Dear families,

Welcome back to Term 2!  We hope everyone had some quality family time over the Easter and school holiday break.

It has already been an action-packed beginning to the term with Year 5 and Year 6 attending school camp.  I would especially like to acknowledge the efforts of Kate Stear, Erin Minehan, Kate Herrington, Alistair Scherer, Timmy Holness, Peter Lawson, Sarah Ebbage, Nicole Carney, Fiona McKellar and Dani Hogan for all the behind-the-scenes organisation that goes into co-ordinating a camp.  School camps are an amazing experience for students, building lifelong memories and strengthening collaboration between groups.  I am, therefore, especially grateful to the staff who graciously gave up their personal family time to attend and supervise students so that they could access this wonderful opportunity.

As we move into the cooler months please remember to label all school uniform items and send your child with enough school uniform clothing to keep them comfortable throughout the day.  The lost property that is found can be returned to classes when clearly labelled which is why it is so important to have your child's full name in all their uniform items.  Parents are also encouraged to regularly check our lost property if your child has missing items.  Could we also please ask families to regularly ‘double check’ the labelling in their child's uniform as sometimes children accidently take home the wrong jumper, hat or library bag.

Also, please do not send your child to school if they are sick.  We appreciate the challenge of trying to juggle the complexities of work and home life when a child is sick, however, sending a sick child to school only increases the chances of the illness spreading to other students and staff. Children who are presenting at school with obvious signs of illness will be sent to sick bay and parents contacted to collect them.

We have had a few questions around whether children are still required to wear their hats.  For the month of May, the children must be wearing a hat during break times. The months of June and July are the "hats off" months in Canberra as the daily UV levels reach 3 and above for part or most of each day between August and May. Sun protection is generally not recommended around the June and July period.

ACT schools will participate in NAPLAN Online testing from 11^th-21^st May 2021. ACT schools undertaking NAPLAN Online have participated in a practice/familiarisation test between 22^nd March and 23^rd April 2021. The practice test did not assess student performance and has been developed to replace one of the familiarisation activities that schools have traditionally undertaken.

As a parent, you can become familiar with NAPLAN Online tests by visiting the public demonstration site, http://bit.ly/naplanonline. The purpose of the site is to familiarise students with the type of items they will see on NAPLAN Online and related functionalities. This level of familiarisation is worthwhile to help students understand and be comfortable with the format of the test. NAPLAN Online allows for tailored testing. This means that student are presented with sets of questions based on their performance during the test. This model provides students with the opportunity to better demonstrate their range of literacy and numeracy skills and it is more engaging for students. Further information explaining tailored testing can be found at https://bit.ly/2PgG7rL.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss your son or daughter’s participation in this event, please contact Kate Herrington or Kate Stear on 6142 3580. Further information on NAPLAN Online, including the public demonstration site, is available at www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/naplan-online.

Students participating in the NAPLAN assessments will be sent the school assessment schedule via email this week.

Welcome back CPS Families!

We are not wasting anytime, we are hitting the ground running with PBL. This term we are introducing “Fortnight Focus”. Each fortnight we will use the data we have been collecting to target one specific undesirable behaviour around the school. 

We will introduce this focus during Yumma and refer to it daily to ensure the message is clear and consistent. We will be working with some of our Year 6 leaders to create an informative video for teachers to share with their class. All adults will pay close attention to the focus and acknowledge the desired behaviour with a STAG.

We are also eagerly awaiting our badges which are due to arrive any day now. We are very excited to award a couple of our students who have reached their first goal!

Ask your child/ren about the Fortnight Focus and if you are able to support this by either a chat about it at home or if you are able to demonstrate the focus yourself, that would be great!

Fortnight Focus: Walking through corridors and decks quietly (preferably silently) and to the left.

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING AS PART OF OUR PBL

As you will recall, last term our Topic for SEL was Emotional Literacy. We are now up to our next topic, Personal Strengths. Children and young people need a vocabulary to help them recognise and understand strengths and positive qualities in themselves and others. This topic provides learning activities to build this vocabulary and to use it when discussing personal, social and ethical challenges. 

