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Swimming Carnival
This year's swimming carnival was a tremendous success! It was great to see all students competing in races, trying their hardest, showing great house spirit and having heaps of fun! Thank you to the many parent helpers who assisted with time keeping - your help is always appreciated.
The zone carnival with be tomorrow, 5th March at Merrylands Pool. We wish the following students the best of luck in their races:
Zeb Chan, Charli-Rose Dive, Willow Dive, Sebastian Gardiner, Alexa Kimble, Aaron Lee, Ian Lee, Raon Lee, Ruben Lee, Callum McCarthy and Luseane Sapoi.
Parent information sessions
Recently, we hosted a parent information afternoon and free BBQ for our families. Thank you to the many parents who visited classrooms and listened to the teachers present information about the classroom learning for Semester 1. It was great to have so many familes at school, eager to find out more about the new school year.
A big thank you the parents who helped serve the food and drinks throughout the afternoon. It was a tremendous success and the feedback from parents and teachers was very positive. If you would like to provide feedback directly, please email me at david.macsporran@det.nsw.edu.au.
Year 1 Phonics Screening Check
The Phonics Screening Check is an assessment for all Year 1 students in NSW public schools. It takes 5-7 minutes and is a one-to-one assessment with a teacher, with each student reading the same 40 words from a list. The NSW benchmark for success is 28 words read correctly.
The assessment is in Term 3 and shows teachers how students are progressing in phonics, and, if necessary, determines the next steps for additional support.
Below is a screenshot of the amazing results from Yates students from 2020-2024, compared to the NSW state average.
Learning time - our highest priority
As a parent, I understand that it can be difficult to make appointments for your child outside of school hours. However, maximising learning time is our school's highest priority. At Yates, every minute counts, every day.
Please make any appointments for your child outside of school hours so their learning is not disrupted.
If, for some reason, your child needs to be collected before 3pm, I ask that the following process be followed for K-6 students:
- visit the front office and inform admin staff that you need to collect your child, and the reason why
- admin staff will contact your child's classroom
- wait on the chairs inside the office for your child
- please do not visit the classroom as it can be disruptive to the lesson and the learning of other students.
Partial absences due to appointments will be marked as unjustified leave on the class roll.
NAPLAN - Years 3 and 5
Students in Years 3 and 5 will be completing NAPLAN this term, with the assessment window from Wednesday, 12th - Monday, 24th March. The online platform will be used for all tests except Year 3 writing.
For the third year, NAPLAN is in Term 1, allowing schools and parents access to results earlier in the year and providing more time for teachers to respond to the children's learning needs. Please click on the link below for more information:
Attendance
Education for your child is vitally important and regular attendance at school is essential for your child to achieve their educational best and increase their career and life options.
At Yates, we work in partnership with parents to encourage and support regular attendance of our students. When your child attends every day, literacy and numeracy skills improve, learning becomes easier and strong friendships with other children are maintained.
At times, children become sick and need to stay at home to recover. If your child is absent, it is important that all days are explained with a note, phone call or message to a teacher via Seesaw, so we can update our attendance records. The school will contact you if an absence remains unexplained after 2 days.
Below is some important information about the impact of non attendance on learning.
Spelling Mastery
In Term 4, 2019 we trialled Spelling Mastery - a Direct Instruction spelling program - to address lower than expected results in spelling. In 2020, this program was expanded to Years 3-6 and since 2021, all students in Years 1-6 have been taught Spelling Mastery, including selected students in the support unit.
The teaching in Spelling Mastery is a highly structured method that blends the following approaches:
- Phonemic approach - helps beginning spellers learn the relationships between spoken sounds and written letters and then apply them to spelling
- Morphemic approach - exposes advanced spellers to prefixes, bases, and suffixes
- Whole-word approach - gives spellers at all levels the meaning and root of a word and shows how the word's spelling is influenced
Spelling Mastery combines these three approaches according to students' skill development and teaches the skills needed to become proficient readers and writers. Explicit instruction, careful selection of spelling words, and repeated and cumulative practice helps students master each concept and retain key information.
School Payments
This year we will not be invoicing parents for school or P & C contributions.
Instead, we are only asking for a payment for Term 1 gymnastics ($20), Term 2 dance ($20) and Term 3 athletics skills lessons ($20), all of which have been subsided through a school grant. These programs are being delivered by the Moving Bodies fitness company.
In addition, there will be a $25 cost for a Spelling Mastery workbook for students in Years 1-6.
We would greatly appreciate your support in paying for these activities. Where possible, please pay online through School Bytes using the ‘make a payment’ option on the website.
Camp Dates
This year we have planned camps for students in Year 3/4 and 5/6. We will be offering a payment plan for each camp so the cost can be spread over a number of months. The price below includes a $40 subsidy for each student. More details will be sent home in Term 2.
Year 3/4
- Camp Yarramundi YMCA (Richmond)
- Thursday, 18th - Friday, 19th September
- Approximate cost - $240
Year 5/6
- Canberra and the Snowy Mountains
- Wednesday, 20th - Friday, 22nd August
- Approximate cost - $390
Have a great few weeks!
David MacSporran
Principal
Uniform shop
Our coordinator, Amy Sapoi, will open the shop each week at the following times:
- Tuesday: 8.30am - 9.00am and 2.45pm - 3.00pm
Please visit the uniform shop if your child needs a school jacket, hat, bag or other Yates uniform items - see price revised list attached.
Canteen
This term, the canteen will be open every second Wednesday for lunch, recess and snacks:
- 5th March (Week 6)
- 19th March (Week 8)
- 2nd April (Week 10)
There is hot food and sandwiches available for lunch orders, as well as a selection of tasty snacks, drinks and ice blocks - see updated menu below.
Freshly-made smoothies will also be on sale for $3 in strawberry, banana and mango flavours!
Lunch orders need to be in by 8.00am via the Flexischools app, or at the canteen by 9.00am.
If you would like to volunteer as a canteen helper, please email the P & C at yatesavenuepandc@gmail.com.
Subway lunch orders
Don't forget that students can order their lunch through Subway, Ermington every Friday.
Online orders need to be made by 9.30am on Friday. Please follow these steps:
- Click on this link: https://order.subway.com/en-au/menu
- Click and collect for the Ermington Subway store (22 Betty Cuthbert Ave)
- Make sure you write your child's full name and school name eg. John Smith - Yates Avenue PS
- Enter the pick-up time for 10.45am
A big thank you to Stephanie Tai for collecting lunch orders from Subway each Friday.