Arthur Beckinsale died on Thursday, 18^th March 1999 after a short illness.

Arthur was a teacher and Assistant Principal at Ettalong Public School for over 20 years, before his retirement in January, 1997.

He is remembered with fondness by teachers, students, parents of Ettalong Public School and by other members of the community and the teaching service across the Central Coast.

He was a gifted teacher, a respected professional leader, a valued Ettalong School member and friend.

He will be truly missed by so many people.

We have had a dynamic start to our school year by setting a goal to establish a computer network throughout Ettalong Public School.

The aim of the project is to allow each class access to the Internet and other valuable resources which will enable children and parents to become computer literate.

As you can imagine the costs are considerable, but our parents and community are excited and committed to achieving this target.

As a result of this enthusiasm we enjoyed increased P&C membership and attendance at our annual general meeting on March 17^th.

We have also introduced a weekly craft morning to make special gifts for our Mother’s Day Stall and Fete.

This is a very productive and fun filled session.

All our fundraising this year will go towards financing the computer room.

This term we held a bush dance which was a great night, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

We also ran a sausage sizzle and coffee and cake stall on Election Day which was also very successful.

We thank all our parents and members of the community who contributed to both these functions.

We have lots of big plans for Term 2, so any thoughts or ideas readers may have would be very welcome.

We are very fortunate in our core group of P&C team leaders who run the canteens, the Little School House and the Uniform shop because they offer such a wonderful service for our school.

The following contributions have been written by students of Ettalong Public School:

The library monitor – My job at Ettalong School is a Library Monitor.

I have to choose people to use the computers, ring the bell for changeover and pack up.

I stamp the new books for the library collection.

I also scan people’s barcodes for borrowing and returning books.

I put books on the shelves in the correct place and straighten up the book shelves.

I turn computers on and off and straighten up after the children have left the library.

I am proud to be a Libray monitor at Ettalong School.

(Ben).

Boys softball – Ettalong Public School played in the boys softball round robin at Kincumber’s Frost Reserve against various Central Coast schools.

The first game was against Woy Woy Public School and we won 32 to 2, although Woy Woy played better than the score indicates.

Our second match was against Kariong.

Unfortunately for Ettalong, Kariong won 17 to 13.

Kariong will go onto the next district school’s softball competition.

The last game Ettalong played was against Brisbania school.

Luckily Ettalong wom even though Brisbania played well.

Mr King was a really excellent coach for softball.

On behalf of all the boys who played in the team, I would like to thank Mr King.

(Paul)

Buddy classes at Ettalong – At Ettalong School kids care for each other and every Wednesday 4H, 4W, 4G and 3/4L all go dancing.

One week the boys will have to choose the girls and the next week the girls will choose the boys.

We all stand in circles and dance.

It is great fun at lunch and recess times at our school because we play with all our friends.

Ettalong is a great school.

(Elle)

Year 5 at the Great Aussie Bush Camp – The trip to the bush camp took two hours and when we arrived we met the camp leaders, Will and Therese.

Once we met them we found our tents.

Our first activity was archery.

We had a competition to see which team won.

Cameron’s team won.

Our next activity was canoeing and everyone went in the reeds.

We played a game where we had to raft up and a person had to swap with another person.

After canoeing we had afternoon tea, a shower and a rest in our tent.

We had a baked dinner every night.

Later we played commandos.

We met around the logs and had milo and ice cream.

We sailed on the Marine Explorer for a dolphin cruise.

This was a great cruise.

We stopped at Mt Yaccaba and climbed to the top and went onto the surf club for lunch.

We caught the bus back to Ettalong School on Friday.

(Vic, Cameron, Est, Rhett)

Umina High School student Shelley Smith continues to perform brilliantly in the pool.

Shelley broke four school records in her 17 years age group at the annual school Swimming Carnival this year: 100 metres freestyle (old record K Rogerson 01.09.60 set in 1980, new record 01.03.37); 50 meters freestyle (old record R Glew 00.33.11 set in 1998, new record 00.29.10); 50 metres butterfly (old record A Read 00.32.40 set in 1991, new record 00.31.07); 50 metres backstroke (old record A Read 00.37.20 set in 1991, new record 00.34.25).

