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Nulkaba News Nulkaba Public School

Thursday, 3 November 2011

5 O’Connors Road Nulkaba NSW 2325 Phone: 4990 1805 Fax: 4991 1408 Email: nulkaba-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au www.nulkaba-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Issue 30 Term 4 – Week 4

We are trialling the distribution of the newsletter on a fortnightly basis for the remainder of the year. A reminder that more regular updates are available on the schools social media sites, and all notes are available on the school website

www.nulkaba-p.schools.nsw.edu.au

Congratulations to Eva (Athletics) and Rose (Soccer & Swimming) who have been awarded Hunter Sports Awards. An outstanding achievement by the girls and they are the only recipients from Cessnock Zone. These will be presented at a special ceremony in Newcastle, during early December. Congratulations to the 38 Merit, 19 Distinction and 1 High Distinction Students in the Newcastle Permanent Mathematics Competition. These awards will be presented and announced at the next Primary Assembly! Reminder to all parents and students. - Lunch orders need to be placed first thing in the morning. Please remind

your child if you send them to school with an order. ALSO the canteen will be shut after the second half bell each day to allow our helpers time to clean up and count the takings. We kindly had a number of computers donated to the school, but to get full

use of them all we need some additional monitors. If anyone has an old one floating around that they might like to donate please see Mrs Karen Baker. Presentation Day - Our annual Presentation Day ceremony will be held this year at our school hall on Tuesday, 13th December. We will be starting at 9:30am with our K-2 awards, a short intermission and then at 10:20 our Y3-6 awards will be presented. More information will follow. Our Thank you to Parents morning tea and School Acknowledgement Assembly will be held on Thursday, 15th December.

This is your principal tweeting! Schools are using twitter as an electronic noticeboard for students, parents and staff, writes Mark Sparvell.

Many of us remember being startled from a 1970's heat-induced classroom doze by the fearful speaker box springing to violent life. When I visit schools and see these artefacts

from a gentler, more analogue time, I secretly fear it will command me to go to the principal's office (which, as a principal now should be a pleasant request).

Increasingly, the modern day equivalent of the speaker box is social networking.

Lorie Vela (www.collaborationideas.com) believes if you really want to know how students and communities think, what is important to them and to learn their language, you need to engage with them in 'their spaces'. Vela identifies twitter and facebook as two social networking sites of interest to schools.

Twitter is a free service on the web that allows a person to send short (140 characters) status updates to multiple followers. Signing up for twitter is easy, and following someone's tweets (twitter messages) is even easier. There are many reasons for schools to consider exploring the possibilities of twitter. Laura Walker (http://twitter.com/mrslwalker) summaries a range of reasons.

Twitter can be like a virtual staffroom, where teachers can access in seconds a stream of links, ideas, opinions, and resources from a hand-picked selection of global professionals. It can enable excellent teachers to reflect on what they are doing in their schools; what is working well and what needs improvement. It can provide quality-assured searching, as you increasingly trust the people you follow and hone and develop your list. And, it's about communication; expressing yourself in 140 characters is a great discipline.

An entry point for many schools is to use twitter as a reach vehicle to your community.

Schools use a twitter account as an electronic school noticeboard which pushes out messages (tweets) to those who are subscribed (followers). Examples from schools recently surveyed through my blog have included posting ongoing scores from sportsday; recognising achievements of staff and students; brainstorming

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Thursday, 3 November 2011 Issue 30 Term 4 Week 4 ideas and gathering feedback; and, sharing links quickly, instantly and to many.

Other examples include providing an instant response tool for professional learning sessions; reminders about closure days and special events; and, canteen specials and requests for assistance.

Stewart, a parent from a regional South Australian school notes (via sparvell.com): "As a parent I found twitter a wonderful way to stay in touch with issues and activities in the school community. As with a lot of parents I am extremely time poor and this information enabled me to streamline my days and create time for activities involving my children."

It could be argued that some of the examples from the field are simply transmission functions of a social media platform that could be used to do so much more. I understand this but also understand that sometimes finding the 'inroad' is a starting point. (See box for my top tips for getting started.)

One of the first professional learning webinars to be delivered through www.palnet.edu.au will be around social media and schools. To be notified of this event, go to www.palnet.edu, register and select participation in the 'ICT Strategic Planning' group. The palnet environment is built 'by principals for principals and aspiring leaders' and is scheduled to go live late November.

Ps. follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/sparvell

Blogwatch This will seem wildly egocentric but I'm following conversations on my blog www.sparvell.com about the role of social media as tools for communicating and engaging with school communities. There's a quick poll to look out for on the front page asking visitors to identify their most recent ICT purchase, an RSS feed of trending ICT topics and a very curious' Clustr Map' tracking 'Where in the world?' visitors are dropping in from.

My other favourite blog is edublogs.org. With over a million fully searchable blogs dedicated to education, you are sure to find all the tips, challenges, support and resources that you need to explore and engage with blogs.

If you are going to explore twitter as a reach vehicle for your school, here are my top five tips.

1. Keep it simple - twitter allows for 140 characters. Make sure you are communicating what it is that is most important for your audience to know. If you are unsure what they want to know- ask them!

2. Keep is smart - There's a fine line between engaging with casual txt-speak and compromising

your 'position'. School tweets need to strike the line of professional but engaging (don't finish with 'xox'!)

3. Provide a guide- Explain through your conventional channels what you are exploring and seek support. Add twitter links to your school webpage and on your email footers.

4. Don't saturate - Most parents will be receiving tweets via their mobile devices. The last thing anyone wants is a dozen trivial tweets a day. Use sparingly, apply three to four times weekly and see your doctor if pain persists.

5. Protect - Have clear agreements around who can tweet and who approves. I managed our schools twitter account and staff who wished to send out to the twitter feed would email of text their messages to me. It's important to maintain the integrity and quality assurance of public communications.

Library Borrowing and Overdue Items

Students have been reminded many times in recent months in regards to items that have not been returned to the library on time. As the library’s annual stocktake period draws closer, it is important for library materials to be returned as soon as possible. This week, overdue notices have been sent home with those students who have long-term overdue items. It would be greatly appreciated if items are quickly returned. Where items have been lost or are not in the possession of students, the notices should be signed and returned to Mrs Morris as soon as possible. Thankyou.

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Thursday, 3 November 2011 Issue 30 Term 4 Week 4

ATTENTION YEAR 5 PARENTS

Application for Year 7 entry to selective high schools in 2013

Application is required in November 2011 for parents or carers of Year 5 students who wish their children to be considered for placement in Year 7 at a selective high school in 2013. There are 17 fully selective and 23 partially selective high schools, a virtual selective class provision (Western NSW Region) and 4 selective agricultural high schools in NSW offering places in Year 7. Three of the agricultural high schools offer boarder places. Parents with internet access are requested to apply online. Online application will be available from

24 October to 21 November 2011.

Application information is available on the internet at:

www.schools.nsw.edu.au/shsplacement For parents without internet access, application forms will be available in schools, school education group offices and some state office locations from 25 October. Please don’t hesitate to contact our school office. Karen Baker Deputy Principal Nulkaba Public School

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Any girls born in 2001 or 2002.

UNDER 12 GIRLS (REPRESENTATIVE BASKETBALL – 2012)

If you are interested in trying out for representative basketball please call the

Stadium Rep Season is from March until August.

CALL FIONA FOR ANY FURTHER INFORMATION. 4991 1656

cessnockbasketball.com.au