Hill Street News

 A Connected, Creative, Caring Learning Community. 

Term 2 Week 6

Acknowledgement of Country 

We would like to pay respect and acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land and pay respect to Elders both past and present and emerging.

It is a privilege to see the ongoing progress and achievements of our students this fortnight. On 29 May 2024, we held our Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition in the school hall. Congratulations to our Stage 3 Winners Shreyaa and George! A huge thank to Ms Witts and all the teachers and parents/carers who supported our students. The adjudicators were so impressed with our speakers' interesting choices of subject matter and engaging and persuasive delivery. Best of luck to our finalists competing  in the regionals!

On Tuesday 4 June 2024 we held our Spelling Bee finals in the school hall. We are incredibly proud of all our participants and congratulate Shreyaa and Adeena on winning their stage competition.

On Wednesday 5 June our Stage 3 students  experienced what High School would be like engaging in various hands on learning activities at Beverly Hills Girls High School. Thank you to Mrs Leggio and Ms Labos for accompanying our students.  Our greatest thanks to Beverly Hills Girls High School and Mrs El-Esh for organising this wonderful opportunity for our students. 

It is wonderful to see our students' love of reading. On Tuesday 4 June, our students had a fabulous time with Kate and Jol Temple. Many thanks to Mrs Drury for organising the author visit for our students!

Regular attendance is very important for your child’s academic success and overall well-being. Every school day is filled with valuable learning experiences, and when students miss school or arrive late, they miss out on important lessons and activities that help them grow.

Impact of Late Arrivals

Arriving on time sets a positive tone for the day and helps students feel prepared and ready to learn. When students arrive late:

• Learning is disrupted. It interrupts the class, making it difficult for the teacher and other students to maintain focus.
• Important instructions and morning activities are often missed, which can affect understanding of the day’s lessons.
• Late arrivals can cause students to feel rushed and anxious, impacting their ability to fully engage in learning.

Impact of Early Pickups

While we understand that appointments and family needs sometimes require early pickup, frequent early departures can also disrupt your child’s learning:

• Each minute of instruction is valuable, and early pickups mean missing out on critical teaching and classroom activities.
• Leaving early can disrupt a child’s routine and sense of stability, making it harder to transition smoothly through their day.

Travel 

Families are encouraged to travel during school holidays. If travel during school term is necessary, this needs to be discussed with the principal.  Absences relating to travel will be marked as leave on the roll and therefore contribute to your child’s total absences for the year. In some circumstances students may be eligible to enrol in distance education for travel periods over 50 school days. 

What might happen if my child continues to have unacceptable absences? 

It is important to understand that the Department of Education may be required to take further action where children of compulsory school age have recurring numbers of unexplained or unjustified absences from school.

Some of the following actions may be undertaken: 

• You may be asked, along with your child, to attend a Compulsory Schooling Conference. The conference will help to identify the supports your child may need to have in place so they attend school regularly. The school, parents and agencies will work together to develop an agreed plan (known as Undertakings) to support your child’s attendance at school. 
• Application to the Children’s Court – Compulsory Schooling Order If your child’s attendance at school remains unsatisfactory the Department may apply to the Children’s Court for a Compulsory Schooling Order. The Children’s Court magistrate may order a Compulsory Schooling Conference to be convened.
• Prosecution in the Local Court School and Department staff remain committed to working in partnership with you to address the issues which are preventing your child’s full participation at school. In circumstances where a breach of compulsory schooling orders occurs further action may be taken against a parent in the Local Court. The result of court action can be the imposition of a community service order or a fine. 

Tips for Regular Attendance

Here are some tips to help ensure your child attends school regularly and arrives on time:

• Set a consistent bedtime and morning routine to ensure your child gets enough sleep and is ready for school on time.
• Pack school bags, lay out clothes, and prepare lunches the night before to minimise the morning rush.
• Whenever possible, schedule doctor or dentist appointments outside of school hours or during school breaks
• If your child is feeling anxious or reluctant to go to school, please reach out to us. We’re here to support you and find solutions.

As you are already aware, I will be on leave from Tuesday 11 June 2024 to Friday 21 June 2024. During my absence, we are fortunate to have Ms Fulham as the Relieving Principal of McCallums Hill Public School. Ms Fulham is currently a substantive Principal and will bring a wealth of experience and dedication to our school community. Should you have any questions or concerns during my absence, please do not hesitate to reach out to Ms Fulham.

