7 March 2025
Principal
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
A child’s secret weapon is a parent who is involved in their school – YOU! There are multiple ways you can help – volunteering in the canteen, uniform shop, Garden Club or with band, helping with Mother’s Day or Father’s Day events, organising class socials, getting involved in the Year 6 Farewell preparations (which start months in advance), helping at sport carnivals…the list goes on.
The P&C is the main conduit for parents who want to become more involved in our school. I encourage you to visit their page on our website for more information.
Which leads me perfectly to thank all the parents and carers who attended our Working Bee last Saturday morning. It was a wonderful turnout of Avalon families all committed to making our school an even better place for the students.
Huge congratulations to Sue and Fiona from the Garden Club for organizing and leading the day so professionally. Their knowledge, passion and commitment are so inspiring. Thanks too to P&C President Morgan Webster and members of the executive team for working alongside Sue and Fiona and providing such great support. Kudos to Kirsty and the canteen team for creating such delicious snacks for the ‘workers’.
The Colour Run
The next big P&C initiative is the Colour Run which takes place at school on Friday 21 March. The fundraiser will help support a number of positive wellbeing initiatives in the school, as well help us keep our fleet of iPads and laptops up to date (see Apple Learning Coaches below). These are initiatives that will benefit ALL students.
A positive school environment can be enhanced by colour and inspiring and motivating images and words. Our stairwells and staircases are drab beyond belief but can be brought to life like this:
Music is not only a wonderful source of joy, but it also serves as a powerful tool for improving mood and focus. By potentially adding these instruments pictured below to our playground, we could create a vibrant environment where students can express themselves creatively and engage in playful learning. Imagine children playing melodies and rhythms before school, during recess, and at lunch, fostering a sense of community and well-being. With your support with the Colour Run, we can provide enriching play opportunities that benefit every child. Let there be drums!
Apple Learning Coaches
You may not be aware that our school has probably the largest number of Apple accredited teachers in NSW public schools. This means they are trained and skilled in using Apple apps and technology to enhance their teaching and learning, and are able to teach students to ‘create’ in ways that are just not possible with pencil and paper. Of course, technology is not the ‘be all and end all’ and is certainly not used every day in the class, but if we want to prepare our students well for the world of work, we need to prepare them to use technology safely and creatively.
We have invested massively in iPads over the last 8 years, with tremendous support from the P&C and parent community. To ensure you have a return on your investment, we have to continue to upskill our teachers AND ensure we replace aging iPads.
In terms of upskilling our teachers, last year 8 of our teaching staff were trained as Apple Leaning Coaches – an intense 43 hour program of learning. This year, those teacher coaches have been placed one per grade. The coaches then work shoulder to shoulder in their colleagues’ classrooms, upskilling both the teacher and the students at the same time in using iPads, and have set a plan to create a sustainable community of practice.
Indeed, our Apple Learning Coaches act as change agents by helping colleagues embrace innovation in their teaching methods and move beyond traditional practices to create personalized, student-centered learning environments. As one teacher out it,
“I’ve coached teachers to transform lecture-based instruction to hands-on, engaging instruction. The students shift from being passive learners to actively engaging and participating in lessons.”
With this powerful program in place, we need to ensure that we can replace 110 iPads that date back to 2017. As we probably all know from personal experience, technology ages rapidly (and battery performance declines similarly). Our students and staff deserve to work with the best we can provide, so apportioning some of the funds raised in the Colour Run would certainly go some way to supplementing the $95,000 cost of this upgrade.
Federal Funding
Speaking of funding, this week, you would have heard the good news that the federal government and the NSW government have announced a new funding deal for the state's public schools. This will see the Commonwealth contribution jump from 20% to 25% of the schooling resource standard (on which school funding is based) by 2034. The NSW government will contribute the rest. We are yet to hear when and how this will impact individual schools, but I will let you now once I hear more.
Attendance Matters
The evidence is clear that consistent attendance is the essential first step for your child to have a positive experience at school. This week, Mrs Weber (Deputy Principal 3-6) and I wrote to all families on this very topic.
