News

Get #FirstDay2021 ready for the new school year

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 16:31:32 AEDT

Be prepared for the new school year with our back to school tips and tools.

The start of a new school year can be both an exciting and demanding time for parents and students alike.

Our parents and carers Back to school hub can help you prepare for the year ahead with practical articles, tools, activities, calendars and checklists so you and your child can be ready from day1, term 1.

Find out about our COVID-safe school guidelines, download fun activity sheets to complete with your child, read about our health and wellbeing resources and more.

If your child is starting kindergarten, check out our starting school guide for everything you need to know from enrolment to what to expect throughout your child’s first school year.

Video – #FirstDay2021

Duration – 0:49

We’re participating in Share Our Space over Summer 2020/21

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 10:18:51 AEDT

Share Our Space is on again this summer, opening our school grounds for the entire community to enjoy.

Schools Spectacular remixed for television

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 13:35:40 AEDT

Relive memorable acts and performances from the past four years in a special televised Schools Spectacular event.

The annual Schools Spectacular, cancelled this year due to the pandemic, will entertain audiences with a special television broadcast next week.

The Schools Spectacular 2020 Remixed will air on Channel 7 on Saturday 5 December at 7pm.

The two-hour broadcast will feature memorable acts and spectacular moments from the past four years.

The show will also feature a surprise digital performance from this year’s graduating Class of 2020 with the Year 12 students sharing their passion and talents while celebrating with NSW Education for one last time.

This technical feat aims to inspire audiences as more than 70 dancers, singers, instrumental musicians and signing performers from across NSW assemble virtually for the performance.

Mark Scott, Secretary of the NSW Department of Education, said this event is an opportunity to revisit memories of past performances and celebrate the talents of students in NSW public schools.

“Schools Spectacular 2020 Remixed will be an extraordinary broadcast and a unique opportunity to look back at some of the many achievements of our talented performing arts students and their hard working and committed teachers from the past four years,” he said.

Audiences can also share their own memories and see highlights from past Schools Spectacular performances on the Schools Spectacular Facebook page.

Schools Spectacular Remixed 2020 is produced by the NSW Department of Education and proudly supported by Presenting Partners, Telstra and the NSW Teachers Federation, and Segment Partner, RØDE Microphones.

Celebrate Schools Spectacular 2020 Remixed on Saturday 5 December at 7pm on Channel 7.

Supporting effective learning at school and home with the 'What Works Best: 2020 update'

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:33:32 AEDT

The ‘What Works Best: 2020 update’ outlines the eight most effective teaching practices and how these can be supported at home.

Parents and carers can support effective student learning at home through the ‘What Works Best’ resource, now updated for 2020.

The What Works Best resource has been very successful helping teachers bring the best teaching practices into their classrooms. The ‘What Works Best: 2020 update’ outlines eight evidence-based teaching practices that teachers can use in their classrooms to improve student learning.

You can find out more about these practices, how it’s used in schools, our handy guide for parents and carers and conversation tips to help continue student learning at home when you visit the ‘What Works Best’ parents and carers hub.

Supporting effective learning at school and home with the ‘What Works Best: 2020 update’

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:15:23 AEDT

The ‘What Works Best: 2020 update’ outlines the eight most effective teaching practices and how these can be supported at home.

Parents and carers can support effective student learning at home through the ‘What Works Best’ resource, now updated for 2020.

School Updates App - be prepared for any emergency

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 14:52:16 AEDT

Receive notifications of school closures. Opt in to receive timely, accurate notifications about the operational status of your chosen NSW public school(s).

The NSW School Updates App was created to help our parents and carers check on the status of their school during last summer’s bushfire season. And it’s been invaluable during COVID when schools were required to close for deep cleaning.

The app is free and available now for iOS and Android users.

Visit NSW School Updates App to download and for more information

Privacy information

The app doesn't store any personal or identifiable information.

Join in the virtual NAIDOC Week celebrations

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 18:53:10 AEDT

Education celebrates NAIDOC Week 2020 (8 – 15 November 2020) with the theme ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’.

It’s a time to reflect and celebrate the history, culture and achievements of the First Nation peoples – recognising them as the traditional owners of the land.

Schools were invited to film and submit videos to celebrate history, culture and achievements of past and present Aboriginal and Torres Strait students.

Secretary, Mark Scott will give an opening address on Monday, 9 November and then Aboriginal students run a Question and Answers session with Mark Scott, Cindy Berwick, President of the NSW AECG; Martin Graham, Deputy Secretary; Michelle Hall, Executive Director, Connecetd Communities and Karen Jones, Executive Director, Aboriginal Outcomes and Partnerships.

Tuesday will showcase how NSW public schools are embedding Aboriginal cultural practices. Special thanks to; Windale Public School Preschool, Terrigal Public School, Wilcannia Central School and Murrumbidgee Regional High School for participating.

Wednesday will highlight the outstanding achievements of Benson Igua Saulo, In-coming Consul-General to the US based in Houston (2021), as his is interviewed by current students from his former schools, Tamworth High School and Peel High School.

Thursday will see Uncle Michael Jarrett deliver a Gumbaynggirr language lesson.

Friday will close out our virtual celebration with a beautiful virtual choir led by Uncle Archie Roach. Students will join him singing ‘Took the children away’ and ‘Children came back’.

Join the virtual celebration via video streams hosted by Aboriginal Outcomes and Partnerships , each weekday morning, at 9:30am, during NAIDOC Week 2020.

2021 term dates now available

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 16:44:28 AEDT

Most students start Friday 29 January (or Friday 5 February for Western division) in Term 1 2021.

To support a strong start to 2021, school staff will now have two school development days at the beginning of Term 1.

For 2021, students will return to school on Friday 29 January (or Friday 5 February for Western division), unless otherwise notified by the school. School term dates for 2021 are now available.

Western division schools, also known as ‘late start’ schools, are located in the far western region of NSW. Check if your school is a Late start school.

#MathsTrainsBrains for the future

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 18:38:38 AEDT

Parents and carers can now explore the importance of mathematical skills with the new Everyday Maths experience, featuring activities, resources and explainers targeted to year groups.

The digital launch is part of the NSW Mathematics Strategy 2025, which aims to strengthen mathematics teaching in NSW public schools, promote understanding of the usefulness of mathematics and build positive perceptions of mathematics.

Tune into Education LIVE to find out how high profile Australians like media guru Kellie Hush, former Olympian Steve Solomon and former Masterchef Alice Zaslavsky use maths in their everyday lives.

Video – #MathsTrainsBrains

Duration – 1:00

2021 Kindy Orientation

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 12:58:08 AEDT

REMINDER

Just a reminder for parents accompanying children to our first Kindergarten transition day on Tuesday 20th October. If you have not yet supplied the school with the necessary documents, please bring them to the office.

Documents required:

□ Birth certificate or identity documents (originals must be sighted)

□ Proof of student’s residential address (must be included with enrolment form)

□ Immunisation history statement (Parents can request a copy of their child’s AIR Immunisation History Statement at any time (up to their child being14 years of age):

1. using their Medicare online account through myGov

https://my.gov.au/

2. using the Medicare Express Plus App

www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/subjects/ express-plus-mobile-apps

3. calling the AIR General Enquiries Line on 1800 653 809

□ Individual health care plan (students with diabetes, epilepsy, anaphylaxis and severe asthma)

□ Passport or travel documents (if applicable)

□ Current visa, previous visas or citizenship papers (if applicable)

□ Copy of any family law or other relevant court orders (if applicable)

□ Relevant medical information e.g. Asthma plan /Anaphylaxis etc... (if applicable)

□ Out of area application form (if applicable)

IMMUNISATION RECORDS

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 12:53:18 AEST

We have a number of students whose immunisation records are not up to date. A note has been sent home to parents of these students and it would be appreciated if you could please arrange for a copy of their AIR (Australian Immunisation Register) Immunisation History Statement to be supplied to the school office. You can either email the statement to the school on bennettrd-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au or send the copy to school with your child.

Parents can request a copy of their child’s AIR Immunisation History Statement at any time (up to their child being 14 years of age):

 using their Medicare online account through myGov https://my.gov.au/

 using the Medicare Express Plus App www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/subjects/ express-plus-mobile-apps

 calling the AIR General Enquiries Line on 1800 653 809

Children aged 14 years and over can request their own Immunisation History Statement from the AIR by using or creating their own Medicare online account through myGov https://my.gov.au/

Children with medical contraindications or natural immunity

Children who cannot be immunised for medical reasons, or who have natural immunity, will still be recorded as “Up to date” on their AIR Immunisation History Statement if an AIR Medical Exemption Form has been completed by a GP/medical specialist and sent to the AIR. The medical exemption or natural immunity will be listed near the bottom of the Statement.

Kindergarten 2021

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 15:29:43 AEST

Due to the Department of Education’s current guidelines Kindergarten transition for 2021 is on hold.

We are currently working on setting up some videos and photos to help familiarise your child with their new school.

We have launched a “Frequently Asked Questions” page on our schools’ website if you have any queries and questions can be asked here:

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a child who will be attending our wonderful school next year, please contact the office on 9623 1805 to receive an enrolment form.

Protocol For Sick Students

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 12:25:40 AEST

Just a reminder that is your child is unwell to please keep them home from school. If your child is tested for COVID please inform the school immediately, as there is a reporting protocol that the school must complete. As soon as the results are received please be sure to let us know, a screen shot of the results will need to be emailed to bennettrd-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au.
If you are have any inquiries please don’t hesitate to call the office on 9623 1805.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding at this time.

Photo Day Term 3

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 11:01:55 AEST

Photo Day

BRPS photo day is being held on Tuesday 25^th August.

MSP photography asks that all payments be made online through their website www.msp.com.au.

Please contact the office if you need your student’s unique key.

If you would like to pay for the school photos with cash we are able to supply your student with an envelope. This will need to be filled out and brought back to school on photo day Tuesday 25^th August.

If you are unsure if you have made a payment for school photos at the beginning of the year please contact MSP directly.

Email: sydneywest@msp.com.au

Phone: 02 9831 5505

BRPS Education Week Virtual Tour

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 14:25:09 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers...
Please follow the link below to view a welcome message from our school leaders and look at virtual tours of our classrooms for Education Week. They are best viewed on your mobile device or in a Chrome browser.

We ask that you sit with your students whilst viewing the tour so that they can describe to you what each part of the room represents. Please remember to drag the image to rotate the view angle. We have included a few points of interest in each room to assist with orientation.

https://sites.google.com/education.n…/brpslearningspace/home

Have your before and after school care needs changed?

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 10:51:04 AEST

The Department of Education wants to hear from all NSW parents about their specific care needs in light of COVID-19.

The NSW Government is committed to making before and after school care available to families at all NSW public primary schools, but we understand your work arrangements and care needs may have changed due to COVID-19.

To better understand how parents can best be supported to access the before and after school care, the department and Service NSW have developed a short survey.

Have your say:

visit service.nsw.gov.au/basc
email BASCreform@det.nsw.edu.au.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 13:31:40 AEST

Parent Teacher Interviews will all be held via phone calls this semester due to Covid-19 restrictions. Teachers will be conducting phone interviews during week 4 and 5 this term.

Parents need to make a booking by clicking on the link below. There is a two stepped process to making your booking this year. The first part requires you to fill out a form and we would like you to let the teacher know of any questions you have about your child's learning. This will allow us to have everything prepared in readiness for your interview time. Once this part is complete you will be given the link to book your interview time.

We look forward to discussing the learning of all of your children with you.

Parent Teacher Interview Link: https://forms.gle/A2phcDP1fHdp5ztN8

Updates to COVID-19 restrictions affecting NSW schools

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 23:03:41 AEST

Latest COVID-19 case locations in NSW

NSW Health has a website to inform you of the actions you should take if you have been in a location where there have been confirmed cases of COVID-19 within NSW. Monitor the site and follow the relevant health advice if you have been at any of the locations at the specified dates and times.

Students and staff who have travelled through or visited Victoria

All students and staff who have visited Victoria must have a permit to enter NSW and are required to self-isolate for 14 days.

Except for students and staff who reside in a border town, all students and staff who have visited Victoria in the 14 days before the commencement of school should not attend school until they complete the 14 days self-isolation period since they left Victoria.

Students and staff who are unable to return to school due to these self-isolation requirements will be supported to learn and work remotely during the self-isolation period via the online learning hubs until they return to on-campus learning and teaching.

NSW Health has requested anyone who has been in Victoria and is unwell or has flu-like symptoms arrange to be tested through their local medical practitioner or one of the COVID-19 clinics.

Refer to current advice for people who have recently visited Victoria.

Information for students and staff on new NSW-Victoria border restrictions

The NSW Government has announced further tightening to the restrictions for people travelling across the NSW-Victorian border.

From midnight Tuesday 21 July a border zone, defined along the Murray River, will be established.

Anyone travelling from Victoria to NSW must apply for a new permit through Service NSW.

Victorian residents who have been in one of the restricted areas in Victoria in the last 14 days must not enter NSW.

Attending schools along the border

Current permits will expire at midnight, Tuesday 21 July. We strongly encourage all parents and staff to check they have a permit and if not, apply for one through Service NSW.

Students and staff who reside in Victoria will need to be eligible for a border permit to attend school in person.

Under the new public health order, the border zone has been reduced significantly.

Not all students and staff may be eligible for a border permit under the public health order. If you are not eligible for a border permit you will not be able to cross the border. Students and staff will be supported through remote learning and working via the online learning hubs until they return to school.

Further information on the new border zone is available from Service NSW.

Border permits can be rescinded at any time if a cluster outbreak in your community occurs. We encourage parents to monitor local circumstances regularly as things may change in the coming days or weeks.

Transport to and from school will run as scheduled. For travel advice to and from school refer to Transport for NSW.

New restrictions affecting boarding schools

Any student returning from Victoria to reside at a boarding school in NSW must now self-isolate for 14 days in a NSW location separate to the boarding school. They must also obtain a negative test swab from day 10 of their isolation before entering school and have written confirmation of the test result and the period spent isolating.

Those who are unable to return to boarding while they are completing the self-isolation period will be supported through remote learning and working via the online learning hubs until they return to school.

More information

Returning to school in Term 3

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 11:46:11 AEST

Our school will be open to welcome students back to onsite learning from the beginning of Term 3 – Tuesday 21 July 2020.

As you would be aware the border between NSW and Victoria closed as of 12:01am 8 July 2020.

All staff and students returning from Victoria after this time must have a permit to enter NSW and are required to self-isolate for a period of 14 days.

All students who have been in Victoria in the last 14 days before the commencement of school must not attend school until they complete the 14 days self-isolation period since they left Victoria.

NSW Health has requested anyone who has been in Victoria and is unwell or has flu-like symptoms arrange to be tested through their local medical practitioner or one of the COVID-19 clinics.

Refer to current advice for people who have recently visited Victoria.

Students who are unable to return to school due to the border closures or self-isolation will be supported to learn remotely.

We would like to remind our community the most important action you can take is to practise good hand hygiene and physical distancing. Our school will be vigilant in implementing these requirements to minimise the risk at school.

Curriculum reform focuses on deep learning

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 18:49:53 AEST

Changes to the NSW school curriculum will be the biggest education shake-up in 30 years.

The reforms, announced by the NSW Government on Tuesday, will start rolling out in 2021. All Kindergarten to Year 12 students will learn the new curriculum by 2024.

The changes are in response to the NSW Curriculum Review by Professor Geoff Masters and will ensure every student is prepared and ready for their future.

The reforms are based on:

decluttering the curriculum by reducing unnecessary subjects
a ‘back to basics approach’ that will see a renewed focus on the core subjects of English, maths and science
Year 11 and Year 12 prequalification for university and TAFE courses.

Education Week to celebrate learning together

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 10:40:09 AEST

Education Week 2020 will be held from Monday 3 August to Friday 7 August.

Education Week is our annual week of celebration to highlight the achievements of our students and staff and the role of public schools as the cornerstone of their communities.

This year’s theme is ‘Learning together’ and it reflects the incredible months of 2020 where NSW public school students have continued to learn and achieve, despite natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our schools have experienced significant disruption but our staff – in partnership with parents and carers – have worked tirelessly to ensure that high quality teaching and learning has continued for all students.

Department of Education Secretary Mark Scott said the best learning takes place when there is a partnership of students, teachers, parents, carers and the community.

“Our schools and families benefit from strong, respectful relationships where responsibility for student learning is shared,” Mr Scott said.

“As our lives slowly return to normal, it’s time for us to reflect on the achievements and resilience of our entire school community. We look forward to celebrating Education Week with all of you in August.”

