where they created their very own dung beetles. Their creativity and enthusiasm were wonderful to see. It was such a great day filled with laughter, learning and a newfound appreciation for these tiny, hardworking creatures.

Ms Stehr

I read Spiro with Birrahlee.  It’s a story about a spider who has to keep persevering in building his web, to catch his lunch.  Students made spiders with googly eyes.  We had a great discussion about what things they had to use perseverance for, as well as types of bugs spiders might eat and how many legs spiders have.

Mrs McCormack

I was a secret teacher for Nanga Mai. We read the story, These Long-Loved Things by Josh Pyke and Ronojoy Ghosh. It’s a book about family, love, shared memories, generations, aging, caring and understanding. We connected this theme with Grandparent’s Day and made some 3D origami hearts to decorate a card that Nanga Mai students could give to their grandparents.

Mrs Kunkler

I visited Walabi for the exciting Secret Teacher Swap! During the visit, we read How to Move a Zoo, a fascinating book that explains the challenges and creative solutions involved in relocating animals safely and comfortably when a zoo has to move. Inspired by the book’s themes of animal care and creativity, they then used pastel crayons to create vibrant, Peter Cromer inspired bird artworks. The room was filled with colour, imagination and lots of fun as they explored this unique artistic style and celebrated wildlife in their own creative way!

Mrs Galea

During Book Week activities this week, Ms O’Leary and I were lucky enough to work with our Year 5 students as they delved into the beautiful book The Land Recalls Us by multi-awarded Gunai poet, Kirli Saunders. After an insightful discussion about the ways land shapes who we are and how we connect to it, students considered how artists use symbols and colour to tell cultural stories. Inspired by Kirli’s work, they then created their own symbolic artworks, capturing the things that inspire them in their own local environment. The resulting collage was thoughtful, creative, and a wonderful celebration of our students’ growing appreciation of story, place, and culture. 

Mrs Behl-Shanks

Cooinda’s year six students engaged in an exciting lesson on Shaun Tan’s, The Lost Thing, using its rich illustrations and layered storytelling to spark curiosity and critical thinking. Students designed their own lost thing on cardstock and wrote a rhyming poem based on their thing.

Mrs Dammerel

What a wonderful week we’ve had celebrating our love of reading at the JPS Book Fair! So many students and families visited, browsing the shelves and purchasing books to take home. Each book bought not only encouraged our students’ passion for reading, but also helped raise money for brand new books for our school library. A huge thank you to everyone who came along and supported us through either buying a book or making a generous donation through donating a book— your contributions make a real difference in keeping our library fresh and exciting. We’ll be announcing the total amount raised in the coming week, so stay tuned!

Mrs Green

What a wonderful morning we had on Thursday celebrating Grandparents' and Grandfriends' Day at Jamberoo Public School!

The day began with morning tea before our students took to the stage. Their performances absolutely thrilled the audience and were met with lots of claps, cheers and smiling faces from the crowd.

Afterwards, families moved into classrooms where students proudly showed off their learning and presented special gifts they had made. The children were so pleased to share their classrooms with their grandparents and grandfriends, and the atmosphere was full of warmth, love and connection.

The Book Fair was also a big hit, with many lucky students leaving with new books in their hands.

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for this special day. It was such a joy to see the strong bonds between our students and their grandparents.

Mrs Peterson

Please see the photos from the night here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bth7vL1YUf7CYZAJ8

Tickets are on sale now from the school office:

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

Rehearsal Reminder

A full cast and crew rehearsal will be held after school on Friday 5 September from 3:15 – 5:15pm. We are really counting on everyone to attend. 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 our wonderful Kindergarten helpers in the garden this week! They helped mulch the garden beds. We talked about how mulch is like a blanket keeping the beds warm (or cool) and keeping all that rain that we have had, in the bed. Students took home lemons, lettuce and flowers.

Mrs McCormack

It's been an exciting two weeks for Walabi! Students thoroughly enjoyed our Book Week festivities. They loved their secret teacher swap on Wednesday — they had Mrs Galea! Mrs Galea read the Children's Book shortlisted book How To Move a Zoo and they did a Peter Cromer bird artwork. I can't wait to get these artworks up in the classroom! Thank you to all the family members who assisted Walabi students in making their Book Week costumes!We loved all the creative and interesting costumes!

In mathematics we have been working on angles. Students should now be able to identify right angles, as well as acute and obtuse angles in polygons. We have also been doing lots of revision as well as new learning on fractions and multiplicative thinking, throughout the term.

In English, we have been thoroughly enjoying writing poetry using imagery. See the photos below where students sat out in the cultural garden area and used their five senses and noted down what they saw, felt, heard, tasted and smelt on the oval area. The resulting poems are now up on the wall in our classroom for you to peruse!

In geography, Year 4 students have been creating salt dough maps of the Illawarra to understand our coastal fringe between the ocean and the escarpment. We have included Mt Keira, where we will be going on our excursion, on our maps.

Mrs McCormack

We have had a great term so far! It has been an amazing journey of learning, friendship and growth, and we are so proud of everything the students have achieved.

📚 Book Week Celebrations

This week was Book Week, and it was full of joy and excitement! The Book Fair was a great success, with students exploring so many different books and sharing their love of reading. We loved the Secret Teacher activity, where teachers visited different classrooms to read a story and lead a fun activity. A big thank you to Mrs Dammerel, who we loved having as our teacher for this special experience! The Book Parade was a highlight of the week. Both students and teachers looked fantastic in their costumes, and it was so much fun celebrating our favourite book characters together.

🌏 Learning Together

When 5 and 6 Cooinda come together in the afternoons, we are exploring the theme of trade with other countries. The students are learning all about how Australia connects with the wider world. We are especially excited to be diving into our learning about Japan and exploring the strong ties we share with this country.

💡 Looking Ahead

As we move forward, we can’t wait to continue building on our learning, sharing new experiences, and celebrating all the achievements of our wonderful students.

Ms Stehr and Mrs Milligan

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

Upcoming BBQs:

• Kiama By-Election BBQ – Saturday 13 September at Jamberoo Public School

• Bunnings BBQ – Saturday 26 October at Albion Park Bunnings

To make these events 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!