Newsletter #13 16 August 2018

Principals Report

100 Days of Prep

It gave me great pleasure to pop in and visit the prep students as they celebrated 100 days of prep with their fabulous teachers Ms Fourniotis, Ms Mikaela Ristos and Ms Ivana Novakovic and very proud families. I really enjoyed joining in with everyone, shaking each student’s hand to congratulate them and handing them their certificate. They had such a lovely afternoon tea planned and some fun times dancing. A great celebration and congratulations!

Education Support Staff Week 

This week we are acknowledging the fantastic team of ES staff who work at GHPS. We highly value their amazing skills and their enthusiasm for working with all of our students and staff.

   We couldn’t do it without you!

Celebrating Sport

Glen Huntly Primary School shared a video on the school’s Facebook page and thanks to Arthur (Marko’s dad 3F) who put up this great story about Archie 3F:

Did you see Archie (Grade 3) on 7 News Melbourne recently? He’s the dapper #25 taking the last kick in the video for Caulfield Bears Junior Football Club where a few other GHPS families also play (based at Koornang park behind the school). This story is part of Sport Australia’s new #MoveItAUS campaign, with an important message for us all. Great Kick Archie!

We are very proud of you playing footy Archie and great to see a Glen Huntly Star on TV too!

House Athletics

This coming Friday will be a very exciting event for the members of all Houses as they participate in the annual House Athletic Sports at Duncun McKinnon Reserve. Thank you very much to Ms Marie Kasambalis and staff for organising a great program for the students. The students have all been practicing their events and the day looks great weatherwise.

Good luck to everyone on the day! A REMINDER that there is NO Whole School Assembly this week due to the Sports.

Staff Professional Learning 

Staff have been attending Literacy Leader Training with the Stonington and Glen Eira (SAGE) leaders which is a great opportunity for our teachers to access training in the network, local to our area. Mrs Shannan Fox and Ms Mikalea Ristos have been attending which builds the capabilities of GHPS teachers and addresses developmental needs for the future. It will complement the work of Mrs Melinda Oldham, Mrs Eugenia Sassosand Ms Amy Tinetti who are attending the Leading Literacy Program at the Bastow Institute.

Mr Bill Manuel, Mrs Eugenia Sassos, Mrs Melinda Oldham, Ms Amy Tinetti and I have participated in the Leading Professional Learning Communities DET Initiative, which represents an ambitious whole of system reform to be implemented over the next four years. It offers two concurrent streams of Professional Learning for School and Instructional Leaders within the aims and the Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO). Schools from the SaGE network include: Malvern Valley, Malvern Central, Ripponlea, Carnegie, Toorak, Murrumbeena and Lloyd Street Primary. The GHPS PLC will work together this Friday to complete planning for the next module which is to look at the Inquiry Challenge focus related to the Victorian Curriculum and the impact of the teacher.

Important change – new OHSC provider for Glen Huntly Primary School.

Thank you to the members of the School Council Working Party who have undertaken a review of the OHSC at GHPS and thank you to all the parents and GHPS community members who responded to our survey. The review process of the Out of Hours School Care review process is now complete, and I thank Craig Matthews for his President’s report included in this newsletter which provides information about the announcement. The Parent information session will be held on the 18th September at 6:00pm at the school for all interested families. Details are also on the school’s website: 

School Council Report

Thank you very much to Craig Matthews for writing a report about the August meeting.

Student Council

Thank you to Sienna and Hugo (4J) who will be writing a report and speaking at Friday’s assembly about what we discussed at this week’s meeting.

Staffing

Ms Amy Tinetti will be taking Long Service Leave from Wednesday 22 August- Friday 14 September. A bi thankyou to Mr Bill Manuel, Mrs Melinda Oldham, Mr Jake Mackie and Ms Claire Piscioneri who will be acting as Assistant Principal on selected days. They are looking forward to the challenge of leading the school in this role. We wish Amy a fabulous time!

Exciting Events

OHSC Parent information session will be held on the 18th September at 6:00pm at the school for all interested families

House Sports: Friday 17 August

Book Character Parade & Special Lunch: Tuesday 21 August

Principal

Libby Alessi 


School Council Report

School Council met for the 1st time in Term 3 on Monday 13th of August.

