Congratulations to the 2017 Carroll Public School Leaders who were inducted yesterday at the Leaders Induction Ceremony. Proud parents and family members attended the induction and joined us for a BBQ lunch. The 2017 Carroll Public School Leaders are:

School Captain: Harry Woodhead

Vice Captain:Corey Wheeler

Sports Captain: Breeana Ward

Prefects: Annie Elphick, Haley Wheeler and Dustyn McCormack

All parents and community members are invited to attend an important meeting about some future changes to Carroll Public School. These changes will affect all students, so it is strongly advised that you attend if possible. The meeting will be held at 2.45pm on Monday 27 February in the school hall. A letter outlining the changes will follow on Tuesday the 28 February.

The first P&C meeting for 2017 will be held on Thursday 2 March at 2.00pm in the hall. I’d like to extend an invitation to all parents and community members to join us in the decision making process at Carroll Public School.

Thank you to the parents who have indicated that they will be attending the Fruit and Veg workshop on Wednesday 15 March, starting at 3.00pm. There will be a teacher available to supervise the children and their younger siblings during the workshop. If you have not yet indicated that you will be attending, it’s not too late.

We wish the best of luck to the Carroll students who are competing at the Zone Swimming Carnival in Gunnedah on Friday. Our students have received many compliments lately about their manners and behaviour from visitors to the school and from others who see them representing our school. I know these students will compete on Friday while displaying impeccable manners and outstanding sportsmanship. Thank you for proudly representing Carroll PS and good luck to Annie Elphick, Dustyn McCormack, Lawson McCormack, Maddelin Mulherin, Connor Swan, Breeana Ward, Corey Wheeler and Haley Wheeler.

Opening School Mass: Thank you to Mrs Canham for all her hard work in preparing our opening school mass.  The school captains and prefects were inducted during this mass and we had a small gathering for morning tea under the sails afterwards.

Swimming Carnival 2017

Thank you to anyone and everyone who helped in any way to make our carnival such a huge success. Special thanks to Shirley Burraston for taking a day off and travelling all the way from Walgett to  be our recorder. Congratulations to all of the children who participated as well as our 2017 swimming champions; Senior Girls:  Amelia Kelly, Senior boys:  Charlie Kelly, 11 Year girls:  Jade Wilson, 11 Year boys:  Noah Picton, Junior Girls: Hannah Seymour, Junior boys: Jack Wilson, Sub-Junior girls:  Harmony Tyler, Sub-Junior boys:  Clancy ad Bill Flett, Spirit of St Joseph’s Trophy:  Jasmin Stackman, Spirit of St Joseph’s Trophy:  Dustin Kelly, 50m Freestyle:  Charlie Kelly, Winning House:  Blue

W5 Award Recipients

Humayl Luqman - for improving his sight word reading by 54 extra words!!  Maddox Davis for applying himself in independent reading group time. Kaitlin Rheinberger for great use of language techniques to write a description.  Enikka Such- For your amazing use of modality, emotive and technical language within your persuasive writing piece.   Dustin Kelly- for your thoughtful communication of  ideas within our class discussions.

Week 5 Report

Parent information evening.

Our annual Term 1 parent information evening was held last week.  We would like to thank all parents who attended and a special thank you to our teaching staff for their efforts in preparing and presenting their vision for the school year.  We look forward to our parent/child/teacher relationship developing throughout the year with even more parents attending the next whole school event.

Visitors:  Last week we had a visit from staff from McCarthy to speak with Y5/6 students and parents about McCarthy. This was a really lovely opportunity for all involved to learn more about this wonderful school and all that it offers the students.

Diocesan Swimming Carnival:  The Diocesan Swimming carnival was held in Moree on Thursday and all children who are attended represented our school proudly.  Thank you to Mrs Wilson for coordinating and supervising this group of children.  

What another busy week we’ve had at Willow Tree Public School. All our students are continuing to apply themselves and work hard in the classroom. Our zone representatives did us proud with everyone trying their best and achieving fantastic results. It was great to see parents at our meet & greet evening; our P&C do an amazing job at fundraising for our students and welcome all families to come along to any future meetings to have their say as to where funds may be able to be spent. Our years 3/4/5/6 class will be travelling to Murrurundi to participate in activities at The King of the Ranges, huge thankyou to all parents who have indicated they can assist with transport. It is fantastic to see all our students continuing to work hard in our classrooms. Years K/1/2 are really embracing their new routines as they settle into the classroom while year’s 3/4/5/6 are working extremely well.  Please remember to keep an eye out in The Breeze for information regarding all events happening within the school and to return permission notes by due dates. Students who do not return permission notes may not be able to attend events. Please do not hesitate to contact the office if you have any queries or concerns.

