Dear Parents,

On behalf of the Auburn North Public School staff I would like to welcome our students and parents back to Auburn North, including our new students in Year 1 to Year 6 and their families. I would especially like to welcome our 2019 Kindergarten students and their families into our school community. 

I would like to thank all of you for ensuring your children began their new school year well-rested, immaculately dressed in their school uniforms, and excited about the new school year ahead.

In my 2018 ‘Principal’s Address’ that I delivered during last year’s Year 3 – Year 6 Presentation Day Assembly, I stated that there was no doubt in my mind that 2018 had been our school’s most dynamic, most successful, and most outstanding since I arrived 19 years’ ago.

I explained that while Auburn North had always been a high-performing school, a wide range of evidence clearly demonstrated that in 2018 we had set new standards of excellence in the quality of our:

• Leadership
• Teaching
• Teacher Professional Development
• Student Learning
• Parent Involvement
• School Cohesiveness
• School Performance

I explained that our year of outstanding successes in these areas had been the result of the way in which all members of our multi-award-winning Auburn North Public School Learning Community had worked together tirelessly and in perfect harmony during each of the four terms. I concluded my 2018 ‘Principal’s Address’ with the following statement:

“I do believe this year has been our most outstanding and most successful year since I arrived, and for that we should feel great pride, and all of us certainly deserve a well-earned holiday. However, as our school motto is ‘Forward’, I encourage all students, staff and parents to enjoy a relaxing break and return next year determined to make 2019 an even more successful year so that we move closer to making our Vision a reality, so that we do indeed become ‘Australia’s most outstanding future-focused learning community.’ Now, that’s a DREAM we all want to see come true.”

Well, here we are at the beginning of the 2019 school year and the early indications are that 2019 will be even more successful for our:

• Students
• Staff
• Parents
• Learning Community

I would like to thank and congratulate our students, our parents, our leaders and teachers, our office team, Mr Dave and Mr Ray, and ‘Johnny’ for working so cooperatively and cohesively together as one team so that the start of this year was PERFECT for all of us.

I have no doubt that all members of the 2019 Auburn North Family will achieve great success this year.

OUR SCHOOL’S 2018 – 2020 VISION STATEMENT

Our school’s 2018 – 2020 Vision Statement is:

For our new parents I’d like to explain what we mean by ‘future-focused’. At Auburn North our students, staff and parents believe if our students are going to be successful now and in the future then they need to develop outstanding knowledge and skills in three (3) main areas. We believe our students need to develop outstanding;

1. Basic Skills in literacy and numeracy.
2. Technology Skills
3. 21^st Century Skills such as critical thinking, creative thinking, communication and collaboration.

To assist our school achieve its Vision and assist our K-6 students develop all of these skills we developed and are strategically implementing a detailed 2018-2020 School Plan that includes a Mission Statement and three Strategic Directions.

The School Plan, Mission Statement, and Strategic Directions are providing our learning community with the FOUNDATION that will underpin our initiatives and programs until the end of 2020 and ensure that our Vision becomes a reality.

Our Mission Statement is:

Our three Strategic Directions are:

SCHOOL SAYING

Each year our school develops a ‘School Saying’. The purpose of the ‘Saying’ is to provide students with a clear focus for their learning, attitude and behaviour for that particular year. During the first two weeks of each school year, students, staff and parents are able to nominate ‘Sayings’ to be considered for selection.

Last year’s saying was

“In 2018,

We Will Work as One Team

To Achieve Our Dreams.”

I am very pleased to inform you that our 2019 Saying is a combination of nominations from Mrs Picken and Muizz, one of our Year 2 students. Our 2019 Saying is:

FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTERS 

Our 2019 newsletters will go home with students every second week on a Friday. I would like to thank Ms Gerdes, Mrs Serhan,  Mr Salempour and Mr Kayacan, who will work together to ensure newsletters go home fortnightly and that they are published in three different languages to ensure that you are well-informed about YOUR school. 

Newsletters will now also be available online through the new Schoolzine App and website. Click on the link below to subscribe to our digital newsletter.

There is also information on how to download the SZapp in this link and attachment with the newsletter.

The online version of the newsletter allows for users to translate the information into more than one hundred different languages. It also allows you to see all the wonderful photos in full colour and they can be enlarged on the device you are viewing the newsletter on.

Paper copies of the newsletter will continue to be sent home with your child fortnightly.

TEMPORARY CLASSES

While our students began learning as soon as they entered their classrooms this year, please understand that their classes in week one and week two were temporary classes. As a result of new Y1 – Y6 students enrolling in our school this year and because some of our students moved to different suburbs during the holidays, our total student enrolment number was significantly different to our anticipated figure.

All NSW public schools were required to submit their actual enrolment figures to the NSW Department of Education (DoE) by Thursday of last week. The DoE then informed all schools, including Auburn North, how many classes they were entitled to form.

We were informed that we were still able to have the same number of classes we had formed (29) but we had to move a number of students to different classes. This had to happen otherwise some classes in some grades would have had far more students than other classes in the same grade. Final changes have taken place this week and parents whose children moved from one class to another were informed this week.

BOYS SCHOOL SHIRTS

While our boys are allowed to wear either the collared school shirt or the polo school shirt please understand that you will need to order the polo shirt from the uniform shop and it may take 4-6 weeks for the polo shirt to be ready.

STAFF INFORMATION

Three new permanent teachers commenced at Auburn North this year. We welcome Ms Emily Harvey-Latham, Ms Megan Ng and Ms Kim Nguyen to our Auburn North family.

We also welcome Ms Sandy Elias, who is our school counsellor this year.

I would like to congratulate Ms Wallace and Ms Pham on being selected to be new permanent teachers at Auburn North.

I would also like to congratulate Mrs Acar and Mrs Abouraad. In 2019, Mrs Acar will be our relieving Business Manager and Mrs Abouraad our relieving School Administrative Manager.

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP TEAM

The members of our school leadership team are:

• Mr Harris (Principal)
• Mrs Clift (Deputy Principal and Facilitator Year 3)
• Mrs Southgate (Deputy Principal)
• Mrs Tukuafu (Assistant Principal and Relieving Deputy Principal)
• Ms Acar (Relieving Business Manager)
• Mrs Abouraad (Relieving School Administrative Manager)
• Mrs French (Deputy Principal, K-2 Instructional Leader and Facilitator Kindergarten)
• Ms Mirzai (Deputy Principal, K-2 Instructional Leader and Facilitator Years 1 and 2)
• Ms Cortejos (Deputy Principal, K-6 Instructional Leader and Facilitator Years 4, 5 and 6)
• Ms Bazzi (Kindy Leader)
• Ms Whitaker (Year 1 Leader)
• Ms Wallace (Year 2 Leader)
• Ms Hamm (Year 3 Leader)
• Ms Evans (Year 4 Leader)
• Mrs Picken (Year 5 Leader)
• Ms McGrory (Year 6 Leader)

Mr M. Harris

Principal