Parkhill Primary School Newsletter
Issue 29, Thursday September 6 2018
Principal's Message
Dear Parents/Carers,
Week 8!!!
Thank you to everyone who helped at the Swimming Carnival – the day was so fun and the students really showed off their skills! Thanks to the staff and parents who helped to organise the event, especially Jo Ravida and Steph Ravida at the office.
KIDSMATTER:
What is play?
Play is children’s language, children’s work and children’s relaxation. Children need to play for healthy development. Children’s play belongs to children. It is for all children, all ages from babyhood on, and all abilities. Children decide what to play and how to play. Play is their time to be free and to enjoy. Play can be pretending, learning a new skill, dressing up, being active or being quiet. Play can be with other children or alone. Adults can join in if they are invited - in fact young children often love best to play with parents - but children make the rules (except rules for safety).
Developing children’s social and emotional skills through play
Play is a way children can express their feelings even before they have the words to say how they feel.
In play children are in charge of what they do. Being in control in play helps them to learn to manage their feelings.
When children make or build things in their play, they are building skills and confidence in themselves.
In play children learn about the give and take of relationships with their friends. They learn to lead and follow and to care for others.
Play helps children to think about what they want to do, to plan and to be patient.
CONCERT DRESSING THE STAGE WORKING BEE:
HELP HELP HELP… Sunday 9th September! We are setting up the stage for our whole school concert – any help would be very much appreciated! Come along to the Roger Beech Hall at 10am.
CAFÉ READING:
In the field of Fluency again (same as last week’s strategy), we talk to children about the strategy voracious reading.
Explain the strategy… “We can become better readers by reading every day.” “Remember to choose good-fit books when you are reading.”
Read to your child every single day. Use a variety of text to model the love of reading. Pull in picture books, chapter books, poems, big books, newspapers, magazines, letters, and pamphlets.
Give your child time every day to read independently. Let them have choice in what they read and offer them a variety of high-interest text to choose from.
Help your child choose good-fit books for independent reading time.
Take your child to the library or have a selection of books available for them.
http://cafeminilessons.blogspot.com/2010/12/voracious-reading.html
Reminders:
It is concert week next week - please check previous Newsletters carefully for ticket information, costumes, etc. A letter will be sent home tomorrow filled with information about the concert, and a DVD notice will be sent home after the concert.
Have a great weekend,
Elaine Brady
Principal
Calendar of Curriculum Events
Friday September 7 - Y5/6 Basketball Round Robin (selected students)
Sunday September 9 - Concert Dressing the Stage Working Bee
Wednesday September 12-Thursday September 13 - School Concert
Tuesday September 18 - Story time
Friday September 21 - Term 3 ends at 2:30pm & Footy Colours Day
Student of the Week
FS - Jaymierl S
FT - Daniel V
1B - Whole Class
1H - Cormac M
2C - Holly L
2N - Daniyal K
3M - Hamish L
3R - Jaylen G
5D - Steven D
5H - Anjali R
6CM - Whole Class
6L - Olivia R
The Little School on the Hill
2018 Parent Opinion Survey
PARENTS - TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!
Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour and student engagement. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.
The closing date for the Survey has been extended to allow for more people to have their say. If you have received an invitation but are yet to complete your survey, you now have until Sunday 9 September to do so.
The survey will be conducted online, only takes 10-15 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.
The survey results will be reported back to the school at the end of September. Last year we used the survey results to plan our initiatives through our Annual Improvement Plan.
Please speak to your child’s teacher if you would like more information.
Michelle Smith
Assistant Principal
Y6 Recycling Education Incursion
Do you know which bin to place foil, straws or aerosol cans into? This information and much more was shared with our Y6 students on Tuesday afternoon. Representatives from Monash Council and Visy Recycling joined our Inquiry session to clarify our recycling confusion and share with us the recycling process and upcoming council initiatives in the war against waste.
Stay tuned as Y6 finalise their finding out and then get into ‘action’. I’m sure you’ll see some changes to our school recycling process and some education to challenge us all. Make sure you’re doing your part to reduce the waste going to landfill - your children and the planet will thank you!
Andrea Crane
Y6 Teacher
Y1 Como House Excursion
WOW, it is huge! I wonder who lived here? 1H and 1BC visited Como House last week as part of our Inquiry investigation into 'Where we are in Time and Place'. The students rotated around four activities experiencing what life was like over 100 years ago!
Dyon Hunt
Y1 Teacher
Chaplain's Corner
I’ve been thinking about stories lately - it’s hard not to with the concert just around the corner. Everyone has a story. To listen to someone’s story is a privilege and to have your own truly heard is wonderful.
Sometimes our story can seem to be dominated by negative circumstance. Some are more positive, and some are able to find the positive in spite of what happens to them.
Many of the children will have read the story of Matilda. One of the songs from the musical is particularly powerful in talking about our story - it’s called 'Naughty'.
In the song, Matilda talks about Jack and Jill being "innocent victims of their story" and how Romeo and Juliet are basically doomed by fate, but she also talks about how “nobody but me is gonna change my story”.
The good news is we can make changes to our story, to our lives. Little changes that bit by bit add up to big changes and perhaps even a shift in the direction we are travelling. As life happens around us it can be easy to forget we have a voice in our own story and that we can change things. Sometimes that might only be a tiny thing like the way we respond to someone, but the flow on effect can be quite amazing.
We can also change how we view and then tell our story. What do we focus on? The negative events, or how strong we were to get through them? That choice is truly ours.
Suzanne Carmody
Chaplain
Seal the Loop
“Stooooppppp! What are you doing?” I said. “I’m fishing, why?” said the fisherman. “Because you will hurt the marine wildlife!”
Did you know that lots of fishing wire ends up in the sea? The marine wildlife is getting caught in the wire. If you don’t know what marine wildlife is, here are some of the animals: seals, sharks, dolphins, fish and octopus.
Melbourne Zoo has put approximately 261 Seal The Loop bins in Victoria. These lime green bins are for putting your fishing wire in.
Lauren B, Addison G and Emily B, 2M
PFA News
Committee Members:
President: Vanessa Cowley
Vice President: Katrina Battle
Treasurer: Sumi Sundram
Secretary: Kylie Touloupis
Communications: Eva Conley
General Members: Fiona Crellin, Jason Van Lint, Elle Delmee, Mark Havas, Lisa Jacobson, Anny Murray, Wendy Douglas, Janneke Storteboom, Leanne Knight
Thank you Father’s Day Stall Helpers!
Thank you to all the volunteers that signed up, walked in, stayed for the second session and helped out to make our Father’s Day Stall so successful. Lisa J and her ‘purchasing prowess’ ensured there were lots of different things to choose from and with her protégé Leanne by her side it was guaranteed to be a great event for the Parkhill community.
Special Lunch - Friday 21 September (Last day of term)
Forms have gone home today for our end of term Special Lunch. To keep with our ‘Footy Colors’ dress up theme this year we are providing BBQ sausages in bread, cookies and juice.
EFTPOS and cash accepted, details are on the form.
Forms are due back to the office by Friday 14 September.
Parkhill Fun Run – Thursday 1 November
Stay tuned for the details of this exciting event. Come along to assembly on Friday 14 September to hear more. Your kids won’t want to miss it!
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