Newsletter #15 12 September 2019
Principals Report
I would like to thank Fiona Davey and the Fete Committee who have put in an extraordinary amount of work planning the 2019 Twilight Fete, incorporating Diwali celebrations.
The Twilight Fete is a significant fundraiser for our school – our 2017 Fete raised approximately $40,000 which provided carpets, air-conditioners and glass partition doors for classrooms and essential classroom furniture. The Twilight Fete is a huge undertaking and we need support from each and every family to make it a success.
It is also a very exciting day and evening for all our students and I am sure they will be delighted and excited to see you helping on the day.
To fill our rosters, we need every family to volunteer for at least 2 hours on one or more of the Fete rosters. If you haven’t already signed up to help at the Fete, please pop into the office and ask Laura to sign you up for a spot on one of the rosters. Alternatively, please click on this link for the 2019 Twilight Fete Rosters group page – https://signup.com/go/vCgGcsz – and choose a stall/activity and time that suits you.
We also need your help promoting our 2019 Twilight Fete. If you can help with Fete flyer distribution over the school holidays – please return the slip on the yellow notice that was sent home this week. On the back is a map of the zones neatly broken up which you can select from as to where we need you to distribute the flyers.
You can also help us promote our Fete by ‘liking’ our Twilight Fete Facebook page.
Our Fete organising committee still desperately need:
- a coordinator for the Silent Auction – https://signup.com/go/FAnMKeL.
- All the hard work involved in soliciting donations has already been done (thanks Martina Gevaux and Christine Short) and all the donations have already been logged in an excel spreadsheet for you. All we need is someone to help print out documents for the day, display donations and coordinate the collection of money at the end of the day. Fiona Davey will be more than happy to talk you through what is involved.
- If we cannot find a coordinator for the Silent Auction, one of our over-worked committee members will have to take this on in addition to their other responsibilities.
- coordinators for the Lucky Ducks, Crazy Hair, Slot Car Racing and Toilet Roll Throw stalls. If we cannot get coordinators before the end of term, these stalls will not run.
Speak to us in the office if you think you can help save these stalls or our Fete Coordinator’s sanity.
I encourage everyone to read the GPA and Fete newsletters – these newsletters contain heaps of information about how you can get involved to help make our 2019 Twilight Fete the most successful ever.
Today the All Day Ride Pass Wristbands Pre-Sale Opportunity Notice is also being distributed and there IS a great Early Bird price there PLUS all names will go into the draw to win back to spend $25 at the fete. This draw will take place in the Office at 4.01pm on Wednesday 23 October following the closing of the Early Bird special at 4pm.
So come on, get on board, get involved and let’s make it the most magnificent Fete ever!
KIDS – DESIGN OUR FETE NEWSLETTER ARTWORK
Keep sending in 2019 Twilight Fete Newsletter artwork for use in our future Fete newsletters and notices. The artwork must be on an A4 piece of paper (feel free to fill the whole page) and refer to the 2019 Twilight Fete. Entries can be in black and white or colour. Please include your name and class. We will use as many of the best submissions as we can on our future newsletters and notices – and the artists will go in our draw to win a free ride pass!
Learning across the school: It always delightful when students visit my office and enthusiastically share their learning with me. This week Charlotte and Asher 5O read their persuasive writing about whether or not money should be invested in Outer Space Exploration. Both students expressed their opinions and were very passionate about their view point. Their writing pieces are in this newsletter.
Mahathi 6J shared her historical fiction writing entitled: “A letter home”, about how her character felt arriving to live in Australia having left war torn Afghanistan.
Student Disco: Last Friday there was a student disco and there was a great turnout. Ms Claire Piscioneri (6P) was a fabulous DJ and played great music, which had everyone making the most of the night to dance. With games, competitions, dancing and a goodie bag, everyone a wonderful time. Many thanks to all the staff who came to supervise, join in the dancing, set up and pack up too. A wonderful team of GPA parents led by Nicole and Ally prepared the goodie bags including serving all the food for all the hungry disco goers and getting through the doors! Thankyou to everyone who made it such a success.
