Literacy

Writing- In writing, we have been working on writing to describe using picture prompts. We write words to describe what we see and what we might hear, and then put these words into a sentence.

Reading- During Reader’s Workshop, students have been learning how to make text to self connections. Making connections between the book and their life, their experiences and their emotions to support our comprehension of the book.

Spelling- Last term we have been focusing on onset and rime and using the connecting strategy to identify which word family a word belongs to. For example, students can identify that brick and trick belong to the ‘ick’ family and spell these words by listening for the beginning sounds. We have also been learning about digraphs and blends and understanding that two letters can work together to make one sound such as ‘sh’ in shark or ‘ch’ in chip.

Expert word- During one word spelling, students have the opportunity to learn all about their expert word for the week. They identify characteristics of the word, such as how many vowels and syllables it has, identify what the word means and how to write their word in a sentence before teaching their expert word to a peer. 

Mathematics

Number- This term during maths, we have been continuing to consolidate our number knowledge. This includes working on number identification, counting and basic addition.

Strand- During math strand, we have been exploring 3D objects and shapes and identifying their characteristics.

Congratulations to the following students receiving bronze, silver and gold awards. We have had a huge amount of students reaching milestones in recent weeks. Well done everyone. If we keep up this pace we will have to think of a new system for handing out awards!

Respectful

Safe

Responsible Learner

Responsible Learner

Respectful

Chelsea C	Felix S
Sebastian M	Riley T
Faye X

Responsible Learner

Samuel L	Travis S
Jordon T	Jason M
Janvi S	Constantina P

Ngunnawal Primary School welcomes all of our families back for Term 4. We are looking forward to a great term of learning with some exciting end of year events to come. This year, we will be offering a matinee performance for Little Gig (Tuesday 10 December) and Big Gig (Wednesday 11 December). We hope this allows all families to get a good seat in at least one show in the hall. Stay tuned for more details to come.

I am incredibly proud to be continuing on as the principal of Ngunnawal Primary School. I look forward to working with our families over the coming years to make our great school even greater.

We are excited to launch our newsletter using Schoolzine this term. The platform has many exiting tools we will let you know about as we begin to use them. You will find our term events in the calendar button at the top of the page. The calendar is live and will update instantly to ensure you have access to the most up to date information. The newsletter is also designed to adapt to whatever device you open it on making it far easier to keep up with school news anywhere, anytime!

During Term 4 you will see a new faces in our front office team. Congratulations to Trina who has won a permanent position on the admin team. We will be welcoming 2 new staff members as Jennifer has taken long service leave this term and Christina is furthering her graphic design career. Our new staff will be commencing in a few weeks, in the meantime, some of our friendly Learning Support Assistants will be available to assist. Please be patient with us over the first four weeks while everyone adjusts to their new roles.

This term teachers are busy preparing to produce reports using system wide templates through the Student Administration System (SAS). Reports will be issued via email so if you haven’t returned your most up to date family contact information including second families, please let the front office know.

Lastly, I want to reach out and let you know that my door is always open if you have any concerns or comments about things happening in our school or school community. We are a strong community and I want to ensure that you all feel you can contact me at any time if you have concerns.  You can make a time to talk with me by ringing the front office on 61421501 or you can email me directly at rebecca.turner@ed.act.edu.au.

Rebecca

This week we have launched our outdoor reading area. A selection of books and cushions will be placed along the wall each morning by our wonderful student library assistants. We hope our families get to enjoy a good book while waiting for the morning bell in the sun. Every minute of reading counts!

Ngunnawal Primary School

Community Announcement 

Dear Parents and Carers

It is with great pleasure I formally announce the appointment of Ms Rebecca Turner as the Principal of Ngunnawal Primary School.

Ms Turner is a highly experienced school leader and has most recently been the Principal at Amaroo School. Ms Turner brings to the position a demonstrated commitment to delivering quality education to all students with a strong focus on Literacy and Numeracy.

Ms Turner is an enthusiastic and innovative leader, who possesses a commitment to raising student achievement. Her innovative thinking and dedication to supporting student wellbeing is one of her many attributes.

Ms Turner is committed to continuing the strong partnership between staff, parents, carers and the community and to ensuring the students at Ngunnawal Primary School have access to high quality teaching and learning.

