HILLTOP NEWS Newcastle East Public School – Australia’s Oldest School

Week Nine Term Three, Tuesday September 10th

, 2013 Edition Sixty-two

Awabakal Roaming with Stage One At Awabakal we bushwalked for nearly 3 hours! We arrived by bus and had a fruit break in the quiet rainforest. After that we split into two groups and began our activities. First we went to see the amazing view of Dudley Bluff. Doc, our ranger leader, showed us some wattle trees and told us how the Aboriginal people would find oysters and crabs down on the rocks. Next we made ochre from crushed up rock. Everyone enjoyed putting it on their bodies, their hands, legs and face. We walked down a very steep hill to make mini model Gunyahs and see the lagoon. While we were walking we had a hunt for gumnuts. You could find three different varieties of gumnuts, even yellow ones! We finished by making Coolamons and going dip netting by a swamp. A beautiful egret was swooping around too. It was a great day. By Riley Egerton 2M

Lots more pictures on our website too! http://www.newcastlee-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/

Science and Engineering Challenge Stage Three students attended this series of science challenges last week at Kahibah Public School. The attached video shows some of their activities, which included bridge-building and net-working. Our teams led until the last round, where a slight mishap took us into third place, still a highly creditable result. Make sure you look at all six videos of our students in action, to see the full range of

activities. Hover the mouse over this link, hold CTRL, and click! http://www.newcastlee-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/news/science

International Visitors from Australia’s Nearest Neighbour - PNG Following Miss Hicks’ volunteer work at a village in the Papuan Highlands, last week we hosted a visit by two staff from that village school, and four students. The school’s Deputy Principal, Tom, was interviewed by Alice and Samira, and you can see it at: http://www.newcastlee-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/news/png

Premier’s Spelling Bee Regional Final Congratulations to our two junior and two senior students who will compete in the Regional Finals at Belair Public School next Thursday 17th September. Eliza Mowatt and Sophia Suters will compete from 9:30 – 11:30 and Eben Taylor and Jamie Lyle will take up the challenge from 12:30-2:30. Good Luck!

Election Saturday Barbeque Many thanks to our hard-working team of volunteers, who provided delicious food and

drinks for voters over a very hectic Saturday morning. With more than 1600 people voting

at NEPS, the queue was always long, hungry and thirsty, and our expert marketers were

able to pounce! In just the morning session, we earned over $1500 for our kids, selling

bacon and egg rolls and sausage sandwiches, in industrial quantities. Cake sales were also

very strong, and I thank those who baked delicious goodies for sale. Our home-made

lemonade was a big seller, very popular on the hot morning. With our Colonial Fair

postponed until October 2014, due to the asbestos issue in our playground, our P and C is

looking increasingly to events like this to raise much-needed funds for our children.

Thanks to our volunteers, and their customers for the support!

Battle for Australia Marked at Fort Scratchley Sixteen senior students represented NEPS at a ceremony to mark the Battle for Australia. Our Boys’ Captain, Jamie Lyle, spoke very well in delivering the address of thanks, on behalf of the younger generations, and all NEPS students impressed with their guard of honour for the invited guests. Members of the public congratulated our students on their exemplary manner! A really exciting part was when we saw the huge cannon fired five times, after the ceremony was over, followed by an even louder “bang” from a wheel-mounted cannon, straight out of the nineteenth century. We had a tour of the tunnels of Fort Scratchley too, thanks to the volunteer guards.

TOM Goes to Sydney On Sunday, the two teams from our school which qualified for the State Finals spent a long day at University of NSW, leaving Newcastle at 5am, and returning around 9pm. Mrs Thomas and Miss Varagnolo accompanied the teams, and reported that both groups performed very well, but didn’t quite make it to National Finals. It was our third time at State Finals for TOM, a remarkable performance by our clever and creative kids. I thank the parents and teachers who supported our kids!

Progress on Grounds Remediation Contractors will work throughout the Spring Vacation to begin making our playground safe again. Working during the vacation will have the benefit of minimising exposure to any dust from the work site. Once the ground has been “sealed” with special matting, clean soil will be spread before new turf is rolled out. Several months will pass before we are able to use the grounds, but we can be assured that the site will be safe after completion. In the meantime, our demountable classroom is safe and open for use, and we continue with our frequent walks to King Edward Park for lunchtime play.

NEPS Bicentenary – Keeping In Touch Keep up to date with upcoming events, photographs and news on our 200th Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleEastBicentenary If you have a Facebook account, you can comment, tag pictures, or “like” the site, and become part of the very active community. If you recognise familiar faces in images, it’s possible to name them so that over time we can build up a series of class lists, accessible by others, and great for organising re-unions. Facebook is our best method for contacting ex-students, former staff members, and their families.

The Quiz What is the world’s largest glacier, and where is it? Congrats to Asha for winning last week’s quiz - The answer was 2,574,466.67m3. Email john.beach@det.nsw.edu.au

Design Challenge – Time’s Running Out!! Just one week left for entries to this fun challenge, which will “play off” on the last day of this term. More information is attached to this Newsletter.