Key items covered at the meeting included;

  • Enrolments for 2019 continue to grow apace with 60 confirmed preps and a forecast that this number may grow to approximately 70 by the time the 2019 school year starts. This is a fantastic reflection on GHPS as a destination school in our area.
  • With the growth in numbers there is obviously pressure on space and there are discussions with the planning officer from DET on how best to manage this.
  • A myriad of term 3 upcoming events including Science Week, House and District Athletics and Cabaret to name just a few.
  • This week is Education Support Week – a time for the school community to celebrate the wonderful GHPS support staff that bring such amazing skills to GHPS.
  • Reserve the date for Rocktober 2018 – the school trivia night – Saturday 27th of October. It promises to be a fun night for all. GPA will communicate re ticket pricing and early bird discounts very soon.
  • GPA also has another busy few weeks planned with the Fish & Chip lunch coinciding with the Book Week parade, Pie Day on last day of term, Fathers Day stall and a sunscreen fundraising drive.
  • The 40 new Chromebooks are now in service with the 40 new iPad minis to follow soon. Our digital resource capacity continues to grow which is a great outcome for the schools learning environment.
  • The West Site bike/scooter shed idea is gaining momentum, with location being the key consideration.
  • The service provider for the oval redevelopment is now in place. Whilst there will be some inevitable disruption to access of the oval when works commence in Term 4 we all look forward to having an attractive grass space in service some time in Term 1.
  • The staff room has become a key priority for an overhaul as it last saw any real improvement works in 1995. School Council unanimously agreed that this is an imperative action item as the entire staff team strive constantly to improve the outcomes for the children and it’s only fair and reasonable that they too get looked after with an inviting space to spend their breaks etc.
  • The Out of Hours School Care review process is now complete with the new service provider, TheirCare, to commence provision of the service on Monday 8th of October (1st day of term 4). The OHSC working party received several very good proposals, and whilst the decision was not an easy one, TheirCare ticked all the boxes for the broad combinations of factors that needed to be considered and addressed. TheirCare are prepared to invest in freshening up the OHSC space as well as new equipment for the service. They will also implement a range of resources to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible for users of the service, including making themselves available in the final week of term to answer any questions etc. 

For more information please visit the new OHSC page.

If there is any issue any member of the school community would like to raise with School Council, please email glenhuntly.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

Craig Matthews
School Council President


A message from your Assistant Principal Amy Tinetti

NAPLAN Online 2019

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students is held in May each year. NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. The results of the tests provide information for students, parents, teachers and principals which can be used to improve student achievement.

In 2018, the NAPLAN tests began transitioning from a paper based test to an online assessment (i.e., students complete the tests utilising a computer or tablet). It is anticipated that from 2020, all schools in Australia will deliver the tests online. NAPLAN Online delivers numerous benefits including:

  • a ‘tailored test’ design that adapts to correct and incorrect student responses providing a more precise understanding of student achievement;
  • innovative use of technology, including a more engaging test design and a wider range of item types;
  • the extension of the ‘test window’ to two weeks, allowing schools greater opportunity to schedule the tests at times that suit them best and increasing student participation.

Our school will be transitioning to NAPLAN Online in 2019. As part of this transition, we will be administering a NAPLAN Online School Readiness Test (SRT). The SRT is intended to enable us to confirm our technical capacity and to assist in determining the most effective way to deliver NAPLAN Online in our school next year. Testing will be conducted from 20 August – 7 September 2018. The SRT contains the following sample online tests:

  • Omnibus test – this includes questions from the Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy domains.
  • Writing test – for Years 5, 7, and 9.

Please note that Year 3 students are only able to complete the Omnibus test, as the Year 3 Writing test will continue to be a pen and paper assessment in 2019.

Support can be arranged for students with disabilities, if the student regularly uses similar support for classroom assessment tasks.

It is important to remember that the SRT is not a formal assessment and students will not be graded for any of the tests. However, student participation will assist in our school confirming that we are ready for NAPLAN Online. If you have any concerns about your child participating in the SRT, please discuss these with his/her classroom teacher.

