Dear Parents,

The Auburn North staff would like to welcome you and your children back to school for the most important term of this year. When students returned to school they were well-rested, they were dressed perfectly in their school uniforms, they were looking forward to seeing their teachers and their school friends, and they were motivated to resume their formal learning.

This is the most important term of the year for a number of reasons. These reasons include students hoping and expecting to:

1. Achieve their personal learning goals and targets, especially those in literacy and numeracy.
2. See some of their 2020 ‘Dreams’ become a reality. Dreams such as being presented with a Gold Badge and being invited to the Principal’s Morning Tea.
3. Receive their best-ever School Report.

Students will achieve each of the above if they continue to work to the very best of their ability during all lessons and if they continue to live and breathe our six school Values.

By continuing to work to their very best of their ability all this term students will be:

1. Promoted to a higher grade next year.
2. Prepared to succeed in that higher grade right from the beginning of the 2021 school year.

A DELIGHTFUL EMAIL from ONE OF OUR FAMILIES

Last week we received a delightful email from the parents of some of our students. Unfortunately, the family has left the Auburn area and their children are now attending a public school in a different suburb but their kind email reflects very positively on the special type of school learning community our students, staff and parents have developed.

For your reading pleasure please see below an extract from the email.

BOOK WEEK CELEBRATIONS

Book Week is an annual celebration for Auburn North PS. This year we celebrated Book Week on Monday 19th October. The day consisted of character parades, scavenger hunts and fun in-class activities. 

There were lots of tired teachers and students at the end of the day and it was only possible thanks to the involvement and enthusiasm of all staff. A special thanks to the team who planned and coordinated this safe and fun day:

• Miss Gerdes
• Miss Lynch
• Mrs Al Shunaq
• Mrs Mancia
• Mrs Irrgang
• Miss Zeidan
• Mrs Khan

GAMECO – The Gas Company Next to Our School

The GAMECO gas company is located on Parramatta Road next to our school. The manager of the company has contacted me and asked if I can inform parents that they are not permitted to park in their parking area.

Auburn North parents always respond positively to my requests for cooperation so I ask that Auburn North parents not park in the GAMECO car park.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

CLASS REPORTS – 1C, 2K and 3SC

One of the highlights of our fortnightly newsletters is our class report. This edition is no exception. I would like to thank the students from 1C, 2K and 3SC and their teachers Ms Lynch, Ms McGrory, Mrs Stiffe and Mrs Cox for their informative and interesting class reports.

Mark Harris

Principal

1C Writing News

This term, all Year 1 students have been using a picture stimulus to write their own interesting narrative. This week, our picture stimulus was in a city and there were lots of crazy things happening! All students were so creative and included an orientation, complication and resolution in their story. At the end of the writing process, students reviewed and edited their work and then published with their neatest handwriting!

1C Maths News

This week in mathematics, 1C have been learning to make, continue and describe various patterns. First, we used different shapes and objects to make our own pattern. We then worked with a partner to continue and describe our pattern using the language ‘two-part’ and ‘three-part’. We also learnt to identify and describe number patterns. Students were required to use the language ‘increasing’ and ‘decreasing’ to describe their patterns. All students were so creative and were able to use the correct language to describe their patterns.

1C Book Week

This week, 1C celebrated Book Week! Students dressed up as their favourite book character and participated in a range of activities throughout the day. First, 1C joined Kindergarten and the rest of Year 1 for a character parade. Students walked up onto the stage and showed their costume to their friends. Then, 1C went on a scavenger hunt to find the pieces of our curious creature! We finished the day by painting our very own curious creatures! We all had such a fun day and loved dressing up as our favourite character!

Book Week

What a start 2K have had to Term 4! We celebrated Book Week by dressing up as our favourite book characters, completing activities together with our teachers and parading our costumes for all of Year 2 and 3 to enjoy! We read the book ‘This Book is NOT a Bedtime Story’ all about some not very scary monsters, then made our own curious creatures complete with crazy hair, wacky legs and googly eyes. We used our wild minds to name our creatures and describe where they live and what they like doing. Some of 2K’s curious creatures even live on other planets!

2K students had a wonderful Book Week celebration. Every student showed friendship and kindness to all of their 2K friends to make sure everyone enjoyed a very special day.