Next week we welcome Mrs Pippett and Ms Fulham to our school.  I know that you will warmly welcome both Mrs Pippett and Ms Fulham into our wonderful school community.  

It is wonderful to see our students achieving great work and striving towards their goals. 

Congratulations to George and Shreyaa on your achievements in the Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition!

Congratulations to Shreyaa and Adeena on winning the Stage 3 and Stage 2 Spelling Bee finals!

A huge congratulations to Mikayla and Maydyan on your Principal's award!

Well done to David, Yousef, Thien and Maria in 4K for their fantastic work!

A huge congratulations to the following students who have had 100% attendance in the first six weeks of this term! A fantastic achievement. Well done everyone!!

100% Attendance Term 2, Weeks 1-6 

Wishing you all a great long weekend. I look forward to seeing you all upon my return from leave.

Kindest regards

Elizabeth Markovski 

TERM 2 CALENDAR 2024

Kindergarten students thoroughly enjoyed the author visit by Kate and Jol Temple. Students engaged in an interactive session where Kate and Jol read aloud and discussed some of their popular books. Kate and Jol allowed time to answer the many questions the children had about their books and their lives. The children were amused by the engaging team challenge of passing the inflatable bin chicken through the audience without letting any chips fall!

 Students have been using concrete materials to solve addition questions throughout math lessons. The use of concrete materials allows students to construct their own mental models to aid them in answering numerical addition questions.

Students enjoyed exploring dot painting as used by many aboriginal artists. Students used dot painting to design a class flower which was presented to mark reconciliation week at the whole school assembly. Children also used dot art to design their own paintings. Through drama lessons, children explored what feelings are and demonstrated how to show and express emotions.

Year 1 and Year 2 students have had a wonderful two weeks of engaging learning and activities! The highlight for all students was a visit from two of our favourite authors, Kate and Jol Temple. The visit inspired writing throughout the classes with recounts, illustrations and buzzing conversations. Following on from the visit classes explored the books ‘Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus’ and ‘Mallee Sky’, having fun exploring alliteration, speech marks and speech bubbles.
 
1MC did a wonderful job presenting the K-2 assembly. They delighted the audience and sang a song 'I had a little turtle' and learnt some words in Auslan sign language. They also read out some interesting facts about turtles. Students from Stage 1 did a fantastic job in the Spelling Bee and made their peers proud with their confidence and spelling – Well done!  
 
 Stage 1 have had very hands on numeracy lessons, building arrays, creating symmetry with butterflies and exploring fractions and halves. The stage investigated how they can slide and reflect 2D shapes, brainstorming and discussing all the different ways they can move the shapes.
 
 Students enjoyed participating in various ball games to develop their throwing and catching skills.

Students have enthusiastically participated in fitness activities and games to develop their skills in skipping, ball games and basketball. While playing outside students reflected on class discussions around what living things need to grow and survive. 

Over the past two weeks, the students in Stage 2 have been busy working through the literacy and numeracy curriculum units. Students have continued our learning of Literacy through identifying how texts can differ in mode and medium.

In Numeracy we have been exploring how fractions represent multiple ideas and can be represented in different ways. Also, students are learning how to create a list of categories for data collection.

In Science students are learning about the classification, life cycles and survival of living things. Classification of living things focuses on grouping and sorting living things. Students have been collecting the data and identify patterns to group living things according to their external features and distinguish them from non-living things.

In stage 2 students have been learning about how to be safe in the classroom and strategies we can use when we are feeling angry. Students selected five options they could choose to help calm themselves and demonstrate self-control when regulating their emotions.

We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all stage 2 participants who presented their prepared speeches to an audience in the hall taking part into the 3-6 Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition. This competition encourages our students to explore ideas of multiculturalism in Australia while they practise their public speaking skills and improve their confidence. 

