Thursday 21st May, 2020 Term 2– Volume 2, Issue 5

Phone: 9602 6453 Fax: 9821 1473 www.mtpritche-p.schools.nsw.edu.au Email: mtpritche-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

A picture says a thousand words…Looking forward to seeing all our kids in class!

Inspired High Impact Teaching and Learning through Instructional

Collaboration and Inclusive Authentic Partnerships

Through driving innovative practice, creating connected communities with students

need, growth and progress at the core surrounded by spirals of inquiry and embedded in

values.

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

WELCOME BACK TO OUR STUDENTS &

FAMILIES

A very warm welcome back to school to all of our

families. We are living through a pandemic and for

each and every one of us we are experiencing a whole

range of different emotions. We are all consciously

doing our part to ensure we keep ourselves and

others safe. I would like to acknowledge the

BRILLIANT work of the Mount Pritchard East PS

staff – they have been incredible during this time,

not only have they been preparing and providing

feedback on the learning packs, they have been in

constant communication with families and have

spent an inordinate amount of time undertaking professional learning so they

are meeting the learning needs of all students. Balancing online and face to

face teaching has been simply outstanding.

As we return, we are well aware that COVID19 is still in the community.

MPE NEWS

Bulletin: Issue 5

Term: 2 Week: 4

Thursday 21 May 2020

WHAT’S ON

Monday 25 May

Resumption of Full-Time Face to Face

118 Townview Road, Mount Pritchard 2170

Phone: 9602 6453 Principal: Teresa Gosche

Students presenting unwell at school will be held in sick bay until parents

arrive to pick them up. We seek your co-operation in this matter as we are

very mindful of the transmission of this virus.

As you may have heard via our school face book page and through the media,

all students will be returning to full time face to face teaching from next

Monday 25 May 2020. To ensure that we have a successful and safe return to

school it is essential that all members of our school community follow the

safety guidelines.

Hygiene

● We have a supply of soap, paper towels, hand sanitiser, toilet paper at

school.

● Children are encouraged to wash their hands regularly and use hand

sanitiser regularly.

● Teachers supervise hand washing before and after eating.

● Cough and sneeze into your elbow or a tissue and wash your hands

afterwards.

● If you are sick please stay home.

Cleaning

● The department have employed additional cleaners.

● We have a wonderful new cleaner who is at school throughout the day and

spends all of her time wiping down surfaces which are regularly touched.

● Our regular cleaners also have been provided with additional hours.

● We regularly receive supplies from the department.

● The cleaning company are looking to hire new cleaners. If you are

interested, I have included the advertisement below.

Visitors to School

● At this stage we need to limit the number of adults onsite at school.

● Parents and carers will not be able to come into school for drop off and

pick up

Drop off and Pick up

● School gates are not open until 8:30am. Students are not able to arrive

before this time as gates will not be open.

● Teachers will be on duty each morning at each of the two gates on

Townview Rd (Gate 1) and Roberts Avenue (Gate 2) to unlock gates and

welcome students each day.

● We encourage all families to tell students which gate they will be waiting

at in the afternoon, this will avoid confusion and allow us to reduce the

amount of people waiting at each gate. Thank you to our families for

remembering social distancing while waiting at the gates.

● Kiss and Drop zone - This is a safe place to drop off and pick up your child

to maintain social distancing at our school. You may only stay in this area

for 2 minutes and must remain within 3 metres of your car. We are

encouraging parents to stay in their car and the teacher at the gate will

call your child to the car as you pull up.

Canteen

● Our canteen is open for students to order lunch and purchase food and

drinks over the counter.

● Due to restrictions on parents coming into school grounds, please send

your child to school with a paper bag or envelope which has the child's

name, class and order written on the front and place the money inside.

Change will be provided to your child if needed.

Learning

● We are encouraging students to bring their own stationery as well as

water bottles.

● All devices used at school will be wiped down regularly as students use

them. All classes have been provided with disinfectant wipes.

Assemblies and other school events

● At this stage there are no assemblies

● At this stage excursions and incursions will not be taking place

● At this stage PSSA will not be taking place

I would like to thank our tremendous school community for your cooperation,

support, patience and understanding during this time.

Quote of the Week

Principal

Teresa Gosche

K-2 News

Congratulations students and parents of MPE for the amazing job you have done over the last 9

weeks of quarantine, with following the rules of staying home, social distancing, washing your hands

and learning from home. The teachers worked hard to plan and create the Flexible Distance Learning

packs for the students, connecting with students through Google classroom, making phone calls to

check in with parents and students. It has been a pleasure to get the students back onsite and see

them face to face. Thank you to all the students who have handed in their Learning packs. These

packs will be marked and will be sent home in the near future.

