Tuesday 7^th December – State-wide Transition Day
Friday 10^th December – Hot Lunch
Friday 10^th December – Year 6 Graduation
Tuesday 14^th December – Year 3/4 Pool Party 11.45am – 1.45pm
Wednesday 15^th December – Years 3-6 Kanga Cricket Carnival
Wednesday 15^th December – Year 2 Pool Party 10am – 12noon
Thursday 16^th December – Year F/1 Pool Party 10am – 12 noon
Thursday 16^th December – Year 5/6 Pool Party 12noon - 2pm
Thursday 16^th December – Last day of term for students 3.30pm finish
Friday 17^th December – Pupil Free Day (OSHC operating)
Monday 10^th January – Friday 28^th January 2022 - Vacation Care Program operating
Monday 31^st January 2022 – 1^st Day of school for all students

Congratulations to everyone for their fantastic Book Week costumes on Friday. There were plenty of great book character ideas and costumes, and it was clear that the children have a love of reading and enjoying literature. Well done Sarah on organising book week!

Tuesday this week is the transition day. Children will be spending the day in their 2022 classes. Class structures are determined based on a number of factors including the number of students at each year level, the amount of staff the school has and the nature of the various learning spaces. Given that the numbers at each year level can change dramatically year to year, it is easy to see why we don’t have the same class structures every year. Staffing will be much the same next year as this year. The only difference being that Ms Prlic will be reducing her days to two per week while Stacey will increase to three per week.

Next year’s classes will include two F/1 classes; two Yr. 1/2 classes; 3 Yr. 3/4 classes and 2 Yr. 5/6 classes. All staff work together to develop the class structures. As outlined in previous newsletters it can be very difficult to accommodate individual requests for classes. Often accommodating one request will negate another. We have taken great care in structuring classes and are confident that the children will have a positive experience.

This Friday evening is the Yr. 6 Graduation Ceremony. Families are already aware of the arrangements. At this Friday’s assembly we are aiming to have junior buddies present the Yr. 6 students an oak sapling as a reminder of their time at Yackandandah Primary School.

The final week of school (next week) includes excursions to the Yackandandah Pool. So far the pool has not opened, but we are hoping it will do so for the excursions. If not, we will be cancelling the excursion.

Bake Sale
A small group of Year 2 students are aiming to raise some funds for the school library.  They will be holding a small bake sale on Thursday and Friday.  Students can purchase a baked treat during the lunch break while their stocks last.  Prices are up to $3.

Michael Edwards
Principal

Year 6 Family Credits
Families of Year 6 students who have a credit amount in their family account will receive a refund form via email tomorrow from me.  This form will need to be returned to the school by Friday.  Alternatively, parents can opt to donate any credit balance to the school.

Family Statements
Statements will be sent home tomorrow to families who have outstanding charges.  Payment for any camps, excursions and activities that your child has participated in would be appreciated by Friday.

End of Year Pool Excursions
Next week each class will be having an excursion to the Yackandandah pool.

Classes will be attending on the following dates and times:

Year 3/4:               Tuesday 14^th December 11.45am-1.45pm

Year 1/2:               Wednesday 15^th December 10am – 12 noon

Year F/1:                Thursday 16^th December 10am – 12 noon

Year 5/6:               Thursday 16^th December 12noon-2pm

Permission forms were sent home last week.  If you haven’t yet returned the form, could you please do so tomorrow. There is no cost for students for the pool excursions.

Enjoy your week. 
Sandra

Assembly Helpers this week are:

Amy Schilling & Emma Pinard

Jonathan Shepherd for excellent strip counting by 2s and applying knowledge of multiplication facts.
Zack Dickeson for always giving everything his best and being a great leader in the classroom.
William Boddenberg for demonstrating excellent recall of multiplication facts this week.
Beau Ridgeway for your enthusiasm during drama workshops this week.
Esmeralda Haslett for beautiful handwriting and taking great pride in your work.
Savannah Lockett for improvement in reading high frequency words.
Peter Kellaway for outstanding dedication to creating your own poetry!
Kye Howarth for outstanding dedication to creating your own poetry!
Will Black for outstanding dedication to creating your own poetry!
Zya Davis for excellent sportsmanship and self-regulation in sport.
Lara Bebbington for excellent sportsmanship and self-regulation in sport.
Chase Nelder for always treating others with kindness and respect and sharing his great sense of humour!
Ollie Boddenberg for his outstanding creative writing, which shows an amazing amount of improvement since the beginning of the year.
Saoirse Beatty for her outstanding creative writing, which shows an amazing amount of improvement since the beginning of the year.
Matilda Ridgeway for working cooperatively with her partner to create an effective “Dreamtime” play script.
Angus Glanville for displaying such a high level of enthusiasm for this week’s Drama Workshop.
Aidan Wall for being an organised learner and completing tasks in a timely manner.
Cameron McIntosh for giving a confident and humorous performance during the drama workshop.
Vivienne O'Brien for giving a confident and humorous performance during the drama workshop.

