Translate

Newsletter | Term 2 Week 7

Principal Message

Emergency Bell System Test

As part of our commitment to ensuring the safety and security of our school community, we will be conducting a test of our emergency bell system next week. This testing is an important part of our safety protocols, allowing us to ensure that all systems are functioning properly in the event of an actual emergency.

We want to reassure you that this will be a routine test and not an indication of any real emergency. Prior to the test, all students and staff will be informed of the date and time so that they are fully aware and prepared. Our aim is to ensure everyone understands that it is simply a drill to help us maintain a safe learning environment.

Thank you for your understanding and support as we continue to prioritise the safety of our students and staff.

School Uniform Reminder

Wearing our school uniform fosters a sense of belonging and pride, creating a unified community where everyone feels included. It’s a way to represent Floraville Public School with respect and spirit.

As winter sets in, we’d like to remind everyone about the importance of wearing our full school uniform. Recently, we’ve noticed an increase in students wearing branded hoodies and other items that aren’t part of our school uniform. While we understand the need for warmth, we encourage students to wear their school jumpers or jackets instead. Please be aware that representative items such as Hunter jumpers can be part of our students' uniform.

If you’re in need of warmer options, don’t forget to check out our second-hand uniform shop! It will be open on Monday, June 16, between 2:45 and 3:15pm. This is a great opportunity to find affordable and great quality winter uniform items.

Let’s work together to maintain our school’s high expectations and show pride in our community.

Countdown to Kindergarten 2026

Our Kindergarten information evening and comprehensive orientation program for Kindergarten 2026 are just around the corner. Now is the ideal moment to start planning ahead, and we invite you to enrol at Floraville Public School for this exciting new chapter.

This is a significant milestone for both you and your little one, and we are thrilled to join you on this journey. To help us prepare for all our new students, we encourage you to complete the enrolment process at your earliest convenience.

Please share this news with friends and family so they can also get ready for this important transition. Together, we can ensure a smooth and successful start to their school experience.

Stay tuned for more information about our upcoming information evening and orientation program. We can’t wait to welcome you and your child to Floraville Public School.

Online Enrolment - Floraville Public School

Kirstie Yeo
Principal

Celebrating Success: Harry from 3A

We are thrilled to celebrate the outstanding achievement of Harry from Class 3A! Recently, the students in 3A embarked on an exciting reading journey with the book Wandi, a story that has inspired them to explore the natural world and its inhabitants through their own writing.

Harry used this to then write on the topic of dingoes, crafting an excellent informative text. His use of effective descriptive language not only brings the subject to life but also engages the reader, making the information accessible and enjoyable.

Harry's work not only reflects his understanding of the content, but his persistence and strive towards quality.

Congratulations Harry, keep up the fantastic work!

Nick Garner

Awabakal Word of the Week

Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction (APCI) update

In New South Wales, the Assistant Principal, Curriculum and Instruction (APCI) role focuses on improving teaching and learning in literacy and numeracy, curriculum implementation, and professional development for staff. The APCI works in collaboration with other school leaders, teachers, and support staff to enhance student outcomes. This term, the APCI has been working in partnership with a range of teachers both in class and in collaborative planning and evaluation sessions to enhance knowledge and implementation of explicit teaching strategies.

Explicit teaching is a clear and direct approach that helps students understand new concepts step by step. It begins with setting clear learning goals, where the teacher explains what students will learn and why it’s important. The teacher then models the skill or concept, demonstrating exactly how to do it. Following this, guided practice allows students to try the new skill with support from the teacher, leading to independent practice where they reinforce what they’ve learned on their own. Throughout the process, the teacher provides specific feedback to help students understand their strengths and areas for improvement. Regular checks for understanding ensure that everyone is on track, while closure at the end of the lesson reinforces key points. Finally, differentiation allows the teacher to adjust instruction based on individual student needs, ensuring that all learners can progress at their own pace. In essence, explicit teaching provides a clear roadmap for students, guiding them confidently through their learning journey.

This term, students in a range of classes have been learning about what feedback is, how to make it effective, how effective feedback looks/sounds/feels, how to provide feedback to a peer and how to use feedback given to them to further improve their learning. The impact of this has been higher student engagement, voice, learning accountability and achievement.

Dara Mitchell
Assistant Principal Curriculum & Instruction Rel.

Interest Group - Drama

Each Friday, students in Years 3 to 6 who are not involved in representative sport participate in our Interest Groups program. This initiative offers a diverse range of engaging activities aimed at enhancing skills, fostering teamwork, and promoting personal growth beyond immediate peer groups.

