Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Our teachers make a difference!

Teachers at South Coogee PS spend a lot of time preparing, planning and organising quality teaching and learning experiences for our learners. They do this because they know they make a difference. Research is unwavering. We are impactful because we use the most effective strategies and influences - we know we are making a difference.

The effect size barometer: We work beyond the identified hinge point of 0.4.

>0.40 = student learning accelerates

0.40 = (Zone of desired effects). Learning a year’s worth of academic material over the course of one year.

0.00 = no effect on student learning

<0.00= negatively affected

More information will be shown at the Parent Information evening in Term Two to remind you of how we are successfully supporting your children. This session will provide you with a better understanding of what is happening inside the classroom. During this session, we will look at elaborating on the Visible Learning practices and pedagogical teaching strategies we use, new curriculum implementation as well as a encourage you to work with us to further build Collective Teacher Efficacy. (See insert below). Please add Monday May 1^st, 2023 @ 6pm to your calendar.

So how do we do it? Some examples below.

Gone are the traditional days of working 9-3pm. In fact in my entire career I have never come across a teacher who has successfully worked these hours.

Teachers at South Coogee PS work beyond the perception of their ‘daily expectations’. They continue to create and take on many extra curricula activities, whilst also making additional time to work individually with children.

Teachers have a huge responsibility not only to learners and our school, but also to achieve the expectations of the Department of Education to ensure a consistency in professional development as lead learners in our school community. We have an intensive professional learning strategy where your teachers engage with numerous collaborative professional learning sessions focusing on such things as:

• Collaborative planning of curriculum programs, feedback and review
• Collective analysis of data to improve student learning
• New Curriculum implementation
• Mandatory training
• Reviewing policy, school guidelines, and survey data  
• Future–focused preparation, strategic direction guided by the School Plan
• Upskilling pedagogies and sharing practise

I’m sure you will join me in appreciating the effort and dedication that our teachers offer your children, as we continue to implement impactful teaching and learning at our school. A thank you, a smile is always welcomed too.

Trish Fisher, Principal

NAPLAN 2022

We know that NAPLAN is a moment in time and data is used by schools to identify whole school strategic directions – however when you just happen to get some comparative information, we are cheekily letting our parent community know that we have ranked higher! than many of our surrounding schools. You know I don’t follow the hype but sometimes when the media news goes our way, I’m happy to share positive news 😊

South Coogee Public school ranked 334

Let's call them:

Local school a) ranked 863

Local school b) ranked 741

Local school c) ranked 617

Local school d) ranked 441

Local school e) ranked 412

Deputy Principal's Message

What's on:

Week 6

Staff Wellbeing Week

Tuesday 28 February

• 2022 K-2 Leaders lunch with the Principal

Thursday 2 March

• 2022 3-6 Leaders lunch with the Principal

Week 7

Wednesday 8 March

• P&C AGM

Friday 10 March

• Teddy Bear's Picnic - Kindergaren

Week 8 

NAPLAN starts during this week

Week 9

NAPLAN continues

Tuesday 21 March

• Harmony Day

Week 10

Monday-Friday

• Parent teacher interview week

Thursday 30 March

• Stage 3 Leadership day

Week 11

Thursday 6 April

• K-2 Easter Hat Parade
• Last day of school for all Learners

1M News

1M has hit the year running at a cracking pace! We are very lucky to have two teachers - Mrs Pitarelli and Mrs Monkhouse. We have already organised ourselves into table names, reading, spelling and number groups.

We have begun learning and being engaged with beautiful books in our Literacy Block sessions. We enjoyed Our Island and Under the Southern Cross, making connections with the gorgeous Sydney Harbour, tourist destinations and our surrounding areas.

Maths is a subject we have all focused on with many hands-on activities. 1M is developing our knowledge, understanding and skills of place value, and how attributes can be used to sort objects. We are further developing our knowledge, skill, and understanding of patterns.

IM also really enjoy Science with Mr Paea, sport with Mrs Stewart and Library with the funny Mrs Leal.

We are all looking forward to a marvellous year ahead full of learning, fun, and experiencing the many facets of school life.

2K News

2K have had a fantastic start to Year 2! We are all excited to engage with our learning and make new friends this year! 

At the start of the term we have been having lots of discussions about our goals and things that we would like to achieve this year. Here are some of our 2K goals. 

