Dear Duffy Primary School Community,

It is hard to believe that we are writing the last newsletter for 2023!  

Words cannot express our gratitude for all that each of you have given to our Duffy school community this year. Our P&C 50th celebration Colour Run last Wednesday was a highlight of the year. The many, many colourful happy faces told a story of joy and excitement at being able to come together as a community. Thanks go to our amazing P&C and many parent/ carer volunteers and staff who enabled such an event to occur.

We farewell our Year 6 graduates as they head off to various High Schools in Canberra and in other parts of the country. It has been a privilege being part of their journey and they have all certainly contributed to the Duffy School story in a positive way. We wish them all the very best and look forward to seeing them again sometime in the future and hearing of their achievements. All the best to any other student and family leaving Duffy at the end of this year too.

A huge thank you to parents, carers and friends who have supported students and staff this year. Your understanding, patience and contribution of time and effort don’t go unnoticed, and go a long way towards building strong partnerships, as we all endeavour to do the very best for our students. 

Staffing Update

We have been so fortunate to have had the expertise of Alison deCure as our School Psychologist here at Duffy since 2022. Alison has worked tirelessly to support our staff, students and families here at Duffy, which we are so grateful for. Alison has been successful in securing a job managing the ACT Autism Assessment Service and Psychology Team at CDS. Congratulations Alison. We wish you all the best.

Staff at Duffy PS 2024

On Monday afternoon, our students spent time together with their 2024 grade team. Below is our staffing team for 2024.

Preschool

Possums - Chris Nairn

Wombats - Ferzana Shaikh

Kindergarten 

K Green - Wendy Driver

K White - Dale Larsen

K Blue - Brooke Sedgmen

Year 1

1 Green - Karla Jensen

1 White - Claire Stevens

Year 2

2 Green - Alyssa Audsley & Katie Withers

2 White - Macaila Simm

2 Blue - Ryan Weir

Year 3

3 Green - Vicki Shaw

3 White - Carrie Webster

Year 4

4 Green - Teagan Gaukroger

4 White - Rachel Pummeroy

Year 5 

5 Green - Sarah Burke & Claudia Robinson

5 White- Carla Magro

Year 6 

6 Green - Samuel Crowe

6 White - Kristy Williamson & Lucy Kelly

Griffin

Griffin Green - Ben Peel

Griffin White - Katie Love

Specialist teachers

French - Katrina Sinclair

PE - Chris Currie

Sustainability - Hannah Blount

Music - Kylie Brown

EALD - Bridie Morrell

Start of Term 1 Dates

The 2024 start of school dates are as follows: 

• Monday 29 January 2024 - Pupil free day 

• Tuesday 30 January 2024

First day for:

• Preschool (beginning of the week class)

• Kindergarten

• New students to Duffy Primary School

• Wednesday 31 January 2024 - All students return.

• Thursday 1 February 2024 - First day for Preschool (end of the week class)

We would appreciate that if you do notice any activity around the school over the break that looks out of place or evidence of vandalism, you please report to the police.

On behalf of the staff, we would like to wish our community a safe and relaxing holiday period and we look forward to seeing those of you returning in 2024.

Regards,

Katie, Arilia, Sarah and Katie

School Uniform Procedure 2024

At Duffy Primary School, the School Board plays a vital role in making decisions to support the school executive and staff to ensure the wellbeing and success of our students. One of our key responsibilities is to regularly review and update school policy and procedure documents, ensuring that they align with our commitment to providing the best educational experience for your children, along with ACT Public Education policies. 

Recently, the board had the opportunity to review the Duffy School Uniform procedure with executive staff. The board recognised that the existing procedure already contained the relevant information, however we acknowledged that some minor reframing to the wording of the document would provide more clarity and transparency. The minor revisions are driven by our strong belief in fostering a sense of school pride and unity among our students. We believe that the Duffy uniform instils a sense of belonging and identity and helps our students feel more connected to their school community, without restricting individuality and inclusiveness. In turn, we hope that reinforced expectations placed on school uniform will foster a sense of purpose and intent, where students know that school is a place of learning, collaboration and connectedness. The school board is committed to working alongside the school staff to ensure students and families are supported to understand the procedure. We appreciate your support in this endeavour to continue to foster a positive and inclusive school atmosphere.

