Newsletter #20 6 December 2018

Glen Huntly Primary School > Newsletter #20 6 December 2018

Principals Report

Carols Evening, Artwork and Billycart Auction Tuesday 11 December 5.30 – 7.30pm

We will look forward to the school community coming together to enjoy this annual festive event. The Carols evening will be held on the West Site and the students from all year levels will be performing songs and carols they have learnt with Mr David Jenkins during music classes.

Ms Justine de Bruyn is very excited about the Art Auction of Year Level Collaborative Artworks over which auctioneer and dedicated supporter of the school, Ruth Roberts from Woodards will preside. An additional auction piece from the Grade 4 team of Mrs Melinda Oldham and Mr John Jacobs and students is up for grabs by way of their excellent Billycart which has been from their Science inquiry.

Many thanks to the GPA for coordinating the Christmas Hamper Raffle (please donate your goodies in the hampers placed on both sites), the BBQ, Jude’s Lemonade Icy-poles and drinks.

Student Disco

A very exciting night for the students who attended the GHPS Disco last Saturday night. The GPA parents and staff did a fantastic job organising such a fun night. The students danced amazingly well and the music was great!

Special thanks to Cassandra (Evan 4O) and the organising team of parents who helped to make the night so great and to the amazing DJ Funky Owl aka Shan (Alice 4O & Emily 2E). The GPA helpers did a wonderful job providing a fabulous atmosphere including naming, ticketing, decorating, cooking hotdogs and creating the goodie bag! Thank you so much. I am sure that GPA will list all helpers in their newsletter next week.

2019 School Structure, Workforce Planning and Staffing

Class organisation has taken considerable time to plan for next year. Aligned with the strategic direction, resources available and the priority key improvements in 2019 Annual Implementation Plan, it will provide for highly effective outcomes for both students and staff in context of the anticipated enrolment of 399 students. The Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Leadership Team will comprise Principal, Assistant Principal, Leading Teacher, Reading and Numeracy Learning Specialists and Writing Leader, Reporting Leader with the addition of the Sub school leaders. They will lead the 2019 AIP Goals including leading teaching teams, building teacher capabilities, providing more feedback and setting high expectations.

To plan for Professional Learning Communities (PLC) implementation of the 2018 Regional initiative, in which the GHPS school and Instructional leaders attended over eight days in term 3 and 4 this year, a new 2019 Timetable is to be organised with session times moving so that PLC teams in each year level can plan and work together during their non- face to face teaching time. All specialist sessions will be 50 minutes in duration. The school day will be:

  • Session 1: 9-10.40am
  • Recess: 10.40-11.10am
  • Session 2: 11.10 -12.50
  • Lunch 12.50 -1.05 –supervised eating time
  • Playing: 1.05-1.50
  • Session 3:1.50 – 3.30pm.

Yard duty goes from 1.05pm-1.50pm to ensure staff have a full 30 minutes lunch break.

Instructional leaders in Reading, Writing and Numeracy will have time available for release and they will be aligned with one team along with a Principal team member (fortnightly).In 2019 positions for Leadership will strengthen the PLC vision and culture of collaboration.

Numbers of classes will increase from 16 Classes in 2018 to 19 classes: nine classes on the East Site and ten classes on the West Site. This has been enabled through a number of factors as follows:

  1. Four additional Classroom spaces provided in the two Mod 5 buildings which have two classrooms in each on both the West and East Sites. One has been fully installed and one is currently being fitted out in preparation.
  2. An enrolment growth in Prep with 80 preps expected so 4 Prep classes will operate
  3. Three grade 2 classes next year to cater for the increased number of students currently in Year 1
  4. Operating three Grade 3 classes, two Grade 4, two Grade 5 and two Grade 6 classes
  5. Mr Andrew Aitken commencing teaching Specialist Music, Band, Choir and Japanese. Earlier this term there was a new teacher appointed to teach Japanese with Library, however we have been informed by her that she will be taking up another offer of teaching instead. Fortunately, Mr Aitken who speaks Japanese as his second language and who has immediate family ties with the whole culture, will ably teach both and is very excited by this turn of events seeing it as a golden opportunity for all students to learn this new language with him.
  6. Art classes P-6 being taught by Ms de Bruyn as well as Prep Library. The Grades 1-6 will be taught by a new teacher. The position for a 0.5 teaching position has been advertised. Notification will be provided as soon as practicable to everyone.
  7. Mr Jake Mackie will be taking 12 months leave without pay in 2019. We wish him all the best.

