Family fun day

Family fun day today has been canceled due to the wet weather!

Please remember to bring lots of money to school tomorrow as there will be heaps of yummy cakes to buy!

Thanks to all the parents for all your hard work in organising today's event.


Mandy

Don't miss family Fun Day!

Nominate Beauty Point when shopping at Richies!

Nominate Beauty Point Public School when shopping at Richies!

When shopping at Ritchies and by using a community benefit card linked to our school then Ritchies will continue to donate money back to us.

We have been involved with the Ritchies CB Program since Ritchies took over the store at Spit Junction (Mosman) and our school has already received $887.31 in donations.  

The CB cards/tags can be used at ANY Ritchies store, by staff, students and their families, grandparents, neighbours and so on. Use your card or tag every time you shop, even if you only purchase a couple of items it all adds up.

If you don’t already have a Ritchies community benefit card and would like to support our school please collect one at the registers next time you shop at a Ritchies store. All you do is nominate Beauty Point Public School, it’s that easy!

This is an easy way to raise funds for our school with no costs involved!

Mandy Sigaloff (P&C President)

Welcome to 2014!

Hello!

Welcome back, I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas break and you and your children are looking forward to a wonderful year at Beauty Point School.

A HUGE welcome to all the new families!  Whether you have a new Kindy or have joined the school with older children I am sure you will find as many new friends as your children over the next few months.

As an introduction to the school (and a reminder to us ‘old’ parents) I would like to introduce you to the P&C (Parents and Community Association), let you know how you can support the school, remind you how much fun you are going to have this year, and thank you in advance for participating, volunteering, and helping out, which makes Beauty Point the fantastic community school it is.

The BBPS (Beauty Point Public School) P&C is a very active part of school life and is established to -

·      Promote the interest of the school by bringing parents, citizens, students and teaching staff into close co-operation;

·      Assist in providing facilities and equipment for the school and promoting the recreation and welfare of the students at the school;

·      Encourage parent and community participation in curriculum and other education issues in school;

P&C meetings are held on the 3^rd Monday of each month (school term only) with the AGM held in July, which is when new office bearers are nominated.

Everyone is welcome to attend the P&C meetings, and you are invited to pay $1 to become a member and have voting rights. The Principle gives the P&C an update on what’s happening at the school, we discuss concerns that may arise and get to vote on what the $120,000k raised last year should be spent on!

The Next P&C meeting will be held at 7pm on 17^th February in the school hall.

Now onto this years fundraising efforts. Each year is responsible for one major fund raising event, plus a stall on Fireworks Night. These are –

Kindy - Grandparents Day
Year 1 - Family Fun Day
Year 2 - Major Fundraiser
Year 3 - Mothers / Fathers Day /Easter egg hunt
Year 4 - Fireworks night
Year 5 - Athletics Carnival
Year 6 - Disco

Lauren Adlam is fundraiser coordinator and will ensure that each year has the hand over notes from the previous year. We are conscious of the time and effort required by parents to organise these events and review the timetable to ensure that fun fundraising opportunities are balanced with community events.    

Ros Van Extel  (Class Parent coordinator) has been delighted with the number of volunteers she has already received for class parents but there are still gaps and there's no such thing as too many volunteers.   Please contact Ros on rosvanextel@hotmail.com  if you'd like to volunteer or would like more information.  A big thank you to those who have already put their names forward.

Ros also organises our School Watch. This initiative to keep the school grounds open out of hours has been a great success but more volunteers are always needed.  For more information Click here.

School uniform items can be ordered from Pickles online at http://www.youruniformshop.com.au, Place your order and the uniform items will be delivered to the class room.

Kate Prior will also be opening the 2^nd hand uniform shop on Friday afternoons from week 2. If you have any uniform that you can donate to the uniform shop please drop it off then.
 

School lunches can be ordered for Mondays and Thursdays through Fleximeals website https://www.flexischools.com.au

These are delivered to the canteen and are put into class room baskets by Year 1 volunteer parents for the children to collect at Lunch time. We are looking for a Year 1 Lunch coordinator to organise the roster, plus some parents who can spare an hour at lunch time on Mondays and/or Thursdays (you don’t have to do everyone!) to hand the lunches out. Please let me know if you could help out with this.

I look forward to seeing you at school, or at the next P&C meeting.

Mandy Sigaloff    mandy@sigaloff.com

P&C President

Creative Play Update

Creative Play Update                                                                 18^th November 2013

Hi everyone,

I would like to update everyone on the BPPS Creative Play Project. This is an important proposal as it affects the school grounds as well as investment from the P&C.

In my role as President, I would like to ensure that the proposal is communicated in full.   Kevin Gallagher (as Acting School Principal) can discuss the needs of the school in context.  At P&C meetings, the school community are given the opportunity to ask questions, communicate their point of view and vote on this proposal.