Canteen Volunteer Roster

Week 9 9th September Susan Crawford

11th September Lisa Marshall

Helen Cossettini

13th September Belinda & Rob

Johnson

Week 10 16th September Deb Clarke-Jones

18th September Louise McCauley

20th September Ziva Westley Pip Strachan

Donations – Dishwashing Liquid Families on the donation roster for this week are: Rigby/Dunlop/Roworth/Ryan/Schneider/Scott/Shih/Knott/Springthorpe/Snitch/ Somjaipheng

5:30 – 7:30 pm Wednesday 11th September

(tomorrow)

COLA

All Welcome

$4 @ or $15 Family

Students must be in the care on adult

BBQ – Glow Sticks - Snacks

Week Mon Tues Wed Thurs. Fri Sat Sun

1.

July 15

SDD

16

Classes

resume

17

School

Assembly

18 19 20 21

2. 22

P and C/

School Council

Hunter Dance Festival AASS Soccer

23

Joffa’s

ToonSchool

24

Stage

Assembly

AASS

Cricket

25

AASS

Oztag

26

Zone

Athletics-

track

27 28

3.

Education

Week

Creating

the

Future

29

Parent/teacher Interview Week

30

Zone

Athletics-

field

31

ICAS

English

Interrelate 3-6 School

Assembly

Drama Fest

August 1

Drama

Fest

2

Drama

Fest

3 4

4.

5 6

7 8

Recital Night 6pm

Year Six

“Taster”

lessons

9 10

Buddhist

Course

11

5. 12

Public Speaking

Zone Finals

Week

13

ICAS

Maths

14

School

Assembly

15 16 17

Buddhist

Course

18

6. 19

Book Week

P and C/

School Council

20

Book Week

Parade

Year Six

Reading

21

T20

Cricket

22 23 24

Buddhist

Course

25

Tournament

of Minds

7. 26

OperaOz-

Magic Flute

27

28

Newcastle Perm Maths Comp

School

Assembly

29 30 31 September

1

8. 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

9. 9 10 11

School

Disco

School

Assembly

12

13 14 15

10. 16

P and C/

School Council

17 18

Stage

Two/Three

Camp

19

Stage

Two/Three

Camp

20

Stage

Three

Camp

21 22

Semester Two Design and Build Challenge

If you decide to be involved in this fun challenge, there’s a choice of two activities to design

and build this term. This is NOT a competition, and even Kindergarten can enter!

Remember – anyone can help, re-cycled items are best, and don’t

spend much (or any) money!

Challenge One

In the mediaeval period, armies laid siege to castles by firing

rocks and other objects into the walls using Great War engines,

such as this trebuchet, or this catapult.

Build your own war machine, to fire a Ping-Pong ball as far as possible.

Use any materials, get help from any-one, and have fun. For a look at

some other ideas follow this link: -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX5sVebdwNU

NOTE: a catapult could be as simple as a plastic spoon attached to a block of wood.

Challenge Two

This one involves designing and building a device which can make a sound at a

certain time, specifically ten seconds after it is “started”. It might involve old

clock parts, or any other means you can think of to measure out exactly ten

seconds, and then include some way of making a loud noise at exactly that

moment.

This is pretty tricky, and you might need to think deeply about the two parts of this problem: -

How to measure out exactly that time

How to make a loud sound

How to connect the two

All attempts at these problems will be featured on our school’s website, and every one attempting

these difficult design exercises will be rewarded with a handsome certificate, and their name

featured prominently in the Newsletter.

Some early timing devices Water clocks were among the earliest timekeepers that didn't depend on

the observation of celestial bodies. One of the oldest was found in the tomb

of Amenhotep I, buried around 1500 B.C. Later named clepsydras (“water

thief”) by the Greeks, who began using them about 325 B.C., these were

stone vessels with sloping sides that allowed water to drip at a nearly

constant rate from a small hole near the bottom. Other clepsydras were

cylindrical or bowl-shaped containers designed to slowly fill with water

coming in at a constant rate. Markings on the inside surfaces measured the

passage of “hours” as the water level reached them. These clocks were

used to determine hours at night, but may have been used in daylight as

well. Another version consisted of a metal bowl with a hole in the bottom; when placed in a

container of water the bowl would fill and sink in a certain time. These were still in use in North

Africa this century.

More elaborate and impressive mechanized water clocks were developed between 100 B.C. and

500 A.D. by Greek and Roman horologists and astronomers. The added complexity was aimed at

making the flow more constant by regulating the pressure, and at providing fancier displays of the

passage of time. Some water clocks rang bells and gongs; others opened doors and windows to

show little figures of people, or moved pointers, dials, and astrological models of the universe.

Drip (or "pop off") rifles were self-firing

rifles used at Gallipoli to deceive the Turks

during the evacuation of December 1915.