One of the groups is currently focused on drama, where students gain knowledge of and skills in the elements of drama, including movement, structure, space, role and character, audience engagement and atmosphere. This term, students are exploring puppetry as a form of drama. This has involved exploring different types of puppets, what they can be made from and the types of performances they are involved in. Students have created puppets from paper, experimented with movements to make their puppets appear alive, planned performances, created costumes and performed for an audience.

Jo Connolly and Dara Mitchell

Library News

Premier's Reading Challenge - extended deadline for 2025

Students have been given an additional four weeks to complete the reading challenge this year.

New student deadline: Friday, 19 September 2025 (Week 9, Term 3).

Find out more at NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2025 : Home

Sam Tassell
Library Teacher

School News

Public Speaking

Students from Kindergarten to Year 6 will be participating in public speaking activities and lessons from Week 8 of this term. All students will be supported at school to prepare and deliver a speech on a topic of their choice to their class.

What can you do to help?

You might like to start talking to your child about what they would like to speak about. Soon, you will receive a form via School Bytes where you and your child can let us know what your preferences are for speech topics. Please take the time to fill out the form, to assist us in supporting your child at school.

The choice of topic is very important! The aim of your child’s speech will be to entertain and engage an audience. Topics need to be age-appropriate, and something that children feel comfortable, enthusiastic, and confident to speak about.

Public speaking is an important skill for children to learn. Public speaking can help children not only improve their communication skills, but it can also contribute to and help them develop increased self-esteem. There are many additional benefits of learning to speak confidently in public from the youngest possible age – public speaking can help children to learn to think critically and creatively, and learn to be more comfortable when speaking up in a variety of situations they will encounter throughout life.

Further details regarding the dates and times for class presentations will be provided soon.

Premier's Spelling Bee

Our annual Premier’s Spelling Bee will take place in the school hall on Wednesday, 18 June. This much-anticipated event provides an opportunity for students to showcase their spelling skills and confidence in front of an audience.

The Stage 2 competition will begin at 9:30am, followed by the Stage 3 competition at 12pm. Both sessions promise to be full of enthusiasm, focus, and friendly competition as students represent their classes and strive for success.

If your child has been selected as one of the class representatives, you will have received a notification via School Bytes.

SRC Message

NAIDOC Week Ceremony

Sports News

Hunter AFL Team

We are excited to celebrate the achievements of our talented students, Mack and Sonny, who represented Floraville PS and the Hunter PSSA at the State PSSA AFL Carnival held at Blacktown. Both boys demonstrated exceptional kicking, marking, and running skills with the ball throughout the carnival. Competing against some of the best teams in the state, both boys contributed significantly to their team's performance, and we are proud to announce that their team finished in an impressive 7th place overall! This is a fantastic achievement that highlights their hard work and dedication. Congratulations boys on this wonderful accomplishment!

Eastlake PSSA Girls Touch Football

We are thrilled to share fantastic news about our amazing students, Sophie and Mila, who recently represented Floraville PS in the Eastlake PSSA Girls Touch Football team at the Hunter Carnival held at Tomaree Sporting Complex. Both girls showcased their exceptional skills, determination, and sportsmanship throughout the competition, making us all incredibly proud. A special congratulations goes to Sophie for her outstanding performance, which earned her a well-deserved spot in the Hunter PSSA Girls team! She will be competing in the NSWPSSA Championships in Dubbo on Tuesday, August 19, 2025. This is a remarkable achievement that reflects her hard work and dedication to the sport. We look forward to seeing more great achievements from both players in the future.

Olympics Unleashed Visit

Alexandra Croak will be connecting with students in Years 4 to 6 on Tuesday, 24 June, as part of Olympics Unleashed. Alexandra has competed at the Sydney 2000 Olympics (Gymnastics) and the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Diving).

Our students will learn from Alexandra Croak's Olympic journey how to build resilience, the importance of setting goals, and how to find what you are passionate about.

Students will hear firsthand from Alexandra Croak about how she overcame challenges to compete in her chosen sport at the very highest level, and how some lessons she's learned in sport can help students to be the best they can be – whether that’s in school, at home, on the sporting field or with friends.

To learn more about Alexandra - Alexandra Croak | Australian Olympic Committee

Equestrian

We have recently had one of our families express interest in connecting with fellow students who are horse riders and may be interested in competing in equestrian events, representing as Floraville PS.

This would be an opportunity for those who currently ride and are keen on participating in equestrian competitions. If this sounds like your child, we’d love to hear from you!

