Term 1 Week 5 24th February 2012

WHALER NO 2 Website: www.mosmanpublicschool.com Phone: 9969 9325

Email: mosman-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au Fax: 9968 1324

Dates to Remember

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

MAR Wk 6

27 28 Stewart House clothing collection

29 1 2

Wk 7 5 6 Zone Swimming 7 Yr 5 Camp - Bathurst 8 Yr 5 Camp - Bathurst 9 Yr 5 Camp - Bathurst

Wk 8 12 13 14 15 Selective High School Test

16

Wk 9 19 20 21 22 School Photo Day 23

Wk 10 26 27 28 P&C Meeting 9am Staff Room

29 30

APR Wk 11

2 Yr 6 Camp - Canberra 3 Yr 6 Camp -Canberra 4 Yr 6 Camp - Canberra 5 Easter Hat Parade 6 GOOD FRIDAY

HOLIDAYS 6th April – 24th April

APR Wk 1

23 STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY

24 STUDENTS RETURN 25 ANZAC DAY 26 27

MAY Wk 2

30 1 2 3 4

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT Dear Parents, What a wonderful Swimming Carnival! It was fantastic to see all our children from Years 3-6 having such a marvellous time (see report and photos later in this Whaler). Separating the competitive and non-competitive events was the best change we have made for years!

Special thanks and congratulations to;

Fiona Davis, Steve Dowler and Matt Fletcher for your superb organisation and management of the event. Your innovation in developing a method to streamline the carnival is absolutely brilliant – thank you for the many hours of hard work you put into it (mostly in your own time).

All teachers who worked so hard in so many facets of the carnival to ensure that everyone had a safe and happy day.

All parents who did so much to help and support the efficient running of the carnival, we could not manage without you. Also to those who were such terrific spectators – thank you for coming.

Last, but certainly not least, all of our Years 3-6 swimmers who showed great skill and enthusiasm, whether competitive or non-competitive.

A great day! Well done all!

It was good to see so many of you at the recent Parent Information Nights. I have had some wonderful feedback from those who attended and hope you all found them to be valuable. Special thanks to all of our magnificent teachers who put so much effort and energy into their presentations.

Thank you P&C for the drinks held at the end of each night and especially to Sarah Dunn who organised this, including the drinks and nibbles, and attended every session. Thank you Sarah also for creating the Parent Contact Lists, an enormous job in a school as big as ours.

I hope you all received my email giving you an update on what is happening with Before and After School Care. It is really disappointing that the Mosman Daily has reported so negatively about this, reflecting badly and very unfairly on the school. In none of the reporting has there been any real mention of the school‟s position, despite an interview I gave explaining the issue. Please be assured that we do sincerely care about our children. We have met on several occasions with Council and their employees regarding BASC and we are certainly not refusing to cooperate as indicated in this week‟s article as well as that published in the school holidays. The school simply does not have any available, suitable space, as indicated in my email. We really appreciate and value the wonderful service provided by Council over many years and the people who deliver it. We will continue to work closely with them to ensure a safe and high quality service when BASC moves to the Drill Hall next term. I will keep you updated with any further developments. Sadly we farewell Tina Baird from the school canteen. Tina has done a wonderful job in her time as Canteen Manager and is loved by us all. Thank you Tina for a truly fabulous job! We will miss Tina in the canteen but will still see her around the school spreading happiness with her lovely smile.

Welcome to our new dynamic trio of Canteen Managers – Sonia, Simone & Tara (see article later in this Whaler) who I know will do a fantastic job. Best wishes, Kate Cooper

STUDENT HAPPENINGS

STUDENT HAPPENINGS

Congratulations to the following students who represented Mosman Public at the

following Zone trials:

Cricket Basketball Tennis

Remy Kidd Nathan Scotter

Jack Taylor Kyle Sullivan Tom Bourke

Lachlan Dent Mark Van der Velde

Well done to Jack Taylor and Kyle

Sullivan for being selected at Zone

Basketball trials to progress to Regional

Area trials.