I want to be a better public speaker. Penelope

I want to get better at doing sport. Josie

I want to make new friends. Isabella

I want to get better at maths. William

I want to try and listen to the teacher more. Harley

I want to get better at division. Alistair W

4H News

This term 4H have been busy learning about living and non-living things with their science teacher Mr Paea.

They have also been learning about the rules and strategies of Netball along with the ball skills required for this fast-paced sport.

This week 4H got to spend time teaming up with our fellow year 4 peers and their Kindergarten buddies. We got to learn a lot about the new kindergarten students whilst also sharing some memories and insights into our time so far at South Coogee PS. We look forward to helping our buddies in their journey through Kindergarten.

In art, 4H have been learning about organic shapes found in nature, and incorporating that style of drawing and design onto a tracing of each student’s hands. Below are some examples:

Zone Swimming Carnival 2023

On Monday 27 February 2023 our school swimming representatives attended the Zone Swimming Carnival held at Botany Aquatic Centre Swimming Pool.

Congratulations to all students, as this is such an outstanding achievement! Students competed in a variety of races including the relay, freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly. Some students even compete in up to 5 races!

All students achieved incredible results on the day, competing against a number of different schools as part of the Eastern Suburbs Zone.

All students were wonderful on the day and we want to congratulate all competitors on their amazing achievements.

The school has also received some exciting news! The students listed below have successfully qualified and made it through to the Sydney East Carnival that is being held on Monday 13 March.

Our Zone representatives attending this carnival are:

Ava B

Zali L

Micaela G

Elsie G

Andrei S

Marshall B

Congratulations and good luck to our South Coogee Public School swimmers at the next carnival!

Miss Harris and Mr Tesoriero

From The Office

Uniform Shop

The school’s Uniform Shop is currently only able to open on Friday mornings from 8.30-9.30am.

In order for the uniform shop to be able to operate we rely on our parents and carers to get involved. It can be something as simple as an hour and a half one morning a week in the uniform shop or taking on an admin role that you could do at home.

We do understand that the school community would like the uniform shop to open more often, but this is not possible without more helpers, so please email to let them know if you can help out.

Also, if you have any other questions please use the email address below:

uniformshopscps@gmail.com

All uniform purchases can be made via the Square website:

https://scps-uniformshop-square.site/

You do not need to open an account, simply select the ‘shop now’ button on the home page.

Lost Property – Label, Label, Label!

In order for us to return lost property to the rightful owner, all items need to be labelled clearly – hats, jumpers, lunchboxes, water bottles. Please check regularly to make sure names haven’t worn off.

Back to School Vouchers

Follow the link below for information regarding eligible expenses for the Premier's Back to School NSW Vouchers program. 

To utilise your voucher please come to the school office when a payment is due.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/back-to-school-vouchers/guidelines#appendix-a-eligible-expenses

COMING SOON - School Bytes Finance System

We are excited to announce our school will be transitioning to an upgraded School Bytes finance system on 21 March 2023!

In preparation for the transition to a simplified finance system for both you and the school, we will be required to implement a short payment lockout period where we will not be able to receive any online or EFTPOS payments.

What this means for you:

• No payments can be made online or via EFTPOS from 4pm, Wednesday 15th March 2023 to 6am on Tuesday, 21st March 2023.

• Any existing payment links that have been sent to you previously in emails can still be used after the transition and will automatically redirect to the new system

• After the transition, a School Bytes portal will be available for you to register and begin using the following link:

 https://portal.schoolbytes.education

• All previous payments made will be migrated to the new School Bytes finance system and portal

What is the School Bytes portal?

The School Bytes portal provides flexibility for you to conveniently:

• Make school payments online (including paying for multiple siblings at once)

• Use a family credit to pay for an activity or school contributions

• Download a receipt for payments made

• View all historical payments in one place

• Complete and submit digital permission notes

• View the status of all permission notes

• Request a refund if required

This can be done where you want at any time: day or night.

Through the portal, you will easily be able to download a receipt once a payment has been made and have access to view all historical payments when needed. Online payments are processed in real-time and can be viewed by school staff immediately.

Deputy Principal's Message

What a wonderful term we have had to start 2023.

We had a number of opportunities for our students to showcase their skills and to work collaboratively throughout the term. Some of the events have included the school Cross Country held down at Latham Park, Stage 3 were part of the Aspire Higher leadership program, Kindergarten had their teddy bear’s picnic and Stage 2 have enjoyed their incursion related to their history unit on community and remembrance. 

