Term 1 Week 8

19 March, 2009

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

Monday 23 March Stage 3 Excursion

Area Swim Carnival

Tuesday 24 March Mufti Day

Wednesday 25 March Stage 2 Resource Payment Day

Thursday 26 March Community Club Meeting

Stage 1 Resource Payment Day

Friday 27 March Winter PSSA begins

Early Stage 1 Resource Payment Day

Dear Parents & Caregivers,

HARMONY MONTH

The school will be celebrating not just Harmony Day but Harmony Month. The official date for this activity is 21 March, 2009. We feel that we cannot do justice to such an important event in just one day so we will have one month of student welfare lessons. All of the lessons will have a focus on anti bullying strategies and children will appreciate the lessons on approaching others to develop friendships. We would also like to celebrate Harmony Month with a special Mufti Day on Tuesday 24 March with a colour theme of orange or yellow. We would like each child to bring in a gold coin on the day. The money will be used to sponsor our nominated child in Indonesia. The theme for Harmony Day is “Celebrate Australia’s Diversity”.

CYBER BULLYING – A GUIDE FOR PARENTS TO DISCUSS WITH THEIR CHILDREN

To prevent this from occurring children should follow the tips below:

Be extra sensitive about what you say online

Don’t incite any bullying, by arguing, or annoying someone

Don’t share passwords with friends

Make hard it to guess secret questions so people can’t get into your accounts

Turn on comment moderation to stop offensive comments from ever being published

Tell your friends if a joke goes too far

Ask them to stop harassing you

Tell an adult

STUDENT INTERVIEWS

The interviews will take place in Weeks 9 and 10 of this term. Notes went out this week to parents requesting an appointment time. This is an opportunity for you to discuss with the class teacher how well your child is going at school and to talk about ways in which you can help to make further improvements. This is also an opportunity for the class teacher to ask you some questions about your child. Please return the interview request form as soon as possible to secure your preferred appointment time. Interviews will be limited to about 10 minutes.

WHAT IS A SCHOOL?

At a recent meeting of principals there were a variety of speakers discussing how well the students in the Sydney Region had performed in 2008 and new programs and opportunities for 2009. On reflection, it is obvious that Carlton School is truly unique. Not many other schools offer such a variety of extra activities for students. Some of our programs include a fantastic language program for all students; one hundred percent of the staff, dedicated and professional teachers, who spend many hours of their own time developing interesting, challenging and solid teaching and learning programs; innovative activities such as the pogo stick club and programs for gifted and talented and for those who require some extra support. The parents and community members also play a very large part in the success of the school. It is the parents who openly encourage children to keep trying to do their best and to complete homework to ensure that lessons learnt in class are reinforced at home. It is also those members of the school who work tirelessly to help provide the extra resources for the students. A school is not just the buildings and the people in them. A school is much more. It is the trust, responsibility and the transparency that is offered to the school community. There is the trust that the parents have in the school to make the right decisions and the open and honest means of communicating important facts and not so important issues to the community. The responsibility lies with everyone to take on the learning challenge and support our students in the best way we can. It is also the value system that underpins the way in which the school operates. Congratulations on deciding to bring your child to the very best school.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Congratulations to Marc Betbeder-Matibet and Bill Eftimoski from 5/6 F who have been accepted to attend the Create East Gifted and Talented workshops at the Seymour Centre from Tuesday 31 March until Thursday 2 April. The Creative and Practical arts workshops culminate in a performance on Thursday evening entitled “The Bicycle of Darkness”. We wish Bill every success in his drama workshop and Marc every success in the band workshop where he will be playing the alto saxophone. This will be a challenging but most rewarding experience for them. We are sure that they will enjoy themselves.

Congratulations to Amit Deep also of 5/6F for his amazing project on the solar system. He created a very realistic representation of the solar system with a huge sun that was capable of demonstrating just how far the sun’s rays extend into space. His model must have taken many hours to complete. A wonderful achievement Amit.

Congratulations to Nader, Marc and Amit from 5/6F for a Bronze medal in the “Maths on the Net”quiz.

PEDLARS PARADE

This wonderful event is coming up soon. A note went out recently to parents of children in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2. All of the children in Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 participate and it is important for parents to make this day a success for the children by providing them with a tray type box with a strap, filled full of goodies to be sold. The children dress up for the day and the rest of the school will have an opportunity to also purchase from the Pedlars’ stalls during lunchtime. This is one of those special occasions in a child’s school life that they remember until they are well past school age.

COMMUNITY CLUB

The next meeting of the Community Club will be our Annual General Meeting. This will be held on Thursday 26 March, 2009 at 2:00pm in the staffroom. Please come along and share your ideas.

FAMILY PORTRAITS

Next Wednesday, 25 March, 2009 is the last day to hand in your booking sheet and money as photos will be taken on Sunday 29 March, 2009.