Good luck boys!

STEWART HOUSE Just a reminder to return your Stewart House clothing appeal bag, full if possible, to the seat around the corner from the Canteen by next Tuesday 28th February. Thank you.

Mosman Public Sport Newsletter February

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to represent the

school in AFL:

Cameron Musa Samuel Hayley

Marco Efentakis Tom Roden-Lockwood

Ryan Tyrrell Harry Philp

Pieter-Bas Dalebout Lachlan Dent Harry Inwood

Jamie Reid Jamie Graham Oliver Barnard

Sebastian Williams Robbie Manovel Will Papadakis

Lachlan Thompson Callum Taylor

Luke McKinnon

Congratulations to the following students who were chosen by their peers to lead by

example and represent their house as House Captains at the swimming carnival:

Boronia Glengarry Rangers Monterey Ben Dunn

Ella Martin Jack Taylor

Sophia Sykes Mia Karoll

Oliver Barnard Tom Field

Tess Gooding

2012 Swimming Carnival

This year’s Swimming Carnival was an

outstanding success. The attendance for the

competitive and non-competitive events was

exceptional and the atmosphere and spirit

extremely positive. Thank you to all the

teachers and parents who assisted with the

running of the swimming carnival last Thursday.

Your participation was essential to the success

of the event and was greatly appreciated.

We congratulate all the students who tried

their best by entering events and earning

points for their house. We also congratulate

the students who excelled in the competitive

events and have been selected to go on to the

next level of competition. We wish them well

at the Zone Swimming Carnival.

Stephen Dowler

Sports Coordinator

Dates for your diary 8th March AFL Paul Kelly Cup

6th March Zone Swimming

PERFORMING ARTS

Welcome back to 2012 all the wonderful music fanatics at MPS.

Music Quote of the Week “I need music and oxygen, in that order.” Emma Renaud 6N

Performing Arts Groups are all now up and running this week. Monday – Drama Group and Choir 1(Yrs 5/6) Tuesday - Dance Group and Choir 2(Yrs5/6) Wednesday – Junior Band Thursday – Performance Band and Junior Strings Friday – String Ensemble Michael Buble sings, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me, and I’m feeling GOOOOOOD!!!” Mrs Tauber sings, “It’s a new year, it’s a new day, it’s a new lesson time so remember your instrument and time for you, your tutor and me, and we’ll all be feeling GOOOOOOD!!!!!!!” , and we’ll be feeling good on the committee for the NS Society

MEET OUR MUSIC FAMILY OF TUTORS AT MOSMAN PUBLIC SCHOOL

Max has a bit of fun with Brad.

BRAD MADIGAN- BAND CONDUCTOR Brad Madigan is a much loved and respected conductor and tutor at Mosman Public School. He has put many hours of his life bringing joy to our instrumental students and instilling a love and appreciation for music in the extra curricula music programs. (Barb Tauber) “Having been a full time musician for the past twenty two years I have learnt and played a variety of instruments. I have supported such artists as John Rowles, John Paul Young, Don Hopkins, Dave Graney, Su Cruickshank and Janet Siedel to name a few. For the past seven years I have been a band master at Mosman Public School as well as a private clarinet and guitar tutor.”

DOUG COTTERILL – STRING ENSEMBLE CONDUCTOR Doug Cotterill studied the violin at the Murray Conservatorium in Albury, where he grew up, during his school years. After leaving school, Doug worked for 6 years as a violin maker and repairer under the guidance of Kevin Williams in North East Victoria, making several violins, violas and cellos and repaired hundreds of instruments. He literally knows the violin inside out. Doug also did some part-time violin teaching at several schools in Albury. During this time, Doug was fortunate enough to undertake a final study of both violin performance and pedagogy with one of Australia's leading violin teachers, Deborah Fox, on weekends in Melbourne. This led to a teaching position at the Murray Conservatorium in Albury for one year before Doug moved to Sydney and settled in Mosman in 1998. Doug has taught at several schools on the North Shore and has been teaching and conducting the string group at Mosman Public School since 1999.