Statewide events for Education Week include:

a live stream launch on Monday, 3 August
activities for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day on Tuesday, 4 August
a live streamed student film festival on Wednesday, 5 August.

Schools are invited to share photos, videos and stories of local celebrations on social media using the hashtag #EdWeek20 or send an email to educationweek@det.nsw.edu.au.

Intention to apply for Year 5 entry to an opportunity class in 2021

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 14:42:23 AEST

Intention to apply for Year 5 entry to an opportunity class in 2021

School Canteen

Fri, 29 May 2020 09:29:47 AEST

Canteen lunch orders need to be completed and placed into the box at the office before 9am. Cash Only

If you would like to use a card to pay for your child's lunch please order online at the Munch Monitor website before 8am.

Make an account and order at www.munchmonitor.com

Use school id: bennettroadps

password: munch2760

A Big Thank You

Fri, 29 May 2020 10:22:41 AEST

Many thanks to those of you who responded to our previous post regarding return of borrowed devices and charging cables.

All our charging carts are now set and fully ready for students use.

A big thank you to all those who donated charging cables... we couldn't have done it without your help.

A special mention to the Bennett Road P&C for purchasing extra charging cables... there is always an emergency need for cables outside of our storage carts in classrooms... so thank you.

Please Donate iPad/iPhone Charging Cables

Wed, 27 May 2020 11:07:27 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers

As you may be aware the school loaned out over 100 devices to families during the isolation period so that students might be able to complete online work.

We still have some families that have not yet returned their borrowed device and as such we have a number of holes in our device storage carts which limits the number available for classroom use.

More disturbing is the fact that we have even more charging cables missing... not returned and/or overlooked. This means that we are currently unable to effectively charge the devices we do have.

I am making a plea to all families to scour their home environment to look for any spare current iPad/iPhone (see picture) style charging cables.

We are hoping to find the missing ones but are also happy to receive extras as a donation if you have more than needed at home. Please drop your donated charging cables that suit the current model ipad/iphone (see picture) to the front office. We are always running short of these types of cables so any donated cables would very much be appreciated.

We are so excited to welcome our students back to school full time on Monday 25th May.

Thu, 21 May 2020 11:03:46 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are so excited to welcome our students back to school full time on Monday 25th May. Although we are looking forward to resuming face to face teaching, there will be many changes to our daily school operations so that we can prioritise the health of students, staff and community.

Attendance

All students should be at school unless:

They have a medical certificate which states that they are unable to return to school due to an ongoing medical condition
They are currently unwell.
Please note, students who live with a family member in one of the categories identified as being at increased risk by the AHPPC, should attend school unless a medical practitioner advises otherwise in writing.
If your child is unwell, do not send them to school. If they are unwell at school you or your nominated emergency contact will need to collect them immediately.
Please make sure your contact details are up to date.
If a student is absent without a medical reason for more than three days, this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and followed up by the school.
Students who arrive late to school will need to visit the front office to receive a late note.

School Drop Offs and Pick Ups and Parents on Site

Parents will need to remain off site wherever possible to ensure that we can put in place adequate social distancing guidelines to keep everyone safe. This will be extremely important as our 630 students all return to school.

Morning Drop Offs

Students need to be dropped at the school gate from Monday 25th May. There will be a member of the school executive, as well as classroom teachers at each gate from 8:30am to greet children. These arrangements are for students from years Kindergarten to Year 6.
Students will line up outside their classrooms when the morning bell goes.

Afternoon Pick-ups

Parents are encouraged to organise a meeting spot with their child outside the school if possible. However, we are concerned about large numbers of parents congregating near busy roads. Parents will also have the option to meet their child on the field near the Bennett Road gate, the Desborough Rd field or on the grass area closest to the Rebecca St gate. Parents will not be able to meet their child at their classroom or beyond these three grassed areas. These areas are large enough for our parents to keep a safe distance from one another and collect their child away from busy roads.

There will be an electronic questionnaire for parents to fill out later today that will allow you to tell us which gate you would like to collect your child from. Staff will collate these responses and walk students to the three grassed areas each afternoon. This will be the arrangement for students in years Kindergarten to Year 6.

Parents on SIte

If you have a question for a staff member, please call the front office to request a call back. Face-to-face meetings between parents and staff are unable to occur at this time.

Occasionally parents may have to pick up their child from sick bay or pick up uniforms. Please ensure that no more than two adults are in the office foyer at any time. We kindly ask you to wait outside the office foyer until there are less than two adults in the foyer before entering the office. Hand sanitiser is available for you to use as you enter the office foyer.

Hygiene

We are well stocked with hand sanitiser, soap and cleaning products. Students will be instructed to sanitise their hands upon entry into the classroom in the morning, after recess and lunch, and after toilet breaks. Students will also sanitise their hands before eating.

Teachers will continue to support students and teach them hand washing procedures.

The Department of Education has provided us with an additional cleaner to clean high touch surfaces throughout the school day. Our regular school cleaners are also working extended shifts to keep our school as clean as possible.

Stationery

Students need to provide their own pens, pencils, erasers etc. This will be a change for some of our younger students who do not normally bring these items to school. We do not want parents to rush out to buy items and hopefully you may have many of these items already at home.

Students in K-2 need 2 pencils, coloured pencils, pencil sharpener, glue stick, eraser and a small pencil case.
Students in 3-6 require: 2 lead pencils, biros, pencil sharpener, eraser, ruler, glue stick, coloured pencils in a pencil case.

School bubblers

Will remain turned off. Students will need to bring a water bottle from home. They can refill their bottle at the bubbler tap near the canteen.

Birthday cakes

We are unable to allow students to bring cupcakes in to share with their friends to celebrate their birthday. If your child is celebrating a birthday and you would still like them to share a treat with their classmates, it is ok to send in individually wrapped nut-free confectionery such as Freddo Frogs.

Student Learning

Teachers are ready to greet their students into their classrooms on Monday and meet the individual learning needs of our learners. We understand that remote learning has been enjoyed by some families and presented challenges for others. Plans are in place to support our students regardless of their remote learning experience.

Student Reporting

Students will receive an academic report this semester, however it will be simplified. Keep an eye on Facebook and Skool Bag for information over the next few weeks regarding reports.

School Activities

Unfortunately we are unable to hold assemblies, excursions, SISA or inter-school events.

Breakfast club is unable to operate at this point in time.

External Providers

Some of our students access external providers such as Speech Therapists and Occupational Therapists on the school site. Unfortunately we are not permitted to offer these services at school at the moment.

Brumby Awards and Merit Awards

It is so important that we continue to celebrate student success. Our weekly merit awards will continue and be filmed and uploaded to See-Saw.

The Brumby award system is such an important part of Bennett Road Public School. Our normal Brumby awards have been interrupted by the Covid-19 lockdown and students have missed 7 weeks of awards. This is an important part of our schooling that we would like to get back on track quickly. As we are so incredibly proud of all of our students for their cooperation and resilience over the last 7 school weeks, we will award every single BRPS student with 7 brumby stamps upon their return to school. The Brumby reward system will then continue as normal for the remainder of the year. Classroom teachers will award Brumby awards via a video uploaded to See-Saw and as a result all students will have received their White Brumby and will be rewarded with a rewards day at the end of term.

Recess and lunchtime

Staff will ensure that students are socially distanced during eating times. We will not be staggering lunch and recess as we are fortunate enough at BRPS to have large play areas that allow students to spread out. Please ensure that your child has a hat to wear during playtimes so that they can play in the grassed areas.

Our lunchtime clubs and activities are being modified to ensure that appropriate hygiene practices can happen.

School Canteen and Uniform Shop

The school canteen is operational for recess and lunch orders. Students need to provide the correct money and place their order into the lunch order box which is currently in the office foyer. Students can line up to buy something from the canteen at recess and lunch. Marks have been painted on the concrete so that students can socially distance whilst lining up to buy from the canteen.

Please note that the canteen is not open for breakfast.

The uniform shop is operational. It is preferred that orders are placed by calling the school office and paying over the phone. You will then be notified by phone when your order is ready to pick up. Pick up days will return to Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons.

If you need to visit the uniform shop to check sizing, please adhere to social distancing procedures whilst lining up. The uniform shop is only open on Thursday mornings.

BRPS staff have really appreciated the ongoing partnership with our community during this challenging time. We need to follow these procedures and ‘do our bit’ to beat the Covid-19 threat. If you require any further clarification about the organisation for the return to full time schooling, please call the front office.

Please fill this form out today so that we can organise our school pick ups for next week.

Thu, 21 May 2020 13:57:00 AEST

Please fill this form out today so that we can organise our school pick ups for next week.

All students are to return to school full time from Monday 25th May

Wed, 20 May 2020 14:02:06 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers,

You will probably be aware that the NSW Premier announced on Monday that all students are to return to school full time from Monday 25th May. Schools received guidelines to manage this return to full time schooling late yesterday afternoon. Understandably parents, students and staff have a lot of questions about the organisation for this next phase of school operations.

The executive team are meeting today to carefully consider how we move forward as a school community on Monday. We will be discussing arrangements for hygiene procedures, student drop offs and pick-ups, staff and student health and supporting student learning as they return to face-to-face teaching.

Once we have a clearer picture of our organisation we will communicate with our community via the school Facebook page and Skool Bag. We anticipate that this information will be posted tomorrow. Thank you for your ongoing patience and support as we navigate our way through this next phase. Please be assured that our focus remains on the wellbeing, health and safety of our students, staff and community.

Return of Devices

We have loaned out a high number of devices to support remote learning during the covid-19 shutdown. Coordinating the return of these devices presents a large organisational task for our staff and it is crucial that we can complete this by 11 am Friday so that we are ready to teach students on Monday. If your family has borrowed a device:

The device needs to be returned to the school NO later than 11am Friday.
Ensure all charging cords are also returned.
Devices need to be returned by an adult. Please do not send the device in your child’s school bag. These devices are expensive and we do not want them to get damaged.
Online learning will cease at 3pm Thursday. Classroom teachers will set tasks that can be completed offline for Friday.
Devices can be returned to a designated space outside the school hall. Staff will be present from 9am- 11am Friday to receive devices and sign them back into the school.
Please observe social distancing procedures whilst returning your device (ie stand 1.5 metres away from other adults and use hand sanitiser).

NSW students return to the classroom full-time

Tue, 19 May 2020 09:45:59 AEST

Students across NSW will be back in the classroom full-time from next Monday, 25 May.

The success of the phased return to face to face teaching has demonstrated the education system and community are ready for school to come back full-time.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell thanked school communities and parents for their patience during this difficult time.

Ms Berejiklian said a return to full-time face to face teaching and learning is crucial for the education progress of every child in NSW from Kindergarten to Year 12.

“Since starting a managed return to the classroom, we have seen a strong degree of confidence from our school communities in managing COVID-19 and a clear desire for all students to be back at school,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“We expect schools to stick with the health advice – increased cleaning, access to hygiene supplies and compliance with hygience practices – and look forward to seeing all students back on campus five days a week.

“The health advice is very clear; a return to full-time face to face teaching is safe.”

Over the last two weeks schools have been working hard to support students practise good hygiene and implement new routines at school, which has been successful giving the community confidence that full-time face to face teaching can resume.

Ms Mitchell said she was eager to see students back in the classroom full-time.

“Our principals, teachers, support staff, parents and carers have gone above and beyond to continue the education of our students while we respond to this pandemic,” Ms Mitchell said.

“My priority is the education of our children. We know that parents across NSW share our desire for students to be back in school, and that is our expectation.

“Schools will need to maintain the measures and precautions they have put in place for the foreseeable future, including no assemblies and excursions.

“Teachers will be focused on identifying where their students are at in their education and we will be supporting them to recognise and assist those students who need additional help.”

Read the department's latest advice for families.

Term 2 Week 3 Award Winners

Fri, 15 May 2020 14:40:03 AEST

Here are the award winners for term 2 week 3.

Congratulations to all our award winners.

Keeping our school COVIDSafe

Tue, 12 May 2020 15:24:04 AEST

Help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our community by downloading the app.

Social distancing and washing your hands remain the best ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The COVIDSafe app, developed by the Australian Government, helps to reduce the spread by allowing health experts to find close contacts faster and more accurately.

The app does not track your location. It uses your phone's Bluetooth to record other users you come into contact with, so if they test positive, NSW Health can let you know.

Find out more:

IMPORTANT MESSAGE REGARDING WEEK 3 BACK TO SCHOOL DETAILS

Fri, 08 May 2020 15:04:27 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers,

Our start to Term 2 has been very smooth and so I would like to talk to you about our plans for the staggered return of students that begins on Monday 11^th May. As you will know from previous information, students are returning to school as part of their stage for 1 day a week. These days are:

Monday – Kindergarten and our Diverse Learners

Tuesday – Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)

Wednesday – Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4)

Thursday – Stage 3 (Years 5 and 6)

Some parents have indicated that they still feel worried about sending their child to school on their allocated stage day due to the virus, so they will be keeping them at home and continuing with online learning. This is ok because as I have stated before, during your child’s stage day they will be participating in the same work that the children will be doing from home online so that no child is disadvantaged during this time.

On top of this we have been seeing approximately 50 to 60 students attending school every day to support those parents who are essential workers or those who have new work commitments.

We have a number of different plans prepared for when students start returning to school to ensure that your child is safe and supported through their learning, these include:

Social Distancing

We are utilising almost all of the learning spacing in the school so that we can spread the children out whilst they are in the classroom. At the moment we are aiming for 10 children per room but of course this will have to change as more students return. This will mean that your child may not be in their own classroom on their stage day but they will be with their teacher. Our plans include the option of teachers moving through a number of classrooms with the aid of support staff so that they can work with their whole class over the day. Remember, one of the main reasons we want to see the children on their stage day is to see how they are going with their online learning at home, see how they are going emotionally and for your child to have the chance to see and socialise with their peers. As more students start to return on a daily basis and space becomes a priority, I will adjust our plans around numbers of children in each classroom, but of course I will let you know if and when this happens.

In addition, we have plans in place for social distancing in the playground. This includes sitting down to eat recess and lunch as well as the opportunity for children to play with their friends safely. Staff are rostered to supervise certain areas of the school during break times to ensure that the children are maintaining safe distances from each other whilst still enjoying the time to play with their friends.

Hygiene

The school has been provided with ample provisions to support good hygiene practices. This includes hand soap for the bathrooms and hand sanitiser as well as a revised cleaning schedule to ensure learning surfaces, high traffic areas as well as Lap Tops and IPads can be cleaned regularly. Staff will encourage students not to share stationary items throughout the day. Children will be encouraged to wash their hands frequently and will be provided with hand sanitiser both before eating times and after play times. I am asking that all children coming to school bring their own bottle of water as I will be turning off the bubblers. We do however have bottle refill stations at the bubblers that the children will have access to so they can refill their drink bottle throughout the day. If your child forgets their drink, don’t worry, we have purchased some extra bottles of water that we will give them.

Social Gathering

We are asking that parents drop their children at the school gate in the morning and wait outside the gates in the afternoon when picking up your child. This request is to ensure that we don’t have large numbers of adults congregating on the school site to protect the children and the staff from the possibility of infection. I understand that this will not be possibly for all families, but I ask that if it is, that you support me on this one. Of course for our Kindergarten students, and some other students across the school, we expect a level of separation anxiety as the children return and we are happy to support families with this. We will have staff out at the gates to take the children into the school. Failing this, if a parent needs to come into the school to drop their child off we ask that you do it as quickly as possible, that you adhere to social distancing protocols and that you do not to stay in the school grounds beyond a successful drop off. On Monday, we are going to take our kindergarten students straight into the classrooms on their arrival instead of leaving them in the playground until the bell goes at 9am. In the afternoon, we ask parents who feel their children are capable of meeting them outside the gate to do so otherwise, if you need to come onto the school site please don’t enter before 2.55pm and leave promptly after collecting your child. Writing this is really hard for me because at any other time I would be encouraging as many family and friends to be a part of our school. It’s just at this time I need to commit to the safety of the children and my staff.

Canteen

For next week the canteen will remain closed. Parents will have to ensure that their child has recess and lunch in their bag ready for the day. We will support any child who does not come to school with food for the day. We expect the canteen to open in Week 4 but I will communicate this to you before the end of next week.

Uniform Shop

The uniform shop will be open on Thursday morning. If you need to purchase uniforms we are asking that you ring your order through to the front office before Thursday so that it can be ready for you to pay for and collect on Thursday morning. This should make the process quicker and will stop large numbers of parents waiting around to be served. If you need to come on the school site to order or pick up uniforms please adhere to the social distancing protocols.

