Newsletter #13 15 August 2019
Principals Report
We love the Cabaret!
It’s going to be a show stopper! We are all getting ready for the big night when we will enjoy watching the students perform on Tuesday 17 September at the Robert Blackwood Hall(Monash University).
Mr Andrew Aitken, Laura, Tania and Lisa have been doing an amazing job teaching the songs, the dance moves and creating costumes and colour themes for each class.
As well as rehearsing during Music classes, there will be a rehearsal held on stage at the venue.
Early next week, families will receive two notices:
- about the rehearsal and daytime transport
- the tickets which will go on sale as of the 27 August, 2019
Please read these carefully and mark the dates and times in your phone or diary. We look forward seeing you all.
100 Days of Prep Learning
It gave me great pleasure to pop in and visit all the prep students as they celebrated 100 days of Prep Learning with their fabulous class teachers Ms Fourniotis, Ms Mikaela Ristos, Ms Ivana Novakovic, Ms Ashleigh Smart, and very proud families.
I really enjoyed joining in with everyone to congratulate them. They had such a lovely afternoon tea planned and some fun times with their loved ones. A great celebration and congratulations!
2019 School Annual Implementation Plan: Evaluation of semester 1 success criteria and /or targets:
- Professional Learning Communities Leadership Team (PLC LS) Along with Ms Amy Tinetti, Mr Bill Manuel, Mrs Melinda Oldham, Mr David Jenkins and Mrs Eugenia Sassos, we have met to Monitor and Track the progress of school targets for Semester 1.
- The PLC LS has met with the Senior Education Improvement Leader (SEIL), Mr Stuart Andrews to discuss progress and relevant evidence in week 10 of term 2. Each team member of the PLC LS has specific responsibility for the Learning Priorities.
- School-based professional learning program for Semester 2 has been planned to support the school’s identified improvement strategies
Performance and Development Mid Cycle
Mid cycle conversations with staff and Principal and SEIL and Principal have been linked to the work of the PLC.
Building teacher capability in the development of the PLC model is a key driver for change. Stuart Andrews has also commented on recent discussions with the PLC LS to acknowledge it is evident that we are well on track progressing this work with a comprehensive approach.
All staff are on track to meet their requirements and to achieve their goals for Professional Knowledge, Practice, Engagement and Student Outcomes.
Staff Professional Learning
- Staff have been attending Literacy Leader Training with the Stonington and Glen Eira (SAGE) leaders which is a great opportunity for our teachers to access training in the network, local to our area. Mr David Jenkins (6J) and Mrs Emma Murnane (1E) have been attending which builds the capabilities of GHPS teachers and addresses developmental needs for the future.
- All classroom teachers form prep to Year 6 have been learning more about teaching and learning Mathematics through our working with Mathematics Association of Victoria (MAV). Staff have been doing coaching, attending workshops and undertaking observations of Maths specialist teachers to build their capacity to gain a greater understanding around the implementation of tasks, allowing for differentiation and use of prompts (extending and enabling). This has enabled teachers to be responsive to students needs, using data to inform planning. The school is moving towards developing a school wide scope and sequence.
Thank you to Mr Bill Manuel for leading Mathematics and tracking and organising this key improvement strategy.
House Athletics
This coming Friday will be a very exciting event for the members of all Houses as they participate in the annual House Athletic Sports to be held at Duncun McKinnon Reserve.
Thank you very much to Ms Marie Kasambalis and staff for organising a great program for which the students have been practicing.
Good luck to everyone on the day!
A REMINDER that there is NO Whole School Assembly this week due to the Sports.
Children’s Book Council Australia Book Week
Next week, GHPS is celebrating this year’s Book Week with the theme: Reading is my SECRET POWER. All students from Prep -6 are encouraged to dress up as their favourite character on this day and are asked to bring along a gold coin donation which will go towards purchasing new books for the library.
Students may also donate either a new book, a book form home or second hand to their classroom libraries. Thank you to Ms Lucas-Lely for inspiring all our readers!
This will be the only dress up day for this term and there will not be one on the last day of term.
Parent Opinion Survey
This is a friendly reminder to the families who have been asked to complete the 2019 Parent Opinion Survey. The survey will remain open until Sunday 18 August 2019.
We would love to have 100% responses in but only have 53% currently so please help us out.