SWIMMING AWARDS ASSEMBLY.

It was announced at the assembly on Monday that the assembly for the swimming awards would be at 12.30pm This has now been changed to 2pm on Friday, 20 March, 2009. We hope that the parents of the swimmers will be able to attend.

Zone Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to all the students who represented Carlton at Botany Bay PSSA Zone Swimming Carnival on Friday 13 March, 2009. Three students, Kane Kennedy (Snr IM & 12yr Freestyle), Jessica Guo (Jnr Breaststroke) and Helen Chen (9yr Freestyle) will go on to represent the zone at the Area Carnival at Homebush Aquatic Centre Pool on Monday 23 March, 2009. We wish them best of luck!

Zone Results:

Kane Kennedy - 3^rd All Age Freestyle, 3^rd 12yr Breaststroke, 3^rd 12yr Backstroke, 3^rd 12yr Butterfly, 2^nd Senior Individual Medley, 2^nd 12yr Freestyle.

Jesscia Guo – 1^st Junior Girls Breaststroke, 3^rd Junior Girls Individual Medley

Helen Chen – 2^nd 9yr Freestyle.

Giselle Kilner-Parmenter, Jessica Guo, Helen Chen & Adriana Bakrdanikoska 3^rd Junior Girls Relay.

TAKING PHOTOS AT SCHOOL

We have noticed a few parents taking photos of their children in the playground. We are very much aware of the Child Protection of all students at Carlton School. If you do wish to take your child’s photo to send to family and friends, could you please arrange to do this where there are no other children from the school in the photo?

MOBILE PHONE POLICY AND CODE OF CONDUCT.

A copy of this policy and the Code of Conduct was inserted in an earlier copy of the newsletter. We are aware that several children are still bringing phones to school without filling in the code of conduct signed by their parent. We do not accept responsibility for any portable computer game, tape recorder, MP3 player, iPod, camera, mobile phone or other similar device that is brought to school and either broken or stolen.

Thank you to the one family who has signed and returned the code of conduct. We would ask other families to please do the same.

EASTER RAFFLE

Don’t miss out on your family’s chance to be a winner in the Easter raffle. The draw will take place in the whole school assembly on Monday 6 April, 2009. There will also be a lucky draw prize for a child who has returned the whole book sold.

HIGH SCHOOL ENROLMENT FORMS

All Year 6 students should now have received their HIGH SCHOOL enrolment forms. If you have any difficulty in completing these forms please come along to the information meeting to be held at 8.30am in the Library on Friday, 20 March, 2009. The forms are due back at school by 27 March 2009.

MOTHER’S DAY PRESENTS

Mothers Day will soon be upon us and as always we will have a fantastic stall with lots of presents for children to buy. Already a great deal of work by the Community Club has been completed. To have more presents we are asking parents to donate presents that could be sold on the stall. If you could please wrap the items individually in clear cellophane and tie them with some curling ribbon it would be a great help. Presents need to be sent to your class teacher and placed in the special box in the room. If you could help with the wrapping of the presents please leave your name with the Office. We supply you with the wrapping and the ribbon and you can do this at home. The Community Club would really appreciate your help.

READING HELPERS

Thank you to all the volunteers who are now helping with home reading. Many parents find this rewarding and it helps the teacher greatly but more importantly it helps all children in the class to have greater access to books on a very regular basis. If you would like to help with home reading then please see your class teacher or perhaps mention it at the parent-teacher interview.

PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT

During school hours children are supervised on the play equipment by teachers. No children are allowed on the equipment BEFORE 9:00am or without a teacher being physically near the equipment. Parents who allow their children on the equipment after school must stand close to the child and supervise them. All children should wear shoes while on the equipment. The school is not responsible for an injury to a child on the equipment outside school hours.

EXTRA ACTIVITIES AND SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN

If your child shows some talent in the area of drama, contact the Shopfront Contemporary Arts Centre at Carlton on 9588 3948 or look at the website www.shopfront.org.au

Did you know that Kogarah Library has a Homework Zone. It is free for all students on Weekdays 3pm – 6pm during school terms. There are homework helpers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3.30pm until 5pm. The Library has great resources including books, free wireless connection for laptops, internet, online tutors and much more.

THE ENTERTAINMENT BOOK

The Entertainment book is a great discount book of vouchers that allows families and friends to dine, shop, travel at up to 50% off or gives you access to “two for one” deals. Many parents each year buy the book from the school. The cost of the book is $65 and I can guarantee you will save hundreds and hundreds of dollars throughout the year if you shop, dine out, travel or take your kids to the movies or use fast food outlets. Please complete the form and return it and money in a sealed envelope to school. We will have the books to you by 8 April 2009. If payment is made by 30 March 2009 you will receive an extra page of vouchers to spend. This is a tremendous offer.