News

Coronavirus - Department of Education statement

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 19:08:05 AEDT

The department is working with the Ministry of Health to monitor and respond to the unfolding international novel coronavirus situation.

Get up-to-date information about the department's response to novel coronavirus.

Staying healthy into the new school year

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 16:55:51 AEDT

Immunisation is a simple, safe and effective way to protect your family from harmful diseases this holiday season and into 2020. Visit your doctor for general health and vaccination advice.

Immunisation not only protects you and your family but also others in your community, by reducing the spread of preventable diseases.

Children starting school in 2020 must have up-to-date immunisations to enrol.

These vaccinations help protect children from highly infectious and severe diseases including whooping cough and measles.

Travel health

If you’re travelling overseas during the school holidays, you may need vaccinations or medication – both for general health protection and for region-specific diseases.

If you’re travelling to the Northern Hemisphere, you may even need a flu shot.

Find out more about staying healthy while travelling.

NSW schools respond to bushfires

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:19:11 AEDT

Many schools are responding to the catastrophic fire rating that is affecting communities across the state this week.

We are continuously updating the School safety page with a list of government and non-government schools, as well as TAFE NSW campuses that are currently non-operational.

While some schools are temporarily non-operational due to localised fires, many others in high-risk areas are non-operational as a precautionary measure.

Schools in some areas are being used as emergency evacuation centres at the direction of the Rural Fire Service.

For schools that are currently operational, school pickups and dropoffs will continue as usual. If your school is currently non-operational, it will likely remain so tomorrow.

Large scale distressing events affect our school communities in many ways. Headspace’s mental health support resource (PDF 100.52KB) is available to help students, teachers and school staff respond to the bushfires.

Visit the School safety page for updates. The department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts will also provide updates during this period.

Grab a ticket to Schools Spectacular 2019

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:06:12 AEDT

Will you be joining us at Schools Spectacular 2019? Tickets are on sale now. Experience our live show featuring a cast of thousands of public school students from across metropolitan, rural and remote regions of NSW.

Students from different ages, cultures and backgrounds will share the spotlight as they dance, play and sing for you. Choose from one of our four massive performances at Qudos Bank Arena on Friday 22 November and Saturday 23 November.

This year's events will feature:

more than 380 schools
5,500 performers
a 3000-strong choir
2,300 dancers
an 80-piece symphony orchestra
a world-class stage band.

Group bookings

Need to make a group booking for over 10 people? Complete the Schools Preview Order Form 2019 (PDF 110KB) to attend the discounted 11am Friday matinee. The Friday matinee is discounted for school students and accompanying teachers.

If you’d like to grab a spot at one of the other three remaining shows complete the Group Booking Form 2019 (PDF 110KB).

Tickets for you and your family and friends

Save you and your family a spot online or by phone on 132 849.

Video – Schools Spectacular 2019

Duration: 0:26

Have your say on before and after school care

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 13:38:59 AEST

We want to better understand your needs for before and after school care in NSW.

Have your say today on before and after school care.

Fill out the survey by Service NSW to share your specific care needs and to register interest to stay informed of new developments.

Your input will provide insights into where there are gaps in service availability and help us to deliver extra places where they are needed.

You can also contact the team responsible for rolling out the before and after school care commitment at BASCreform@det.nsw.edu.au.

Book yourself in for Reading Hour

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 11:25:28 AEST

This Australian Reading Hour, encourage your child to discover or rekindle their love of a good book. Take the time to learn, escape and relax on Thursday 19 September and read for one hour.

Get involved at home

Join in at home and read your child a bedtime story. Studies show that reading a bedtime story six days a week can give kids almost a year’s head start when they begin school. Reading has also been shown to develop empathy, promote critical thinking and help children find a sense of self.

Join in from the classroom

Bestselling children’s author and illustrator Matt Stanton will broadcast live to primary school children across the country from the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday 17 September. We invite schools to register for the livestream of this free event.