Every day matters for your child’s learning. In recent years we’ve seen too many students miss a day of school here and there. Missing school for students means missing assignments, time with friends, an important maths lesson or getting picked for a sports team. With minutes missed, days are lost. With days missed, years are lost.
Students are required to attend school every day, whether it’s the first or last day of the term, Mondays, Fridays or days dedicated to sports carnivals, school excursions and incursions.
Help us make sure your child is achieving their best and staying ahead in their learning with regular school attendance. The more time your child attends school, the greater their opportunity to learn, make new friends and improve their wellbeing. Together, let’s build positive attendance habits for a lifetime.
If your child is absent from school, please let us know why as soon as possible, even if it’s just a few minutes at the start or end of the school day. Of course, there will be times when your child is unable to be at school (like when they are unwell). Medical appointments and therapy should take place outside school hours where possible and family holidays should be taken in term breaks.
If your child is feeling anxious about coming to school and you need support, please reach out to your child’s teacher or me directly. Our staff are here to work with you and your child to help them attend school each and every day. There are also helpful resources for parents and carers on the Every Day Matters website.
Thank you again for working with our teachers and support staff to make sure your child is at school, on time, every day. We all want to see our students learn, grow and belong in our equitable and outstanding education system.
NAPLAN next week
The National Assessment Program – Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) will take place across all schools in the next two weeks. In primary schools, NAPLAN assesses the literacy and numeracy skills of students in Year 3 and Year 5 and is a useful snapshot of where a child’s learning may be on that day. However, these tests don’t show that some students love to sing, are good at drawing or can teach others how to use a computer program, that some students can dance with grace or speak confidently to a large group. They do not show that a student is creative, kind, courteous and a great friend.
All we ask is that our students come to school ready to do their best for the NAPLAN test and to remember that there is no one way to test all of the wonderful things that make our students who they are!
(paraphrased from various articles on the internet)
School Uniform and the Uniform Shop
Thank you for ensuring that your child comes to school each day in the correct uniform, including the correct school hat and black shoes. There has been a notable improvement across the school since we outlined our high expectations for school uniform at the beginning of the year. Your support is truly invaluable!
The Uniform Shop is moving! Next week, our uniform shop moves to Room 1 – the classroom closest to the Sanders Lane gate and the Staff Car Park.
The first day of operation in the new location is Thursday 20th March 2.30-4.00pm.
This change creates more space for the Unform Shop to operate in and is a much more convenient entry point for our parent and carer community.
Communication with teaching staff
Good communication between home and school is vital, so I do encourage you to contact your teacher if you have a question or concern. Very short enquiries can often be answered at pickup or drop off eg “What time is library for the class today?”. For longer discussions about learning progress or behaviour/wellbeing concerns, an email to, or an appointment with, the teacher is far more appropriate.
Living in an ‘always on’, highly connected internet world, some people have come to expect instant responses. However, school is very different. Teaching staff are on class all day, so their opportunities to check email are very limited. Taking into account whole staff, grade, stage, and professional learning meetings, not to mention 4 recess or lunch duties per week, and extra-curricula activities such as sport and dance, teachers should usually reply within 48 hours of receiving your email.
I encourage my staff to maintain a healthy work/life balance and ask that they do not respond to emails after 5pm – being always ‘on call’ is not a recipe for longevity in any workplace or career, as I am sure you would agree.
Enrolments now open for 2026
We have already received our first enrolments for 2026. If your child is of school age for 2026, please visit our website to enrol online or drop into the office to collect an enrolment form and return it to the office with the required accompanying documentation.
For families new to the area, a school tour with me (and sometimes our student leaders) can be a useful introduction to the school. Tours begin at 9.45am from the Admin Block. Please call or email the office team to express your interest in joining in.
