We understand that sometimes families need to share or receive information outside of these times and encourage all families to contact the school if they would like to arrange an appointment at any time during the school year.  We recommend that families contact the front office for administrative matters and the classroom teacher for well-being and learning matters. The leadership team is always available to support families.

School holiday travel and COVID-19

As we head into the school holidays, it is important to note the ACT Government has updated travel directions for people considering travelling to COVID-19 affected areas of New South Wales.

The ACT Government advises people should not be travelling between Greater Sydney and the ACT at this time.

If you must travel for essential reasons, you must abide by all public health directions in place in NSW and the ACT. This includes changing travel plans and adhering to public health instructions upon your return.

At 4.00pm Wednesday 23 June, the ACT Government introduced a new ‘stay-at-home' requirement for anyone who leaves the following seven Local Government Areas of Greater Sydney and enters the ACT – City of Sydney, Waverley, Randwick, Canada Bay, Inner West, Bayside and Woollahra.

These requirements will remain in place for at least one week, until 11.59pm Wednesday 30 June 2021.

ACT Health will continue to monitor the situation very closely and put in place further directions if required in order to keep our community safe.

Further information on these requirements is available on the COVID-19 website.

Dear Campbell Primary School community,

At the last school board meeting in June we welcomed two new board members – Carina Kemp and Natalie Barr as parent representatives, and Fleur Forster joining Katherine Wilson as the teacher representatives. The key focus of the board, in accordance with ACT legislation, is to work with the school on the strategic direction and priorities, monitor school and student performance, approve the school budget, and develop relationships between the school and the community.

Our focus this year is to support the school and the community as the school build continues, work with the school on the strategic plan with a key focus on numeracy and writing, and work with the P&C on their key priorities including the school uniform change.

At the risk of labouring an overused term – we really are in unprecedented times and the board looks forward to supporting Paula and the staff of Campbell Primary School as we face these challenges together.

I’d like to acknowledge the fantastic job Leah Hanley did whilst she was chair, and Emma Smallmom as the teacher representative. The willingness of community members to get involved is always appreciated, and makes our wonderful community all the better.

Regards,

Julie Vey

ICAS Assessments

We are delighted to inform you that Campbell Primary will be participating in the world-renowned ICAS Assessments this year. ICAS is developed by UNSW Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of New South Wales, with over 36 years’ experience in educational assessments.

ICAS is designed to target students’ higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Spelling and Digital Technologies.

Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition. Every student will receive a certificate and an online result report. Top performers will be eligible for medals and are invited to attend special award ceremonies to have their academic excellence publicly recognised.

The assessments are suitable for students wishing to extend themselves academically and take up the personal challenge of competing in an international assessment. Your child will be presented with high-quality, expert-developed questions, allowing them to apply their learning without the need for prior study or revision.

ICAS Assessments are now online, a move that reflects a sector-wide transition to computer-based assessment. This allows greater accessibility for students and faster delivery of results.

Parents can access this service using this link:

https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps

Campbell Primary School's unique access code is:

GOD546

The assessments will be carried out at Campbell Primary School during the assigned day. Please see below a list for the dates of assessment:

School communications:

Please ensure you include your first name, your surname, your child's name and their roll class when sending communications to the Front Office, including:

• updating contact details – please ensure you keep the school informed of any changes in your contact details as soon as possible;
• information requests; and
• general queries.

Before you ask the front office to send another copy of a note, please check the CPS website under the CPS Dropbox tab, ‘Notes sent home’.  You can also find permission notes attached to the relevant dates in the school calendar – also accessible through the CPS website under ‘Our Community’ / ‘Calendar’ or through the link in the eNewsletters.

Thank you to all the families who have already returned their Enrolment Intentions for 2022 form.  If you have not already done so, please assist us to anticipate enrolment numbers for 2022 by completing and returning the form below. The form is also available on the Campbell Primary School website under CPS Dropbox.

Enrolment_intentions_for_2022_1_.pdf

Enrolment_intentions_for_2022_1 pdf 192.49 KB

School app – Szapp:

If you have not already, you will need to uninstall your old mobile app and install the new SZapp version.

Please go to the link below for instructions on how to install the app on both apple and android devices.

https://campbellps.schoolzineplus.com/szapp

When you are asked for a secure passcode, please use the code 4972.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need any further information.

