Newsletter #9 7th June 2018
Principals Report
Punctuality and arriving on time to school
Arriving at school on time creates a great start to your child’ and teacher’s day! And is an important part of being a member of our school community. At GHPS we promote a smart punctuality code, believe that you must be at school on time and that we take pride in being punctual.
Every minute counts and it is so important that students arrive at school on time. So how are you helping? Can you rate your punctuality and morning routine?
Self- assess: How punctual is your child:
1. Extremely well – my child arrives before the bell rings to line up every day
2. Very good – my child arrives before the bell rings to line up on most days
3. Good – but I need to change 1 thing
4. Fair – there is more than one thing I need to change.
Things our family may need to change so our child can be punctual:
1. My family pride themselves on being punctual in arriving to school
2. We know that being on time impacts on my child’s learning, the other students and the teacher
3. My child listens to me or us as parents and goes to bed when they are told
4. They know what their school night bed time is. This is so my child can wake up on time in the morning
5. Our bed time routine works well and we start getting ready for bed early enough
6. My child helps to get ready in the morning and we know how long it takes our family to get ready
7. My child has a shower/washes/bathes/brushed hair/teeth with enough time to get to school
8. We have a healthy breakfast and are ready for a great day’s learning
9. My child’s uniform is clean and ready for them to put on every morning
10. The school bag is packed every morning ready to go
11. We know how long it takes to get to school
You may have other great suggestions too!
Our aim is for all parents to be able to self-assess as a one by the end of next week – Friday, 15th June.
So do you need to change something?
Please enquire at the school if you need support getting your child to school on time.
FREE Resilience Project Parent Information Night at 7pm, 12 June.
We are looking forward to a great turnout of parents to the Resilience Project session we have organised for next Tuesday 12 June. Our presenter, Hugh Van Cuylenburg is not to be missed! He provides an absolutely compelling presentation about The Resilience Project and delivers an emotionally engaging program providing practical, evidence-based, positive mental health strategies to build resilience and happiness. Your child would have received a notice on Monday 4 June. Please reply.
Safety at School
We will be continuing working with students on these very important safety messages and would like parents to help model the correct entry too.
1. Everyone who is walking into school on either the West or East Site needs to come through the pedestrian gates which are numbered for easy identification.
2. On the West Site, the gates are numbered 3 and 4 and are both on Garden Avenue: use Gate 4
3. On the East Site, the gates are numbered 6, and 7 on Grange Rd near the bridge and NOT the driveway. Gate 8 is on the Laneway and gate 9 is on Lyons Street.
The next issue we ask for help with is related to parents. Please practice these safety measures at our school.
1. We ask again that parents do not drive into the East Site driveway
2. Also, please do NOT turn into the driveway and let your children get out on the driveway or pick them up here as this is very dangerous for the students.
3. As it blocks the driveway it prevents authorised staff cars from coming into start work or when they are leaving for the day.
4. Pulling up at the barrier on Grange Rd and letting students out is very dangerous and this is a no stopping zone.
It’s all about safety so please follow these sensible safety requests. Parking is available in nearby streets so please plan your arrival and departure to allow enough time for you to responsibly collect or drop off your child an d then have them walk in the correct gates: 4, 6, 7, 8 or 9.
Teaching English as an Additional Language (TEAL)
Mr Jake Mackie and Mrs Lexie Boomsma have attended the TEAL Course in Melbourne to complete a highly valuable three day course: How to assess Oral Language and to use the TEAL Website and resources to assess EAL students.This course is designed to further provide mainstream primary school teachers with useful knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading and Speaking and Listening that will help meet the language-related needs of these learners. By completing this course both Jake and Lexie will be able to lead teachers to develop an increased repertoire of strategies and assessment which take into account the EAL students’ diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds and experiences.
Student Council
Last week the members of the Student Council in Grades 3-6 had a meeting. Thank you very much to Kashvi 40 for providing a report of what we discussed. GHPS endeavours to provide as many opportunities as possible for student voice to have a platform. The next meeting is on Monday 18 June.
Sustainability
Mr David Jenkins has been working this week with Karen from the Eco Centre on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Decomposition. Selected students from Prep to Grade 6 have met with Karen across the day to become Compost Champions. David has continued to work on the ResourceSmart Waste Modules and the Grades 1-2 have been part of a presentation to focus on reduce, reuse, recycle and decomposition timelines at GHPS. Also thankyou David for organising the professional learning for staff on Composting.
Feed Melbourne Campaign
The 2018 donations have been slowly coming into the main office and the West Site, but we’d like lots more! Please give what you can by way of pasta, tinned tomatoes and flour. Previously we have really appreciated the generosity of our community and the way we always gets on board to help others.
Queen’s Birthday
This coming Monday 11th June is a public holiday, so I hope everyone enjoys the break. School will resume for students on Tuesday 12th June.
Meetings:
GPA at 9.30am on Friday 8 June. All welcome
Libby Alessi
Principal
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Students of the Week
Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award during the last 2 weeks.
Vidhi 0F – fantastic effort in addition during our Monster Math session.
Sriram 0F – an informative oral presentation on his chosen sea animal.
Samarth 0F – impressive ordinal number skills during Monster Maths.