The staff are so excited about seeing their students next week, if only for 1 day. If you have any concerns regarding your child’s return to school please contact the front office and we will help you. Once again, thank you to our wonderful Bennett Road Public School family who have been so supportive of us throughout this time and happy Mother’s Day to all of our mums on Sunday.

Glen

Term 2 Week 2 Award Winners

Fri, 08 May 2020 15:00:42 AEST

Term 2 Week 2 Award Winners.

Students begin return to classrooms

Fri, 08 May 2020 18:09:06 AEST

From Monday 11 May (Week 3) students will begin a phased return to school.

The phased return will maintain distancing in the classroom while supporting students' education and wellbeing.

Most students will continue learning from home and will only attend school 1 day each week.

Our school will continue to provide detailed information about the return to the classroom throughout the rest of Term 2.

Measures to keep schools clean and safe for all students and staff include:

25% more cleaning time focused on high-touch areas
priority deliveries of hygiene supplies including soap and hand sanitiser
local school changes to pick up, drop off, lunch and recess times and processes.

Religion and ethics lessons continue at home

Tue, 05 May 2020 11:32:46 AEST

Students learning from home can continue to access Special religious education (SRE) and Special education in ethics (SEE) classes.

Face-to-face SRE, SEE and Voluntary student activities of a religious nature in schools (VSA) will not be available until schools resume normal operations.

In response to requests from school communities, SRE and SEE approved providers are delivering their authorised curriculum with modifications to allow students to learn from home from the start of Term 2.

The lesson content and the mode of delivery has been reviewed and modified for easy access by students. The approved providers recognise that learning at home will not replicate face-to-face learning at school.

The learning from home SRE and SEE programs are now available:

Hello everyone from the PBL Team

Fri, 01 May 2020 14:25:29 AEST

UPDATED: Hello everyone from the PBL Team

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. The PBL Team has developed online learning expectations. The idea behind Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is bringing the whole-school community together to contribute to developing a positive, safe and supportive learning culture. The more families that are involved in a school’s Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) process, the more successful it will be for our students. The expectations are also developed according to locations, activities and movement in the school including the canteen, playground, classroom and hall. PBL aims to ensure that all students and staff share the same language to discuss behaviour and have the same expectations for behaviour.

Please discuss the PBL online learning expectations with your children. Please remember it is about being positive so as your children are learning, encourage these behaviours with positive comments.

If you need to talk to your child’s class teacher about “anything” please contact the school or teacher through Seesaw. Remember it’s a difficult time for us all. Take the time to care for yourself and others while we are self-isolating. As students return to online learning this week, don’t put pressure on yourself, just do the best you can and stay safe. Have a great day!

Principal's Message

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 14:49:31 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers,

This is important information regarding the coming weeks here at BRPS.

Starting tomorrow, Wednesday 29^th May, all students will continue their online learning via SeeSaw as they did at the end of Term 1. Students who require hard copy packs can still pick them up from the front office.

The school will remain open for students who need to attend. Supervision will be available for these students, and they will engage in the same learning as the students ‘learning at home’. As also announced by the NSW Premier, parents are encouraged ‘to keep their children at home’. The Department of Education has requested one mode of learning, so please be assured that both students ‘learning at school’ and ‘learning at home’ will receive the same level of instruction and materials.

Yesterday we designed a model for BRPS that will see children gradually returning to school during Term 2. In this initial phase, from Week 3, Monday 11^th May, every student will have the opportunity to start attending school one day a week. This will mean that we will have around 25% of students at school on any given day and allow us the opportunity to maintain social distancing for the children’s safety.

We looked at a number of different options, but in the end felt it was better to go with the whole stage group attending on the same day. Although this poses some organisational challenges for parents with more than one child attending school, having the whole stage at school will mean that the children get to connect socially with their peer group as well as be with their class teacher throughout that day. We looked at bringing families back together but this would mean that your children may be attending on a day when none of their friends are here which we didn’t like the thought of. Also, staff are on a roster where some days they are at school and others they work from home, so we could not guarantee that your child’s teacher would be at school on the day that the whole family attended school.

Today we attempted to call all families with more than one child at school to discuss the option of sending their children on different days whilst keeping the others at home to complete their online learning and the response was overwhelmingly positive and supportive from parents. Can I thank you so much for your responses. As you can imagine, the organisation for 630 students, 450 families and 70 staff is no easy feat, but the continued support from our community will go a long way to help us do the best job we can possibly do.

So…

From Monday 11^th May our Weeks 3 to 10 ‘Phased Managed Return’ to School will be as follows:

Monday – Kindergarten and Diverse Learning Team

Tuesday – Stage 1

Wednesday – Stage 2

Thursday – Stage 3

Friday – Students who need to be at school only

We anticipate that from Monday to Thursday we will see around 200 students at school each day. This will mean that we will have to use approximately 20 rooms to maintain the social distancing requirements. This will use up all of our suitable classrooms so those students who have to attend each day (we had about 30 each day at the end of last term) will be supervised in either the hall or the library as they complete their online learning tasks.

My staff are ready for Term 2, they have worked tirelessly over the holidays to make sure they are fully prepared for a mixture of online and one day a week face-to-face learning with their students.

We look forward to connecting with our students tomorrow.

Glen

Stage One Welcome back to Term 2

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 12:19:03 AEST

Dear Bennett Road families, community and students,

WELCOME BACK TO TERM 2! We hope you have enjoyed your Easter break and that all families were visited by the Easter Bunny.

To parents and carers,

THANK YOU for your endless support during this unprecedented change in teaching. At Bennett Road, we strongly believe that parents and carers have a profound impact on student learning and achievement. Through maintaining connections and relationships, we will continue to build a strong partnership to provide an outstanding learning experience for our students wherever they are! Your continuous encouragement and kind words are greatly appreciated by all teachers and SLSO’s!

Please remember that the teachers are here to support you through this difficult time. We completely understand that learning looks different from home so please remember that we do not expect you to be the teacher at home. That is what we are here for - to support learning AND student and family wellbeing! Students at this age respond well to routine. They find comfort in predictability and familiar schedules. Here are some suggestions to help you at home:

1. We kindly ask that you set up an optimal learning space for your child/children with minimal distractions, lots of sunshine and access to fresh air and water.

2. Encourage independent learning - let them work independently with the strong guidance of the teacher. Please just check-in from time to time to see that they are completing the tasks.

3. Encourage students to ask their teachers questions when they are stuck. Send us a message on Seesaw or give us a call at school. We are always more than happy to help!

4. Act as a support to motivate them through the use of positive praise and reward systems eg I like how you used capital letters at the beginning of your sentence. What is Miss Cabasa looking for at the end of your sentence? What did you learn in Maths today?

5. Leave the rest to us! We are committed to supporting your family by decreasing the pressure and stress with online learning. We are only a phone call or Seesaw message away. Please feel free to contact your child's classroom teacher or the school for any questions or concerns.

Now to our Stage One students - to our little HEROES! ARE YOU READY FOR A SWEATY BRAIN?

We are extremely excited and cannot wait to work online and offline with you this Wednesday. The teachers and SLSO's have been working incredibly hard to plan and develop engaging and fun activities for you online. Have you seen the video of our teachers getting sweaty brains?

We understand that your worlds have been turned upside down - everything is so different for you. All the teachers applaud you. Congratulations for getting up everyday and challenging yourselves to get sweaty brain despite everything that is going on. All the teachers want you to know that we miss you - with tears in my eyes I type this because we miss your smiles, we miss your hugs, we miss your jokes that make us laugh, we miss your learning and growth and most of all we miss seeing your incredible faces everyday! Never forget that we are always thinking about you.

Enjoy the last couple of days of your holidays and we hope to see you online on Wednesday for sweat brain time!

From your Stage One Teachers and SLSO’s

Tune in at 8.45am to NSW Education LIVE

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 19:32:46 AEST

To welcome our students back for Term 2, join us at 8.45am from Wednesday 29 April to Friday 8 May for a special live stream.

Musician Guy Sebastian, TV foodies Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and Manu Feildel, Gardening Australia host Costa Georgiadis, Sydney Swans player Ollie Florent, and our very own Eddie Woo, have donated their time to kick start learning from home each morning from 29 April - 8 May.

Tune in each day at 8:45am. We can't wait to see you!

Greetings fellow mathematicians!

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 10:30:08 AEST

Greetings fellow mathematicians!

We hope you have all had a relaxing and much deserved holiday with your families. We would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank you for your terrific efforts in mathematics last term. We could see excellent investigations, use of mathematical meta-language and good control of procedures and strategies when investigating concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division!

We are so excited for Term 2 and our teachers have created engaging numeracy lessons across the school in our online learning platform and also our take home package products. We look forward to your upcoming investigations and particularly, your ability to reflect upon what you have understood mathematically. We are so fortunate to have teachers and students who are highly passionate about mathematics and how amazing this learning domain actually is. It has been wonderful to see confident students investigating mathematical concepts at their own instructional level and even choosing to challenge themselves in their thinking and understanding.

A few things to remember for this term are;

*Ask your teacher for assistance when it is needed or you get stuck in your mathematical thinking during daily tasks. Our teachers are always happy to provide feedback and support you in your learning.

* Remember to try to answer the reflection questions for your assigned daily tasks as this gives us great insight to what you have understood about mathematics once you have completed an investigation. Try to use meta-language to explain and articulate your thinking too!

* Practice your counting sequences and number facts (addition, subtraction and multiplication) as often as you can, as this will help storing it in your long-term memory and retrieving it when you need to use them to solve problems.

* Drawing your thinking in mathematics is also an excellent way to demonstrate what you understand about a concept. The see-saw suite has many drawing tools that you can access to do this so get creative!

* Challenge yourself when and where you can. Remember if the work you are investigating is too easy, your brain isn’t getting sweaty and therefore your learning is limited! We need our brains to experience what research calls ‘productive struggle’ in order for true learning to occur.

Welcome back everyone! We will be viewing your work regularly and providing feedback to share our insights with you all. Exciting times ahead 😊

Ms DiMarco and the Numeracy Team

Hello Kindergarten students and families!

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 08:09:58 AEST

Hello Kindergarten students and families!

We hope you have all had a safe and relaxing holiday at home and that the Easter Bunny visited your house! He visited all the Kindergarten teachers as well and we enjoyed eating all our chocolates!

We are looking forward to working online with you again starting from Wednesday next week. We were all amazed at what you were able to do last term and The teachers have continued to work hard to produce exciting learning for the upcoming term. We are very excited to see just how clever you will be!

To the parents, we also wanted to say thank you so much for all your support and hard work that you have put in with your child. We understand that our students require greater support to complete their tasks than older students and we appreciate the time and patience that it takes. Your guidance with responding to feedback has also been incredible and again we are grateful for your continued support. We are always available to help with any questions you may have!

Please enjoy the last few days of holidays, we will do our best to keep you updated with the situation as they are always changing.

Remember to wash your hands with soap for 20seconds (great counting practice), cough into your elbow and always say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’!

Please stay safe, we all miss you so much and can’t wait to be back working with you again soon!

Mrs Bale and the Kindergarten teachers.

Assistant Principal (Rel),

Thank You

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 09:33:53 AEST

To our wonderful Stage 2 families,

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us on this roller coaster of a learning journey and supporting us as we continue to navigate and develop engaging educational opportunities for your children in an online setting.

Thank you for working alongside our teachers and for guiding the learning that is happening at home. We truly appreciate your efforts and it warms our hearts to know that our students are receiving a team effort of love and support.

Thank you for your kind words and encouragement as our Stage 2 teachers adjust to not seeing their learners every day. It is an odd feeling to only see and hear from them online but it is wonderful to see that they have continued to meet our high expectations and are challenging themselves!

Please remember that we are here to support you. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us via the Seesaw app or phone.

To our legendary Stage 2 learners,

You are all absolute stars and we miss you dearly! We hope you have had a wonderful holiday with your family and are recharged and ready for another fantastic term!

Your teachers are incredibly proud of all the effort you have already put in online! It is clear that you are continuing to take on challenges, are learning from your mistakes and are, most importantly, trying your best!

We look forward to hearing from you next week! We love you and miss you!

Keep washing those hands and remember my favourite High School Musical quote, WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER ✨❤️

See you soon,

Miss Tims

Important Message from the Principal

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 13:50:32 AEST

TERM 2 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (COVID-19 UPDATE)

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you are all safe and well and have enjoyed some wonderful family times during this holiday period. Our staff have been working hard over the last two weeks to prepare for Term 2 and we believe we are in a very good position to continue to deliver quality education via the current Online Learning Model.

On Tuesday this week, you may have heard the NSW Premier and Education Minister’s announcement regarding school operations for NSW Public Schools in Term 2. Please find a brief overview below, which is based on all available information at this time.

Pupil Free Days: Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th April. These days are for staff only.

Term 2 commences for students on Wednesday 29th April. For Weeks 1 and 2 the Online Learning Model that we created last term continues. In Weeks 1 and 2 of this term, students will continue to ‘learn from home’ as they did at the end of Term 1. Hard copy work packs for Week 1 were ready for collection at the front office at the end of Term 1 and are still available for those who were unable to collect them. Hard copy packs for Weeks 2 and 3 will be ready for collection at the end of Week 1.

Students will return to online learning via SeeSaw (K-6). Students who are experiencing challenges accessing online materials can arrange to pick up a hard copy pack by making contact with the front office. Alternatively, you can arrange a time to speak to Mrs Howard or myself to discuss your needs to support your child’s learning and we will endeavour to help you.

Weeks 3 to 10 ‘Phased Managed Return’ to School. NSW Public Schools are looking to increase face-to-face teaching through a gradual return to school for students during Term 2. This will be done through a staged approach to balance the needs of students and staff, their families, personal circumstances and workplaces during the pandemic. From Week 3, every student will have the opportunity to start attending school one day a week, with around 25% of students in attendance on any given day. Schools will manage the structure of this 'Phased Managed Return' for their context. In other words, the Premier and Department of Education expects that every school will do this differently. During the first week of Term 2, our staff will work through the Premier’s operational guidelines to create a model for Bennett Road Public School that will be communicated to you via social media and communication pathways. We will also continue to adjust our plans based on any new advice we receive from the NSW Department of Education.

See Image 1

The Premier has stated that in Phase 1 children should be kept at home except for their ‘rostered day’ and has asked parents to ‘respect the guidelines’ that will be established by the school. Please note that this does not apply to those students who need to attend. We tracked the data of these students the last 3 weeks of Term 1 and this will be factored into ensuring that only 25% of students are on site on any given day.

Model of Learning. Students learning either at home or at school will continue to engage in learning experiences provided by their teachers. Schools will plan and communicate the recommended time to be allocated to learning. Practical resources and guides to help students learning from home and school staff teaching from home are available at the department’s Learning from home hub. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/learning-from-home/advice-toparentsand-carers. We again reinforce the message that we understand these are challenging times and only ask that families do their best. The health and wellbeing of all families is our key priority and encourage you to aim for a balanced approach to learning at home. The table below outlines the recommended time allocations for students participating in learning at school or at home. A focus on English and Mathematics in primary school reflects the expectation that approximately 50% of the school week is devoted to these subjects. Other subjects make up approximately 30- 40% and schools have flexibility in how they implement these subjects. You will note that at this time, the suggested learning time ranges from 2 ½ to 3 hours for students depending on which grade they are in. Hopefully this is manageable, but we understand that this may not always be possible.

Schools should make decisions that will ensure student safety and equity in accessing support for practical subjects and completion of major works. The department is further investigating the use of the current online platforms to support teaching and assessment in subjects including visual arts, music and languages.

The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) has given principals and system authorities the power to determine the number, type and weighting of tasks for HSC and Year 11 school-based assessments. This includes making determinations about all mandated tasks that are internally assessed across a range of courses listed on NESA’s COVID-19 advice page.

See Image 2

Can I please thank our Bennett Road Family for your support and understanding during the past weeks and ask for that continued support during Term 2 and beyond? I understand the challenges that students and parents have faced during these unprecendented times and commend you on what you have achieved. As I have stated before, I am so proud of the staff at Bennett Road Public School for their ability to adapt to a new model of online learning so seamlessly. It is a highlight to the dedication to learning they provide their students each day. I look forward to connecting with you all next week when our Term 2 journey begins.

Glen

Full PDF available here

Message from Miss Strange

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 08:40:41 AEST

Dear parents, community and most importantly - the children,

I hope that this message finds you well and that you are all enjoying a much needed break.

Over the past few weeks, our teachers and SLSOs have been working hard to understand a new teaching platform, create online learning resources/ take home packs, provide feedback on student work and troubleshoot any issues that arise. But no matter how much time and effort staff put into attempting to manage this unprecedented change, it could not have been successful without your continued support and for that I am truly thankful. These changes have been difficult for everyone involved - please know that you are not alone.

