Week 9, Term 3 2020

Update from Leadership

The last month of Term 3 has been action packed with a variety of exciting learning activities provided for our students.

Our camping program was a lot of fun for everyone involved. Mrs Turk did a fabulous job organising and we thank her for making it a memorable experience for our Year 4, 5 and 6s. Special thanks also goes out to the following staff and parents, whose attendance on camp, made this opportunity both possible and a terrific success. The commitment to leave homes and families to attend camp is a huge one that the school is grateful for. In 2021, there will be another opportunity for parents to assist on the Year 4, 5 & 6 camps.

School Staff on camp: Marissa Priestly, Gail Rankin, Luke Sandry, Penny Weily, Michele Turk, Lauren Wilson, Joyce Ralph, Pat Anderson, Drew Cox, Tim May, Arin Takabayashi, Janette Cook, Rupert Croutz, Jules Rayner, Tiny Nardoo and Alex Morton.

Parent Volunteers on camp: Reg Ramsden, Kris Price, Scott Weily, Amy Nunez, Sharon Hocking, Darelle Windsor, Cherrie Hughes and Steph Milosavljevic.

Once again, thank you for your support. Camps would not be possible without you.

Last Friday our Caterpillar Crawl, Yippy Skip, Hot Dog day was a huge success. We raised over $4000 thanks to the generosity of our Bradshaw families and community. We loved having Yippy from the Yeperenye Shopping Centre visit us and we thank Yeperenye for loaning him to us. The day was organised and run by the Akaltye Team which consists of 13 staff members who are passionate about Bradshaw being a place where everyone is kind to each other, learns with and from each other and where deeper relationships and understandings between all cultures are formed.

Throughout the year, the team has been named the Indigenous Language and Culture Team, then the Aboriginal Team. Neither of these names felt quite right.

The Team values the idea of one community that learns to embrace diversity and grows an understanding and acceptance of different worldviews.

The team has been renamed the Akaltye Team. In Arrernte, akaltye is about knowing a person, thing or fact. It is about knowing how to do something and being good at working with something. It is also about being clever, smart and knowledgeable. We feel it is very appropriate as a name and reflects what we do at Bradshaw.

This Thursday the Year 3s are having a sleep over at school. This should be a fun afternoon and night for all involved. Also on Thursday, the Transition Team is holding an information night for our 2021 Transition families to help them prepare for the move from preschool to the big school.

During Week 10, students will be enjoying our Buddy Festival on Wednesday and Thursday. There are some fun activities planned including bubbles and balloons, electricity and magnets, AFL, balloon and magic show and Rock and Water. Classes will work with a buddy class to enjoy these fun activities. We will then end the term on a high with a Color Smash Fun day on Friday.

Swimming is coming up in Term 4 with Transition and Year 1 students going in Week 4 and Year 2 and 3 students going in Week 5. Further information will come out early next term. The cost will be $40.00 and some families may have allocated Back to School Voucher money towards swimming. You will be advised of the exact amount owing next term.

As we near the end of term, we are noticing many students are very tired. Due to health and safety concerns, we are not able to supervise students who fall asleep at school. Families will be contacted to collect their child should this occur. This is also a good opportunity to remind ourselves about how important sleep is and how much sleep children require to function at their best.

The Sleep Foundation states, “Sleep is of paramount importance to young children. Early in life, a person experiences tremendous development that affects the brain, body, emotions, and behaviour and sets the stage for their continued growth through childhood and adolescence.

In light of this, it is normal for parents to want to make sure that their children, whether babies or young kids, get the sleep that they need. After convening a panel of experts to review the existing research, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) formulated recommendations for total daily sleep needs by age.

These ranges are for total sleep including at night and during naps. The NSF’s experts noted that these are broad recommendations and that an hour more or less may be appropriate for some children. Parents can benefit from using these guidelines as a target while recognizing that a healthy amount of sleep may vary among children or from day to day.”

Thanks for all that you do to support your child’s education and work together with Bradshaw to make it the great school that it is. Enjoy time with your family over the school holidays and we look forward to a great Term 4.

Jennie Ward

Assistant Princpal

Bradshaw Colour Smash Fun!

On the last day of term 3 Bradshaw will host a Colour Smash Fun afternoon for students. Bradshaw won a competition for the best "No Smoking" messages through congress and our prize is to have a Colour Smash Afternoon! The day is filled with awesome activities for everyone. Students should wear a white or light coloured T-Shirt as this shows up the colour powder better!!!

4 Ralph Curiosity Projects of African Animals

4 Ralph have been working on research Projects of African animals. Check out some of the awesome work our year 4s have done!

6 Cook's attempt to bring Ahn Do to Bradshaw

6 Cook have started a letter writing campaign to try and get Anh Do to Bradshaw! Our class love reading his books and have lots of ideas to share with him.  The class wrote highly persuasive letters and even pointed out that Alice Springs is COVID safe so he might want to get away from Sydney and see our beautiful environment without a face mask.

Attendance Update

Attendance update

As you are aware Bradshaw has a focus on improving our attendance following COVID-19. The attendance team are working hard to get every student to school every day. You might have received a letter showing your child’s attendance recently, along with other strategies we have implemented to support students and families in order to increase attendance.

Some things to keep in mind –

• Students who have more than three days off unwell MUST obtain a medical certificate. Students who do not provide a medical certificate will be recorded as unacceptable absence following the third day.
• Families taking holidays during the school term must advise the school. It is at the Principals discretion as to if the time away from school is valid – therefore recorded as an acceptable absence. This will depend on a number of things such as recent attendance and academic level. Anything more than two weeks will be marked as unacceptable absence.

Please note this is departmental policy.

With your support we can reach our goal of 90% or higher before the end of the term.

If you have any questions or require support to enable your child to attend school every day, please do not hesitate to contact the school.

The attendance team

Bradshaw Supporting Local!

A big thankyou to Alice Equiptment Hire for their generous donation of the water filled barriers for our playground! And a massive thankyou to Milner Meats for giving us some great deals on all the meat for our camps, sleepovers and fundraising activites!

Art Update

Year 4 have been learning about weaving in art.

 They have learnt how to create a loom and weave a basket following the under over pattern.

Here are some of the finished baskets.

Miss Wilson

Bradshaw Can Read

Returning Overdue Library Books!!

Holidays are coming up! What a perfect time to search for overdue Library books. If you have overdue library books, please return them to the front office. If books are not found a $10 fee will be charged. 

Leisa Cousins- Librarian

Important Dates to Remember!

Week 2, Term 4: Book Week Dress up day Tuesday 20th October

Week 2, Term 4: Bradshaw's Book Swap Wednesday 21st October

YMCA School Holiday activites

Holiday Activities