Dear families and carers,

It has been a busy time at Campbell Primary School and as educators we have been extremely appreciative and thankful for the continued support of our wonderful community.

World Teachers Day

This year, World Teachers’ Day happened to fall on the Directorate selected pupil free day.  On this day teaching and support staff were engaged in deep professional dialogue around assessment, reporting and the learning and teaching process.  It was so lovely to have our school staff recognised on this day by our P&C by providing lunch for our staff and enabling an opportunity for the whole school to come together, build cross school connections and to celebrate the success and achievements we have had in 2022.

On behalf of Campbell Primary School, I would like to extend our gratitude to our P&C and wider community for your continued support and engagement with our school.  I would also like to thank the wonderful teaching team at Campbell Primary School for their professionalism and their unrelenting drive to bring engaging experiences to the children in their care. It is an absolute privilege to work with such an enthusiastic team of educators.

STEM EVENING

Thank you to all our families who attended our STEM evening.  We hope you had a night full of learning and inquiry. As a school we are always looking for ways to improve and connect with families and any feedback on this evening would be greatly appreciated. Thank you to the families who have already reached out regarding their experience. Please continue reading the newsletter for more information and acknowledgements of all the wonderful members of our community who assisted us on the night!

Canteen Appreciation Day 4 November

A BIG SHOUT OUT to Kim and Nikki in our school canteen.   Today is Canteen Day!  It is an annual day to acknowledge the great work of the canteen staff and volunteers who deliver delicious food and work with the school to bring exciting and special lunch treats during our special events.

2023 Planning

A friendly reminder that our preparations for 2023 are well underway.  If your circumstances have changed it is very important that you notify the school immediately. This information contributes to decisions made regarding 2023 class structure, staffing profiles and the prebooking of events and excursions. Although circumstances can change over the holiday period the school communicates our anticipated class structure in our Week 8 and 10 Newsletter.

Writing Enrichment

Over Term 2 our Enrichment students crafted an entry into the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards. This year's (optional) theme was 'in my opinion'. The students worked with either Ms Herrington or myself to create their own piece for the competition. The students did any incredible job and during last week’s Yuma, received a certificate. Congratulations to the following students:

Year 1/2 students: Isla E, Joe W, Ted d'E T, Aarav J, Xavier L-S, Lalin R, Austin H, Evie G, Rafferty H, Gia Loc P, Maya R, Heidi M, Alice J, Olivia M, Zoe T, Zara P, Alice O’K, Ben C

Year 3/4 students: Georgia Y, Arabella H, Annabel J, Jessica W, Daniel V, Lina M, Theo S, Lachlan H, Scarlett W, Mackensie B

Year 5/6 students: Samara W, Chloe K, Carla S, Fatema A, Olivia A, Ella M, Jiyan A, Robin S, Mattias D, Violet G, Josh W, Samantha B, Matilda S, Li J, Milai P, Jacqui H, Leo L, Emma H, Jessica W, Caitlyn B, Sophie C

Assemblies in 2023 - Change in days

With the current health advice, it is likely that whole school assemblies will begin in 2023. At Campbell Primary School, we very much view ourselves as a Preschool to Year 6 school, so moving forward next year, we will be changing our assembly days from Friday to Wednesday (odd week Wednesday). We will be very excited to have our Pre-schoolers attend assemblies in Term 2 and eventually host in Term 4.

Take care,

Erin Minehan

Dear families

The School Photographer is returning to Campbell Primary School on Monday 7 November.

They will be taking some special group photos as well as the whole school photograph (all Preschool to Year 6 students and staff) during the morning session (starting at 9:00am).

For any students who were not present on 22 June (Absent or recent enrolments), their portrait photos will be taken outside directly after the whole school group photo is taken to minimise learning time disruptions.

An email will be sent home once sample photos are available for viewing and ordering (mid to late November) with instructions on how to order photos for any of the following groups:

• Year 6 Traditional photo
• Junior Band
• Senior Band
• The Campbell Choir
• School Leaders
• Sports Team Leaders

Please ensure your child is in full school uniform and at school on time on Monday, 7 November to be able to be part of the whole school photograph.

On Tuesday, 25 October Chris Green, superstar bowler and all rounder from the Sydney Thunder visited our superfans from Year 1.

After a very interesting introduction and Q&A session Chris and the team from Cricket ACT ran a short skills activity session looking at the fundamentals of batting, bowling and fielding in fun and fast games. The Year 1 students had a blast, and the free water bottles at the end were very well received!