Please see the Uniform Procedure Document here

Christmas Plane!

Kindy has been travelling the world this week on Kindy Air airlines! We have visited France, Italy, El Salvador, England and Greece so far, and have another five countries to visit next week. Each day students have their luggage checked and climb aboard the 'plane'. We then take off after watching the safety briefing video, get our passports stamped with the countries' flag, and learn all about how Christmas is celebrated in each place. Before returning home, students write a postcard to their loved ones about what they have learned in each place. 

In Italy, we learned that there is a Christmas Witch that delivers presents, La Befana. In El Salvador, we learned all about the magnificent firework display on Christmas Eve. We wonder what other countries do to celebrate, and the different ways our own families celebrate Christmas too.

Colour Run

Kindergarten students had a fantastic time at the schools 50th birthday Colour Run on Wednesday week 9. We had a great time out in the sunshine following the obstacle course and getting coloured.  Students were very excited to see Caroline Buchanan, olympic gold medalist in BMX, officially open the pump track.

STEM

Kindergarten students have been learning about the basics of coding in Mathematics. To do this they have been using the STEM resources that are available to us within our school including the "Bee-Bots". Students use the arrows on the Bee-Bots to tell it where to go and to follow a particular path. Students also had a go at creating their own path by first writing out the code and then programming the Bee-Bot to follow that path. Students were also shown a large map with various objects on it. They were then tasked with the challenge to programme the Bee-Bot to get from the pirate ship to the treasure on the map. 

Writers Workshop

Kindy has been exploring two different types of writing this term. Firstly, we have been looking at imaginative texts and fairytales. In our writers workhops, students have been exposed to a range of fairytales and other fiction texts to answer the big question of "Why do people write stories?". Kindy explored this questions by writing many of their own stories, the final of which was published into a mini book. 

Secondly, we had a short unit on procedural texts. We examined recipes and discussed why people need instructions and materials. We explored this by making some fairybread, which made us realise our instructions had to be very clear.  

In Maths we have been investigating patterns. To do this students went outside and used natural materials to create AB, ABC and various other repeating patterns. 

The Colour Run was a great success! As always, we are so thankful for our wonderful P&C for organising and helping put together the day. Also a big thank you to the parents who volunteered their time for it. Our students had so much fun and went home super colourful! 

Congratulations to our Year 6's to graduating this week! It was a fun filled day with their Graduation Ceremony in the morning, a Laser tag and Pizza excursion and a dinner with their families in the evening. We wish them all the best in high school! 

A Message from Elena at School Holidays

I’m Elena from SchoolHolidays.com.au, where we help families with kids make the most of their school holidays.

We’ve put together a free, detailed guide packed with exciting school holiday activities for kids of all ages in your area.

It would be really valuable for students and their families to have access to this helpful, free resource to help them discover enriching camps, free activities and Christmas events.

Here’s the link to the guide: https://schoolholidays.com.au/blog/canberra-things-to-do-with-family  

Transport over the school holidays

A school holiday bus timetable will be in place from Monday, 18 December 2023 to Sunday, 28 January 2024 inclusive. The school holiday bus timetable will deliver the same reliable network and frequency that is currently in place just without the school services and diversions over the six-week period.

Free travel will be available on Christmas Day and from 5:00 pm New Year’s Eve for bus and light rail services. Visit www.transport.act.gov.au to plan your school holiday travel.

Keeping children safe online during summer holidays

During the summer break, children often spend more time online. Help them to have fun and keep them safe from online risks like inappropriate contact, online grooming and sexual extortion. Here’s how:

1.  Stay involved – regularly check their online activities and connect with them by playing online games together.  For more information on the latest games, apps and social media, including how to protect your information and report harmful content, visit the eSafety Guide.

2.  Set family rules together – decide which devices and apps are okay and when to use them. Download a tech agreement template and get working on a set of rules that will work for your family.