EVIDENCE BASE

Research in the field of positive psychology emphasises the importance of identifying and using individual strengths. Social and emotional learning programs which use strength-based approaches promote student wellbeing, positive behaviour and academic achievement.

Through the next few weeks, each activity aims to assist students to:

Kindergarten

• Identify and describe personal strengths
• Explain how these strengths help them to contribute to family and school life
• Identify ways to care for others, including ways of making and keeping friends.

Year 1 & 2

• Identify and describe personal strengths
• Explain how these strengths contribute to family and school life
• Identify ways to care for others, including ways of making and keeping friends.

Year 3 & 4

• Describe personal strengths and challenges
• Identify skills and strengths they wish to develop
• Describe factors that contribute to positive relationships with people at school, home and in the community
• Identify communication skills that enhance relationships
• Describe characteristics of cooperative behaviour and identify evidence of these in group activities.

Year 5 & 6

• Describe the range and influence of personal qualities and strengths
• Monitor their progress in consolidating their strengths
• Assess the value of working independently.

In the next Newsletter I will discuss some of the activities we have been doing in class and provide some suggestions of how you can support this at home. 

Nicole Carney

This Friday 30^th April, Campbell Primary School will hold it’s ANZAC commemorative assembly. Students have been working exceptionally hard to prepare a respectful and fitting tribute to those that have served and currently serve in the Australian Defence Force.

This will be a whole school assembly attended by all staff and students, a handful of invited guests, and supported by members of the Australian Federation Guard and the Royal Military College Band.

Unfortunately, due to ongoing COVID-safe restrictions, this assembly will not be open to our wider parent, caregiver or community groups. A full wrap and photos of the assembly will be included in the Week 4 eNewsletter instead.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the veterans in our school community for their service and pay tribute to the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Lest We Forget.

Year 2 has hit the ground running for Term 2, both figuratively and literally.

Literally, we have been practising for the upcoming cross country as a cohort to get a better idea of navigating the course, as well as building up our stamina. It has been helpful to look at pacing ourselves and managing our breathing in an extended run. Many of us are excited for the big day and are looking forward to participating in our event. 

Figuratively, Year 2 has been building on their animal report to make an informative poster, where we have been researching and working on note taking skills.

In Maths, we have been working on expanding numbers to show their value and partition numbers as we investigate addition and subtraction strategies.

We are building on our knowledge of mapping and Australia to better understand its place in the world geographically.

There is so much to fit in, and we are only in Week 3!

Annual General Meeting

The P&C is holding its AGM on Thursday 13th May!

Come along and see what the P&C is all about, get involved with the school, and be in the running for a great Lucky Door prize!

All Committee positions are up for nomination so please email secretary@campbellpandc.com for more info and a nomination form!

Wine & Cheese start at 5:30pm followed by the AGM at 6:00pm in the school staff room.  Babysitting will be available.

Please use this link to book in: https://forms.office.com/r/e8AXzz45Vc Looking forward to seeing you there!

Mother’s Day Stall

On Wednesday 5th May, the P&C will be holding a Mother’s Day Stall, to give all our children a chance to buy a gift for the special people in their lives!

Gifts will be available for $1, $2, $4, $5 and children will use pre-purchased tickets to buy their lovely gifts!

If your child/ren would like to be involved, please send them to school with their money in an envelope marked with their name, class and “Mother’s Day Stall” and tickets will then be allocated.

Any unused tickets will be refunded.

VOLUNTEERS WOULD BE VERY WELCOME ON THE DAY!

Please email secretary@campbellpandc.com if you are able to help on 5th May.

Tuesday 4^th May 2021

Our school Cross Country will take place in Term 2, week 3 between approximately 9am-11am.

If Cross Country and running is your thing, or if you like setting goals, the Campbell Primary School Cross Country is fast approaching! You may wish to train over the school holidays so here are all the details you might like to know:

How far will I need to run?