Artwork of the Week

Sculptural bird houses on stilts by Year 5 students Edith McInerney and Zoe Riley, inspired by CBCA Picture Book of the Year Winner How to Make a Bird by Meg McInlay and Matt Ottley.

The last hot lunch for the year is pizza for students who have ordered.

Helpers are Jane Shepherd, Bron Westbrook, Sinead Mahoney & Alyce Pritchard.

Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered their time over the year to keep hot lunches going.  The students and staff appreciate your efforts.

Book Week 2021: Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds.

So- we finally got to celebrate Book Week at YPS- and what a week we had!!

The Drama workshops with Brendan were a hit! All the students I’ve spoken to loved them, and I know the staff also got a lot out of them as well. It was great to explore the Book Week literature through the performing arts. Thanks Brendan!

The Book Sale was a great little event- we got rid of a load of ex-Library books, plus some near new book donations. A massive thanks to the Thornton, Ridgeway and Shepherd Families who donated books for the sale. We made $125, which is pretty good given that all the books we were selling were only 50c, $1 or $2. It was so lovely to see the students sitting around the courtyard reading their new books.

And finally, the Dress-up Day! The students had so much fun parading and showing off their character costumes, as did the staff! The whole school did art activities based on Your Birthday was the Best! -  a picture book by Maggie Hutchings and Felicita Sala- creating cupcakes on paper plates and cockroaches. Some of these went home on Friday, but Years 3-6 will have theirs displayed in the library until end of term- so if you are wandering through the school be sure the stop by and have a look.  

5/6L Cupcakes and Cockroaches created during the art activities for Dress-Up Day.

New Books
As mentioned above, a number of families recently donated some books to the Book Sale. Luckily for us there were a number of popular titles I was able to keep for the library, and even for use in the classroom library of Foundation students next year and beyond. A special mention goes to Carly Frank, who has once again made a generous donation to the school Library with a signed copy of Heroes of Footy: 30 Dreamers & Trailblazers who shape our game by Kevin Sheedy. Footy lovers will LOVE this book. Thanks Carly!

Returning Overdue Library Books
With the end of term drawing ever closer I would be grateful if parents could remind students/assist them to find and return all library books, overdue or otherwise, this week. I will be chasing these up this week and sending home overdue notices.

Have a wonderful week!
Sarah McAlister

New OSHC email
OSHC now has its very own email address! This is now our main email account and we please ask that all booking or general enquiry comes to this address. Booking cancellations can be made via this email or by contacting the school. Please do not use our Facebook page for cancellations.

                                                    yack.ps.oshc@outlook.com

Pupil free day – last day of term
The last day of term, Friday Dec 17^th, is a pupil free day. If you require care for this day, please book in via the portal or via email to our service. Our operating hours will be 8am to 6pm.

Moving to XPlor
We are excited that in the new year we are moving to a new software provider, Xplor. This software provides us with some fantastic new ways to communicate with families and share your children’s experiences in our service with you and your families.

We still have access to some great online features, including online enrolment forms. We ask that all new families please complete an enrolment form for our service using the below link. Please ensure that you are providing the correct details for both you and your child, including DOB, CRN and contact information. We ask that you please also provide a two emergency contacts.

If you have any questions during the process, please send us an email. https://prodadmin.myxplor.com/enrollment_v2/centre/WWJsbWTyMn1RnUchHWzhZw

We ask that you please send all booking needs for Vacation care to our email address so we can begin to create these for you.

You will receive a welcome email to the Xplor Home platform on the 13^{th of} December. We ask that you please promptly create your account so that we can begin to use the platform with you in time for Vacation care. If at any time you have any questions regarding the setup of your account, please be in touch!

January 2022 Vacation Care Program
We have been working hard to get together a program for January Vacation Care! We are excited to share with you what we have planned!

We are still working with some of our incursion/excursion folks on the finer details, working with them to make sure we are compiling with all things covid.  You will notice **TBC** on our program. We are hoping to have these details all figured out for you by next week! We are working with all our excursion companies to ensure all COVID safe measures are being met during our time with them.

A reminder that our Vacation care dates are 10^th January until the 28^th. We will be closed for the Australia Day Public Holiday.