From the Principal’s desk
FAREWELL MR TURNER
Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, Mr. Turner will be leaving Rylstone PS to return to Newcastle at the end of this term. We thank Mr. Turner for his work with class 3-4 this term. I’m sure his class and colleagues will miss him, and we wish him all the best. We are currently undergoing interviewing for his replacement for the remainder of the year.
NAPLAN
Years 3 and 5 have recently completed NAPLAN for 2025. All assessments were completed online except for the Year 3 Writing assessment. As always, I’d like to remind all parents that the results of these assessments are a reflection of a one day and point in time. Some students may have been nervous and rushed through without checking their answers properly, some students may have felt unwell or tired. I am pleased with everyone’s efforts and know all of our students performed to the best of their abilities on the day.
AEROSOLS and SPRAYS
Just a reminder that aerosols or sprays are not permitted at school. If a student wants to bring deodorant, please make sure it’s a ‘stick’ type. Spray hand sanitiser or body spray is also not permitted.
PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS
Parent Teacher interviews will be held in Week 11 this term. Bookings will open at 9am March 26th and close 4pm April 4th. If you are having difficulty in making a booking, please call the office for assistance once bookings have opened.
SWIM SCHEME
Our Learn to Swim scheme finishes next week Friday 28th March. It has been a HUGE undertaking with so many students going. I can’t thank Mrs Helen Grant enough as she has coordinated, run and participated in the program for the entire 5 weeks. It has been a logistical challenge to say the least and taken significant time out of classroom learning for those students involved.
Thank you to Mrs Rankin and Mrs Fielder who also taught swim lessons. Thank you to Mrs Shannon Morris and Mrs McCouat, Mrs Karen Croake and Ms Rachel Johnson without whom we would not have been able to support such a large number of children.
It is concerning the number of children too scared to put their faces in water when we have access to a local public pool.
A reminder that this was a ‘swim survival’ course, not a stroke correction course. If you would like your child to learn to swim, I can recommend contacting either our local Kandos pool or Mudgee public pool. Rylstone/Kandos Swim club may also be of help.
Kandos-Rylstone Swimming Club Facebook
Once again, I would like to express my appreciation for our staff and volunteers who go above and beyond to ensure our children are provided with every opportunity.
ONLINE GAMING
We are hearing more and more of our students discussing online gaming, especially in our younger grades. As a staff we are concerned with not only the amount of time some of our students spend on devices, the lack of proper sleep they are receiving, but also who are they talking to when on an online gaming platform. Consider your child’s screen use in the context of their overall health and wellbeing. For example, is online time getting in the way of their sleep and exercise? Is it impacting on their face-to-face connections with family and friends?
WAYS TO HELP YOUR CHILD MANAGE THEIR ONLINE TIME:
Stay engaged and encourage balance
- Keep an eye on the games, apps and devices your child uses. Chat with your child regularly and help them stay aware of how much time they are spending on different online and offline activities.
- Include positive things outside the online world in your conversations, such as what they love in life, careers they are interested in and new hobbies.
- Join in. Play games together as a family or explore some joint online projects. Rather than being just a solitary activity, online time can then become another way of strengthening connections as well as building social skills.
- Where possible, avoid limiting online time as a punishment as this approach may inflate its importance to children.
Create a plan
- Involve your child in creating a family plan for leisure and entertainment time that balances time spent sitting in front of screens — including time online and watching TV — and a variety of offline activities.
- Work out the plan together. Young people are more likely to respond to rules they have contributed to and see as being fair and consistent.
- As well as agreed age-based time limits, the plan could include rules about which websites can be visited and online games can be played. It could also include control of access to the internet or devices, perhaps with daily passwords revealed once family time, homework and chores are complete.
- A minor reduction each day or a ‘15-minutes to switch-off’ warning can help the transition to a more balanced use of time.
Reducing your own screen time also sets a positive example.
- You could also consider formalizing your plan into a signed written agreement — a family online safety contract. Our advice in online safety basics has some tips on this.
- There should be clear consequences for not sticking to the agreement and it is important to follow through with these.
- Children will copy you and often feel ‘digitally neglected’ when parents won’t put down their own device to engage with them. Try to model positive device use so that your children have a good example of healthy device activities.
There are a lot of helpful online gaming tips for parents to be found here: Gaming | eSafety Commissioner
DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHO YOUR CHILD IS TALKING TO ONLINE? WHAT ARE THEY HEARING? WHAT ARE THEY BEING EXPOSED TO?
Are your children playing age-appropriate games?
These are games we have heard discussed in class:
- Fortnite is rated a 13+ minimum age.
