Newsletter #10 21st June 2018
Principals Report
Term 2 Dress up Day: Friday 22 June
Student Council and GPA look forward to everyone supporting PJ Day tomorrow! You get to wear your PJ’s or maybe your onesie to school in exchange for a gold coin donation to raise funds for costumes for or 2018 Cabaret coming up on Tuesday 11 September. Let’s show our large scale appreciation to Lisa Oliver and Tania Casonato for the wonderful sewing and creating of the costumes which you will get to wear! Due to very popular demand GPA will be offering popcorn on Friday 22 with all proceeds being put towards the costumes too, which is fantastic.
What a great vibe there was at the Grade 5/6 Travel Expo last night! All the students were so caught up in the excitement of persuading us to learn about their country. A really energised and vibrant event. Loved it all.
Congratulations to all of the Year 5/6 students and their class teachers, Mr Callum Swanson, Ms Jasmine Roth, Mr Andrew Aitken and Ms Claire Piscioneri.
2019 Prep Enrolments
We would like all families who have pre-schoolers starting school next year to please get their enrolment forms into the office by the end of this term as planning is already well underway for transition and the November dates which are on the school’s website.
Assessment & Reporting
Next week all families will receive their child’s June Report on Wednesday 27th June detailing their academic progress during Semester 1, including effort and behavior. Parents will find the report informative and we encourage you to discuss the contents with your child.
The Victorian Curriculum is structured as a single developmental learning continuum and is organised by levels not years of schooling. The curriculum consists of Towards Foundation Levels A to D and Levels Foundation to 10. All curriculum areas have achievement standards, describing what students are able to understand and do.
All students’ progress along the learning continuum at their own rate and from their own starting point. Students are taught at the level that suits their needs, rather than being taught to the year level and age group they are in. Teachers provide structured and explicit learning opportunities to support the learning for all students, including those students with additional learning needs or a disability. Please keep in mind that for all curriculum areas, student progress can be shown in reports from 2017.
Within the report, there is a page for parents to provide feedback to the school about their child’s progress and the report and I invite you to return this page with any comments to your child’s class teacher. The student reflections also form a very important part of the June Student Report and in this section, the students can write about their any aspects of their learning that may have been particularly valuable, memorable, and effective or for another reason. I am always highly interested in this part of the report as it can give valuable insight into each student’s journey over the first semester. I have been very impressed by the comments across the grades.
If further information is required speak to your child’s class teacher.
The teachers have put a tremendous amount of time into writing each of your child’s comments and assessing each area of the curriculum and I thank them for the hours and hours of work.\ spent doing so. A big thank you to Mrs Eugenia Sassos for leading Assessment and Reporting.
Professional Learning Program
The professional learning program is being implemented to support the school’s identified improvement strategies. Staff have attended and worked extremely hard and some of what has been undertaken is as follows:
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- School Improvement Team (SIT): Continues to oversee and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) and is updating the mid-cycle comments in the Strategic Online Planning Tool (SPOT). Members of the team have allocated responsibilities including leading literacy, numeracy and English as an Additional Language and has prioritised work that needs to be completed.
- There is a whole – school approach to health, wellbeing, inclusion and engagement. Staff, students and parents have participated in the next stage of the Resilience Project. Restorative Practices/Adam Voigt for staff will take place on 27th July: for Mrs Emma Murnane, Mr Callum Swanson, Mrs Mel Oldham, Ms Ivana Novakovic, Ms Yasmin Makssi and Ms Mikaela Ristos.
- Moderation: Teaching staff have collaborated to review and moderate teacher judgements. All staff have analysed and evaluated student learning growth to complete the writing of the Semester 1 Student Report.
- Assessment : The school has commenced reviewing the assessment schedule so it reflects the development of a learning cycle that articulates the connection between content, pedagogy, assessment and learning intervention.
- Bastow Institute of Educational Leadership Leading Literacy: Mrs Mel Oldham and Mrs Eugenia Sassos have been attending to collectively focus on high quality literacy teaching and have been mentoring and developing a shared understanding with teaching staff.
- Mathematics: Mr Bill Manuel (Maths Learning Specialist) has organised Michael Ymer to work with staff across the day over three sessions on Thursday 28 June.
- Writing: Staff have been looking at the student’s attention to: text structure, audience, ideas, character development, vocabulary, cohesion, paragraphing, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling. The Seven Steps to Writing Success is being actioned across all levels.
- Literacy and Numeracy leaders have supported staff and students in responding to the Naplan assessments
- 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, which will further provide GHPS 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 are better 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.