Thank you to all our parents/carers for actively engaging with teaching staff to develop positive relationships during our recent parent teacher interviews. An open and collaborative partnership between home and school is vital to ensuring the success of all of our learners. We value your input regarding your child.

We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday break and we look forward to welcoming students back on Wednesday 26 April 2022.

Kate Owen

Deputy Principal

Student Voice - 2023 Student leaders

Each week in this section our 2023 student leaders will be sharing their thoughts and opinions. This week we are introducing who our school leaders are for 2023. Below is a short message from all of our leaders.

This term has gone by so fast. Ava, Gabriel, Adelaide and I, have had meetings with Ms Fisher and Ms Owen.We have been thinking about adding some more equipment to the Ola. This term we also had our swimming carnival. Lots of our students got into the swimming zone carnival and some into regionals! Our cross country also went ahead with lots of excited students to run in the zone carnival!

Have a great break everyone and see you next term. Make sure you come and say hi to all of us.

Class of the Week - KS

Beginning school for the first time is a huge achievement. All of KS have been brave, determined and curious while learning the school routines, making new friends and developing a love for learning.

Is it a Blork or a Bluurf? KS have had fun creating their own characters using modelling clay and writing about them. We have also been busy having fun playing games, learning how to read and write and contribute to number talks in a reflective and creative way. KS have made amazing artworks of bears, portraits, family pictures and book characters.

KS enjoy their Sport lessons doing Gymnastics with Mrs Stewart. Library, History and Science have been lots of fun with Mrs Leal. Time spent with our Year 4 buddies has also been a special thing to do each week.

I’m so proud of KS! It’s been a wonderful, exciting and fun first term and I look forward to more fantastic adventures with this amazing class.

Mrs Sheree Smith

Class of the Week - 2L

2L have been reading a touching story called “Koala Ark” by Stephen Michael King.

 It is a story of courage, compassion, and survival, which saw people across Australia come together to save our wildlife from devastation.

This book is based on events witnessed by the author in the 2020 bushfires.

From this, 2L have written and designed persuasive posters to help “Save The Koalas”. They listened to audio episodes that gave them information about koalas and also how to protect them.

Class of the Week - 3M

What have we enjoyed this term:

Sport, Science and Maths - Jackson, Thomas, Ben

Maths, because it pushes us further - Max and Stan

My favourite maths strategy is split strategy. I also enjoyed using my imagination in writing and doing my spelling - Tristan and Philip

Reading books and making new friends - Jana

Playing soccer at lunch and doing Year 3 work - Oliver and Jude

Art and Maths. In art we drew the Sydney harbour bridge - Sasha

Making new friends, learning new things and having fun - Ellis

Reading and Sevens and learning with my teacher - Jordan

Drawing our self portraits - Isabelle

Playing  Sevens and celebrity number - Ella and Chloe

Maths, my teachers, friends of ten, and my friends - Andrei

Doing science with the iPad and playing Kahoot - Beau and Harry

Learning new maths skills, making new friends and our teacher Mrs M - Lexi and Lara

Playing sevens and making new friends - Kiana

Doing maths and spelling - Aaliyah

Doing fun work with Mrs Monaghan and playing games - Mila and Heidi

Doing maths and learning all the different strategies - Tijmen

Class of the Week - 5/6M

5/6M have been super busy this term. Here are what some of the students have said about our learning so far!

Writing: This year we have done some fun narrative writing. Dafne and I (Sophie) enjoyed the paired narrative most. We worked with a partner to create a story about anything we want! We also worked on Exciting endings and Sizzling starts which was really fun. We have improved so much! Especially with 'show don’t tell' strategies.

Dafne and Sophie

Number talks: In Number Talks we have learnt to not focus on the answer but on the different strategies and ways to solve the equation. We have been using strategies like jump and split strategy, rounding and box multiplication.

Kiara and Mimi

Art: This term in art we have made Harmony Day art, portraits, and an artwork that we used to describe things about ourselves! We used mainly watercolor paints, acrylic paints, pencils, textas and oil pastels. The artworks that we have done allowed us to express ourselves.

