Parkhill Primary School
Issue 30, 10 October 2019
Dear Parents/Carers
Welcome back to term 4 – the sun is being kind to us at the moment. I hope you all managed to find yourself some rest and relaxation over the break – it was lovely to hear all of the holiday tales from the children on Monday.
We have a lot of things happening throughout term 4 and look forward to your involvement in the upcoming events. Please do check out the calendar of events below.
Karen Gibson our long standing librarian will be leaving us next week. She has made the decision to spend more time at home with her family and focus her time working at Heathmont Primary School. Karen’s last day will be on Monday 14th October – I am sure you join with me in wishing her all the best for the future. Karen will be sadly missed as part of the Parkhill team.
It makes me most uncomfortable when I hear of parents speaking disrespectfully about other students on our playground. One of the things I have always loved about Parkhill is that sense of inclusion and belonging that we have as a community.
How you behave sends a signal to your child that this is the sort of behaviour that is acceptable. If what children observe from your behaviour is different from what they are being told or learning at school, then your child is likely to become confused. It may also blur expectations and boundaries, leading to conflict and frustration.
Role modelling works in relation to virtually everything – from how you handle emotions such as frustration and anger, to how you respect and relate to other people, to how you respond to stress and cope with difficulties. It also influences patterns such as eating, exercise, how you look after yourself, and problem solving.
I urge you all to be positive role model for your child!
BUILDING WORKS:
Thank you to those of you who have contacted me to discuss the upcoming development of the Roger Beech Hall. We are at the very initial stages of thinking about the design and functionality of the space – and you will have read the concept ideas in the last newsletter. Please do continue to share your thoughts with me as we are keen to ensure we capture all perspectives as much as possible in the build.
The foundation play area is nearly finished, we are super excited to see the results. The funding for this project came from a combination of Telstra grants and PFA raised money – thank you!
INTO INQUIRY
Throughout the school children have been tuning into their learning, asking questions and planning their finding out and sorting out. Below is the detail of the units of work for this term.
Through inquiry units of work, children across Parkhill explore learning in the curriculum areas of Science, History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business, Technologies, Ethical Capabilities, Critical and Creative Thinking and Personal and Social Capabilities. Every week the students engage in STEAM sessions in the Science Kitchen with a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts or Mathematics focus.
SCHOOL STRATEGIC PLAN:
During this term we are scheduled for our school review.
Before we embark on the review I would like to seek feedback from you in line with our Strategic Plan Goals. This feedback forms part of the self-review data that we use to scaffold our review.
Three key questions sit at the heart of effective self-evaluation:
- How well are we doing?
- How do we know?
- How can we improve things further?
If you would like to contribute to the review please follow the link below and complete the survey.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING:
Emotional intelligence…what is it? Emotional intelligence is about being smart about emotions. It is specifically about a person’s emotional self-knowledge and self-acceptance, sensitivity to the cues of others and showing empathy (which can be defined as the ability to see and feel something from the other’s point of view). It’s the ability to regulate your own anxiety and anger so that you can talk about emotionally charged issues in a constructive way. These skills are challenging for many adults, so how do we teach our children to become emotionally intelligent young people?
Acknowledge your child's perspective and empathise it. Even if you can't "do anything" about your child's upsets;
Allow expression. Children can't differentiate between their emotions and their "selves";
Listen to your child's feelings;
Teach problem solving;
Role model – play it out.
Discussing emotions at home is super important to help support the healthy development of a well-balanced emotionally intelligent child. We often find girls are encouraged to discuss their feeling but boys less so. The article below unpacks the different ways you can work with boys to help them become aware of their emotions.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_raise_boys_who_are_in_touch_with_their_feelings
At school this year we have been using the catastrophe scale throughout the school to encourage children to discuss problem and conflicts that occur and help them to relate the incidents with their own feelings. This happens through explicit social emotional learning session, restorative practices and buddy sessions. You can use this language at home too:
OTHER:
Photography and videoing
It has been noted that lots of you are keen to video and take photographs of your children during school events and assemblies – I completely understand and do the same thing of my own children. It’s great to gather the memories and share their successes with family, etc. It is important to note that we do have families at school who do not want their children photographed and posted on social media. I know this is an ever increasing challenge and am mindful of the difficult nature of these things in this day and age. However going into term 4 we will remind you at every event to be considerate and respectful with the content you record. You will see and hear the following statement regularly:
We acknowledge that you may wish to film your child in presentations. When doing so and sharing the content, please be considerate of others.
Hats
Every month an ‘R’ is hat time… please do make sure your child has their hat with them every day in term 4!
