From The Principal’s Desk Mother’s Day Stall Thank you to the amazing mums who took the time out of their busy schedules to help put together all of the Mother’s Day gifts for this year’s stall. The Mother’s Day stall is organised to provide our students with small gifts to purchase for this special day. It is not a fundraising event for the school, as we ensure we only sell the items for the price we buy them. This year a limit of two gifts per child was

set, so all students had the chance to buy at least two gifts (one for mum and one for grandma). Students were then given the opportunity to purchase additional gifts if there were gifts left over. Again, thank you to the mums who wrapped 650 individual presents to ensure there was at least two per child (for 288 students plus 36 B.E.L.L. students).

Road Safety - Crossing Supervisor At the beginning of this term, I sent in another application to the Roads and Maritime Service for a school crossing supervisor. I was also able to send in the data provided by you all, supporting the need for the crossing supervisor. This included the following information, as indicated by the surveys returned (64 parents/carers returned the surveys, which is one third of the parent population):-

• The number of parents who will not let their child cross the Laycock Street crossing unsupervised as it is unsafe

60 parents - 93.5% of respondents (of 108 students) • The number of parents who walk their child across the crossing as they believe it Is

UNSAFE for them to walk across themselves - 59 parents 92% of respondents (of 107 students)

• The number of parents who indicated that they would allow their child/ren to use the crossing if there was a supervisor in the morning

64 parents - 100% of responders (of 114 students) • The number of parents who indicated that they would allow their child/ren to use

the crossing if there was a supervisor in the morning 64 parents - 100% of responders (of 114 students)

I have just spoken to the RMS, who indicated they have received the application. I have been advised that in the coming weeks another survey will be done on the number of children who cross the road during 8:15am and 9:15am, and between 2:30pm and 3:30pm. They will be counting children who cross the road unaccompanied (50 are required each morning and each afternoon). Given the circumstances and the feedback collected, I have stressed the importance of them also using the data above. I will publish information about possible dates when and if I receive notice.

Tuesday 22nd May, 2018 Term: 2 | Week: 3

Important Dates

Wednesday, May 23rd

Whole School Assembly 12.25pm

Thursday, May 24th Braddock’s Delicious Yummy Cake Stall CAPA Fundraiser

Friday, May 25th Penrith Cup Gala Day- League Tag

Thursday, May 31st Responsible Pet

Ownership

Friday, June 1st PSSA

From The Principal’s Desk (cont,d’) Parent Fundraising Group Our parent group have decided they would like to organise a fundraising disco for term 2. Parents have decided that all funds raised will go towards literacy and numeracy resources for students to use in classrooms. The disco will be held in week 10 this term on Thursday 5th July. The K-2 Disco will be held from 4:00 - 5:30pm and the 3-6 Disco from 6:00 - 7:30pm. The theme for the disco is “Rock Stars”. Another parent planning meeting will be held on Monday 18th June to finalise the arrangements. Smoking on and near school grounds Please be aware that there is to be NO Smoking on or near school grounds. This includes the car park and at the front of the school near the school gate. Please be mindful that children and parents are entering and exiting the school grounds and therefore it is not acceptable to be smoking near either school pedestrian gate. School Starting Time It is important to remember that school lessons begin at 9:00am. Our morning session is our Literacy session which runs from 9:00 - 11:00am. Learning starts as soon as students walk through the door. If a student is even a few minutes late, they miss vital instruction and this can impact significantly on their learning. Have a wonderful week! Ms Michelle Drage Principal 3Please make sure your children

wear helmets if they ride a bike or scooter to school.

2Miss Jody's fitness happens every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Feel free to join in!

1Teacher professional learning this term has focussed on Growth Mindset and the setting of high academic expectations.

Save the Date!

K-2 Fun day “Athletics Carnival" 12:00am - 1:30pm 28th June.

All parents are welcome. There will be a fundraising BBQ on the

day.

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3-6 Athletics Carnival

Friday 29th June

PSSA Rugby League Our Stage 2 and 3 boys competed in their first game of the PSSA Rugby League Competition on Friday. Our team showed excellent sportsmanship, teamwork skills and resilience during the game as we were behind by one try (4 points) throughout the game. The boys did not give up, we were able to score a try to get us in front on the scoreboard and through an amazing effort defensively, keep Glenmore Park PS from scoring any further tries. The boys showed excellent defensive skills with Jack chasing down a Glenmore Park player who had broken the defensive line and was on his way down to score an 80m try. Jack tackled him 5m from the try line and saved the try. A huge shout out to our Players’ Player – Jamie, who played in his first EVER game of rugby league and made some hard runs and tackles. Also to our Man of the Match – Porourangi for his big runs and tackles; at one point Porourangi had 5-6 of the opposition trying to tackle him and he just kept running! The boys should be very proud of themselves for the way they played and supported each other throughout the game. Not only have some of them never played footy before, the team only had one training session! I am more than proud of the way the team represented Braddock during the match and their sportsmanship was exemplary. This sportsmanship was led by our captain, Frank, who was an excellent role model for the team. WELL DONE BOYS! I cannot wait until the next game Miss Heterick

