The Grapevine

The Newsletter of Glendore Public School

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land.

We pay our respect to Elders past, present and future.

We recognise the strength, resilience and capacity of the Awabakal People.

We celebrate with and respect members of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations

Where Everyone Can Succeed

Good Evening Parents and Caregivers,

• Firstly, thank you for waiting for our first edition. With only three days with our wonderful students and staff together, there have been a huge amount of meetings between the School and officers from School Infrastructure NSW (Assets and Security Divisions), Newcastle City Council, Learning and Wellbeing Teams, the NDIA/NDIS, a number of non-government agencies and of course Hunter New England Health, Hearing Australia, Vision Australia and The University of Newcastle.
  
• We hope that your families stayed safe, with the significant impacts of climate change being felt around our wonderful nation. Do be assured that Glendore's team has put a large amount of planning into its Fire Mitigation, Control and Evacuation procedures in partnership with Health NSW, Fire NSW and Rural Fire Service and of course other State agencies working in the WHS area.
  
• Add on top of that a huge amount of work in the holidays and a large amount of planning and orientation activities within the school, I am humbled and very grateful to be the leader of such an outstanding education community. The staff here are truly striving towards our school's vision: Where Everyone Can Succeed.
• For those of you whom are new to us in Years 1-6, I commend you for moving into the Fletcher and Maryland communities, our seven estates and for becoming a Glendorian. If you are returning, we are glad to have you back and to our new Kindergarten students, who will all start this Monday, welcome to your 'day home' :-)
• In the next two sections, I have repeated significant information from my last two articles. I look forward to providing you with more exciting news re their progress at our first Glendore Pubic School P&C Meeting, which will be held on Monday, 17th February, from 6:30-8:30pm in our School Library. All are welcome. A light supper will be provided.
  

Please read on, there is a lot to soak in. Take in a gem or two each day about your school over the next week. Glendore truly is a wonderful place to be

Khalil Khay

Principal

Over Weeks 9-10 of Term Four:

• We have unveiled our Draft Concept Plan for Glendore over 2020-2028. This will include making provision for enhanced passive and active playground areas, increased shading, enhanced sports and junior play areas as well as significant enhancements to our Yarning Circle, School Frontage, Electrical Supply and external painting. This will assist our staff to deliver more programs in sport and physical education. Please see the draft concept plan below and attend our first P&C meeting in 2020 to provide your input.
• We have a $25,000 plan for further upgrade of our school desktop and laptop equipment as featured in our last newsletter. This will be briefly discussed at our BYOD Information Session, which will occur on Wednesday, Week 3 of Term One from 4:00-5:00pm immediately following our Parent/Caregiver 'Meet & Greet' sessions from 3:00-4:00pm
  
• Please see the links directly below for information on the 2020 production of The Lion King Jr. at Callaghan College Jesmond Campus' new multi-million dollar facility.
• A significant amount of works commenced during the school holidays. Painters, IT and Ramp Installers completed works to the value of $100,000, whilst Fence and Security installers all completed scoping works for our $500,000 security fence. May I say at this stage that these improvements are due to the extensive collaboration of our school with the Schools Infrastructure NSW Directorate and both its Assets Management and Security units. Three solid years of advocacy, data presentation and strong negotiation have achieved this result for our school.
  
• Thank you for the overwhelmingly positive feedback of our five Celebrations of Achievement at the school. To acknowledge every single child for their growth across the academic, emotional, cultural, artistic and sporting fields is no 'mean' feat. Our staff did so with aplomb. Particular thanks must go to our Admin team for their extra efforts in ensuring this occurred so smoothly.
• Thank you to our P&C's 2019 leaders and membership, and the Glendore community for supporting P&C activities. The P&C were able to support the school via its fundraising and Canteen, with a $40,000 donation towards Science and STEM resources alongside a co-contribution to the Hall Cooling project (Air Conditioning).
• A large number of merit selection panels occurred in the final weeks of 2019. I am pleased to confirm the appointment of new permanent and temporary staff to the school as listed below, and thank many temporary staff for their service to Glendore.
  