Ishaan 0N – always working hard in our Monster Math sessions.
Ruby 0N – always being an excellent helper in the classroom and in the yard.
Hitarth 0R – a fantastic start to his schooling. You are a wonderful member of Prep R.
Vritti 0R – a wonderful start to her schooling. What an amazing first week.
James 0R – taking pride in his work.
Tharini 0R – being a kind and cooperative team member of Prep R.
Azaan 1J – beautiful reading and insightful contributions during our discussion in Book Club.
Elka 1J – wonderful effort and enthusiasm when learning about subtraction in Monster Math.
Abraham 1J – persistence and care taken in our modelled writing session.
William 1M – editing and proof reading your writing.
Pranavi 1M – always trying your best in every class and being a kind and caring classmate.
Adeeth 1M – settling in wonderfully to 1M and the school community.
Alyoc 2E – always being a kind and thoughtful friend.
Steph 2E – using wonderfully descriptive language in her writing.
Ishani 2E – always working hard in our Monster Math classes.
Arnav 2E – confidence when contributing to our class discussions.
Gowri 2K – being a kind and thoughtful class member.
Hanshal 2K – excellent effort in Monster Math during subtraction.
Jack 2M – an interesting talk in front of the class without referring to his written information.
Archie 3F – being an enthusiastic reader with more than 100 nights of reading at home.
James 3F – an interesting and engaging oral presentation about Chinese Poetry.
Sathin 3F – an interesting and well presented presentation about tornados.
Arthur 3F – settling in well to the Grade 3 routine and always doing his best.
Carlos 3F – an excellent attitude to all learning tasks and his caring and friendly nature towards his classmates.
Ayaan 3S – displaying excellent Mathematical thinking and reasoning.
Siddharth 3S – excellent participation and impressive knowledge during Inquiry discussions.
Alexander 3S – amazing reflections about his home reading.
Austin 3S – having read more than 100 nights so far.
Daksha 4J – outstanding work during reading groups.
Rhapsody 4J – excellent work ethic demonstrated during Essential Assessment Math.
Neel 4J – excellent work in Reading Groups.
Kushal 4J – excellent results in your Statistics and Probability Maths Essential Assessment test.
Jyothiryaditya 5S – For being an upstanding member of 5S who always shows positivity and maturity towards his schoolwork.
Ranya 6A – for her attention to detail and creativity in Digital Learning.
Alyssa 6A – for her constant humility, making her a shining example to the rest of her peers.
What has been happening in 4/O?
In 4/O we have been doing many wonderful things. Our Reading Groups have four different tables – Text Decoder, Text User, Text Analyst and Text Participant. We rotate around the groups and do many wonderful activities. I enjoy the Text User table which is usually Science Table.
We do lots of Science Experiments. Our favourites are Mould Growing, Blubber Glove, 3D Printer, Cola-Mentos Fountain and Dry Ice.
In Maths, we have focused on the 4 operations. We did number plate maths and studying shopping catalogues to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
We have learnt about Sustainability and filtering dirty into clean water, growing greens in various conditions and we have learnt about how Sweden recycles rubbish as well as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
By Kashvi 4O (Student Council Rep)
CHESS NEWS
Giving another shot at Victorian Interschool Chess Championship 2018, the GHPS team played very well and kept winning game after game. GHPS qualified for semi-finals and stood 2nd in the ranking with 23 points (just half a point less than the winning team).
I wish all the players could play in the semi-finals, but the tournament rules allow only top 5 scorers to represent the school. Fortunately, we were allowed 6 players as 2 players had the same score. The following players made it into the semi-finals: Oliver Sallay, Marko Le, Metteya Gharde, Kieran Wolfe, Evan Shields and Ayaan Saeed.
Thank you Vikram Chandra Mohan, Hrithik Amanda Kumar, Aidan Wolfe, Tarini Thirumala, James Liu, Prithika Sompaga, Rafael Roth Duvdevani and Shaik Ayaan for your participation and a winning attitude.
It will be encouraging for the school if more students join the chess club, especially in the Junior side. It’s a great experience and we need you to replace older kids in the next few years.
Many thanks to ZedChess group (George Zaprudsky & team), School Principal, Vice Principal, teachers and parents for your encouragement !
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In support of the Breast Cancer Network Australia
Sunday 12th August, before Melbourne vs Sydney AFL match.
11.00am – Family Festival in Yarra Park outside MCG with lots of activities for all ages.
12.00pm – access to the MCG from midday with participants required to be inside the ground no later than 1.00pm.
1.15pm – Field of Women event will commence followed by AFL match at 3.20pm.
TICKETS: Adults $59 and children under 15 Free.
Tickets include participation in Field of Women, an event gift pack including backpack, pink poncho, commemorative key ring and an event booklet with exclusive offers and discounts and a general admission seat to the Melb v Syd AFL match.
For more information click here
Notices distributed to parents
30th May All Students Visual Arts Consent Form
4th June All Families Resilience Project Parent Information Session
Calendar
June
Fri 8th GPA Meeting
Mon 11th Queens Birthday
Tue 12th Resilience Project Parent Information Session – 7pm, Wendy Wilson Hall
Thu 14th Year 3/4 Excursion