25 Mar 2019
Our Band Aids Are Coming!
A massive round of applause goes to Belle Property Charlestown and their local ‘super’ salesman Mick Phillips, who have very generously donated 50% of the funds for our new Concert Band shirts! Mrs Hansen has her hand on the button ready to process our order for 50 Band shirts in blue and white and adorned with the odd treble clef and crotchet to provide a musical theme. Thank you also to our P&C Team who has provided the other 50% of funds. If you sound good you may as well look good too!
Our Boys are Big Bash Bound
Our cricket team take on Hillsborough PS this week in Round 2 of the NSW Knockout competition hoping to repeat their Round 1 form in defeating Biddabah PS. If we can take our backfield tennis ball form into this Thursday’s match we might just bowl the opposition over.
Cakes Stalls Election!
As the masses flooded through the gates of CSPS on Saturday bound for the election booths, their stomach for slices seemed to override their voracity for voting! Mrs Hodson’s super stall was like a magnet as voters were drawn to cakes before candidates. Thank you to the many bakers who delivered a diversity of delicious delights. Your hours of labour resulted in some very liberal spending on the day resulting in a stall and BBQ which raised over $1000. Several voters requested that Mrs Hodson be added to the ballot paper immediately! Thank you to all who cooked, created and manned our BBQ throughout the day.
Miss Lawson Leaves For Life of Leisure!!
Maybe the title was a tad overstated and Louisa may not agree 100% with me, but from all at CSPS we do wish our wonderful Miss Lawson and her hubby Dave all the very best for the imminent arrival of their first child. We will miss Louisa greatly as she heads off on Maternity Leave until the commencement of 2020. How incredibly fortunate we are to have such an awesome replacement and talent in Miss Taylor McLelland to take over 1-2L. Taylor did a similar stint for us in 2018 when Mrs Mountford was on leave from 5-6M and she was simply superb! This change will see CSPS regular Mrs Jess Danvers jump on to the Learning and Support Teacher role in primary until Mrs Mountford returns to us in late Term 2. Miss Lawson’s last day was Friday; she left with cards, flowers, baby wipes and the best wishes of us all!
Smile! It’s School Photos Time
Wednesday of Week 10 is that time of the year when we ensure the very last remnant of vegemite has been cleared from faces, hair is licked down (do Grannies still do this?), teeth are polished so they reflect every beam of light, and smiles are stretched to breaking point as we ready ourselves for our 2019 School Photos. Photographer, Peter Field, will perform a one man humour packed stage show as he entices the largest grins from all students and staff on April 3. Notes with all the info required were sent home last week - family photo envelopes are available at the Office. Please note that there is NO Dance2Bfit on this day as students will be wearing their full school uniforms for photos.
Lest We Forget - ANZAC Day March
CSPS community please consider joining us for the ANZAC Day March on April 25 at Belmont. We ask all to meet in George Street at 9am ready to start the march at 9.15am. Despite being in the School Holiday period, we hope many will attend and represent our school with pride as we honour all who have played a role in ensuring we live in a country known for its freedom and spirit. Students attending should please wear their school uniform.
Worm Them Out Of Bed For The Earlybird
Just a reminder that our Earlybird Reading Program happens every Wednesday and Thursday at 8.30am. Mrs Forbes and her merry band of book bearers open the pages of stories from today, yesterday and the future as we join together to read. This is the perfect opportunity for your child to get that little bit of extra help or extra time to read and to be read to. If you have a desire to see your child become a quality reader and become a lover of books, here is a perfect time of the week to promote just that! Our team of Stage 3 Mentors ensures that everyone gets some one on one time reading and immersing themselves in print. Leaders are Readers!
The Parade That Stops The Nation
Our Infants kids will no doubt have their Easter bonnets, with all the frills upon it, in full flight Thursday morning of April 11th. Mums, dads and grandparents, feel free to join us at 9am for our parade and cheer your cherubs along as we celebrate this much loved annual event. Don’t forget to get your child’s order in for choccy milk and a hot cross bun in week 11 - see the pink note that went home today.
