Newsletter #4 March 15th 2024
GHPS IS COMMITTED TO CHILD SAFETY
Learning Today. Leading Tomorrow.
What an afternoon we had at GHPS last Friday!! Slime, super soakers, coloured powder, foam fruit and lots of water to mix it all up. This made for very colourful, wet, and slimed students and staff. I was filled with so much pride to see our school come together to support the Food Bank organisation.
Our community raised $15,031.19. What an accomplishment to be able to give back to Food Bank for all the support they have given our school through the Breakfast Club.
A huge thank you to Ruth Kinyua Smyth and her team of helpers for staging the event.
Yesterday, 5 of our top fundraisers enjoyed a VIP lunch with myself and enjoyed reflecting on the food fight.
Family Fun Night and Colour Run
We hope you can join us on Monday night!
Principals’ Conference
Last week Mr White and I had the pleasure of attending the Bayside Principals’ 2024 Conference alongside other primary and secondary Principals and Assistant Principals within the Beachside, Sage and Kingston school networks.
The focus was on ‘Leading In Complex Times.’ Keynote speakers and workshops focused on generative technologies (AI) and their place in education. We gained valuable insights into the significant shift in the skills and understandings that will be most beneficial to students in the future.
As a team, we are committed to continuously question and learn more to ensure our students and staff are able to learn, teach and work in our exceptional school.
In the last week of term out grade 5 and 6 students will be attending the Mt Evelyn Recreation Camp in Mt Evelyn, near Lilydale.
Camps are a wonderful learning opportunity for our students, helping them to develop a range of skills including: persistence, resilience, confidence, cooperation, teamwork, safe risk taking, independence and social skills. Our students are challenged in activities that we are not able to offer them at school. This is why our camps are an important part of the curriculum.
We are very excited that our senior students can embark on this adventure with the support of their teachers and education support staff.
Over the past couple of weeks, I had the pleasure of meeting a new group of families on our first school tours for the year.
I am sure many of you remember the anticipation that comes with researching the local schools in preparation for their first year at big school. It is hard to believe that our new Preps have only been at school for 7 weeks and we are already preparing for next year’s enrolments.
If you have friends or neighbours who are looking to enrol their children in 2025, please let them know that tours can be booked via the link on our website.
A reminder that hats and full drink bottles should be brought to school every day, especially with the hot weather events we have been having.
We wish you all a wonderful fortnight ahead!
Nerida Burns Cameron White
Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award.
Parker 0A – For his effort during our cooking session. It was great to see you enjoying mixing and pouring to make pancakes.
Mitchell 0C – For your hard work and dedication when raising money for Food Bank Australia! I hope you enjoyed getting slimed and your well-earned V.I.P lunch with Mrs Burns. Amazing effort!
Gabriel 1A – For building up your confidence to read aloud in our group reading sessions during Literacy Groups. We love hearing you read and listening to your valuable ideas!
Fadi 1B – For being a mindfulness master this week! Your belly breathing skills during our sessions this week were top-notch! I couldn’t help but notice how you rocked it with your belly rising and falling like a champ. Keep up the awesome work, and let’s keep the good vibes flowing!
Queiva 2/3A – For such an amazing effort this week on your soundwaves task. You were a superstar at finding rhyming words and working on the /i/ sound. Keep up the spectacular work!
Myra 2/3B – For being a maths wizard throughout our Multiplication unit this week. You displayed a growth mindset and we couldn’t be more proud of you!
Charlotte 2/3C – for your excellent teamwork skills during cooking this week. You followed the instructions on the recipe, chopped the onions perfectly and helped your team when needed. Outstanding work, Charlotte!
Isla 4/5A – For your positive attitude during NAPLAN this week. You not only approached technical issues calmly but were offering to help your peers get organised and logged on. You’re a superstar!
Eleanora 4/5B – For her strong sense of responsibility in all aspects of her learning. Thank you for taking ownership of your work and always being prepared. You are an excellent example for others, and we will miss you while you are away!
Kai 4/5C – outstanding effort with tasks and absolute determination to achieve his best. Thank you for always helping others and your teacher.
Mahati 4/5C – showing constant leadership and enthusiasm with all activities. Your manners are perfect and your positive attitude is much appreciated.
Mia 6A – For demonstrating growth in your Fractions & Decimals post-test on Thursday. Congratulations. Also, for your great swimming effort today. It was wonderful to see how excited and proud you were after you came first in the 50 metres Breaststroke!
GPA News
It’s all happening in the next 2 weeks
SignUp or Donate
Here’s where you can be involved.
Until Tuesday 26th March Donations of Easter goodies – chocolate, savoury treats, toys and baskets/bags for wrapping. Donations can be left in the Office on the east site or the bucket outside the staff room on the west site.