• We are always accepting new enrolments from 'in-zone' families into our fantastic school. There are plenty of new housing developments, rentals and new land available. We look forward to welcoming more families into our school community for 2020.
  
• I will discuss the future land releases within Glendore Public School's enrolment zone at our first P&C meeting of 2020.
  

• the final sessions of Swimming School prior to the Swimming Carnival;
• Installation of 6 new 3m Wireless Interactive SmartBoards and projectors, at a cost of nearly $4,000 each;
• A BYOD Information afternoon and re-launch of the Glendore Groove BYOD resource: www.smore.com/u2nyv-the-glendore-groove
  
• Expansion of the paths to our new demountable classrooms;
• Our final Aboriginal Education Team meeting and our M-Goals/PLP Celebration afternoon;
• Our 2019 CAPA Evening that featured our musicians, actors, dancers, dramatists and musical theatre performers;
• Two concurrently running merit-selection panels for a Classroom Teacher position and for the school's Business Manager and planning for the Term One, 2020 advertisement of the school-run Canteen Manager's position;
• Our final Kindergarten Orientation and planning for delivery of the Sound Scouts Hearing Assessments in Semester One, 2020;
• Final preparation for five separate Celebration Ceremonies that will acknowledge the individual successes and achievements of every single one of our students;
• Meetings with Newcastle City Council and Schools Infrastructure NSW re future enhancements to local roads, bus bays, the 'Drop-off and Pick-Up' zone;
• Ongoing scoping of the school's electrical, external painting, fencing and covered walk-ways projects;
• Initial scoping of the school hall and COLA's audio visual upgrade ($20K) and playground ($500-$1000K), Hall Cooling ($50K) projects to be delivered over 2020/21/22.
• Preliminary scoping for the school's entire Colorbond roofing, wall sheeting and gable replacement over 2023/24;
• Final preparations for grade/stage-based Party Days (K/1/2/3-4/5-6);
• A successful 'GPS for Koalas' fundraiser;
  
• Three staff soon to be acknowledged with certificates of recognition of skill and service from the NSW Department of Education and NSW Education Standards Authority; and
  
• Announcement that Glendore Public School's full school musical will occur in Callaghan College, Jesmond campuses' new multi-million dollar facility. This new building has a state-of-the-art (no pun) performance space with tiered and level seating for up to 1000, over $500K of AV/IT resources and purpose-built, co-located dance, drama, music, rehearsal and warm-up spaces. The Lion King Jr will premiere in September 2020, from 7th to 11th (Term 3, Week 8).

Numeracy Games at Home Program: starts Term 1, Week 6

We are asking for volunteers to run both the Home Reading and the Numeracy at Home Programs this year. We will need two parents each morning to volunteer 30-45 minutes to exchange the Home Readers for all our Years 1-2 students in Term 1 and K-2 students in Terms 2-4. We will also need two parents on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, to volunteer 30-45 minutes to exchange the numeracy games for all our K-2 students. These are extremely worthwhile programs which we are only able to offer students and their families if we get enough helpers. It’s a great idea to volunteer with a friend, or just volunteer to make a friend if you are new to the school!

PAIR – Parent Assisted Immersive Reading: Starts Term 1, Week 4

This year, Glendore will be implementing an additional Home Reading program, P.A.I.R. for our Kindergarten and Year 1 students. This will complement our existing Home Reading program. P.A.I.R. books provide parents with scaffolding (in the form of questions, tips and prompts) embedded in each page. Applying these strategies during a home Read-Aloud session can assist students with the development of their reading skills. Participating students will be given Read Aloud books to take home. Kindergarten students will receive a new book each week and Year 1 students will receive a new book each fortnight. These books will need to be returned on a day nominated by your child’s class teacher so that they can be changed.

