Newsletter #3 – 7 March 2019

Glen Huntly Primary School > Newsletter #3 – 7 March 2019

Principals Report

What a great walkathon we had 2 weeks ago with lots of laps completed! It was a fantastic effort by every student and we thank all the parents who came and watched or walked with us. Mrs Zent and the staff did a wonderful job putting everything in place for a very successful event. As a result of your commitment to helping us and in the process becoming a little bit fitter, there has been $3188.80 raised for purchasing new readers, which is tremendous!

Please continue to send in your sponsorship money so we can purchase even more readers for all grades. We are very grateful for everyone’s donations and of course the benefits which we will see in the student’s reading.

Ways you can help us to grow our school’s achievement in reading

All teachers work extremely hard to build all student’s reading levels at school. We ensure the reading environment in all areas of the school is set up for the numerous ways in which we grow each child’s reading skills and build their reading stamina. As reading takes much practice, we need you to practice with your child every day or night after school.

The purpose of you listening to your child read every day is to improve their reading skills. Each child needs sufficient time to practice as to read more easily and confidently.

The total success of your child’s reading will be dependent upon by the amount of time they spend practicing with you. The impact of this practising with you will reflect how quickly or slowly they progress.

Ask your child the following:

  • How are you doing with your reading?
  • How do you know?
  • How can you improve?
  • What can I/we as a parent do to help?

Ask yourself:

  • Is your child successful with their reading?
  • Are you modelling reading for pleasure at home?
  • Does your child read for pleasure?
  • Do you borrow library books or buy them and then out loud together?
  • Do you help your child with reading at home?

Your actions at home:

  • Check in with your child every day about their reading
  • Hear them read out loud every day/night for at least 10 minutes
  • Develop new habits if you don’t do this already
  • Find time periods every day to enjoy this wonderful journey together
  • Be clear on modelling your belief that your child needs to read aloud every day
  • See it as a time to learn together in a better way
  • Use purposeful listening to tell your child about the way they read to you
  • Focus on improving today
  • Help your child

If you need more advice about how to build a reading habit at home see your class teacher or our Reading Specialist Mrs Melinda Oldham (50).

We want to reinforce our shared beliefs at GHPS about us being a team and both your child and teacher need your commitment and help!

Professional Learning and Professional Practice Days for Teaching Staff

The Department of Education & Training (DET) has continued to provide schools with Professional Practice Days for Teaching Staff. This has been brought about to further achieve excellence by consistently focusing on improving the achievements of learners across Victoria, whether it is through improving the quality of educational services or changing the way we teach. DET believes the most important thing we can do to improve student outcomes is to develop and improve the skills of our teachers. Professional Practice Days (PPD) may focus on Assessment of student learning, collaboration on curriculum development, peer observation, planning and preparation. All teachers will be taking one PPD each term.

School Council Elections

A final reminder that GHPS School Council Elections are open and there has been a call for six Parent member nominations. Please get your form in by Friday 8 March at 4pm. A notice will be put on Skoolbag after 4pm announcing from whom we have received nominations.

Labour Day

Reminder: Labour Day Public Holiday is on Monday 11th March. There will be no school on this day. Enjoy the time with your family.

Curriculum Day which is a pupil free day follows on Tuesday 12 March with TheirCare operating at school for families who would like to register for this service. A notice went home last week about this day.

 

GHPS opened on the West Site on 14 March, 1914, which means next week our wonderful school is going to be 105 years old! We will mark the occasion by singing Happy Birthday at the line up assemblies on Thursday and through our hosts at the 15 March Whole School Assembly, Sharannya & Vishnu from Year 4R (student council). We are very proud of our history at GHPS and also look forward to School Council launching the new book about this later in the year.

Family Fun Night: Friday 15 March (next week)

We look forward to seeing all our families at Family Fun Night which will commence at 5pm -7pm on the West Site. Thank you very much to GPA for organising the Pizza truck and Ms Juz de Bruyn for Jude’s homemade lemonade icypoles. We are also very grateful for Ms Marie Kasambalis who will be running some games for the students as well, which will be a lot of fun.We really hope you can make it along for a really enjoyable night. Bring with you a foldup chair/s (the ground is a bit hard) or rug to sit on if you prefer, picnic basket and drinks.

Cultural Diversity Week (March 16-24)

Next week is Cultural Diversity Week and it is a chance to recognise and celebrate the vibrant multicultural communities that enrich our state and the huge contribution they make to our school.The theme, “Proud to Belong”, is a wonderful opportunity to highlight some of the exciting ways that our school and the Department are celebrating diversity and encouraging inclusiveness.