Our school tour dates have just been announced and are as follows:
Tuesday 25 March 9.45am
Tuesday 6 May 9.45am
Thursday 5 June 9.45am
Monday 16 June 9.45am
Tuesday 29 July 9.45am
Thursday 21 August 9.45am
Friday 5 September 9.45am
If you have any questions about the enrolment process, the amazing Mrs Crutcher in the office will be only too happy to answer your enquiries.
I hope you all have peaceful, happy week as we move into autumn.
I will leave you with one short question – “Are you reading with your child tonight?”
Kind regards,
Andy Rankin
Principal
NAPLAN Assessments for Students in Year 3 and Year 5
In March this year, all schools across Australia will participate in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
The assessment domains:
NAPLAN is made up of tests in the 4 areas (or ‘domains’) of:
● Reading
● Writing
● Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation)
● Numeracy
This year, Avalon PS will have the tests on the following dates:
WEEK 7, Term 1: WRITING - Wednesday 12 March
READING - Thursday 13 March
WEEK 8, Term 1: CONVENTIONS OF LANGUAGE - Tuesday 18 March
NUMERACY - Thursday 20 March
An email was sent to all families who have a child in Year 3 or Year 5 containing further information. Talk to your child’s teacher if you have any questions about your child completing the NAPLAN assessment. For more information on NAPLAN, visit www.nap.edu.au. Please ensure your child attends school on these important assessment dates.
Ms Tamar Stewart Mrs Lisa Weber Mr Andy Rankin
Learning and Support Teacher Deputy Principal Principal
Positive Behaviour for Learning
Our school uses Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) – a whole-school approach for creating a positive, safe and supportive school climate where students can learn and develop. Our school community works together to establish expected behaviours and teach them to all students.
What is Positive Behaviour for Learning?
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is an educational process that brings together the whole-school community to contribute to developing a positive, safe and supportive learning culture.
The PBL framework assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people.
When PBL is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction.
What does PBL look like at Avalon Public School?
Defining Expected Behaviour
The school has identified three positive school wide expectations that everyone – students, teachers, staff and parents – are asked to follow in all settings.
The school’s code of behaviour is underpinned by the expectations of:
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Personal Best
These are taught across all settings in the school (see image below).
Teaching Expected Behaviours
It is crucial that expected behaviour is taught as rigorously as we teach academics through explicit instruction, practice, feedback and reteaching to increase the likelihood that students will follow the expectations.
The school-wide expectations are explicitly taught. PBL Lessons in all classrooms, and focus on the targeted positive behaviour expectation for that week.
Encouraging Expected Behaviour
A school-wide acknowledgement system ensures all staff, students and parents/carers are aware of how student achievement will be acknowledged. It is important to note that not all students are encouraged by the same thing or in the same way.
- Avalon All Star tokens
From K-6, teachers award “Avalon All Star” tokens to students who demonstrate the expected values and behaviours of our school code. All Stars provide immediate positive reinforcement for students who are doing the right thing. They are typically used as lower-level rewards and as immediate positive reinforcement. These are seen as “free and frequent” rewards and there are no restrictions placed on the number that can be distributed in a week.
- House Points
All students belong to one of 4 Sporting Houses – Aringa (green), Coolong (blue), Koonawarra (yellow) and Warrigal (purple). Students are awarded House Points in class or at sporting events throughout the year. They are tallied each fortnight and the house with the highest points throughout the term will participate in a House Treat afternoon in Week 10 each term.
- Code Cards
A Code Card is given to any student displaying appropriate, positive behaviour in line with our three school values: Respect, Responsibility and Personal Best. They are awarded by class teachers for achievements and behaviour within the classroom and are available for support staff and for classroom teachers to use for events outside normal classroom situations e.g. playground behaviour, PSSA, assemblies, concerts, on excursions, at sporting events, etc. Each classroom teacher has a quota of 10 cards per week.
Responding to Inappropriate Behaviour
Establishing systems to respond to inappropriate behaviour is important as it allows staff to efficiently and effectively respond to a range of behaviours with a focus on creating a positive learning environment for all students.
