Dear Parents,

The main reason why a school develops a three-year VISION every three years is to ‘paint a picture’ of what the staff, students, and parents at that school want the school and its students to be like, to look like, and to sound like by the end of that three-year period.

We all know that if our students and your children are going to be successful, happy, well-rounded young people and grow up to be successful, happy and well-rounded adults then they need to develop outstanding:

• Basic Skills;
• 21^st Century Skills of critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, character, and citizenship; and
• Technology Skills.

Our learning community’s commitment to ensuring  that each one of our students develops outstanding ‘Basic Skills’, ‘21^st Century Skills’, and ‘Technology Skills’ formed the basis of the development of our school’s 2018-2020 School Vision. As you know, our Vision is:

‘TO BE AUSTRALIA’S MOST OUTSTANDING FUTURE-FOCUSED LEARNING COMMUNITY.’

We have strategically and importantly defined what this Vision will mean for our students, for our leaders, for our teachers, and for our parents. By the end of 2020 we are expecting and have planned for the following to have all become a reality:

Students will be inspired, motivated and engaged to:

• Develop outstanding Basic Skills (eg speaking and listening, reading, writing, numeracy).
• Develop outstanding 21st Century Skills
• Develop outstanding Technology Skills by utilising technology for deep integrated learning.
• Develop the skills and capabilities to thrive in a rapidly changing and interconnected world and to succeed today and in the future.

Leaders will lead initiatives within the school to:

• Develop the knowledge, skills and abilities to be effective whole school change agents.
• Facilitate teachers to develop the knowledge, skills and abilities to implement a repertoire of teaching strategies that are evidence-based and that maximise each student’s ‘Basic Skills’, ’21st Century Skills’, and ‘Technology Skills’.
• Develop and implement parent engagement programs that will enable parents to be partners in their children’s learning.

Teachers will teach and learn in a culture that assists them:

• Develop the knowledge, skills and capabilities to facilitate students to maximise their ‘Basic Skills’, ‘21st Century Skills’, and ‘Technology Skills’.
• Increase their sense of agency and autonomy over aspects of their professional learning.
• Inspire intrinsic motivation and confidence to utilise future-focused approaches in their classroom pedagogy.

Parents will participate in a range of programs to:

• Develop their knowledge, skills and abilities to be partners in their children’s learning to assist their children maximise their ‘Basic Skills’, ’21st Century Skills’, and ‘Technology Skills’.

We believe our school is exceptional at assisting our students develop very strong Basic Skills and while we will continue to ensure that our students develop high quality literacy and numeracy outcomes we think the time is right for Auburn North to strategically “SPREAD OUR WINGS” and to gradually “DIVERSIFY” by placing more emphasis on assisting students develop outstanding:

• 21^st Century Skills
• Technology Skills

We expect that the next 18 months of our school’s development (evolution) will prove to be very exciting and productive for our students, leaders, teachers, and parents.

K-6 ATHLETICS CARNIVAL / SPORTS FUN DAY

Many records were set during last week’s K-6 athletics carnival/sports fun day including the fact that it was our school’s best-ever carnival. Thanks to Ms Pham, Ms Collins, and Ms Woodward, our teachers who spent many hours organising the carnival, the entire day’s program ran like clockwork. Thank you and congratulations Ms Woodward, Ms Collins, and Ms Pham.

As I sat on the hill for a while on toilet duty watching the carnival in action, it reminded me of a typical fantastic Auburn North lesson in our classrooms. Everywhere I looked I saw:

• Happy and engaged students.
• Students encouraging one another.
• All students succeeding because they were doing their very best.
• Teachers doing their assigned jobs so efficiently and happily, and working with one another to assist the carnival be a great success.
• Parents supporting their children and our school.

It was a day when our school really was at its very best.

EMAIL from MS HUNTER

Ms Hunter was selected to teach in our school for all 10 weeks last term. She has since returned to her home country to continue her teaching career. Before Ms Hunter left our school she sent an email to our staff thanking them for being such a welcoming team of teachers. I would like to share her email with you.

“Dear Auburn North Staff,

I would like to say a huge thank you for having me at Auburn North. It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to work with you all for the past 10 weeks. I have truly felt like a member of the Auburn North family because of the supportive team of colleagues and the students who are a joy to teach.

I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching here and I have learned so much. It has been wonderful to get to know you all and I will take home many happy memories of ANPS. 

I wish you all a happy holiday and the best of luck in pursuing your dream of becoming an outstanding school!”

Mark Harris

Principal

The Gold Badge is our most special award.

Students have two opportunities each term to be selected to receive a Gold Badge by their classroom teacher, Community Language teacher, specialist support teacher or members of the executive team. At the end of each term all students who have received a Gold Badge will participate in a special Gold Badge Reward at school. At the end of the year, all students who have earned a Gold Badge throughout the year will celebrate their achievement on a very special excursion to Reading Cinemas, where they will watch a new release children’s movie!