In regards to school work, we only ask that students try their best. We do not expect every student to complete all set tasks. The current global situation has likely had some impact on your families anxiety levels (I know it has with my family). With that in mind, we all need breaks. Take a break whenever you feel you or your child need it and they can complete the task at a later time. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need anything to support your children in their learning or if just need to clarify something.

Finally, to our students -

The past few weeks have been particularly hard for your teachers as we miss you all greatly. We miss your smiles, your jokes and the overall energy you bring into the classroom. Thank you for your amazing effort with your online learning journey - we really enjoy seeing your work and how you are developing your skills. If there is one thing this situation has reminded me of, it is that you are all such strong, kind and compassionate young people. Please continue showing this to those you love and care about.

Just know, I'm counting down the days until our next:

- Face-to-face teaching;

- Ukulele jam session;

- Basketball shootout;

- BeyBlade match;

- Tea party.

Until then, be kind and wash your hands!

Miss Strange

Pupil Free Days

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 09:03:48 AEST

Next Monday and Tuesday 27th and 28th April will be pupil free days for staff development.

Students will return on Wednesday the 29th April under the same arrangements as the end of last term. We will continue this arrangement at least until week 3 as we work to implement the NSW Government policy of slowly increasing the number of students at school on any given day.

If your student has been working from home during the last weeks of term 1 using the online work created by teachers we ask that you continue this for the next two weeks. As this situation changes we will keep parents and carers informed via our usual social media platforms.

NSW students to transition back to the classroom in Term 2

Tue, 21 Apr 2020 10:31:13 AEST

NSW school students will gradually transition back to the classroom during Term 2 as the Government continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell outlined the plan for students attending NSW public schools to progressively return to face-to-face learning in week three of Term 2.

Ms Berejiklian said health advice continues to be that schools remain open, and parents, teachers and students can be confident that school is safe place.

“We are grateful to all families who kept their children home from school at the end of Term 1 and to teachers who worked tirelessly to deliver education online,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“This allowed us critical time to prepare our schools to develop better online learning options and for considering additional hygiene measures to allow schools to return.

“We know that nothing is more important than a child’s education, and we must begin to return our students to their classrooms in a considered way.

“Under these changes, from week three of Term 2, every student will be attending school for one day a week.

“We will look to increase the number of days students are at school in a staged way and hope to have all children back at school full-time by Term 3.

“I’d like to thank the Catholic and Independent schools for working with the NSW Government at this time, as well as staff, including teachers, principals and cleaners, for working so hard to prepare for a resumption of school.

“I’d also like to thank parents for what has been a tough month, often juggling working from home and caring for children. We hope the partial resumption of on campus learning will provide some much needed relief to those families.”

During the first stage of on-campus learning, parents will be encouraged to keep their children home except on their allocated day of face-to-face learning. Initially, about a quarter of a school’s students are expected to be on site at any one time. The specific days students will be required to attend school each week will vary from school to school and will be clearly communicated to parents.

Classes will be split across schools, allowing schools to appropriately social distance students and teachers.

As always, schools will remain open for students who need them and no child will be turned away from school.

Ms Mitchell said careful consideration had been given to support the school community, providing clarity and certainty on the path forward.

“This plan provides a clear path that balances community concerns with a need to deliver continuity of quality education,” Ms Mitchell said.

“Hand sanitiser will be available in all classrooms and provisions are in place for at-risk teachers to work from home. Drop off, pick up, recess and lunchtimes will also be staggered to ensure social distancing.”

In addition to the staged return to school, the NSW Government has committed up to $95.7 million to help keep casual and temporary school staff engaged in active work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our casual and temporary teachers and other non-teaching staff across NSW schools are critical to our education system, and will help ensure the educational outcomes for our students during this staged return,” Ms Mitchell said.

A cross-sector working group of teachers will also be established to report back to the Minister on recent innovations and educational developments assembled during the COVID-19 period that are suitable to support future educational delivery.

“It’s important that we have an inventory of the cutting edge teaching solutions and recognise the best efforts of our amazing NSW teachers during a difficult time,” Ms Mitchell said.

Teachers will have an additional day to prepare for Term 2 on Tuesday 28 April making the first day of term for students Wednesday 29 April.

Latest advice

Get up-to-date information about the department's response to COVID-19 (novel coronavirus).
Explore the department's learning from home resources for teachers and parents to support both online and offline learning for all students.

Message from Mrs Carroll

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 10:12:35 AEST

Hello Literacy Learners,

Just a quick message to tell you all I’m feeling very excited to get started once again for a great term of learning. I’ll be checking in to your online classrooms and hope to message you very soon about your impressive work in reading, spelling, writing and navigating the text. I know Mrs Donatiello is also looking forward to messaging you as well.

I hope you’ve taken some time to read for pleasure during your break as books are such a great way to boost your imagination and stimulate your thinking. Enjoy the rest of your holidays. See you very soon.

Mrs Carroll

Message from the Principal

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 17:29:22 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers,

Just a short message to finish of what has been an amazing term. I am so proud of everyone, our staff, the wonderful parents and families who have supported student learning but most of all our students who have been so active online and via use of hard copy packs, I couldn’t have asked for more. Today we have again mailed out some awards and made some videos that the children can enjoy. If we mispronounced any names we are sorry but hope you get some enjoyment from watching our videos. Please look at your child’s SeeSaw page over the next few days to hear all of the awards being read out. If for some reason your award does not arrive in the mail before the end of the holidays, give us a call at the start of next term and we will rectify the situation. As a staff we are looking forward to having a break with our families but we will also be working to prepare some wonderful online learning experiences for your children for when Term 2 comes around. Please stay safe, have a great time with your families and we will see you all online next term.

Congratulations to the award winners for Term 2 week 11: (see attached image)

Keep your family entertained these school holidays

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 18:23:49 AEST

We know it’s been a challenging Term 1. Just as many communities began recovering from fires, droughts and floods, we moved to learning from home to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The school holidays are coming, which means your family is about to have a lot of free time and nowhere to go.

To support you while looking after children we’ve put together a handy guide of activities to stimulate young minds and keep your family busy and engaged.

Check out our parents and carers toolkit for important self-care tips, free parenting podcasts and apps.

If you need a break, the Service NSW before and after school care finder can help locate vacation care programs near you.

Message From The Principal

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:09:17 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers,

Our decision to continue rewarding students for their outstanding achievement with Principal’s Awards has been very well received by our school community and so this is something we will continue to do each week. Today I read a very heart felt message from one of our parents who expressed exactly what their family was going through during this time, juggling work, multiple children at different stages of their learning with dedicated parents who were concerned about their ability to teach their children. Can I once again reiterate to everyone that we do not expect you to become the teacher, but that we hope you can connect with your child and help facilitate the amazing online learning model we have created here at BRPS. As a result of this parents’ message we are going to increase the number of awards this week from 2 per class to 4. These awards are not given out just for the best work but for the ‘best workers’. I always say to the children that it matters not where you start from, but the progress that you make, and this is always the basis on which we judge achievement. On Thursday Mrs Howard and I will make some videos to celebrate the learning that is happening in homes across our community. These awards will not only be for the students but for the adults who are helping us do our job. Keep up the great work.

Glen

Principal’s Award

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:24:51 AEST

Good Morning Parents and Carers,

Even though school looks a little different at the moment, we still think that the children deserve to be recognised for their great achievements. On Friday, I made a video for each stage naming those students who received a Principal’s Award for their weeks work. The children were recognised for things such as: taking on the challenge of online learning, giving their best at home just as they would if they were at school and taking on the teacher’s feedback and applying it to their online tasks. These videos have been uploaded onto the students SeeSaw page so that they can celebrate their friend’s success. These awards have been put into the post today and the following students will receive their award soon. Congratulations to (see Image below)

Message from Mrs DiMarco and Mrs Gillespe

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 09:11:13 AEDT

Mrs DiMarco and Mrs Gillespe have a message for our students.

Vacation Before and After School Care Survey

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 15:31:28 AEDT

Dear Parents and Caregivers

As we move toward the Term 1 vacation period the Department’s Before and After School Care (BASC) team has committed to collecting and collating vital information regarding vacation care.

To support this process, we are asking that all families who require care for their children complete a survey regarding care arrangements for the upcoming holiday period.

The Department is working with vacation care providers to ensure that the needs of all families are met during the Term 1 holiday period.

Please complete the online survey to confirm your child/children’s care requirements, which can be found here: https://surveys.education.nsw.gov.au/s3/school-holiday-care

For those of you who are using the printed version of this survey, please return the completed survey to the school by COB Friday 3 April 2020.

SeeSaw FAQs

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 15:26:05 AEDT

SeeSaw Class App FAQs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHB24Y-ALLY&feature=youtu.be

https://web.seesaw.me/remote-learning-for-families

Message From The Principal

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 15:24:52 AEDT

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL:

Dear Parents and Carers,

Reflecting on the past week I feel very proud. On Monday I told the staff that we needed to begin teaching in a different way and now, through a lot of hard work, we are ready to start our online learning on Monday. Don’t be fooled, we fully expect there to be a few bumps along the way but families will know that we will continue to guide and support you through these new processes. However long it take for us to have our school back, we will ensure that your children receive the best education we can provide. Please continue to be patient with us and keep asking questions.

A couple of things:

I have noticed that some people have been asking clarifying questions in the comments section of our Facebook posts. The nature of our work often means we do not get a chance to read these comments straight away. Also, with the number of posts we are putting up it often means these questions get buried under additional information. We want to be able to respond to any queries, so to ensure that we get back to you, can you phone the school with any personal questions and someone will call you back with an answer.

Finally, I have been praising my staff all week but now it is time to praise you, our community. Thank you so much for all of the positivity you have shown the Bennett Road staff this week. We all became teachers and come to school each day because of the children and at this point they are not with us which makes us sad. However, your comments on the phone, via email and through Facebook and SeeSaw has helped us immensely. We are very excited to connect with your children and yourselves on Monday.

Have a great weekend, rest up – you are going to need it.

Glen

SeeSaw Class Information

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 12:49:02 AEDT

See-Saw information

Classroom teachers will distribute your child's home learning code for See-Saw through your family see-saw app. Please note that the home based learning will be done through See-Saw Class and the picture is attached for you to see.

For any family that does not currently have a See-Saw family app, you will be contacted via phone by Friday afternoon.

Learning on See-Saw Class will not commence until Monday next week.

I kindly ask for your patience as get these log in details to you.

No child will be turned away from school

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 12:08:06 AEDT

Schools are open and no student will be turned away. Parents have been encouraged to keep their children at home if possible.

Schools will remain open for parents who want their children to attend irrespective of their profession or working arrangements.

The decision to keep schools open has been made based on advice from NSW Health, which has not changed.

The department will provide continuity of learning for all students both on and off campus and the Premier, for practical reasons, has encouraged parents to keep their children at home if they could.

Schools will communicate directly with parents on what learning options are available using their communication methods such as the school website, newsletters, emails and other online tools.

Latest advice

Get up-to-date information about the department's response to COVID-19 (novel coronavirus).
Explore the department's learning from home resources for teachers and parents to support both online and offline learning for all students.

Morning Message From The Principal

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 12:00:59 AEDT

MORNING MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL:

Good Morning Parents and Carers,

All staff arrived at work this morning enthusiastic to continue where we left off yesterday. As I mentioned, today we will be supervising those children who have arrived at school, completing programs for the coming weeks and continuing to contact parents to prepare families for online learning.

This morning I had a meeting with our office and executive staff to realign our jobs over the coming days and to ensure that we are fully prepared to start our online learning programs next week. We discussed planning around:

• How to support our families who do not have technology in their homes

• Opportunities for parents to have a Q&A forum to ask questions to help their child’s learning

• Information for parents about how to manage a day of teaching with their child and some tips and tricks for parents to help their children when they get bored, confused, tired, distracted or flat out refuse to do the work

• How do we ensure that children who do not have a parent with them at home are connected to their learning and that their welfare is catered for

• The importance of regular communication to keep everyone up to date

Of course there were some other organisational issues discussed but the above mentioned were all family related. As we further develop these plans this week you will receive them via our social media platforms.

As you work with your children today please remember my three rules for school:

1. We go to school to learn

2. We go to school to make friends

3. We go to school to have fun

Although rule 2 might be hard while you are at home, I expect that all children will still be learning and still having lots of fun.

Thank you for the continued support, enjoy your day and I will talk to you soon.

Glen

Our Teachers Are Preparing

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:23:59 AEDT

AFTERNOON MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL:

Dear Parents and Carers,

I said this morning that I had complete confidence in my staff’s ability not only to manage this situation but to shine in their delivery of this new educational model for our school. Well, like always they have not let me or the school community down. The following is an update of what we have achieved today:

Supervision

Staff have worked on a rotational basis to provide supervision to those students who are attending school at this time. As I mentioned yesterday, all children regardless of whether they are at school or at home are receiving the same work. Here at school we are providing no additional lessons other than the work that has been posted online for those students who are away from school. This model of educational delivery is supported by the state government and provides equity for all students during this time. So as we have said before, we are providing supervision for students whose parents are required to work daily in essential services. We ask that if this is not the case for your family that you follow the encouragement coming from our Premier this week to keep your children safe at home and to access the online learning that we are providing.

Contact

Staff have worked on a rotational basis to make contact with every family in the school. This required them to collate all of the online survey responses from yesterday as well as make phone calls to parents that we had not heard from to this point. Our question to parent’s is whether they have access to technology at home and how we can support them if they don’t. We will try to complete this part of our job tomorrow so that by Thursday we can put things in place for all families to begin their online learning next week. If you know of anyone who might need help with this can you mention to them to give the school a call so we can assist them.

Learning Programs

Staff have worked on a rotational basis to develop stage based learning programs for next week. Unlike this week’s work that was not developed by the staff at BRPS, next week’s work is based on the teaching and learning strategies that we deliver daily at our school and that the children will be familiar with. In addition to this, my staff have been developing resources that will complement the program as well as recording instructional videos that you will be able to access and that will help you guide your child’s learning.

SeeSaw

We will be using SeeSaw as the online platform where our students can post their work, receive timely feedback, ask for direction and maintain a connection with the teachers at BRPS. Over the next two days we will ensure that families are connected to SeeSaw to begin the online learning next week.

Two more things…

If your child is attending school tomorrow we are asking parents to drop them at the gate in the morning. This will ensure that we have the least amount of people on site which will support the social distancing procedures that we are all so familiar with. Please remember, school teachers are still at work and as such do not have the luxury of self-isolating throughout the day to protect our own health and safety. In the afternoon we ask that parents enter the school grounds no earlier that 2.50pm

Lastly, a massive shout out to our office staff who have been inundated with phone calls, requests, concerns and questions, the phones have not stopped ringing. These fabulous ladies have taken everything that is happening in their stride and do it with the upmost respect, care and consideration for our families and the greater community. If you get a chance to talk to one of them over the coming days please tell them what an amazing job they are doing.

That’s it from me today. Stay safe and continue to support each other. I will talk to you tomorrow.

Glen

School Canteen

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 13:07:14 AEDT

Dear Parents and Carers,

In line with Department of Education directives, our school canteen will be not be in operation for the rest of the school term.

In addition, our uniform shop will not be open for the rest of the term. If you are in desperate need of school uniforms, please come to the front office and we will help you out.

We are sorry for any inconvenience these changes may cause.

Important Message for Parents and Carers

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 10:50:57 AEDT

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL:

Good Morning Parents and Carers,

This week Bennett Road PS has moved into a new chapter of education delivery. I am hugely confident that we have the skills and expertise to be successful in this area, be it that it is a huge learning curve that students and teachers are navigating together.

Following on from yesterday, our work for today includes making contact with families to ensure that they have the technology at home to participate in online learning. Also, our staff are creating contextually based learning programs that will be uploaded each week for your children to complete at home while we support them throughout the day via SeeSaw.

As you can imagine, this is a huge task and we fully expect that we will be faced with new challenges as further information comes to hand. We will be connecting with our families on a daily basis through our social media platforms so please keep an eye out. On that note, can I please ask our Facebook friends to refrain from publically scrutinising the children’s teachers and school about the way we are teaching or the lessons we are assigning. We are navigating uncharted waters and for this week, we are figuring it out as we go. Please be patient with us, this is a national crisis with many of my staff having their own families that they need to support.

For those of you who have added supportive comments to Facebook, keep them coming. My teachers are so upbeat about the work I have asked them to do, have not complained and are fully immersed in making this situation work for our students and their families.

