Parkhill Primary School Newsletter
Issue 17, Thursday June 13 2019
Principal's Message
Dear Parents/Carers,
We are coming to the last few weeks of term with Y3/4 ready for camp next week, Science Week, and reports coming home in the last week of term.
I am so excited to welcome Shouyin Tu back to us in term 3 after her time on family leave – sadly this means we say goodbye to Ying Tong at the end of term 2. As many of you will be aware, Steph Ravida is leaving next term to have a baby and we have appointed Anny Murray as our Office Administration Assistant. Many of you will already know Anny from within the school community. I am also pleased to share with you that Nalina Chandra will continue in the role of Performing Arts and Lit. Support teacher for the rest of the year.
Across Parkhill we are passionate and driven to ensure we are meeting the Child Safe Standards. I would like to draw your attention to our policy guide which is found on the school website – see link below. The standards are interesting and easy to access. You will also note that the contents of the standards are very much reflected in our Parkhill Community Essential Agreement.
https://parkhillps.vic.edu.au/information/#policies
As we head towards to end of term I am keen to seek feedback regarding the new daily structure of three breaks. Many parents and students have spoken to me already regarding the new system and at the beginning of term 3 the Student Representative Council will survey the students, and we will review our data as a staff. All of this feedback will be critically analysed to help us in moving forward and continually reflecting on what is best for the children at Parkhill. If you would like to offer any feedback then please do email me:
brady.elaine.e@edumail.vic.gov.au
BUILDING UPDATE:
The relocatable classrooms will be removed at some point over the next few weeks, and certainly before the end of term. We are very excited to see the classrooms leave us as this means we can now get onto the playground design ideas that we have been working towards for a few months now. I would like to thank Dan Edwards, the School Council President, for the work he did in helping to get this moving along.
Will Fowles and Dan Andrews came to visit Parkhill on Wednesday and confirmed our $4 million allocation of funds. We are so excited to regroup with our Master Planning committee and begin the next stage in our redevelopment.
SWIMMING:
Our annual swimming program will be running in term 3 through weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6. Details will come home soon around payment, etc. – please do keep your eyes open for the orange letter! 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
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!
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 a lot 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
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 - Amara Y
F/1S - Ruby W
F/1T - Stephie D
2/3G - Layla L
2/3M - Alexis H
4D - Emilia C
4O - Whole Class
5/6A - Jimmy D
5/6CS - Amelia G
5/6H - Matari H
Bushtucker Garden
Parkhill is in the fortunate position to receive a grant from Woolworths and Junior Landcare to create a Bushtucker garden!
This will help us to revive our tired old Community garden beds (which are a little more weed-stricken these days) and replace them with a variety of sensory plants.
This will fit in marvellously with our new playground (on the old Y3/4 portables site) and link to our existing garden.
You can help us get ready by coming along on Saturday 22nd June to our working bee and pull out a few weeds!
Michelle Smith
Assistant Principal
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
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/
STEAM - Taste Bud Temptations
Taste buds were tantalised in the Y5/6 STEAM sessions this week as we explored a variety of foods from around the globe. Students first engaged with foods, tasting and describing the dominant flavours and experiences on the tongue. Next we explored the various tastes of salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami, experimenting to determine if taste bud locations could be mapped. On discussing our results students decided that no one consistent location existed for any one taste and that taste receptors were located all over the tongue.
During the session additional connections were made to our Inquiry unit on human migration. We marvelled at the diversity of food available all over the world and how lucky we were in Australia to be able to consume a kebab, swallow some sushi and devour a dumpling.
Andrea Crane
Y5/6 Teacher
Stargazing Update - Proposed New Date in Term 3
We haven’t had much luck with our Stargazing to date, but we are determined that it will proceed!
Our new proposed date for Stargazing will be late October/early November - Spring should provide us with more amenable weather and hopefully a bright, clear night.
Stay tuned for the specific date, we will keep you posted.
Michelle Smith
Assistant Principal
Choir Corner
Each week we are settling into our choir structure and learning alongside students across all the year levels. Last week we had the clave sticks out to tune into the “offbeat”. We are amazed at how quickly the choir are learning about singing and music!
We are now looking forward to our next choir performance which will be at the last assembly for the term – Friday 28th June at 2pm. The choir are preparing to showcase some of the singing activities that we do each week and a new Indigenous song.
We look forward to seeing you at assembly.
Kirsten & Marinda
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
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!
BUNNINGS BBQ - Sunday 28th July
Parkhill is taking over the BBQ at the Notting Hill store on Sunday 28th July. We are calling for volunteers to help out for a two hour shift. It is another great way to meet other Parkhill parents. Please sign-up via https://signup.com/go/rrZtvtC
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, they 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 - Last two weeks!!!!!
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 lets 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