Please do check out the calendar dates below for the terms events.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Elaine Brady
Principal
Calendar of Curriculum Events
Tuesday 15 October - Curriculum Day
Wednesday 16 October- Division Basketball (selected students)
Thursday 17 October - Regional Athletics (selected students) & Working Bee 3.45pm - 5.45pm
Thursday 24 October- Toys Over Time Incursion F/1
Friday 25 October - Y2 Sleepover
Tuesday 5 November - Melbourne Cup Day - No School
Wednesday 6 - 8 November- Dental Van
Thursday 19 November - Whole School Athletics Carnival
Monday 9 December - Fun, Food & Carols
Friday 20th December -Term 4 ends
4D STEAM
The Y4 inquiry topic this term is called Inspiration and students will be exploring creativity and the things that inspire people. For STEAM this week, 4D students were shown a series of 3D illusions that they had to reproduce through drawing. Students had to be very careful and precise with their drawings, using rulers to create sharp, straight lines and using measurement to ensure lines were parallel. Lots of mistakes were made, but everyone showed persistence and resilience. It was really interesting and encouraging for students to see their skills developing with every attempt.
4D WRITING
The focus in writing for this week is Dynamic Dialogue, which will lead students into learning about the narrative text-type. If the rules of Dynamic Dialogue are followed, dialogue in writing will be engaging and interesting and reveal clues about what the characters are like and how they are feeling. The best dialogue is paired with effective descriptive sentences and interesting ‘said words’ that reveal further clues.
“Get out of my backyard now!” barked the dog as she jumped up on the wooden fence. The cat hissed angrily at the dog as he stared down at the hairy mutt.
“I’m staying right here!” hissed the cat, his fur puffed up.
Samuel Lee
“Guess what, I have a light saber!” growled Darth Vader, showing off.
“Well I have telekinesis,” Eleven proudly replied, glaring at Darth Vader.
“Ha, is that all! Well I have armour,” he muttered.
“That’s not all, I can also do this!” Eleven pushed him into the wall without touching him, his nose starting to bleed.
Kaitlyn Moody
“G’day.” I greeted the Queen with a friendly smile.
“I beg your pardon!” The Queen had a tornado of confusion across her face. “Would you mind using proper English please?”
“Uhh. I see your confusion. G’day is a word for hi,” I explained. I felt I had a blank page for a brain, forgetting I was in England.
Luke Cregan
2/3 STEAM
MAKING TOWERS
This term we will be learning about structures for Inquiry.
As part of our tuning in we worked in groups of three with 20 pop sticks, 12 bulldog clips and 12 pegs to build the tallest tower we could.
Exploring ways to join the materials and create a tall but strong tower was a challenge. We had to agree on the design of the tower. Sometimes we had to change things because they didn’t work. Some of our towers were tall but not very strong and some were short but sturdy.
We are all looking forward to exploring and learning more about structure this term.
TERM 4 WORKING BEE
Thursday 17th October we will hold a Working Bee from 3:45pm – 5:45pm
Come along and enjoy some afternoon tea and help to keep Parkhill looking great!
Bring your gloves, boots and smile… and hopefully some sunshine!
STEAM GRID
OE Young Engineers Program – Second session booking now!
Parkhill has been very keen to get on the board with the Young Engineers and they have been able to include another session on Friday.
Sessions begin 18 October and will run every Friday from 3:30 to 5:00 PM until the final session on 29 November.
Total cost of the program in term 4 is $176 incl GST.
If you are interested please enrol at https://www.trybooking.com/BGBKB
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
PARKHILL COLOR RUN FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER
Our aim is to reach $12 000! So far, F1C is in the lead for donations!!!! To start fundraising for your child, sign up here https://www.chuffed.org/project/parkhill-colour-run and share the link with friends and family! The more your child fundraisers, the better choice in their prize of Lego or sports equipment! GO PARKHILL!!!!!
2. Scroll down to Sign up as a Fundraiser link at the bottom of the web page to make an individual fundraising profile for your child.
NOTE: Chuffed.org only allows one child profile per email address, so please use a different email address for each child. If this is not an option, try setting up a profile for your family but you will only be able to assign your funds to one class if this is the case.
3. Fill in your child’s details and add an image for your child (the image does not have to be their photo).
4. Choose your child’s class under the Team drop down box.
5. Sign up
6. Share your child’s unique link to their fundraising profile with friends and family.
7. Donations can be made via credit card.
8. Your child’s profile is also editable. Go to the member symbol in the right corner of the website
Winning Class and Prizes:
Children will be able to earn a thankyou reward for their fundraising efforts (Get Active and LEGO) and there will be a special surprise reward for all children in the class that raises the greatest amount of money.
A flier of items available as a thankyou gift will go home with the children on Friday and be available on Facebook and through Flexibuzz too. Depending on how much is fundraised, your child can choose one awesome prize from that category.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the office or Vanessa on 0439 356 931.
PFA MEETING - Wednesday 16th October, 2:30 pm
There will be a PFA meeting on Wednesday 16th October in the staffroom. Please come along and share your support in organising the Colour Run and Fun, Food and Carols!
EMPTY SAUCE BOTTLES NEEDED for the Colour Run
The PFA is looking for empty sauce bottles to use for the Colour Run. These will be used to squirt out coloured dye and corn flour onto the students as they run past. Please hand them into the office.
ERROR in Colour Run notice - last day of term
There was an error in the website address on the Colour Run information which was handed out at the last day of term. The website address does not contain an au. https://www.chuffed.org/project/parkhill-colour-run
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