Parkhill Primary School Newsletter
Issue 19, Thursday June 27 2019
Principals message
Dear Parents/Carers
Wow! The end of term has come around so quickly… we have had a very busy term across the school!
WORKING BEE:
We had a wonderful turn out on a wet winter’s day – thank you to all of the families who attended. We were able to plough through the jobs list!
HOLIDAY FUN:
There is always lots to do during the school holidays! Check out the link below for a variety of fun activities from art and craft, film, sports and much much more…
SCHOOL COUNCIL:
I would like to share a summary of the school council discussions as we travel through the year. In our June meeting we discussed:
The successes of term one and two around our Annual Implementation Plan priorities, we see children and teachers using new protocols successfully and have reduced our incidents/first aid data.
The removal of the relocatables and are excited to see this work begin. We tabled the announcement of the $4 million made by Daniel Andrews and Will Fowles. Dan was very impressed with the building and excited about the potential of the development we have planned. We will convene the Masterplan group at the beginning of term 3.
Focus on STEAM continues throughout the school – selected children are now engaged in extension programs for robotics (Y2/3) and Bush Tucker Garden (F/1 and Y5/6).
There has been a good uptake of the ICAS English, Maths and Science, and REACH writing assessments – these will happen over the coming weeks into term 3. We are interested in the Science and REACH writing data.
Students in Y4-6 have participated in the annual Attitude to Schools survey, and the Y6 completed a Civics and Citizenship trial survey for the DET.
THREE BREAK SCHEDULE:
Thank you to those of you who have given feedback about the break schedule we have been trialling in term 2. We have taken on board some of the feedback from parents, students and staff about the pros and cons of the schedule. In term 3 we will continue to have three breaks, however we will return food eating to the classroom as follows:
Morning tea: 10:30 – 11:00
Lunch eating (in class): 12:30 – 12:40
Lunch play: 12:40 – 1:10
Afternoon tea: 2:40 – 3:00
Again we will trial this throughout term 3 and look for feedback at the end of term.
SWIMMING:
Our annual swimming program will be running in term 3 through weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6. Details were sent home last week! Please do complete and return the slip as soon as possible – even if you do not intend on participating. The swimming element of the curriculum is very important and the school's swimming program run through Huntingtower is excellent. It is important to note that a school swimming program is just that. It is not club swimming. The program is intended to cater for the majority of students at their ability. Huntingtower has wonderful facilities that suit the needs of Parkhill.
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/spag/curriculum/Pages/swimming.aspx
Have a wonderful and safe holiday break.
Elaine Brady
Principal
Term 2 ends tomorrow at 2:30pm. It will be a free dress day but there will be no gold coin donation.
Calendar of Curriculum Events
Friday 28 June - Term 2 ends at 2:30pm
Monday 15 July - Term 3 begins
Tuesday 16 July - Division Football (selected students)
Thursday 18 July - Story Time
Friday 19 July - Division Mixed Netball (selected students)
Tuesday 30 July - Y4 - 6 Swimming begins
Monday 5 August - F- Y3 Swimming begins
Thursday 15 August - Story Time
Friday 6 September - Swimming Carnival
Thursday 12 September - Story Time
Friday 20 September - Term 3 ends 2.30pm
Student of the Week
F/1C - Patrick M
F/1S - Nikita V
F/1T - Rhys C
2/3G - Parker K
2/3L - Xavier B
2/3M - Imran M
5/6A - Sam T
5/6CS - Josh A
5/6H - Joe E
Swimming Program
A reminder that permission forms for the swimming program are due back tomorrow. Permission forms must be returned even if your child is not attending.
Teacher Time Raffle
Many thanks to the whole Parkhill Community who embraced our Teacher Time Raffle and bought over 1890 tickets for the chance of winning 45 minutes of fun. We have raised $958 which will be spent on making improvements to our outdoor play spaces. In week one of next term our winners will choose two friends and head off to participate in their chosen activity.