ELLA JAMIESON – JUNIOR STRING ENSEMBLE CONDUCTOR Ella Jamieson is a professional cellist and pianist based in Sydney. Graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium in 2009 with a Bachelor in Performance. Ella grew up in Bathurst. She has been involved in the Sydney Youth Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra and performed with members of the Sydney Symphony. She has toured to Regional Australia and Europe as part of the Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Group and Early Music Ensemble. In 2010 Ella gained 2nd prize in the Australian Chamber Music Competition. Ella is regularly involved with many ensembles including the chamber group Camerata, „Salt‟ string quartet who perform weekly around Sydney, her classical/pop band Aston who have recently released an album and have over 5 million hits on YouTube featuring on Perez Hilton‟s website. Ella enjoys performing weekly as a soloist in the city at the Menzies Hotel as well as accompanying students for their exams. She loves to teach young string groups and individuals in order to inspire anyone she can to love music as much as she does.

KR

KRIS MACKEN – BRASS and GUITAR TUTOR

Kris Macken has completed degrees at the Sydney Conservatorium of music and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) as a composer and producer. Specialising in music for media, he has composed scores for numerous commercials and films, including the award-winning short film, Marry Me, and the children's television series, The Moogies. Kris is a highly organised and much valued tutor of brass and guitar at our school.

He has organised a Google calendar to notify tutors of disruptions that may affect music lessons which is a lifesaver at busy MPS. Thanks you Kris for all the extras you do.Ku

KRIS to

STEVE LEY – DRUM TUTOR Steve Ley is the drum teacher at Mosman Public School. He became interested in playing drums while at primary school, inspired by rock drummers characterised by the famous drumming Muppet, Animal. By the end of high school, his attention had turned from bombastic hard rock to the textural, intricate harmonies and rhythms of jazz. He studied jazz performance and composition at the ANU in Canberra. Since graduating, he has been playing professionally and teaching the drums in Sydney. He is still in love with music and is honoured to share this love with his students. He would encourage anyone to try the drums, if they have a spark of interest.

P&C NEWS

News from the Green Team For those of you who might be new to the school, the Green Team volunteers work under the auspices of the P&C to support the school in undertaking environmental sustainability initiatives. If you would like to know more about what is happening or to get involved, please check the P&C website or contact Tegan Burton via mpsgreenteam@gmail.com.

The next meetings of the Green Team will be Friday 2nd March and Friday 23rd March, 9-10am in the school library. Please let me know if you‟re thinking of coming along so we can ensure there is enough space for everyone.

From your happy worms Hello Mosman Public, we are The Worms saying thank you for your food scraps and attention. After the Christmas break when we all nearly drowned due to the excessive rainfall, our farm is finally back the way we like it. We are very happy to be living at your School in our state of the art Worm Farm! And would like to share with you how our wriggly little bodies improve the World!

Let's start with some tips to keep us healthy and happy. Firstly, we LOVE food that is chopped small! You can bite your lunch into small pieces (especially apples) and then put the bitten pieces into the "food scraps for worm farm" bin. You could also put all the food scraps in the metal bin near the worm farm and chop them smaller before feeding us. There are some foods we would rather not eat and these are – **Oranges, mandarins, tangelos and their peels. (citrus) **Onions and garlic. **Bread, we do eat it but it also attracts other bugs and worms that can mean our environment is not as nice to live in. **Plastic, paper and little fruit stickers, wax from eco-bananas as well as rubber bands. These items will not decompose and we don't like them in our home. **We don't like meat because meat brings maggots into our life and let's face it, no one likes maggots except the mother fly. Yuck!

