Newsletter #5 29 March 2018

Students of the Week

Principals Report

Prep Reading Information Night and Level Literacy Helpers

On Tuesday 20 March, Staff provided prep parents with an opportunity to learn about how students are taught to read and how they can support their child at home.

Home Readers for the prep students commenced in week 8 and it is always a very special milestone.

Thank you to the Prep team: Liv Fourniotis, Ivana Novakovic, Mikaela Ristos who together with the Learning Specialist, Melinda Oldham and Amy Tinetti provided an excellent presentation. There was also an invitation extended to parents to come and learn how to be a future parent helper.

Locomotor Skills

Prep families will be notified this week that each student will be receiving his /her Locomotor Licence as part of the Foundation Physical Education Curriculum which involves Preps mastering all 7 of the Locomotor skills.

Each child has been engaging in various games, stations and play to learn and practice each skill. These include leaping, walking, running, galloping, skipping, hopping and jumping.

When one considers the lead up to when these skills appear in the pre-school years, it is vital that children receive instruction and have lots of opportunities to practice them.

Ms Marie Kasambalis has been a keen advocator to improve each child’s development.

Student Council

The 18 members of Student Council and I have met twice this term and I am highly impressed by their thoughtful approach to GHPS and what they consider both with their teachers and independently.

Thank you to Student Councillor Imogen 5S who has provided a report about some of the things we discussed.

Also thank you to everyone who supported the casual dress day and gold coin donation. Please read what Sienna and Hugo in 4J have written about where the funds will go.

Casual Clothes Day – Motor Neurone Disease

In Australia 730 people die from motor neurone disease every single year. This awful disease needs to come to an end. Our gold coin donation on the last day of Term 1 (Thursday) will be going to this fantastic cause to help find a cure for motor neurone disease.

Motor neurone disease is a disease where your body cannot take control of your muscles and your muscles start to stiffen. Eventually they will stop working. This disease must come to an end and gold coin donation will make a difference. The wonderful people at Fight MND are working on a cure for this disease. Every dollar counts.

For further information on Fight MND, please visit the website https://fightmnd.org.au/

Thank you, Hugo and Sienna (4J)

Student Council Report

This week in our Student Council meeting, we talked about what we could do to help the school and upgrade it to a much better and more educational place.

Some of the ideas we chatted about were more rubbish free days, having a charity donation and thinking about adding more benches and shady areas around our school.

Hopefully in Term 2, 3 & 4 our school will be able to put some of these wonderful ideas into action and make our school a more safe and happy place. Imogen 5S

School Council and Annual Reporting Meeting (ARM) Monday 26th March

The Annual Reporting Meeting for 2017 was held on Monday 26th March and attended by members of Council, parents and staff.

Thank you to the President, Craig Matthews who presented his report and for the summary which is in this newsletter. I support him in thanking the retiring school councillors Arthur Le and Debbie Field, and in welcoming back returning and newly elected parent and staff members who were also acknowledged in the newsletter – 15 March.

The School Council endorsed the 2017 Annual Report to the School Community. The school is required to template Department of Education to report on the School Context various areas such as Performance, Achievement, Engagement, Wellbeing and Finances.

Easter Hat Parade

On Thursday 29 March, the annual Easter Hat Parade for the Junior Prep – 2 students took place on the East Site in the WW Hall.

The students sang and listened to the music and Easter songs which Mr Jenkins provided for and practiced with them during Music this term.

The Student Councillors enjoyed helping out by leading the P-2 classes around at the Parade. All the hats looked very colourful and creative! The raffles were drawn and we hope it was a fun event for parents and everyone to attend.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to the raffle, bought tickets and to the wonderful GPA members who prepared all the Easter Egg Hampers!

Harmony Day

Harmony Day was held at GHPS to celebrate living together in harmony, which is something we do every day at our school. A parade was held, some songs were sung with a highlight being Parth in 3S playing a drum called a ‘Tasha’. He was amazing and everyone enjoyed his performance. We also had an international dance show which was interactive and fun.

Thank you to the GPA who organised a sushi lunch for us and to Mr Jacobs for his wonderful MC’ing at the parade and for organising the music.