School Council Report
Thank you very much to Craig Matthews for writing a report about the 5 August meeting.
Libby Alessi
Principal
School Council Report
School Council met for the first time in Term 3 on Monday 5th August
Key items covered at the meeting included;
- School Council welcomed Kathryn Dench as a new parent member (to replace Shan Jayaweera who resigned from council in term 2).
- The school bid a fond farewell to Mr John Jacobs at the start of term 3 and warmly welcomes Ashleigh Casas as his replacement. The school also welcomes Ariane Mazis to the reading intervention program.
- Semester 1 evaluation of the school Annual Implementation Plan has been conducted and is well on track for achieving its outcomes for 2019.
- Asbestos removal will commence in term 3 and will be conducted when school is vacant and under the strict guidance of DET’s Occupational Hygienist.
- DET has advised a new Mod 5 (similar to the one located on the East Site at the start of the year) will be installed for 2020 to cover projected enrolment growth.
- Fete preparations continue full steam ahead with many exciting activities approved to proceed. A reminder that the fete team are always looking for helpers so if you can spare time in the lead up to the fete or on the day be sure to register your interest.
- The kids disco is set for Friday 6th September with our very own Claire Piscioneri stepping into the role of DJ – how exciting.
- GPA is always looking for new helpers/volunteers. This integral part of the school community constantly strives to deliver great events and activities that the whole school enjoys, but to continue to do this they need your help.
- An updated version of the school history book is on its way. A big thank you to Shirley Mirams and Ross Donnan for all their work in bringing this vision to fruition.
- The school will be increasing its internet bandwidth in the coming months as the growth in student population and number of connected learning devices has increased demand.
- Curriculum & Policy team continue their never ending hard work in ensuring the schools policies are up to date and reflective of our school community.
- Publicity & Marketing team are working on a number of initiatives including; incorporating the School Vision of Learning Today; Leading Tomorrow into all school documents; and a myriad of promotional activities for the 2019 Fete.
- Phase 1 of the Asset Management Plan was reviewed and endorsed by School Council. This plan looks at the best possible ways the school can allocate funding to deliver the maximum benefits to the school in terms of learning spaces and facilities.
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
Oval Redevelopment
I met with Jim from Sportgrass this morning and we conducted a site check on our oval works. The oval on the East Site is moving along nicely. The grass is still growing and is not quite ready yet for us to go on it. Jim is very happy with the stage that it is at. Over the next few weeks we should see our cricket pitch finished as well. Jim is hoping for us to regain access to our oval in early Term 4.
Works have begun on the West Site this week and all of our students had a great time watching the tractors and bobcats begin to transform their play area.
We will see over the coming week’s grass seeds planted and then begin to grow and more 4 Square and hopscotch areas for the students to enjoy.
Amy Tinetti
Assistant Principal
Congratulations to the following students who received a ‘Student of the Week’ award during the last 2 weeks.
Manvith 0N – For your amazing measuring skills in maths this week! Well done!
Sean 1A – For working so hard during reading and writing activities. Your can do attitude and love for learning new things is inspiring! Well done!
Oscar 1M – solving your multiplication problem using lots of different strategies including arrays, equal groups, repeated addition and skip counting. You are a super star!
Levi 2C – being respectful and making a big effort this week to listen and learn. keep it up!
Sanjeev 2C – being a pleasant, hardworking and kind student. I am so impressed by your work ethic.
Anisha 2L – For her huge improvement in narrative writing and ability to construct interesting sentences with correct commas and full stops.
Bindu 2M – Her impressive recall and knowledge of number facts.
Pihu 3K – being vibrant and enthusiastic and trying her hardest with all activities.
Clancy 3S – asking interesting questions and making discoveries about movement and how things work at our incursion.
Rafael 4C – For your outstanding poetry piece that was bursting with great detail.
Retal 4C – For your focus and drive in our recent mathematics unit on Location and Transformation. Your growth and understanding in this unit was phenomenal! Keep up the great work and emotion.
Ishaan 4R – For your engagement and focus this week during our learning tasks. Keep it up!
Arnaud 4R – For approaching your learning tasks with diligence and a positive attitude. It has been a pleasure to read your poetry this term!
Daniel 6J – For and consistently ensuring that reading at home every day for thirty minutes, has become a reliable routine habit.