Please make sure you have returned your child’s PAIR note so they can begin the program on Monday of Week 4.

Please note that Kindergarten students are only doing the PAIR Program and Numeracy at Home games in Term 1 and they will commence Home Reading in Term 2.

Below, we introduce the full Glendore 2020 team and organisational structure to you. We will also unpack a little bit about ourselves over the term so that you can get to know us, especially for our new families. However, it is important to make special mention of these team members:

• Mrs Michelle Le Quesne, co-teacher of 5/6P
• Mrs Michelle Evans, co-teacher of 2H
• Mrs Penny Holt, Defence School Mentor (2016-2019)
• Miss Nina Carroll, Teacher of KC (12 months leave)

Welcome aboard to these new 2020 team members:

• Mrs Emily Lawrence (from New Lambton South Public School)
• Mrs Casey Tomeski (from Plattsburg Public School)
• Mrs Mel Butler (from Millfield Public School)
• Mrs Bianca Jennings (from Hunter School of the Performing Arts-Primary); and to
• Mrs Ingrid Bellamy (former Rel. Principal, Minmi Public School), who joins us as a Assistant Principal (Rel.)

Senior Executive:

Principal - Mr Khalil Khay

Deputy Principal - Mrs Simone White

Teaching Executive (Assistant Principal Instructional Leaders):

Kindergarten - Ms Casey Dunn

Year One - Mrs Ingrid Bellamy (Rel.)

Year Two - Ms Samantha McDowell (Rel.)

Year Three and Four - Mrs Cara Budd

Year Five and Six - Miss Erin Lewis

Administrative Executive:

Business Manager - Mrs Kathryn Probert

School Administration Manager - Mrs Lisa Matheson

Learning Support Team:

School Psychologist/Counsellor - Mr Scott Gould

Learning Assistance Support Teacher - Mrs Kath Ipsen (Monday-Wednesday)

Learning Assistance Support Teacher - Mrs Sally Greedy (Thursday-Friday)

New Arrivals Program (NAP) - Mrs Helene See

English as an Additional Language/Dialect - Mrs Helene See and Miss Lizelle van der Heever

Defence School Mentor - position to be filled by merit during Term One

GPS School Chaplain - position to be filled by merit during Term One

Relief-from-Face-to-Face and Specialist Subject Teaching Team:

Teacher Librarian - Mrs Dianne Gill

Stage Three - Mrs Linda Pirillo

Stage Two - Mrs Felice Lane

Year Two - Mrs Amy Eacott

Year One - Mrs Dianne Gill

Kindergarten - Mrs Dianne Gill

Early Stage One:

Kindergarten (Assistant Principal - Ms Casey Dunn)

KG - Mrs Goode

KH - Miss Hatherell

KL - Mrs Lee

KR - Miss Ryan

Stage One:

Year One (Assistant Principal - Mrs Ingrid Bellamy)

1B - Mrs Biltris

1C - Miss Cook

1N - Miss Naden

1R - Miss Robinson

Year Two (Assistant Principal - Ms Samantha McDowell)

2A - Mr Ashton

2B - Mr Booth

2M - Mrs Eacott (Mondays) and Mrs Butler (Tues - Fri)

2P - Mrs Patterson

2S - Miss Scanlon

Stage Two:

Year Three and Four (Assistant Principal - Mrs Cara Budd)

3K - Mrs Krisenthal

3M - Miss Meaton

3Q - Mrs Queenan

4A - Mrs Armstrong

4H - Mrs Lane (Monday) and Mrs Houston (Tuesday - Friday)

4R - Mrs Rigley

Stage Three:

Year Five and Six (Assistant Principal - Miss Erin Lewis)

5D - Miss Dunbar

5L - Miss Floyd (soon to be Mrs Lawrence :-)