For more information, please view any of the links below:

Click here to view SZapp FAQs

Click here to view SZapp Installation Guide

Click here for a Printable Installation Guide

Absences:

If your child is going to be absent from school we encourage you to use the above app, SZapp. This is the most convenient and reliable way to inform the school of your childs absence. Please send emails to our school's main email address (campbellps@ed.act.edu.au) rather than individual staff members (teaching or admin). This willl ensure that you message is seen on the day. If you have not already downlaoded the app please follow the instructions below. Once the app is installed and your login is created, it is as simple as selecting "Absence" and filling in your child's details and the reason for the absence. See below.

Early collection considerations:

If you need to collect your child from school earlier than 3:00pm, where possible, please notify the school prior to 9:30am on the day via the SZapp smartphone app (same method as submitting an absence, however, please include early pick up and the time in the description). 

If you are unable to send an absence notification prior to 9:30am, please ensure you contact the school directly on 6142 3580.

We appreciate your consideration with allowing as much forward notice as possible. This helps the Front Office staff best support our teaching staff, and students with minimum interruptions to their class time.

Lost and Found – Looking for something??:

Dear families,

Has your child come home without their jacket? Hoodie?  Drink bottle?  Lunchbox?  Hat?

There’s a very good chance it has been sitting in the Lost and Found Property tubs.

Please pop in and take a look for any missing property, prior to the end of term.

PLEASE ensure that all of your child/ren’s belongings that come to school are clearly labelled with your child’s name and year so that we can help to facilitate the return of any lost property.

Any unclaimed lost and found items will be recycled/rehomed after 3pm, Friday, 25^th June.

After starting the term with an amazing 2 days at camp Berry in week 1, the students have again been highly engaged and enthusiastic towards their learning.

In our inquiry units, we have had a strong focus on information literacy skills, particularly locating, summarising and presenting key information using different media. We have covered geography, economics and business, civics and citizenship, as well as chemical science. The presentations students produced for their final geography task demonstrated their excellent skills and knowledge across the curriculum.    

Earlier in the term, students presented Rostrum speeches. We were impressed with the research and presentation skills which they displayed. We would like to congratulate every student in year 6 for completing this task to such a high standard.

In mathematics, we have focused on a variety of concepts including fractions, decimals, order of operations, data and measurement. The level of engagement and achievement in mathematics this semester has been highly impressive.

Next term, we look forward to our next inquiry units on history and physical science. There will also be an emphasis on visual and performing arts.

This week, students in Year 1 were very excited to visit the National Gallery of Australia as part of an inquiry into ‘What art is and who makes art?’. We investigated Indigenous artworks as part of the Stories of Art tour. It was interesting for us to notice that artworks are not just paintings.  We saw sculptures made of metal and grasses, paintings on canvas and pottery, wood carvings and necklaces – all beautiful artworks with their own meaningful stories. Our tour guides were very knowledgeable. We learnt the story of the Seven Sisters and meanings behind the Aboriginal Memorial – an installation artwork made up of burial poles. It was interesting to hear that each of the shell necklaces we saw were made by artists with their own ‘signature’ or individual pattern. While we only experienced a small number of artworks on display, many of us are keen to get back to the National Gallery with our families to discover more of the amazing art!

After our guided tour, we visited the Sculpture Garden and were particularly intrigued by the playful ‘Cones’ sculpture. Year 1 really did an exceptional job of representing Campbell Primary and our school values at the Gallery.

A huge thanks to the Australian Government Sporting Schools program we were delighted to welcome back the amazing coaches from Volleyball ACT to deliver a 4 week “Spikezone” program to our year 4 classes. Delivered by professional coaches (who are also rising volleyball stars!) students were introduced to the fundamentals of volleyball as well as teamwork, communication and fair play in a fun and fast paced environment. Despite some challenging weather that moved the sessions indoors the students thoroughly enjoyed the program and learned a lot across the 4 weeks. The feedback from the coaches was very positive and all students should be proud of representing Campbell so well during the program – what wonderful and respectful learners we have!

If any students are interested in extending their newly developed dig, set, spike skills you can check out the Volleyball ACT website here: https://www.volleyballact.com.au/home/

Campbell Primary School were delighted to welcome back the team from Canberra City Gymnastics back to run a four week gross motor program with our kindergarten and year 1 classes for the second year running. Led by fully qualified gymnastic coaches, Adam and Chris, students have been working hard on skills like balance, flexibility, agility and strength, while having a tonne of fun in the process. Thanks again to the Australian Government Sporting Schools program who provided the funding, it has been a huge success with gains in skills, strength and most importantly confidence across both grades.