I will be in touch throughout the day.

Glen

Information For Parents and Carers

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 14:22:36 AEDT

Dear Parent and Carers,

As you may have heard this morning, the Premier of NSW has advised that from tomorrow, Tuesday 24^th March, schools will continue to be open but that parents are encouraged to keep their children at home unless they are unable to provide adequate supervision for their child, particularly if parents work in essential services.

With almost half of our students being absent from school today, we will be moving into an online learning model that will be consistent for all students regardless of if they are at school or staying at home.

Today we put a request on our social media platforms asking parents to indicate if they have access to technology at home. It is really important that parents respond to this request by tomorrow morning. We will endeavour to contact those families we don’t hear from via phone starting tomorrow.

In the interim, we will be posting this week’s work for all year groups this afternoon. This work has been created by the Department of Education to support schools and to give us time to put our own plans into place. If you require a workbook and a pencil for your child to complete their work you can always pop up to the school and we will provide you with one.

For the rest of the week, staff will be designing work programs specifically for the needs of the Bennett Road students. Information will go home this week about the use of SeeSaw as the platform that we will use to converse with students while they are home. For those who do not have access to technology we will have other supports for you that will be discussed in the coming days.

Please keep an eye on our social media posts throughout the week and make contact with the school if you have any questions.

This is the link to the BRPS online Learning Space: https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/brpslearningspace/home

New COVID-19 restrictions begin as schools move towards online learning

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 20:33:29 AEDT

The NSW Government has taken significant new steps to increase restrictions across the state - triggering the next level of enforcement necessary to fight COVID-19.

Following the decisions made by National Cabinet, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed the shutdown to protect NSW citizens.

"I understand many in the community are worried, and these changes will affect everyday lives, and may be upsetting," Ms Berejiklian said.

"But these decisions will make us all safer, they are taken with the health of all citizens in mind, and they must be taken now.

"If you have the capacity to work from home, you should do so."

In line with health advice, from midday today, the following non-essential activities and businesses will be temporarily shut down:

pubs, registered clubs
gyms, indoor sporting venues
cinemas, entertainment venues, casinos, and night clubs
restaurants and cafes will be restricted to takeaway and/or home delivery
religious gatherings, places of worship (excluding small weddings and funerals that comply with the 4m2 rule, which can proceed).

It is important to note essential gatherings at places such as hospitals, workplaces, constructions sites and for public transport are exempt and will continue.

As confirmed last night by the Prime Minister schools will remain open, based on health advice, which has not changed.

But from tomorrow, in NSW, for practical reasons, parents are encouraged to keep their children at home.

"Because nearly 30 per cent of children are already being kept out of school, for practical reasons NSW is encouraging parents to keep their children at home," Ms Berejiklian said.

"This will ensure there is only one unit of work, whether the student is at home or at school.

"No child will be turned away from school."

Latest advice

Get up-to-date information about the department's response to COVID-19 (novel coronavirus).
Explore the department's learning from home resources for teachers and parents to support both online and offline learning for all students.

Urgent Survey for Parent and Carers

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 11:52:38 AEDT

Urgent:

Dear Parents and Carers

I an effort for the school to respond to the needs of our community we are asking you to complete this short survey.

This survey is very important and we ask you to share this link with other members of our community to ensure that everyone is included.

Your response will assist us to determine the best way to communicate with you and students to access online resources.

survey link: https://forms.gle/8suVAXK7p6HZCYHU9

Letter to Parents and Carers from the Principal.

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 14:38:02 AEDT

BENNETT ROAD PUBLIC SCHOOL

PROVIDING QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION SINCE 1961

Safe, Respectful Learner

Monday 16th March 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

As you are aware the World Health Organisation has declared COVID-19 a pandemic. In Australia the majority of COVID-19 cases are returning travellers or close contacts of cases, but there is evidence of limited community transmission in some states including NSW. Efforts are now focused on considered actions to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the community and protect those who are likely to experience more severe disease such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

The Department of Education has been planning and operating in accordance with its pandemic plan to support the safety and wellbeing of staff and students in all schools. This is part of the government-wide strategy to ‘flatten the curve’ of confirmed cases so that our health services can meet the needs of those who require care when they need it.

It has become necessary to limit the need for large groups of students to gather. As a result some school activities will be cancelled or postponed. If you have paid for excursions we will hold the amount and try to reschedule these excursions at a later date or money can be credited and used for another activity.

The following activities have been cancelled, postponed or amended:

17/03/2202 Photo Day Due to a number of families keeping students home from school photo day will be postponed to ensure all students have to opportunity to participate

17/03/2020 Fusion Families Course This will proceed as the group is small

18/03/2020 Stage 3 Colyton HS Science Visit Cancelled

18/03/2020 Responsible pet program K-2 Cancelled

19/03/2020 Regional Swimming Carnival Cancelled

20/03/2020 3-6 Assembly Cancelled – Awards will be given out in class

24/03/2020 PURPLE DAY This will proceed. Mufti only. Visitors and parents are asked not to attend.

24/03/2020 Fusion Families Course This will proceed as the group is small

25/03/2020 Healthy Little Giants Workshop Stage 2 Cancelled

25/03/2020 Stage 3 Colyton HS Science Visit Cancelled

26/03/2020 HARMONY DAY Class based activities. Parents do not attend.

27/03/2020 K-2 ASSEMBLY Cancelled – Awards will be given out in class

31/03/2020 School Cross Country Carnival This activity will be amended for those competing. Visitors and parents are asked not to attend

31/03/2020 Fusion Families Course This will proceed as the group is small

1/04/2020 Mufti Day - Easter Raffle P & C This will proceed. Mufti only. Visitors and parents are asked not to attend

2/04/2020 PBL Assembly Cancelled – Awards will be given out in class

3/04/2020 3-6 Assembly Cancelled – Awards will be given out in class

8/04/2020 Term 1 Rewards Day Postponed

9/04/2020 Easter Hat Parade Cancelled

To keep your children safe, we are asking parents and visitors to minimise their time at the school. Please drop your children at the school gate after 8:30am. In the afternoon, please arrive at school no earlier than 2:50pm.

Students, staff and visitors to the school are encouraged to use good hygiene practices and keep their visits to a minimum:

1. If unwell do not attend school, visit your GP

2. Avoid hand contact, shaking hands

3. Wash hands for thirty seconds with soap and water

4. Use hand sanitiser where possible

5. Cover mouth when coughing and cough into the sleeve to stop the spread

6. If returning from overseas or having contact with a confirmed case, self-quarantine for 14 days, notify the school.

Bennett Road Public School has put into place:

· Regular hand washing breaks

· Regular cleaning of workspaces, handrails and other high “touch” areas

· Encouraged where possible students maximising space within classrooms, outdoor areas and playground spaces.

· Students moving straight to classrooms rather than meeting under COLAs as grades or stages.

In regards to Student/ Parent/ Teacher meetings we are making alternative arrangements so that parents can still access staff. At this stage we will use mobile phones to contact parents at a scheduled appointment times. Please make sure you have your phone ready to receive calls.

As we act on daily advice we will keep our families updated. Any students that are feeling unwell, as in the past we encourage you to keep them at home. If you have any further questions please contact the school on 9623 1805.

If you feel the need to have your family members tested for COVID-19, please notify the school at your earliest convenience.

Please check the school’s Facebook page and Skoolbag App for updates.

Mr G Leaf

Principal

Schools to implement distancing measures

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 20:54:43 AEDT

The NSW Department of Education is introducing proactive measures to limit the impact of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in our schools.

Mark Scott, Secretary of the Department of Education, today announced that schools would adopt social distancing measures requiring them to cancel assemblies, excursions, travel, some events and conferences.

Mr Scott said these measures are precautionary and designed to reduce exposure via non-essential gatherings.

"Schools have been a focus of the community and the government as the impacts of coronavirus have developed globally," Mr Scott said.

"From Monday onwards, I expect school assemblies and substantial gatherings to be cancelled, along with all excursions.

"The community expects schools to be as safe as possible. We are implementing these measures to provide peace of mind for students, parents and staff."

"These cancellations also extend to inter-school arts, sports, initiative activities and events.

All major arts, sports and initiative activities and events will temporarily be ceased until further notice. This includes whole-school sporting events and inter-school events involving three or more schools.

"Local inter-school sport and other activities can proceed, but we ask organisers to ensure that as far as possible, reasonable precautions are taken," Mr Scott said.

"I trust our principals and staff to show leadership during this time."

Schools will be provided with more detailed advice and suggestions on how they can adjust their day to day activities with minimal disruption.

The department is continuing to prepare for further closures if necessary with scaling up of technology, additional training of staff and preparation of offsite lessons.

Families and students in self-isolation can find useful information to continue learning from home.

For the latest information, check COVID-19 advice for schools.

School Assembly Days

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 14:06:42 AEDT

The 3 - 6 Assembly and K to 2 Assemblies. Event Cancelled.

School Communication Home

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:05:48 AEDT

Bennett Road Public School uses a number of different methods of communicating home with parents and carers including Facebook, Skoolbag, School Website and The Parent Portal. We have found these to be the most effective way of communicating.

The Parent Portal is the place to go to book up time slots for Goal Setting interviews.

Facebook has the most up to date information regarding events and notices, and last minute changes due to weather etc...

The school website has many events listed for the term and can even translate into another language by using the link on the top right hand side as shown in the image.

Skoolbag has much of the same information as Facebook but requires you to download an app and create an account.

Please see one of our friendly office staff if you require assistance in accessing any of these.

School Photo Day

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 13:51:20 AEDT

School Photo Day is:

Event Cancelled.

Have your student’s school memories captured forever

Please take time to read the relevant information on the MSP Photography payment Order forms once received and remember these helpful points:

- Each student needs to have their OWN Order form on photo day.

- Each student will have a family shoot key included at the bottom of their individual Order form. The family section only needs to be filled out if you wish to order family photos.

- If you do wish to order family photos, please fill out the form of the ELDEST student only.

- All orders are to be made online.

- Online Ordering – Logon to www.msp.com.au and click
‘ORDER ONLINE’. Place your order using the online system. Record your Order Reference number on your student’s Order form. The student must present their own Photo Order form to their photographer.
Click ‘CHANGE SHOOT’ to place multiple orders in one transaction.

- Credit Card payments – Will only be accepted for online orders, or a $5.00 administration charge is applicable for phone credit card payments.

- If you have no access to the internet or no credit/debit card – the school office does have some blank envelopes for cash payments.

- The available photo packages to order can be viewed online at: www.msp.com.au

- All late orders placed with MSP Photography (after photo day) will incur a minimum $20 late fee (per order).

For any queries please contact us:-

e sydneywest@msp.com.au

p 02 9831 5505

www.msp.com.au

Coronavirus - Department of Education statement

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 19:10:24 AEDT

The department is working with the Ministry of Health to monitor and respond to the unfolding international novel coronavirus situation.

Get up-to-date information about the department's response to novel coronavirus.

#Ready2020 – a great year starts here

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 13:38:33 AEDT

Starting school is a big moment in a child’s life. Here’s how to make the most of it.

We can’t wait for you to join us for a great year – the first step towards a lifelong love of learning.

Visit the department’s primary school resources for hints, tips and checklists to make a great start to the new school year, whether your child is starting Kindergarten or Year 6.

You’ll find:

Getting ready for primary school booklet – everything you need to be #Ready2020
Daisy’s First Day – the story of Daisy the koala’s first adventure at Kindergarten
advice from teachers – they’ve been through this before.

Video – #Ready2020: First day of Kindy

Duration – 1:00

Staying healthy into the new school year

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 17:06:19 AEDT

Immunisation is a simple, safe and effective way to protect your family from harmful diseases this holiday season and into 2020. Visit your doctor for general health and vaccination advice.

Immunisation not only protects you and your family but also others in your community, by reducing the spread of preventable diseases.

Children starting school in 2020 must have up-to-date immunisations to enrol.

These vaccinations help protect children from highly infectious and severe diseases including whooping cough and measles.

Travel health

If you’re travelling overseas during the school holidays, you may need vaccinations or medication – both for general health protection and for region-specific diseases.

If you’re travelling to the Northern Hemisphere, you may even need a flu shot.

Find out more about staying healthy while travelling.

Bennett Road Public School Parent Survey

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 15:29:12 AEDT

Survey is now closed!

NSW schools respond to bushfires

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:23:22 AEDT

Many schools are responding to the catastrophic fire rating that is affecting communities across the state this week.

We are continuously updating the School safety page with a list of government and non-government schools, as well as TAFE NSW campuses that are currently non-operational.

While some schools are temporarily non-operational due to localised fires, many others in high-risk areas are non-operational as a precautionary measure.

Schools in some areas are being used as emergency evacuation centres at the direction of the Rural Fire Service.

For schools that are currently operational, school pickups and dropoffs will continue as usual. If your school is currently non-operational, it will likely remain so tomorrow.

Large scale distressing events affect our school communities in many ways. Headspace’s mental health support resource (PDF 100.52KB) is available to help students, teachers and school staff respond to the bushfires.

Visit the School safety page for updates. The department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts will also provide updates during this period.

Bennett Road Public School Survey

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 13:22:42 AEDT

Our current school sign located on Bennett Road always has a number of announcements displayed. Please take our survey and have your say.

Grab a ticket to Schools Spectacular 2019

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 14:57:05 AEDT

Will you be joining us at Schools Spectacular 2019? Tickets are on sale now. Experience our live show featuring a cast of thousands of public school students from across metropolitan, rural and remote regions of NSW.

Students from different ages, cultures and backgrounds will share the spotlight as they dance, play and sing for you. Choose from one of our four massive performances at Qudos Bank Arena on Friday 22 November and Saturday 23 November.

This year's events will feature:

more than 380 schools
5,500 performers
a 3000-strong choir
2,300 dancers
an 80-piece symphony orchestra
a world-class stage band.

Group bookings

Need to make a group booking for over 10 people? Complete the Schools Preview Order Form 2019 (PDF 110KB) to attend the discounted 11am Friday matinee. The Friday matinee is discounted for school students and accompanying teachers.

If you’d like to grab a spot at one of the other three remaining shows complete the Group Booking Form 2019 (PDF 110KB).

Tickets for you and your family and friends

Save you and your family a spot online or by phone on 132 849.

Video – Schools Spectacular 2019

Duration: 0:26

Have your say on before and after school care

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 13:39:52 AEST

We want to better understand your needs for before and after school care in NSW.

Have your say today on before and after school care.

Fill out the survey by Service NSW to share your specific care needs and to register interest to stay informed of new developments.

Your input will provide insights into where there are gaps in service availability and help us to deliver extra places where they are needed.

You can also contact the team responsible for rolling out the before and after school care commitment at BASCreform@det.nsw.edu.au.

Book yourself in for Reading Hour

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 11:26:12 AEST

This Australian Reading Hour, encourage your child to discover or rekindle their love of a good book. Take the time to learn, escape and relax on Thursday 19 September and read for one hour.

Get involved at home

Join in at home and read your child a bedtime story. Studies show that reading a bedtime story six days a week can give kids almost a year’s head start when they begin school. Reading has also been shown to develop empathy, promote critical thinking and help children find a sense of self.

Join in from the classroom

Bestselling children’s author and illustrator Matt Stanton will broadcast live to primary school children across the country from the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday 17 September. We invite schools to register for the livestream of this free event.

Stanton’s author talk is among more than 140 events happening across the country involving more than 50 authors.

Take the Book Swap Challenge

We all have favourite books that we come back to again and again.

To help celebrate Reading Hour take our Book Swap Challenge. We want students, teachers, staff and parents to try reading something new on the day. To get involved, simply pair up with someone and swap your favourite books.

Take a photo and tag it with #ReadingHour so we can see how you got involved.

Video – #ReadingHour authors talk about their favourite place to read

Duration: 0:38

Looking for a good spot to open a book? We asked authors Benjamin Law, Morris Gleitzman, Jacqueline Harvey and Mick Elliott about their favourite place to read.

How to be smart and safe on social media

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 11:47:20 AEST

Use our new Digital Citizenship toolkit to empower your child to understand how their online behaviour affects themselves and others.

You and your child can find information on:

how to ‘be positive’ by understanding online behaviour and its effect
'be smart’ by thinking critically and being digitally aware
'be safe’ by protecting your security, privacy and wellbeing.

A toolkit to empower you and your child

You can find articles and videos to equip and empower your child to minimise the risks and maximise the opportunities in our digital future.

We’ve partnered with leading researchers to produce a curated toolkit – aligned to the curriculum – which teachers and you can share with the young people in your lives.

