Hawkesbury Independent School in Kurrajong, New South Wales | Primary School

Hawkesbury Independent School

Locality: Kurrajong, New South Wales

Phone: +61 2 4573 2218

Address: 316 Comleroy Rd 2758 Kurrajong, NSW, Australia

Website: https://www.his.nsw.edu.au/

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25.01.2022 PRESENTATION NIGHT 2019: This year our students performed a musical production called Harry Potter in Rhyme. Presentation Night is one of our favourite times of the year. A time where every child, from Kindergarten to Year 6, gets to shine. Parents got the opportunity to see their children sing, dance, narrate and act. What a great night it was!

25.01.2022 NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME #NSS2020- Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. It is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book. You can see by the look on their faces how much our children enjoyed participating in this activity!

19.01.2022 WILDLIFE PHOTO COMPETITION Instead of staying cooped up inside during home isolation, some of our students became explorers in search of wildlife in and around their homes. The idea was to catch their find "on film" without disturbing it. It was exciting to hear this week that one of our students had been acknowledged for his amazing photo. Congratulations to Maxi - runner up in the Taronga Education Wild Snaps School Photo Competition for his fantastic spider photograph.

18.01.2022 YEAR 6 FAREWELL FUN DAY What a great day we had at the Year 6 Farewell fun day! We spent the day playing games together - lots of water games - and getting some wet relief from the heat. We shared a farewell cake. We will miss our Year 6 students very much and it's hard to imagine our school without them. We wish them well as they make the new journey into high school next year.

18.01.2022 MAGNIFICENT MAMMAL PHOTO COMPETITION It was exciting to hear that one of our students had been acknowledged for his photo in this competition. Congratulations to Declan, from Year 2, who was a runner up in the Taronga Education Magnificent Mammal School Photo Competition for this fantastic photo of his much loved Casper. Well done, Declan!

18.01.2022 TERM 3 2020 - ACCEPTING ENROLMENT APPLICATIONS - Hawkesbury Independent School is a small K-6 school in Kurrajong with an emphasis on academic excellence and caring relationships. The focus is active learning, based on research and evidence, in small classes. There are a few vacancies in selected grades for Term 3 2020. Visit our website to learn what makes our school unique: www.his.nsw.edu.au To register an expression of interest, complete the form on our website. https://www.his.nsw.edu.au/future-new-students/

17.01.2022 Look at this gorgeous thank you gift I visited Hawkesbury Independent School recently, where the students had taken the opportunity to learn about renewable ...energy and the cost of living after new solar panels were installed with a $10,000 grant I helped them secure. The students worked out the school used 5029 kWh of electricity in the three months from June to August last year - total cost, $1455.90. This year, after the installation of the solar panels, the school used 2062 kWh of electricity costing $753.37 over the same time period saving just over $700! I was really impressed with the presentation they put together, it was great to see them use the installation of the solar panels to learn so much. At the end of the visit I got the most beautiful thank you card! I am taking it to Canberra to hang in my office. . . . #Education #School #PrimarySchool #IndependentSchool #Environment #Solar #CleanEnergy #Hawkesbury #Kurrajong

17.01.2022 YOUNG SCIENTIST OF THE YEAR AWARDS - CHEMISTRY IN OUR LIVES All the children in Years 3-6 took part in the Young Scientist of the Year Competition this year. This is the first time that our school has taken part in this very exciting program. Each of the children had to investigate how we use chemistry in our everyday lives and then prepare a report. There were some amazing entries from our students, including a fantastic home-made movie by Mia and lots of amazing posters. Congratulations to Alice, Annie, Laleh and Lily who each received a Certificate of Achievement in recognition of their joint entry about slime. Great work everyone!

16.01.2022 THANK YOU - Teachers were presented with a gift (at our Friday meeting today) from the parents and children of HIS in recognition of the work done in providing an amazing Home Learning Program during the lock-down period. What a thoughtful community! Thank you very much, parents, for your kind thoughts. The teachers will enjoy.

15.01.2022 PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE - Each of the children in our school has met the 2019 Premier’s Reading Challenge. This challenge promotes a love of reading books. Congratulations to the children who received gold awards for meeting the Challenge for four consecutive years. Congratulations to those children who were awarded Platinum certificates for meeting the Challenge for seven consecutive years. Great work children!