To encourage all students to strive to achieve a Gold Badge, we have developed a new set of Gold Badge criteria which are linked to our school values. To be eligible for a Gold Badge, students must achieve each of the criteria for 5 consecutive weeks. Where a student earns a Gold Badge and then stops demonstrating the criteria, their Gold Badge can be removed for two weeks while they work to earn their Gold Badge back.

We encourage all families to talk about the Gold Badge criteria at home to help students further understand what they need to do to earn a Gold Badge this year. If students are unsure about what they need to do to earn a Gold Badge this year, they are encouraged to ask their teachers as soon as possible.

The new Gold Badge criteria is attached to this newsletter.

A number of students have been entering school in the morning via the Parramatta Road staff carpark either by themselves or with parents. This is extremely dangerous as cars and delivery trucks use this driveway and carpark in the morning. It is important that all students and parents use the pedestrian gate on Parramatta Road to enter the school.

No students or parents are to enter school via the Parramatta Road carpark.

Thank you for ensuring the safety of all members of the Auburn North family.

2A Science Projects

2A has been learning about the Earth’s natural resources in Science. One of the highlights of this unit has been designing and creating a water capture and storage system that included a house with guttering, pipes and water tanks. Through this project, students were able to learn the 21^st century skills of creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking. It was wonderful to witness 2A demonstrating these skills and designing and creating such imaginative working designs while having so much fun! We look forward to continuing such high quality learning throughout term 3.

2C’s first week back!

2C have had a fantastic start to Term 3 at ANPS! We have had a fun week filled with learning and laughter. Here is a snapshot of what we have been up to this week.

We celebrated NAIDOC week.

2C spent some time celebrating NAIDOC week this week. We learned that NAIDOC week celebrates the history and the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s culture to Australia. We read several Dreamtime stories including “The Rainbow Serpent” and even collaged our very own Aboriginal flags.

We participated in the Athletics carnival.

2C hopped on the bus on Thursday morning and drove down to Wyatt Park, along with all of the other classes from ANPS. We had so much fun cheering for our houses, participating in different tabloid events including discus and tunnel ball and racing in the 100m race! We were certainly very tired by the end of the day and had some sore muscles on Friday.

We continued our numeracy and literacy learning in class.

2C had a very full week of teaching and learning as well! We continued to learn how to use the split strategy as a strategy for addition and subtraction. We also learned how to use quotation marks in our writing! We now know that quotation marks need a beginning, an end, a capital letter and punctuation.

2C are super excited for our teaching and learning to continue in Term 3! We cannot wait to see what fun learning experiences are to come.  

This Week we learnt that, often authors do not directly tell a character's trait(s), but readers can figure out those traits by analysing what the character does, says and thinks.

We read the paper bag princess and we have focused on Elizabeth the main character. To figure out Elizabeth's character traits we analysing what she does, says and thinks.

Together we decided that Elizabeth is Smart, brave and confident.

Book Week is the longest running children’s festival in Australia. The theme of Book Week 2019 is ‘Reading Is My Secret Power’. This theme encourages students to realise that books are full of knowledge and having knowledge is like having a secret power.

Parents and friends are invited to join us on Thursday 22^nd August.

We have some exciting activities planned which celebrate the importance of reading. 

Dress up as a character from a book: 

All students, teachers and parents are encouraged to dress up as a character from one of their favourite books. This has been a very enjoyable Auburn North tradition for the past several years. Students do not need to buy anything to wear and are encouraged to think creatively about how they can wear what they have at home. To show off all the wonderful costumes there will be a character parade in the hall. 

Have a look at the school website gallery for pictures from past Book Weeks to see how simple costumes can be.

All parents are invited to participate in our Character Parade celebrations which are on at the following times.

• K-1 students: colouring competition, students can colour in a picture related to Book Week for a chance to win some prizes.
• Yr2-3 students: drawing competition, students have the chance to design their very own superhero for a chance to win some prizes.
• Yrs4-6 students: writing competition, students have an opportunity to write about this years theme "Reading is My Secret Power" to win some prizes.

Mission: Auburn Schools as Community Centre or Harmony House seeks to provide a holistic service to parents, families and individuals to promote their health and wellbeing.

Term 3 2019 Parent Initiatives

• NEW FREE Breakfast for Dads on Saturday 31^st August 9.30-12 at Auburn Centre for the Community
• NEW School Community Garden gardening for fun with parents 1.30-2.30pm Monday 12^th August
• NEW 3-5 year old children SPORTS group Friday
• Learn ENGLISH by qualified teachers on Monday & Thursday
• Eat a healthy BREAKFAST for children on Monday, Wednesday & Friday
• Learn to have fun with your child and see them grow & develop at PLAYGROUP Tuesdays
• YOUNG PARENTS under 25 years of age Project: Barista training
• Learn to Swim group program for women on Wed
• Stretch & relax at YOGA on Fridays
• PLAYGROUP for children with developmental needs
• PLAYGROUP at Auburn Public School

Contact: Auburn North Public School

Harmony House: 100 Adderley St. Auburn 97487606

Twitter: @AuburnHarmony 

Website https://auburnnth-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/

Links to Auburn North Public School Plan 2018-2020 Strategic Directions 3. Engage families as partners in learning.