Families can see Chris and the Sydney Thunder in action here in Canberra for two Big Bash games in December and January. For those inspired to have a go themselves, registrations for junior cricket and blast skills programs are open now! https://play.cricket.com.au/cricket-blast/junior-blasters

Campbell Primary were very privileged to be one of just 3 schools in the ACT region to be chosen to host our superstar WNBL Canberra Capitals basketball players Emilee Whittle-Harmon and Shaneice Swain who will be delivering 4 one-hour basketball skills sessions with the year 5 cohort over the course of this term. 5S were the lucky first cab off the rank and they made the most of the opportunity despite being forced inside due to weather. The first session focused on teamwork, dribbling and passing skills.

In addition to the skills sessions this year the UC Capitals will be offering something even more special for a select group of students. A few students from each school will be selected by the UC Capitals and School administration for exhibiting the values and qualities of the UC Capitals around teamwork, fair play, fun and respect and will be invited to participate in a half time game at the UC Capitals game on the Saturday 10^th of December at the National Convention Centre Canberra. These lucky students will be given a full game day experience, with ticket entry for the child and a parent or guardian. We are so excited about this opportunity for CPS year 5’s and are having the very best problem of a really tough time narrowing the field of nominees after only 1 session!

For those interested in learning more about or even seeing our new coaches in action you can find information here: https://wnbl.basketball/uc-capitals/ . We wish them luck as they take on Bendigo Spirit in their season opener tonight!

A huge thank you to all the families who came and supported our STEM Night on Thursday 27th October.

We had a great time building the tallest marshmallow tower, creating slime, getting a great view of the night sky in the planetarium, and making music with makey makeys.

A shout out to both Carina Kemp for bringing in a fun hands on geology collection, and Keirin Joyce for organising the drone display. We were lucky that the rain held out and we could see them in flight too!

Alongside our amazing volunteers, we had The Academy of Future Skills who pitched in with microscopes for the junior years and some hands-on building activities, which were highly popular. Students and families could work together on pre-coding skills using BeeBots that came with different challenge cards.

It was a fantastic opportunity for older siblings and parents to share STEM experiences and for families to have a catch up over a BBQ sausage to support the school. Thank you to the P&C for hosting the sizzle!

We have received some great feedback from the community about our STEM night and all the teachers are so glad that you enjoyed yourselves. It was a wonderfully rewarding experience to host and see everyone back together again.

We look forward to continuing to develop these resilient, exploratory skills in our students that will help build 21st century skills.

Dear Families and Carers,

Campbell Primary School is hosting a Scholastic Book Fair on Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 November (Week 5) with 2 time slots for families to come and purchase books.

Before school: 8:15am – 8:45am

After school: 3:15pm - 3:45pm

Both days are in the old Library space.

We would love to see you there!

Students have had the opportunity to look at the books available with their teachers and may have brought home a wish list to share with you. If books sell out off the shelf, we will be able to order more just like the regular book club catalogue. You are also able to order books using the brochure that came home with your child this week. Every book sold earns points for Campbell Primary to spend on new books for our Library and learning spaces.

As Dr Seuss says,

Please see below sessions times for the Christian Education in Schools in Term 4. 

Friday, 25th November

Miss Jessie’s hard working garden club warriors are finally starting to see the fruits of their labour. Spring has sprung along with the beans, peas, spinach, herbs and flowers! We even have lots of blooms on our citrus and apple trees and are excited to see what summer might bring.  A big thankyou to Libby Sensei for providing the strawberry runners that were planted by the club and brought our first food harvest! Unfortunately, that first harvest was done by the resident CPS possum, so the fruit laden strawberry plants have headed home with club members so hopefully they can eat some too. If you are visiting our school, make sure you check out our veggie beds and new worm farm. Thanks Miss Jessie!

Miss Jessie’s Gardening Club have a request!

They are seeking fruit and vegetable seedlings to grow in the kitchen garden. If you have any spare seedlings, these green-fingered gardeners would love to take them off your hands!

Please send anything you have to the front office and we can sort it from there.

Thank you!

Konnichiwa!

This term in the Nihongo no kyoushitsu, we are learning kanji!
 

What are kanji?

Kanji are Japanese characters, and one of three writing systems in Japanese. The other two are hiragana and katakana (collectively called kana).

Kanji are Japanese symbols that represent whole words. Kanji symbols can stand alone, or combine with other kanji or kana to create more words, ideas, or turn a kanji into a verb. Their pronunciation and readings vary based on what other kanji or kana they’re connected with — that’s the difficult part. The easy part is that they make reading easier.