Victorians come from more than 200 countries and speak 260 languages.

At GHPS we have representation of families speaking over 21 languages. I am proud of the work our school is doing to give all our students and families’ access to learning alongside students from across the globe. We amplify how we at GHPS continue to strengthen Victoria as a multicultural community and can feel enormously proud that our school is welcoming and inclusive for all.

In addition to this, we will celebrate our 6th Harmony Day on Wednesday 27 March with the message that Everyone Belongs. The Music Captains Mahathi and Aarushi can look forward to opening this event. We invite all students to attend dressed in orange or National dress. Thank you to Mr Andrew Aitken for organising the visit by the Taiko Drumming Group which all students will attend. Can everyone return the orange Harmony Day notice which was distributed this week. To further celebrate, GPA is offering a yummy Sushi lunch and a notice will go out very soon.

Libby Alessi – Principal

A message from your Assistant Principal Amy Tinetti

Working Bee Recap:

WOW WOW WOW! I was so blown away to see so many families on Sunday who came to help out, especially in the heat. Thank you to the following families who came to lend a hand:

Schmidt Family, Sasa Kumar Family, Jain Family, Oswal Family, Mallik Family, Navas Family, Blair Family, Zhao Family, Mishra Family, Sidhan Family, Radhakrishnan Family, Wolfe Family, Mentis Family, Duffy Family, Giannellis Family, Kumar Family, Manina Family, Mookerjee Family, Noby Family, McKay Family, Dengle Family, Dhar Family, Wajnberg Family, Foley Family, Zhou Family,Ranjan Family, Lee Family and Autane Family. I apologise if I have left any one off the list.

We completed many of our jobs on the day. We removed the sandpit on the West Site and the beginning stages of our new sandpit has started. There was such a great vibe throughout the day, even in the heat and many new friendships made.

  

If you didn’t get to come and help out this term no problem, there will be another one next term!

Oval Redevelopment:

In other exciting news our Oval Redevelopment started today!! Staff and students (and I’m sure parents) are watching with keen eyes to see our oval be transformed into an awesome lush, green oval. The students are planning the first footy and cricket matches that will take place.

Before shots-

  

The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you. (B.B King)

Amy Tinetti

Congratulations to the following students who have received a Student of the Week award

Madison 0F – For being a kind and empathetic friend, comforting Jon while he was feeling sad.

Veeksha 1A – For always doing her best in class and taking pride in her schoolwork.

Damon 1E – For being a wonderful friend to our new class members.

Emily 1E – For her hard work and determination in our place value unit. Keep up the fantastic work!

Electra 1M – Your awesome superhero story about Spiderbat and your wonderful neat handwriting.

Bridget 2C – Because she is a very pleasant, respectful and bubbly member of 2C who always takes great initiative.

Aniket 2L – For always having his listening ears on and for being a great helper!

Max 2L – For writing an excellent text on Clean Up Australia Day!

Jessop 2M – Impressive story writing.

Audrey 2M – Impressive knowledge of Place Value.

Owen 2M – Impressive Comprehension skills.

Brody 3F – Writing a very impressive persuasive text.

Nandini 3F – Her impressive and detailed ending to her Princess and Oink narrative.

Madhav 3K – a creative sizzling start about a spider and the confidence to read it out loud in class.

Ahana 3K – showing kindness to new student Mitesh and helping him settle in.

Rei 3K – being enthusiastic with all activities and continuously helping with classroom organisation.

Tasha 4J – A wonderful week of positive contributions to classroom conversations.

Serafim 4J – An excellent Show & Tell presentation of your gemstone collection.

Riya 4R – For being a conscientious student and setting a positive example to others. Keep it up!

Vayun 4R – For homework poster about healthy meals.

Suheyla 5o –  for displaying leadership skills in looking after new and younger students.

Alicia 5o – For displaying leadership qualities in all aspects of the curriculum.

Miriyala 5S – For settling in so well to GHPS.

Isabelle 5S – For being a role-model to her fellow 5S students and always being helpful and respectful to others.

Hiya 6P – for her hard work and dedication to all learning tasks.

Yashvi 6P – Outstanding and inspiring leadership, consistently modelling excellent work habits and always striving to produce your best work.

Xavier 6P – for his outstanding efforts this week to stay focused and finish his learning tasks.