Kinder Quolls and Year 1:               a short fun run – lead by Year 6 leaders

Year 2 students turning 7 in 2021:  a non-competitive lap - 1km

Year 2 students turning 8:              1km                                      

Students turning 9:                        1.5km

Students turning 10:                       2km

Students turning 11:                       3km

Students turning 12 or 13:              3km

Where is the course? Given the building works will not allow the same course as previous years, Year 6 students and teachers have scoped out and measured a new school course (see below). What a wonderful and authentic mathematics/PE activity!

Wet Weather Plan

The Bureau of Meteorology presently is predicting a 80% chance of rain on the day.  In the case of inclement weather, the Cross Country Carnival will be postponed till Friday, 7th May.

CPS Community Committee 

Due to the ongoing building site at Campbell Primary School and Campbell Village, parking has become somewhat of a premium.  This however, does not entitle people to park illegally.  

Please be aware, Parking Inspectors regularly patrol the school surrounds and are issuing parking fines for illegal parking.

No parking areas include:

along Vasey Crescent from the BER carpark entrance to the corner of Chauvel is now No Parking; and

the area behind the library (near the dumpsters) is No Parking, due to trucks requiring constant access to this area.

Where possible, please do not park in the staff car park.  Lendlease have very kindly sealed the overflow carpark to be more usable for our school community.  Please use the overflow carpark where possible.

• Download the Check In CBR App from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
• Register your details (required for the first time only).
• Open the app, select 'ckeck in now' and hover your smartphone camera over the venue's displayed QR Code.
• Add in any additional people - those who are with you without their own device or app.
• When the check in is complete, show venue staff the app successful check in screen.

On 3rd May, our school, along with thousands of others across the country, will begin preparations for the fifth Australian Early Development Census (AEDC).

The AEDC gives us a national picture of the development, health and wellbeing of children in their first year of full-time school. Since 2009, the census results have helped communities, schools and governments plan services and develop better policies to target support for children and families.

Children don’t miss any class time, and parents/carers don’t need to supply schools with any new information for the census. The AEDC gives us data at a school and community level - it is not an assessment of individual children.

Some teachers have also noticed that completing the assessments made them more aware of the needs of individual children and the class as a whole and that the census results are useful in planning for transitions to Year 1 and developing class programs.

Participation in the AEDC is voluntary. Parents/carers don’t need to take any action unless they choose not to include their children in the census.

To find out more about the census and how communities are using the data to help children and families visit the AEDC website: www.aedc.gov.au.

The growth of Death Cap mushrooms in the ACT has increased significantly with the onset of Autumn – the peak growing period. Death Cap mushrooms grow across the ACT and are easily mistaken for edible mushrooms. ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman warned the community not to touch wild mushrooms with bare hands and to keep children and animals away from them.

Any students or families who discover Death Cap Mushrooms growing on or near the Campbell Primary School grounds are asked to report their location to the Front Office or Staff as soon as possible.

Anyone who thinks they have seen a Death Cap mushroom in a public area can report it to Access Canberra on 13 22 81. Please share this advice with families.  Visit ACT Health for more information about the Death Cap mushroom.

On 30^th March 2021, the ACT Legislative Assembly passed the Plastic Reduction Bill 2020, which will phase out certain plastic products. From 1^st July 2021, the following three items will be prohibited from sale, supply or distribution in the ACT:

• Single-use plastic cutlery (including bioplastic and PLA – ACT polylactic acids)
• Single-use plastic drink stirrers (including bioplastic and PLA – polylactic acids)
• Expanded polystyrene takeaway food and beverage containers

National Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) will be held on Friday 14^th May. Now in its 22nd year, Campbell Primary encourages all of our students, their parents and carers to walk safely and regularly to school. If walking is not an option then we encourage you to catch public transport and find new ways to minimise your enviromental footprint.

This event seeks to promote road safety, health, public transport and the environment. Children who are regularly physically active are shown to be healthier, perform better academically and are less likely to be obese or overweight. Walking to and from school is a great way to get active and, along with public transport, is a great way to help our environment.