Science Week: 10 – 18 August 2019
The theme for SCIENCE WEEK 2019 is Destination Moon: more missions, more Science is the school theme for National Science Week in 2019.
This theme is a way for teachers and their students to discover past missions to the Moon and space programs that have solved some of the seemingly unsolvable problems—and current and future space programs, operations and missions. Many of these use big picture thinking in science to solve problems, and technology, engineering and mathematics to design new solutions. This will help forge our future paths in the areas of space operations, Space Science, Earth observations, positioning systems and communications.
Click the following link for the National Science Week site. https://www.scienceweek.net.au/
David Jenkins
House Athletics
GHPS House Athletics is on tomorrow, Friday 16th August.
Remember to bring a raincoat and something warm to wear while you are not participating.
Don’t forget your House colours!
There will be No Assembly.
Ms Kasambalis Sport/PE
Exciting updates for the Premiers’ Reading Challenge!
Glen Huntly Primary School students have read a total of 13, 159 books and 316 students have completed the challenge so far. That is over 76% of students at our school!
A massive congratulations to all those who have completed the challenge and don’t forget to keep reading. There is only 21 days until the challenge ends!
Also a reminder that Book Week dress up is next Friday on the 23rd of August, so get ready to dress up as your favourite book character for the day to celebrate our love of reading!
Ms Lucas-Lely Library
We are very pleased to announce that Mahathi, 6J, was shortlisted as a finalist in the Year 5/6 category of the “Why is your brain amazing?” drawing competition and thus received an Honourable Mention.
Well done Mahathi! Beautiful work.
Dogs on School Grounds
Pet dogs
Glen Huntly Primary School is not a public place, and our principal has the authority to permit or decline entry to school grounds and impose conditions of entry.
Whilst Glen Huntly Primary School understands that many families in our school community keep dogs as pets, to ensure that our school remains a safe and inclusive place for everyone, we have in place a number of rules that we expect all families to follow if they wish to bring their pet dog onto school grounds:
- pet dogs must be leashed at all times and in the control of a responsible adult
- pet dogs must not be tied up on school grounds or left unaccompanied
- families that bring dogs to school that exhibit signs of aggressive behaviour, bark, or jump may be asked to leave.
- pet dogs will not be allowed at whole school events such as; School Fete, Carols, Family Fun Night etc.
The principal has the authority to prohibit certain dogs from school grounds or modify this policy to ensure the safety and wellbeing of staff, students and members of our school community at any time.
Stray dogs
Unaccompanied or stray dogs sighted at our school should be reported immediately to the school office. School staff will contact municipal authorities and/or Victoria police for assistance in managing and removing a stray dog from school grounds, and ensure staff and students remain safe at school.
Assistance dogs
Glen Huntly Primary School understands its obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and will make reasonable adjustments for members of our school community with a disability who require an ‘assistance animal’ to help alleviate the effects of their disability. Assistance animals are permitted to attend our school with their handler. Our school principal can lawfully ask a person to produce evidence that an animal:
- is trained specifically to assist a person alleviate the effects of a disability (eg seeing eye dogs)
- meets standards of hygiene and behaviour appropriate for a school environment.
We understand that in some circumstances, students may require an assistance animal to attend school to help them to participate in their educational program. Glen Huntly Primary School will consider a request by a student with a disability to allow an assistance animal to attend school with them on a case-by-case basis. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact the Principal.
MCG Tour
If you’re looking for something to do with the kids, take them on an MCG Tour!
Gain an insight into Australia’s sporting culture while exploring one of the worlds
most iconic stadiums, as you hear from our proud Melbourne Cricket Club volunteers
and go behind the scenes at the ‘G. Visit nsm.org.au for more information.
Notices distributed to parents
6 Aug All Families Cabaret Photos
12 Aug Year 1/2 Students Zoo Excursion
13 Aug All Families Father’s Day Stall
14 Aug Choir Costume Requirements
14 Aug All Families Head Lice
15 Aug Year 6 Students Big Day In
Calendar
August
Fri 16 House Athletics
Fri 23 Dress Up for Book Week
Tue 27 Cabaret Tickets on Sale
Wed 28 Cabaret Photos
September
Tue 17 School Cabaret
Fri 20 Final Day Term 3 – Early Dismissal 2.30pm