For more information about NAPLAN Online, please visit the NAP website at www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment


No Hot Chocolate or Icy Poles this week (Friday 17 August)

GPA wishes to advise that due to House Athletics this Friday 17/08 (tomorrow) we will not be serving hot chocolate / icy-pole lunchtime treats this Friday. Instead GPA have re-scheduled the hot chocolate / icy-pole lunchtime treats to Mon 20/08 – remember your mug next Monday for your free marshmallow! Hot chocolates / icy-poles will be served as usual next Friday 24/08.


Robotics Incursion

This week Grade 1 and 2 had their ‘Robotics’ incursion. This is part of their inquiry unit on Robots.

They were visited by Pauline and Kevin who challenged the students to make a robot that could clean their bedroom. They were getting very creative in their designs because who doesn’t want a robot to clean their room?

The different axles, leavers, joiners and body parts used to make the robots captivated and intrigued the students to come up with some interesting designs. In the end we had robots that could sweep, vacuum, dust and wipe.

Well done to all of the students who treated our visitors and their robot parts with respect and kindness.

Ms Murnane 2E 


Student council meeting 

In the most recent student council meeting we discussed things that could make our school a better learning space for our minds to expand, but at the same time to have fun with our teachers and friends.

Some of the topics where; Art show plans (art show is in Term 4, specific date is yet to be decided). One of the things that we thought could make our art show great is for each class to have a particular theme, and don’t forget to come and see our diverse range of unique art that our students have created in our art classes with Ms De Bruyn.

Also we will be getting a Super Shooter on the senior side, (if you do not know what that is, it is a type of basketball ring but the ball can fall out from 3 different holes instead of one).

We thought of one thing that our school could do better at.
We were thinking we should get some new sports equipment like soccer goals, soccer balls, new basketball rings and more Footballs.
(that idea was given to us by Alexander in year 3)

Another topic that we discussed was ‘does my teacher like my ideas?’ All of us said that they do and we think that there should be more expressing our ideas in this school because we all have amazing ideas!

Our school is amazing already but it is our job as student council to try and make it even better.
That was all we discussed.

BY HUGO AND SIENNA – STUDENT COUNCILLORS OF 4J


Students of the Week

Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award during the last 2 weeks.

Armaan PF – Being a responsible and gentle carer to our pet chickens
Keya PF – Participating in all class discussion.
Sahara PN – For demonstrating focus and determination in all tasks.
Emily PR – showing patience and care towards all members of Prep R this week. You are a wonderful leader of our class.
Suria  PR – For always giving things a go and trying her best in class this week.
Aniket 1J – For being focused and staying on task this week.
Adishree 1M – your excellent effort in each class.  Great start to term 3.
Sanjeev 2E – settling in well to class routines in 2E.  Welcome to 2E.
Rudraksh 2K – for showing kindness and thoughtfulness to his classmates.
Gwyneth 2K – using descriptive language in her story about Aliens and recognising paragraphs.
Brody 2M – working hard with a partner to create and plan an interesting story for others to enjoy.
Nabil 2M – working hard with a partner to create and plan an interesting story for other to enjoy.
Thomas 3F – working well and applying himself to all learning tasks. A fantastic start to term 3.
Hasini 3S – excellent effort and persistence in successfully completing her handwriting tasks.
Sully 3S – his thoughtful contributions to class discussions.
Lucas 4J – A focused week of tuning in and applying yourself to the task at hand.  Keep up the dedication to your learning.
Boris 4J – Aligning yourself to your work.  When you think about your actions before you act you come up with some excellent results.
Xavier 5S – For achieving his best Post-Test score for the year in Essential Assessment by reaching 92% on his Geometric Reasoning test!


  


Notices distributed to parents

18th July           All Students            Parent/Teacher/Student Three- Way Conversations

19th July           All Students            Icy-poles / Hot Chocolate orders


Calendar

August

Fri 17                 House Athletics

Tue 21               Book Parade

    

 


Support GHPS by buying a burger at Grill’d Carnegie in August. 

Glen Huntly Primary School has one of the 3 jars as part of the Grill’d Carnegie Local Matters Fundraiser throughout the month of August.

This donation will go towards buying resources to continue to build our art/ garden program and sustainability program.

How it works

  1. When you purchase food you will be given a token
  2. Put your token into the GHPS jar
  3. At the end of the month the community group with the most tokens will receive $300 from Grill’d and the other 2 community groups will each receive $100

Visit Grill’d Carnegie website to see opening hours, menu and location.