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First term is almost over and I would like to acknowledge all the effort and support we receive from our community. It is great to be part of such a proactive school. Our P&C work so hard to contribute to our school learning environment, always willing to bring concerns and ideas to the meetings, always keen to try new things to raise funds BUT they need you!!!!!!
Please consider coming along and joining our meetings. We would love to see you.
For the 60% who have opened our last newsletter I have talked with the P&C, as well as staff and we have agreed that the newsletter will only be emailed once a month. I have found most people rely on our weekly Facebook update and will continue with this.
Thank you for taking the opportunity to meet with staff at the parent teacher meetings. We felt that we needed to meet and chat and not wait until reports were sent home in Term 2.
We hope you have found them useful too!
Enjoy the coming break! Happy Easter!
Kris Hudswell
Principal
PAWS LUNCH
To celebrate Term 1, a lunch will be held on Thursday, 11th April at 1:10pm. SRC, School Leaders, House Captains and Principal Award Winners are invited. Parents are most welcome to attend as well.
WACKY HAIR DAY MONDAY, 8th APRIL 2019
Once again Blackwell Public School is taking part in the Cancer Council’s Relay for Life at Penrith Paceway on 4th & 5th May 2019.
Like most of us, the staff and students at Blackwell has been touched by this insidious disease. We feel that this charity is worthy of our support and have entered a team in the 24 hour relay. Last year we raised funds by giving all students who made a gold coin donation the opportunity to shave a teacher’s hair.
Whilst this was successful it has proved difficult to convince “volunteers” this year. Instead we are going to hold a Wacky Hair Day on MONDAY 8TH APRIL 2019 (WEEK 11 TERM 1). Students who make a gold coin donation can come to school with coloured or ‘Wacky” hair, they will also go into a draw to colour a teacher’s hair, live on stage, in a special assembly.
A note from the Deputy Principal
Term 1 is nearing the end and how busy it has been.
This term each Stage group had an incursion about bullying. On Tuesday ES1 and St.1 viewed the performance “Let’s Stamp Out Bullying”. A skilful magician and Croc the puppet entertained the group with a strong message in being confident and in control when there is any bullying. The message was STAMP. Stay Away; Tell Someone; Always Help; Make Friends; Play Nicely.
As term 1 draws to an end, Kindergarten parents are reminded to drop your child off at school, say goodbye and leave them before/as the bell goes in the morning. Parents are asked to leave the COLA area PLEASE. The children know the routines and are very capable now of lining up and going into their classrooms on their own. By allowing your child to do this on their own, helps to develop independence and self - responsibility. Thank you so much for your cooperation in this matter.
Coming Up
- April 5 - SRC Long Neck Lagoon – Leadership course with Mrs Loscialpo
- April 9 - TOPSTEPS Day
- April 10 - School Leaders STEPS course on Leadership – Mrs Loscialpo and Mrs McIntosh
- April 12 - Easter Parade – ES1 and St 1.
Have a Happy and Safe Easter. See you next term.
Judith Wilson
Deputy Principal
What is Bullying?
Misunderstandings and arguments are common in the playground. Not every incident or disagreement that upsets a student can be defined as bullying – sometimes it is a one off problem or a genuine misunderstanding. Bullying is different. Bullying is a deliberate and repeated abuse of power of one student over another. The bully wants power, or wants to put them down, over the child they are bullying. It can be verbal, physical, psychological to cause harm.
Bullying is not just a school issue, it is a community issue and it can happen anywhere that children socialise, including online. Parents have an important part to play in resolving this kind of negative and damaging behaviour. Unfortunately, parents don’t hear about their children’s problems until the issue has escalated and the child has been repeatedly harassed and hurt.
If your child is not one to talk openly, some of the signs that may indicate there is a problem are:
- Sudden physical pain – like stomach aches or headaches that keep them from school
- Finding it difficult to get out of bed or not wanting to go to school at all
- A change in their demeanour. Are withdrawn more than usual; looking stressed or miserable.
- Are they much angrier than normal? Is your child having trouble containing his/her emotions?
- A sudden decline in academic performance
If you feel there’s been a change in your child that lasts for more than a week make sure you follow it up.