Stanton’s author talk is among more than 140 events happening across the country involving more than 50 authors.

Take the Book Swap Challenge

We all have favourite books that we come back to again and again.

To help celebrate Reading Hour take our Book Swap Challenge. We want students, teachers, staff and parents to try reading something new on the day. To get involved, simply pair up with someone and swap your favourite books.

Take a photo and tag it with #ReadingHour so we can see how you got involved.

Video – #ReadingHour authors talk about their favourite place to read

Duration: 0:38

Looking for a good spot to open a book? We asked authors Benjamin Law, Morris Gleitzman, Jacqueline Harvey and Mick Elliott about their favourite place to read.

How to be smart and safe on social media

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 11:46:04 AEST

Use our new Digital Citizenship toolkit to empower your child to understand how their online behaviour affects themselves and others.

You and your child can find information on:

how to ‘be positive’ by understanding online behaviour and its effect
'be smart’ by thinking critically and being digitally aware
'be safe’ by protecting your security, privacy and wellbeing.

A toolkit to empower you and your child

You can find articles and videos to equip and empower your child to minimise the risks and maximise the opportunities in our digital future.

We’ve partnered with leading researchers to produce a curated toolkit – aligned to the curriculum – which teachers and you can share with the young people in your lives.

Guide your child through important concepts such as:

managing privacy settings in social media
collaborating online
avoiding scams and hoaxes
understanding the law when it comes to online speech
Internet banking, shopping online and much more.

Keep your child safe and happy online

Visit and bookmark the Digital Citizenship website. We’ll continue to add articles and resources to ensure the best possible tools are available to help you guide your child to be positive, smart and safe online.

Education Week – Every student, every voice

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:11:15 AEST

We are celebrating our students and their powerful voices this Education Week Monday 5 August to Friday 9 August. Every year Education Week celebrates the achievements of public schools, our students and the value of public education.

This year, the theme is Every student, every voice.

Join us for #EdWeek19 as we celebrate our students and their power to shape the world.

Video – #EdWeek19 – Every student, every voice

Duration: 0:34

Creative and Active Kids vouchers now available

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 11:41:05 AEST

Creative kids can now put a $100 voucher towards extra-curricular creative activities outside of school.

Together with Active Kids, this program aims to encourage more NSW children to participate in a range of extra-curricular activities such as coding, languages, circus, performing arts and visual arts.

Parents can apply for one $100 voucher for each child enrolled in school on the Creative Kids website and use it towards the cost of registration, participation or tuition. You just redeem the voucher with a registered provider in your area when making your payment.

This is a great opportunity for your child to become involved in a range of activities that will build on their education, growth and development.

Service NSW is working with industry bodies to deliver the program.

For more information, contact Service NSW on 137 788 or creativekids@service.nsw.gov.au.

Countdown on for the state’s top spellers

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 10:53:48 AEDT

Lucas Guiney from Forster Public School at last year’s Premier’s Spelling Bee state final.

The countdown is on for the best spellers in NSW, with 100 regional finalists announced for the annual Premier’s Spelling Bee state final to be held on Friday, 2 November.

The contenders will soon go letter-to-letter against orthographers* from across the state in the junior and senior divisions of the competition.

To have qualified for the state final, the students have won their school, zone and regional finals and correctly spelled words such as:

Junior words: embargo; cavalcade; notary; and scrupulous.

Senior words: besotted; expostulate; hereditary; subservient.

The state finalists now sit in the top 2.5% of regional finalists, and top 0.06% of all competition entrants.

Now it its 15th year, the 2018 Spelling Bee has seen a record participation of 170,000 students from almost 1,000 public schools in NSW, an increase of 20,000 students and 120 schools on the 2017 challenge. To accommodate the growth in entrants, the NSW Department of Education this year hosted a record 50 regional finals.

Nine schools have contestants in both the junior and senior state finals: six from rural and remote schools, and three from Sydney’s west.