Cabaret 2019:
What more can I say from the last Principal’s Report! Its only 5 sleeps away! The students are practicing very hard and Laura and Mr Aitken are really happy with how everyone has learnt their class item, the way the Choir, Party Hats and Second Chair Bands are performing and Lisa and Tania have all the costumes ready. Thank you to Laura and Ross (Amber 4R) for getting the program organised, which will be ready soon. I hope everyone has organised their tickets and really are looking forward to a great night
Footy Colours Day: GHPS has registered for 2019 Footy Colours Day and joined the team to support kids with cancer. I was reading about it and felt moved to invite our students to be part of this day. Although we’ve had our dress up day with the Book Character day, with Footy Finals on the horizon, it seemed an opportunity for our students and community to join in with thousands of other Footy Colours Day fans who will be wearing their team’s colours this September. Every dollar raised through Footy Colours Day helps kids living with cancer to continue their education during treatment and recovery, so if you would like to help, bring in a gold coin or donation for the Fight Cancer Foundation. This will coincide with our Special Lunch Pie Day and end of term. Thank you for your support.
End of Term 3: Friday 20 September
Term 4: School resumes on Monday 7 October
Exciting Events
Special Lunch: Pie Day 20 September
TheirCare Holiday Program: Monday 23 September in WW Hall
Fete and Art Show 26 October
Libby Alessi
Principal
Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award during the last 2 weeks.
Sindhura 0F – for her fantastic teamwork and leadership skills during our farm construction this week.
Allen 0N – For learning all of his 200 Magic Words!
Aaradhya 0R – For going up a reading level this week! Well done and happy reading.
Abigail 0R – For always helping her classmates and teachers when she can. You are such a wonderful friend Abigail.
Siyana 1A – For being a superstar during our Zoo excursion. Thank you for doing your best listening, showing respect and always having a smile on your face!
Aarna 1E – For being a wonderful friend to all students in our class and applying her best effort!
Jai 1M – your wonderful story called ‘They All Saw The Quokka’.
Rudhraa 1M – showing the animals, teachers and parent helpers respect at the zoo.
Rui 2C – for showing good character through his honesty and accountability.
Atharv 3K – Always helping others, listening to instructions and trying his best.
Jay 4C – For your increased effort and determination to reach your learning goals.
Hiranmayi 4R – For reading with beautiful expression during our reading groups this week.
Advaith 5S – His diligence and hard work in persuasive writing this week.
What’s On In Sport?
District Athletics
A big congratulations to Year 3-6 competitors who represented our school at the annual Caulfield District Athletics carnival. Accompanied by Mr. Swanson, students were respectful and displayed both enthusiasm and sportsmanship. A big thank you to Student Teachers Darcy and Rowena who also attended. We took over 30 students and had some excellent results!
Notable mentions to – Jaikiah In 6P Suheyla in 5O, Hugo in 5S and Lucas in 3F who will represent their school at the SSV Division Athletics carnival on Wednesday the 9th of October in Term 4.
I am so proud of all Glen Huntly Primary district athletic competitors for continually showing what encouraging, kind and thoughtful people they are.
Amazing work!
Netball
Below are some wonderful grade 5 girls who play for St. Anthony’s netball club on Friday nights. It was an honour to see these girls on the court playing as a team and even better when both teams won!
(Kashvi (50), Catherine (5S), Charlotte (50), Sienna (5S) & Isabelle (5S)
Soccer
Congratulations to Aditya & Adwaith in 4C, Abzel in 4R and Arjun in 5O, Aditya and Sachin in 2M and Hudson in 2L for completing their first season of playing for the City Lions Football Academy. Aditya in 4C received an award for Most Valuable Player. Well done!
Monash Sport would like to offer a discount voucher for Glen Huntly Primary School families who may like to enrol into lessons in our Learn to Swim Program.
www.gleneira.vic.gov.au/walk-to-school
Miss Kasambalis
Exciting updates for the end of the Premiers’ Reading Challenge!
Glen Huntly Primary School read a total of 15,135 books and all the students from prep to grade 6 have completed this challenge! This is a fantastic effort and I would like to thank all the students for their great reading and borrowing efforts, as well as the parents for supporting their children and developing this love of reading.