End of Term 1 and start of term 2

I wish ever-one a lovely and safe holiday and as there is a Curriculum day on Monday 16 April which is a pupil free day, school resumes on Tuesday 17th April.
Libby Alessi Principal

I am very excited to announce that the Glen Huntly Primary School and GPA Newsletter will become digital from Term 2!

The Publicity and Marketing Team have been working extremely hard over many months to make this happen. You will be receiving your first online GPA Newsletter on Thursday 19th April.

We have used the email addresses that you have provided on your child’s enrolment form as your email address to send the newsletter too. If this is NOT your current email address then please go to our School website at: http://www.glenhuntlyps.vic.edu.au and subscribe to the newsletter there.

If you would still like a paper version of the newsletter then you are able to collect one from the school office on Thursday afternoon.

We are extremely proud that we are moving to a paperless newsletter as it is helping us make our schools footprint on the world more sustainable.

Working Bee

Please put our Term 2 Working Bee date in your diary now – Sunday 6th May 9:00-12:00pm

There will be a yummy BBQ at 12pm as a thank you for your hard work. We have many exciting projects that we will be working on to make our school even better!! One of the highlights will be the installation of our Super Chuter on the West Site. More information will come out early in Term 2.

I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and I look forward to working alongside you all in Term 2!

Amy Tinetti
Assistant Principal

School Council Report

The Annual Review Meeting took place on Monday March 26th. The purpose of this meeting was to provide a review of the schools 2017 major achievements & events, and to provide a general summary to the school community on how GHPS is performing academically and financially. The meeting was very well attended and we hope that a clear and concise picture was given of what a great year 2017 was for GHPS.

Following on from the Annual Review Meeting the new look 2018 School Council met for the first time. This meeting first undertook several key housekeeping issues required when a new School Council convenes.

Firstly we welcomed all of our returning School Council members together with our 2 new parent members, Lara O’Grady (Emma 2M) and Lance Voges (Austin 3S) – it is always fantastic to see new members who can bring a new outlook and feedback to the
Nominations for 2018 Office Bearers with the outcome as follows;

President – Craig Matthews
Vice President – Ross Donnan
Secretary – Nicole Verginis
Treasurer – Nola Woo

It was again an honour for me to accept the position of School Council President and I would like to thank Ross, Nicole and Nola for their ongoing commitment to their positions. We all look forward to working together co-operatively and cohesively to help deliver the best possible outcomes for the school.

Each School Councillor is then given the opportunity to self-nominate to serve on one or more of the 6 sub-committees and results were as follows;

Publicity & Marketing – Claire, Tony, Lance, Amy, Shan, Libby, Ross, Nicole
BAGS (Buildings & Grounds) – Amy, Shan, Kon
Curriculum & Policy – Emma, Lara, Amy, Cassandra
GPA – Cassandra, Shan, Libby, Nicole, Lance
Finance – David, Nola, Craig, Amy, Libby
OHSC – Libby, Ross

The work of the sub-committees is vital to the smooth and successful running to the school, with each group meeting at least twice a term and providing subsequent reports to School Council for wider discussion and implementation.

Membership of Publicity & Marketing, BAGS and GPA is open to the entire school community and they are always looking for new members that can assist them in achieving their goals. Should anyone wish to join any of these feel free to have a chat to any of the existing members or get in touch with the school to find out meeting dates and times. There is no commitment to attend every meeting – any assistance is much appreciated.

The usual full reports from each of the sub- committees was cut short due to time constraints however the following key items were discussed;

East Site oval condition – this has been a long running issue for the school community, with significant funds required to attain a permanent Positive discussions with Glen Eira Council have commenced as they look to revamp the Lords Reserve precinct and are willing to consider our proposal to share our oval space outside of school hours in return for funding assistance. Thanks to David Jenkins and parent Andy Kringas for their time they’ve spent in getting this underway. There are numerous issues to address before proceeding with this option and work on these is underway.
Newsletters from Term 2 – both the whole school newsletter and GPA newsletter will become fully digital from Term 2 onwards. It will be sent via email to the email address registered with the school. If you’re unsure whether you have an up to date email address on file, you can register to receive the newsletter by going to the following link – http://www.glenhuntlyps.vic.edu.au/newsletter/. It will also continue to be available directly on the school website and the Skoolbag app. Other digital options for these (such as an SMS link etc.) are being investigated.