Albury Public School
Georges Hall Public School
Glenmore Park Public School
Gosford Public School
Holsworthy Public School
Jerrabomberra Public School
Orange Public School
Sturt Public School
Tamworth Public School.

The 2018 state final will be held in the Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Centre, Ultimo, on Friday, 2 November.

The Premier’s Spelling Bee was introduced in 2004 as a fun and educational way for primary school students to engage in spelling. The program includes activities to encourage all students to improve their vocabulary and spelling and to promote literacy skills in combination with the English K-6 Syllabus.

NSW students perform strongly in spelling in NAPLAN (the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy). This year NSW was ranked first in Australia in spelling across all year groups (Years 3, 5, 7 and 9).

* orthographer: someone who studies or is knowledgeable about orthography or spelling, according to the Macquarie Dictionary.

Research packs positive message for lunchbox health

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 10:57:17 AEDT

Investigating some healthy lunch choices at the launch are Oliver, nib foundation director Michelle McPherson, Ella and Associate Professor Luke Wolfenden.

Parents in the Hunter region have been given a helping hand to ensure their children's school lunches are healthy.

New Lambton Heights Infants School in Newcastle has played host to the launch of SWAP-It, a University of Newcastle research project helping Hunter parents and carers create healthier lunchboxes.

Funded through a $500,000 grant from nib foundation, researchers have developed Swap What’s Packed in the lunchbox: SWAP-It, a parent support program delivered through an app.

Lead researcher, Associate Professor Luke Wolfenden, said SWAP-It aimed to address the nutritional intake of children to align it with dietary guidelines and prevent unhealthy weight gain in childhood.

“Good nutrition is one of the most important determinants of children’s health and wellbeing,” Associate Professor Wolfenden said.

“Within the Hunter New England region, more than 135,000 lunchboxes are packed for primary-aged school children every day. These lunchboxes provide the fuel for young growing minds, containing a third of their daily intake.

“However, packed within these lunchboxes are more than 270,000 items of junk food, cleverly packaged and presented to children to be consumed each day.

“The consumption of these foods is contributing to excessive energy intake, unhealthy weight gain, diabetes and other health issues that impact on children’s physical and mental health and can lead to chronic health conditions in adulthood.”

To address the limitations of previous tactics to improve lunchbox content, the research team established a partnership with leading national provider of a school-parent communication app Skoolbag to develop and integrate the lunchbox program within the app.

The program includes three components: SWAP-It nutrition guidelines; weekly support messages via push notifications; and resources such as hyperlinks to useful information, lunchbox planners, drink bottles, ice bricks and shopping lists as visual prompts to pack healthy lunchbox foods at home.

SWAP-It will be delivered to 150 primary schools across the Hunter New England region, directly benefitting approximately 75,000 students and 60,000 families over the three year period.

nib foundation director Michelle McPherson said with obesity posing a health and social burden estimated to cost $58 billion per year, and 27 per cent of Australian children now classified as obese or overweight, there was an imperative to improve the food habits of the next generation.

“Implementing a widely accessible program that prevents unhealthy weight gain from occurring in the first place is recommended as one of the most cost-effective approaches to improving community health and wellbeing,” Mrs McPherson said.

The department’s Healthy School Canteen Strategy is aiming to make the healthy choice the easy choice by increasing the availability of healthy food and drink options in school canteens.

With NSW Health, the department is supporting canteens and their managers in meeting food and drink criteria which incorporate healthy menu options, serving sizes and how food is presented, helping students learn to make healthy choices that will last their whole lives.

Capital Works Program

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 10:44:08 AEDT

Yagoona Public School will be receiving 16 classrooms and a new administration building as part of the Capital Works Program announced in the recent NSW State budget.

Please click on the link below to gain some more information.

https://schoolinfrastructure.nsw.gov.au/schools/yagoona-public-school/project-overview

When more details becomes available we will update our website, Facebook and other forms of communication to keep you informed.

Regards

Meaghan Wilson

Yagoona Public School-Principal