Hi everyone,
Thanks again to those who came along to our April P&C meeting last night and also to those who attended the Learning Support information session arranged by Mrs Hudswell. You can learn so much about what goes on in our school from information sessions set up by the school and also in our principal's updates at our regular P&C meetings and I strongly urge you to come along to them. I do my best to keep our P&C meetings to an hour and we mostly do, but sometimes the discussion is too good to wrap up!
From an expenditure perspective, last night we agreed this year our primary objective of the P&C in 2019 is to support the school in its costs to install air conditioning in the school hall. As you can imagine with a building over 30 years old, there is a lot of work and expense required to upgrade the current electrical infrastructure of the hall to fit it out with modern day air conditioning. You will be able to find out more on this initiative as costs are realised and our supporting contribution at our regular monthly meetings or read about them in the minutes published afterwards.
Term 1 is almost finished and we have had 2 very successful fundraising events already with the Family Portraits and the State Election BBQ & Cake Stall. Thank you to those families that took the opportunity to have their portraits taken, the volunteers who took time out of their Saturday to help out at the stall on State Election Day and also to the parents who provided baked goods to be sold.
Whilst the Election Day BBQ & Cake Stall was a success financially (net profit from the day was $1,667), it did take a lot of work from a few to bring it all together. We really struggled during the peak lunch time hours from 11.30pm to 2.00pm to keep up with flow of customers coming to vote and buy food from us at the most busiest time for the polling station. Our baked goods for the day were donated by only a few also.
We launch straight into the Mother Day Stall and the related activities when we come back from holidays and at our next meeting on May 6 we will be assessing on whether or not to hold another stall at the upcoming Federal Election. The decision whether or not to hold another stall will be primarily decided by how many volunteers and bakers we can get to assist again this time around. We need as many helpers as we can get to either donate some time to help out at the stall on the day (either on the BBQ grill or serving customers - all we would need is a couple of hours of your time) or baking of sweets. As you can see above these events are worthwhile opportunities to raise funds for the school. If we cannot get more volunteers than we had last month for the State Election we will have to pass on holding a stall at the next election opportunity.
Until next month, have a great Easter and holidays with your kids, see you in May.
Kind regards,
Frank Zlendich
2019 President - Blackwell PS P&C
The next P & C meeting for Term 2, will be held on:
When: Monday, 6th May 2019
Time: 7pm
Where: Blackwell Public School Staffroom
All welcome to attend.
Meetings are held once a month, 1st Monday of the month 7pm in the staffroom.
New members welcome.
Fundraising Newsletter
Laura Jean Family Portraits
Thank you to everyone who booked in for our family portraits. The day the photos will be back is this Thursday, 4th April from 2.00pm-6.00pm.
Election Bbq
Thank you to all the Stage 2 parents who donated baked goods. We raised $1667.97.
A massive thank you to all the volunteers who helped out on the day without you guys these events would not be possible.
Easter Raffle
Our annual Easter Raffle has started, a ticket booklet has gone home with your child. It has 7 tickets which costs $5.00, if you could please place the tickets with your child’s name and class written on them and $5.00 in an envelope and drop it in our P&C Box which is located in the front office. Extra tickets will be sold at the front gate from 1st April. Raffle drawn Friday, 12th April at 9.30am.
We are also asking parents to donate Easter Eggs or Easter related products to the office for our raffle please.
Thank you to all the parents who have brought in there Easter Egg donation.
All monies raised from theses events go towards buying resources for our school.
- Friday, 3rd May - Mother’s Day Mufti Day - gold coin donation
- Friday, 10th May - Mother’s Day Stall
Thank you to everyone, I hope you enjoy your break and have a happy Easter.
Anna Sheen
Fundraising Coordinator
ANZAC DAY
Students of Blackwell have been requested to show their support for the St Marys RSL Sub Branch by attending the Dawn Service on Thursday, 25th April at St Marys RSL. In past years, the RSL has received tremendous support from our students and parents at Blackwell and we hope that we may continue this tradition by participating in this year’s services. We are asking that our SRC members and any other students of Blackwell represent our school at this service. Miss Washburn will be attending the Dawn Service and will meet students near the entrance to the RSL club. Due to popular turnout, it is recommended that you arrive before 4:30am. Students are asked to wear full school uniform as we are representing Blackwell Public School.
