Week 1 Term 2

Nightcliff Primary School Newsletter

It’s Mayilema (Speargrass) season – knock’em down season - for Gulumoerrgin (Larrakia) country. We may spot a significant environmental indicator the seasons are changing when many Birrdibirripba (dragonflies) flew about the school grounds.

Welcome back to Term 2 everyone. We have had a fantastic start with the Dry season starting early which is lovely and our early years students are enjoying the daily swimming program.

Safety

With the change in season we usually see a peak in illnesses such as the flu. If your child is unwell, as much as we love to see them, please keep them at home, as we had quite a few staff and classes in specific locations affected with Covid, flu and gastro at the end of last term.

The Centre for Disease Control in Darwin has advised an increase in the diarrhoeal illness cases in the Northern Territory.

There has been a 40% increase in the diarrhoeal illness cryptosporidiosis ‘crypto’, since January 2023 with most cases being in kids under 5 years of age (ie. child care age)

All childcare centres are therefore being urged to follow the following rules to prevent further transmission:

1. Anyone with diarrhoea should not attend childcare/school until there has not been a loose bowel action for 24 hours. People with diarrhoea should not prepare or handle food that will be eaten by others.

    2. Anyone with cryptosporidiosis should not swim, wade, or paddle in public pools for at least 2             weeks after the diarrhoea has resolved.

    3. Doctors and public health workers are interested in preventing outbreaks of diarrhoea. If there          are 2 or more cases of diarrhoea in a group, these should be reported to the local Centre for                  Disease Control or call 0889228044.

Please refer to this link for more information - https://nt.gov.au/wellbeing/health-conditions-treatments/digestive-health/cryptosporidiosis   

We are hearing increasing concerns of the students consuming the “Prime” drink and bringing them onto school grounds. School nutrition and healthy eating | Department of Education 

An increasing number of children in our community are becoming consumers of the Prime drink which has recently been in the news with some flavours of the drink not available in Australia due to not meeting requirements of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand due to the significant level of caffeine. The drinks are also classified as not suitable for children under 15 years of age. Parents are encouraged to undertake their research on the drinks which have quickly become a new trend with young people and discuss this with their children.

Under the School Nutrition and Healthy Eating policy, these drinks are classified as Red.

Events

Anzac Assembly is on Monday 24^th April at 8:30am at the front of the school for Year 1-6 students. The Airforce Catafult party will be in attendance. Please note: this includes presenting arms (guns). Some students will be attending the Swim and Survive program at this time.

Professional Learning

Whole School Approach for Reading

Staff attended the professional learning day on Monday 17^th April to learn about the Science of Reading and the Science of Learning which includes research on neuroscience of the brain and identifying high impact activities that support this during literacy blocks. As with any implementation of new programs implementation is phased to introduce small components gradually over time. We followed similar processes with the implementation of pedagogies (how to teach) for Visible Learning, Berry Street Educational Model, PR1ME Mathematics, Soundwaves Spelling which over 3 years of implementation lifted results for improved student outcomes in subject areas and NAPLAN.

After we have worked with our teachers and staff, we will run a parent and carers information workshop on new programs. Information is also uploaded to the Teaching and Learning Programs tab on our school website or a specific tab allocated to new programs e.g. Read Write Inc.

Curriculum Programming

Our Explicit Improvement Agenda (EIA), Annual School Improvement Plan (ASIP) and Whole school curriculum and planning document detail the work of the school in its school improvement journety for improved student outcomes.

The Education Committee of the School Council further meet our leadership team to share curriculum planning, pedagogical whole school approaches and instructional models each term.

Parents and carers are welcome to attend these committee meetings. Meeting dates will be added to our term calendar on the website and agendas for the meeting can be requested from the school council on nightcliffpsc@gmail.com.

Staffing

We welcome new staff to the school this term who are backfilling leave taken by some teachers.

• Ms Jessica Taylor – Senior teacher special education team
• Ms Yi Li – Transition Wilkinson
• Ms Harpreet Kaur – Transition Morgan
• Ms Kristin Thomas - Upper Primary Arts
• Mr Liam Stephenson – Health and Physical Education
• Ms Allison Bouveng - 3 Costelloe

Attendance Own our Own - Goal 95%. Our current attendance is  88.81 %

Please ensure you let us know when your child is absent from school and the reason. After the roll is marked a text message will go home generated from the Unnotified code (U) if we have not received your child at school. Late students need to be marked into the front office to receive a late note. Transition parents are asked to sign their children in (or by an older sibling).

We receive funding to staff the school based on attendance (not enrolment). Reason codes for sickness and funerals are funded however all other absences return nil funding including holidays. This affects our ability to provide teachers for additional programs such as Maths Enrichment teacher and Literacy intervention teacher and support staff for students with additional needs.

Friendly Reminders 

Early arrivals at school

Please do not send your children earlier than 7:45am to school. We continue to have a number of students arrive at school from as early as 6:45am. Our maintenance officer does a hazard check from 7am -7:30am in the morning, including hosing of areas, unlocking of gates and bike racks.

The front office staff do not start until 7:30am. There is no-one on first aid duty or playground duty until this time

Uniforms are compulsory, please remind students to wear the correct uniform and that from time to time when we have visitors to the school such as the Salties Basketball team that we do not condone signing of school shirts.  Year 6 students can sign their shirts on their last day of primary school.

Lost items – please label all clothes, hats, shoes, lunchboxes, drink bottles as we have 621 students on campus and many hats picked up without names. Our lost property box is located outside the library 

Have a great week, enjoy the weather and short breaks coming up with public holidays.

Year 6 Camp

The year 6’s enjoyed a fun filled camp at Bachelor Outdoor Education Centre in Week 8. Our NPS Seniors worked as a team, learned new skills and built resilience to overcome their fears.

They balanced their way through the high ropes, zoomed down a zip line, built and fired catapults, navigated using compasses, rock climbed, shot arrows, danced in the rain and much, much more.