15.01.2022 SENIOR CAMP - What a great time our Year 5 & 6 children had at Brewongle Environmental Education Centre last week. They took part in many activities including team building exercises, bushwalking, kayaking, lessons from the past in the old classroom, movie making and an Australian Wildlife Presentation.

15.01.2022 ART RECREATION CHALLENGE - Between Art and Quarantine During our Home Learning Program, students at HIS have been finding some famous art masterpieces. They have, then, re-created the original artwork with objects and people at home and taken a photo of their re-creation. Take a look at the amazing versions of famous masterpieces. Even our staff members have got on board! More to come later.

13.01.2022 SEEKING AN ENTHUSIASTIC TEACHER FOR A PERMANENT POSITION TO COMMENCE TERM 1 2020: We are a small innovative K-6 school that values its philosophy, practices and community. This is a unique opportunity for the right teacher to join a team committed to making a difference, based on educational research in a positive and caring environment. All teachers, including new graduates, early career and experienced teachers, are welcome to apply. More information about our school and th...is teaching opportunity is available from our website. To learn more about teaching in our school, come along to the information evening on Thursday 21 November at 7pm. See the information package by clicking the link below: https://www.his.nsw.edu.au/teacher-package-2020/

13.01.2022 SWIMMING PROGRAM - Each year our whole school K-6 takes part in an intensive 8-day swimming program. Children are assessed at the start of the program and are placed in groups where they receive swimming coaching. This year we have taken our children to Linda's Learn to Swim School at South Windsor where the lessons have been of a high quality. As a result, the progress of the children has been remarkable over the 8 day period. Thanks to the team at Linda's Learn to Swim for making our children feel welcomed. We look forward to being involved again next year.

12.01.2022 SCIENCE - FOOD TESTING The children in Years 3 & 4 have been having a great time conducting some experiments to determine the content of sugar and fat in the foods that we eat. They researched the impact of eating too much sugar and fat and learned about nutritional foods and how to keep our bodies healthy. One of their most surprising finds was how much fat was in a bag of chips!

11.01.2022 Incoming! Pollinator Pledges arrive on mass again, this time from the buzzingly delightful students of Hawkesbury Independent School! Take some time to read ...these pledges, they are thoughtful and the artwork special. We’re sure you’ll be buzzing into the garden this weekend to do your bit for our important pollinators. Australian Pollinator Week #pollinators #OzPollinatorWeek #nativebees #pollinatorgarden #pollinatorpledge Kurrajong-a-Buzz is a Kurrajong Community Forum initiative

11.01.2022 LAST DAY OF SCHOOL YEAR 2019 - After a huge effort of cleaning up and collecting our books and work samples to take home, we embarked on some musical and balloon games and then did some "cooking" together. We have ended the year by building a human arch that the year 6 students had to navigate in order to leave the school. This has become a traditional way of farewelling our year 6 students. Staff are still at school until Friday 20 December undertaking professional development and planning for 2020 and are still available for enquiries.

11.01.2022 CRAZY DAY - Crazy Day is a tradition that has developed over the life of the school where one day at the end of each term, children and staff dress up. It is the Hawkesbury Independent School version of Mufti Day. Always a lot of fun!

09.01.2022 SCIENCE - MARINE ANIMALS - As part of a unit of work on marine animals, students have been making some models of dolphins and squid. What a great way to learn about these animals - children looking up close and trying to duplicate their features!

08.01.2022 2020 BOOK WEEK - THE GREATEST DISCOVERY Last week our children had the opportunity to experience the musical show, The Greatest Discovery. The musical, presented by Perform Education , celebrated the best of Australian children’s books from The Children’s Book Council of Australia 2020 shortlist. It was a highly energetic and engaging show. It was exciting for the children to see the books they had read in class, come to life!

