Barkly Highway State School - Term 1 Week 6
Principal's Welcome
Welcome PCYC Fun Squad!
PCYC Fun Squad, previously PCYC OSHC, is now located at Barkly Highway State School. During the Christmas break the PCYC Holiday Program was based here, also.
The same high-quality activities are available – from the leadership program Cadet Club to mindfulness, gardening, cooking, crafting, team games and more – just with an extra dose of Fun!
Some recent activities include-
- Working on our After School Fun routine finding what works
- Lots of outdoor play with all the new outdoor spaces that the children and staff are loving
- Opening of the “Cool, Calm, Collective room” in F Block. This is a space for the children to relax and do quiet activities as the main room at time can get a bit noisy
- Goodbye to staff who have headed off to university for semester 1 2025 .
Before and after school care, along with future holiday programs run by PCYC will be at Barkly Highway State School. Please contact the PCYC Fun Squad at
Email: barklyhighwayfunsquad@pcyc.org.au
Phone: 0437 456 284
CAMP SURVEY
Thank you, to our families who made time to complete and return the camp survey.
Out of the 120 surveys sent home we received 64 replies, with just over 90% of the replies supporting the current year 5 and year 6 camp agenda. Many of the replies, acknowledged but accepted the increasing cost of the camps, due to the life experiences that school camps provide for students. Other valuable information was also given on the returned surveys and this will be documented for future consideration.
Families with year 5 and / or year 6 students, keep a look out for future information aligned to your child’s camp.
Orange Forms/Notes: Year 6 Camp
Yellow Forms/Notes: Year 5 Camp
K-2 Deputy News
Prep Vision Screening
Over the past two days Vision screening has been taking place for our Prep students. Good vision is important for a child’s educational, physical and social development. This process will provide valuable information to our families around common eye conditions that may impact your child’s ability to see and could therefore impact their learning and development. Prep families please keep an eye out this week for a letter coming home regarding your child’s vision screener results.
Project 1000 – Transitions
As part of our Transitions way of working we aim to know 100% of our incoming Prep students by the end of Semester One in their year before school.
If you have a child turning 5 from 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026 they are eligible to begin Prep in 2026 and are of Kindy age for 2025. We would love to hear from you if you know your child will be beginning Prep with us in 2026 and/or if you need support enrolling your child into a Kindergarten in 2025.
Contact the school office on 4437 3633 or come in and see us and we can make a time to talk about how our school can support you and your child with the transition from kindergarten to Prep 2025-2026.
Attendance
Our Prep – Year 2 attendance data is sitting at 91.7% for the term so far. This is a percentage we would like to maintain and even work towards improving as we move into the second half of the term. It is important that students attend school everyday as we know there is vital learning happening in every classroom every day.
In Prep – Year 2 we currently have a total of 13 unexplained absences outstanding. Don’t forget, if your child is away, let your classroom teacher know, use the absentee line or reply to the text message you receive on your mobile. You can also return the note that is being sent home each week with any unexplained absences listed.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our families and classroom teachers for working together toward our 0 unexplained absences goal!
Settling in to 3/4 Gold
Our 3 / 4 cohort has transitioned brilliantly into the 2025 learning year and have settled into our classrooms. In English, we have been learning how to share ideas and persuade an audience with our short film reviews. In Maths we have been exploring line and rotational symmetry as well as mapping. As scientists, we’ve been exploring how Earth moves resulting in day, night and shadows. In HASS we have been learning about our school as a community and how it is possible to take action to support and improve our community as well as understanding what it means to be a part of a democracy. We have been exploring these concepts through shared experience, hands on learning, explicit teaching and independent play to consolidate understandings. We hope you enjoy some of our photos!
Library News
We are excited to see everyone back! During the year we will have some wonderful events in and around the library.
Book Club
Orders from Book Club Issue #1 have started to arrive at school and we are handing those out to students promptly.
Book Club Issue #2 brochures have gone home on Monday and are due back by this Friday.
Our library routine is that students are borrowing once a week with their class. Prep –Year 3 require a library bag to take their book home and they can borrow 1 book. Students in Years 4-6 do not need a library bag for their books to go home and may choose 2 books. These are usually a fiction and a non-fiction book. All books are due back every week and may be re-borrowed. Students who have an overdue book cannot borrow until the book is returned. Overdue notices are emailed home regularly. We know that accidents can and will happen, and we kindly ask that you send the damaged book back to school. If your student has lost a book, please notify the library and the school asks kindly that you help financially with the replacement cost.
Students can access the library during first and second break during playtime. From Prep (who are joining us a little later in the term) to year 2, students can read books, play games and draw. Additionally, our older students from Year 2 have access to the desktop computer which they can use to play games online, check e-mails or work on assignments.
We offer 7-8 Book Club issues through Scholastic a year. Your student will bring a brochure home from which you may order. There are 2 ways to do this. You can either fill in the order form in the catalogue and send it together with your cash payment to the school office, or use the convenient online LOOP ordering option, with no forms or payment needing to be sent to school. All orders get delivered to school and are distributed as soon as they arrive. Generally brochures are handed out on a Monday and all orders are due back at school by Friday the same week. Late orders may be held over until the next order.
Twice a year we have a Book Fair, also through Scholastic, which is a shop for our students to browse and possibly purchase from. Our first Book Fair is coming in Term 2. A second Book Fair will be later in the year.
While we do earn a commission for sales which helps us to purchase resources for the school and in return will benefit our students, there is no obligation to purchase.
We usually celebrate Book Week in August and have a Dress up Day where students may come dressed up as their favourite Book Character. So put a note in your calendar!
Please feel free to contact us in the library with any question or queries you may have.
Kind Regards,
Svenja Spitzner-Lewis
Events & Flyers
Want to know what's happening within the school? Check out our School Calendar to keep up to date.
https://barklyhighwayss.schoolzineplus.com/calendar/1
Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/barklyhighwaystateschool