The creative play project will be discussed as an agenda point at the P&C meeting tonight, 18^th November (7pm school hall).  Any further discussion and a possible motion for funding will be deferred until the meeting on 16^th December. Only paid members of the P&C have voting rights (members need to join the P&C at tonight’s meeting to be eligible to vote at the December meeting).

I would like to thank both Beverley Witherington and Sabine Simmonds for their dedication and work on this project. They have put in many hours, looking at ways to enhance the play areas in the school, and also to utilise these areas for education and learning for ALL age groups.

They have been drawing on Beverley's training and skills as a neuroscientist and her access to the latest research behind play concepts.  Current research suggests creative play is highly correlated with socio-emotional development, problem solving abilities, sensori-motor development and visuospatial awareness.  Furthermore creativity is viewed as a predictor of innovation & invention, and later academic success.  

The Creative Play proposal being put to the P&C is to have 3 new play areas –

a)    Water Play area that can be used area for science and mathematical concepts

b)    Spinning (Vestibular) play piece can be used for cognitive and sensorimotor development.

c)    And a themed play area that can be used in literacy and drama

In the first instance, Beverley and Sabine would like to propose the following 2 items, for the P&C to consider for funding and be to be installed on the school grounds –

1) Understanding the dynamics of water

We are proposing that the sandy sloped area between the current play area & classroom is landscaped and developed into a water play area.  This would include a water pump, trough and wheel, quoted at $13,850 + GST -

We plan to develop (with UTS expertise see below), a water storage tank to use as a source, and also to explore environment sustainability, scientific and mathematical constructs.

2) Physical, social & brain development through vestibular movement

Basically this means a large spinning device that several kids can play on!  It would be sited adjacent to the tree near the wetlands area.  Scientific research into brain development shows that spinning (vestibular movement) stimulates connectivity of neural pathways in different brain regions, thus facilitating children’s brain development, including those with development delays and learning differences.

We have sourced a 'Dutch Disk' (2.5m diameter) that several children can stand on, quoted at $20,504 + GST.  We have chosen the larger structure for multiple children thereby facilitating communication, collaboration & negotiation through group play and interaction. 

3. Themed Play

Beverley and Sabine along with Kevin Gallagher and Jenny Beynon, met with two senior lecturers & architects from the School Interior Spatial Design & Architecture from the University of Technology Sydney.   The meeting generated a whole host of exciting ideas.  These included UTS developing a 2014 Semester 1 design project for their students to generate design ideas for our creative play space (at the western corner of the school adjacent to the wetlands area).  The brief to the students will be finalised at the end of this year.  Aspects of the design brief will include an aboriginal theme (tying into the rock carvings on site), educational as well as creative play value, and innovative learning and exploration for all students. 

The design project will be part of their assessable work for next year.  Once designs are complete, we anticipate involving the students and broader school community in viewing & voting on the designs, having an exhibition of their design ideas at the school, inviting local press interest as well as collaboration with local indigenous artists on the project.

At the moment we don't have firm design or costings as we are in the early stages. Updates on this will be provided at the P&C meetings.

If you have any ideas or could contribute your thinking in any way whatsoever, please have a chat with Sabine or Beverley. Contact details are:

Sabine Mb 0421 216971, email sabine.simmonds@optusnet.com.au

Beverley Mb 0400 999 313, email beverleywitherington@gmail.com

Or please forward your comments to:

Mandy Sigaloff, email msigaloff@hotmail.co.uk

Many thanks everyone, your input is important and I look forward to seeing you at the P&C meetings.

Regards

Mandy Sigaloff

P&C President

Winners 2013 Sleek Geek Eureka Science Award!

Congratulations to our Year 6 group who won the  2013 Sleek Geek Eureka Science Awards for primary schools. 

Nathan G, Reuben S, Billy M, Jack D and Sasha B produced a three minute film called “What is Friction?”, which featured a number of experiments to demonstrate the idea of friction in witty and interesting ways. 

This is a massive achievement for Beauty Point students - This was a national competition, and the commitment of the students (and parents!) was rewarded as they proved that they are the best in Australia!

A big thank you to these boys who have contributed their $1,000 winnings to the Beauty Point Science department!

You can view the video entry here 

Help needed for Creative Play Project

The creative play project is an initiative started by BPPS parents Beverly Witherington and Sabine Simmonds. The idea is to provide a creative play area at the school that all the children can enjoy. There are many educational and social benefits associated to this type of play, Beverly presented some of these at the P&C meeting.

The project has the support of the school and 2 of the BPPS teachers are helping to move this forward. The team need further help  in an advisory role in design, architect, design, carpenter background, to help take this project to the next stage.

If you are interested, would like more information, or know anyone who could help please contact Beverley on her email address beverleywitherington@gmail.com.

Thanks!