Newsletter #18 8 November 2018
Principals Report
A fantastic Friday for us with everyone truly excited by the announcement that should the current state government be re-elected they will invest $5 million to transform our wonderful school.
Such a highly deserving school community at GHPS!
Rocktober
The first GHPS Rocktober event was a fabulous night!
A big, big thank you to the wonderful work of so many members of GPA/School Council and Staff who pulled a great night together! Many thanks to the MC’s and all who helped and played: Shan, Caitlin, Andrea & Tony, Dave, Laura, Andrew, John and Mark plus all the parents who ran the games, and helped get the hall ready for action and then packed up after the event.
It was a great example of the wonderful collaboration we are privileged to have here between parents and staff. Thank you to everyone who came and made it such a fun night.
2018 Diwali Celebrations
We hope you can join us at the Assembly on Friday 9th November to celebrate Diwali with the following program:
Master of Ceremonies –Raashi 4O
Candle lightening ceremony: Hon. Steve Dimopoulos, Hon. Tim Wilson, Hon. Ms Georgie Crozier, Mrs Libby Alessi and Mrs Bama
Diwali Dance GHPS Students – Tilly , Sahana, Smruthi, Aahana and Bilva
Significance of Diwali Speech – Oshika and Elizabeth and Ridhan
Diwali Songs – Yashwi 5S, Lakshita (4O) & Bindumani (1J)
Concluding speech – Raashi 4O
The students are invited to wear casual dress for Diwali and bring a gold coin donation. All donations will contribute to the GPA fundraising priorities and we greatly appreciate your support. As usual, school uniform will be worn if you are not dressing to represent Diwali.
Thankyou to Venmani, Rohini, Jayanthi, Tarna and GPA for helping with the Samosa and Mango lassi lunch.
Workforce Planning 2019
Staffing and workforce planning for 2019 has commenced. During last term, Mrs Mandy Zent notified me of her intention to resign at the end of 2018. Mrs Zent has enjoyed an amazing 26 years at Glen Huntly PS. When she joined the teaching staff, she initially taught Recorder and over her time, has taught in the English as Additional Languages (EAL) program and Literacy Intervention. She moved into the Library position in 1995 and has been welcoming students to the Library for a very long time!
When the Languages teachers who used to teach Japanese and German transferred and retired respectively the school commenced with Mandy teaching Indonesian as she was able to teach this language. She has been an absolutely dedicated and fun teacher who has contributed very broadly to all her roles. GHPS have been most fortunate to have her and we celebrate her teaching career. The great news is that Mandy will be returning as a causal relief teacher when staff need replacing.
The GHPS Languages Committee has used the DET Guidelines to successfully investigate the following:
- The type of program to be taught (P-6) and in conjunction with Library
- The delivery mode being face to face
- The program structure (whole school, the number of lessons and how lessons are sequenced across the week)
- Languages learning Pathway: Used relevant languages taught at the main secondary feeder schools for GHPS which are Glen Eira, Bentleigh, Brighton and Elwood (McKinnon is heavily zoned and so not considered a feeder). In South Eastern Victoria, the most popular is Japanese.
We are delighted to announce that Ms Claire Marshall has been appointed full time to teach Japanese and Library P-6 in 2019. Ms Marshall will attend this term to plan for her teaching role. She is the current Japanese teacher at Sydenham – Hillside Primary School and is looking forward to joining our community.
2019 Prep Transition
The transition program for 2019 prep children has been very well attended. So far there have been two sessions with two remaining which will take place on Thursday 15 and Tuesday 20 November.
We have enjoyed welcoming both current and new families into the school where the children have participated in learning tasks in the Prep learning areas and outside doing PE.
The Parent session will be on Tuesday 20th November at 7pm in the WW Hall.
Student Council
Thank you to Alexander 3S and Marko 3F for writing a report about last week’s Student Council meeting and speaking at this Friday’s assembly.
School Council
At the October Council meeting, the GHPS Volunteers Policy was approved which outlines the process to manage and supervise all people who volunteer at our school. Please find the Volunteers policy on the school website.
In step with this policy the school will now require all volunteers to have a current Volunteer Working with Children Check when undertaking the role of a Volunteer. As of Monday 12th November parents/volunteers will be able to access the volunteers policy and a link to the WWCC.
If you require any further details, please call the school or email at Glenhuntly.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au We would ask that you provide a copy of the Volunteer Working with Children Check for our file, by dropping this in to the office. Thankyou in anticipation for your continued support.
Thankyou also to the President Craig Matthews for the 29 October School Council report.
Libby Alessi
Principal
School Council Report
As we head into the business end of the year, School Council met for the 1st time in Term 4 on Monday 29th October.
Key items covered at the meeting included;
- Enrolments and overall numbers for 2019 looking very positive. This is a great reflection on achievements by the school in recent years, seeing it become a very real destination school in the area.
- To cope with the growing numbers the new Mod 5 classroom providing 2 distinct classroom areas is up and running on the West Site, with another Mod 5 to be installed on the East Site before the 2019 school year.