Students have especially enjoyed learning to safely complete forward and backward rolls, vault skills, forward rolls over the bar and some very interesting team poses that tested their communication and teamwork skills, as well as strength and balance. We have all had so much fun and very much hope we can continue to feature gymnastics as part of our junior Physical Education program next year!

Welcome back CPS Families!

As the semester draws to a close, we have seen MANY of our students receive a badge for demonstrating either Safe, Respectful or Learner behaviour. 

As I said in the last newsletter, we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our next batch of bronze Learner badges. The students are aware that they will receive their badge as soon as it arrives. But more importantly, the students know that the lack of a physical badge does not take away from their achievement. It is the sense of pride and self worth which is the whole driving force behind these positive behaviour changes we are seeing at Campbell and nothing can take that away from our students. 

We have had some questions about replacing badges which the students have lost, including parents wanting to purchase replacement badges. We will not be replacing any badges, purchased or not, as we are encouraging students to be responsible for their property. We also aim to instill a sense of pride and self-worth for their choices, not in a physical object. This is all part of being a Safe Respectful Learner here at Campbell. 

Now it is time to celebrate this fortnight’s newest recipients. 

Enjoy the break and I look forward to seeing all our of Safe Respectful Learners next term.

Social Emotional Learning as part of out PBL

Next term we will begin our nect topic: Positive Coping. Learning activities in this topic provide opportunities for students to identify and discuss different types of coping strategies. When children and young people develop a language around coping, they are more likely to be able to understand and deliberately utilise a range of productive coping strategies and diminish their use of unproductive coping strategies. Students learn to extend their repertoire of coping strategies and benefit from critically reflecting on their own choices and being exposed to alternative options. Activities will introduce students to the concept of self-talk and practice using positive self-talk to approach and manage challenging situations. Positive self-talk is a key strategy for

coping with negative thoughts, emotions and events. It is associated with greater persistence in the face of challenge, and can be learnt or strengthened through practice.

EVIDENCE BASE

As they grow and develop, all children will encounter situations where they feel worried, nervous and sometimes even scared. Individuals deal with the demands on them by drawing on a range of coping strategies. Some strategies are more productive than others. Helping students to learn a range of positive coping skills allows them to develop and practise those skills and enable them to cope with future changes and challenges. Positive self-talk is a key strategy for coping with negative thoughts, emotions and events. Resilience research shows that use of positive self-talk is associated with greater persistence in the face of challenge, whereas negative self-talk is associated with higher levels of distress, depression and anxiety. Positive self-talk can be learnt or strengthened through practice.

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

Kindergarten

• Reflect on their emotional responses
• Discuss ways in which they can take responsibility for their actions
• Describe ways to express emotions to show awareness of the feelings and needs of others
• Practise techniques to deal with feelings of fear and anger.

Year 1 & 2

• Reflect on their emotional responses
• Discuss ways in which they can take responsibility for their actions
• Describe ways to express emotions which show awareness of the feelings and needs of others
• Practice techniques to deal with feelings of fear, frustration and anger.

Year 3 & 4

• Investigate how emotional responses vary in depth and strength
• Identify and describe strategies to manage and moderate emotions in a range of familiar and unfamiliar situations
• Identify a range of productive coping strategies for use in different situations
• Learn and practise self-calming techniques.

Year 5 & 6

• Identify a range of coping strategies to help them deal with intense emotions
• Identify the influence of self-talk on their actions and emotions
• Identify and explain factors that influence effective communication in a variety of situations.

I will share some of the activities we have been doing in class and give some ideas of how you can support this at home in the next newsletter.

Nicole Carney

We have received word that the most recent Bookclub orders have been sent, however, unfortunately they will not arrive in time for distribution this term. We understand that this is disappointing for students eagerly awating their new Bookclub orders. Our wonderful Bookclub volunteer has done everything they can to try and rectify the situation. At this time it looks as though the orders will be ready for handing out Monday of week 1 in term 3.

If, for some reason, you or your child will not be able to collect your order in Term 3 we ask that you please contact our Bookclub parent volunteer, Mel (0412 239 948) to make alternate arrangments.

• 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.