07.01.2022 MOST IMPROVED NAPLAN SCHOOLS IN WESTERN SYDNEY We were excited to learn recently that our school has been recognised as the second most improved primary school in western Sydney (out of 322 primary schools). Excerpt from The Daily Telegraph 7th December 2019: "The western Sydney schools that have achieved the most improved results in NAPLAN in the last five years have been revealed. . . Western Sydney’s second biggest improvement in Year 5 results over five years was Hawkesb...ury Independent School in Kurrajong, where scores increased 12.7 per cent". (compiled from the MySchool website). These fantastic results confirm the safe learning environment, the evidence-based programs and the successful teaching strategies consistently implemented across our whole school.

06.01.2022 SCHOOL SONG - written by our students and former teacher, Tom. This song aptly depicts what our school is about. Thank you to one of our parents, Oonagh, for teaching our students the ukele. Hope you enjoy!

05.01.2022 KEEPING CONNECTED DURING HOME ISOLATION - Students at HIS have been staying connected and enjoying each other's company during these very difficult times. They have been participating in "live" lessons where they have been able to communicate with their teachers and each other and play some games together. This allowed us to make our isolation a little less lonely.

05.01.2022 WORLD OF MATHS visited our school last week. This unique traveling maths show provided fun, colourful, hands-on, mathematical problem solving activities. Our students enjoyed tackling and solving the various challenges.

04.01.2022 YEAR 6 FAREWELL FUN DAY What a great day we had yesterday at the Year 6 Farewell fun day! We spent the day playing games together and getting some wet relief from the heat. We shared some watermelon and a farewell cake. We will miss our Year 6 students very much and it's hard to imagine our school without them. We wish them well as they make the new journey into high school next year.

04.01.2022 WE LOVE MATHS! - Thanks to Tom Fraser from COACHEDU who has been working with all of our students and teachers throughout the 2019 school year. Tom is an instructional maths coach who is passionate about student/teacher education and transforming research into practice in the classroom. Tom has been working with our students and teachers to explore different strategies that can be used in the teaching of Mathematics. As a result, he has been instrumental in changing how we teach Mathematics in our school. The children have been learning how to use hands-on materials, how to create models and visual representations to help develop their deep understanding of mathematical concepts. Many children have commented about how much more they have been enjoying and understanding maths.

04.01.2022 DESIGN A BOOKMARK COMPETITION - To mark Children's Bookweek Hawkesbury Library Service held a competition to design a bookmark. This appealed to the creative minds of our younger community and all of our children from Kindergarten to Year 6 put on their creative caps to come up with an original design. Congratulations to Gracie whose wonderful artwork was chosen in this competition and is now being printed and distributed by the Library. Great work, Gracie!

03.01.2022 MUSICA VIVA - What a great time we had today when Musica Viva Australia visited our school. The group, Taikoz is a Sydney-based performance group that specialises in the art of taiko - the Japanese drums. The group introduced the students not only to the instruments and music, but also to some historical and cultural background. The children enjoyed the opportunity to engage in movement and dance. Our children, who have been learning Japanese this year, also sang a Japanese song that they had been learning. Taikoz was delighted to have been unexpectedly entertained by our children. What a great experience!

03.01.2022 JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES - We are fortunate in having a new teacher, Anastasia, who is fluent in speaking Japanese. As a result all of our children (Kindergarten to Year 6) have enjoyed learning Japanese this year. In Japanese class, children learnt how to greet each other, give a self-introduction and follow classroom instructions. They learnt to recognise and pronounce the Japanese alphabet and to write some letters known as ‘Hiragana characters’. They learnt to recognise and write Japanese numbers from 1-20. They learnt about the importance of festivals in Japanese history and culture. They also learnt Japanese culture and language through traditional folktales, modern stories, games and song.

02.01.2022 ART RECREATION CHALLENGE - Part 2 Here are some more art recreations. During our Home Learning Program, students at HIS have been finding some famous art masterpieces. They have then, re-created the original artwork with objects and people at home and taken a photo of their re-creation. Take a look at the amazing versions of famous masterpieces. Even our staff members have got on board!

02.01.2022 2020 PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE - For the sixteenth year in a row, we have 100% participation (Kindergarten to Year 6) in the Premier's Reading Challenge. The Challenge involves reading a certain number of books from a set list over a number of months. The aim of the Challenge is to promote a love of reading. It is not a competition, but rather a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.