A massive congratulations as well to the following 20 students that have read well over 100 books:
Abigail (1A), Arini (1A), Arav (1A), Shloka (1A), Ishaan (1M)
Asher W (2C), Jishnu (2L), Shiva (2M), Anirudh (2C)
Charitha (3S), Siddant (3S), Nandini (3F)
Siddharth J (4J), Aradhya (4R)
Evan S (5S), Daksh (5S), Asher B (5O), Aidan W (5O)
Imogen (6P), Aksh (6P)
Congratulations to all and we will be receiving prizes and certificates at the start of term 4. Well done to everyone at Glen Huntly Primary School!
Miss Lucas-Lely
Get a Grill’d Burger
Just a friendly reminder that for the entire month of September, Glen Huntly Primary School is on a Local Matters jar at Grill’d Chadstone.
We hope that being on a jar this month can help us generate some extra support and increase awareness in the local community about what we do.
Go and get yourself a yummy burger and place your token in the GHPS jar.
Chess
A huge congratulations to the chess team for representing the school and winning the 3rd place out of 12 schools at the chess championship on September 6th! A very strong performance as usual.
This exciting and fun event represented the culmination of months of dedication and practise by the team.
Special congratulations to Randheer 4J winning 6/7 games and taking the 2nd place trophy out of 92 participants.
Also, Param 6J winning 4.5/7 and Hasini 6J winning 4/7!
We are proud to have such a dedicated and exceptional chess club and look forward to more new players joining us for future competitions.
Felix Chandler
Director
Mindful Chess
0451965385
Chocolate Trailer Donations
The Year 6 Students will be having a Chocolate Trailer at this years Twilight Fete.
If you can donate a block or two, it would be very much appreciated. Please leave your contribution at the office.
Thank you!
Claire Piscioneri
INDIAN DANCING at the GHPS School Fete
One of the highlights at the last school fete was the Indian dancing that helped celebrate Diwali and showcased a unique cultural part of life at Glen Huntly Primary School.
This year we are hoping to do it again bigger and better.
Would you like to be involved in the colour and excitement of the Indian dancing at the fete??
If so please contact
Rohini Kulkarni rohinikulkarni595@gmail.com
or
Shan Jayaweera jayaweeras@gmail.com
Year 6 Reflective Text
The wonderful, thought provoking story, ‘Ziba Came On A Boat ’by Liz Lofthouse, which we have been studying as a Mentor text, has inspired us to write a reflective letter which is intended to be written by Ziba to her aunt, a refugee from Afghanistan who not by choice, but because of war, recently migrated to Australia by boat. She is expressing her thoughts and feelings about her experiences in her new homeland.
Letter To Home Activity: Ziba Came On A Boat
Dear Auntie,
How are you all? Are you doing well? I hope life for you is better now. Is my cousin Kaamisha allowed to go to school now? I hope the soldiers aren’t as angry anymore!
We have finally arrived in Australia. I am aware that I am extremely lucky to be alive, after a life-threatening journey at sea.
I like Australia. I can dance freely again. You can still run across the rocky earth and feel the gooey mud squelching between your toes. You can really taste the essence of life. There is no more carnage. Western Australia is definitely a nice place in which to reside. I don’t need to run from almost anything, anymore.
However, it isn’t all roses here. I cannot run down to the mountains anymore and splash my cousins with the deliciously cold water. I still remember the sun gently shining, kissing my brown skin as we ran down to the cosy warmth of our small yet cosy homes. We hungrily devoured the naan, enjoying the simplicity of life and we’re cherishing being together.
That was an age ago.
I didn’t realise how happy I was until they took everything. We moved, leaving the happiness behind. It feels like Father passed away yesterday. My siblings miss him tremendously with great sadness as well, but they are generally fine.
It is difficult at school. All the children know a lot of English. I go to school, not knowing anything except that the other people will rag me.
I so want to make Mother happy. It triggers a pang of guilt deep down in a corner of my heart to know how hard she works for me, but still comes back with a smile on her face.
I want to become a doctor. There are so many opportunities here, you cannot miss out. I just have to endure things for a while. Here women have an equal right to education.
Mother is very quiet. I know she is immensely grateful to be here, but I also know she misses home a great deal and she would give anything to have a tranquil, normal life in a war-free Afghanistan.
It is a peaceful house but still not enough to earn the title of home. I have tasted simplicity already, so it is hard to call this home.
Do write back and tell me how you are all getting on. I really want to talk to you all, especially Kamishaa.
Please come.
