20 February 2025

Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It’s been a great start to the school year with students very settled and engaged from their learning right in the start! Thank you for preparing your child/ren so well – we couldn’t be happier!

Thank you also to everyone who attended our Meet The Teacher evenings this week. We were delighted with the numbers of parents who came to learn about happenings in our school and in our classes this year. The closer we work together as partners in learning, the more supported the students themselves will feel. With strong student support comes better student wellbeing, and with better wellbeing comes even better learning. It’s a win-win!!

Communicating with your teacher

I trust the Meet the Teacher Evenings have addressed many of the questions that you may have had. For more individual questions, please remember to make an appointment so that the teacher can give you their full attention.

Email communication is another excellent forum for keeping in touch with teachers. However, as a teacher’s first priority is teaching and caring for the students in their class, they have few opportunities to respond to email during the school day. They also have regular team/staff meetings, and sometimes have extra-curricula commitments before and after school. Therefore, teachers will endeavour to respond to your email within 48 hours. To maintain a healthy work-life balance, I have asked teachers not to respond to work emails after 5pm.

What to do if your child has a problem at the school

The first point of contact is always your child’s teacher or, failing that, the Assistant Principal for your child’s grade/stage (Kindy – Ms Summers; Year 1&2 – Ms Balt; Year 3&4 – Miss Dunbar; Year 5&6 – Mrs Shlager).

Below is a very useful link with more tips and hints for parents. They include:

• Remaining calm and positive in front of your child
• Being aware that your child’s perspective/account of what happened is simply their point of view. There may be other equally valid sides to the story to be heard.
• Being solutions focused and open to other perspectives.
• Speaking respectfully
• Going through the right channels – this usually means speaking to the classroom teacher first. We recommend that you arrange a private meeting that allows for confidentiality and sufficient time for discussion.

For further details click the link:

Handy School Hints

You can assist your child to a successful start to this school year by establishing clear routines for getting to and from school, and by setting aside a regular time for them to complete their homework or home reading. Children thrive on certainty and set routines for such activities. For some, it may mean coming home and completing homework straight away; other students may be better suited to a break, exercise or some refreshment before commencing their set tasks. Work out a plan that suits your schedule and do your best to stick to it. We fully recognise and appreciate how

hectic life can be some weeks, so if homework completion becomes an issue, please talk to your child’s teacher.

eSafety for Parents

As I mentioned at Meet The Teacher this week, there are some powerful and very helpful resources to support parents and carers in navigating the challenging world of cyber safety with their children. A particularly helpful website is the eSafety Commissioner website, in particular the parent pages:

As promised, here is the 5 Tips to keep your family safe online PDF that I shared with you on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. I trust you find it helpful:

The Colour Run

Woohoo! The Colour Run is back and the school is excited! By now, you should have received an email with some of the details, and your child should have brought home a pamphlet explaining in a little more depth about what to do to get the ball rolling.

In case you missed it, here is the letter distributed to families by the P&C.

P&C Meeting

The first P&C meeting of the year takes place next Monday 24 February at 7pm in the school library. Come along and meet the team and see what their plans are for 2025 – we look forward to seeing you there!

Working Bee

I will let the flyer speak for itself except to say…all are welcome!!

School gates and security

To maximise the safety of our students and staff during the school day, all gates except Bellevue Avenue are locked from approximately 9.35 until 3.15pm. If you are running late to school or returning from an appointment, please drop your child/ren at the Bellevue Ave entrance as this will always be closed but unlocked.

If you need to collect your child during the day, please enter via Bellevue Avenue and report to the office.

Dogs on the school grounds

We love dogs here at Avalon Public School but “Under the Companion Animals Act 1998 (NSW, Section 14), dogs are prohibited on school grounds unless the principal grants permission.” Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

Reading

Reading, as I mentioned in my presentations to parents this week, is important for all grades at Avalon Public School. We would love you to play your part in the process by listening to your child (in every grade – yes, even in the middle and senior primary years) read to you for as little as 1 minute per school day – as we know, 1 minute

can quickly become 5 minutes and before you know it, a reading habit has been formed.

Research shows that parents can greatly assist their children to be successful readers by reading with them on a regular basis – bedtime is a perfect opportunity for sharing some wonderful literature. Children will also receive encouragement by simply witnessing mum, dad or caregivers enjoying reading themselves – by modelling a love of reading to your children, they will benefit immensely.

For ideas on age appropriate reading, you can visit the website of the Premier’s Reading Challenge or better yet, talk to our two wonderful librarians, Ms Christie and Mrs Evangelinides, who have a wealth of knowledge about children’s literature.

What am I reading?

During the holidays, amongst other books, I read Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari; The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway; and Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll. These three were particular highlights of non-fiction. On the fiction side, ‘The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami was another engaging read of the many of his books that I have enjoyed. I have just started ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin that has been shared around a few members of staff.

Happy reading, have a great week and enjoy the last days of summer!

Kind regards,

Andy Rankin

Principal

Kindergarten

The first weeks of Kindergarten have been an exciting time for our students as they embarked on their school journey at Avalon Public School. Our students were welcomed into vibrant classrooms filled with new friends, engaging activities, and the warmth of the Kindy teaching team. Each day brought new experiences, from learning letters and numbers to exploring art and playtime. To celebrate their hard work and to foster a sense of community, their first Friday was a special treat day, where our classes enjoyed ice blocks together. This delightful end-of-week treat not only cooled them down but created joyful memories and strengthened friendships. What a wonderful start our Kindergarten students have had!

Naplan

Uniform Store

Great to see all the Children in their Uniforms.

As of Monday 3 March the Uniform Store hours will be changing.

New Hours:

Monday 8.30am-10.30am

Thursday 2.30pm-4pm

Orders can be placed online and will be delivered to your Childs Classroom on Monday and Friday.

Please watch out for the 2nd Hand Uniform sale, this will be happening soon!

Canteen

New Recess Option

There will be a New Recess option on Spriggy as of Monday 24 February. You will be able to order your Child Recess on Spriggy (to be picked up from the Canteen).

This will include:

Munch Box

Snack Box (NEW)

Cheese and Crackers

Muffins (Chocolate, Apple/Cinnamon & Blueberry)

Cheese and Bacon Rolls

Mexican Melts

Library

Welcome back – new year, new classes and new beginnings! All students have begun their weekly classes in the library and borrowing has also begun for those in Years 1-6 – Kindergarten will begin borrowing next week. Students are able to borrow during their class library lesson or if visiting the library during second half of lunch (Mon – Thurs).There are many exciting books, both fiction and non-fiction, for students to read and borrow.

Students need to have a library bag to borrow books from our library. A library bag can take the form of a soft, material draw string or handled bag or a re-useable fabric shopping bag – not plastic or paper, please. Calico library bags are available to buy from the library for $3.00.

Mrs Evangelinides & I look forward to seeing students borrowing weekly, from the fabulous selection of books we have in our school library.

Library Monitors 2025

Congratulations to our 2025 Year 6 Library Monitors: Ben C, Cameron A, Amelia M, Kody L, Louisa J, Khaleesi M, Brody M and Lachlan A. Students and staff will see these enthusiastic and capable students when visiting the library during second half lunch throughout the year. With their friendly, helpful dispositions these Library Monitors will be a great asset to all who come to the library.

E Christie

Teacher-librarian

Choir

Year 4 Choir will start next Monday 24 February and rehearsals starts at 8:45am. Year 3 to be advised.

Senior Choir rehearsals are on tomorrow Friday 21 February 8:30am in the Music room.

Community