Welcome Artarmon community to Term 3!

What a massive start we have had to the second semester including two successful events during the first week; the Years 2-6 Athletics carnival and celebrating 100 days of kindergarten with the cutest ‘little old’ people you have ever seen.

Having such a full week really started the term off with a bang and demonstrated the strong sense of togetherness and community that I believe really makes our school a place to love to learn.

BRONTE OUR SCHOOL SUPPORT DOG!

Another exciting announcement that I really want to mention this term is the introduction of our newest staff member ‘Bronte’!

During last term, Bronte was starting to get used to the office and the noise, smells, and busy life of a school but this term Bronte will start to make more of an appearance around students and parents.

A risk management plan has been developed and precautions put into place for any potential concerns. This will be modified in accordance to additional information received following this notice.

If you have any concerns regarding the introduction of a support dog (Medical, phobias, other etc.), please contact the school via email promptly so that your concerns can be addressed and the risk management plan updated accordingly.

See below a poster to introduce Bronte and as the weeks go by we will continue to update you with what she gets up to!

TERM 3 INVOICES

Our Term 3 student invoices were sent via email and uploaded into your SchoolBytes parent portal this week. Thank you in advance for your prompt payment of these and if you have any questions or need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the office.

PUBLIC EDUCATION WEEK

We are very much looking forward to celebrating Public Education Week with you all next Thursday. The theme this year for Public Education Week is 'Proud to Belong'. A fitting theme for our school where we celebrate our diversity, multiculturalism, and success in all areas of learning. Our day is planned to celebrate our school and take time to share our learning environment with you all and come together as a community to feel connected.

Please make sure you put Thursday morning in your calendar and make time to come and celebrate with us. Please know that grandparents are also more than welcome to attend.

BUILDING WORKS

I notified via SZapp yesterday about the concrete outside the uniform shop being fixed this Thursday and Friday.

We have been contacted toady and this is on hold until they ascertain the impact of electrical services underground. I will update you all as soon as possible when the Department get back to us with correct date for completing this job.

Thank you for your understanding and flexibility. Hopefully we weill have this area fixed soon.

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

A huge thank you to Ms Kilpatrick, Ms Bonnett, Mr Oriel, and Mr Turner for their organisation of this year's athletics carnival. It was a fantastic day and the students had so much fun competing in the events together. Congratulations to all our athletes on your achievement.

Please see below in a separate article the results from the day and information on who will proceed to the Zone carnival.

100 DAYS OF KINDERGARTEN

What a morning celebrating 100 days of school for our Kindergarten students last week. I was blown away by their costumes and enthusiasm on the morning and the turnout from our parents and grandparents. A huge thank you to all the families who brought along some morning tea to share after the event and build more community connections at school.

GO RINKY!

Don't forget to get behind ex-Artarmon student Rinky Hijikata at the Paris Olympics. Rinky was in Year 6 when I started at Artarmon and was an exceptional student, athlete, and role model. We are sending him all of the Artarmon love and best wishes for his first Olympics! Go Rinky!

To celebrate the Olympics and support Rinky we are planning an Olympics fun day next Wednesday 7th August. Come dressed in Green and Gold (or your favourite Olympic athlete) and get involved in the fun activities we will have on the day. Please make sure you are wear sporting attire, including shoes as there will be lots of physical activities on the day.

See below the results from the athletics carnival.

Who progresses to the Zone carnival?

• Top 3 students from 100m events in each age group
• Top 2 students from all other events per age group.

Congratulations to our amazing athletes and good luck to those representing our school at the North Shore Zone carnival. Notes for these will be coming home via email and accessible in the Parent Portal

• Wednesday 28th - Field events + 1500m
• Friday 30th August - Track events

Results for Girls

Results for Boys

What’s been happening in Year 6?

At the end of last term, our talented students from 6LT, 6SJ, 6CM, 6JB, 6MB and 5/6BC impressed us with their history presentations. Selected students earned the honour of showcasing their work at the prestigious history fair. The feedback from both peers and teachers was overwhelmingly positive, praising the engaging and informative presentations.