Elsie and Tayla

PE: PE has been great this term. Loads of us have successfully learnt how to throw a shot put and discus. The best thing about PE is being able to learn new skills. Thank you Mrs T for teaching us.

Vinnie

PSSA: This term I have loved being a part of the AFL team and can't wait to continue midfielding in Term 4. I think PSSA is very well put together. It has good rules, and I think the idea that most schools can do it is great. Overall, I rate PSSA a 9.5/10.

Aspire Higher: In aspire higher we learnt about how to work together and how to work with people that we were not familiar with. Aspire higher was a good experience to work with people that you don't know very well and get a good chance to learn something new about someone. It's also a very fun program which teaches you about leadership and teamwork.

Yrs 3-6 Cross Country Carnival

On Wednesday 29 March 2023, our school held its annual Cross Country Carnival for students in years 3-6 at Latham Park.

The day started off not looking too promising however the sun was fighting through the clouds, and apart from a little drizzle of rain it turned out to be another fun, successful carnival for our runners at South Coogee Public School.

Our junior students ran a total distance of 2 kilometres and our senior students ran a distance of 3 kilometres. All our runners were outstanding on the day, as this course is definitely not an easy one! We saw amazing courage, perseverance and sportsmanship throughout the whole carnival.

We would like to congratulate everyone who participated and tried their hardest on the day. Students qualifying for the upcoming Zone carnival being held on the 12^th of May will be notified closer to the date.

Also - a huge thank you to our parent helpers on the day. Without you the carnival would not run as smoothly and successfully, and we want to let you know that your help and assistance is very much appreciated!

Congratulations students of South Coogee, you should be very proud of yourselves!

Miss Harris and Mr Tesoriero

K-2 Teddy Bear's Picnic

Kindergarten students had a lovely time at the Teddy Bear’s Picnic on Friday 10 March. In the morning, each class completed fun literacy and craft activities. Parents and carers arrived for the picnic, then students performed teddy bear songs, took part in a teddy bear relay race and had fun playing with the large parachutes.

Picnic rugs, baskets, yummy treats and of course gorgeous teddies covered the Kindy quad in a display of beautiful colours. The sun shone brightly and provided a wonderful atmosphere for the students, parents, carers and teachers to enjoy the event.

All teddies were on their best behaviour and we all had so much fun!

Science News

In term 1, Kindy have had so much fun learning about living and non living things.

As it has been raining so much the last few days, the students in KD participated in a classic, exciting and engaging experiment, making their own rain clouds in a jar.

The students explored the concept of why and how it rains which leads into next terms science topic weather in my world.

Senior Choir News

The Senior Choir is very lucky to be singing once again at the Coogee RSL Dawn Service on ANZAC Day, 25  April 2023. This is a very special event that we feel grateful to be involved in.

This year we are performing with country music legend and Six time Golden Guitar award winner Amber Lawrence.

Amber joined us for a rehearsal on Tuesday. It was an awesome experience for our singers.

What a turn out!

Our biggest Senior Choir ever this year. We love singing together.

I’m so proud of all of you!

Choir parents - We will be sending updates via email over the holidays. 

Please email Mrs Michaels for any information or absence for our dawn service.

kate.michaels@det.nsw.edu.au

We look forward to our performance on ANZAC day with Amber. This is such a special event for our learners to be involved in. It is an early start, but a great experience our learners will not forget. 

Thank you for your support. 

Kate Michaels

From The Office

Thank you for your patience as we transition to our new finance system.

Please remember to register for the Parent Portal. This is a very easy way for you to make payments, download receipts, sign and return permission notes digitally, use any credits on your account to make payments, view your complete payment history, request a refund. Simple! Just visit:

https://portal.schoolbytes.education

Intention to Apply for Year 5 entry to an Opportunity Class in 2024

Opportunity classes cater for intellectually gifted and high potential students who may otherwise be without sufficient classmates at their own academic and social level. Students successfully placed will usually have to leave their current school to enroll in a school with an opportunity class for Years 5 and 6.

Testing and assessment

Applications for opportunity class placement are considered on the results of the Opportunity Class Placement Test alone. Students who wish to be considered for opportunity class placement will sit the Opportunity Class Placement Test on Thursday 27 July 2023.

How to apply

If you would like to have your child considered for Year 5 opportunity class entry in 2023, you need to apply between Thursday 30 March 2023 and Monday 15 May 2023. You will need to access the online application at: https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-5.