- Exciting announcement that Japanese will replace Indonesian as the LOTE in 2019.
- The Child Safe Standards (as comprised in Ministerial Order 870) were reviewed and discussed at length as they must remain an agenda item for every School Council meeting.
- All agreed that the Art Show 2018 was an overwhelming success. Congratulations to Ms de Bruyn in seeing all of her hard work come to fruition.
- Rocktober 2018 was also a marvellous night. From Kiss to Kenny Rogers to Axl Rose, all genres of music were covered by a fantastic turnout of costumes. Thanks to Shan and the team for making it a night to remember (in more ways than one) and we all look forward to Rocktober MK11 in 2019.
- GPA has had yet another great year to date, raising in excess of $10,000 to help support the schools varied and valued educational programs.
- State Election BBQ / Cake Stall coming up on Saturday the 24th of November. If you haven’t already please go to http://signup.com/go/XFcdyZw to help us out as this is always a great fundraising/community event for the school.
- The Grade 3/4 camp to Waratah Beach Camp was reviewed and approved and promises to be lots of fun for all who attend.
- The 2019 parent payment policy has been reviewed and approved – thanks to Julie Bruce for all her hard work again in pulling this together.
- There were again a myriad of policies submitted by the Curriculum and Policy subcommittee that are all progressing to approval stage. These included the Junior School Council & Leadership policy and Volunteer Policy.
- Term 4 working bee achieved some great outcomes, including a huge tidy up of tree debris.
- TheirCare out of hours school care service commenced with the school holiday program and the feedback to date from both users of the service and TheirCare has been extremely positive.
On a side note, since our School Council meeting the state member for Oakleigh, Steve Dimopoulos, attended assembly on Friday the 2nd of November to present art awards, and whilst there released the news that should the current State Government be re-elected, GHPS will receive a $5 million upgrade to its facilities to fully modernise and expand our school.
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
Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award during the last 2 weeks.
Veeksha 0F – a creative contribution during our narrative writing.
Jai 0N – working hard to improve his writing by taking time to sound words out.
Isabella 0R – being a kind friend towards her peers.
Siri 1J – settling in to the Year 1 community.
Max 1M – a very supportive and helpful friend to all of his classmates.
Genevieve 2M – writing a great story on dinosaurs and including paragraphs.
Het 3F – an enthusiastic approach to all Maths tasks and his willingness to challenge himself.
Adhithi 3S – excellent application to Maths and showing a great understanding of equivalent fractions.
Riley 3S – trying hard to complete all of his learning tasks.
Nelfeli 3S – showing great improvement in all her written work.
Charlotte 4J – demonstrating excellent listening skills.
Sienna 4J – maintained focus during reading groups.
Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Principal’s award’.
Aarav 2E – for being a great leader in the class lessons using Bee-Bots
Art Show Award Winners
Sahara 0N, Amelia 2E, Kushal 4J , Daniel M 5S.
Congratulations to Will Short, 5R, for passing his Preliminary Piano exam with Honours (A).
Excellent work.
Junior Council Report
Hi I’m Alexander and I’m Marko,
Last Monday, we had a student Council Meeting. We talked mostly about sustainability. Max and Rui said that the East side have a lot of rubbish in the yard and the West side has some too. We had some ideas about how to fix the problem, like more ‘Rubbish Free Days’ and an icy-pole eating area.
We had plenty more but we need to have another meeting to talk about this more!
By Alexander 3S and Marko 3F
Little Book Worms – Celebrating Diwali
Notices distributed to parents
26 October All Students Celebrate Diwali Samosa Lunch
29 October Prep – 2 Students Head Lice information
30 October Year 5/6 Students Inspirational Talk Incursion
Calendar
November
Fri 2 – 2019 Prep Orientation
Wed 7 – 2019 Prep Orientation
Fri 9 – Year 5-6 Sport
Fri 9 – Diwali Celebration and Samosa Lunch
Mon 12 – Year 3-4 Camp
Thu 15 – 2019 Prep Orientation
Fri 16 – Year 5-6 Sport
Fri 16 – Year 5/6 Incursion
Tue 20 – 2019 Prep Orientation
Tue 20 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Tue 20 – 2019 Prep Information Night
Wed 21 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Thu 22 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Fri 23 – NO ASSEMBLY
Fri 23 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Fri 23 – Year 5-6 Sport
Mon 26 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Tue 27 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Wed 28 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Thu 29 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Fri 30 – NO ASSEMBLY
Fri 30 – Prep – 2 Swimming
Fri 30 – Year 5-6 Sport
December
Sat 1 – Kids Disco
Mon 3 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Tue 4 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Wed 5 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Thu 5 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Fri 7 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Mon 10 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Tue 11 – Carols Night
Wed 12 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Thu 13 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Fri 14 – Year 3 – 6 Swimming
Mon 17 – Year 6 Graduation
Fri 21 – Last Day Term 4 – Early Dismissal 1.30pm.