Thank you for your support,
Miss Washburn
SRC News
On Tuesday, the 5th March, the school leaders braved the many trains to attend a leadership day at Olympic Park. Here is what they had to say about the day.
‘At the leadership day, I learnt that as a leader, people or others should be before myself and that a leader doesn’t care about power’ Dayne
‘I learnt on the leadership day that a leader isn’t about being popular or cool. It is about responsibility and confidence and being fair’ Charlotte
‘I learned at the leadership day how I can be myself, be more confident and if you embarrass yourself its ok. “Come on guys just be yourself!” Daniel
‘The leadership day taught me how to be a leader and how to improve as a leader’ Asa
‘From the leadership day, I gained more confidence to become a better school leader’ Cooper
‘I learnt that you can make a small idea and develop that same idea to make it bigger and better’ Liam
‘The GRIPS leadership conference taught me that leadership is not about power or perfection but about people’ Tala
‘I learned to always work together and to never give up’ Savannah
SRC Frog Pond Nature Garden
In Week 7, the SRC members of Stage 2 were involved in helping with the installation of the frog pond nature garden. This project was a continuation from last year’s 2018 SRC’s request to Bunnings. The frog pond nature garden looks fabulous. Well done to all SRC members past and present who were involved. Great Job!
Upcoming events
- SRC representatives will be attending a leadership excursion to Longneck Lagoon on Friday, 5th April 2019.
- The school leaders will be attending a STEPS leadership day at James Erskine Public School on Wednesday, 10th April 2019.
Mrs Loscialpo and Mrs McIntosh
SRC Coordinators
Abel Schoolwear next date Wednesday, 10th April 2019.
Times are between 8:30am-9:30am.
Term 2 Abel Schoolwear will be coming fortnightly.
Dates as follow:
1st May 2019 |
15th May 2019 |
29th May 2019 |
12th June 2019 |
26th June 2019 |
Parents are able to make online payments to the school for amounts owing for students, via a secure payment page hosted by Westpac. Payments can be made using either a Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card, and can be made via computer. The payment page is accessed from the front page of the schools website by selecting $ Make a payment Button below.
Items that can be paid include the school pack, excursions, creative and practical arts activities (these include choir, drama and dance). There is also a category called ‘Other’ to cover items not covered in the previous headings. Other can be used to make a complete payment of a school invoice.
When you access the $ Make a payment you must enter:
- the students name and class, date of birth
- contact details-full name, phone number and email address
- payment item-other, then description
These details are entered each time you make a payment as student information is not held within the payment system.
This is a secure payment system hosted by Westpac to ensure that your credit/debit card details are captured in a secure manner, these details are not passed back to the school.
You have the ability to check and change any details of the payment before the payment is processed
Details of the payments are passed daily to the school where they will be receipted against your child’s account. For any enquiries regarding the Online Payment process please contact the School Administration Office.
**PLEASE NOTE** Please do not pay any online payments which should be paid to a third party provider. For Example, School Photographers; P&C Fund-Raising etc. If unsure please call the school to check. CASH Only when paying at the Front Office.
Upcoming Events
School Packs
The school pack this year is as follows:
Cost: $80 - 1st Child / $60 - 2nd Child / $40 - 3rd Child
Money to be paid to the front office or on-line ASAP
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Year 4 YMCA Camp Yarramundi
Who: Yr 4 students
When: Thursday, 30th May to Friday, 31st May 2019
Cost: $200
Students who have paid their deposit, final payment by Friday, 3rd May 2019.
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Stage 3 Camp Canberra
Who: Yr 5 & 6 Students
When: Yr 5 Wednesday, 30th October to Friday, 1st November
Yr 6 Monday, 28th October to Wednesday, 30th October
Cost: $340
Students who have paid their deposit, final payment by Friday, 30th August 2019.
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Year 3 Taronga Zoo Excursion
Who: Yr 3 Students
When: Wednesday, 29th May 2019
Cost: S40
Permission note and money to be returned to the office by Wednesday, 15th May 2019.