Please join me in congratulating Ms Turner on her permanent appointment

Yours sincerely

Judith Hamilton

Director School Improvement, North/Gungahlin

NPS are very grateful to our P and C team who ran a brilliant afternoon on the last day of term. Students and teachers were very excited about the Colour Run, what a great way to finish off a big term of learning while raising funds for the school.  We look forward to planning the dirt play area and more picnic tables with the funds raised. Thank you to everyone wo gave up their time to assist on the day. The class who raised the most funds will be annouced in tomorrow's assembly. We hope you enjoy your reward!

Below is a snapshot of some of growth trends and achievement scores from NAPLAN 2019. The data is being used by teachers to reflect on school data to examine similar trends and differences. The growth available in Year 5 is one of the more significant data sets as it shows our ability to add value to student learning over the two-year period. This is particularly impressive in 2019.

Year 3 NAPLAN

Writing

• Significant positive trends in whole cohort achievement in writing reducing the gap between NPS and the ACT average

Reading

• Stable whole cohort achievement in reading consistent with previous years.

Numeracy

• Slight dip in whole cohort achievement in numeracy compared to previous years.

Year 5 NAPLAN

Writing

• 60% of students achieved expected or greater than expected reading growth from Year 3 to Year 5. This is greater than the ACT average.
• Writing achievement has had a significant trend upwards reducing the gap between NPS and other ACT schools

Reading

• 76% of students achieved expected or greater than expected reading growth from Year 3 to Year 5. This is greater than the average expected growth across the ACT.
• Reading achievement has significantly increased and has continued to do so in Year 5 since 2016

Numeracy

• 63% of students achieved expected or greater than expected reading growth from Year 3 to Year 5. This is greater than the average growth across the ACT.
• Numeracy achievement has maintained a steady increase since 2016 further closing the gap between NPS and other ACT schools

Spelling

• It is also worth noting 75% of Year 5 students achieved expected or greater than expected spelling growth from Year 3 to Year 5. This is significantly (17%) greater than the ACT average percentage of students who achieve expected growth.

Maths

This term in Year 3 maths groups, students have been learning about multiplication and division as inverse operations and the students have used arrays to work out the four associated calculations. In class, we have been learning about probability, as the chance of an event occurring.

Writing

During English, students have learnt about the features of information texts and are using their knowledge to research and write their own information texts. Students have participated in activities to help build their understanding of fact and opinion, using sub titles to structure writing into paragraphs.

Science

In Science we have learning about “Living and Non-Living things”. Students are learning how scientists classify different plants and animals. Students are using this knowledge to create a pop-up booklet which shows the weird and wonderful world of living things.

On Monday 16^th September, Year 3 went on an excursion to Tidbinbilla as part of our inquiry and science units. The children were able to see koalas, red belly black snakes and platypus, which allowed them to put their classification skills to the test. The rangers showed the students some artefacts used by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for tools, trade and hunting.

Technology

In Technology, students have been learning how to use algorithms, events and blocks to code. James from www.xero.org has been working with classes to develop a treasure hunt game using codes.

Next week our 6 kindergarten classes will be receiving new tables and chairs. We can't wait to see the flower tables similar to those pictured below in our classrooms. Classes will be relocated for part of one day during week 2 to allow for the assembly and set up of our new tables.

   

Ngunnawal Primary School is pleased to partner with Playgroups ACT to offer a playgroup for families in the area with children aged 4 and under. Playgroup is a great way for children to play with other children and for parents to meet and connect with other parents and carers. The playgroup will run on Fridays during term time from 9-10.30am in the Koori Preschool building. We ask that you bring your child in comfortable clothes, with a nut and egg free snack. For more information please contact Community Coordinator Yvonne McLauchlan on 6142 1500 or email yvonne.mclauchlan@ed.act.edu.au

Students in Kindergarten to Year 5 Classes

Now is the time we begin our initial planning for the 2020 school year.  If you have a child in Kindergarten to Year 5 who WILL NOT BE ATTENDING Ngunnawal Primary School in 2020, could you please email your child’s name, class and where they will be attending in 2020 to info@ngunnawalps.act.edu.au as soon as possible.