5M - Miss Mitchell

6B - Miss Borrow

6SJ - Miss Santleben (Mon-Wed am) Miss Jennings (Wed pm-Fri)

6T - Mrs Tomeski

Administration Team:

Mrs Karen Bourke - Mondays-Fridays

Mrs Karen Dedman - alt Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Friday

Mrs Rachael Mason - alt Mon, Tues and Thurs

General Assistant:

Mr John Carolan

Canteen Manager:

Mrs Kerrie-Ann Martin (Term 1, 8:00am-12:00noon daily),

ongoing position to be filled by merit during Term One

Aboriginal Education Officer:

Mr Robert Cousins

School Learning Support Officers:

Mr Wayne Bull

Mrs Lisa McLure

Ms Wanda Matthews

Mrs Michelle Murrell

Mrs Michelle Myers

Mrs Mel Thoroughgood

Mrs Karen Tinson

• We will be holding a Meet and Greet afternoon on Wednesday 12th February, 2020 from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm to provide an opportunity for Kinder - year 6 parents and caregivers to meet the 2020 class teachers.

• The same afternoon will also incorporate our Genius Bar for students to seek support in connecting BYOD’s to the school’s secure intranet. Please read more below.
  

• Those parents and caregivers, who are unable to attend the 'Meet and Greet' may make an contact via the school office to meet or have a call-back from their child's classroom teacher.
  

Kindergarten is an important year of schooling as children formally begin to develop their literacy and numeracy skills. Our whole school community will help your child adjust to school and help them to feel comfortable each and everyday.

To assist with Kindergarten students first week at school please follow these school procedures below:

• On Monday, 3 February please arrive at school a little before 8:45am where you can take your child to the kindergarten classrooms. There will be class lists on display as to which classroom your child will be in. Parents are welcome to enter the room and settle their child/ren ready for the class to begin lessons at 9am.

• For the remainder of Week 2, we ask you to drop off your child under the hall COLA where teachers will be on duty to supervise the children.

• In Weeks 2 and 3, Kindergarten students will be collected at 2:30pm under the Stage One COLA between the Kindergarten classrooms and our School Library. Kindergarten students will walk with their teacher from the classroom to this COLA, where they will sit down and wait to be collected by their parents/carer or older sibling.
  
• Staff will wait with these students to assure children are going home with a known adult or older sibling. If your child is attending OOSHC in the afternoon they will will wait with the class teacher until 2:40pm then they will be walked up to OOSHC in the hall.

• The last day of early finishes (2:30pm) will be 14 February 2020. From then on, the school day will finish at 2:45pm and modified afternoon procedures will commence around the building works for our new fence. Mr Khay and Miss Dunn will advise of these.
• Students who have not been collected will be at the flagpole with a duty teacher.
• We are looking forward to Monday as we commence your child's first year of school at Glendore Public School.

• Eating a nutritious breakfast is important for everyone, especially for children. Eating a healthy breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day with good eating habits and it can provide up to a third of our daily nutrient needs. It also improves your concentration allowing for maximum learning.
• In Week 2, we will recommence our Breakfast Club initiative. Starting on Wednesday, 5th February, we will be offering Breakfast to our students from 8am. We will provide toast, spreads, fruit, milk, juice and water. All students can come along and participate in the program every Wednesday and Friday. If possible, we ask for a 50c donation towards the cost of the program.
• If you do not wish for your child to participate, please send a note to the Office. If your child has allergies, please contact the Office to ensure we have the most current and up to date information.
• We are working with our local community and this initiative is being supported by Michelle Kowalski and her team at Canopy, Maryland.

• The school has a resource/technology fee that includes all the items that your child will require to assist with their learning throughout 2020, which also includes the Math Seeds/Mathletics, Reading Eggs and Spelling City online programs.

• Cost of the fee is $65.00 and early payment will ensure your child will have their passwords issued to them for these programs.

