Dear Parents,

The other members of the Auburn North staff hope you and your families are well.

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL AWARD FOR OUR AUBURN NORTH FAMILY

In the last edition of our school newsletter, we informed you that our school had been selected to receive two NSW Department of Education Secretary’s Awards for excellence in teaching and learning. I am very proud to let you know that last Friday night our school community was selected to receive a NATIONAL AWARD in the area of parent engagement and participation to improve student learning outcomes.

The Susan Ryan Family Engagement Award is a prestigious national award that highlights outstanding achievements in family engagement within government schools across Australia.

The award is named in honour of the late Susan Ryan, who was an Australian government minister and passionate advocate for family engagement.

The award celebrates government schools that have successfully integrated family involvement and participation as a crucial element in fostering student success.

Many schools nominated themselves for the award. Four schools were selected to be Finalists. As well as our school, two schools were from Western Australia. The other school was from the Hunter Valley region.

Schools were required to submit a:

1. Written report describing how they engage families in the school and the learning of their children.
2. Video of some of their parent programs in action.

Our report and video focused on our ‘Parents as Partners in Learning’ program and our ‘Harmony House’ programs.

Mrs Clift, Ms Zeidan and Mrs Ashfaq proudly walked onto the stage last Friday to accept the award on behalf of all members of our Auburn North Family.

This is such an outstanding achievement for our school learning community.

I hope you feel the pride I feel about our recent school awards.

BEST WISHES MRS MEIER 

Mrs Meier is an excellent teacher and grade leader and this year she has used her exemplary personal qualities and her leadership and teaching knowledge and skills to assist her 4C students and all year 4 students achieve high quality wellbeing and learning outcomes.

Today is the last day Mrs Meier will be in our school this year before she commences maternity leave. We wish Mrs Meier and her husband all the best as they await the birth of their beautiful baby.

We look forward to Mrs Meier visiting our school in term 4 or early next year to show off her “little bundle of joy”.

INDEPENDENT EXTERNAL SCHOOL REVIEW

Like all NSW public primary and high schools, our school participates in NSW Department of Education external validation reviews every four or five years. However, we are one of the few public schools in NSW that request and participate in independent external school reviews.

Some of the key features and benefits of requesting and participating in independent external school reviews include:

1. Our school selects the area or areas to be reviewed. These decisions are based on school-based data and NAPLAN data.
2. The independant consultants request certain data in the area/s to be reviewed and they analyse the data before the review starts.
3. The consultants review teaching programs and lesson plans.
4. The consultants observe classroom lessons.
5. Teachers complete anonymous surveys.
6. The consultants meet with leaders, teachers, and students.
7. Following the review, the consultants write a comprehensive report, which includes a number of recommendations for possible implementation.
8. The consultants work with the school to successfully implement the recommendations.

Last week we participated in our seventh independent external school review over the past 20 years. This review was in the areas of:

• Whole-school leadership.
• The level of challenge for students in maths.

The report reflected very positively on the quality of our school’s leadership and the level of challenge in maths but importantly, it  also highlighted areas for further development.

The executive team is presently analysing the report and its recommendations. The team will share the report with staff next term and the whole staff will work together cohesively to strategically implement each of the recommendations over the next two years.

This will further improve our school's teaching and learning outcomes. 

2023 ARTS ALIVE CHORAL FESTIVAL

Last week Mrs Clift, Ms Lau, Mr Salempour, Mrs Smith and I had the pleasure of travelling by bus with more than 40 Auburn North parents and their young children to Sydney to watch more than 35 Auburn North students perform at the Sydney Opera House.

Our school’s combined school choir sang with 400 students from 13 other NSW public schools in the 2023 Arts Alive Choral Festival. Our students sang a number of songs, covering a range of different styles.

They sang each song beautifully and they made their families and Auburn Noth staff so proud.

I would like to thank Ms Wang, Mrs McBriarty, Mrs Porter, and Mrs Bourizk for spending so much of their “spare” time through the year meeting our students to ensure they looked and sounded magnificent on the night. I would also like to thank Mrs Rashtia and Mrs Khan for their strong support.

Please find attached to this newsletter a report that Mrs McBriarty was kind enough to write.

OUTSTANDING TERM of ACHIEVEMENTS

All members of our school learning community have worked very hard and cohesively together this term to achieve great outcomes in:

• Leadership
• Teaching
• Learning
• School Administration
• Parent Engagement

I would like to thank our parents for being such important and supportive members of our Auburn North Family this term.

Very importantly I would like to congratulate all students on:

• behaving beautifully this term.
• living our school values this term.
• trying so hard this term to improve and achieve excellent educational, emotional, and social outcomes every week this term.

THANK YOU STAFF

I would like to thank the Auburn North staff. This term all members of staff have continued to produce the highest standard of work in everything they do. They are so committed to the wellbeing and learning of our students and are models for educators in all other settings.

I hope all members of staff take the opportunity to enjoy a very well-deserved, happy and relaxing holiday.