Guide your child through important concepts such as:

managing privacy settings in social media
collaborating online
avoiding scams and hoaxes
understanding the law when it comes to online speech
Internet banking, shopping online and much more.

Keep your child safe and happy online

Visit and bookmark the Digital Citizenship website. We’ll continue to add articles and resources to ensure the best possible tools are available to help you guide your child to be positive, smart and safe online.

Book Fair

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 12:16:05 AEST

Come along to view and buy some books as provided by Scholastic.

Where: Bennett Road Public School Library

When: Friday 2 August to Wednesday 7 August

Time: 8am to 9pm and 3pm to 4pm Daily

Swim School

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 12:37:19 AEST

Students who have not reached a satisfactory standard of water safety and survival skills and are unable to swim 25m confidently unaided in deep water are eligible to participate in the School Swimming Scheme. We have students from year 2 to year 6 participating until Friday 16th August. Students leave school at 12 noon and return by 2:40 pm.

Education Week – Every student, every voice

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:12:50 AEST

We are celebrating our students and their powerful voices this Education Week Monday 5 August to Friday 9 August. Every year Education Week celebrates the achievements of public schools, our students and the value of public education.

This year, the theme is Every student, every voice.

Join us for #EdWeek19 as we celebrate our students and their power to shape the world.

Video – #EdWeek19 – Every student, every voice

Duration: 0:34

Goal Setting Interviews

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 09:21:01 AEST

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As a part of our ongoing commitment to connect our school community in the educational needs of our students, we will be holding the second session of our 2019 Goal Setting days on Wednesday 3^rd July. The purpose of this day is to review the 3 student centred goals set in Term 1. Together teacher, parent and student will review the student’s literacy, numeracy and behavioural goals. These goals will support student success during the rest of the year.

Goal Setting and Report Interviews will take place in your child’s classroom. Each session will last for 15 minutes.

Bookings:

All bookings will be made via the Sentral Parent Portal. Some families have already registered for the Parent Portal and are familiar with the process.

For continued access to the portal please go to https://bennettrd-ps.sentral.com.au/portal

If you have not yet registered for the Sentral Parent Portal, please follow the instructions sent home with your child. If you require assistance with any of the login or registration processes, please contact the office and we can walk you through the process.

Times will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. If you require a time outside of the allocated timeslots, please see your classroom teacher.

Kind regards,

Mrs Alicia Howard

Deputy Principal

Great Healthy School Canteen

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 10:27:25 AEST

We are excited to announce that Bennett Road Public school has been awarded ‘The Healthy School Canteen Badge and Certificate’!
The NSW Healthy School Canteen Strategy is a key initiative to support the Premier’s Priority to tackle childhood obesity. Having a healthy canteen means that our students are more likely to develop healthy eating habits that will have a positive long-term impact on improving their lives.

Creative and Active Kids vouchers now available

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

Creative kids can now put a $100 voucher towards extra-curricular creative activities outside of school.

Together with Active Kids, this program aims to encourage more NSW children to participate in a range of extra-curricular activities such as coding, languages, circus, performing arts and visual arts.

Parents can apply for one $100 voucher for each child enrolled in school on the Creative Kids website and use it towards the cost of registration, participation or tuition. You just redeem the voucher with a registered provider in your area when making your payment.

This is a great opportunity for your child to become involved in a range of activities that will build on their education, growth and development.

Service NSW is working with industry bodies to deliver the program.

For more information, contact Service NSW on 137 788 or creativekids@service.nsw.gov.au.

The Game Changer Challenge is back

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

It’s not too late to become a Game Changer with applications for the Education Week challenge due by 7 June.

The Game Changer Challenge brings 16 teams from public schools across NSW – eight from primary and eight from secondary – to Sydney during Education Week in August for a three-day, intensive design-thinking workshop.

The Game Changer workshops, which start on Tuesday 6 August, includes teacher training in the use of design thinking as a teaching methodology and its application for school planning.

It also includes a team competition where schools will work under the guidance of experts from industry and academia to develop a solution to this year’s critical question: How might we humanise technology?

Department of Education Secretary Mark Scott has encouraged students and teachers to get behind the event as it highlights the critical thinking students will need to develop to succeed in the future.

“The Game Changer Challenge is an exciting initiative that helps educate and inform our students and teachers on how to integrate the problem-solving methodology of design thinking into the classroom,” Mr Scott says.

“It embraces the 21^st century skills our students will need to thrive in a globalised world such as collaboration, creative thinking and communication.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our students at all levels to be involved in discussing and addressing a real-world issue that will affect their future lives. I encourage every school to get involved.”

The challenge is designed to make strong learning and teaching connections to the NSW syllabus specifically in the area of developing general capabilities such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, communication and problem-solving.

The challenge also provides teachers with an opportunity to gain exposure to the design thinking process and includes teacher resources to introduce this creative problem-solving methodology into the classroom.

Finalists will be selected based on a 60-second video that showcases your team’s vision around the question of humanising technology.

For more information email edweek@det.nsw.edu.au or visit the Game Changer Challenge page.

Annual School Report

Wed, 29 May 2019 13:21:11 AEST

A copy of our annual school report is now available : download

School Leaders Civic Reception

Thu, 23 May 2019 14:25:57 AEST

Last night I had the pleasure of accompanying our school leaders, Sabrina and William, along with their families to a Civic Reception held by the Penrith City Council. This reception recognised student school leaders from primary school across the city. Being chosen as a school leader is an opportunity for students to learn how to communicate with and be positive role models for others. The students were addressed by the Mayor, Councillor Ross Fowler and had their photographs taken with him as they received their award.

Glen

Uniform Shop Hours

Fri, 10 May 2019 14:48:43 AEST

The uniform shop is open during the following times:

Tuesday Morning 8.30 am to 10.00 am

Thursday Afternoon 2.00 pm to 3.30 pm

Any other time the uniform shop is open for new students only.

Your NAPLAN questions answered

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a point in time assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The tests assess the foundational skills in reading, writing, spelling and numeracy that are essential for every child to progress through school and life.

This year NAPLAN takes place between 14 and 16 May for paper tests and between 14 and 24 May for schools participating in NAPLAN Online.

NAPLAN data is used to help monitor student progress over time against a national measure and to identify areas of strength and improvement. It is used in combination with other school assessments to guide and support student learning.

Watch students ask an expert the tough questions about NAPLAN.

Video – Kids ask the hard questions

Duration – 3:45

Welcome Back Term 2

Mon, 06 May 2019 14:29:10 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to school for Term 2 and a special welcome to the 8 new families who joined Bennett Road Public School this term. I hope that you will love our school as much as we do.

The calendar for Term 2 is filling up fast and we have a number of wonderful learning experiences planned for our students.

A few important events that are coming up soon include:

Mother’s Day Breakfast this Wednesday 8th May
Mother’s Day Stall on Friday 10th May
Children in years 3 and 5 will sit the NAPLAN tests on Tuesday 14th, Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th May

Thank you to those of you who attended the Colyton Carnival on Saturday. Following a torrential downpour on Friday we were fearful that it might not go ahead but we were lucky enough to have beautiful weather and an amazingly fun day. Thank you so much to the Bennett Road P&C who worked tirelessly to organise this event. Obviously this day was held as a fundraiser for the P&C but I look at it as so much more. Community spirit was alive and well at BRPS on Saturday with families having a wonderful time together. I had so many positive comments as I spoke to people throughout the day both from families attached to the school as well as from those who were visiting the school for the first time. These types of events bring a community together as well as publicise the school in a positive way and I am very proud of our P&C, staff, parents and children who created this opportunity for the Colyton community.

A note will be sent home today asking for feedback from those who attended on Saturday. We would love to hear any positive comments about the day as well as any suggestions on how we can make it better should we choose to hold another event like this in the future. Community voice is recognised here at BRPS so please feel free to be honest with your feedback.

Regards

Glen

Local Sports Stars Award

Fri, 10 May 2019 14:56:07 AEST

Zoe Mark is a nominee for the Local Sports Stars Awards

ZOE Mark may have high hopes for her burgeoning athletics career but she also knows exactly how to make her dreams come true: just take it one step at a time.

This season, the 10 yearold from Colyton broke club records for both discus and javelin at the Nepean Little Athletics Centre club championships.

Zoe’s effort saw her qualify for regionals in both events- one step further than last year where she only qualified in discus.

“Between one and 100 I’m at 100 for proudness,” Zoe said of her achievements this year. “I feel like a little champion.”

Zoe has made significant improvements since first getting started with little athletics when she was five. Her love of throwing was born from fouling out three times at a shot put event.

“She asked a trainer to teach her the basics in throwing,” Zoe’s Mum Rachel said.

“That’s where her love of throwing began.

“She absolutely loves athletics and throwing and every season she sets herself goals to improve and is generally fulfilling them.”

After taking her first steps in the representative arena, Zoe’s already focused on getting to the next level.

“I’d like to make it to state next and then hopefully be picked on the NSW team,” she said. “Then maybe one day go to the Olympics.”

Zoe is a Penrith Press nominee for the 2019 Local Sports Stars competition, which is sponsored by Featherdale Wildlife Park and Bankstown Sports.

To nominate: www.localsportsstars.com.au/ newslocal

Apply now for My Community Project funding

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

Do you have a great idea to improve your area?

My Community Project is a new NSW Government funding program that is all about local ideas, local projects and local decisions.

You can apply now for grants from $20,000 - $200,000 for projects that will make a difference to your community. Projects could include new playground equipment, sports facilities, paths or ramps to improve access, public art or a community service.

The local community can vote for their favourite projects in July and successful projects will be announced in September.

Project applications close 15 May 2019.

Apply for My Community Project funding

Deputy Principal

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 10:35:11 AEST

Dear Parents and Carers,

As you would be aware, Mrs Howard has been working at BRPS as our Relieving Deputy Principal over the past 3 terms. Recently we ran a merit selection panel to fill the position permanently, and so it is with great pleasure that I can announce that Mrs Howard is now our permanent Deputy Principal. This is a great result for our school and I know you will join with me in congratulating Mrs Howard on her achievement.

Regards

Glen

Bring back memories, not measles

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

With school holidays just around the corner, it’s time to visit your doctor to check that you and your family are fully protected against measles, before you travel overseas.

Measles is a serious, highly contagious, viral illness that is easily spread through the air when an infectious person coughs, sneezes or breathes. If you and your family are not fully vaccinated, or have never been vaccinated, you are at risk of contracting measles.

Not sure if you’re fully protected?

In Australia, the measles vaccine (MMR) consists of 2 doses. If you’re not sure whether you’ve had 2 doses of the measles vaccine, visit your doctor. It’s safe to receive another dose.

Children born in Australia

If your children were born in Australia, they may have received the measles vaccine at 12 months old and the second dose at 18 months, in accordance with the National Immunisation Program.
If you have a baby under 12 months old, consult your doctor about getting their measles vaccination.

Adults born in Australia

Born before 1966 – you were most likely exposed to measles as a child and are generally considered to be immune. If in doubt, ask your GP.
Born between 1966 and 1994 – you may not have received 2 doses. Talk to your doctor about the free vaccine if you’re unsure.
Born after 1994 – the National Immunisation Program offers 2 doses, and you can check your vaccination status using the Australian Immunisation Register.

For more information about the measles vaccination, visit NSW Health or consult your local doctor.

Did you know our playground is open in the holidays?

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

We are excited to participate in the Share Our Space program when it returns these autumn school holidays. Participating public schools across regional and metro areas of the state will continue to open their playgrounds, ovals and sports courts for the whole community to enjoy.

You and your children can play in public schools all over NSW. Schools from Lord Howe Island Central School 600km off the east coast of mainland Australia all the way to Palinyewah Public School in the far west will share their outdoor facilities as part of the program.

Participating schools are open 7 days a week between 8am-6pm from 13 to 26 April 2019, including weekends and public holidays.

Come and visit our playground. For more information or to find another participating school near you, visit Share Our Space.

Free to a Good Home!

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 08:04:54 AEDT

Closed

We are giving away a number of old iPads and computers free to good homes!

The iPads are at least 4 years old and are in good condition (model iPad 2 16GB) but will only run iOS 9.35. This means it will only run 60% of apps from the iTunes store (you will need an account) but will still surf the web (connected to your Wi-Fi), play music watch videos etc… still useful in most ways except for our school network! The iPads will be supplied with a charger, cable and will contain a fresh version of iOS 9.35. We unfortunately cannot provide any support or warranty with them.

The computers are over 4 years old and are basic desktop computers with LCD screens keyboards and mouse. Unfortunately we are unable to supply them with an operating system or any support disks (these computers will run Windows 10). You would have to have an operating system installed to make these computers useful. The computers have at least 4GB of RAM and contain a DVD/CD drive and at least 250 GB hard drives. Again we unfortunately cannot provide any support or warranty with them. (A local computer store or tech could install an operating system for a fee)

The way that we will give these away:

We will ask families to nominate if they want an iPad or a computer on a survey link. Only one device per family. Family names will be drawn out of a hat and contacted to collect their device within the week. Each draw will take place on Wednesday at 10am. If they are not collected before the following Wednesday 10am draw we will redraw a new winner. Please understand that we have limited numbers of iPads and computers so not every family will receive one…it will be based on the “luck of the draw!”

Closed!!

Fusion Family Course

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 12:37:20 AEDT

Dear Parents and Carers,

Our school has recently been negotiating with the not-for-profit organisation Fusion Australia to provide a “Families Course” for our community. The course starts next Tuesday 5^th March here at school and will run for 4 weeks. The course aims to form a framework to build a healthy, strong and loving family life and covers key areas of family relationship including:

· Understanding Parenting Styles

· Having Values in our Family

· Building Nurturing Skills

· Understanding Ages and Stages

· Being Positive

· Building Honest Relationships

· Independence

· Dealing with Conflict

· Discipline

Attending this course does not indicate that you are a ‘bad’ parent, in fact it actually reflects your desire to continue to create the best possible family life for your children. As our children grow so too does the knowledge parents need to be able to act in positive ways to changing situations. To date we have 11 parents who have indicated that they would be attending and we would love to see this number grow. There is a small cost of $20 per person to help cover the cost of the presenters and morning tea. Child care will also be available. If you are interested please come and see us on Monday.

Regards

Glen

5 road safety tips for parents and carers

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

Now that students are back to school after a break it’s a good time to chat with your child about safe behaviours when you walk or commute to school.

Here are our top tips to help our students make a safe trip:

1. Be alert and aware

Take note of the dangers you come across on your walk and bring them to your child’s attention. Point out dangers, such as vehicles coming out of driveways. Talk to your child about being alert in a road environment.

2. Hold hands

When on the footpath, at a crossing or in a car park always hold your child's hand. It is advised to do this up to the age of at least 8 years old and closely supervise until at least the age of 10.

3. Choose a safe crossing

Lead by example and choose a safe place to cross the road. Explain why it is the safest place to cross.

4. Set a good example

Your child watches everything you do, so if you cross at the crossing they will too. It is also important to share these messages with other carers who may walk with your child to school.

5. Stop, Look, Listen, Think every time you cross the road

Discuss this important road safety message. STOP! one step back from the kerb. LOOK! continuously both ways. LISTEN! for the sounds of approaching traffic. THINK! whether it is safe to cross.

Practise makes perfect

The more supervised practice your child can get the better, so why not make Term 1 the start of a new routine to walk with your child to school more often.

Older children may be ready to make the journey to school independently. Before they take this step, observe if they are road safe and reinforce the road safety messages.

For more information, check out the department’s pedestrian safety advice for students, parents and carers.

Follow your heart, not the herd

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

We spoke with a group of Kindergarten students to find out what they had to say about going against the herd. They had some wise words for us on how we can care, respect and support each other in our schools.

Let’s prevent student bullying happening in our playgrounds, classrooms and online. If a group of 5-year-olds know the difference between right and wrong, shouldn’t everyone?

Video – Wise at 5

Duration – 1:08

Stranger Danger

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 12:31:14 AEDT

Dear Parents and Carers,

This morning it was reported to me that an ex-student, on his way to catch the bus to school, felt as though he was being followed on foot along Desborough Road. This happened at approximately 7.10am. The description from the child was an older gentleman of Asian descent who was tall and thin, had long hair
and was wearing long pants, a grey sweat shirt and a hat with a turned up brim. Can I please ask parents to have the stranger danger discussion with their child/children, especially if they walk to school alone. Also, we ask that children do not arrive at school before 8.30am as this is the time our teachers start their morning duty.