Fire was maintained from the trenches after the

withdrawal of the last men, by rifles arranged to fire

automatically. This was done by a weight being

released which pulled the trigger. Two kerosene tins

were placed one above the other, the top one full of

water and the bottom one with the trigger string attached to it,

empty. At the last minute, small holes would be punched in the

upper tin; water would trickle into the lower one, and the rifle

would fire as soon as the lower tin had become sufficiently

heavy.

The Pendulum Early people thinking about how nature worked noticed that if

you strung a heavy weight from a string, and swung it back and

forth, the time of each swing was the same. By using such a

“pendulum”, they could measure how long an event took.

Parent Suggestions for School Improvement Arising for 2012 Telephone Survey

Area Suggestion Response

Playground Playground equipment updates

Completed

Shade over playground equipment

Request to P and C for funding 2013

Mosquitoes are dreadful

Clean out garden shed Clean out downpipe on Tyrrell St completed

Rubbish collects out front of school

No practical preventative action. GA to remove as required

Suggest the Kindy kids start lunch ten minutes earlier so they don’t rush out and play without eating lunch

Stage One teaches consulted to assess practicality, with trial during Term Four 2013

Lunch is very late in the day for little kids

See above

Could lunch be earlier for Kindy kids?

See above

Love to see the pebble-crete got rid of, could be replaced with paving

GA to investigate viability of non-slip coating

PE should be every day, and sunscreen should be insisted upon before sport

PE is taught in line with DEC guide-lines Frequent reminders to parents regarding sun-screen.

More training/focus required for children who are talented at sports (kids who get into zone/district). Relay race was a joke as NEPS competitors didn’t even know how to do it. High jump, long jump – basic athletics stuff – seems to be missed. Despite talent being there.

PCYC have been engaged to do athletics training during Term One 2014 Limited space and resources make training here on site very difficult

Classroom More ESL teaches and bilingual teaching

Government funding restricted

Information sessions for other years apart from Kindergarten

Already provided during Term one every year

IT equipment for K is slow and clunky

Being up-graded as funds become available

More classroom support for children learning English as a second language

Currently, we are restricted to just one day per week of ESL, despite the number of non-English speaking students at NEPS

Friday morning Science could be better

Science is taught using best-practice program from Science Academy, emphasising hands-on experimental approach

My child did the UNSW literacy test and was shocked at their poor result. We all were. Some of the basics seem to be missed in some classes.

School results are generally very high, so this could lead to productive parent/teacher dialogue

Sport for infants children could be better

In hand, through introduction of the Live Better at School program

Technology has been beneficial but there has been a swing too far, which detracts from hands-on learning. Too much technology means that there is less deep understanding or experiential learning. We learn by doing.

The school is working hard to strike a balance with IT and practical skills, all learning styles and pedagogy

The bullying situation has not been addressed. The influential parents of the bully have meant that the school is not prepared to act.

The school is always trying to actively address bullying. The Welfare Policy has been revised late 2012, to better address bullying. If the problem persists after notification, persevere with the staff to work towards a resolution.

Could we fund Fine Arts teachers to come in weekly, like Victoria? More art would be great.

No specific funding exists in NSW, but donations/skills of parents are always welcome

Big bugbear – kids who are outside the box are not catered for – hard to know what is on offer. Not sure whether it is OK to ask for more. What is possible? Give scenarios, options, extension work. Needs to be more transparency to the gifted and talented program. Waiting until Year Three IS TOO LATE!!

These three comments relate to lack of transparency in the selection of students for our various extension programs. To address these concerns, the school will take the following actions:-

Explanation of teacher referral method for GATS selection to be placed on school’s website

For K, 1 and 2, while there is a non-academic focus for these younger children, extension work is often built into the homework, and in groupings within the classroom for subjects like reading, maths, etc.

Enrichment programs in arts/music programs, such as drama, serve two distinct purposes. The purpose may be to select the best, such as in school representation in regional or state drama festivals, or the purpose may be personal development, confidence-building etc., in which case the programs are available to all.

Need to better promote what is available for brighter kids. More transparency surrounding G and T Program. Clear communication needed about what is available and how students are selected for extension type classes

The school offers a great number of extra-curricular programs such as drama, dance and debating. It seems that a lot of the children who are keen and would really benefit miss out on the opportunity to participate. It appears that a lot of the same children get selected for these activities and there is a lack of transparency in the selection process. Children who already have these skills are selected. Extra-curricular activities should be inclusive, great example is the concert band

Don’t like the new change from 1.5 hours to 45 minutes Kindy prep – more time is needed

Survey results from last year’s parents indicate that the current time is adequate, with very positive feedback.

Heard whispers of changing to a private school – would hate that!

Totally baseless.

Parking big problem but understand that not much can be done

Parking matters are beyond school control.

Should offer both ethics and scripture

These alternative programs are covered by state legislative requirements

Bought new hat and it was taken. Needs to more control over lost property.

The school asks that all personal property is clearly labelled. Students are encouraged to take care with their possessions, and there is a lost property system.

Cultural/Extra-curricular

School band until now was poor

There is an improvement program underway.