Parkhill Primary School Newsletter
Issue 16, Thursday June 6 2019
Principal's Message
Dear Parents/Carers,
We hosted a Ridiculous Rhyme show at school yesterday where the children had the chance to watch a production by the Ridiculous Rhyme crew. The show was based around rhyme and poetry and was very ridiculous indeed – you can see photos and a write up below.
Unfortunately we had to postpone the Stargazing experience again due to the weather! Keep an eye on the Newsletter in term 3 for our new stargazing date.
As you may be aware, every year schools produce an Annual Report to the Community outlining data from that school year. Our 2018 report has been available online for some time and a hard copy can be found at the office if you are interested in this level of information about the school's data. The document is reasonably easy to read and may be of interest to you – I have added the link to the website where you can find all of our policies and documents: https://parkhillps.vic.edu.au/
WORKING BEE:
COME HELP!!!.... We are running our first large working bee this year in a couple of weeks’ time. There are a few projects that we are keen to work on and need your help! The working bee will run from 10:00 – 12:00 on Saturday 22nd June. Bring along your friends and family and anyone else who is keen to get their hands dirty. We will have soft fall, sand, weeding, sorting and other working bee tidy up jobs to do! There will be a light morning tea available throughout the session and house points for the children of the families that attend!
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING:
Developing a growth mindset in your children is crucial for them to manage the ups and downs of life. The growth-mindset approach helps children feel good in the short and long terms, by helping them thrive on challenges and setbacks on their way to learning.... In other words, if you want to make students feel good, even if they're not learning, just praise their effort!
http://yourbrainhealth.com.au/8-ways-to-encourage-a-growth-mindset-in-kids/
https://time.com/5593706/hard-work-achievement-mindset/
HEAD LICE:
Although not a nice subject to be talking about it is something we are all aware of and connect with primary school. We have had a number of reported head lice issues in classes across the school. It is very frustrating for you to be continually treating your child for head lice and can be quite distressing. Although we know that school and childcare centres are their favourite place, we really need to work together to ensure we are all doing regular checks of children's hair to try to minimise the spread of head lice at Parkhill. There are many ways to treat/prevent head lice – please check out the information in the link below. Regular combing helps with checking hair.
https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/public-health/infectious-diseases/head-lice
STEAM:
STEM represents science, technology, engineering and maths. “STEAM” represents STEM plus the arts – humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts, design and new media.
The main difference between STEM and STEAM is STEM explicitly focuses on scientific concepts. STEAM investigates the same concepts, but does this through inquiry and problem-based learning methods used in the creative process.
This looks like groups of learners working collaboratively to create a visually appealing product or object that is based in the understanding of a STEM concept. STEAM is not a new concept.
STEAM education in schools provides students with the opportunity to learn creatively, using 21st century skills such as problem solving.
https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1299&context=research_conference
REMINDERS
Uniform:
Just a reminder that uniform can be ordered through the order form found at the office, or via the shop on Thursday from 8:30am. Very soon online ordering will be made available through our website – watch this space!
Sick Children:
There are lots of yucky viruses floating around school at the moment. To ensure we do our best to keep these illnesses at bay please try to keep your child at home if they are sick. Coughing, sneezing and runny noses spread germs around the classroom.
Elaine Brady
Principal
Calendar of Curriculum Events
Monday 10 June - Queen's Birthday Public Holiday
Wednesday 12 June - Bring it Breaky
Thursday 13 June - Afternoon Soiree (3:00pm)
Friday 14 June - Y5/6 Soccer Round Robin (selected students)
Monday 17 June - GATEWAYS Journeys Program Day 3 (selected students)
Tuesday 18 June - REACH Writing Assessment (selected students) - NOTE CHANGE OF DATE
Wednesday 19 June - Friday 21 June - Y3/4 Camp Weekaway
Thursday 20 June - Story Time
Saturday 22 June - Working Bee
Friday 28 June - Term 2 ends at 2:30pm
Student of the Week
F/1C - Oliver M
F/1S - Gemma S
F/1T - Alexia A
2/3G - Lucia B
2/3L - Chloe T
2/3M - Anna S
4D - Harry B
4O - Ashlan T
5/6A - Nicholas O
5/6CS - Isaac A
5/6H - Anjali R
SRC - The Teacher Time Raffles
The latest SRC fundraiser is causing a buzz in the yard. Children are discussing the prospect of winning time to participate in a fabulous activity with a staff member at Parkhill.