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Stage 3 Privilege Day St Clair Leisure Centre
Who: Yr 5 & Yr 6 Students
When: Friday, 12th April 2019
Cost: $2
Permission note and money to be returned to the class teacher before Friday, 12th April 2019.
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Stewart House Donation Drive 2019 Envelopes can be picked up from the front office. If you wish to donate and go in the draw for the prize, envelopes need to be returned to the front office by Friday, 24th May 2019.
MEDICATION AT SCHOOL
If prescribed medication is to be given to students at school, a blister pack either supplied from the chemist or in its original packaging is now required. Medication that needs to be cut will need to be done so by a pharmacist and delivered to the school in a blister pack. PLEASE NOTE THAT MEDICATION SUPPLIED IN SANDWICH BAGS or PILL CONTAINERS CAN NO LONGER BE ACCEPTED.
THE BIG VEGIE CRUNCH IS COMING TO BLACKWELL!
What is The Big Vegie Crunch?
Did you know that only 5.4% of Australian children eat enough vegetables?
To encourage students to eat more vegetables, our school will be taking part in The Big Vegie Crunch (as part of Vegetable Week 1.4.19-5.4.19).
Schools across NSW will be joining together to break the record for the most students crunching vegetables simultaneously.
What can you do to help?
- Pack a container of vegetables (not fruit) for your child to eat on the day
- Keep serving up the vegetables at home!
GET READY FOR THE BIG VEGIE CRUNCH!
On Thursday, 4th April at 10 am our school will be joining hundreds of schools across NSW to break the record for the most students crunching vegetables simultaneously.
But we need your help to make it a success!
On Thursday, 4th April, please pack your child a container of vegetables (not fruit) for them to crunch on.
Need some ideas?
- carrot, celery, cucumber – cut into sticks or left whole
- capsicum – cut into sticks or wedges
- corn – raw baby corn spears or a cooked corn cob
- broccoli or cauliflower florets - raw or lightly cooked to keep their crunch
- tomatoes – small cherry tomatoes or a large tomato that can be eaten like an apple
- beans or snow peas - raw or lightly cooked to keep their crunch
- mushrooms – sliced or left whole
Veg it up at home – veg up your snacks!
Only about 5% of NSW children eat enough vegetables. And the statistics are similar for adults. To help our community do better, our school is participating in Vegetable Week & The Big Vegie Crunch.
To encourage our school families to eat more vegetables we will be sending home hints and tips.
Up the veg at your place by…vegging up your snacks!
- Include vegetable sticks with dips, cheese and crackers as a filling snack
- Add vegies to after-school toasties. Check out the recipe for Cheese, tomato and spinach pockets via The Vegetable Week webpage – there is even a video to show kids how to make them!
- Put cold cooked vegies in your child’s lunchbox – try corn on the cob, small roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli or baked cauliflower florets
- Cook up some heavy-on-the-veg, muffins and fritters for lunchboxes. Most recipes can be prepared in bulk and frozen until needed. Look for the Hulk Fritters recipe (complete with how-to video) via The Vegetable Week webpage. Your kids will love them!
- Family nagging you about when dinner will be ready? Put out a plate of cut up veg sticks – it’s unlikely to spoil their appetite and is a great way to get them to eat extra vegies at dinner time. You’ll be amazed at how much they will eat when they are hungry and you make it easy and accessible!
Veg it up at home – add more veg to your meals
Only about 5% of NSW children eat enough vegetables. And the statistics are similar for adults. To help our community do better, our school is participating in Vegetable Week & The Big Vegie Crunch.
To encourage our school families to eat more vegetables we will be sending home hints and tips.
Up the veg at your place by…adding more veg to your meals
- Put a focus on vegetables in your meals. Too often they are neglected in place of other foods
- Make sure you include vegetables with lunch and try including them at breakfast too. The more meals that contain vegetables, the more vegetables your family will eat!
- Add more vegetables to your family dinner faves. Spaghetti Bolognaise, Cottage Pie, pasta dishes, and curries can all have more vegetables added. Even just adding a can of legumes (e.g. chickpeas, lentils, cannellini beans, borlotti beans or kidney beans) and some frozen cut up vegetables to your dishes will up the veg in an instant!