NOTE: Notices will continue to come home in paper format via students but again in GHPS’s strive to further its environmental friendly practices, options are being investigate to take these digital as well.

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

Notices distributed to parents

*16th March*	Prep Families	Reading info
*21st March*	Prep Families	Volunteers wanted
*21st March*	All Families	Curriculum Day
*26th March*	Tennis students	Tennis Cancelled
*27th March*	All Students	Casual Dress Day

Students of the week

Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award during the last 2 weeks.

Sophie 0F – sounding out the words and having a go during recount writing.
Vidhi 0F – fantastic work with numicon during our maths session.
Aahana 0F – following instructions and trying her best during our literacy craft activity.
Elektra 0F – always respecting our classroom by cleaning up after herself.
Vivaan 0F – fantastic teamwork skills during our maths group activity involving shapes and patterns.
Aaria 0N – always confidently contributing to class discussions.
Rudra 0N – being a kind and respectful class member.
Aishani 0R – confidently speaking about her family during our oral presentations.
Sannvi 0R – completing all her work on time.
Bridget 1J – great ideas in our Tightening Tensions lessons.
Jahnavi 1J –her display and knowledge of number lines in Monster Maths.
Mahia 1J – fantastic expression and content when speaking in front of the class.
Tilly 1J – an insightful oral presentation on her favourite place in the community.
Elizabeth 1M – a great speech during our inquiry class.
Eswar 1M – an excellent job of counting by 2’s in Monster Maths.
Sanvi 1M – being a helpful and caring member of 1M.
Owen 1M – enthusiastically contributing to our inquiry lessons.
Diya 2E – awesome, creative writing ideas and great sizzling starts.
Aadi 2E – always striving to improve your work.
Amelia 2E – wonderful and insightful presentation about the Indonesian culture on Harmony Day.
Nicholas 2K – having a positive attitude towards classroom activities, contributing ideas to discussions and caring for his teacher.
Harleen 2K – helping students with activities in the classroom and beautiful presentation.
Genevieve 2M – impressive story writing.
Julia 2M – writing a great story with a fantastic illustration.
Vivi 3F – Immersing herself in all areas of her learning and being a kind and thoughtful member of 3F.
Bella 3F – an excellent effort producing a well thought out persuasive text about dogs making good pets.
Sienna 4J – continued dedication to all areas of your education.
Michael 4J – excellent focus and dedication during our Essential Assessment ‘Number and Algebra’ unit.
Lucas 4J – fantastic dedication displayed throughout our Essential Mathematics session.
Alex 4J – improved focus towards all learning tasks helping our class work as a team.
Imogen 5S – providing insightful and thought-provoking comments during Literacy Debate classes this week.
William 6A – being focused and working his hardest during our angle poster session.
Josh 6P – being focused and attentive during maths when creating formulas for area.
Kamal 6P – working exceptionally well on our angles topic and pushing yourself to learn more.
Jack 6P – being focused and motivated during your MAPPEN project.

Locomotor Licence

This week, all preps received their Locomotor licence which means that they are able to move in 7 different ways; demonstrated during their P.E lesson throughout Term 1.

These 7 locomotor skills include walking, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, leaping and galloping. Carrying on from this, we will formally begin our Perceptual Motor Program (P.M.P.) first week of Term 2. P.M.P. aims to teach students perceptions and understandings of themselves through movement and motor experiences.

It is very effective in assisting students to develop the motor skills of balance, locomotion and eye/hand/foot co-ordination, as well as further skills in concepts, eye tracking, concentration, spatial awareness and short term memory.

We will be starting our Jump Rope for Heart training in week 1 of Term 2, getting ready for our Jump Off Day on Thursday, 17th May.

Jump Rope for Heart is a physical activity program for schools – keeping kids healthy while raising funds to fight heart disease.

Miss Kasambalis – P.E / Sport

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

ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS are for sale in the office for $70.

Cooking Term 1 & Farewell

It has been a busy term in our school kitchen and your talented junior chefs have done some wonderful ‘breakfast’ cooking.

The children in Grades 3 – 6 have made corn fritters, using potatoes from our very own garden and eggs from our lovely ladies in the chicken coup! They also blended up some tasty berry and banana smoothies and baked some delicious granola.