• POP (Parent Online Payment) payments are the preferred method of payment. POP payments can be done easily by accessing the Glendore Public School Website and clicking on the link ‘Make a Payment’ (as illustrated below) on the home page.

• Click here to make a payment online

• All students are invited to participate in a Gymnastics program taught by fully qualified Gymnastics coaches.
• Years 3 - 6 will participate during Term One and Kinder - Year 2 during Term 2.
• The program will commence Week 2 however all students will be able to participate for 3 weeks without full payments being made.
  
• The cost of the program will be approx. $20 per student for 9 weeks of lessons - discounts apply for siblings.
• Permission notes were sent home with students today.
  

Please visit our BYOD Newsletter, linked in the title bar above.

• BYOD is not mandatory for Year 4 - 6, but it is highly beneficial. For those of you able to attend our BYOD Genius Bar Evening, our staff will be showing you how to connect a range of devices to our secure, intranet and internet access points.
• These support both 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz devices and Apple Macs & Ipads, Google Android Tablets and Chromebooks, and Windows Slates, Tablets and Netbooks/Laptops.
• Software is provided free-of-charge to all NSW Public Education students via our Intranet.
• Please ring your child with their device to the library between 4:00-5:00pm after your 3:00-4:00pm Parent/Caregiver 'Meet and Greet' Session, or alternatively, you may have your child attend during this time and then meet them afterwards.
  

• This session will occur next Wednesday, 12th February in our School Library, where our BYOD Genius Bar will be supporting all devices.
• Students attending shoul know their '@education.nsw.gov.au' email address and their portal password.
  

• Well done to our Ministers-elect who were successful in being selected to lead our school in 2020.
• Congratulations: Louis, Lexi, Emma, Annalise, Elise, Lubna, Abigail and Sarah.
  
• They have completed their induction and training including taking the School Leaders' Pledge and are ready to assume their roles as leaders representing Glendore in 2020.
  
• This week, they will be selecting their Ministries for 2020.
• Inductions will occur in front of the Year 3-6 student body and will be repeated for Year K-2 students by the middle of Term One.
• This will be advised to Ministers' parents/caregivers individually.
  

• With our Special Religious (SRE) and Special Ethics in Education (SEE) commencing soon, we are advising our volunteer organisations of numbers of staff required.
• Our SRE services are provided by New Vine Church at Fletcher and Wallsend Mosque.
• We are very keen to have the Ethics program run for students who do not attend SRE.
• If you are interested in becoming an SEE (Ethics) Teacher, please visit www.primaryethics.com.au or call 02 8068 7752 to find out more.
• You can also leave a message for Mr Khay, Ms Lee or Miss Ryan at our Administration office.

Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT), designed by ACER (The Australian Council for Educational Research) are a series of assessments designed to provide objective, standards-referenced information to teachers about the skills and understandings of students in their classes across a range of key areas.

What does the ACER PAT Implementation look like at Glendore Public School?

• In 2019, Glendore Public School introduced PAT-Reading and PAT-Mathematics to their yearly Assessment schedule for students in Years 2-6:

• PAT-Reading is an online assessment which assesses students’ reading comprehension skills, vocabulary knowledge and spelling.
  

• PAT-Mathematics is an online assessment which assesses students’ skill and understanding in multiple-choice format in the six strands of: Number, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Statistics and Probability. PAT-Mathematics also addresses the mathematical processes of understanding, fluency, problem solving and reasoning.

Why do schools use PAT assessments?

• PAT assessments provide a measure of student achievement in Reading and Mathematics.

• Assessment results are used to inform teaching and learning and to assist in planning effective and targeted learning programs.

• There is a common achievement scale for all assessments within a learning area.

• Assessments provide overall descriptions of the types of skills mastered and those still to be developed based on student results

• Educators use PAT diagnostics to best inform the design of their Teaching and Learning programs from the beginning of the year, much as a medical professional would do in the ER, prior to follow-up in the ward.