Pari 6P – efficient, effective and inspiring work completion of all literacy group tasks, to a high standard.

ThinkUKnow Presentation

Glen Huntly Primary School hosted a ThinkUKnow presentation following the year level information sessions. The Presentation took place in the year 5/6 classrooms and all parents and carers were encouraged to attend.

ThinkUKnow Australia is a cyber safety education program that educates parents, carers and teachers on how people are using technology, the challenges they may face online, and how to help them overcome these in a safe and ethical way.

ThinkUKnow Australia is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police, Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank.

The GHPS presentation was delivered by Graham Higgerson in a thought-provoking, sensitive manner and I’m sure all of the parents and teachers in attendance gained some useful knowledge in becoming proactive role models in navigating our children’s cyber education.

A big thank you to those parents and teachers who attended this very important safety education program. Please return any evaluation forms to Mrs Oldham.

For more information, you can visit www.thinkuknow.org.au

Melinda Oldham     

Students are given book club order forms once a month. With every book sold, we receive a percentage of the price to put toward readers and books for our school.

This months order forms must be returned by Wednesday, 13th March. Delivery is usually 2 weeks after the return date.

DISTRICT SWIMMING

District Swimming was held on Monday 4th of March at Carnegie Swim Centre. We had a squad of 14 students.

All tried their best and represented their school with enthusiasm and excellent encouragement of their peers. Notable mentions to Amber, 4R, who finished 3rd in her 50m backstroke event, Marko, 4R, who finished 4th in his 50m backstroke event and Jaikiah, 6J who finished 3rd in his 50m freestyle event respectively.

A big congratulations to all who participated.

Miss Tinetti and myself are very proud of you all.

Miss Kasambalis       Sport/PE

 

Families holding a valid means-tested concession card or foster parents are eligible to apply for the Education State Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund.

To be eligible for the fund, a parent or legal guardian of a student attending a Victorian Primary School MUST hold a Pension or Concession Card or Centrelink Health Care Card.

This form is available from the office and must be filled out each year.

For more information, contact the office

Thank you to Caitlin Hawkins for the very generous donation of 30 Ukuleles for our music program.

Andrew Aitken      Music/Japanese

Notices distributed to parents

March 1                Year 5/6 Students                        Lightening Premiership

March 4                All Students                                  Curriculum Day

March 4                All Students                                  Twilight Family Fun Night

March 7                  All Students                                  Hot Cross Bun Orders

March 7                    All Students                                  Harmony Day

Calendar

2019

March

Mon 11  –  Labour Day

Tue 12  –  Curriculum Day: Mathematics

Fri 15  –  Year 5/6 Lightening Premiership

Fri 15  –  Family Fun Night

Wed 20  –  Year 5/6 Camp

Wed 27  –  Celebrate Harmony Day

AmusA; Mteach (primary); STCA (primary)

 

Maddy grew up as a Suzuki piano student and fell in love with music. She believes, like Dr. Suzuki, that every student has the aptitude to learn a musical instrument and to acquire talent.

According to Dr. Suzuki, learning music is like learning how to speak one’s mother tongue. The process of language acquisition, whose foundation lies in listening, observing and imitating is just like music acquisition.

An integral part of the Suzuki Music approach is the parent-teacher-child triangle. Collaboratively, each person in the triangle is a part of and contributes to the musical acquisition and mastery of the child.

My piano lessons involve:

Learning how to play a repertoire of music starting with the very basics
Learning how to sight-read music
Learning how to improvise music
Learning how to develop a love for music ​

Please contact Maddy on 0438 506 604 for more information

BIENVENUE, YOOKOSO  & SHALOM OPEN DAY

Tuesday 30th April 2019 at 9.15am.

Take a tour and learn about our

innovative language programs.

 

COLLEGE OPEN DAY

Wednesday 1st May 2019.

Tours at 9.15am, 11.30am, & 1.45pm (Bookings essential).

Evening Presentation 6.30pm.

 

SEAL ACCELERATION PROGRAM AND LANGUAGES IMMERSION

Information Night

Monday 6th May 2019 6.30pm.

SEAL Test for Year 7 2020

Friday 17th May 1pm.

 

PRINCIPAL TOURS

See website for dates.

Bookings essential for all tours.

Ring 9571 7838

 

Glen Eira College

76 Booran Road

Caulfield East Vic 3145

Telephone:  03 9571 7838

Website:  https://gec.vic.edu.au/