At Avalon Public School, negative behaviours are defined as Minor negative (Green Cards) behaviours or Major negative behaviours (Orange Cards). Staff refer to the Behaviour Code for Students and the school’s Student Behaviour Management Process to support the management of negative behaviour at school.
Minor negative behaviours refer to lower-level teacher-managed behaviours. If the behaviour is in breach of school expectations, the teacher may issue a ‘Warning Card’ (green) which is documented for future interventions or parent meetings. The ensuing conversation between the teacher and student is to provide the student with strategies to prevent these situations reoccurring and give the student time to reflect on why the behaviour is unacceptable. There is always a consequence for a ‘Warning’ which aims to relate to the incident to be meaningful and relevant.
Parents are not notified for a single ‘Warning’ as these are minor occurrences . The class teacher will contact the parent only when a student has accumulated 3 ‘Warnings’. Experience tells us that parent intervention at this point reduces the likelihood of student behaviour escalating. If this occurs, we encourage you to sit down with your child and discuss how they might improve their behaviour to contribute more positively to school life.
Major negative behaviours are issued for more serious breaches or repeated misbehaviour (such as insolence,aggression, inappropriate use of a digital device, persistent misbehaviour etc). An ‘Incident Card’ (orange) may be issued. As this is more serious, the classroom teacher will notify the
parent. An incident card is accompanied by a lunchtime detention with the Deputy Principal
and consequences may include some type of restitution or reflection (school service, letter of
apology etc). During the detention, the student may be required to complete a ‘Reflection
Sheet’ which will be sent home to be signed by a parent and returned to school the following
day.
Reflection Room. An executive teacher attends the Reflection Room and meets with the student/s where they participate in restorative practice conversations.
- What happened?
- What were you thinking about at the time?
- What have your thoughts been since?
- Who has been affected by what happened?
- In what way have they/you been affected?
- What do you think you need to do to make things right?
- If the same thing happened again, what would you do differently?
Restorative Practice is non-punitive approach which accepts that we all make mistakes and have the ability to ‘fix’ the problem together and learn from our experiences.
Sport
Last Wednesday, Avalon Public School held their annual Swimming Carnival for the first time at a new venue, the Pymble Ladies' College Aquatic and Fitness Centre. Despite the logistical challenges of getting to Pymble, and a few technical issues with the electronic timing , we witnessed a great day of racing and aquatic fun.
A big thank you to all the Avalon Public School Staff for going above and beyond to make the carnival possible, most notably Mrs Kylie Jarret for assisting with the organisation and our undisputed "Queen of the pool, "Mrs Jen Shlager. It is alleged Mrs Shlager counts pool tiles in her dreams (chasing that endless black line), and can walk a pool deck like no other!
The Zone Swimming Carnival is on Thursday 6th March, best of luck to all Avalon Public School representatives!
Mr Seaton
Congratulations to Luka Dixon (5TH) on his achievements in Touch Football over the last two weekends.
Recently Luka won the Junior State Cup Northern Conference in Dubbo representing the Northern Beaches Renegades. A highly prestigious team to make especially as Luka is a playing in an Under 12s competition and he is only turning 11. Only the top 14 players from the region are selected out of the 100+ players in contention.
The following weekend Luka's team then faced the winners of the Southern Conference in a Best of 3 games Junior State Cup final against a highly respected Penrith Panthers team. The Northern Beaches team winning the series 2-0 with no need for the third game. Luka consistently proving to be a hard working and exceptional team mate in both tournaments.
The school would like to congratulate Luka on all of his achievements.
Also pictured is are Avalon Alumni with students that are representing the Northern Beaches as players and coaches.
Disabled Surfer's Association
Last weekend the Avalon Public School Student Leaders and House Captains travelled to Collaroy Beach to volunteer with the Disabled Surfer's Association. This is an becoming a tradition that our school undertakes each year.
We had a lot of different roles in helping out but basically we enabled people with a disability a chance to experience the fun and exhilaration of surfing in a safe and supportive environment.
Participants varied in ability and we had to cater to many different people with different needs.