Love,
Ziba
Mahathi 6J
Dear Aunt Jabalooshkar,
Mother and I have just recently landed on the shores of Australia. We have been living in a refugee camp for the past two days. People have been giving us strange looks whilst others have been very kind.
The boat trip was depressing; we had to survive without food on a rusty, leaking fishing boat that was salvaged from the dirtiest of docklands. Queer people were trying to talk to us but we didn’t know what language they were speaking in.
Back to the present, the meals at this camp have not nearly been as good as yours. I would like to learn the language English because that is basically all they speak here in Australia. I would also like to come visit you sometime in the future or I would love if you could come stay with me here in Darwin (It’s in Northern Territory) with Mother and I.
It’s almost dinner time so… See you soon! (hopefully)
Love,
Ziba
Casper 6P
Year 5 Persuasive Text
Should we spend money on space exploration?
It is completely obvious that space exploration is a very strong debate topic. There are two sides, one of them completely sure that space exploration isn’t needed when there are already so many problems here on Earth. the opposing side suggests that we definitely need to spend money and time on space exploration. I agree with the latter.
I’m positive that if we spend lots of money on finding new habitable planets, if the world dies, we might have a backup, a ‘ Plan B’. The opposing side is sure that we should help our planet instead of abandoning it. What good is that going to do when we have another heavy bombardment. Nothing.
Another strong point in favour is that the asteroid/ hyper belt is full of iron and other precious minerals. If we are ever low on materials, space travel could help a lot with that.
While it is true that we have lots of bad things on Earth, such as poverty, diseases, etcetera, it clearly doesn’t take into account the fact that if there is something like Earth, there might be a plant there that can fix diseases, or have room for poor people, food for people who cannot get food, and so much more.
In conclusion, if we don’t spend money on more advanced space exploration, humans may never advance as a species and a might never find anything out there…
Asher 5O
Is space exploration worth the cost?
I believe it is vital to help to try and save our planet but to save our planet we must spend money on it. So where can we get that money from? Well, we spend millions upon billions of dollars every single year on Space and to send humans there, but what about Earth? We have so many problems on Earth like diseases, poverty, hunger, unemployment and so much more the list just goes on and on. So let’s help the Earth before going to Space.
Do you want future generations to be able to live and be happy? Well, this might be the cost of global warming. However, we can change this by spending money on more sustainable energy instead of putting that money towards space. NASA has had more unsuccessful missions than successful so why put money towards NASA when we could be putting money towards our issues on Earth. NASA can’t even promise anything. Soon we won’t even have NASA. We won’t even have a planet to live on if we keep going the way we are going.
Let us explore Space but first let us help our planet. Space isn’t going anywhere so let’s help our Earth before we go to Space. We can help our Earth so let’s do it before it’s too late.
Charlotte 5O
Cooking News
Cooking Program – Viva Italia!
Risotto pleased the masses with its versatility this term. Students were able to choose additional ingredients to add to a base recipe so we had unique creations in every class, we even had Risotto with the Lot. Collaboration was required to get consensus one which extras to add – probably the most challenging part of the class.
One of the great things about Risotto is its versatility and that goes for the leftovers as well. From these we made Arancini, which are oozy cheese filled balls of rice and they were a huge hit across all year levels.
Both recipes can be found under the Learning/Curriculum/Specialist Programs section of the GHPS website or using this link https://www.glenhuntlyps.vic.edu.au/specialist-programs/
Thank you to the special few parents who came along to help out in Term 3. Huge thanks to Rosy Eppinger (former staff) for helping with cleaning and washing up after each class.
… and we could not have achieved all that we did without the assistance of Grade 6 students (too many to mention) when we lacked parent helpers. Thanks Claire and David for sparing them.
We have one more day of cooking next Monday for Prep R and Prep S, then we’ll pack our bags for our next culinary journey in Term 4.
I’m looking forward to it.
Fiona
Uniform News
Double Knee Gaberdine Long Pants
Perfect for Spring and Summer. Available now to order from the Uniform Shop.
Notices distributed to parents
4 Sept Year 3/4 Students Camp Notice
4 Sept All Families Chickenpox
11 Sept All Families Fete Flyer Distribution
12 Sept All Families Fete Ride Information
Calendar
September
Tue 17 School Cabaret
Fri 20 Final Day Term 3 – Early Dismissal 2.30pm
October
Mon 7 Term 4 commences