- Call of Duty is rated 15+ minimum age
- Grand Theft Auto (GTAV) is rated 18+ minimum age
A comprehensive list of games and recommended ages and uses can be found here: The eSafety Guide | eSafety Commissioner
We encourage all families to get involved in our school community. Your support and participation are important for the success of our programs and events. Please keep an eye on our school calendar and newsletters for updates on activities and volunteer opportunities.
As always, any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 6379 1404 or jodee.burcher@det.nsw.edu.au
Kind regards,
Jodee
In the classrooms
Kookaburras
Kindy Kookaburras have settled in beautifully, and all students are making significant progress in their learning journey. We've learned 12 sounds and have even started reading our first book. We are so proud! We've also begun writing our first sentences.
In literacy, we've been exploring the book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt." We created a map to illustrate the different places the family visits in their quest to find the bear. Inspired by this, we decided to write our own story titled "We're Going on a Principal Hunt." We searched the school for Ms. Burcher, visiting the playground and checking the cricket and basketball areas. We even looked in the staff room and her office, but couldn't find her anywhere.(Ms. Burcher was away at a principal meeting that day.) After our search, we drew map of the school and wrote about where we thought Ms. Burcher might be. I'm sure she would have enjoyed being in some of the places the students thought of instead of meetings.
In art, we've been practicing drawing using shapes and focusing on making our drawings larger. We created fabulous drawings of bears, adding great detail to our work.
In science, we're studying the weather. We've been learning about the seasons, and this week we focused on winter and what some animals do during this time. We discussed how bats and bears hibernate and the reasons why they do so. We were fascinated to discover that some insects and frogs also burrow under the ground to hibernate during winter!
Mrs. Rankin
Goannas
1-2 Goannas News
We are excited to share the latest happenings in our 1-2 Goannas class! The students have settled quickly into our class routines and are making fantastic progress across all areas of learning.
The Goannas have been engaging enthusiastically in phonics lessons. They enjoy challenging themselves with tricky words, and it's wonderful to see their confidence growing with each session.
In writing, we have been learning the differences between complex and compound sentences, as well as the different conjunctions used with each sentence type. The students worked in pairs to create some great sentences that are now proudly displayed in our classroom.
The daily review sessions in maths have been a hit! Students love how these reviews help them remember concepts they've previously learned. In recent weeks, we've been learning about chance, leading to some very creative outcomes for the likelihood of different things happening during a family picnic at Gannguddy. The imaginative possibilities included meeting a megalodon and even having dad wear a bikini! In multiplication, we've been forming groups and skip counting to find totals, which the students have found both fun and educational.
In Science, we have been learning about the differences between natural, managed, and constructed landscapes. The students did some excellent drawings of our playground, identifying and illustrating these differences. It was impressive to see their understanding and creativity shine through in their work.
Our class news has been both fascinating and entertaining! Last week, we explored a myriad of intriguing facts about exotic animals, including the remarkable Chinese trapdoor spider and the unique axolotls. This week, the students have been delighting in reciting nursery rhymes and tongue twisters. A special highlight was Finn, who wrote and presented his very own rap titled ‘Toe Bros.’ His creativity and confidence in sharing his work with the class was impressive and we all enjoyed a good laugh!
Our swimming sessions have been incredibly beneficial, with everyone making noticeable improvements in their skills. The students have shown great resilience, braving some very chilly, windy days as well as very hot days.
We are pleased to share that our first visit to the library will be on Thursday, 27th March. The students are excited about the opportunity to explore new books and discover all that the library has to offer! Thursday will be our regular library day from then on.
Mrs Grant
Quolls
Here’s an update of what’s been happening in 1/2 Quolls. We are focusing on developing learning stamina and increasing independence. It’s wonderful to see their enthusiasm for learning and willingness to improve every day!
We’ve been working very hard in all of our English lessons. In our phonics sessions, we’ve been diving deep into reading and writing, exploring words with many phonemes, suffixes and long vowel spellings.
We’ve also embarked on an engaging writing unit about great white sharks, where students have been discovering fascinating facts and expanding their vocabulary with words such as predator, prey, skeleton, cartilage and electroreception. They are learning to construct both simple and compound sentences and use a mix of them for reader engagement and created published information reports which they were very pleased with!
In our current writing unit, we have started to explore the world of narratives where we will work towards creating Super Animal stories. Keep your eyes out for our next published work!
In Maths, our Daily Reviews are proving invaluable for reinforcing what we've learned. Our thinking cap clothes might help a little bit too! We’ve been exploring concepts such as giving directions, months and seasons, forming groups, outcomes and chance, doubling numbers, and the properties of 2D shapes. These foundational skills are crucial for their mathematical understanding.
Mrs Mulvaney
Kangaroos
In 3/4K, we have introduced small group learning, where each group created their own name and embraced the importance of teamwork. Students are learning to support one another, collaborate, and find solutions together. This approach has been a great success, with many forming new friendships and strengthening connections across the class.