Writing

This term Year 2 are learning to write persuasive texts. 2K have been busy in the classroom learning about high modality verbs and adverbs to use in their writing to persuade their reader. Students have been making their statements of position even more persuasive by using modal verbs such as ‘must’ and ‘have to’, on topics including why they should/should not be Prime Minister. They have even started applying their knowledge to persuade their teacher they absolutely must play more games in the classroom. Watch this space…

This term 3SC have been busily working on developing and improving their 21^st Century learning skills.  These skills are known as the 6Cs and include Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, Citizenship, Character and Critical Thinking.  Through problem solving based small group activities, the students have been learning what these skills are, what they look like and how to apply them.  Below are some of the activities the students have been enjoying:

Communication

The students took part in a group task to enhance their communication skills.  This task involved students using unifix cubes to solve a specific problem.  It was important in this task that the students used positive language to encourage each other, share their ideas respectfully and apply active listening skills.

Collaboration

This was a challenging task as students needed to collaborate with their group without using verbal or non-verbal communication.  The students were required to identify a pattern on their task cards and try to solve it without talking. Through this task it was evident that students are developing their skills to working effectively in their groups. It was important that the students were respectful and collaborative with their team.

Critical Thinking

This critical thinking problem solving task was done in pairs. It was a two-part problem, where students had to work out a number from the clues given and then evaluate the clues to see if they were all necessary.  Through this task students were developing their skills to think about a problem, construct ideas, test their ideas to see if they were correct, evaluate their ideas to find other solutions and reflect on their ideas, all while collaborating with their partner!

It was fantastic to see some of the teams solve these challenging problems but even more important, we were very proud to see the students successfully improving their 21^st century learning skills!

On Monday 19th October, Auburn North staff and students celebrated Book Week. There were character parades, scavenger hunts, and a wide range of fun activities in classrooms. 

Book Week is the longest running children’s festival in Australia. The theme for Book Week 2020 was ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’. This theme encouraged students to realise that books are full of all kinds of creatures and books can expand our minds.

Throughout the day there were character parades, where students and teachers had an opportunity to show off their wonderful costumes. The prize winners of the competitions from each grade were also announced.

Students also participated in a scavenger hunt. Students completed activities or answered questions from different locations around the school. If they were correct they received a piece of a 'curious creature' which they were able to put together later in the day.

Each grade produced some amazing artworks which are now displayed in the library. These artworks are related to one of the Children's book Council of Australia (CBCA) shortlisted books. You can view the artworks via this link: https://youtu.be/c_oRLZ35iq8

Information for current Year 5 students

This video will help with the process of applying for a selective high school. https://youtu.be/5UdgmgUr4vE 

Selective high schools are one strategy used by the Department of Education and Communities to cater for the learning needs of academically gifted students.  

If you would like your child to go to a selective school in Year 7 in 2022, you will need to apply by Friday 16^th November 2020. All applications must be made online.  

The website where you will find all the necessary information, including the list of selective high schools and the application portal is:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes

All students applying for Year 7 selective high school entry will be required to take the selective high school placement test on the morning of Thursday 11^th March, 2021.

To apply for the selective high school placement test, please apply through the following website: https://shsoc.education.nsw.gov.au/

INFORMATION REGARDING SELECTIVE HIGH SCHOOLS

• There are two types of selective high schools offering Year 7 placement:
  • Fully selective – all classes are academically selective.
  • Partially selective – one or two classes are selective while other classes are non-selective for local students.
• You can apply for up to three selective high schools in the order you want them.
  
  
• Make sure that all of the schools you choose are suitable for your child and the travel times are reasonable.
  
  
• You can change your school choice/s before 25^th April 2021 by logging into your application.
  
  
• Please see the list below of fully and partially selective high schools close to Auburn North Public School.
  • Auburn Girls High School (Partially selective)
  • Granville Boys High School (Partially selective)
  • Sefton High School (Partially selective)
  • Parramatta High School (Partially selective)
  • Girraween High School (Fully selective)
  • Ryde Secondary College (Partially selective)
    
    
• For more options of schools, please visit https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-7/what-are-selective-high-schools/list-of-selective-high-schools
  
  
• There are no extra fees for attending a selective high school.

KEY DATES