Sometimes we hear people say that we smell!!! Outrageous! Worms that are healthy don't smell! We only smell strange if we are given too much food or the worm juice is not emptied and builds up and floods our house. We have a good smell - true! We smell like the good, clean earth where your vegetables, fruit and grains that you eat are grown. The same earth/dirt that helps the grass and the trees to grow. The earth brings life and we keep the earth very healthy.

RICHARD BRUS – WOODWIND TUTOR Richard Brus has been tutoring Saxophone, Clarinet and Flute in Sydney schools for over 15 years including Mosman Public where he has also worked for the last 5 years. He has also worked as a Band Conductor and set up a number of school Concert Band Programs. He completed a Bachelor Degree in Music Performance (Jazz) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and plays in a number of bands performing in music venues such as The Basement as well as at Weddings and Private Functions. He enjoys many styles of music from Classical to Jazz to Rock and has recently taken up Salsa Dancing.

ANGUS McPHERSON – FLUTE TUTOR Angus grew up in Sydney and began playing flute in his primary school band at age 9. Angus has played with many well-known Sydney based orchestras including Chamber Music Ensembles and Operas. Angus enjoys playing many styles of music but he is keenly interested in contemporary music and extended techniques for the flute. He has performed in international master classes in Seattle, USA, and Hungary. In August 2011 he played flute, alto flute and piccolo in the International Opera Theatre's production of the new opera, Decameron, in Citta della Pieve and Citta di Saluzzo, Italy. Angus holds a BMus (honours) from the Sydney Conservatorium and has just completed his Masters of Music (Performance).

Lots of your friends are very grateful to us worms because when you feed us not only do we turn your food scraps into the most amazing fertiliser (worm juice) but we also create incredible organic soil that will help your plants burst with life. You could even make an experiment and water a tomato plant with worm juice and another tomato plant with plain water. You will see the difference!

Soon we are going to ask all our friends (that means YOU) to bring an empty 1 litre bottle and we will fill your bottle with worm juice - ready to use on your garden! All you need to do is bring one dollar $1 and your bottle on a Friday afternoon straight after school on the date announced near the worm farm and if there is enough juice we will fill your bottle and you can take it home. You can get in early & leave your bottle next to the worm farm with your name & class clearly written on it. When you collect your fabulous juice on the date, you can give one of our worm carers your $1. How's that! A bargain. Make sure and put the worm juice on all your plants, they will be really happy.

Next "Whaler" we'll talk about why you shouldn't step on the garden and how beneficial worms are for Planet Earth!

Packing a rubbish free lunch Lots of parents have asked us for ideas on packing a rubbish-free lunch box, so we've included some ideas here to help limit the trash, now that we are a 'trash-free' school. Packing a rubbish-free lunch box should take no more time than usual if you have enough boxes and tubs with lids that haven't gone missing!

* If your snack-size plastic ware is missing lids, then use a silicon/paper muffin liner as the lid for drier goods (dried fruit, nuts, popcorn) – secure over the container with an elastic band.

*Pack separate food items within a larger box using silicon cup cake liners

*Buy a lunchbox with built in dividers to keep foods separate in the lunch box

* Protect soft fruits by popping them inside a wetsuit / neoprene bag (Mosman news agency have a range of sizes for sale) incl. lunch bags that will hold multiple small containers, to drink bottle sleeves (to stop condensation and leaking).

* Use popcorn as a box-filler to stop the contents shifting around too much

* Grab an Indian metal tiffin carrier - the stacked tins clipped together mean there is room for crunch and sip, lunch and afternoon tea.

* Get a wide-mouthed thermos for winter soups and hot leftovers

* Use patty cake paper cups to separate food items – these can be recycled in the worm farm

* Hide the glad wrap (sandwiches and crackers can last a few hours in a small lunch box without going dry).