Grades 1 and 2 have also made corn fritters and smoothies and drawn some awesome pictures and written about their favourite healthy breakfasts.

Our lovely new preps have made pancakes topped with fruit, yoghurt and maybe a little maple syrup accompanied by a smoothie!

In all of these cooking classes the children have been busy chopping, grating, mashing, measuring, mixing and most importantly working as a team in their groups.

We have had a few eggs that have gone astray, (one of which was mine!) but for the most part I have seen some awesome skills in the kitchen this term.

As always I have had some wonderful helpers in the kitchen and would like to thank them and encourage anyone who is available to help out with cooking classes to come along, it is very rewarding and normally there is a tasty treat at the end. You don’t need to have a child in the class that is cooking to come along and help out. An extra set of eyes to supervise in the cooking class and an extra set of hands in the kitchen to help with the mountain of dishes never goes astray!

Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who have come along to lend a hand while I have been running the cooking classes. I have had wonderful support from ALL our fabulous Teachers, especially David, Amy and the wonderful ES Staff.

Special thanks to Libby for giving me the opportunity to run the cooking classes, and Julie for having the idea! It has been one of the hi-lights of my time at GHPS.

Of course none of this would be as rewarding if it wasn’t for the enthusiasm of all our wonderful students! I have loved working with them in the kitchen, the classroom, and one of my favourite things was being on camp with them!

I know Fiona Davey will do an amazing job and come up with new and even better ways of doing things. I can only hope that I will find a job like this one in Tasmania!

The GHPS website has been updated with all of the recipes that we have made and I urge you to get into the kitchen with your budding young chefs and let them show you their skills.

On a more personal note…

I am very excited about moving back to Tasmania after 23 years and being closer to my family and old friends again, but I will miss everyone at GHPS so much.

My involvement with GPA has always been so rewarding, I get a real buzz out of working with the families and teachers in our community. In the wise words of a grade 6 student, we have done some great ‘stuff’!

I will miss the many friends that I have made in my time at GHPS, especially the awesome, current and past members of GPA. We have had so much fun organizing events to try and bring our community together, sometimes with the added bonus of raising money for our school along the way.

The core members of GPA are amazing people, who are busy in their own lives with work and family, however they always find time to help out and bring our community together. Please show them your support by getting involved and signing up to help out with events, it’s never as scary as you think, and you are sure to make some wonderful friends and connections along the way!

I found this great quote on Pinterest… You only get out what you put in, Don’t expect more until you do more.

Finally I will really miss all the wonderful students at GHPS

See you again soon!

Yvonne

Looking for a tutor

We offer quality home tutoring services for primary and secondary school students in English, Maths, Science, Languages and Art for students up to Year 10.

Our tutors are patient, enthusiastic and cater to every student’s specific needs which we will assess in our first class. All tutors have a valid Working with Children Check. We focus especially on NAPLAN (years 3, 5, 7 &9), ICAS, Olympiad and School Entrance Exams.

We provide tutoring for all types of students, whether they are struggling in class or want to develop advanced skills beyond the classroom. Our classes are held in a fun and positive environment at flexible times and very reasonable prices.

If you are interested for further information, please contact Anju at: sharma.anju@gmail.com

0410 459 296.

We look forward to hearing from you.

NEEDED FOR ART IN TERM 2

Over the holidays could you please collect small random objects and pieces of coloured plastic?

As the school’s Inquiry topic is ‘Sustainability’ some classes will be creating artworks using these items.

If anyone is going beachside by any chance and find any small pieces of driftwood, could you please collect these also?

Much appreciated, Miss de Bruyn

Jack’s World’s Greatest Shave

Once again I’m taking part in the World’s Greatest Shave for the Leukaemia Foundation. Our family has been affected by this illness, and I want to help others going through it.

Please sponsor me to give Aussie families facing blood cancer the emotional and practical support they need. Blood cancer claims more lives than breast cancer or melanoma. And today another 35 people will be given the devastating news that they have leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma or another blood disorder.

Will you help by sponsoring me? $53 will ensure someone being treated in hospital gets a personal visit from a highly-trained health professional so they get the extra support they need.