- Sustainability: Mr David Jenkins has been working with Karen from the Eco Centre on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Decomposition including with selected students.David has organised the Composting PL for staff.
- Practice Principles: Booklets have arrived for all staff
- South Eastern Regional Leadership Conference: Ms Amy Tinetti and I have attended Leading Excellence in Teaching and Learning Unleashing Greatness Together. Agenda and keynote presenters delivered an interesting and high quality two days of learning, who included MInister James Melino, Secretary of Education Gill Callister and Deputy Secretary Bruce Armstrong who expanded on the FISO Improvement Model.
- FISO resources: While FISO focuses on school improvement, the new Pedagogical Model underpins teacher practice improvement, recognising the vital role teachers play in improving student outcomes. It uses the High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) and relates to the other newly released documents.
Staffing & Leave
A notice has gone out to the students and families in 5R advising them Ms Roth will be taking leave form Monday 25 June and will be returning on Monday 13 August. Mr David Jenkins will be taking 5R during Ms Roth’s absence. Ms Bianca Bruce will teach Music for 3 days per week. The program for Gardening will take a hiatus and general maintenance be overseen by David.
Ms Marie Kasambalis (PE) has taken leave to travel from Monday 18 June- Wednesday 18 July. Ms Sarah Edwards who has been a CRT at GHPS will fulfil the role. Welcome to GHPS and we hope you enjoy your teaching of PE.
Ms Kamila Krauze will be taking Long Service Leave in week 11 from Wednesday 27th June and will be returning on Monday 23 July and we will welcome Ms Haley Watkins to teach 2K to replace her. Ms Jenny Grose will be away from Monday 25 – Friday 29 June on Long Service and we hope all staff enjoy their well -earned leave.
George Zaprudsky from Zed Chess has notified us in writing to say he will be winding down his chess coaching business at the end of Term 2, 2018. He has been teaching chess for over 12 years now, and would like to take some time to travel, spend time with friends and family, and take up some new challenges in his life. His friend and colleague, Felix Chandler, will be looking after his clients from Term 3, 2018. Felix has worked with George for 8 years, and has founded his own business, Mindful Chess. He will be employing the same chess teachers, and the children know him as he has taught at Glen Huntly Primary in the past. George is confident that Felix will provide the same level of service and he will be in touch with more information about Term 3.
Chook Roster Term 2 Holidays
Mr Jenkins will be distributing a roster for looking after the chooks over the term 2 holidays. We very much appreciate families taking a turn and on behalf of the chooks, look forward to your continued support.
End of Term 2
This is the final reminder for parents that school will be finishing on Friday 29 June. The students will be dismissed from the usual East or West Sites at 2.30pm. Lunch time will be half an hour earlier: 1- 2pm. Thank you to the parents who will be rostered on for hot chocolate and icy poles for accommodating this change of time. Please make a note in your phone or on your calendar to pick up your child at this earlier time.
I hope all staff and families have an enjoyable holiday and look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Tuesday 17th July to start term 3.
Curriculum Day is on Monday 16 July and a notice will go out on Monday 25 June
Libby Alessi
Principal
School Council Report
School Council met for the 2nd time in Term 2 on Monday 18th of June.
As always it has been another very busy term in the life of GHPS and I would like to extend my thanks to the entire school community; leadership, teachers, support staff, school council, parents, family, friends and children for making GHPS such a dynamic, cohesive and friendly learning environment.
Key items covered at the meeting included;
· The oval red-development process is underway although as with our building works there is a DET process that will need to be followed. The initial recommendation is to commence works in approximately October for November planting as this will achieve the best long term results. More to come as the process progresses.
· Grandparents’ morning tea was an overwhelming success with record numbers in attendance. A big thank you to all those who helped by baking, serving and cleaning up on the day.
· Reserve the date for Rocktober 2018 – the school trivia night. Final date to be confirmed – either Saturday 20th or 27th of October pencilled in at this stage.
· The GPA is always looking for new members to help deliver on its charter. With an ever growing school population if there’s any member of the school community who can spare a few hours a term to get involved then please contact the GPA team.
· The approval for the lease of 40 new iPad minis and 40 new Chromebooks was given. Combined with existing devices this brings our total technology ratio to approximately 1 device for every 1.4 students – well ahead of our target of 1 for every 2 students. This is a great position that we hope to continue to improve on over time.
· A new bike shed for the west site and upgraded bike shed for the east site are currently being discussed. The delivery of these desirable additions to the school will depend on fundraising activity.