When we weren’t forming a human chain, keeping everyone nice and safe, we also had the opportunity to ride on the back of the board with the participants.
It was pretty taxing job because we are in the water for several hours in messy conditions at there was still a little bit of time to hang out, have fun and do a few crumb cutlets and sand angels!
Our participation reflected the Avalon Public School motto of "Happiness Through Helping".
Thanks to Mr Seaton and Mrs Lhuede for helping us on the day and all our parents for supporting this awesome annual event.
We were absolutely exhausted at the end of the day but went home with great memories and big smiles!
Poppy Jones and Atlas Wright Year 6 Leaders
Library
Scholastic Book Club
The first Scholastic Book Club catalogue for the year will be handed out to students this week. All orders need to be purchased using LOOP - the Linked Online Ordering & Payment (LOOP) platform for parents. LOOP is the method of payment for purchasing items from Scholastic Book Club. No cash payments are accepted. Orders for Issue 2 close Wednesday 12 March 2025. Late orders will not be included in school delivery and will require a delivery cost of $10.00 as items will be sent to students’ home address.
Details about online purchasing for parents can be found at
Garden Club
Well Sue and I have been tremendously busy, but not as busy as it was at the recent School Working Bee! What a huge success it was, what an amazing turn out of parents and kids.
We would like to express a heartfelt and massive Thankyou to all who came and helped make this day absolutely brilliant. mulching, chopping, weeding, weeding and more weeding. Everyone tackled these tasks with gusto.... we could not have done it without you. It is truly heartening to see how much our School gardens are valued. Thankyou.
Yesterday Sue and I continued to implement the vision for the new space and have already mulched the area with our Garden classes while talking about frog habitat. Stage one of our dry creek bed and Frog bog is certainly under way, creating habitat for our natural pest controllers. The area will be a beautiful, shady space for outdoor classrooms, something available for all classes to enjoy. We are so looking forward to completing it. To those parents who are already asking about our second working bee, don't put your tools away too soon..... plans are in the works.......
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Keep on growing
Fiona and Sue
Garden Club
Uniform Shop
Uniform Store New opening hours as of Monday 3rd March
Monday 8am-10am
Thursday 2.30pm-4pm
Orders can be placed online and will be delivered on Mondays and Fridays to your Childs Classroom.
Second Hand Uniform Sale
When: Friday 7th March
Where: School Hall
Time 3pm-4pm
Uniform shop will be relocated to Room 1 on Thursday 20 March. Please see map below.
Community
Newtown High School of the Performing Arts is a specialist high school that accepts enrolments through audition and from our local drawing area.
Please find attached, information regarding our audition process for entry into Year 7 and Year 11 2026. Please feel free to pass this information on to your current Year 6 or Year 10 students who may be interested, and you may wish to include the attached letter in your school’s newsletter to parents.
Please advise your parents that Newtown High School of the Performing Art’s annual audition process is separate to the Year 6 into Year 7 Enrolments Online Program. This means that if a student is residing outside of our catchment area, they must not enter Newtown High School of the Performing Art as a Choice 1, 2 or 3 on the Expression of Interest forms you provide to Year 6 students but may apply via the online application located on our school’s website.
To assist parents and carers completing the ‘Moving into Year 7 in a NSW Government school’ form, please note the following:
- Newtown High School of the Performing Arts is a specialist performing arts high school with specific enrolment criteria which requires students to audition if residing outside our catchment area.
- Students from within our local drawing area are encouraged, although not obliged, to audition for places in our performing arts stream if they wish to pursue their talent and interest in one or two of the disciplines.
- To apply for an audition, an online application form must be completed via our school website:
he closing date for audition applications online is Thursday 1 May 2025.
For any queries regarding the above, please do not hesitate to contact Newtown High School of the Performing Arts on email newtown-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au or call (02) 9519 1544.
Kind regards
ENROLMENTS AND AUDITIONS CO-ORDINATOR
NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL OF THE PERFORMING ARTS
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