Raffle To Follow Ruffles
Straight after our Easter Hat Parade and all the frills, sparkles and ruffles have been paraded, we will draw our much loved Easter Raffle. A reminder also to pop any donations for our raffle into the school office this week and next so our P&C Team can collate our raffle prizes. A big thank you to all those that have already made donations. Our proceeds will go toward purchasing the latest and greatest resources for our kids to use at school.
A Carnival Atmosphere Awaits
For all those saving the date, our Athletics Carnival this year will be held on Thursday 23rd of May at Neegulbah Park, Lawson Road, Macquarie Hills.
Run Forrest Run!!
We won’t be quite running across the nation but we will be covering plenty of distance in our Week 10 Thursday morning Cross Country. Our 11s and 12s will cover the 3km course and our 8,9s and 10s will run the 2km course. Note that the reason our 8 and 9 year olds run together is because both the Zone and Regional Carnivals do the same in preparation for the NSW State Carnival. If your child is in Year 2, turning 8 this year and is a capable of running 2 km in a competitive time they can run the 2km course in the morning if they have parental permission to do so. If this applies to your child please write a short note giving permission and hand it in to the Office by Wednesday 3rd May. Our course commences on our backfield and includes students running the pathway that borders our school. We will have staff members positioned around the course so at every point of the track students will be visible to an adult. Students will cover the track multiple times in running the 2km or 3km track. Cross Country is not the most entertaining spectator sport as runners will mostly be out of sight whilst out on the course, but parents are very welcome to set up a deck chair and watch proceedings which will commence at around 9.20am.
A modified Cross Country event for the Infants classes will take place later in the day, from 12.00pm noon and will finish up around 12.20pm.
Don’t Let the Plastic Replace the Peaches, Parsley and Plums Peeps!
If you allow your mind to drift back to the days when your children were in preschool, (that’s still a reality for some of you!) you will recall the lunchbox police frowning at you for lengthy periods of time if fruit and vegies weren’t spilling over the edges! Worse still, if you were caught with anything packaged which was discovered hidden strategically under a carrot stick you may have been berated to the point of tears! Yet somewhere along the line we can lose that energy and focus on keeping the lunchboxes healthy and just revert to plunging the plastic in for convenience. I’ll admit that when Susan goes HSC music marking in Term 3, I’ve done the plastic option myself more than once. But, I (and a number of parents with whom I’ve chatted of late) have found that if we do persist with the healthy options and leave the plastic out, children will get hungry and eat it. End result …. a healthier child full of natural good things rather than sugars, fats and preservatives. Worth a thought?
Are You A 50 Percenter? Then Thank You!
Unlike the private school sector where you are required to part with thousands of dollars each Semester in order to have your child attend school, in NSW Public Schools a massive portion of your child’s education is funded by the Government. However, every Public School has a voluntary contribution scheme whereby parents are asked to contribute $7.50 per term which is usually a one off $30 payment made in Term 1. This year we have had 50% of CSPS families respond to this contribution - which using my higher order mathematical skills equates to 50% not having responded as yet. These payments will allow for the acquisition of further resources for our classrooms so we thank those that have been part of the contributions thus far. If the voluntary contribution has simply slipped your mind, please send that through to office or pay online using our POP Payment Program. The ‘how to’ for this can be found on our website under the Make a Payment tab.
Mr J’s Free Parenting Tip
Set the game table up! Not that we always get it right, but one of the things that has proved beneficial to our family has been having a few simple games at hand that can be played by all the family after dinner and before the washing up is commenced or dishwasher packed. UNO cards, Bananagrams, playing cards (no playing for $$ and taking back the kids pocket money here dads!), Chinese Checkers, Trouble or any other game than can be played in a short space of time can just create some fun after a rushed and packed day. It can be a nice family bonding time just a few times a week and there is no screen in sight!