If this is of interest, please send an email to the school: floraville-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

PSSA Touch Football Knockout

Best of luck to our girls and boys who will be competing in the Touch Football PSSA Knockout on Monday. The first rounds of the competition are being played as a gala day.

Paul Kelly Cup – AFL

All the best to our school's AFL Team, which will compete in the Paul Kelly Cup—a State-Wide knockout competition on Tuesday.

PSSA Netball Knockout

Best of luck to our school's PSSA Netball Team, who will next Friday 20 June when they play in round 3 of the PSSA Knockout against Redhead PS. We wish them all the best!

P&C News

🌟 P&C Meeting Update! 🌟

A big thank you to those who braved the colder weather to come to our P&C meeting this week! 🙏 We had a great turnout and a productive meeting, discussing:

📸 Options for changes to school photos

🏐 The P&C approved funding requests to update representative uniforms for our school netball teams, band, and choir. Please see the link below to vote on your favourite netball uniform design. We will provide options to vote on for band/choir shirts in the coming weeks as well!

📅 The upcoming OOSH Vacation Care timetable will be released this week. Bookings will open in the next few days.

👕 Our 2nd Hand Uniform Shop has raised $1000 for our school in the first 6 months of opening! This is a fabulous effort from Lynne, our uniform shop coordinator, and the volunteers. We also couldn’t have achieved this without the kind contributions from families donating and purchasing 2nd hand uniforms. Thank you so much! The uniform shop will be open every week for the remainder of Term 2, on Mondays from 2:45-3:15pm. Pop in to see us after assembly!

🎉 Fundraising planning continues for the whole year, and we will share more specific information with Disco details very soon! You will also notice our P&C website home page has been updated with our planned fundraising events for the year, as well as our progress towards reaching our fundraising goals: Home | Floraville P S P&C Association

Please note there will be no P&C meeting in July due to school holidays, but we are excited to invite students from the SRC to attend our August meeting to present their ideas for initiatives for the school. 🎓

🏐 Netball Uniform Update! 🏐

It was requested at the P&C Meeting that the P&C fund new netball dresses for our school netball teams. The current dresses are more than 12 years old and are no longer fit for their purpose. There are also not enough dresses to go around for all the students playing netball for the school.

The P&C has approved funding for new netball dresses featuring our school’s Aboriginal design. This design was created by local Aboriginal artist Jakeob Watson in consultation with our Aboriginal Culture Hub group and the P&C in 2023. It will help other schools readily identify our amazing school at netball events and build our team spirit! 🌈

Now we need your help! There are 3 design options to choose from. Please click on the survey link to place your vote. Don’t forget to check with your kids what their favourite option is!

🗳️ Submit your votes by 9pm Sunday, 15 June!

👉 Vote Here!

Thank you for your participation and support! 💖

🌳 Enrichment Tree Update! 🌳

Our Enrichment Tree is almost finished – we are aiming to complete the contributions by the end of the term so we can make the purchases and get them into the classrooms ASAP! 🛒🏫 If you have been waiting to make your contribution, please take the time in the next few weeks to make your selections for your children’s classrooms. 🎉

There's something for everyone, from a few dollars to larger contributions. 💰 Head to our website for more information and to make your contributions at Enrichment Tree 2025 | Floraville P S P&C Association.

It’s a great idea to share the link for your child's year group with your family and friends to help get our whole community behind supporting our students! 🤝❤️ If every family can contribute something, big or small, all of our children will reap the benefits of this. 🌈

We have had contributions from 12% of families in our school so far, so thank you! 🙏 If you are having any technical difficulties with the website, please let us know so we can help – either reach out to us on our Facebook page or email fpspresident@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support! 🌟

🌟 Volunteer of the Month Announcement! 🌟

Our Volunteer of the Month was announced at this week’s P&C meeting, and we had a tie this month! 🎉 Congratulations to Leanne Gollop and Amanda Jackson for being our fabulous volunteers this month! 👏

Leanne was praised for her efforts as the P&C Secretary, keeping up with all the P&C administration tasks for the last 2.5 years, while Amanda was recognised for her tireless efforts coordinating our canteen volunteers, helping in the canteen every week, and serving as our school hat coordinator. 🥳

We will share more about our wonderful volunteers on the P&C Facebook page, so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks! 👀 Leanne and Amanda will receive their goodies from Cake Cake Baby and Zarraffa’s Coffee as a token of our appreciation. 🍰☕

Thank you both for your hard work and dedication! 💖