Regards
Glen

Have Your Say - School Survey

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 12:07:29 AEDT

Below is a link to the the first 'Bennett Road School Survey'

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=muagBYpBwUecJZOHJhv5ke0nHZbWRAtLgk8BSKDbv2RUMUlTTFIxU0tYVkZBMjg4MERJQUVYNFE5Ny4u

Pets at School

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 11:55:51 AEDT

Dear Parents and Carers,

Recently I have seen parents who are bringing their dogs to school during drop off or pick up times. No pets are allowed to be on school grounds unless you have permission from the principal. There can obviously be many safety and health concerns where animals are involved and this is something that we don’t want to deal with at school. It does not matter if they are on a lead or in someone’s arms, please don’t bring your pets to school.

Regards

Glen

Message From The Principal

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 11:32:06 AEDT

Dear Parents and Carers,

Regards

Glen

Message from the Principal

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 14:35:17 AEDT

Dear Parents and Carers,

This morning we had our first P&C meeting. The P&C are a fabulous group of dedicated parents, carers and community members who work tirelessly to support our school. P&C meetings are there for members to ask questions and contribute ideas towards school decision making. It was great to see all of the regulars back again this year but also to welcome some new members. Meetings are generally held in the mornings at school and run for no longer than about an hour. It is a terrific way to become better connected with your child’s school and to strengthen the BRPS team. Please look out for the next meeting on Wednesday 13^th March, reminders will be posted closer to the date.

One thing the P&C did discuss was the possibility of highlighting one charity each term for our school community to raise and donate money towards. They also wanted to target a charity that might not receive a lot of publicity and maybe something that supports people in our own community. The charity we have chosen is the Mito Foundation https://www.mito.org.au/

This foundation supports people suffering from Global Mitochondrial Disease. Quoting from the website…

Having mitochondrial disease is like having a massive power outage within your body. All cells in the human body have mitochondria. They are the ‘power plants’ that provide the body with all of the energy it needs to walk, talk, laugh, hear, digest food and breathe. When a person has mitochondrial disease, it means the power plants in their cells are not working properly. It also means that they could suffer a ‘power failure’ in the organ systems that sustain life. In some cases, mitochondrial disease is fatal.

Currently, one of our students here at BRPS has a baby sister who is suffering from mitochondrial disease so we thought that this would be a good charity to focus on. The little girl’s name is Carrera and her story can be found at https://www.mito.org.au/carreras-story/ Please have a read and share it with your child if you feel it is appropriate. Our ultimate goal is to raise money to support the foundation but also to teach our children that it is good to give to others who are in need. Throughout the term there will be special events to help raise money and we will make the donation at the end of term 1.

Thank you for your continued support.

Glen

School Banking

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 09:09:37 AEDT

School Banking

Newsletter Changes

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 12:11:38 AEDT

Dear Parents and Carers,

Bennett Road Public School is always looking to become better. To do this, sometimes we have to ask ourselves if the processes we are using are still relevant for our school community. One thing that we have been assessing is our School Newsletter. The newsletter has been the main form of communication for schools since I can remember and we have persisted with it because “that’s the way we have always done it”. We feel that it is time for a change. This year we will not be producing a fortnightly newsletter but instead we are opting to use Facebook and the School Website to provide our community with a current newsfeed. The problem with the old school newsletter is that it quite often contains information that is two weeks old, it takes most of the day to produce and people do not want to read a 14 page newsletter. In today’s society, people want their news and information now, as is happens and we feel that this can be achieved through an ongoing newsfeed. Posts will be regularly added to Facebook and the School Website and alerts will be made on Skoolbag when new information is available. If you do not have access to technology at home, you are more than welcome to come to school and use one of our devises to catch up on everything that is happening at our wonderful school. You will be able to access all the recent current news by clicking on the link on the homepage of the school website as shown in the image above.

Community and Coffee

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 09:13:30 AEDT

Community and Coffee returns this Wednesday 13th February from 8.30 to 9.30. Come and join us for a coffee and a chat.

Message from the Principal

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 15:01:34 AEDT

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Bennett Road PS for the 2019 school year. A special welcome to all of our new students and their families, I’m sure you will love our school as much as we do. Now at the end of week 2, all students in years K to 6 have been placed into their new classes. As you can imagine, with over 570 children involved, this is a big task. We are never exactly certain as to who is going to return or how many new students are going to present at the front office. We then have to look at the individual child and try to match them with the correct teacher and peer group. Congratulations to staff and students for making this mammoth task run so smoothly. On a side note it has been wonderful to be joined by our new Kindergarten students who we are all excited to meet. Of course we have had a few tears but overall it has been a very smooth transition. Our Kindergarten program is always highly successful and teachers endeavour to have the children working on meaningful tasks as soon as possible. As I walked through the kindergarten rooms this morning I saw settled, happy and engaged children. Rotational groups have already begun and the children were writing their name, drawing, completing art and craft activities and even learning letter sounds. Probably the best thing was to see them engaging in discussion with each other about what they were doing. We can’t wait to share all of our student’s achievements with you throughout the year.

This year we welcome Mrs Nicole Mee, Miss Kristen Anderson, Mrs Kyleanne Gillespie, Miss Charlotte Griffiths, Mrs Jade Stone and Mrs Tanya Williams to the Bennett Road PS staff. I am confident that each and every one of them will make positive contributions to our school. In addition we have had some current staff members move to new areas of the school along with Miss Abou-Chacra, Mr Sharma and Mrs Andreou being given their first opportunity to teach their very own class. Finally, Mrs Blair is working for the first 3 weeks before going on maternity leave for the rest of the year and we wish her well with the arrival of baby number three.

The following is a list of staff for 2019. We are all here to help and are all happy to discuss any matters that affect your child’s progress. Please remember that our staff are very busy and can’t always stop to talk but that appointments can be made on request. Our Assistant Principals can also help you with any questions, they are:

Early Stage One (Kindergarten) Mrs Bale

Stage One (Years 1 & 2) Miss Cabasa

Stage Two (Years 3 &4) Miss Tims

Stage Three (Years 5 & 6) Mrs Marr & Mr Moss

Support Unit Mrs Marr & Mrs Polkamp

Click this link for 2019 staff list.

Principal

Mr Leaf

As always, my door is always open to anyone who needs my assistance and I sincerely look forward to working with the whole school community again this year to ensure that we give the children the very best day at school every day.

Kind regards

Glen

2019 School Photo Packages

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 09:49:18 AEDT

Our School Photo Day will be held on Tuesday 19th March 2019. Below are examples of 'Class Photo Packs' and 'Family Photo Packs' that will be available to purchase. More information will be sent home in the coming weeks.

Breakfast Club

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 09:56:15 AEDT

The Breakfast Club runs every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings in Room 19 from 8.30am to 8.45am.

We have a variety of yummy cereals and toast available, all students are welcome to come and join in.

Kindergarten Best Start Assessment

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 09:08:56 AEDT

Kindergarten Best Start Assessment starts today and finishes next Monday. If you have forgotten what time and what date your child was booked in, please contact the school.

Kindergarten First Day

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 09:13:12 AEDT

Kindergarten's first day of school is Wednesday 6th February.

Back to school

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:03 AEST

The first day of Kindergarten and the return to school in the new year are busy times for your child – and for the entire family. To help you make the most of this time and enjoy the experience, we’ve compiled some useful tips and checklists. We want every student to be known, valued and cared for in our schools.

Our film #FirstDay2019 captures the excitement – and the nerves – of the rite of passage that is the first day of Kindergarten.

Video – Back to School 2019: First Day at Kindy

Duration – 1:00

Students Return on Wednesday 30th January

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:26:47 AEDT

Years 1 to 6 return to school on Wednesday January 30 2019. Kindergarten students will start on the days notified by letter.

Presentation Day Assembly

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 10:12:56 AEDT

Thank you to all parents, relatives, friends and community members for participating in or attending our Presentation Assembly.

The morning was a great celebration of the achievements of our wonderful students.

Congratulations to all our award recipients.

School Reports

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 11:11:23 AEDT

Final School Reports

Change of Date: We had previously scheduled final school reports to be sent home today.

This no longer will be the case and we will be now sending them home next week.

Parking Outside The School

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 11:24:30 AEDT

Parking outside the School

It has come to our attention that a number of vehicles are parking across and in driveways before and after school. We appreciate that parking can be at premium during this time. We need to be mindful not to block access for local residents. Would you please ensure that you do not park across or in any driveways whilst waiting or picking up from school.

End Of Year Concert

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 08:53:10 AEDT

Good morning everyone, our end of year concert will go ahead this morning as planned but will be weather dependent. Due to the uncertainty of the weather we will re-evaluate again at 9am. Please send your child to school in their costume, ready to perform.

The P&C cake stall will be available regardless of the weather. We all have our fingers crossed that the rain will stay away but appreciate your understanding if changes have to be made at the last minute.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Lime Brumby Morning Tea

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 12:43:13 AEDT

Students who received their Lime Brumby during Week 35 participated in a small morning tea held in their honour on Tuesday morning. Between 10.40am and 11.00am students met with Mr Leaf and Mrs Howard who were present to congratulate them on their behaviour.

Cogratulations to all Lime Brumby recipients.

Stage 2 Camp

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 10:56:15 AEDT

This week, I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Stage 2 “Great Aussie Bush Camp” in Kincumber. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our Stage 2 students as they challenged themselves in the activities. It was great to see the resilience and determination that the students displayed over the three days. For many of the kids, it was their first time away from home without their family. I am really proud of the way they handled themselves and helped each other take on new challenges during the time at camp.

In addition to this, I would also like to thank the Stage 2 team of teachers who have worked tirelessly to plan and coordinate this experience for our students. Miss Jessica Yard led the organisation for camp and did an exceptional job. Miss Schroeder, Mrs Marr, Mrs Gullo, Miss Strange, Miss Tims, Miss Setter and Miss Yard went ‘above and beyond’ to ensure every child on camp had a wonderful experience. From all accounts, students have been talking non-stop both at home and school about all of the memories they have made this week.

Mrs Howard

Kindergarten Expo

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 10:12:30 AEDT

On Thursday we were joined by our 2019 kindergarten students and their parents at our 2018 Kindergarten Expo. This event finished our transition to school program for our incoming kindergarten students. Each Wednesday afternoon this term, our pre-schoolers have visited ‘big school’ to start getting used to Bennett Road PS. On Thursday, they enjoyed their final transition visit before they begin their school journey in 2019. Parents attended an information session in the hall before enjoying the stalls and activities at the expo.

The transition to school program has been very carefully planned and delivered. Our 2019 Kindergarten students have been set up for success and we look forward to working with them next year.

Please take a look at our image gallery.

Year 6 2018

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 14:07:50 AEDT

Farewell Year 6 2018.

Family feedback about schools always welcome

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:02 AEST

We know the quality of the relationship between families and schools has a direct impact on student wellbeing and educational outcomes.

There will be times when parents and carers want to ask a question, raise an issue or make a complaint about our schools and it can be hard for families to know where to start. Families have told us that it can be difficult to find the right person to talk to, or don’t know what steps to take to bring an issue to someone’s attention.

A short video, produced in consultation with schools, is helping families find the right person if they have a question or want to raise an issue, make a complaint or provide a compliment. The video encourages families to contact their school or the department early and in a positive way to help resolve any issues together.

The video complements information on our website and is an accessible way for families to find out about the complaints process. Positive feedback is also important and families are encouraged to let us know when something has gone well.

Visit the complaints, compliments and suggestions webpage for more information.

2018 Presentation Day

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 09:32:23 AEDT

The Annual Presentation Assembly will take place on Monday the 17^th of December 2018 at 9.30 am under the 3-6 COLA. This assembly is held to celebrate the achievements of our students throughout the year. Parents and caregivers are invited to attend this assembly to help celebrate our students’ achievements. Students receiving awards will be given an individual note.

Presentation assembly team.

Community and Coffee

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 09:28:25 AEDT

The Community & Coffee was the gathering point to encourage our students, staff and community to stand for respectful and non-violent relationships. We would like to thank Ms Lambiris, who designed and created a beautiful artwork that people could sign in support of this cause. And we would also like to thank our school captains Tyler and Skye who did a fantastic job leading the school in a pledge for respectful relationships seen below.

"Here at Bennett Rd Public School, we show respect for all people and say no to violence of any kind. This week Australia observes White Ribbon Day. Bennett Rd PS wants our entire community to work in partnership to ensure all relationships are respectful. We will stand up, speak out and act to prevent all acts of violence. We want all Bennett Road students to be courageous to take a stand for all people to respect other in their words and actions, We will speak out and let a trusted adult know if we see or hear someone showing disrespect in word or action towards another person, and we will lead the way by being respectful in all of our words and actions towards all people. "

May we continue to champion respectful relationships in our school and community.

Mr King

Facebook

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 12:31:59 AEDT

To Members of our Bennett Road Community:

There exists a Facebook page that is titled "Bennett Rd Public School" that is not the school’s official Facebook page. Many parents and local services have linked to this page by “following” expecting information from the school. Any posts that appear on this page are not authorized by the school and may contain inappropriate images and comments. This page is using our school logo and it links to our school website and contact details.

We ask our community to contact the school if they have any knowledge of the owner of the bogus page and we are requesting that the page be removed and any links to our school name and logo be deleted immediately. If you have linked to this page accidently you can easily “unfollow” the page by clicking the links on that page. The official Bennett Road Public School Facebook page is located at Bennett Road PS and contains authorized posts by the NSW Department of Education and our school.

We trust that you understand that this matter has raised some concern and we are endeavouring to have the matter resolved with the owner and Facebook.

2019 school budget allocations

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:07:02 AEST

Like all NSW public schools, this week we will receive a School Budget Allocation Report with our funding for 2019. The report will help us manage our total budget delivered through the Resource Allocation Model (RAM).

The RAM supports schools through needs-based funding to ensure a fair, efficient and transparent allocation of funds. Our school has the flexibility to make local decisions based on the specific needs of our students.

We will use our 2019 funding to support students and improve educational outcomes. The school executive will continue to work with the school community as we implement the school plan using this needs-based funding.

Learn more about the 2019 RAM funding.

Grandparents Day

Fri, 09 Nov 2018 12:49:09 AEDT

Grandparents Day was a great success at Bennett Road Public School. A large number of visitors to our school enjoyed seeing their grandchildren and children participate in many activities throughout the day. These activities included petting goats and cows, dunking the teacher, footy passing and cricket clinics. There were also may stalls where students could have their hair coloured, their faces painted and participate in many hands on activities. A significant number of local community providers were on hand to update parents and grandparents on the latest trends. Lunchtime culminated in the Sausage Sizzle, cooked by Mr Leaf and Mr Clark, which has become a firm favourite of the day.

What a fantastic day!

Congratulations to all who helped in making the day a great success, especially to Mrs Marr for her organisation.

Photo Booth images can be seen here.

The Australian PSSA Touch Football Championships

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 13:49:11 AEDT

Last week I travelled to Tasmania with my family to represent New South Wales in the Australian PSSA Touch Football Championships.

We played two games each day, in very cold weather! My team beat South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.

After four days we made it to the grand Final! Unfortunately, my team lost to Queensland 9 points to 5.

I represented Bennett Road Public School with pride. I really enjoyed my experience playing for New South Wales at this level.

I would like to thank all the parents and students at Bennett Road Public School who donated money on the mufti-day, to support me in travelling to Tasmania.

Jared

Christmas Shoes Boxes

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 14:41:51 AEDT

I just wanted to say a massive THANKYOU to our generous Bennett Rd school community! Through your generosity we saw 114 shoeboxes collected through our school, which means 114 children will receive a gift this Christmas who wouldn’t have received one before. What a privilege it is to be able to show love and kindness in this very simple but effective way, teaching our own kids the powerful truth that it is often better to give than to receive!

Can I also say a massive THANKYOU to our amazing P&C who gave an incredible $1000 that covered the postage for these shoeboxes to reach their destination in South East Asia. We will be tracking the shoeboxes and each class will find out which country their shoebox has been sent to.

Once more, thank you, I am so proud of our Bennett Rd School Community. I pray like me, you all feel a great sense of joy and satisfaction thinking about the smile on each child’s face as they open their shoebox from our school.

Shannon King

Parent Helpers Morning Tea

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 12:45:39 AEDT

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

Bennett Road Public School would like to say Thank you!

We really appreciate the help and support given to the staff and students of our school this year and would like to invite you to a thank you morning tea

Wednesday 21st November

11am in the library.

We hope you can attend this morning tea as an appreciation of your wonderful support during 2018.

In order to gauge the number of parents attending, please complete and return the form to your child’s teacher by Friday 16^th November, 2018.

