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Visiting the School
Parents are welcome at any time and should call at the office on
their arrival so that they can be directed to the person they wish
to see with the minimum of delay. Should parents wish to have an interview with a teacher, please telephone or send a note before
coming to school so that a suitable time can be arranged when the
teacher will be free of classroom responsibilities.
Religious Instruction
Clergy and Lay Teachers visit
the school each week to give non denominational religious
instruction to our students. Infants and Primary students remain in
their class group. Classes are held at the following times:
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Years 3 to 6
– Tuesday afternoon |
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Kindergarten to Year 2 – Wednesday
afternoon |
Student Banking
All children are encouraged to bank money regularly. The
Commonwealth Savings Bank has appointed the school to do the banking
each week through computer. Student banking is carried out by Mrs
Kay Johnson on Wednesday morning. Please ensure ALL details
including surname, christian name, student number,
(found on the inside cover of book eg. 92900), account number,
and amount to be banked are filled in correctly on the
deposit slip. Failure to do this causes delays in processing bank
deposits on the computer.
Kindergarten children (wanting to commence banking) will be given
forms early in Term 1. Other pupils can get forms from the office on
a Tuesday. Kindergarten to Year 2 children place bank books in a
class bag, Year 3 to 6 pupils have their books collected by a
nominated class. The books are returned to the pupil after
processing.
Life Education Van
The Life Education Van visits the school once a year when all
students attend a session in the van and participate in the
follow-up classroom program on Drug Education. Parents are asked to
support this vital service by paying the required fee.
Canteen
Our school has a well-stocked canteen open every school day from
8.30 am and 1.30 pm and staffed by a supervisor and volunteer
parents. The canteen provides nutritious and reasonably priced
meals for our students and is a vital source of financial support
for our school. We encourage you to consider volunteering for the
canteen roster when the opportunity arises. Your help will be most
appreciated.
Following is the procedure for ordering of lunches
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Children must order their lunch before the first bell at 9.20am. |
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Children who require change, need to lodge their lunch orders over
the counter and wait for their change. |
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Five minutes before the lunch time bell lunch boxes are delivered by
senior students to all grades and unclaimed lunches must be returned
to the canteen as soon as lunches are distributed. |
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Teachers on duty will be responsible for any inappropriate
behaviour. |
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A price list is sent hope with School News at the start of each
term. |
Lost property
Parent are requested
to clearly label all clothing and equipment brought to school by
their child
Children will inevitably lose or misplace things. If they are
labelled we are able to return them to their owners. Items without
names are placed in LOST PROPERTY BOXES at the Primary and Infants
Departments. Parents should check these boxes for missing items. All
unclaimed items of school uniform are laundered and placed on sale
through the clothing pool. Other clothing is donated to charity.
Homework
Keeping in mind the Department of Education’s policy on Homework the
following considerations are presented as the Homework Policy for
the Dubbo South Primary School. Homework is revision or
reinforcement of what the children are doing at school.
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Homework shall be distributed by class teachers.. |
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At the beginning of each year, parents will be informed in writing
of homework requirements for the year. |
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Homework given should follow the following guidelines.
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Kindergarten – Home Reading |
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Year 1 – Daily spelling, reading and weekly homework sheet |
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Year 2 – Daily spelling, reading and weekly homework sheet |
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Year 3 – No more than 15 minutes per day (45 min per week) |
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Year 4 – No more than 20 minutes per day (1 hour per week) |
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Year 5 – No more than 30 minutes per day (1 and a half hours per
week) |
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Year 6 – No more than 40 minutes per day (2 hours per week) |
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For children who consistently do not do their homework parents are
to be informed in writing through a standard note available from the
office. Consistently means three or four consecutive times. |
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If parents do not want their child to do homework, the child is
not to be punished by keeping them in at lunchtime etc |
Excursions
Excursions are an important part
of your child’s education. Excursions are considered a
privilege, not a right and take place from time to time when it is
relevant to a unit of work. Parents are notified in writing of
details and specific requirements. No child is ever permitted to attend without parental consent. Every attempt is made to keep costs to a minimum but the parent
must meet these. Parents are sometimes invited to participate on an
excursion as a parent helper. Each year senior students are involved
in an overnight excursion to either Sydney or Canberra.