6MK and 6IW presented their Tournament of Minds script in Week 1 of this term. The students showcased their creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving, along with their sense of humour in these performances.

This term, all Year 6 classes are channelling their creativity into preparing for our much-anticipated performance tradition, set for the evening of Tuesday, 24th September—mark your calendars! As part of their Creative Arts unit, students are taking charge of every aspect, from scriptwriting to set design, promising an unforgettable show.

To me, debating is one of my favourite arts, letting students interact and perform. This term our debating team had one of our very first debates against Northbridge Public School, and we all enjoyed it very much. The Year Five team received a topic posing if all schools should incorporate an exchange program in Year Six for four weeks. Overall, our speakers went well, and our main point of feedback was to pivot our rebuttals at the opposing team’s weak spots and introduce our points better. The Year Five team was victorious, and we tried our very best! We are excited for our next debate against Willoughby Public School soon. 

By Rakshitha Ramesh Kumar 

5LB

Last week, on Friday, two of our school debating teams travelled to Northbridge Public School to compete in our first round of the year. The topic was ‘That children should be paid for household chores.’ Unfortunately, the Year 6 team lost, but the Year 5 team had great success. We learnt lots, working with our teams, and had fun debating with Northbridge. Overall, we had a great experience, and took on lots of informative feedback for our next debate!

By Chloe Peters

6IW

Term 3 Music News

Dear Music Parents,

Welcome back to Term 3! Please take note of the dates of important events coming up:

Term 3 Dates for the diary

Attendance to the above events is compulsory and Music students are expected to attend as part of the Music Program.

Music Camp

We are excited to announce that the 2024 Music Camp will be going ahead on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th August.

Students in Year 4 and above are required to attend:

• Junior, Concert and Senior Band
• Junior, Concert and Senior Strings
• Junior and Senior Guitar

This year the camp will be held at The Collaroy Centre, 22 Homestead Ave, Collaroy NSW 2097.

The camp is a wonderful opportunity for the children to consolidate their musical skills and also rehearse for the APS Concourse Concert.

This year children will need to be dropped off and picked up at the Collaroy Centre directly by their parents/carers. Further details regarding drop off times will be communicated shortly by the Camp Coordinators.

Strings Co - Convenors 2025 – Volunteers required

The Strings Co-Convenor is the "overseer" of the Strings program and works with other volunteers who do specific roles such as treasurer, tutor coordinator, instrument coordinator, ensemble coordinators, music camp coordinator etc. The role is definitely suited to being shared by 2 people and most of the work can be done from home. Full training will be provided, and our current convenors will be happy to support the new convenors during Term 4 to ensure a smooth handover. We also have a great team of parents on the Strings Committee, most of us are working, studying, and have multiple kids at Artarmon Public School but we enjoy being part of this great program.

Here are the key responsibilities of Strings Co-Convenor:

• Responsible for the overall running of the Strings Program and ensuring that the Program is fulfilling the aims for which it was established. The Co-Convenors consult with the Director/Conductor, Mr Mansukhani, on the short and long-term vision of the Strings Program.
• The Co-Convenors arrange a committee meeting once a term.
• On special events the Co-Conveners are responsible for liaising with the school executive, Principal and Mr Mansukhani
• Being a signatory to the bank account and being aware of the financial status of the Strings Committee bank account
• Writing Strings Newsletter for Newsflash
• Writing emails to parents and coordinators regarding events and notices
• Answering email enquiries and liaising with Committee members.

This role needs to be filled for the Strings Program to continue in 2025. Otherwise, there will be no one executing the above key roles, answering email enquiries, making payments to Directors/Tutors and liaising with school executive, Mr Mansukhani and Strings parents on Music Events like Mother's Day concert, Sydney Eisteddfod, End of Year Concert etc. 

If you are interested, have questions or are able to help out please contact strings.artarmonpandc@gmail.com

Guitar Convenor 2025 – Volunteer required

The Guitar Convenor is the "overseer" of the Guitar program and works with other volunteers who do specific roles such as treasurer, tutor coordinator, music camp coordinator etc. The role does not require you to be on site as most of the work can be done from home. Full training will be provided, and our current convenor will be happy to support the new convenor during Term 4 to ensure a smooth handover. We also have a great team of parents on the Guitar Committee, most of us are working, studying, and have multiple kids at Artarmon Public School but we enjoy being part of this great program.