ZONE SWIMMING

Well done to all our swimmers who represented Willow Tree at the Quirindi PSSA Zone swimming carnival last Friday. It was pleasing to hear that our students tried their best and displayed outstanding sportsmanship throughout the day. There were some outstanding results from our students. Congratulations to Katie Martin who was awarded Quirindi Zone PSSA Junior Girl Champion and Holly Martin who was awarded Quirindi Zone PSSA Junior Girl Runner Up. After a big day of competition many of our swimmers competed in relays with some outstanding results. Good luck to those swimmers who have qualified for regional swimming in Armidale on Monday March 6.

Principal's Message

This Wednesday, March 1st we will be holding our Welcome Back BBQ, disco and parent teacher night.  Information has been distributed via the Contact, school Facebook page and separate invitation.  If you have missed the RSVP date please phone the office and come along and join us. Everyone is most welcome.

Last week we had several children represent the school at basketball and zone swimming. Congratulations to Charlie Cunningham, Jesse Patterson, Jamiah Hunt, Kayne Campbell, Larni Carter, Josh Koppers, Lilly Cope, Lilli-Lee Bull, Kalahni Daley, Emily Daw and Erica Bizant who represented our school demonstrating excellent sportsmanship. Charlie, Jesse, Jamiah, Kayne and Larni made it through to region for swimming.  Larni, Jamiah and Erica will represent the Quirindi PSSA in basketball at the trials in Tamworth.

As part of our Leader In Me initiative the staff and students have been focussing on Habit 1: Be Proactive.  This week we move to Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind. This habit is based around the effectiveness of planning.

Have a Plan.

I plan ahead and set goals. I do things that have meaning and make a difference. I am an important part of my classroom and contribute to my school’s mission and vision. I look for ways to be a good citizen.

On Friday 10th February we held our annual swimming carnival. Congratulations goes to MacKillop house on their win. As a result of this carnival, 25 children from St Nicholas travelled to Moree to compete in the Armidale Diocesan Swimming Carnival. All the children competed with enthusiasm and displayed excellent sportsmanship. Congratulations go to Tilani Smith who was awarded Junior Girl Champion and Maisie Wilde who was awarded 11 Year Girl Champion. 13 children were selected in the Polding team to compete in Sydney at the NSW Combined Primary Schools Swimming Carnival. Absent from the team photo are Tilani and Molly Smith. On Friday 17th February the children attended our Opening School Mass where our school and house captains were formally commissioned. The following students have the honour in leading St Nicholas School in 2017.

School Captains Bridget Tydd and Sam Sleeman

School Vice-Captains Annalise Tighe and Sam Anderson

Dominic House Captains Abigail Taggart and Eddy Williams

Edmund Rice Captains Claire Cavallaro and Campbell Alderson

MacKilliop House Captains Grace O’Mullane and Cruz Murray

Ozanam House Captains Josephine Gerathy and Riley Feasey

Prefects lose hair for charity IT is somewhat a tradition for The Armidale School prefects to lose their hair for charity – and this year the Leukaemia Foundation is to be the beneficiary of their goodwill. The leadership body chose the organisation as a cause close to their community, with the young daughter of the school’s Director of Boarding, a student at TAS Junior School, being diagnosed with a form of the disease, late last year. At last week’s school swimming carnival – when the campaign is each year launched – Year 11 student Bonnie Bremner won the raffle to shave the head of Senior Prefect Jim Orr. Through the course of the term Jim’s fellow boy prefects will also be going bald for the cause, while the girl prefects will be losing years of growth as they trim their hair to shoulder length. Already more than $1000 has been raised with the aim of significantly more to come. “To lose some hair is quite a big deal for a lot of people but in reality, it is such a small sacrifice as it is an extremely effective vehicle to drive fundraising for the Leukaemia Foundation,” Jim said. “We are all proud to be a part of this tradition and the lack of hair all is worthwhile when we can see and realise the impact that it is having on people with Leukaemia. The fact that people within our school community have been affected is a motive behind this cause and it so much easier to lose our hair understanding how much of an impact it has.”