What will be happening at Glendore Public School in Term One, 2020?

• During Weeks 2-4, students in Years 2-6 will be completing the PAT-Reading and PAT-Mathematics assessments with their Classroom Teacher.

If you require further information, please contact your child’s Classroom Teacher and/or Assistant Principal.

• Student Banking begins next week.
  
• Please place Student Banking books into the Student Banking Box.
• This is located in the foyer of the School Administration Building.
• Student Banking Books should be lodged each Monday morning.
  
• Bank books will be returned to students in classrooms on Tuesday mornings.

• Families wishing to purchase school uniforms can complete an order and make payment online via our FlexiSchools app.

• Click here to place a uniform order

• Our P & C will contact you when you order is ready to collect from the school office or alternatively the order will be delivered to your child's classroom

• All items are available to order from the school except for the girls’ summer tunic, which is available to purchase from Lowes at Stockland Glendale. This is situated at Lake Road Glendale, with their contact number being 4956 8570.

• Cash or Flexischools payments only.

• Brim Hats $13.50 or legionnaire caps $11

• Our School Canteen is coordinated by a school-employed Canteen Manager, with the invaluable of a network of volunteers from our school community working together. If you can spare any time to join our network and help prepare and serve food at our canteen, we would very much appreciate a hand.

• It’s easy and fun work with on‐the‐job training and you can dedicate as much or as little time as you like.
• We have short shifts of one to two hours (8:00am to 10:00am and 9:00am to 11:00am) and long shifts of four hours (8:00am to 12:00pm) available
• All volunteers’ efforts are rewarded with tea and coffee or a healthy snack.
• During the next month, our ongoing-for-2020, Temporary Canteen Manager position will be formally advertised through www.iworkfor.nsw.gov.au.
  

• Cut-off times for canteen orders through Flexischools is 8:00am daily.
• Please ensure all online lunch orders are placed by this time.
• Orders for days in advance may still be made.
  
• Over the counter orders can still be made between 8:15-8:45am each day.
• Exact cash makes for swifter transactions in the mornings.
  
• If you are experiencing issues using the app, try the full website on mobile/desktop devices.

• The Calendar for Cultural Diversity promotes intercultural understanding, cultural and linguistic diversity, community harmony and social inclusion across NSW public schools and their communities.

• The calendar for cultural diversity provides annual dates and information for commemorations, celebrations, national days, international days, religious observances and other key events of relevance to NSW public school staff, students and their families.

• Through acknowledgment and celebration of these days and events, NSW public schools can lead the way to social harmony by engendering positive interactions between students, staff and community members from the range of cultural, linguistic and religious traditions of Australians.

• Each year, the calendar promotes a different theme relating to cultural diversity in the Australian context.

• A different language is featured on each month of the calendar, to reflect the linguistic diversity of NSW public school students who speak more than 230 different languages. Each year twelve languages are chosen to reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of NSW.

• The language featured in July is Dharawal, the language spoken at the time of the arrival of the First Fleet by the Dharawal Aboriginal people of the greater south-western Sydney area. Their country extended from south of Botany Bay and the Georges River, west to Appin, down as far as Goulburn and to Wreck Bay near Nowra.

• Organised by family groups as opposed to tribes, the Dharawal people lived harmoniously with the land, moving around with the seasons using both the land and sea as a food source. With the European settlement of Australia came diseases which had a devastating effect on the Indigenous communities in the neighbouring Eora land of Sydney. It is supposed that 50% of Dharawal people died from the smallpox epidemic of 1789 before even coming into direct contact with the settlers.

• Although verging on extinction in the mid-19th century Dharawal language and culture is now being regenerated by their Elders. With guidance from the Elders and Dharawal language tutors a growing number of primary and secondary schools in the area are developing Dharawal Language and culture teaching and learning programs.

• Well done to Mrs Paterson and 2P-2019 for your collaboration featured on the July, 2020 page.