MAROUBRA BAY PUBLIC SCHOOL
schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/home
Duncan Street Maroubra 2035
Newsletter
Week 3
Term 4 2014
ph: 9349 1569 Fax: 9349 5836
Email : [email protected]
Web Site : http://www.maroubraba-p.schools.nsw.edu.au
A
Dear Parents and Carers,
Staffing News
Assembly Next Week
KM
Congratulations to Rose Strachen who was successful through
merit selection to gain the permanent position of General Assistant at Maroubra Bay Public School. Rose has been filling the
position on a casual basis and has done a great job in making our
school such a showpiece. Congratulations Rose !!
New Assistant Principal
As our enrolments have increased we are now entitled to a third
Assistant Principal for 2015. We have been able to advertise this
position and form a panel to employ through the merit selection
process.
Thanks yet again to our P&C Secretary Trevor Byrne who agreed
to be our parent representative on the panel. I have submitted
the advertisement which will be on the DEC jobs website for the
next two weeks. The panel will consist of:
Kathy Sydenham– Convenor
Belinda McLean– Assistant Principal Pagewood Public School
Trevor Byrne– Parent Representative /P&C Secretary
Dates for Your Diary
Term 4
Friday 24th October
Bigstart First Session
Sunday 2nd November
Advancelife Family Photo
Fundraiser
Monday 17th November—
Friday 21st November
Book Fair
Monday 24th November
Year 4 Boys Visit to Randwick Boys High School
Kay Spicer– Teacher Representative
Friday 5th December
Enrolments 2015– Bigstart
End Of Year Concert
We have 70 students enrolled in Bigstart for our first session tomorrow which is the largest number of students we have ever
had. Because of the number of parents coming to the parent
workshops we will be holding them in the hall.
Thursday 11th December
School Picnic at Botany
Pools
If you intend to enrol your child for 2015 or know anyone who is
please get in touch with the school as soon as possible.
End of Year Concert
Halloween Mufti Day
As we make final preparations for concert items could parents
please let their child’s teacher know if they will be away from
school on the day. If some of the dancers and characters are
missing on the day it will spoil the item. Please don’t leave it to
the last minute!!
Friday 31st October
Kathy Sydenham
Principal
CURRICULUM /ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS BIgstart Top Playground
School Grounds
Due to the large number of Bigstart students the
top playground will be out of bounds on Friday
mornings.
The installation of new steps across the access
road to the oval has been completed along with a
guard rail and balustrades. These replace the old
steps that were too narrow to negotiate safely .
It would be greatly appreciated if on Friday mornings parents and students could :

Not use the top pedestrian entrance to enter
or exit the school

use the bottom playground and COLA when
waiting for the 9:00am bell to ring.
SPARK Reading Program
Every year children are chosen to participate in
the SPARK reading program. The SPARK program
is a partnership between Maroubra Bay Public
School and Mi9.
The program has been running at the school for
the past two terms and has been a wonderful opportunity for our students to develop positive relationships with a reading mentor from the corporate world.
The SPARK program finished last Tuesday with
the students receiving a certificate and book prize
from their mentors. Thank you to Mr Mac for organising the program this year and ensuring that
it was such a great success.
Birthday Parties at School
The outdoor classroom is a wonderful venue for
birthday parties and it is great to see it being used
by the school community.
If you are planning a party in the area could you
please just ring and let Dario know so we can put
the date on a booking calendar. This will avoid
double booking and it is important that the school
knows who is on site after normal school hours in
case of emergencies.
The storeroom at the rear of 5/6G is finally almost
complete and is now a much more useable space
as it is now just one open space.
School Fees
As we are getting very close to the end of the
school financial year it would be appreciated if
all outstanding school fees could be paid as soon
as possible.
Not having a direct debit facility this year has
meant that we are significantly down on the number of school fees paid.
At the moment we have run most enrichment programs at a loss this year and our resources will
be stretched if we are to try and keep these running in 2015.
Payment can be made to the office by cash or
cheque.
Professional Development
Mrs Vouros has just completed a three day professional development course titled Targeted Early Numeracy (TEN) Trainer.
TEN is a program that targets numeracy in the
crucial early school years. The aim of the program is to ensure that students reach the required benchmarks prior to Year 3. This ensures
that the students have all the necessary foundations to build on their numeracy knowledge. It is
envisaged that the program will be rolled out next
year for all K-2 classes.
PSSA
PSSA sport continues tomorrow. The AFL teams
will be playing at Heffron Park, while the T-Ball
and Softball teams will play at Booralee Park . I
would like to remind all parents and carers that
students need to wear mouth guards to play AFL.
As always parents carers and friends are invited
to attend the games to support our teams.
Mark Gigli
Sport Co-Ordinator CURRICULUM /ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS School Leaders
A letter went home last week with all Year 5 students explaining the process of standing for election as a 2015 School Leader. I would like to remind
students and parents that their letters stating why
they would like to run for election as school leader
are due this Monday, 27th October.
Mark Gigli
5/6G Teacher
A flyer was sent home recently regarding the upcoming event at Maroubra bay Public School. On
Sunday the 2nd November, we invite you to take
advantage of the special offer from Advanced Life
Photography for only $15. Please call Dario or
email the address on the flyer to reserve your
time.
Technology
Telstra Kids Grant Success!!
Great news Maroubra Bay!
We are delighted to announce our success in applying for a $1,200 grant from the Telstra Kids
Fund.
Telstra Kids funds much needed programs that can
make a big difference to kids’ lives in school. Our
Telstra Kids grant will be used to purchase two
much needed laptop computers for students to use
in the classroom. These computers will replace
some of our ageing computer technology currently
in use.