Andrea Crane
Y5/6 Teacher
The winners are as follows:
Ms Brady - Experience One: Sculpting Success Riley T F/1C
Ms Brady - Experience Two: High Expectations Flynn B 5/6H
Ms Smith - Musical Masterpiece Luxe R 4D
Mrs Moorhouse - Decisions, Decisions Michael P F/1C
Mr Sciacca - Sporty Challenge Ada W F/1C
Miss Schlack - Balloon Bamboozled Henry B 4D
Miss Crowe - Native Gardening Eleni A F/1C
Mrs Tuck - Muffin Mania Mia V 2/3L
Ms McGregor - Perfect Pizza Steven D 5/6H
Mr Logan - Board Games and Biscuits William K 5/6CS
Mrs Guy - Jangling Jewellery Ruby H 2/3G
Mrs O’Meara - Dashing Dance Off Justin S F/1S
Mr Davies - Rollerblading Rush Lauren B 2/3L
Mrs Handby - Sports Sensation Theia M 5/6H
Mrs Crane - Escape Artist Asha W 4O
Mrs Chandra - Flour Fantastic Callum D F/1T
Miss Bevilacqua - Creative Capers Amelia G 5/6CS
Policy committee summary - June 2019
This last month in policy committee four policies were reviewed. The Sexual Harassment policy and Restraint and Seclusion policy are both policies mandated by DET and detail acceptable behaviours for staff in both areas. The Dogs in School policy and Camps and Excursions policy were also updated. All policies can be found at
WRITING: Who Am I? By F/1S
I have a small body. I have a wet body. I live in the desert. I am brownish.
I slither around. I am poisonous. I am a killer.
Who am I?
Snake, by Patrick C
I have a pouch and I come from Australia.
I am small. I give birth to live babies and I am a mammal.
I have some ears that are very small. I have a big body.
Who am I?
Kangaroo, by Rebecca
I have a fat body. I have fat arms. I have 2 eyes.
I have big eyes. I have black hair.
Who am I?
Gorilla, by Justin
I have wings. I am black and white .I have flippers. I can slide on my tummy.
I live in water. It is cold. I come from an egg. I have a beak. I eat fish.
I have wet feathers. When I am little I am grey and black. I swim in cold water.
I have 2 legs and wings. I am like a bird.
What am I?
Penguin, by Ruby
I have rainbow wings. I have skinny wings.
I have 2 small antennas and 4 wings.
I come from Australia. I can fly.
I live in trees. I eat flowers.
What am I?
Butterfly, by Selena
STEAM—Y4
Students made models to scale using clay to design a new playground to go where the portables are currently.
Choir Connections
This week we welcome back our Y3 and 4s as we put the finishing touches on our assembly item for Friday.
We have had another successful term of Choir, building our repertoire, learning how to sing together as a group, performing at Open Night as well as preparing our assembly item.
We couldn’t be more proud of the Parkhill choir students, their energy, enthusiasm and willingness to learn makes our Friday rehearsals a fabulous way to start the day!
We look forward to sharing our performance at assembly this Friday (28th June @ 2pm).
Marinda and Kirsten
Mandarin Classes
Nihao! Our first term of Mandarin lessons at Parkhill Primary will finish on the 19th June and term 3 classes will commence on the 24th of July. We have had some interest to start a beginners class for term 3 and if we get enough students we are happy to do so.
Our classes are designed for children from Prep school up to 12 years of age using Accelerated Learning Techniques or Suggestopedia (founded by Dr Georgi Lozanov). Accelerated Learning Techniques was designed by Dr Moni Lai Storz especially for Australian students in the study of Mandarin Chinese. Our textbooks are written in the form of a story with key Chinese words students have to learn in order to develop their linguistic skills. In each lesson students also learn about some aspects of Chinese culture.
Accelerated Learning uses storytelling, certain types of music, games, relaxation and positive suggestions to enhance the self esteem of the students as they learn. Boring memorisation and repetitions are taken out of the learning process. Our students learn while "doing" and having fun, hence using both sides of their brain.
We keep our classes small so that the children will have the teacher's utmost attention.
Anyone interested in their children learning Mandarin please email olga@accschinese.com or call Olga on 0421 709 414.
Dr Moni Storz
Academic Director
Australasian Centre of Chinese Studies