Dear Parents and Carers

Praise for a Canterbury student
I wanted to share this warm and fuzzy letter from a member of our community in recognition of the care and compassion demonstrated by one of our students recently. We are so proud of him!

I just wanted to say a little story from this morning that melted my heart, and I thought you might enjoy it too!

My child was upset at lunchtime yesterday and she couldn’t find her sister. She said a boy from her sister’s class came to her and asked if she was okay. She didn’t know his name but it did help her feel better.

When we arrived at school someone waved and said ‘Hi!’ and my daughter said that it was the boy who had asked her if she was okay yesterday. So I asked him what his name was and thanked him for looking out for my child and told him it was such a kind thing to do. He told me that he had been in class with her big sister for two years and she was always kind to him so he wanted to be kind to her little sister.

I nearly burst into tears - it was just such a beautiful thing to hear ❤️❤️❤️.

I don’t know how the PBL awards work, but I do know that this student was putting the messages of kindness and care into practice in a way that helped my daughter and me so, if there’s a way of acknowledging that, he definitely deserves it!

Interview bookings close Friday
Most families have already booked time with their child’s classroom teacher to discuss personal growth goals - thank you! If you are yet to make a booking, please do so by midday this Friday. Booking details were emailed to all parents last Monday. Please set a reminder in your phone to prevent forgetting your appointment.

P&C meeting: 7:15pm tonight
I am looking forward to attending tonight’s P&C meeting and hope you can make it too! Details can be found further below, including how to connect via Zoom if you prefer to join in from home.

Extended absence procedures
If you are planning a holiday, please make every effort to book it for the school holidays. If that is not possible, a leave request form must be completed prior to departure if your child will be absent from school for more than five days. The Application for Extended Leave - Travel is available online or from the school office.

What’s ahead?
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Harmony Day)
Growth Goal interviews
Investiture Assembly
Trivia Night
School Garden Working Bee
Captain Canterbury Assembly
School ANZAC Day Assembly
School Holidays

Event details can be found here at the bottom of the page https://canterbury-p.schools.nsw.gov.au/

The best part of my day

Tracy Considine

Principal

In mainstream classes last week, we focused on setting personal Growth Goals. It is known that self directed growth goals enhance student engagement and perseverance. It is important that students have a voice in setting their own goals for them to be meaningful. Students understood the key features of effective goals and that they are about:

• self improvement (we are comparing to ourselves, not competing with others)
• specific (what is the focus and how will we track it?)
• challenging but attainable
• written in positive terms
• timebound and achievable
• measurable, monitored and can be given feedback - this needs to be regular, not just at the end.  Feedback can be external (e.g. teacher or parent) or from self (e.g. testing own recall of multiplication facts)

Growth Goal meetings with parents will be held next week - Hopefully you have all had discussions with your children and booked in your time to meet with your child’s teacher. 

In the Support unit, students have been continuing to learn about what makes a good learner. Students understand that to learn effectively they need to keep their hands to themselves, listen, try and that it is okay to make mistakes. Talking to your child about the behaviours of a learner helps to reinforce desired behaviours at school.

This week, all students are learning about the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and celebrating Harmony Day. This year's theme is Everyone belongs! Harmony Day is to highlight the benefits and wonders of having many different cultures in our society, country and our school. This learning culminates in wearing national costume or orange clothing on Friday this week! Australia is home to people from many different cultures. Over 300 languages are spoken in Australia! Sharing and learning about cultures makes our country stronger. Harmony Day reminds us to be kind and inclusive. It is always good to regularly discuss with your  child different cultures throughout the year when situations and opportunities present themselves. 

Looking forward to a spectacular day!

Meghan Ryan
PBL Committee Member

Parents and carers were emailed a student expression of interest form on Sunday with a list of all the extracurricular opportunities available this year.

The EOI closes Friday 28th March so please don’t delay. For a description of the programs, please click here https://cpsclubs.info/.

Just a reminder that orders close for Book Club on Tuesday, 25th March. Thanks to all who have placed orders so far, as each book purchased helps fund new books for the school library. Book Club magazines can be collected from the school library before and after school, and at second half lunch. 

Ms Parkes
Teacher Librarian

A reminder to check in with your child about how they are going with their Premier’s Reading Challenge list. If you can help them navigate to Google from home, they should be able to login via their NSW Education student portal and show you how they are going.

Students in Kindergarten to Year 2 have a goal of 30 books to read, while students in Year 3 to 6 have a goal of 20 books. These books can be from anywhere, they do not have to be borrowed from the school library. Students have until the end of August to complete the challenge.

Thanks for your help in promoting this important program!

Ms Parkes
Teacher Librarian

The trickle of students throughout the day coming to the library to deposit reading tokens for 25 nights has begun! The first tokens are in the box, ready for our first KWRS draw of 2025. Ms Sevenoaks and I cannot wait to see who the first winners will be! Please continue to encourage your child to read at home and log each day in their reading journal. Having their name drawn out in assembly and coming to the library to collect a brand new book to take home as a prize is a big deal. Good luck to all of our early entrants!

Trivia Night
Join us for the first in-person Canterbury Public School P&C Trivia night since 2018! Connect with parents and carers from your school community as our P&C Trivia Night makes a triumphant return at The Polish Club Ashfield on Saturday March 29, 2025. For $40 your ticket will include trivia, dinner, live music from local band The Moonlighters and the chance to win fabulous prizes.

All funds raised on the night will go towards an AV upgrade for the hall.

We’ve had a few queries from people who would like to attend the trivia night, but who haven’t filled a table of 10. If this sounds like you, please buy a ticket and we will help you join a team on the night. In the ‘Team Captain’ field on the booking confirmation page, please put your child/ren’s school year/s and if there are a couple of others you plan to sit with, add their name too.

The trivia night is shaping up to be lots of fun and we would love to see as many of you there as possible to support our school! Click here to buy tickets https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/canterbury-public-school-pc-trivia-night-tickets-1248216391829?aff=oddtdtcreator

Donations of wine are kindly being requested for the wine cage prize. Please leave your donations at the office thank you.

P&C survey
If you haven’t had the chance to fill in this short 2 minute P&C survey, please do so here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjJzl6aHSByJUYPIXbo4KL-LPS6mIk-nrLUR2eNanLPi1f1g/viewform

2nd hand clothing stall and donations
A second hand clothing stall will be held Friday 28th March. If you have school logo tops or plain navy blue bottoms that your child has grown out of, please consider bringing them to the office to donate.

Fundraising suggestions
If you or your children have any suggestions for the P&C to fundraise big or small, please send us an email. We will take them on board, along with the teacher’s suggestions, and discuss them at a future meeting. 

Canteen
If you have any feedback on the school canteen, please send us an email this term. We would like to represent your views as one of our members will be on the upcoming canteen tender panel.

Dates for the diary 
Week 8, Wednesday 19 March P&C meeting, details below
Week 9, Saturday 29 March Trivia Night
Week 10, Saturday 5 April gardening bee. All families are welcome and it’s a great way to get to know others. 

Next P&C meeting
Term 1, Week 8, Wednesday 19 March 2025, 7.15pm. You don’t need to be a member to be interested in what is happening across the school. Just come along in person to the staffroom or join us online through zoom here (Meeting ID: 771 292 7026; Passcode: 123456).

P&C membership
To become a member or renew your membership, please fill in a membership form online here. It costs just $2 for this calendar year. 

For any questions or comments, email the P&C here canterburypublicschool.pandc@gmail.com.