Dear Artarmonn Community,

It has been fantastic to see so many of you in and around the school at the start of the term and hear of so many great family adventures that happened over the school holiday period. Everyone looks refreshed and ready for an amazing term.

I wanted to start by thanking our P&C fundraising team for getting our community alive last weekend with the election BBQ and cake stall. If you were here on the weekend to get a democracy sausage, lychee tea or cake stall item you would have also noticed our new Artarmon PS gazebos purchased by the P&C.

A huge thank you to Emily Gee, Anna Dally and their tribe of volunteers who did an amazing job and also had a lot of fun on the day. You are all fabulous and help make our school an amazing community.

CELEBRATING OUR STUDENTS

A huge congratulations goes to Titus Teoh who at the end of last term competed in the NSW State Swimming Championships. Titus continued his domination in the pool and broke and now holds two NSW records with a 50m Freestyle time of 29.80 and a 200m IM of 2.40.34. This is an outstanding result and one that not many others before him have achieved. 

Titus is now continuing his training and will compete in the National Championships in October, where he qualified for:

• 50m Freestyle
• 50m Backstroke
• 50m Butterfly
• 200m Individual Medley
• NSW Jnr Relay Team

Congratulations Titus. We are all very proud of you. Just keep swimming.

Currently this week we have two of our talented Tennis players,Talia Yang and Emma Cao who are representing Sydney North at the NSW State Tennis Championships. This is a significant achievement and we can't wait to hear about their success next week when back.

Sending best wishes to you both in Bathurst this week girls!

TERM INVOICES

Term invoices will be sent home early next week. Thank you in advance for your prompt payment of these. The costs in the invoice are associated with extra programs including incursions and excursion planned by teachers to enhance then learning experience of curriculum programs. 

On the invoice you will also notice a $50 P&C Voluntary Contribution for technology uplift. We are currently in the planning of building a new technology space in our school for students to build on their creative use of technology and support new programs. The money from this voluntary contribution will be spent in this area.

S BLOCK AIR CONDITIONING

We are almost there! Over the holidays the air conditioner installers completed all the indoor work and there was no disruption to student learning programs at all. The contractors are currently completing the outdoor works and install of the external units and this should take another two weeks.

This has been a large and significant amount of work over the last few years and a huge thanks to our community for their support to ensure our students and staff have the best possible learning environments.

OC TESTS and SHS

Congratulations to all our students who attempted the OC and Selective High school tests last week and over the weekend. I understand some of you may have read about some disruptions to some of the test centres and impacted students and families. 

The test centre allocated to Artarmon was not impacted, however, if you have any reason to apply for an illness/misadventure form, these need to be submitted on-line by this week and all information can be found on the selective website.

WINTER UNIFORM

As we move into Term 2 and the colder months, it is now time to start to transition into the schools Winter uniform.

Please continue to take pride in our school uniform and ensure our children are wearing this everyday, including black shoes when not a sports day. 

If you would like to order any uniforms on-line, these will be delivered to your child's classroom through the office.

httpss:/wwwwsustainableschoolshoppcomm.auartarmonppss

Please also check jumpers and clothes are clearly labelled with your child's name.

SEMESTER ONE REPORTS

During this term, your child's teacher is building an academic report that will provide information on your child's progress linked to the NSW syllabus and teaching and learning programs happening in school. There are some new changes coming to our reports and more information will come home about this closer to the date. I will also be explaining these changes linked to policy at the next P&C meeting.

These reports will be published in your School Bytes Parent portal in Week 9, so the teachers have an opportunity to discuss these with you during the parent teacher interview in week 10. More information about parent teacher interviews will be coming home during the term.

ATTENDANCE AND EXTENDED LEAVE

As a large multicultural school community, I understand at times there are reasons for family travel, however, please remember families are encouraged to travel during school holidays, not during school term.

If there specific circumstances where travel is needed during the school term, families must complete an extended leave application and submit this through the school office.

Please note that as a principal, it is my role to support the 1990, Education Act, that requires parents ensure their children of compulsory school age are enrolled at, and  attend school everyday.

Attendance issues have a significant impact on your child's learning. It is essential for your child to achieve their educational best and increase their career and life options.

MOTHER'S DAY

This weekend we celebrate Mother's Day. I would like to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you to all the wonderful mothers and mother figures in our school community. Everything you do to support and create the best possible environment for your children and our community is so appreciated

This year I know the P&C are changing our Mother's Day celebrations a little differently by inviting Mothers into the school on Friday morning to celebrate with us and your wonderful children.

Please make some time to come to the hall and connect with and celebrate being a mother with our school community.

To all the dads - It is time to step up! The P&C are asking that instead of the mums helping to set up, can we get some amazing dads to help out.

Dads sign up here: https://signup.zone/moav45q6GMrnyBbMD

All the information for mums is in the article below, payment for event is on entry. Can't wait to see you all there!