One of our recent activities involved a word research task, where students worked together to identify and record words that follow the weekly spelling rule. It has been wonderful to see them so engaged, eagerly discussing solutions and tackling tricky challenges with enthusiasm!
We have also been actively engaged in learning robotics and programming through LEGO Spike. They explored creative ways to design and build mini golf sets, constructing unique robots to bring their ideas to life. This hands-on experience fostered problem-solving, collaboration, and innovation, making for an exciting and rewarding learning opportunity.
Mr Turner
Magpies
Mrs Newham
Zone and Western Swimming
Zone swimming
Congratulations to the 16 students who participated in the Zone swimming competition on Wednesday, February 16th! It was an amazing afternoon, and all the students achieved fantastic personal bests. A special thank you to Mrs. Morris for her role as team manager, ensuring that all students made it to their races on time. Your hard work and commitment are greatly appreciated!
Western swimming
Congratulations to the students who earned a spot on the Zone team and represented us at the Western Swimming Carnival in Dubbo on Friday, March 7th! This achievement is a testament to their hard work, dedication, and swimming skills. Competing at this level is a remarkable opportunity, and we are incredibly proud of their accomplishments.
Western Basketball
Congratulations to Lachlan and Jack, who went to Bathurst on Wednesday, March 5th, to try out for the Western School Sports representation. With 60 students in attendance, they had a fantastic day. A special mention goes to Jack, who made it to the second round of 20 students, just narrowly missing out on being selected. Great effort, boys! Well done!
In the Garden
The kids and Mrs. Lus have been very busy in the Garden Harvesting lots of goodies.
The Garden produced lots of wonderful produce that was entered into the 2025 Rylstone Kandos Show.
2025 NSW Premier's Reading Challenge
SRC
Sentral
Please remember that Sentral is the go to place for all school information, permission requests, school payments, absences, newsletters, Parent Teacher Interviews.
Please note that SMS messages sent via Sentral from our school will come from a random phone number but we will always start our message with RylstonePS or RPS. We have limited characters use so messages may be brief and to the point.
Sentral Parent Help pages: https://www.sentral.com.au/parents
Please keep up to date with your child's absence explanations, as unexplained absences, as well as total absences, will be mentioned on your child's report. Red on your child's attendance calendar indicates we do not have an explanation.
Dates for your calendar
Don't forget you can find these dates on your Sentral Calendar too.
March
- 20th - Life Education
- 24th - All Hands on Ukes
- 25th - Young Leaders Sydney
- 26th - GRIP Bathurst
- 26th - Parent/Teacher interview bookings open
April
- 4th - Last day for Easter Raffle donations
- 9th - Last day to return Easter Raffle tickets and Money
- 7th - Parent/Teacher interviews
- 8th - Parent/Teacher interviews
- 9th - Parent/Teacher interviews
- 10th - Parent/Teacher interviews
- 11th - Easter Hat Parade
- 11th - Whole School Assembly
- 11th - Last Day of Term 1
- 18th - Good Friday
- 20th - Easter Sunday
- 25th - Anzac Day
- 30th - First Day of Term 2
May
- 8th - School Cross Country
- 9th - Mother's Day Breakfast
- 16th - Zone Cross Country
- 23rd - Back Up Zone Cross Country
Reminders
- Students arriving late or departing early MUST come to the office to sign in/out.
- Parent helpers must sign in at the office for WH&S.
- Payments to school (not P&C) can be made online via Sentral Pay with a debit or credit card, or cash can be sent in an envelope to the school office. The school does not have an EFTPOS machine.
- Please check your child's attendance on the Sentral app and keep up to date with absence explanations. Explanations are required within 7 days of an absence. A text message will be sent if your child is absent and you haven't submitted an explanation.
- School Drive Subsidy and bus transport: Please keep your details current and notify the Dept. of Transport of any address changes at www.transportnsw.info/school-students
P and C News
Uniform Shop
The shop is open on Friday afternoons 3:20-3:45pm but don’t forget you can shop anytime 24/7 via our online shop and your order will be sent home with your child: https://rylstone-public-school-parents-and-citizens-association.square.site/
Rylstone PS Before and After School Care
Stewart House Fundraising
Parents and Carers
Rylstone Public School and the NSW Department of Education support Stewart House, recognising it as an essential charity that transforms children’s lives. Each family at Rylstone PS has received an envelope through their eldest child. Stewart House is conducting a raffle for a chance to win a $4,000 travel voucher. Entry costs $2, which can be placed in the provided envelope and returned to the school. The funds raised go towards offering a residential program at no cost to children across NSW and the ACT.