- Time poor at meal times? Prepare vegetables in advance or use frozen or canned vegetables (no added salt)
- Check out a selection of heavy-on-the-veg dinner recipes via the Vegetable Week & The Big Vegie Crunch webpage. There are even videos to help teach the kids how to make them!
If you require more information on The Big Vegie Crunch, please contact the school or your child’s teacher.
Mrs Krensel, Miss Washburn and Mr Brown
Vegetable Week School Coordinators
Thanks for registering for Woolworths Earn & Learn. It’s nearly time to start collecting stickers and earning equipment for Blackwell Public School.
Anyone can help you earn equipment
Starting Wednesday 1 May, anyone can collect stickers to support your school when they shop at Woolworths, whether they’re staff, parents or friends.
With every $10 spent* at Woolworths, one sticker is collected. These can be placed onto the Earn & Learn sticker sheets and dropped into the collection box at Blackwell Public School or your local Woolworths.
To help boost your sticker collection, look out for the range of participating products in store which will earn you double stickers.
Earn great equipment from MTA
Once again, we’re proud to be partnering with Modern Teaching Aids, Australia’s largest supplier of educational equipment. This means you can choose equipment for Blackwell Public School’s own learning needs across Arts & Craft, Digital Technologies, Maths, English, Science, Outdoor and Indoor Play and more.
This year if you book and attend a Fresh Food Kids Discovery Tour between 18 March and 25 June 2019, you’ll receive up to 1000 bonus stickers! Book at :
Find out more
You can get ready by learning more at :
It’s time to get your community to stick together!
The Woolworths Team
MERIT & VIRTUE AWARDS
WEEK 8, TERM 1 2019
CLASS | MERIT | MERIT | VIRTUE |
KD | James F | Ally W | Max H |
KH | Dominic H | Kayleb J | Deyanah B |
KK | Sophie M | Mason N | Lyla M |
KL | Lily R | Emily S | Ruby L |
MERIT & VIRTUE AWARDS
WEEK 10, TERM 1 2019
CLASS | MERIT | MERIT | VIRTUE |
KD | Izaih D | Eli I | Rasmika Y |
KH | Max G | Anam S | Ethan M |
KK | Kailan A | Allirah K | Ashton B |
KL | Shiv P | Nephi S | Rya H |
MERIT & VIRTUE AWARDS
WEEK 10, TERM 1 2019
CLASS | MERIT | MERIT | VIRTUE |
S2A | Annabelle B | Alexander E | Raine D |
S2B | Gisele G | Liam W | Maddelyn T |
S2C | William B | Ruby Rose S | Erin G |
S2L | Savannah G | Sash T | Jizara P |
S2MK | Ruby M | Lucas M | Clayton S |
S2S | Logan B | Michael S | Coby C |
S2W | Lucas I | Ayva S | Koby A |
STAGE 3 PRIVILEGE DAY
Privilege Day for Stage 3 is on Friday, 12th April. Students will walk to and from to St Clair Leisure Centre. Students will participate in volleyball, table tennis and basketball.
Year 5 students will leave school at 9:00am, arriving at the centre at 9:30am.
Year 6 students will leave school at 11:00am, arriving at the centre at 11:30am.
Students can either bring their own lunch or buy from the St Clair Shops.
Cost of this activity is $2.00.
Notes have gone out to students. Please return permission note and $2.00 to the class teacher.
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MERIT & VIRTUE AWARDS
WEEK 10, TERM 1 2019
CLASS | MERIT | MERIT | MERIT | VIRTUE |
S3A | Annalise B | Abbey H | Aaron A | Chrislyn M |
S3B | Rhianna H | Semisi K | Brodie S | Leihana P |
S3F | Joumana B | Travis C | Susana K | Savannah L |
S3R | Tahleya B | Koby B | Brock S | Kaiya A |
S3T | Yashua C | Tristan H | Aaliyah T | Grace S |
S3W | Ella-Louise D | Cooper G | Courtney T | Tala I |