We also look forward to Specialists Programs in PE, PMP and Sport with Ms Marie Kasambalis, English and English as Additional Language (EAL) with Mrs Lexie Boomsma, Ms Juz de Bruyn: Art and Prep Library, with an advertised for 0.5 Library to be finalised.

Staffing and Class Organisation based on 399

Principal: Mrs Libby Alessi

Assistant Principal: Ms Amy Tinetti

Class organization 2019

Classes for 19 classes have been planned for as follows but may be amended if numbers change a great deal.

WEST SITE

Prep Ms Olivia Fournotis, Ms Mikaela Ristos, Ms Ivana Novakovic, Ms Ashleigh Smart

Grade 1:Mrs Emma Murnane, Ms Yasmin Makssi, Ms Meagan Atkins

Grade 2: Mr Bill Manuel, Ms Danielle Chau and a new staff member advertised and to be finalised.

EAST SITE

Grade 3: Mrs Eugenia Sassos, Mrs Shannan Fox, Ms Kamila Krauze

Grade 4 : Mr John Jacobs and Ms Jasmine Roth

Grade 5: Mrs Melinda Oldham and Mr Callum Swanson

Grade 6 Mr David Jenkins and Ms Claire Piscioneri

Education Support Staff

Ms Julie Bruce – Business Manager

Laura James-Clark – Office/Website/Music

Ms Jenny Grose, Ms Tanya Matthews, Mrs Denise Rimanic, Mrs Anu Velamakanni.

Mrs Juliet Brianton – Tree House Reading/Classroom

Ms Lisa Oliver & Mrs Tania Casonato – Little Book Worms/Classroom /Uniform Shop/Costumes for Cabaret

Mrs Fiona Davey – Cooking

Mrs Ruth Kinyua-Smyth – Classroom /OHS

If parents are yet to notify the Office that their child will be moving from GHPS in 2019 can they please do so this week.

Little Book Worms

Tuesday 4th December was the final session for Little Book Worms this year. The children and parents joined in with Lisa and Tania to celebrate another highly successful year with a Christmas party. We thank Lisa and Tania for doing such an incredible job taking LBW. We look forward to children returning next year.

Parent and Helper’s Morning Tea – Tuesday 18th Dec

GHPS Staff would like to invite all parents and helpers to a morning tea in the WW Hall on Tuesday 18 December, so please save the date in your busy December diary. This is to say a huge thankyou to everyone for volunteering to help us at GHPS. We would love to see you. A purple notice has gone home this week.

School 2019 Parent Payment Policy

The Parent Payment Policy was endorsed at the November School Council Meeting. GHPS Council is requesting payments be made next year on Tuesday 29th January when book packs will made available for collection. Aside from the book pack which needs to be paid for at the time of collection, there are payment arrangements and methods which will be outlined in the information. This information has been posted to families.

School Council Support

Thankyou to every member of Council for their shared enthusiasm, drive and passion for GHPS. It has been a privilege to work with everyone and I enjoyed celebrating the end of year breakup. I would like to acknowledge Tony Carveth (William 6A) for his contribution to SC since he joined in 2012.He has served on the Council as Vice President and on the P & M subcommittee, often offering his view point with ideas as to how the school can be even better. We hope you have enjoyed your time on Council. I would also like thank the Council President Craig Matthews for all that he does in his highly valued role and for his report which is included in this newsletter.

Libby Alessi         Principal

School Council Report

School Council met for the final time in 2018 on Monday 26th November.