Community Junction - Colyton Craft

Mon, 05 Nov 2018 08:55:27 AEDT

GREG ALEXANDER and ROYCE SIMMONS SHIELDS

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 09:02:34 AEDT

GREG ALEXANDER and ROYCE SIMMONS SHIELDS INTER-SCHOOL FOOTY COMPETITION

Colyton Carnival

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 13:41:39 AEDT

Seeking Sponsors & Donations

Our P&C are currently seeking Sponsors & Donations for our Raffle from all different businesses. If you have your own business or you think your work may be interested in Sponsoring our Fete or donating a prize for our raffle please email bennettrdschoolfete@outlook.com & a form will be emailed for you to fill out & return. Great incentives to promote your business if you are able to Sponsor or Donate.

2018 Australian Junior Oz Tag Champions

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 09:13:45 AEDT

Congratulations to Tyler in 6E. Last weekend he travelled to Coffs Harbour to participate in the 2018 Junior National Oz Tag Tournament. After a long three days of tagging, Tyler and his team mates came home with a win and were crowned 2018 Australian Junior Champions. Well done Tyler! Bennett Road acknowledges the hard work you put in and wish you all the best for the future.

Community and Coffee

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 14:55:11 AEDT

Community and Coffee is back for term 4!

Get Active

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 13:27:20 AEDT

Get Active is a Junior NRL initiative run in Western Sydney. See image for further details.

Selective High School Applications

Fri, 19 Oct 2018 13:39:56 AEDT

Selective high schools cater for high achieving academically gifted students who may otherwise be without sufficient classmates at their own academic and social level. These schools help gifted and talented students to learn by grouping them with other gifted and talented students, using specialised teaching methods and materials at the appropriate level. (Application Information Available Here)

Information Available Here

Year 7 enrolments are available in:

• seventeen fully selective high schools

• twenty-four partially selective high schools

• four agricultural high schools, three of which have

boarding places where students live at the school

for the school term. Find out more about boarding

at https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/

selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-

classes/year-7/information-for-applicants/

agricultural-high-schools

• one virtual secondary school, Aurora College, for

students in rural and remote areas. Find out more

at http://www.aurora.nsw.edu.au/

Parents, we want to hear from you!

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 10:45:53 AEST

Tell Them From Me- Parent Survey

What is the Partners in Learning parent survey?

The ‘Partners in Learning’ parent survey is part of the Tell Them From Me suite of surveys on student engagement. The parent survey helps to clarify and strengthen the important relationship between parent and school. The survey is designed to measure, assess and report insights from the parent point of view at the school and system levels. The focus of this NSW survey is on student wellbeing, engagement and effective teaching practices.

How will taking part in this survey benefit my child’s school?

The parent survey provides school principals and school leaders with parents’ perspectives on their school as well as learning at home. Communication between parents and staff, activities and practices at home, and parent views on the school’s support of learning and behaviour help build an accurate and timely picture that schools can use for practical improvements. Data collected from the survey responses are quickly compiled into reports for school leaders. Principals can then use this information to help them identify emerging issues and plan for school improvement.

All you need to do is click on the link below and answer the short survey. Your responses will help us to continue making Bennett Road PS a great place for kids to learn.

https://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/3zgzk

Thank you for providing your feedback via this survey.

SkoolBag App

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 15:35:16 AEST

Skool Bag App is one of the main ways the school communicates events and notices to parents. Please follow the instructions on the image to download the App to your phone or tablet. The school will also use the school facebook page and this website.

Reminder Goal Setting Interviews

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 08:54:04 AEST

Reminder that the Goal Setting Interviews will be held on Tuesday 25th September from 1 to 5 pm.

Bookings can only be made online at https://bennettrd-ps.sentral.com.au/portal

Time slots are filling fast so don't miss out.

Goal Setting Interviews 25th September

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 15:26:50 AEST

Goal Setting Interviews

25^th September 1 – 5 pm

All bookings will be made via the Sentral Parent Portal. Some families have already registered for the Parent Portal and are familiar with the process.

For continued access to the portal please go to:

https://bennettrd-ps.sentral.com.au/portal

Times will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. If you require a time outside of the allocated timeslots, please see your classroom teacher.

Stage 3 Camp

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 12:47:09 AEST

Greetings from Cooma!

k-2 Sports Day 2018

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 11:09:18 AEST

K-2 Sport Day 2018

K-2 sport day was held under beautiful warm, sunlit skys.

Bennett Road students win Colyton Showcase film competition.

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 11:22:34 AEST

Bennett Road students win Colyton Showcase Film Competition.

Students from class 4S submitted an excellent video interview with our school chaplain Mr King into the Colyton Showcase Film Competition. The students formulated the questions and chose the various sites where they would each ask Mr King a question regarding the Bennett Road and Colyton Community. Students worked as a team to interview, film and complete the final video. Well done to Kaydenze, Kiara, Lachlan, Hunter, Carson and to Miss Schroeder. Their prize consisted of 2 remote control GoPro camera for the school.

k-2 Sports Day

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 12:37:04 AEST

k-2 Sports Day Tuesday 11th September

Brumby Assembly

Thu, 06 Sep 2018 12:51:37 AEST

6^th September, 2018

Dear Parents/ Carers,

Bennett Road Public School’s Brumby Assemblies celebrate the positive behaviour and individual efforts of our students’ during class and school activities.

Due to the number of students receiving their Brumby Award and the forecast of thunderstorms tomorrow, precautionary changes to the scheduled Brumby Assembly will be implemented.

The 3-6 assembly will be held tomorrow at 11:45am and the K-2 assembly will be held at 2pm.

Sorry for any inconvenience,

PBL Team

Starting Kindergarten in 2019

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 00:11:51 AEST

Parent Portal/Teacher Interviews

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 00:11:51 AEST

To Parents/Caregivers

It has come to our attention that a number of parents and caregivers have had difficulty in accessing the parent portal. The confusion is in the web address which is: https://bennettrd-ps.sentral.com.au/portal

Please do not leave out the dash between bennettrd and ps.

Remember you need to register first at https://bennettrd-ps.sentral.com.au/portal/register

Once you have registered using a valid email address you will need to link your students using the access key you were provided by the original letter. Please see you class teacher for a copy if you need one. The access key is case sensitive so it must be entered exactly the way it is written.

Once all of the above is complete you should be able to access the Parent Portal by bookmarking:

https://bennettrd-ps.sentral.com.au/portal

All Parent Teacher interviews will be seen in the portal and you will be able to book and confirm a time and date for your end of semester 1 interview. Please book in an appointment time as soon as possible, teacher interview times are filling quickly.

2019 Kindergarten Enrolments

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 00:11:46 AEST

Bennett Road Survey Kiosk

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 00:11:47 AEST

2 More Kiosks Added.

In an effort to respond better to what parent's are thinking we have initiated 3 "survey kiosks" in the school foyer which will have the survey of the week. These will be deployed around the school each Thursday initially as well as on special occasions like assemblies etc... Please have your say by taking the short survey.

If you are unable to access one of the 3 survey kiosks at school please click on the link below to take this week's survey:

" Do you utilise the school's Facebook page?"

Community & Coffee

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 00:11:48 AEST

Meet your local Community Organisations working in your school over a FREE coffee and chat..

Every Wednesday

16th May - 20th June

8.30am-9.30am
Coffee Van @ Bennett Rd PS

Congratulations to all our Week 11 Assembly Award Winners

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:30 AEST

Years 1 to 6 Start Smart

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:31 AEST

This week saw all classes from years 1-6 attend Start Smart lessons provided by the Commonwealth Bank. These lessons were designed to teach students about value of money in a way they can understand and enjoy.

Bennett Road Public School Debating

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:28 AEST

Bennett Road Public School Debating is off to a flying start hosting its first debate of the year against St Clair Public School. The topic for the debate was "summer is better than winter" and being on the affirmative side our debating team put forward some persuasive arguments in favour of summer.

Tyler, Elizabeth, Sabrina and Nazia were outstanding debating competitors who became the eventual winners in a closely fought battle of wits. Jarred conducted his position as Chairperson outstandingly and Danielle and Rahela were prompt and precise timekeepers.

Congratulations to all involved.

Bennett Road Survey Kiosk

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:29 AEST

Have you seen this in the school foyer?

In an effort to respond better to what parent's are thinking we have initiated a "survey kiosk" in the school foyer which will have the survey of the week. Please have your say by taking the short survey. These will become more visible around the school during special functions to gauge and improve on feedback given.

If you are unable to access the survey kiosk at school we also offer the same link directly on your own device. Please click on the link below to take this week's survey: " Do you utilise the SKOOLBAG App?"

Bennett Road Music Video - Respect For All

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:30 AEST

Bennett Road Rap Music Video - Respect for All

Aboriginal students from years 5 & 6 at Bennett Road Public School have participated in creating a hip hop video through the 'Liven Deadly ' program with Jie Pittman a Darug, Wiradjuri and Yuin nation man, also creator and manager of the 'Liven Deadly' program.

The program explored their cultural identity through song. The purpose of the hip hop video was to encourage students to do something out of their comfort zone and to show all other students and teachers at Bennett Road Public School that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

Everybody who participated in the hip hop video thoroughly enjoyed it.

Feedback has been positive with other students and teachers wanting to join.

Trial E-Newsletter 'Sway' Week 8

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:29 AEST

BRPS is moving to an electronic newsletter next term. We are currently trialling a new electronic form called a 'Sway'. Please click on the link below to view last week's newsletter in this new format.

'Sway' Term 1 Week 8

Bennett Road Trials E-Newsletter

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:29 AEST

Bennett Road Trials new E-Newsletter Format called SWAY.

Our School Smartphone APP

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:30 AEST

Bennett Road now has a smartphone app. The app is available through the app store or through google play. Just search our school name and download it to your phone. It's free!!!!

In weeks to come all of our school newsletters, school notes and messages will be available via the app.

Any problems downloading the app please contact the front office.

African drums arrive at Bennett Road Public School

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:28 AEST

Students in 6M giving the new djembe drums a go

The sound of African beats will soon be heard around Bennett Road Public School with the new arrival of 16 Djembe Drums. These drums will be available for teachers to use in their classrooms as part of their music programs.and will also be used to establish an African Drumming Group within the school.

These drums were only made possible by the generous contribution made by the P&C towards their purchase.

We look forward to hearing the sounds of distant drums echoing throughout the grounds and classrooms of BRPS in 2013.

BRPS 2012 Debating Champions!

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:29 AEST

BRPS Congratulates the 2012 Debating Champions!

The Bennett Road debating team competed in the R.A. Pickles Debating Competition Grand Final yesterday at Hassall Grove P.S. against Rooty Hill Public School. The topic was "Life was better when our grandparents were young" and Bennett Road argued the affirmative case - agreeing with the topic. The debating team argued extremely well and won the Championship. Congratulations once again to the speakers of the Grand Final - Ebony, Macey, Aylin and Georgia and to the other speakers in the 2012 team - Regina, Shennen and Holly.

The students were presented with the Championship Shield by the founder of the compeition Mr R.A. Pickles who started the competition 25 years ago when he was a Principal in the local area.

The debating team have worked extremely hard throughout the year and should be very proud of their efforts. A big thankyou must also go out to all the parents / family members who have supported, helped, guided and listened to many speeches during the course of the year.

Miss Harris

Debating Coach

BRPS Debating Team win Pool Final and move onto the Debating Championship Semi Final!

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:29 AEST

This year the BRPS Debating team has been going from strength to strength. Students in the team have been competing in the R.A. Pickles Shield debating competition competing against schools in their local area.

Just recently Bennett Road won their Pool Final against James Erskine Public School debating 'That the Playstation has destroyed the playground'.

The team now moves onto the Semi Finals competing against Glendenning Public School debating whether or not 'Honesty is the best Policy'.

The team has worked very hard this year to get this far in the competition, and have attained the highest result so far seen by BRPS in all the years they have been participating in this competition.

We wish the debators and their coach Miss Harris all the very best in their semi final preparations and the best of luck for their semi final being held on Monday, 12 November 2012.

Year 6 making a splash with iMovies

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:31 AEST

Together with their teacher Miss Turnbull, students in 6T created a documentary about Bennett Road PS as seen from the eyes of year 6 students. Students used an iPad and the iMovie application to record sound, images, text and video. Please click on the link below to view.

BRPS win Round 2 of the R A Pickles Shield against JEPS

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:29 AEST

On Friday, 25 May 2012 the Bennett Road debating team had their second debate in the school library as part of the R.A. Pickles Shield Debating Competition.

The topic up for debate was 'It is better to live in the city than the country'. Bennett Road took the affirmative side (agreeing with the topic) while James Erksine took the negative side (disagreeing with the topic).

Both teams had great arguments, rebuttled well and used evidence to support their arguments.

But in the end Bennett Road was successful in convincing the adjudicator that 'It was better to live in the city than the country'.

A huge congratulations to the debating team, chairperson and timekeeper on their efforts.

The next debate will be against Clairgate Public School with the topic 'That TV is better than books'. Bennett Road will be arguing the negative side and Clairgate will be arguing the affirmative side.

We wish our debating team all the best of luck in their future debates.

Former BRPS student playing in the NSW Under 16's Origin Side

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:30 AEST

Jamie Hill, a former BRPS student has been selected to play in the NSW Under 16's representative origin side in the curtain-raiser game to the first State of Origin fixture to be held at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne on Wednesday, 23rd May 2012.

Students selected to play in the NSW or QLD Under 16's side were selected from players competing in the Harold Matthews Cup as well as eligible Country players.

Jamie plays for the local Penrith Panthers football club and all of us here at Bennett Road wish him the very best for Wednesday night.

UPDATE

The full time final score was 30-16, with NSW defeating the QLD side.

Congratulations to Jamie and the rest of the NSW Under 16 representative origin side.

BRPS make the newspapers for their magnificant mural

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:29 AEST

BRPS make both the Western Weekender and the St Marys - Mt Druitt Star for their neighbourhood mural.

Students from the support classes at BRPS were invited to create a mural of the things they liked most in their local neighbourhood.

With the help and guidance of artists, Chris Edwards and Fabri Blacklock students designed and painted the mural over 5 weeks as part of the Penrith City Council's Neighbourhood Renewal Program.

This mural can now be seen outside of rooms 12 & 13 in the primary COLA area.

A copy of the newspaper articles can be viewed at the following links:

Western Weekender - Published Friday, 11 May 2012

http://issuu.com/weekenderpenrith/docs/ww1052

St Marys - Mt Druitt Star - Published Monday, 14 May 2012

http://www.stmarysstar.com.au/news/local/news/general/pupils-have-a-brush-with-art/2555504.aspx

Panthers on the Prowl at Bennett Road Public School

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:31 AEST

Panthers on the Prowl has been operating in the Penrith area since 2002. The Panthers on the Prowl Program is the community arm of the Penrith Panthers NRL club.

With the assistance of the Australian Government, Panthers on the Prowl is running a Family Skills Program for school communities in the Penrith / Mt Druitt region.

At Bennett Road this term, they will be conducting discussion forums for parents and carers in Room 19, starting at 1:30pm and finishing at 3:00pm commencing from Monday, 7 May 2012 (for then for the next 5 Mondays).

All parents and caregivers and invited to join the informal discussions on a range of topics.

These sessions will be presented by Graham Collins from Panthers on the Prowl.

You can access further information at:

http://familyskills.wikispaces.com/1+Home+Page

BRPS win Round 1 of the R.A. Pickles Shield - Debating Competition

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:29 AEST

On Friday, 4 May 2012 the Bennett Road debating team had their first debate in the school library as part of the R.A. Pickles Shield Debating Competition.

The topic up for debate was 'That school hours should be longer'. Bennett Road took the affirmative side (agreeing with the topic) while Minchinbury took the negative side (disagreeing with the topic).

Both teams had great arguments, rebuttled well and used evidence to support their arguments.

But in the end Bennett Road was successful in convincing the adjudicator 'That school hours should be longer'.

A huge congratulations to the debating team on their efforts.

The next debate will be against James Erskine Public School with the topic 'It is better to live in the city than the country'. Again Bennett Road will be arguing the affirmative side and James Erskine will be arguing the negative side.

We wish our debating team all the best of luck for their future debates.

Bennett Road Public School makes the papers for Naplan Results

Sat, 05 May 2018 20:00:28 AEST

Bennett Road Public School received above average results in the Year 3 persuasive writing task in 2011. This was a great achievement as it was the first time that persuasive writing was tested in the Naplan test. These results were largely due to the teaching methods and skills used by our Year 3 teachers Mr Moss and Mrs Thomas.To read the full article published in the Mt Druitt / St Mary's Standard on Wednesday, 14 March, 2012 click on the link below.

Full Newspaper Article (pdf, 1832 KB)