· The use of the single pedestrian access gate (gate 4) on the west site was raised as a potential issue as our school community continues to grow. All options are being considered to improve the situation but the simple message is please be safe and responsible when entering and exiting the west site gate, ensuring that the gate and pathway either side are left clear of bikes, prams, scooters, bags etc.
· The updated school history book has been given the greenlight. Again thanks to Shirley Mirams and Ross Donnan for making this happen. As soon as it’s available copies will be available for sale in the office (and there’s a waiting list already so get in quick).
· The Out of Hours School Care review process continues with a parent survey issued seeking feedback on what makes a great OHSC service. This will help inform the working party overseeing the review process as to what to look for when considering potential service providers for 2019 and beyond.
On a note outside of school council, Wednesday 20th June saw the grade 5 and 6 students put on their world travel expo. For those of us lucky enough to attend we were treated to a broad array of exciting travel destinations, all of which were well represented by fantastic facts, dynamin dioramas and fabulous food. Congratulations to the grade 5 and 6 students, teachers and parents on a wonderful event.
If there is any issue any member of the school community would like to raise with School Council, please email glenhuntly.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au
Craig Matthews
School Council President
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A message from your Assistant Principal Amy Tinetti
LAST CHANCE TO DONATE!
We have extended our collection of goods until Monday 25th June. The 3 items they are in desperate need of are-
- Penne pasta
- Plain flour
- Tinned tomatoes
There will be collection boxes in the Office on the East Site and in the Staffroom on the West Site. This small act of kindness will make a HUGE impact on the lives of so many. Thank you to all those families who have already donated.
Pacific Assist- GHPS donating our unused school furniture
Once again I am proud to announce that GHPS will be donating our unused school furniture to Pacific Assist.
Pacific Assist liaises with primary and secondary schools who are seeking to donate high quality second hand desks and chairs. They arrange for both the collection and shipping of the donated furniture. All collection and shipping costs are met by sponsors. Since 2014 Pacific Assist has sent over sixty shipping containers to islands such as Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and Vanuatu to schools in need.
Our furniture will be collected in the school holidays and will be going to a school that has no student desks or chairs. Instead of this furniture sitting in a shed gathering dust and taking up space we are paying it forward to a school in need.
From us doing this small act of kindness we will be helping so many others. I feel that GHPS are the real winners here as the act of giving is so rewarding.
Thank you!
A very BIG thankyou to the Dench Family, Xavier (5S) and Elka (1J) and the McKinnon Basketball Association for their donation of basketballs to GHPS. The basketballs have be divided up so that both the West and East Sites can enjoy them for some HOOP time.
This week at Little Book Worms we made rockets.
Students of the Week
Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award during the last 2 weeks.
Ben 0F – improved attitude towards his peers in the playground.
Keshav 1J – working hard to improve his confidence while speaking.
Roshna 1M – wonderful writing in class.
Diana 2E – working hard to improve her writing stamina.
J P 2M – excellent knowledge about Place Value in Monster Maths.
Nandini 2M – excellent knowledge about Place Value in Monster Maths.
Sujeeth 3F – enthusiastically and confidently contributing to all class discussions.
Bela 3F – positive attitude and consistent effort put in to all learning.
Pranav 3S – putting 110% into all of his work by being persistent and enthusiastic.
Alex 4J – an outstanding first semester of Year 4. You apply yourself 100% to all challenges you encounter.
Kushal 4J – displaying an excellent body of knowledge of science at our excursion to the Port Phillip Eco Centre.
Kane 5S – For keeping focus during lessons and creating a fantastic Windmill for the upcoming Travel Expo.
LOOKING FOR A TUTOR?
We offer quality home tutoring services for primary and secondary school students in English, Maths, Science, Languages and Art for students up to Year 10.
Our tutors are patient, enthusiastic and cater to every student’s specific needs which we will assess in our first class. All tutors have a valid Working with Children Check. We focus especially on NAPLAN (years 3, 5, 7 & 9), ICAS, Olympiad and School Entrance Exams.
We provide tutoring for all types of students, whether they are struggling in class or want to understand and develop advanced skills beyond the classroom. Our classes are held in a fun and positive environment at flexible times and very reasonable prices.
If you are interested for further information, please contact Anju at: sharma.anju@gmail.com ph:0410 459 296
We look forward to hearing from you!
Notices distributed to parents
14th June Year 0 – 2 students Head Lice Information
19th June 5R students Ms Roth’s absence
19th June All students Popcorn – Movie Day
Calendar
June
Fri 22 Pyjama Day
Fri 22 Popcorn & Movie Day
Fri 29 Final Day Term 2 – Early Dismissal 2.30pm
July
Mon 16 Curriculum Day
Tue 17 Students first day Term 3