Here are the key responsibilities of Guitar Convenor:

• Responsible for the overall running of the Guitar Program and ensuring that the Program is fulfilling the aims for which it was established. The Convenor consult with the Director/Conductor, Mr Thomlinson, on the short and long-term vision of the Guitar Program.
• On special events the Convener is responsible for liaising with the school executive, Principal and Mr Thomlinson
• Being a signatory to the bank account and being aware of the financial status of the Guitar Committee bank account
• Co-ordinate Guitar instruments including registration, purchasing and annual stocktake
• Writing Guitar Newsletter for Newsflash
• Writing emails to parents and coordinators regarding events and notices
• Answering email enquiries and liaising with Committee members.

This role needs to be filled for the Guitar Program to continue in 2025. Guitar Program cannot continue without a Guitar Convenor. There will be no one executing the above key roles, answering email enquiries, making payments to Directors/Tutors and liaising with school executive, Mr Thomlinson and Guitar parents on Music Events like Sydney Eisteddfod, End of Year Concert etc.

If you are interested, have questions or are able to help out please contact guitar.artarmonpandc@gmail.com

2024 Invoices

Please note that children who are in group tutorials (Training Strings, Training Band and Training Guitar) will be invoiced by the Music Committees per semester, in Term 1 and Term 3. Please make payment to the Band, Strings or Guitar bank accounts.

For in school private tutorials you will be invoiced directly by your child’s tutor and payment will need to be made to the tutor’s bank account.

Update your child’s class details

At the end of each semester, each student will receive a music report from the Music Committee that contains feedback from their tutors and Music Directors.

In the music report, your child’s class name will also be printed. 

Please update your child’s class name in your MySchoolMusic parent portal. After logging in, please click "Update Student" on the right-hand side and update the class details for your child. If you have problems logging into your parent portal, please forward the error message to your ensemble coordinator.

Please also review and update any other contact details that may have changed. 

Thank you for your time in updating the class details. The music parent portal is the most important communication method used by the Music Committee.

Music Bags

APS music bags are available for purchase for $20 each.  Please contact your Music Convenor for payment method and collection if you are interested. Please refer to respective sections for their contact details.

Got a question?

Step 1: Have you looked in the Strings/Band/Guitar Information packs? A copy is available in the MSM parent portal: https://portal.msmusic.com.au/artarmonmusic

Step 2: Don’t forget to subscribe to SzApp for String/Band/Guitar Ensemble News. Found under Manage tab, choose the String, Band or Guitar Ensemble to keep in the loop with any alerts to upcoming events and updated news.

Step 3: For instrument related enquiries please contact our Instrument Coordinators

For tutor related enquires please contact our Tutor Coordinators at tutorband@atarmonpandc.org.au. (The missing r is not a typo)

For invoicing related enquiries, please contact our Treasurers (Please refer to respective sections for their contact details)

Step 4: For any other enquiries please contact your Ensemble Coordinators, Event Coordinators, or the Music Convenors (Please refer to respective sections for their contact details).

Band Committee Details

Guitar Committee Details

Strings Committee Details

Get your orders in!

Book Club orders close on Friday 9th August.

The NSW Premier's Reading Challenge finishes Week 5 this term. The last day for students to add books to their reading lists online will be Friday August 23 2024.

There is a handy shortcut in your child’s Student Portal that will take them directly to the student site. As this is a NSW Department of Education Program, students use the same username and password to access the website that they use to sign into their Student Portal and the computers at school.

Congratulations to the following students who have recently completed the challenge!

The Assisted School Travel Program (ASTP) often provides additional support to students with disabilities on transport. Assisted Travel Support Officers (ATSOs) support students with complex health or behaviour needs to ensure their safe travel to and from school.

If you are interested in temporary part-time work as an ATSO the following website contains information on the role, and how to apply for the position:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/astp/atsos

For further information please contact ASTP on 1300 338 278, or email ASTP at atso.astp@det.nsw.edu.au