Zooming online with Kindergarten Snow Peas - making

connections and learning to count. Thank you to Mercedes,

Hala, Alexis, Jaxon, Amelia and Maka - plus Zaelan joined

the meeting all the way from New Zealand - Amazing!! Mrs

Shankar was happy to see everyone and she even got to

show off her dog - Puda. Ms I’Anson and Mrs Lakisoe also

popped into the meeting to join in the counting fun as well.

Phase 1 - students returned (one day), for two weeks, it has been wonderful to see all the happy faces

back in the classroom. All the teachers have been so happy to see their students and keen to get on

with teaching and learning face to face. Next week we go into having everybody back on site! Exciting!

It is important to recognise the new learning with technology and staying connected during this

pandemic. I have had the opportunity to pop into a Zoom meeting with kindergarten and watch videos

that classroom teachers have put up on Google classroom for their students. These are valuable skills

that all students will continue to build and develop as their schooling continues once back at school.

Mrs Gosche has purchased Reading Eggs and Mathletics for every student to support their learning

and development. Every student has received their own login and passwords to access these awesome

educational programs. The teachers have been teaching the students how to login and navigate the

programs so they can access them at home whenever they want. These programs are self-regulating

and the students’ progress is monitored, as they work through at their own level and pace.

If logins and passwords have gone missing please let your child’s teacher know and they will organise a

new one for them to access their accounts.

Please return all learning packs to school when you return next week -

please give them to your class teacher. If you wish to discuss this please

contact the school and speak to the class teacher or Ms I’Anson.

We are all looking forward to seeing you all back at school next week 😃

Jennine I’Anson - K-2 Assistant Principal (Rel.)

3 - 6 News

Parents and Carers,

Wow - what a memorable period we have all just been through. None of us could have even begun to

imagine what was going to take place during this COVID-19 pandemic. But, I have never seen a school

community and staff of teachers come together the way that those at MPE have.

Can I firstly thank the amazing Stage 2 and 3 teachers for their unbelievable dedication during this

time. We were hit with online learning before we even had the opportunity to consider what it actually

meant! We became more adaptable than I have ever seen and ensured that every child was given an

opportunity to continue their learning as best they could. I am truly blessed to work with such

amazing staff.

To the parents - thank you all so much for your support and patience during this time. You have had

to bear the brunt of this and have needed to get your children learning in a way they have never

experienced before. You have done an amazing job and we cannot thank you enough. It is nearly

over!!!!!!

To the students - your eagerness and willingness to continue learning has been inspiring. Your

teachers have loved hearing from you on Google classroom and really appreciate the effort you have

all gone to recently. It has been extremely weird not seeing you all here and we cannot wait for the

day you all return to this wonderful school.

A few important things to remember moving forward:

● Please return all completed work with you when you return to school

● Reading eggs and Mathletics are wonderful programs that Mrs Gosche has kindly purchased.

These programs will continue to be used throughout the school year

● Year 6 - your Year 6 shirts have been ordered. They generally take approximately 4 weeks so

they will hopefully get here by Week 8/9

● Stage 3 - your revised camp note has been sent home. If you haven’t got a new note, please

see your teacher ASAP. The note is yellow. There is a slip that needs to be returned to school

saying that you are coming (if the camp goes ahead). You don’t need to pay anything yet - the

1st instalment isn’t due until Week 7

Mr Innes

3 – 6 Assistant Principal

Class chat with 5/6P and Ms Petersen Dear MPE community,

This is my first ever class chat and I’m excited to share with you all of the exciting things that

5/6P have done this term! It’s definitely been hard not having their smiling faces filling our

classroom with constant laughter but they have continued to work super hard and have made

me very proud to be their teacher!

I have been so impressed with how quickly 5/6P adapted to using their online platforms for their

work. They have made me so proud! It has been quite hard for everyone during this time, but

the support and positivity I myself as well as all of the staff have received from the community

has helped us so much and I’d like to thank you all.

Online Kids at home:

I have been SO impressed with the amount of work and learning going on from home. Parents

and families have all worked together to move to Digital Online Learning which has been a new

process for many. We have been lucky enough to introduce two new Online Learning platforms

that have been incorporated into our daily activities:

Reading Eggs:

Reading Eggs is a website that allows for students to play and takes them on a journey of

learning at the same time. It is a fun and engaging way to assist students with their reading

skills and to extend and challenge them at the same time. Students receive rewards for

completing tasks on Reading Eggs and move through levels that are based on their own ability

and understanding. 5/6P have loved using their Reading Eggs!

Mathletics:

Mathletics is an interactive Mathematics program that students can complete activities that are

allocated by their classroom teacher as well as engage in online maths games and challenges.