Thursday 21st March 1:10-2:00pm: Harmony Day Samosa Lunch. Sort, bag and serve samosas from the Tuck Shop, East site. Sign Up Here
Friday 22nd March 9.15am: GPA Annual General Meeting 9.15am East site. All Welcome. (No SignUp required 🙂)
If you can’t attend Friday’s meeting but would like to be more involved, please email ghpsgpa@gmail.com
Friday 22nd March 1.30-2.00 pm Icy Poles: Serve icy poles from the School Gym to excited students Sign Up Here
Tuesday 26th March 2.30-4.00pm: Easter Raffle Hamper Wrapping. Help wrap the hampers for the Easter Raffle. Many hands make light work. Sign Up Here
Wednesday 27th March 2.00-3.45pm: Hot Cross Bun distribution. Sort, bag and distribute Hot Cross Bun orders at the east site Tuck Shop. Sign Up Here
Thursday 28th March 11.30am: Easter Hat Parade and Raffle draw, West site. Raffle tickets $1 each, return your tickets and money to the office by Thursday morning.
Advance Notice Term 2
Friday cake raffle
The Friday GPA Cake Raffle is a popular event but Term 1 was missing a vital ingredient – donation of cakes!!!
Let’s turn this around in Term 2.
Sign Up Here to nominate a Friday to donate a cake.
The last cake for Term 1 will be Friday 22nd March. You need a ticket to win – $1 from the office, every Friday.
Mother Day Stall Friday 10th May
A great student favourite, the GPA is underway with sourcing goodies for the Mothers Days stall.
In addition to helpers on the day of the stall, Friday 10th May during school hours, we will also be looking for volunteers to help with packaging and pricing in the days before.
More information in Term 2.
On the 12th In March, the new student councillors, including Mrs. Burns and the school captains, met up in Room 2. Each councillor was given their official badge!
The members all agreed that each class would read the Acknowledgement of Country at the beginning of every school day, because we must respect and acknowledge our First Nations and Torres Strait Islander people.
We also discussed ways to make the Wizzy Dizzy safer and let everyone have a turn. Some ideas we came up with are:
- Five people allowed at a time
- There’s a 2-minute limit
- And you can only have a 2-minute go if you push for 2 minutes.
We are still to make an official decision about it.
Another topic we discussed is things we can add to our playground to make it Summer Safe. Some ideas are:
- A flying fox
- A tree house
- And more shady areas such as huts and umbrellas
Remember, these are ideas at this stage. Your classroom elected councillors will discuss with your class when you have a meeting next week.
Johan and Sahara – School Captains
Science News
Sport News
Well done to the students who attended and competed at the District Swimming event at GESAC on Thursday 7th March.
It was a gorgeous morning at the pool and all students did their very best for the school.
A very big thank you to Ruth for helping on the day.
Congratulations to Audrey, Jaylen, Johan, Rhea, Sara, Sully and Zac for the impressive achievement of swimming 50ms.
Sarah Price, PE teacher.
FOODBANK FOODFIGHT
Congratulations to everybody at GHPS for the wonder effort that was putting into raising money for Foodbank Victoria. Our final amount raised was a whopping $15,031.19. That alone creates $30,000 meals.
Thank you to everybody that helped on the day either setting up, packing up or on a slime station on the course, all that help contributed to making the day even more fun.
A big heartfelt thanks to our wonderful teachers who volunteered to be slimed by our top fundraising children. Without that motivation, I am not sure we could have raised such a high amount of money.
A big shout out to LEVI café located at 6 Railway Pde, Murrumbeena Victoria 3163 who provided 2 wonderful teacher prizes and also Franks Café in 97 Cavanagh Street, Cheltenham Victoria 3192 who also put $100 towards our fundraiser.
Our VIP lunch winners were Charlie S, Matilda M, Raywat J, Mitchell GK and Isaac C. They joined Mrs Burns this Thursday for a very special lunch.
Lastly if you raised over $10, you are eligible for a prize. Just log on to your profile and choose an appropriate prize. You have until the 20th of March to do this.
I am so Proud of our whole school community!! Well done, I look forward to do doing some more fundraising with you in the future.
Ruth Smyth-Kinyua Food Fight Coordinator
TheirCare News
GHPS Facebook
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Calendar
March
Mon 18 Family Fun Night / Colour Run
Thu 21 Harmony Day
Fri 22 Yr 5/6 Lightening Premiership
Mon 25 Yr 5/6 Camp
Thu 28 Final Day of Term 1 (early finish 2.30pm)
Fri 29 Good Friday
TERM 2
April
Mon 15 Term 2 commences
Fee payments and Excursion Permissions and Payments.
All Communication notices regarding excursions will be sent through COMPASS.
Permissions are to be given through COMPASS.
Preferred payment method for Fee payments and Excursions is through COMPASS.
This will allow us to always keep all the correct information available to staff whilst on an excursion.
If you have any questions, please contact the office or see Guide below.
CLICK HERE for Parent’s Guide to Compass
Thank you.