* Save money by avoiding buying single-serve pre-wrapped foods such as juice boxes, crackers with cheese, single-serve packets of biscuits, small tubs of custard/yoghurt, mini-boxes of dried fruit. It is cheaper to buy larger quantities and decant yoghurt, dried fruit, crackers etc into small tubs and only takes a few seconds. Several inexpensive brands make small plastic pots with easy to open lids (some have built in ice blocks) including Smash and Decor (avail. at supermarkets).

Other places for tips and ideas: www.kidsfoodtalk.com.au (where lots of these ideas come from). Also a You Tube video with some ideas for rubbish-free lunch boxes and lunch ideas: http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?user=foodtalkbites&view=videos&v=KF07c-UyrzY

MINI-MOS TURNS 30!!!

Do you have a Mini-Mos story?

On Sunday June 17, Mosman Public School will be holding its 30th annual Mini-Mos Community Fun Run and Fair. This event is a community institution, and the school‟s biggest fundraiser! We want to hear from past event coordinators, race participants, sponsors and spectators, who have an interesting story to tell, especially from the 1980’s.

o Did you run in the Mini-Mos as a student, and now your children take part? o Have you run in 10 or more Mini-Mos races? o Do you think your family might have the record number of Mini-Mos racers?

Email Nick Elliott, Race Director with stories and/or photos, at info@mini-mos.com

CANTEEN NEWS!

Firstly it is with much sadness that we farewell Tina, who has been our friendly canteen manager over the last 2 years. Both volunteer parents and kids alike will miss her terribly! She has done an amazing job running the Canteen, and we will endeavour to match her enthusiasm and skill, not to mention humour! This year, there are three new co-managers sharing the hands-on management role of the Canteen. Volunteers will be working with Simone on Mondays, Sonia on Tuesdays, and Tara on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Luckily we seem to have experienced a seamless transition from one to three co-managers, and we credit this to an active and thriving parent and school community. Thank you all for your support! The Canteen Management Group will be bringing some exciting new menu additions to the Canteen over the next few weeks, while also looking into reusable lunch bags and going on-line sometime this year. We ask you to please bear with us this term while we find our feet and get up and running! The Canteen is delighted to welcome new and old parents who are taking a quick plunge into the canteen and finding that it is fun, easy and leaves you with a happy feeling that you‟ve helped the school and only had to spend a few hours doing it! If you‟re a working parent or caregiver but can manage an hour or so one morning per term then you‟re just as welcome! Here is what a few new parents have said: “I had fun working my first shift yesterday and also met some really nice people”. Paul “I really enjoy working at the canteen. Time flies when I’m working there. I met new mothers today and everyone is so kind and friendly!”Riko and from an old hand: “Three years of regular volunteering and I still look forward to my shifts. It’s a bit disconcerting watching the children get taller and more confident each year but the compensation is watching all the adults get older!” Nina Contact Nina on gloucesterwalk@yahoo.co.uk for info on how to volunteer, Sonia sonia.renwick@optusnet.com.au , Simone simmarshall@bigpond.com or Tara tara_julieann_1969@live.com.au for any thoughts, suggestions or feedback!

COMMUNITY NEWS

Call for Ethics Coordinator

We are looking for someone to take over the Ethics Coordinator role from Tina Jackson whose child is no longer at Mosman Public School. The Ethics Coordinator is responsible for liaison between the parents, ethics teachers, the Principal and Primary Ethics, the provider of the philosophical ethics curriculum and volunteer teacher training. A key role is to recruit and select suitable volunteers from the school community and wider community, according to the selection criteria defined by Primary Ethics. The Ethics Coordinator cannot be an Ethics Teacher. For a description of the role and more information, go to www.primaryethics.com.au/coordinator or call Tina Jackson on 0419 277 752. All the teaching positions for the current Year 5 and 6 ethics classes have been filled (there are currently five teachers) and the classes are underway, so the time commitment in the near future is minimal. If you are interested please email tina.jackson@dosomething.net.au