It is a great program as it connects to what we are learning for Maths for each topic and helps

extend and challenge students once they have completed their allocated activities. 5/6P have

enjoyed completing their maths activities through this program as it is interactive and gives

them feedback straight away which is super!

Writing our persuasive writing

letters for Mrs Gosche!

This term we have been focusing on persuasive

writing in our writing lessons and the Solar System

in Science! I look forward to reading a new piece of

persuasive writing each week from 5/6P as they

have such great ideas and definitely know how to

get their point of view across to the reader!

During our Face to Face learning, I asked the

students to think of something that they would

really love to have at school and to write a letter

persuading Mrs Gosche. She’s going to have A

LOT of letters to read with a lot of really good ideas!

Our unit on the Solar System began this term which

we were also able to link to a few of our visual arts activities! Here are some pictures of students in

5/6P with their amazing Solar System artworks!

Face to Face teaching:

Some of our students had been coming back to school throughout the week and it has been so great

to see their faces, listen to their stories and watch them connect and learn in the classroom again.

One of the activities we have been doing at school is the SISA - Sporting in Schools Association

who have been in one day a week to take students through a variety of sport skills and health topics.

We have also been working in small groups and doing more explicit teaching and learning to

consolidate concepts which I have loved! They definitely haven’t lost their love for learning.

Planning our persuasive writing

letters for Mrs Gosche!

Pictionary

Took our times tables game

outside to enjoy the weather

Working on our addition and

subtraction algorithms

“Don’t make me laugh” challenge

Fun facts about my class:

• Leena wants to be a nurse or a doctor when she grows up!

• Jonathan L would like to be a YouTuber!

• Malek wants to be a scientist, engineer, doctor, surgeon AND a soccer player! He’s going to

be very busy!

• Jay wants to be an actor!

• 5/6P love practicing their times tables with our times table game and completing their daily

mile as a brain break!

What I am most looking forward to is:

Having you all back onsite learning and laughing like we normally do. The classroom has been

way too quiet and my only visitors have been other teachers! I can’t wait to learn with you all again

really soon!

Miss Petersen 5/6P Classroom teacher

Class chat with 4/5C and Mr Clark

Dear MPE community.

I can’t believe that here we are in week 4 of term 2 already. This year has been like no other that

any of us can remember and is one that we aren’t likely to forget. However, I do believe we won’t

just remember this in a negative sense, as there have certainly been a lot of things achieved as a

community that we should be proud of.

Like all students and school communities across the country, 4/5C and I have been dealing with the

pandemic as best we can. It hasn’t been an easy time for any of us, but rest assured we have

pushed on as a unified team and together we have achieved some amazing results and ensured

our students and their families were supported academically, emotionally and socially. We have

remained connected through the brilliance of modern technology; even though it has at times been

a little frustrating. Platforms such as Google Classroom, Zoom and SeeSaw have ensured that 4/5C

has remained a tight bunch throughout these trying times. I feel like this situation has provided me

the opportunity to get to know not only my students on a much deeper level, but also the wider

community. We have spoken on the phone, via web meetings and many messages have been

exchanged over SeeSaw and Google Classrooms late into the nights and over the weekend. I want

to thank all of you for your incredible patience and support throughout the last 2 months.

Throughout this semester, both prior to and during the pandemic, 4/5C have worked tirelessly as

they continue their learning journeys and some amazing results have been achieved. In literacy,

the students have been working so hard at developing their ability to write really interesting and

exciting imaginative texts. We have been utilising the “Seven Steps” to writing success model,

with an emphasis on creating introductions that really “sizzle”. We have focused on flushing those

boring “once upon a time starts”, replacing them with opening statements that hook the reader’s

attention and make them want to read more. The results have been nothing short of amazing -

well done crew!

Already this term we have covered a lot of content in numeracy. From the number strand of

the syllabus, students have been learning to view numbers and numerical operations from a more

flexible viewpoint. This means rather than relying on just fixed strategies such as the algorithm,

we are developing a range of efficient mental and written strategies to solve a variety of

mathematical problems. Strategies have included splitting, compensating and partitioning. This

approach has had positive implications on their understanding of place value and their skills of

numerical reasoning, reflecting and problem solving. Keep up the great work!

As someone who is dedicated to preparing our students for success in the future and somewhat

of a “tech nerd”, I rely heavily on digital technologies to support our learning. So, during remote

learning I utilised STEM challenges as a way of not only honing their science and engineering

skills, but to also stimulate their senses and give them an outlet for creativity. Tasks included “The

Egg Drop Challenge” and creating a boat from everyday items that they could find around home.

Not only did the students enjoy these tasks, the parents got in on the act and “assisted” in building

the many creations.