Again, Stage 3 students have been extremely busy with their learning as we reach the halfway mark of the term. In Week 5, the Stage 3 class winners in Public Speaking presented their prepared speeches. It was so pleasing to hear their speeches which demonstrated maturity, research and were thought provoking. Stage 2 were invited to this competition to allow them to observe the delivering a such high-quality speeches. Congratulations to both Shreyaa and George who will go through to the next level of competition. In Week 6, class winners of the Spelling Bee competition made it to the stage finals. Congratulations to Shreyaa on her success. On Monday, Stage 3 students were an excellent audience for our author visit organised by our librarian Mrs Drury. Kate and Jol Temple engaged our students with their stories about how they create their characters. They especially enjoyed the crowd wave with their special visitor a huge giant ‘bin chicken’. Stage 3 girls were given the opportunity to attend an introduction to high school on Wednesday at Beverly Hills Girls HS. They participated in music, drama, science, cooking, visual art and technology lessons. They all came back to school excited about going to high school soon. Last Friday, our PSSA enjoyed their second game for the season. They had some success and unfortunately some losses, however, all students demonstrated excellent sportsmanship representing our school. In Mathematics, students continue to enjoy the opportunity to apply their mathematical knowledge when solving real-world problems.

Our Kindergarten and Stage 1 students have enjoyed using kind adjectives to write about their peers. They enjoyed examining their features to also draw pictures. In maths, we have been using concrete objects to help with solving addition problems.

Students in Stage 2 have been busy learning to measure the length of objects by using a wooden 30cm ruler and digital rulers. In recognition of Reconciliation Week, students created artworks using a mix of different strategies and techniques to create a class artwork for display during whole school assembly.

In Stage 3, students have been learning to use coordinates to find animals on real maps from Sydney Zoo. During SISA sessions, students have been working on further developing and training their muscles.

This week we were fortunate to have Kate and Jol Temple speak to all of the students in the school. This was a wonderful opportunity for students to meet some real life authors and hear about their writing process. Getting to meet their pet bin chicken was a highlight as was having them sign books for students that brought them to school. The library monitors were able to have some time at the end of the presentation to talk to them about everything to do with books which was very exciting.

It is a requirement that students attend school, and all non-attendance days must be explained. If your child is away from school, please make sure that you communicate with the office about the reason for this. Some of the reasons may include:

• sickness – with identification of what type of sickness not just ‘sick’ 
• medical appointment 
• travel  
• attendance at urgent or exceptional family circumstances. 

It is also important that all children are at school by 9am. The diagrams below show the lost time and its cumulative effect on missing out on school.

Our preferred method of payment is online, this can be accessed through our school app or website. Feel free to contact the front office if you require any help with this.

If you are unable to make payment online and wish to pay cash, please ensure you have placed all money in an envelope or zip lock bag clearly marked with your child's name and class and what the payment is for.

school bytes instructions.pdf

King’s Birthday long weekend and winter school holidays newsletter.pdf

App checklist for parents.pdf

The lost property has recently been organised in different sections. Parents are encouraged to check lost property regularly to ensure students have their belongings. Any non-uniform items will be sent to charity. This will be done every few weeks. Please ensure that all belongings are clearly labelled so that they can be returned to the student.  

Please see images below of driving offences in school zones.

Should you have concerns about:

• your child’s progress:   Please contact the school by phone or email to make an appointment to discuss issues with your child’s teacher.
• your child’s welfare:   Minor issues - please contact the school by phone or email to make an appointment to discuss issues with your child’s teacher                                               For more serious concerns, contact the office. Please let the office staff know about the nature of your concern and arrange a suitable time to talk with the appropriate staff member.
• School policy or practice: Please contact the office and let the office staff know about the nature of your concern and make an appointment to see the principal and/or appropriate member of staff.

Please click on the link to access how to make a complaint in various languages https://education.nsw.gov.au/schooling/translated-documents/making-a-complaint-about-our-schools

The Respect at School posters are part of a project to address occupational violence at schools. Occupational violence describes physical, verbal or online abuse by students or parents and carers towards school staff. This initiative aims to raise community awareness of the respectful behaviour expected by the department in our public schools.  

Please remember there is only a 10-minute park from 8.00am-9.30am and 2.30-4.00pm on school days. Please note the signs and make sure you keep to the 10-minute limit. 

Please help keep our school safe.  If you see anything unusual happening in the school grounds at any time, please call School Security on 1300 880 021.

02 9759 4396mccallumhi-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au
McCallum Street, Roselands NSW 2196
mccallumhi-p.schools.nsw.gov.au