New children are given a special friend on arrival in the class to
help orientate them and make the school activities less confusing.
School Band
Our school band performs at assembly, school functions and other
events. Children attend a weekly whole band practise session and
sectional practises as organised by our bandmaster, Mr Kevin Redgrave. It is recommended that students be able to play C major
scale before joining. It is expected that parents will need to
organise private tuition to supplement the practise sessions held at
school. The band is co-ordinated by volunteer parents whose contact
numbers are available from the school.
Safety
No glass containers
For the safety of the children, there is a school rule prohibiting
children from bringing glass containers to school, either for food
or “Show and Tell News” items.
Thongs are not allowed
Thongs offer too little protection for children’s feet especially
when they are in large groups. Proper footwear is required at all
times while the child is at school. Jewellery is not recommended.
School Requisites
School requisites are generally supplied by the school. Teachers
sometimes may request that parents purchase some special items for
use in class, we try to keep this to a minimum. Each Primary student
is expected to have the following: lead pencils, ruler, eraser,
sharpener with a barrel, coloured
pencils, pencil case and a glue stick. Senior students should have
red and blue biros. Textas and scissors are optional.
Achievement Awards
An achievement award scheme operates in the school for all students
from Kindergarten to Year Six. Students are asked to keep these in a
safe place (eg. Photo Album), as they need to be shown to the Deputy
Principal for the progressive awards to be presented to the student.
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5 - Achievement awards earn a merit certificate
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10 - Achievement awards earn a credit certificate
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15 - Achievement awards earn a distinction certificate
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25 - Achievement awards earn a honour certificate
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When students have earned 25 achievement awards they receive a
school banner. Once the banner has been earned, the students may
commence on the same basis as above but this time a gold certificate
is presented for earning 25 achievement awards.
The system operates from year to year, so certificates earned in
previous years are ongoing for future years. It takes students quite
a while to collect 5 certificates. Some students are quicker.
Practices designed to recognise and reinforce student achievement
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The use of merit certificates, awards and other appropriate school-
based rewards
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Ongoing, regular contact with parents, e.g. newsletter
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Commendations at assemblies and special school activities
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Fostering positive relationships with the local media to promote
public acknowledgement of the school and individual student
achievement
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Modelling of consistent and caring behaviour by staff.
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Students with Concerns/Problems
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Students have the opportunity to discuss problems with teachers. |
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Children who feel that any matter deserves further consideration,
are expected to approach Mr Loxley, Mr Shortis, or Mrs van Dartel. |
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Being able to attend to a problem promptly is important in
ensuring a happy and safe school. |
Primary school socials
Students attending school socials must be brought to the social at
7:00pm (not before please), and collected promptly at its conclusion
at 9:00pm. No child will leave the hall during socials and the
usual school behaviour is expected. Parents organise supper. An
infants social is held in Term 4 from 6.30pm to 8pm.
Visiting shows
Various cultural and
educational shows are invited to the school throughout the year.
These are restricted to two a year and students will be required to
pay an entrance fee if they wish to attend.
Parent/teacher conferences
Parent Teacher conferences are held in the first month of each year
and at the end of Term 2. They allow parents to meet teachers and
to discuss the needs of the child in their care. Parents will be
notified when conferences are to take place.
Art
Infants children are asked to bring a protective covering for their
clothing to be worn during art lessons. This could be an old shirt
or pyjama coat with the sleeves cut to fit the child.
Wet Weather
Provisions for inclement weather are:
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All children are to remain in their classrooms. Each building is to
arrange suitable supervision. In the event of approaching rain, a
rain bell of 2 rings will sound, indicating a prompt return to the
classroom. The Executive Teacher will be responsible for this
decision; and
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It is
necessary for all teachers to realise the need for allowing children
outside to play. The K – 6 Playground policy necessitates
consistency.
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Variation from routine school times
In order to ensure the safety of our students, the following
strategies have been devised:
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No children to leave school early without permission/request from
parent
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Parents must report to the Fitzroy Street office to obtain a note of
early departure
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parents are kept informed of variations to supervision in respect of
changes to routine (eg. sporting fixtures, school fetes etc).
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