On Wednesday students were given The Teacher Time Raffle pack which explains the wonderful opportunity to win a special 45 minute experience with a Parkhill Primary School staff member in week 1 of term 3.
Parkhill staff have generously offered a variety of fabulous experiences ranging from sporty challenges to cooking and art experiences. Check out your pack and select which items your student(s) would like to be in the running for. Each winning student will take two friends along with them to join in the fun.
The Teacher Time raffle will be drawn by our SRC Captains in week 10 and announced at Assembly. The SRC have allocated these funds to assist in improving our playground space.
Here’s how it works:
Check out the experiences on offer.
Choose your favourites.
Buy raffle tickets at the office.
Write your child's name on each raffle ticket.
Place the raffle tickets in the bags corresponding to the activities your child wishes to win.
Cross your fingers!
Cost:
1 ticket = $1.00
5 tickets = $3.00
10 tickets = $5.00
Y3/4 Camp Weekaway Payments Due
A reminder that all payments for Y3/4 Camp are due tomorrow, Friday June 7. Please contact the office if you are yet to complete your payments.
Bring it Breaky
Come along to the staff room for a cuppa, nibble and chat!
When: Wednesday 12th June at 9:00am
Where: Staff room
Who: All welcome (younger siblings are also welcome)
Please bring something you would enjoy for breakfast to share (or just bring yourselves).
Y2/3 Inquiry Action - Food Drive
The Y2/3 students are coordinating a collection of food for Feed Melbourne Appeal. The foodstuffs required are: Penne pasta (only this type), plain flour, and canned tomatoes. Collection boxes are in the foyer area of the school office.
For further information please check out the website: http://www.feedmelbourne.org.au/get-involved/schools-food-drive/
F/Y1 Melbourne Zoo Excursion
"Bumpity, bump. I went to the zoo. I rode to the zoo on a bus and we saw a poster and we had lunch at the Dino Park. After lunch we got to play at the Dinosaur Park. We heard a dinosaur sound and we went to the Learning Centre. We chose to look at a snake. It wriggled along the carpet. I saw a spider monkey. We saw birds. We saw the reptiles. We saw the tiger camouflaged and the spider monkeys were like acrobats. We went on the bus back to school. It was raining." Caleb
"Bumpity, bump! Bumpity, bump! We had morning tea. We saw the pelicans and the seals. We saw the lemurs, gorillas, pygmy hippopotamus, peccaries, tree-top apes and monkeys. We had lunch and played. Then we went to the Butterfly House. I got a butterfly on my finger. It was blue and black! I had a fantastic day!!" India
"Broom, broom! I went to the Melbourne Zoo by bus. First we saw the pelicans and then we saw the seals and the penguins. When we saw the spider monkeys they were like ninja warriors. I saw the tiger. He camouflaged very well. I even saw elephants and orang-utans. I had a zoo-tastic day!" Connor
The Ridiculous Rhyme Show
If you had walked past the Roger Beech Hall on Wednesday afternoon, you would definitely have heard raucous rhyming and loud laughter. Students across the entire school were privileged to attend and participate in the Ridiculous Rhyme Show. Dickie and Henry entertained students with a live performance of rhyme, poetry, song and silliness, aiming to improve and promote rhyme awareness within literacy.
Later in the afternoon Y5/6 enjoyed more antics with Dickie and Henry as they talked about and demonstrated the complexity of filming everything from movies to YouTube videos. Students role played in a movie scenario, taking on the many and varied roles on a film set. We had everything from a producer through to hair and makeup sharing in the experience.
Students from Foundation to Y6 found the dynamic duo from the United Kingdom a blast. What a great afternoon of light-heart literacy.
