Please, please, please take time and care when dropping off and picking up your children around the school. It is our job as parents and adults to teach our children safe ways to exit a vehicle and cross a road. This is best taught by explaining the safety concerns, setting high expectations and ensuring we as adults are exemplary role models and only drop off our children where it is safe and legal to do so.

'Patience is a virtue'. If it is not safe to drop off your beloved child in the kiss and drop zone, follow a few simple steps.

1. Drive around the block and come back.
2. Park a little further away and walk to school. Use the crossings to ensure safety.
3. Organise to car pool with some friends that live close. This will minimise the number of cars.
4. Come a little earlier, to avoid the 8:50am drop off rush. Playground supervision is available from 8:25am

STAFF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Did your child/children come home during the week and tell you that their classroom teacher was away for the day and they had a replacement teacher? If they did, it was due to each grade team spending a day together to plan and program for Term 4 and engage in professional learning. This is a highly valuable experience for teachers as they get quality time to review and reflect on teaching programs, and plan future high quality teaching and learning programs for the remainder of the year. 

BOOK WEEK 

We know this year has been a struggle with a number of activities cancelled due to COVID and government restrictions. However, we will not let a perfect opportunity for students and teachers to dress up as their favourite book character and celebrate a love of literacy get in our way!

Our normal K-2 parade will not be possible, nor will parent spectators. We will however, be able to celebrate literacy, our love of books and our imagination through each classes creative costumes. Make sure you start planning now and remember, this is a celebration of book characters, not movie characters.

SAUSAGE SIZZLE

You will have seen in the last few days though our school app, instructions on how to order your child's end of term sausage sizzle. If you haven't booked your scrumptious lunch treat yet, be sure to click on the link in the flyer to secure your child's sausage sandwich.

A huge thank you must go to the P&C committee who have worked so hard to ensure we follow current COVID safe regulations to allow our children to celebrate the end of term with a sausage, bread and sauce. 

PASSIVE PLAY AREA

Artarmon has a very busy playground, but we do have a calm oasis for quieter play. We have a passive play area, near the imaginative play equipment on McMillan playground. There are lots of cuddly toys to play with and a space to sit and chat next to the busy active play areas. Mrs Borg and Mrs Bloodworth are now also holding craft sessions! They have taught many students to French knit and they’ve recently held card making sessions. It’s so much fun!

It was great to see students in Years 3-6 participate in our sports day on the oval. activities were developed and managed by the teachers and Sportspro. The children enjoyed the challenges and had plenty of opportunities to develop and practice their gross motor skills.

The Kindergarten students were thrilled to get out there and participate in the range of activites after missing out last week due to the rain. Well done Kindergarten!

See the galleries for some action shots.

Year 3 and 4

Year 5 and 6

Kindergarten

On Thursday and Friday last week, Year 1 travelled to Field of Mars (NSW Department) Education Centre to participate in a minibeast safari!

The children explored the bush learning about minibeasts’ features such as camouflage and peripheral vision, fished for water-dwelling insects and amphibians, searched and dug under logs for crawling insects, shook trees for spiders and stick insects and used clay to create their own minibeast. The children loved being real scientists for the day and consolidated their Science learning for this term.

Thank you to all teachers and students for their enthusiasm and cooperation on these days! It was a wonderful learning experience.

Meeting date: 23 September 2020

Time: 7.00pm

Location: Online via Zoom

The P&C meeting will be held remotely via Zoom. The details for how to join the meeting follow:

1. Open the Zoom website https://zoom.us
2. Click on Join a Meeting
3. Enter the following details:

Meeting ID: 610 825 3974

Password: 401987

If you have any questions or topics that you would like addressed at the upcoming P&C meeting you can ask them anonymously via this form. Questions can be addressed to Mrs Green or the P&C.

Summer Uniforms

Dear String parents

The Strings students performed admirably at their designated Assembly. Many thanks for the students’ hard work, tutors and Mr Mansukhani’s guidance. Learning an instrument can be the start of an adventure that lasts a lifetime but can also be frustrating at the beginning. Passing on the best advice from ABC Classics from parents/caregivers of an inspiring musician who’ve been there before.

1. Be encouraging and patient - “Don’t try to correct them. Encourage them. NEVER complain or nag about practice. Create an environment where learning is safe and encouraged.” MJ 

2. Create a regular practice routine - “Ten minutes of mindful practice is better than 30 minutes of mindless playing-through.” Honoria

3. Choose instruments wisely - “Try to choose an instrument that they are actually interested in, so you don’t have to hound them to practise.” Sarah

4. Get them to play with others - “Get them into a band/group/orchestra. Music is a fun social activity.” The Australian World Orchestra

5. Make it fun - “Make it fun. My sister and daughter would still be playing piano if they’d been allowed to play popular music in addition to classical. Classical-only just wasn’t for them.” Teresa

Ensemble rehearsals:          

Got a question?

Have you looked in the 2020 Strings information pack? A copy is available at https://portal.msmusic.com.au/artarmonmusic.

If it is about your hired instrument or instrumental tutorial please contact your tutor firstly, then our instrument coordinator or strings coordinator if required. For anything else please contact your strings convenor.

The first day of school for most students next year will be Friday 29 January, 2021. Year 5OC students will begin on Monday 1 February, 2021 and new Kindergarten students will be informed by letter of their starting date.

It is vital that we know if your child/ children will NOT be returning to Artarmon or will be returning late next year. Some families take extended holidays in January/ February and we need to know your return date so that your enrolment can be counted. This information will enable the school to plan for staffing and classing needs.

This note does not apply to Year 6 students.

If your family are not returning or returning late in 2021, please click on the link and complete the online form. 

https://forms.gle/pN18SgDx1pvMP4z19=

We are delighted that this term, our school, like many other public schools in the state, will participate in a Department of Education
initiative: the Tell Them From Me parent feedback survey. 

This is an opportunity for you to provide some vaulable feedback to help with our future planning.

This survey run by the NSW Government, Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. The survey is completely confidential and a FAQ document can be accessed here: Parent_Survey_FAQ.pdf

The survey will be open until 23 September and links to to complete the survey will be posted through the newslertter and schoolzine app.

To comkplete the survey, please click on the following link:

Thank you in advance for the time taken to complete the surevy. We appreciate your honest feedback.