Age champions at the annual Swimming Carnival were: Keira Pride and Chris Wilmot (12 Years); Arlion Kissick and Matt Waugh (13 Years); Samantha Rose and Daniel Robinson/Matt Winner (14 Years); Natalie Engelshus and Nathan Young (15 Years); Leah Langford and Chris Pore/Byron De Jager (16 Years); and, Shelley Smith and Nathan Lakajev (17 Years).

Webb House were the champions once more.

Webb House has now won every school sports carnival for the last two years.

House point scores for the Swimming Carnival were: Booker 299; Crommelin 501; Davis 513; Webb 712.

Umina High School’s Agriculture department has made a great start to 1999 on the school farm with the birth of a female calf.

Both mother and baby are doing well with the calf weighing in at 120kg at 2 months of age.

Last week we competed in the Maitland Show where our school cow and calf won the Grand Champion ribbon.

The Limousin heifers and bull that we are preparing for the Newcastle and Sydney Shows also won their respective classes.

Work has begun on the shearing shed, we are now at the roof stage.

The Year 11 Agriculture class have been preparing a paddock for fertiliser and variety trials on oats.

Year 9 and 10 have been working on sheep and cattle assignments.

Three of our Year 12 1998 students are now pursuing careers in agriculture.

Troy Chapman is doing Ag Economics at Sydney Uni, Paul Best is doing Agriculture at the University of Western Sydney (Hawkesbury), and Ben Lawley is doing one year at Tocal Ag College and then going to the University of Western Sydney to complete his Ag Science degree.

Congratulations to all three boys.

The school’s heavy weight Limousin steer, Spencer, was the outright winner at this years Royal Easter Show beating all comers.

This includes all other schools as well as commercial stud breeders.

Woy Woy Public School celebrated Seniors Week by inviting along grandparents and local Senior Citizen groups to a special Seniors Day on Friday, 19^th March.

Over 150 visitors enjoyed watching a morning of activities including: sports; singing; dancing and acting.

The P&C then provided morning tea before the visitors were taken on a tour of the school and classrooms by the students.

Our Year 5 and 6 students annual mini fete was held on Friday, 26^th March to raise money for their major excursions to Myuna Bay and Canberra.

They organised a wide variety of stalls and activities which all parents and students could participate in.

Donations for prizes were received from a great number of local businesses and over $2,700 was raised on the day.

Woy Woy High School received a visit from the Minister for Education, Mr John Aquilina, on Tuesday, 16^th March.

He was accompanied by Mr Bill Low, District Superintendent, Ms Marie Andrews, MP for Peats, and Mr Grant McBride, MP for The Entrance.

Visits were made to a Year 10 Computing Studies class and a Year 9 History class.

Mr Aquilina gave the Year 9 History students a lecturette on Cleopatra.

Our Canteen, Food Technology students and Ms Aspley prepared a morning tea for staff, P&C representatives and our school captains, Brooke Preston and Jason Yeo (who helped the Principal, Miss Carter, host the Minister and his entourage).

Whilst at the school Mr Aquilina announced that $120,000 would be allocated towards refurbishing the junior toilets.

Several students have been chosen to represent Metropolitan North in the following sporting teams: Cricket, Jayheart Starkey and Jason Moore; Rugby League, Scott Wilesmith.

Our girls Tennis team defeated Wyong High School 7 – 0 in the first round of the CHS knockout.

Team members are: Erika Russell; Melissa Varley; Kim Neilan and Sarah McWilliam.

In the first round of the CHS Open Rugby League knockout our boys defeated Gosford High School in a very close game.

Congratulations to Ben Crowson who played in the Central Coast Under 14 Touch Team the weekend before Easter – his team won the State Championships.

Year 7 students have made an excellent start to high school.

Mini reports were being completed at the end of Term 1.

They enjoyed a Peer Support Camp held on the 15^th and 16^th March where they got to know each other better.

They also got to know their Mentor Teacher and some of their Year 11 Peer Support Leaders better as well.

Everyone returned to school very happy.

The mark the end of the organised Peer Support sessions a fun one day excursion was held on the last Wednesday of Term at the Mingara Leisure centre.

Again our students had a great time and the teachers were very pleased to be told by Mingara staff that our students' behaviour had been excellent.

A special Year 7 Parent/Student/Teacher night was held on the last Wednesday of Term 1.

Despite the downpour this evening was well attended.

Parents were able to hear what the class Mentor Teacher had to say about how their child’s class had settled into high school and to ask questions and pass on some advice to the teachers.