Andrea Crane
Y6 Teacher
STEAM - Y4
In the last two weeks the Y4s have been learning about angles. We made robots with angles of 10 straight, 15 acute, 20 right and 15 obtuse angles and below is what we made.
Gemma and Ewan
4O
PFA News
Committee Members
Office Bearers:
President: Vanessa Cowley
Vice President: George Andrakakos
Treasurer: Sumi Sundram
Secretary: Nadine Phillips
Committee Members:
Shadow Treasurer: Fiona Crellin
Communications: Eva Conley
General Members: Jason Van Lint, Elle Delmee, Mark Havas, Lisa Jacobson, Wendy Douglas, Janneke Storteboom, Leanne Knight, Kylie Touloupis, Donna Edwards, Katrina Battle
If you would like to be on our email distribution list and receive communication and minutes from our meetings please email parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com
TERM TWO KEY DATES - Please lock these dates into your calendar!
SCHOOL DISCO - Thursday 27th June - EMOJI THEME
The most awesome school disco is upon us! The SRC have chosen the theme of the disco to be EMOJI! So get your party shoes and clothes on, practise your dance moves, it's hammer time. Book your tickets at www.trybooking.com/BCOFN. Don't miss out!
CUPCAKE STALL - Wednesday 19th June
Please email parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com if you can help us out with baking goods or selling treats on the day. I promise it’s the shortest event you’ll ever volunteer for - 15 minutes of mayhem and then you’re done!
BOGAN BINGO - Thank you
Thank you to all the parents who wore their best flanny, combed their mullet and polished their thongs or slippers on Saturday night. It was a great night full of laughs, fun, air guitar and singing and a lot of funds were raised for the school. A special thank you to Sumi and her team of volunteers who organised the night. Outstanding!
The PFA would also like to thank the following people and companies for their generous donations which were auctioned on the night: Sophie Kost - My Beautiful Abode, Fran Ditton - Jazzercise, Helen Dimopolous - Metafit, HopScotch Fitness, TaylorMade Sports Memorabilia, Ashburton Meats, Local Organic Farm delivery, The Corner Deli and Kylie T for the wine.
ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS - now available
Entertainment books are now available for you to purchase. They cost $70 and provide over $20,000 in discounts to all the things you love to do...dining, attractions, shopping, travel and more! They are filled with up to 50% off or 2-for-1 style offers, and are a great way to discover new favourites and enjoy the value at the same time. The proceeds of the sold books goes to Parkhill Primary School. Please order one now via this link:
DON’T MISS A THING!
Make sure you keep up to date with all school happenings by joining the ‘Parkhill Primary School Community Page’ on Facebook. This is a closed group to maintain privacy and can only be accessed by Parkhill families. Search for us using the above name, send a request to join, the administrators will verify your details and then you can scroll until your heart’s content!
WOOLWORTHS EARN AND LEARN now on!
Woolworths Earn and Learn promotion is running again starting May 1st. Parkhill has been registered to benefit from this generous program - last time we collected over 17,000 stickers, an amazing effort which helped purchase much needed sports and robotics equipment for our school programs. Let's see if we can smash that this year and collect even more!
There is a Parkhill collection bin at our local Ashwood Woolies and there is also one placed in the office. If you can please collect a sticker sheet from Woolworths or the office to attach your stickers to before handing them in that would be very helpful. We cannot submit stickers that are not attached to a sheet - from previous experience kids find this quite a fun activity so let's get them doing the sticking for us. You can photocopy blank sheets if you need more.
The promotion runs from 1st May to 26th June and all stickers collected provide our teachers with the opportunity to order any resources they need from the Modern Teaching Aids website, a well known and valued online resource portal for all Australian education services.
Please ask all friends and family to contribute as many stickers as they can to the Parkhill cause.
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
Parkhill Primary School
Email: parkhill.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au
Website: www.parkhillps.vic.edu.au
Location: 4a Parkhill Drive, Ashwood VIC, Australia
Phone: 03 9807 2239