The pandemic impacted on me personally in a huge way, as I have a compromised immune

system and have had to self-isolate to ensure my own health was maintained. Fortunately, all of

the great work done by our health professionals and the general public to maintain social

distancing measures has meant that there is some light at the end of the tunnel and I will be able

to return to school very soon. I have missed being with the kids each day and look forward to a

return to some level of normality and a very successful remainder of the year.

Sincerely, Mr Clark 4/5C Classroom teacher

Harmony Day

KE Caring The children in Kindergarten Evergreen have been learning about different

emotions and how we care for others. They have come up with actions for the

lyrics of a song titled ‘Caring’ and are looking forward to performing for the

school community. It has been wonderful to see the children practising what

they have learnt and being so kind and caring to one another.

KS Caring Kinder Snow Pea have learnt

about the value of ‘Caring’

and shared their thoughts that

we should care for our friends

and family. They talked about

how if someone is looking

lonely that we should check

on them and be a kind friend

to them. They have an

acrostic poem and are looking

forward to sharing with you!

1W Participation 1W have been learning about the values of ‘Participation’ and the importance it

plays in unifying people from around the world. Students participated in drama

activities that required them to replicate a scene from a text. They also

participated with 1/2R in learning the Hokey Pokey dance which allowed them

to experience participating in a group activity, having fun and enjoying working

together.

1/2R Participation

1/2R have been learning about

Harmony Day and what it means to

them. They have coloured the Earth

using oil pastels and have written what

it means to them. Year One, have also

been learning about ‘Participation’.

Through participating in a group dance

activity, they have learned the Hokey

Pokey.

2S Responsibility 2S have been learning the value ‘Responsibility’ for Harmony Day. We have

looked at different responsibilities we might have in our daily lives. Students

have discussed their responsibilities from their learning to doing their homework

and even making sure to feed their pets and clean their rooms.

3M Cooperation 3M have been learning about the value of ‘Cooperation’ for Harmony Day. We

have undertaken team yoga challenges and group artworks that have focussed

on cooperating together to succeed in achieving a common goal. We are

determined to continue to develop the skills necessary in order to successfully

cooperate as a class family.

3/4K Fairness 3/4 K have been learning about the value of ‘Fairness’ for Harmony Day.

Students shared their ideas on what fairness meant to them and we engaged in a

class art activity using water paints, where students created colourful hands or

hearts and then wrote words relating to fairness over their artworks.

4/5C Excellence In preparation for Harmony Day, students in 4/5

Cedar were focused on unpacking the value of

“Excellence”, and how you display this quality.

After some lengthy discussions and collaborations

on what it means to demonstrate “Excellence”, we

decided as a group to adopt this value as our class

mantra.

This led to our new class slogan; “Always striving

to be your best, and never settling for anything

less”.

5/6P Democracy 5/6P have learnt the

value of ‘Democracy’

for Harmony Day.

This has become a big

part of our classroom

now as they all know

they have a voice and

their opinion matters!

We have really

enjoyed working

together and creating

our presentation!

5/6S Respect 5 /6S have been learning about the value ‘Respect’. We have had

many discussions on what we think respect is, what it looks like, what it sounds

like and why it is important. We understand that we must respect ourselves and

each other as well as our families, values, culture and rules. As a class, we work

hard to show respect to each other at all times.

Flexible Distance Learning! Kids learning from home

Milan and Anastasija from 3M have been learning about the sun and how it revolves around Earth. At home, they have created a diorama to demonstrate their understanding of this.

Kiarnah-Leigh creating art.

Amelia from KS has been working studiously from home, learning about different letters and shapes in Maths. Super star!

Max from KS shares cool videos of his learning in action and his brother David joins in sometimes as well. Learning together is so much more fun!

Whether she is in the classroom or at home, Arryah, from KE, demonstrates an amazing commitment to learning.

Emily from KE has been working hard at home - creating, learning sight words and developing her numeracy skills.

Learning

LEARNING AT MPE

Thanks to our very talented Deputy Principal Mrs Lakisoe, Mount Pritchard East Public School

now has their very own Learning Hub. Please feel free to use this site to support your children

in accessing some of the sites recommended by the Department of Education and staff at our

school.

Visit this link https://sites.google.com/view/learning-at-mpe/home to check out our

Learning Hub!

Once you have found our homepage, use the top right-hand navigation links to go to Stage team

pages. The Learning Hub sections are organised in stages where students can go to practise

skills, learn new ones or consolidate. Here you will find access to our school subscription to

Reading Eggs and Mathletics, as well as many other support resources and games to assist your

child in learning.

YOU CAN USE IT ANYTIME YOU LIKE!

We would love to see photos of your children using our online Learning Hub. Feel free to upload

photos to your child’s Google Classroom or Seesaw account.

HAPPY LEARNING!

Miss Irons Deputy Principal/ Instructional Leader (Rel)