“Each year, 1,600 public school children in need come to Stewart House from many parts of NSW and the ACT. During their stay, children are provided with optometric, dental and medical treatment as well as emotional support. This is balanced with health and educational programs and out of school activities to boost their self-esteem and promote a healthier lifestyle.”
Source - https://www.stewarthouse.org.au/about-stewart-house/
Families can choose to fill out the details on the back of the envelope and simply include $2 before returning it to the school. Alternatively, a QR code on the envelope allows for online donations. Regardless of the donation method, please ensure the details on the back of the envelope are completed before returning it to school. The envelopes will then be mailed back to Stewart House in time for the draw on MAY 23, 2025.
Swap It
School Holiday Activities
Youth Book Club & Journalling - Kandos (12 - 24 yrs)
Wednesday 9th April (Held every 2nd Wednesday of the month): Come and join our book club with a twist! Something different each month. Journal while we discuss the latest book. Free event organised by Mid-Western Regional Youth; for more information, please click the button below.
Youth Week NSW 2025 Competition - Mudgee
I am ___________. We are the future, and the future is now! Take the opportunity to write a postcard to yourself! Submit your finished postcard to any Library and they will be collected and put on public display. Four random postcards will be drawn to win a $50 Mudgee Gift Card. Free event organised by Mid-Western Regional Youth; for more information, please click the button below.
Come and Try Archery - Bathurst
Come and Try Archery is a beginners archery program run by experienced coaches and providing a fun and safe environment to try archery. Runs every Saturday, $10 event organised by Bathurst Archers Inc; for more information and to reserve a spot, please click the button below.
Virtual Reality & Mobile Games - Mudgee
Tuesday 15th April: Join the Games2U crew and immerse yourself in their state-of-the -art Mobile Games Theatre and Virtual Reality (VR) experience! Free event organised by Mudgee Arts Precinct Cultural Workshops; for more information and to reserve a spot, please click the button below.
School Holidays Robotics Workshop - Ages 8-11 - Lawson
Tuesday 15th April: Join us for an existing Robotics workshop - perfect for kids aged 8-11 to learn, program or design cool robots! We always do something fun! Early Bird special $27.78, from 2nd April $33.08; event organised by Robostate; for more information and to reserve a spot, please click the button below.
Coding Robotics Workshop - Ages 12 -15 - Lawson
Wednesday 16th April: Join us for a Robotics workshop - perfect for kids 12 and above to learn to program and drive robots using our large field. $38.37 event organised by Robostate; for more information and to reserve a spot, please click the button below.
TOTEM Skate Workshop - Mudgee
Wednesday 16th April: Workshops - Deck Design (10.00am to 12.30pm) + Learn to Skate (12.30pm to 1.45pm). Free event organised by Kildallon Education Centre; for more information and to reserve a spot, please click the button below.
These April school holidays, NSW Parliament is excited to open its doors for the fourth annual Festival of Democracy!
- When: Tuesday 15 April, 9:30am – 3:00pm
- Where: NSW Parliament House, 6 Macquarie St, Sydney
This jam-packed day of discovery, learning, and hands-on activities will bring civics, citizenship and the history of Australia’s first and oldest legislature to life for 5-12 year olds and their parents/carers:
- Step inside history with guided chamber tours
- Get creative in arts and crafts workshops
- Go behind the scenes with special video and documentary screenings and learn about how laws are made
- Travel through time to meet the suffragettes and Henry Parkes
- Participate in a story reading of the signing of the Magna Carta
- Take to the floor in a mock committee hearing
- Learn about voting with the NSW Electoral Commission
- Engage with the role of Legal Aid in assisting NSW citizens
Get involved, have fun and learn at this free and one-day-only event!
Parents/carers can learn more and get their free ticket by visiting: https://education.parliament.nsw.gov.au/free-event-festival-of-democracy-2025/
Free Excursion to Laser Tag @ Bathurst (12-18 yrs) - Autumn Holidays 2025
Thursday 17th April: Day Trip from Mudgee via Rylstone and Kandos for pick up to Bathurst Indoor Laser Tag. Pizza lunch included. Organised by Mid-Western Regional Youth; for more information and to reserve a spot, please click the button below.
Level Up Extended (12-20 yrs) - Autumn School Holidays 2025
Thursday 24th April: Love role-playing games (RPGs) and other tabletop games? Connect with other gaming enthusiasts at Council’s extended level up. Free event 10-3pm located in Mudgee. Organised by Mid-Western Regional Youth; for more information and to reserve a spot, please click the button below.
Youth-Led Performance Workshops - Kandos
Thursday 24th April: This free workshop provides youth participants with an immersive one-day experience in collaborative performance art. For more information and to reserve a spot, please click the button below.