HAPPY HOLIDAY

I hope all students, parents, and staff enjoy a peaceful holiday. I look forward to students and teachers all returning on Monday 9th October.

Arts Alive Choral Festival 2023

On Monday 11^th September, 36 students and 5 teachers made dreams come true by performing in the Arts Alive Choral Festival 2023 performance at the iconic Sydney Opera House. The Arts Alive Choral Festival provides the opportunity for public schools to come together annually to showcase high-quality individual items and a combined school choir.

The Auburn North students performed in the combined school choir with 400 other students from 13 other schools in the Sydney Metropolitan area and the Blue Mountains. Throughout term 2 and 3, these students diligently rehearsed twice a week, their 7 technical songs. Not only memorising the words but learning how to read the musical notes to understand the pitch and rhythm of the songs. Even though the day was long with a long rehearsal, the students maintained their enthusiasm for the night.

It wasn’t until the students returned to the Sydney Opera House for the evening performance that they realised how big this event was. Many students said they had butterflies in their tummies before the performance. They proudly sang their songs accompanied by a pianist and a jazz band. The students also were able to watch the many high-quality individual items in between their songs. They were so proud to see the many parents in the audience. All the teachers were so proud of the students.

In between the rehearsal and performance, the students and teachers enjoyed a lovely meal together at City Extra. The students displayed exemplary behaviour and manners throughout dinner. Many parents and teachers who were attending the performance dropped in to say hello and wish the student’s good luck.

Some of the teacher highlights were:

• The high spirits, positive energy, and exemplary manners of students all day and all night (not a single student complained of being tired)
• Being complimented by other schools on the way that ANPS students proudly performed
• Seeing the smiles on the students faces and seeing how proud their parents were of them
• Hearing the students tell their friends about the experience the next day at school.

A big thank you to Mrs Bourizk, Miss Wang, Mrs Porter, Mrs Khan, Mrs Rashtia and Mrs McBriarty for your time supporting the students. Thank you to Mrs Clift and Mr Harris for looking after all of the amazing parents who came to enjoy the Arts Alive Choral Festival performance.

Oh, what a year! 4HO was thrilled to be back at school this semester. It sure has been a colourful adventure, packed with tackling challenging tasks and bravely taking on positive risks. 

At Auburn North we never rest, and 4HO are adamant 2023

is going to be better than the rest!                                                      

Every week is Book Week in 4HO.  We love our reading pods and excursions to the library, but the character parade was a place we got to truly let our creativity shine.

The word of the day has challenged us to expand our vocabulary in and outside the classroom and helped us add to the bank of skills we incorporate when reading for meaning.

During Education Week, our parents even got to give us feedback on our reading skills using our fluency checklist. Then it was their turn… We think they did a pretty good job!

Numeracy

During the stage 2 'Parents as Partners in Learning' workshop, we had a record number of parents in attendance. In this workshop we showcased all the wonderful mathematical skills we have developed throughout our time at Auburn North.

In class, we’ve been drawing upon our 21^st century learning skills of critical thinking, collaboration, and character to achieve our success criteria.

This term 4HO created symmetrical 2D shape designs that tesselate, and we estimated, measured, and compared different volumes and capacities. We also revised our knowledge of analog and digital time, and compared and ordered fractions.

Key Learning Areas

With Community Festival Day fast approaching, 4HO has  been working tirelessly to bring Bollywood to the Auburn North stage. We have so much fun being creative and learning about other cultures .

We celebrated NAIDOC Week, paying respect to our elders and we have been taking on  positive risks by bringing our school values of friendship, kindness, and fairness to life through drama and movement. 

While some of our friends have been travelling far and wide representing our school in sports , back at Auburn North we’ve been reaching new heights in the gymnasium.

Thank you for reading this sneak-peek into the lives of our 4HO family! We hope you enjoy a happy and safe holiday.

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1R have worked very hard so far this year and each student strived to achieve the learning goal of every lesson.

They have continued Term 3 with a positive attitude and continue to show all the ANPS school values to their teachers and peers. 

They are working hard together as a team every day to achieve their dreams!

Literacy

In the classroom ,we have been using our creativity skills to write the most interesting and exciting narratives that include an orientation, complication, and  resolution. We even created our own characters by using interesting adjectives, adverbs and creative wordplay in our narratives!

Numeracy

This term in numeracy, 1R students have been developing their addition and subtraction skills. We are learning to use a range of addition strategies including number bonds of 10, doubles to help us add two numbers together quickly, and counting forward and back skills.

In addition, we are learning all about mass. We have had lots of fun using measuring scales to weigh various objects and comparing their mass.

Digital Technology

This semester, 1R students have been learning to program a Blue Bot using an iPad! Students have learnt how to program the Blue Bot to follow a set of instructions. All the students in 1R have shown critical thinking and determination during these digital technology lessons. They have also used their knowledge of positional language and direction to assist them.

Sport

This term, 1R had a wonderful time with their Year 6 friends, as they participated in peer support during Sport. Our students played a variety of games that were led by their year 6 friends ,and they developed great relationships with them.

We are looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring!