Wednesday 8th March, 2023

Hello everyone! My name is Tayla Elsum… soon to be Tayla O’keefe! Very excited to be getting married towards the end of the term. I’m new to teaching and to Healesville Primary, but I’m very excited to be a part of such a beautiful school with amazing staff, parents, and students. I have a 2-year-old daughter named Addilyn who I adore, a cat named meow (Addilyn named him) and a dog named Arlo. In my spare time I love to read and get crafty. My partner, Addie and I also love to go away as much as we can!

I’m looking forward to a great year within such an awesome school community.

Hello everyone. I'm Ali Mende (The old Miss Bryan), and I am the luckiest teacher in this school because I get to teach PE. I think my role is very special because I get to know every student in the school and work closely with lots of parents and families during sporting our days.

I have 2 kids, Oakley and Opal, who both go to school at Healesville Primary. We also have a dog named Banksy, who we love to take on bush walks in the Healesville area.

Our family is very active and involved in lots of sports (GO BLOODS), but we are in our happy place when we are camping and fishing up on the Murray River, working on the farm in Mansfield, or snorkelling down at the beach - any beach. We love the outdoors.

Looking forward to another great year at Healesville P.S.

Hello, my name is Rosie House and I have been a teacher at Healesville Primary School for over 20 years. This does NOT make me a fossil YET! I have a few roles at HPS this year. These include The TLI ( Tutor Learning Initiative) Coordinator where I work with small groups of students to assist them with reading, writing and spelling using the Sounds Write Phonic Program.

As well as this, I also get to have fun with the preps running their PE and Art program and help the sustainability team. Making sure we are treading lightly on our Earth by recycling our wastes, thinking about ways we can be a resource smart school, caring for our chooks and hopefully getting our veggie gardens up and running.

I live locally in Healesville with my husband Tim, 9 chooks, 3 donkeys and my gorgeous kelpie, Norma. I have two daughters, Zoe and Ruby who are all grown up and are having their own adventures as a vet and an anthropologist.

In my spare time you’ll often find me singing or playing my ukulele on the verandah, writing poetry, embarking on hiking and travel adventures, reading books, growing veggies, riding my bike, sitting around campfires, watching sunsets and walking along remote beaches.

The below picture is Hiking in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park Tasmania Feb 2023.

Hello. I’m Jess I am and educational support teacher and I have been working at Healesville Primary for 2 years or so now. I started as a parent helper and in P.A.C.H as well. I mostly work in the Prep-2 building. I have 4 children, 1 in high school and 3 at Healesville Primary School. I have lived in the community for 15 years now. I love the country feel of the town. As a family we love camping anywhere near a river in the middle of nowhere, motorbike riding, cooking, family dinners, and watching movies.

Hi, I am Linda Freeman. I grew up in Healesville and attended both Healesville Primary and Healesville High School. Both my parents worked as teachers here at Healesville Primary School and now I work here!. I moved away for 13 years but I am now back in town and it feels like home. I love to bake and make an award winning relish which is delicious. I love my weekends, and sleeping in, just being with family makes me happy. We are going over to America this year, I can't wait to take my daughter to Disneyland, I have been many times, but it will be a different experience to be there with her and knowing what emotions she will be feeling as a young child in such a happy place. I'm sure our dog and cat will miss us.

We have had a very lively start to the Creative Arts Program.

In the Performing Arts room, the sounds of singing, laughing, and rhythm stick tapping can be heard. The screaming and yelling is due to the theatre sports games being fast and furious and so much fun! In the Visual Arts room the sights of paint splashing, sounds of happy chatting, sharing of ideas and stories and production of very delightful drawings is the usual daily scene.

Our Arts Captain, Hanna has now prepared and overseen two Art Club sessions at lunchtimes which offer a range of activities and a space to be creative.

Performing Arts include - singing, dancing, role playing, theatre sports, instrumental music, puppetry, dressing up, costume design, soundscapes and artist appreciation.

Visual Arts include - drawing, painting, printing, collage, clay, box building, threads and textiles, weaving, constructions and modelling.

Your children love attending the Creative Arts sessions - ask them about their favourite parts of these classes and you will be interested in their choices.

Fenna Hogg

This term the STEM classroom has been busy with lots of learning happening. The Grade Prep students have been doing some storybook STEM and learning how to work collaboratively in pairs. They have had fun using the STEM materials and have built many things including Jack’s beanstalk.

The Year 1 and 2 students have been learning about the 6 simple machine and how they make our life easier. They have built models of most of the simple machines including a lever catapult and a pulley system.

Year 3 and 4 students have been learning about different types of bridges and what makes them strong. They have been putting this learning into practice, by building a strong Truss bridge.

The year 5 and 6 students have been reacquainting themselves with the Engineering Design Process and how to work collaboratively as a team. They completed a deserted island challenge where they had to builds a hut, bridge and raft. They are currently studying an Esmart unit on cybersafety to earn an Esmart digital licence.

This term in PE we have had a big focus on team work and what it looks, feels and sounds like. I was so proud of our 3-6 students at our athletics sports, hearing so many positive stories about the encouragement and guidance our students were giving to each other. We will continue to develop the idea of 'being a good sportsperson' throughout the year. The P-2 students have their athletics carnival this Friday and I will be on the lookout for more of these positive interactions between the students.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our wonderful parents and families for all the support they give to us on our sporting days. You are a key part to providing these opportunities to our kids and we couldn't do it without the support.

Thanks everyone,

Ali

Hi, my name is Mia and I am this year’s Sustainability Captain. In my family I have four people including me. I also have four dogs and a lot of sheep. We live on a 26 acre property. Last lambing season I bottle fed a lamb whose mum rejected it. We kept it in a sheep pen until it was big enough to go out with the other sheep. It was an enjoyable experience to look after the lamb. I love looking after and feeding the school chooks as well. There’s more work to it than you think because you have to make sure their pen and nesting boxes are cleaned and regularly collect the eggs. We sell the eggs at the school office which helps to pay for the chook food. I love it when the chooks come running when they see you have food. I just started basketball this year and play for the Healesville Hornets at the high school on Monday nights at 6pm.

I’m the school’s Wellbeing Captain. I’m a middle child with one older sister and two younger sisters, no brothers. My favourite food is sushi and my favourite colour is purple. I like walking my dog and we go around the block most days. I love to paint with my dad. We paint sculptures like Marvel super heroes. It’s a great time to spend together. In the future I would like to travel the world and go to places like New York, Hawaii and Japan. I can also see myself working with animals fostering orphans of all kinds and working at an animal shelter.

Hi, I’m the Sports Captain for the school. We had a great start to the year with swimming sports and our school’s Amazing Race family afternoon, both of which were a lot of fun. The athletic sports have also been a highlight. We’ve enjoyed lots of sporting events already and look forward to even more.

A bit about myself. I have one dog called Willow who I love to walk and play with. I like mountain bike riding and will ride around the neighbourhood, at the high school and on bush tracks where we’ve made some jumps. My favourite sport is football and I play for the Healesville Bloods. My favourite holiday spot is the Murray River. I love to fish there catching good eating cod. Once I caught one that was 57cm. I go fishing off the bank or from a kayak. Sometimes we catch carp which are introduced and a danger to our waterways. I also have fun on the rope swings, jumping into the water and swimming. In the future I want to travel around Australia and visit landmarks such as the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru.

Hello, I’m the Arts Captain. My favourite thing to do is art and I have tons of art projects on the go. Some of them are diamond painting, crocheting and cross stitch. I made a diamond painting of a car for dad and I’m working on one of a large tree. I’m crocheting a pillow with thick wool and have done a cross stitch of a cactus. I love to go to Japan for holidays, especially to visit my grandma and grandpa who live there. We went there last year for two weeks and visited Tokyo which was really busy. I’d like to go back to see Hiroshima some time. In the future I would like to visit Paris, France, especially to see the Eiffel Tower and of course tour the Louvre. Being interested in art it’s the perfect place to see wonderful famous art works including the Mona Lisa.

I’m Lincoln and I’m the Library Captain. I have wanted to be a captain since grade one and that dream has come true. I haven’t yet done much as Library Captain other than help out at Library Club at lunch time. In future I’m planning to do lots more and I’m thinking about introducing books for P-2, 3-4 and 5-6 year levels at assembly. I like having real jobs in the library like scanning books that have been returned and putting them back on the right shelves. Soon I will look at decorating the library too.

Now I will tell you a bit about myself. Once I went to Queensland’s Gold Coast and stayed for about a week at Turtle Beach Resort. We went to a number of theme parks while there. It was a lot of fun. I also like going camping with my family up the Murray where we go swimming and fishing.

Dear Parents & Carers,

Get your Colour on, as you are already aware Healesville Primary School is hosting a Colour Explosion Fun Run very soon!

Colour Explosion Fun Run will be on held on Thursday 30 March from 2pm to 3.30pm.

The Fun Run will take place on our oval and we look forward to seeing as many parents, carers and grandparents on the day to cheer on the students taking part. If you need a white T-shirt for your child please visit the school office as soon as possible as we have limited sizes available, these are $5 each.

· Please make sure students wear a WHITE shirt and closed in shoes.

· Students will be given free sunglasses and a rainbow headband for the event.

· Students will be covered in non-toxic, biodegradable colour powder from head to toe.

· Please remember to bring an old towel for the children to sit on in the car to avoid coloured powder in your vehicle

If you haven’t already done so, please help your child to set up their cybersafe, online fundraising profile at www.australianfundraising.com.au.

Then, share your page with friends and family via social media, email or text! Your fundraising profile can’t be searched via Google or the platform – it can ONLY be accessed by the share feature. So don’t wait! Start sharing today! You can even create your own QR code via your account.

Please Note: This is an entirely online fundraiser; all cash donations must be converted to online donations to redeem your prizes.

Extra Incentives to Fundraise!

« Online Golden Coins – complete fun online tasks to redeem an extra $75 towards your prize credit.

« Monty the Monstar’s Bonus Prizes – achieve milestones to unlock Monty’s bonus prizes.

« $10,000 JB HI FI Spending Spree for one organisation’s highest fundraising student – it could be you!

« Our school will win an extra $5,000 if we have the highest average fundraised amount per student in 2023.

« A Play Station 5 Gaming Bundle – see your child’s sponsorship booklet for more!

Happy fundraising!

Hello to all the Healesville Primary School families,

We have some exciting canteen news to share with you. We have partnered with Flexi Schools to bring online ordering to the canteen. No more hunting for change or brown bags on a Thursday or Friday morning! Our site is now live and will be taking orders for the 16th of March onwards. Once you have downloaded the app and set up your account you will be able to place orders each week or if you like to be super organized you can place orders in advance. You will see the promotional material in this weeks newsletter with instructions on how to set up your account and how to claim your $5 voucher (if you sign up and create your account in the first week). For any issues you have in setting up your account the friendly staff at Flexi Schools are available to help by calling 1300 361 769 Mon – Fri 8am to 12 pm.

While we all get used to this new system we will still be accepting orders sent up in the classroom baskets but hope to phase this out by the end of the Term.

As always please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. twoacrescuisine@gmail.com

Happy Ordering

Jo

COVID RESOURCES

Emerging Minds COVID-19 translated resources
These COVID-19 resources have been translated into 18 languages and are available for you to share with the parents and families you work with.

• This factsheet has five tips to help parents and carers use play to support children’s mental health during COVID-19: Using play to support children during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
• Emerging Minds has developed a toolkit which includes a range of resources to help practitioners and families navigate child mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Supporting children's mental health during a pandemic toolkit - Emerging Minds

Vaccine development: a guide for families | Raising Children Network
This informative guide from Raising Children Network provides clear and reliable information on how the COVID-19 vaccine development and approval process ensures safety, effectiveness and quality.
https://raisingchildren.net.au/babies/health-daily-care/immunisation/vaccine-development-a-guide-for-families

COVID Testing in Yarra Ranges
https://www.each.com.au/coronavirus-covid-19-screening-clinics/

Staying informed about COVID expsoure sites
Here you'll find the current list of COVID-19 exposure sites
This website/app provides a handy visual to stay abreast of new exposures - https://covid19nearme.com.au/state/vic

Information for students, parents and carers.