A PROUD MOMENT This year marks 100 years of the ANZAC Legend. As an integral part of our ANZAC Day commemorations, the students of Braddock Public School recently collected a diverse, original and creative set of special written messages and outstanding illustrations together and sent them off to the brave people serving in the Australian Defence Forces. The activity was inspired by an elderly WW2 veteran’s recollection of how Australian school children wrote kind letters, clever poems, funny jokes and little uplifting notes to the brave soldiers serving their country in active duty overseas during World War II. Often decorated with awesome illustrations and brightly coloured borders, these were messages of thanks and encouragement for our soldiers . . . with words of proud recognition of their brave and dedicated service to the nation . . . messages which were then placed inside warm, hand-knitted socks and scarves which the ladies in their local Country Women’s Associations (or CWAs) made . . . and sometimes accompanied by yummy, home-made batches of ANZAC biscuits and lollies . . . and then sent off to the soldiers on the Front Lines. When we heard this story at Braddock, we thought it was a most generous and thoughtful act indeed . . . and we thought, as a school, we could perhaps duplicate it in some small way ourselves, by creating and sending our own small package of goodwill messages , poems and pictures to a battalion of brave Aussie soldiers currently serving somewhere in the world today . . . perhaps in the Middle East or some other troubled place . . . where Aussies are again contributing to the well-being of our world. Every class was invited to contribute something to our special parcel and we then shared some of those items with each other at our Special ANZAC Day Assembly at the close of term one before we sent the precious collection off to the Australian Army. It was a proud and heart-warming moment for us all. The overall participation of students and school staff in this activity was a very deep and thought-provoking experience which has now been authenticated by an official letter of acknowledgement and thanks from the Australian Army. A copy of the letter is printed in today’s Bradbits for you to see and proudly share with family and friends. Lest We Forget.

At Braddock Public School, We Are Super Learners! From the moment they step into the classroom, Braddock students make a commitment to improving their learning, particularly reading, writing and mathematics. Our students know how to set goals and understand what they need to do to achieve them. They work hard and know they can always improve by putting in the effort, especially when it gets hard. Our learners know that their brain is like a muscle that needs to work out problems and find solutions, perhaps by asking for help when it gets tricky. Everybody has set a reading goal and knows that the only way to improve their reading is to READ! Every student needs to read every day and practise sight words or spelling lists, every day! Students are assessed in their reading every five weeks and in Years K-3, we expect students to move at least one reading level. In Years 4-5, students work on improving comprehension of what they are reading. This can be by finding information directly from the words the author has used (teachers call this HERE information). Students can also look for HIDDEN information, where they have to think a bit more deeply about what the author is trying to say but not directly. HIDDEN information requires students to make connections about their own experiences to words or ideas the author uses, and think about what the author means. HEAD information is based on more creative ideas from the student and they think about what their feelings and thoughts are about the text.

The citrus orchard is powering along. We have many kilos of ripe lemons and some still to mature. Our mandarins trees are providing ‘crunch and sip’ for the class. The orange tree has fruit which should ripen before the end of term. Our lime tree has struggled with the lack of rain during the holiday as has the passionfruit vine so we have purchased a new sprinkler which should help.

We have finished harvesting our climbing beans and have planted a winter crop of potatoes, silver beet, broccoli, carrots and beetroot which are growing well. 3/6B is looking forward to sharing more of our garden adventures in the next newsletter.

Welcome to autumn in the garden!

The pumpkin patch has produced a bumper crop which we have harvested and will mature over the next few weeks. We will grade and weigh the pumpkins and work out their cost per kilo before offering them for sale. Money raised will go towards future garden projects. Our ‘king’ pumpkin will be made into soup in our cooking lesson and shared with our neighbouring classes.

Mrs Jody’s Recipe of the week Low Carb zucchini and bacon slice Great idea for school lunches Servings -8 Calories – 177 Cal Ingredients • 6 eggs • 60ml milk • 115g cream cheese softened • ½ cup diced bacon • 1 spring onion • 4 medium zucchini diced • 100g grated cheese • Salt /pepper to taste Instructions 1. Whisk the eggs and milk together 2. Add the softened cream cheese. Don’t try to mix together too smoothly,

I like to see little lumps of cream cheese in the slice. 3. Add the bacon, spring onion and zucchini. 4. Stir and pour into a lined baking dish. 5. Cover with grated cheese, 6. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes, or until cooked in the centre.

Stewart House Clothing Appeal 2 things are happening right now... your children are growing out of their clothes and you need to make space in your wardrobes for the winter woollies! So... do you have some clean clothing just waiting for a new home? Each year our school community supports the work of the Stewart House- Smith Family partnership by collecting as many bags of good quality used clothing as possible! All money raised goes to the ongoing work of Stewart House. We have just had two students return from a marvellous two weeks at Collaroy Beach where they enjoyed school and a break away, in the beautiful surroundings of Stewart House. Our school will directly benefit from this find-raising effort so, please, search your wardrobes and fill a bag... The first collection for this year is Friday, 8th June. Bags can be returned to Miss Daly in Orange Cluster.