Kanji originate from China but were imported into Japanese sometime around the 5th century. Many of the kanji we are learning today are pictographs, meaning they look like the word they represent. This is not true of all kanji however.

The students have been learning kanji through drawing and repetition, using whiteboards and their notebooks.

These are the kanji we have learnt so far. Look at some of their kanji creations!

Save the Date - Friday 2 December - Years 3 to 6 will be performing a Musical Extravanganza!

From Tuesday to Friday of Week 8, students in Years 3 to 6 will be working under the direction of the wonderful Mr Tim to create, practice and perform an original concert of music, dance and drama for your enjoyment.

Preschool to Year 2 children will get early bird seats to the first performance on Friday 2 December during school hours, with some seats also available for parents.

The grand finale will be an evening performance at 6.00 pm on Friday 2 December.

More information will be sent out shortly about how to purchase tickets and reserve seats.

We look forward to seeing you there!

To find out more about Mr Tim's Musical Extravaganza program please see https://mrtimblog.wordpress.com/extravaganza/.

This program is supported by the Campbell Primary School P&C.

Did you know that we have a Campbell Primary School Facebook page?

If you don’t already follow us on Facebook, please do! We share lots of exciting posts throughout the week, including school highlights and special events, interesting happenings from our learning communities and also helpful reminders for families.

You can find our Facebook page at this link: https://www.facebook.com/campbellprimaryschoolcbr

Orienteering for Campbell Primary students

Do you know about SC-ORE ? SC-ORE  stands for Schools’ Orienteering, or more specifically, the ACT Primary Schools’ Orienteering Challenge, that is held every year in Autumn and Spring (1^st and 4^th term). Students form teams and using a map, run around a pre-chosen orienteering course within supervised boundary, tagging controls as they go. It is great fun! The SC-ORE series runs for 4 consecutive weeks, for one morning a week before school.

The Spring SC-ORE is currently underway, and two Year 6 girls, Caitlin M and Jacqui H have been the capable representatives for CPS. Failing to find other runners to make up a team of 4, the two girls each run twice around the course – way to go girls, that’s real dedication!

After the SC-ORE series finishes, another great opportunity is coming up for all students who have had some experience with orienteering – the ACT Primary Schools’ Orienteering Championships. This will be held on Wednesday 23^rd November at the Pinnacles in Hawker, and more information can be found on this link, including registration.

https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=48132

Good luck to Caitlin and Jacqui for the remainder of the SC-ORE season, and we would encourage any students who would like to challenge their bodies and brains and map skills, to enter the Championships!

A message from the ACT Education Directorate: Updates to the management of COVID-19 in ACT public schools

Term 4 planning days (pupil free)

Two staff planning days (pupil free) will again be in place in Term 4. The dates are Friday 28 October 2022 and Monday 28 November 2022. 

These planning days provide an important opportunity for our staff to undertake training, plan for the remainder of the term and the year ahead and finalise end of year student reporting which can’t be done during class time.

While students may wish to use these days to catch up on homework and / or assignments, no additional work will be allocated to them on these days. Families may like to use these as wellbeing days for their children.

Changes to exposure advice in ACT public schools

Since the beginning of Term 1, ACT public schools have been providing families with email advice when a positive COVID-19 case within a cohort/class group has attended school during their infectious period.

From the beginning of Term 4, families will no longer receive an email every time a positive case is reported. Instead, families will be notified when there is an outbreak of COVID-19.

This change aligns with the recent change in public reporting by ACT Health.

Schools will continue to have COVID Smart measures in place to support the health and wellbeing of everyone at school.

Do I still need to tell my school if my child has been at school while potentially infectious?

Yes. Anyone who has attended school while positive with COVID-19 must still notify their school. Schools provide this data to the Education Directorate and ACT Health each week and it remains an important tool to help identify any potential outbreaks or areas of concern in our schools.

How will I know if there is an outbreak in my school?

You will be notified by text message when there is a higher number of cases in a particular cohort/class group or if a confirmed case is deemed as high risk. This will enable appropriate measures to be put in place to manage these exposures.

Your school will let you know if they need to make any temporary changes to learning.

A reminder to stay COVID smart at school

To help reduce the impacts on learning as a result of illness, please remember to:  

• Stay up to date with COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations.
• Do not attend school if unwell or if you have tested positive to COVID-19.
• Practise good hand and respiratory hygiene.
• Wear a mask when appropriate.

If your child or young person is a household contact, they may still attend school as long as they do not have any symptoms and have tested negative for COVID-19. Please follow ACT Health advice and let your school know by contacting their front office.