Key items covered at the meeting included;

  • With the outcome of the Victorian State Election confirmed we look forward to working with Steve Dimopoulos to bring about the pre-election commitment to capital works funding from the State Government.
  • 2019 workforce and long term planning is well underway as the school continues to best meet the needs of its growing student population.
  • The 2019 Prep Parent information night was an excellent event – very well attended and highly successful. A big thank you to all those who made it possible.
  • The school continues to achieve great results against its 2017-2020 Strategic Plan and this again, combined with outcomes from 2018, are being used to inform the 2019 Annual Implementation Plan.
  • As everyone can clearly see from the rapid developments on the East Site the new Mod 5 classrooms are well underway in their installation process. These will provide valuable new learning spaces as the number of classes in 2019 is set to grow.
  • The State Election bbq and cake stall were a resounding success. An absolutely huge thank you to all the cooks, bakers, servers, set-up and pack-down personnel who helped make this another great fundraising event for the school.
  • The Tri Nature fundraising drive was a great success – with over $500 donated to the school.
  • Planning for our 2019 Fete extravaganza is officially underway. I encourage any and all community members to get involved and get involved early to help make this the greatest fete ever.
  • The 2019 school budget is in its final stages of approval. SC would like to re-iterate and remind everyone that the parent payment contributions form a very significant component of the school’s operating budget and it’s important that this is maximised to ensure the school can continue to deliver outstanding educational outcomes for students.
  • Whilst our oval re-development has seemingly stalled the timing has been fortuitous as it has allowed the installation of the new Mod 5 classrooms to occur without causing damage to the new surface as the oval is the only access point to the East Site that would allow this. We are hoping now that the classrooms have been brought in we may see oval works commence within the next couple of weeks.
  • TheirCare before and after school care continues to deliver very good outcomes. They are also making some significant contributions to the school which are very welcome.
  • The school carols night will be held on Tuesday 11th December on the West Site – look forward to seeing everyone there.

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the entire School Council team who have worked cohesively and diligently in 2018 in making a highly valued contribution to the educational and operational outcomes of the school. A special thank you to Tony Carveth who attended what was his final meeting after 7 years on school council.

A big thank you to Mrs Alessi, Ms Tinetti and their dedicated team of teaching and support staff who make GHPS such an exciting and fun place for education.

Finally I would like to wish the entire school community a safe and happy holidays, and I look forward to another great year in the life of GHPS in 2019.

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 Samarth, 4O, on receiving an ICAS Award for Science.

All lost property needs to be collected by tomorrow, 7th Dec.

Any unclaimed items will be disposed of.

Bizzare Bazzare

Bizzare Bazzare was an extraordinary event.

    

People made things that weren’t made ever before. Everyone surprised themselves with what they were capable of. Some things were so elaborately made while others were sweet and simple, but all of the products just blew my mind.

    

Some people used food to attract people while others used advertising. Others had amazing business minds, dropping the prices or raising them, thinking of what is practical to use and what isn’t.

It took a lot time and ideas to do this but everyone worked hard in their groups and came through. It was a great experience for me and I hope everyone feels so too.

Swara  6P

      This week we had our final Little Book Worms for 2018.

We celebrated with a Christmas Party.

We look forward to continuing our Little Book Worms program in March, 2019.

    

Notices distributed to parents

Nov 28         Year 3 – 6 Students                Movie Excursion

Nov 29         Prep – 2 Students                   “Aboriginal for a Day” Incursion

Nov 29         All Families                             GHPS Helpers Morning Tea

Nov 30         All Families                             GHPS Carols Evening

Nov 30         All Families                             TheirCare Holiday Program

Dec 4            Year 3 – 6 Students                 Water Safety day

Dec 4            Year 1/2 Students                   Celebrating Differences

Dec 6           All Families                               Student Art work Auction

Calendar

December

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   

Tue 18  –  GHPS Helpers Morning Tea

Tue 18  –  Prep – 2 Incursion 

Thu 20  –  3-6 Excursion

Fri 21  –  Last Day Term 4 – Early Dismissal 1.30pm.

          

CHRISTMAS DAY DINNER 2018

Christmas is a time for families to get together to celebrate the Birth of Christ. However, for a variety of reasons, some people are unable to do this.

And so a traditional Christmas Day Dinner will be held in St Anthony’s Hall, corner Neerim and Grange Roads, Glen Huntly at midday on Christmas Day for those not celebrating Our Lord’s Birthday. If you would like to come and celebrate with us, we would love to see you there, so please collect a yellow invitation at the office.

If you would like to help with the Christmas Dinner, please fill out a green form, also available at the office, and return it to St. Anthony’s, 74 Grange Road, Glen Huntly 3163.

We invite everyone to please join us in praying for the success of the Dinner. If you would like more information please email us on stanthony.christmasdinner@gmail.com or phone St Anthony’s Parish House 9569 2099 or our dedicated mobile 0432 087 494.