3.  Teach consent – Use holiday photos to discuss why asking people before taking or sharing their picture is important. These everyday opportunities to talk about consent can make it easier to say no to an online request that makes them feel uncomfortable.

4.  Stay informed – A new joint resource with Crime Stoppers NSW and the ACCE includes tips on signs to look out for and ways to protect your child online. eSafety also has several resources for parents on how to keep your child safe online. 

5.  Know where to get help – If your child is under 18, the best way to get help on inappropriate contact is to report it to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation. For reporting to eSafety, learn what you can report and how to report.

Keep your child safe online and enjoy the holidays!

The Future of Education Equity Fund 2024 to open on 17 January 

From 17 January 2024 families can apply for the Future of Education Equity Fund for the 2024 school year. Eligible low-income ACT families can receive one-off payments for financial assistance to help cover the costs of their children’s educational expenses such as sport equipment and activities, music lessons, school uniforms and excursions.

The Fund is open to eligible students enrolled in preschools (attached to a school) through to Year 12 in the ACT. Remember the 2024 application form will be available from 17 January 2024 and for further information visit Financial and resource assistance for families.

Give a tree a drink

Have you noticed your neighbourhood street trees recently? Are they thirsty? This summer is going to be hot and dry. We encourage all school students to help protect our urban forest and make our city a great place to live by regularly watering their street trees. Water saving tip: take a bucket in the shower with you, and use the excess, to water the base of a street tree at least once a week. Canberra’s incredible trees provides much needed shade, clean our air and provides habitats for local wildlife. Help us protect trees so they can protect us.

The ACT Government has almost 60,000 young trees on the current watering program. While young street trees are watered by the ACT Government regularly to ensure their establishment and survival, the community can help by giving their local trees a drink over summer. For more information about caring for our public trees, read City Services Trees and Nature.

Early Intervention Team 

Seeking parent group referrals for Term 1 - 2024

The Early Intervention team will be offering two 7-week parent programs in Term 1 2024:

• Addressing Your Child’s Anxious Avoidance (AYCAA)

• 1. 9:30am -11:30am Wednesday at Hedley Beare Centre for Teaching and Learning (HBCTL)

• 2. AYCAA Flyer (4.2 MB PDF)

• 3. AYCAA Referral form Term 1 2024 (71 kb Word)

• Boundaries without Conflict

• 1. 12:30pm -2:30pm Wednesday at HBCTL

• 2. Boundaries without Conflict Flyer T1 2024 (739 kb PDF)

• 3. Boundaries without Conflict Referral Form (71 kb Word)

Please read the flyers and referral forms for further information and inclusion criteria. Suitable referrals can be made through school psychologists, youth/social workers or other members of student wellbeing teams with parental permission.

Contact Ava Trudinger on sps_earlyintervention@ed.act.edu.au 

A Village for Every Child – Resources

A Village for Every Child has created two resources to support Canberra families as they navigate through their child’s development and health needs. The resources provide information on how to use the health ‘Blue Book’, attend health checks, and identify where to go if they have a health, development or disability concern. 

The resources, such as the Child Development Poster and Family Pathways Map are available on the Village for Every Child’s website.

Learning for Life

The Learning for Life program helps children by supporting their education from primary through to post-school studies, like TAFE or University.

Learning for Life provides:

To be eligible for Learning for Life, you need to:

• Have a child or children in Primary School, at one of the schools The Smith Family work with

• Have a Health Care or Pension Concession Card

• Have a strong commitment to your child/ren’s education and make sure they attend school regularly

To register your interest in Learning for Life, you need to:

1. Click this link https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/campaigns/learning-for-life-expression-of-interest

2. Fill out the relevant details (your name, phone number, child/ren’s details and School Information)

3. You will then receive an email from The Smith Family with information about next steps

If you have any questions about Learning for Life, or need help to apply, you can call The Smith Family on 0481 464 065 or 1800 280 223.

Emergency and Food Relief Guide

Home Learning Hub

Home Learning - School Wide Subscriptions

Literacy People's Literacy Learning Modules - A guide for engaging parents and carers

Mindfulness Podcast Series - ACT Education Directorate