Selective high schools
Huge thanks to Stephanie Steadman who kindly
recommended we apply for the Telstra Kids Fund
program and prepared our application for submission.
We are very excited to share in the million dollars
the Telstra Foundation provides each year to help
kids across Australia.
eT4L Rollout
Next week Maroubra Bay will be receiving 9 new
laptop computers as part of the NSW government
eT4L computer rollout.
The arrival of these resources could not have come
at a better time with increasing enrolments at
Maroubra Bay and the recent completion of the
new network cabling to J and H block.
In the coming weeks, all students at Maroubra Bay
will have access to computers in their classrooms
to support education programs being taught in
class. Care will be given to ensure that these new
laptops are shared evenly throughout the school to
give every child the opportunity to develop their
ICT skills in the classroom environment.
Daniel Crowther
Computer Co-ordinator
Online application for Year 7 entry to selective
high schools in 2016 is now open. Find out more:
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/learning/k6assessments/shsplacement/index.php
Managing your child's weight
It's all about family when it comes to influencing
children's waistlines and no number of wonder
diets can beat some simple changes at home.
Find out more: http://www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/
zh/wellbeing/fitness/managing-your-childs-weight
Choosing the right school shoes
Can those school shoes
last...one...more...term.....? And are the expensive
ones REALLY better for your child’s feet?
Find out more: http://www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/
wellbeing/health/choosing-the-right-school-shoes
Creative reading
If your child is full of great ideas, share these 22
slides to help them tell their stories. Pixar's 22
rules for great creative writing are brilliant! http://
bit.ly/1fyxNK3
The Maths Behind The Fibonacci Spiral
This term stage 3 has been learning about the Fibonacci and Archimedean spiral, and how we can
accomplish the correct measurements to turn one
of these into a spiral herb garden.
On Wednesday the 22nd of October Holger, a kindergarten parent, volunteered to explain how the
Fibonacci number pattern was figured, and the
measurements needed to recreate our very own
Fibonacci spiral.
He started off explaining how Fibonacci’s father
was a merchant and how he was always travelling.
And then one day Fibonacci went with his Dad to
Africa.
Whilst travelling with his Dad he learnt a different
system of numbers, known as the Hindu Arabic
number system. He believed that this was much
simpler than Roman Numerals and he tried to
teach others this by writing a book, named Liber
Abacci.
In this math book he explained all about how to
teach yourself Hindu Arabic numerals, and set up
homework activities for readers.
In one of these examples he had used multiplying
rabbits as an example, which is how the Fibonacci
pattern was formed. 1,1,2,3,5,8,13 . . . you find the
sum of the current number by the previous number.
We continued to learn about how petals grow
away from each other and the ‘Golden Angle’ then
his wife Jo showed an example of an Archimedean spiral.
She told us that ‘Linear’ was when you walk in a
straight line and uniform circular motion was
when you walked along the exterior of a circle.
Jo then switched on a record player and placed a
piece of paper on it and let it slowly start at a constant motion. She then took a texta and drew a
straight line at a constant speed, creating a perfect Archimedean spiral, leaving everyone baffled.
Everyone was extremely grateful that Holgar used
his own time to teach us about the Maths behind
the Fibonacci spiral and we can’t wait to start gardening next week.
Rachael Corban
5/6G
CURRICULUM /ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS Catholic Scripture
Father Phillips Royan and the Scripture teachers
from St Mary & St Joseph Church
are hosting a family celebration on Tuesday 11th
November.
Commencing at 6.00pm , with refreshments in the
parish hall afterwards.
Invitations for the mass have been sent home with
your child
To help us cater, please return the pink reply form
ASAP.
Carmel Cessario
Catholic Scripture co-ordinator
Public speaking made easier.
Top Achievements from Randwick Boys’
High School
I am always pleased to report the outstanding
achievements of our students to our community.
I am incredibly pleased to report the following
which show the diversity of talent in our school
and the superior levels of achievement being
reached in so many areas by the talented young
men of our school.
This week, I presented awards to students who:
achieved medallions (top 1%) in national Science
competitions in Chemistry, Physics, and the Science Olympiad; achieved High Distinctions in
the Science Olympiad and achieved Distinctions
in the same competition.
Many people rate speaking in public as one of their
worst fears. But it’s an important skill for kids to
master, which is part of the reason why we start
them off with News in Kindergarten and progress
to other presentation skills from an early age. Helping your child prepare their speeches and presentations at home will really boost their confidence.
Here are practical tips any parent can use: http://
bit.ly/Kr3ukB
We also recognised two students whose artistic
talents are earning recognition: one who has
earned a place in the cast for the forthcoming
commercial production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat to play in Chatswood later this year; another who has been
shortlisted as a finalist in the Moran Contemporary Photography Prize. This is a magnificent
achievement all the more so, when we consider
that this young man is only in Year 7!
Motivating “laid-back” children
Finally, I was very proud to present to an outstanding State Champion his recognition certificate from the NSW Government for his sporting
excellence at State level.
Why do some children prefer to lead a lazybones
life, while others love to tear around the sports
field? Is it a hereditary trait? And what can parents
do to encourage those children to get up off the
sofa, or switch off the computer, and get a little
physical?
Find out more: http://bit.ly/1s5TN5Z
It’s not too many schools that can boast this diversity of talent and achievement. I am very
proud of the achievement of these young men
and equally proud of the positive and supportive
way in which their peers recognise, support and
share in their achievements. It is one of the many
things that makes Randwick Boys’ High School
such a supportive environment.
Lunch box ideas
Wayne Duncombe
Kids tired of the same old sandwiches for lunch
each day? School A to Z’s Lunchbox section has
some fresh ideas to help busy parents add some
healthy, fresh variety to school lunches. http://
bit.ly/qsfDOE
Principal
Randwick Boys High School