Newsletter 13/2015

PRINCIPAL'S DAY: 

 A Message of Thanks to Kendra Parker & Alison Lough

On behalf of the Mentone Park Primary School Council and the Parents’ & Friends Association, we would like to acknowledge the wonderful job you do and express our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the efforts and contribution you have made to our school. The long hours and dedication over and above that you have shown is to be commended. Thank you for your inspiring and strong leadership throughout your time at Mentone Park. Our school is developing because of your commitment to achieve the best for our children and the greater Mentone Park community.

We look forward to celebrating further goals and achievements at Mentone Park and wish you all the very best for another wonderful year ahead. 

Happy Principal's Day for 2015.

Andrew Davis  - Wendy Davis

School Council President  - PFA President

PRINCIPAL'S DAY MORNING TEA

On Thursday 13th August, all Parents, Grandparents and Friends of Mentone Park Primary School are invited to celebrate Principal's Day with Kendra and Alison and the PFA at Hendriks Cafe, 105/107 White St, Mordialloc from 10am to 11am.

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents and Friends

What a lovely surprise I got when I opened the email to write my report and saw the message above! I am sure Mrs Lough will agree with me that we do what we do because we love our work!  We love being able to influence the outcomes for young people by providing them with a solid educational foundation.  We love working with children and their families and seeing the joy of learning.  We love working with teachers to build the best school and provide the best learning for our kids - we just love our job!

Yesterday, after months of preparation and input from the whole school community, we conducted our school review under the guidance of Bronwyn Van Amerongen, an independent reviewer.  Supporting us on the day were my peers, Laureen Walton - Principal of Sandringham East PS and Marcelle van Maanen - Principal Mentone PS.  Simon Hamilton, our Senior Adviser from the Department, was also present for the morning session.  Andrew Davis - School Council president and Fiona Longmuir - School Council representative, represented the parent community throughout the day.  Thank you to all these people who gave up their day to be a part of our school improvement journey.

It was a wonderful day of reflection and celebration of the hard work we have put into improving learning for our students over the past 4 years.  Looking back at what we have done was overwhelming - so much work and dedication by our teachers along the way.  Some of the initiatives we have implemented over the past four years of our Strategic Plan have included:

• Introduction of Writer's and Reader's Workshops
• A whole school approach to the teaching of Mathematics
• Introduction of AusVELS
• Implementation of the whole school curriculum for Units of Study (i.e science, history)
• Passionate Pursuits
• Literacy Support programs across the whole school
• Introduction of the Performing Arts program
• Increased access to ICT - iPads, interactive and static screens in all rooms, Netbooks

These are just some of the major initiatives and changes that are helping to shape and improve the learning of our students going forward into the next 4 year Strategic Plan. 
I certainly went home last night feeling very proud of the work we have done and the outcomes we have achieved.  I look forward to continuing our journey of whole school improvement together!

This will actually be my last newsletter for this term as I head off on some Long Service Leave from 14th August.  Whilst I am away, Mrs Lough will be the acting principal in charge of the school.
We also wish Mrs Unwin a happy holiday as she too heads off on Long Service Leave for the same period.  Whilst we are both heading over to Europe, at the same time, we are not actually going together!  Mrs Unwin will be travelling across the European countryside via train and car with her family and Carol Drinkwater, whilst I will be cruising the Mediterranean before returning to Turkey for a family wedding.
If I don't get to see you before I leave, I look forward to seeing you all on my return in term 4.

Kendra Parker

PRINCIPAL

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

On Tuesday, all students from P-6 were treated to a performance by Matt and his cartoon character friend - NED! Ned stands for "Never give up, Encourage others and Do your best"! These three important messages were delivered to the students via some humorous storytelling, magic and amazing yo-yo tricks.

Some ways that you can use NED at home are:

1. Share a story about never giving up on something that was important to you as a child.

2. Be your child's number 1 encourager! Recognise something that your child is trying to be awesome at and applaud their efforts.

3. If your child is excelling in a particular area, identify new challenges that will keep them doing their best.

                       WORKING BEE

Next Saturday the 15th August is our Term 3 Working Bee. Working Bees are a great opportunity to mingle with other families, enjoy a BBQ lunch and spend time improving and enhancing the school grounds that your children use each weekday.

If you haven't already, please return the slip that was sent home yesterday indicating how many will be in attendance so I know how many to cater for.

Looking forward to seeing you there with your shovels, rakes, trowels and tools!




Alison Lough

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

MILLIE

Millie our Shingleback Lizard has gone a new home at the RSPCA in  Pearcedale, where she can live in a more natural habitat.  One RSPCA staff member in particular was very excited to have her and may even end up adopting her.

TERM 3 CALENDAR

Here is the calendar of events for this term. It will be updated fortnightly.

Term 3 Calendar

CURRICULUM DAY THURSDAY 30^TH JULY 

What a cold miserable day it was last Thursday; but not for the staff at Mentone Park.  The atmosphere was warm and it was great to see teachers working in teams to further their learning in the areas of Spelling.

Led by an enthusiastic presenter, Michelle Hutchison, we were introduced to a new approach that covers Prep to Year 6.  It is called “SMART Spelling.”

 

Say

Meaning

Approach

Remember

Teach

Do you know how many letters in our alphabet there are?  Of course you all do!  But do you how many sounds there are?  There are 44 sounds – 20 vowel and 24 consonant sounds. 

Students will be taught the link between sounds and letters, they will learn about graphs, digraphs and trigraphs: but the best of all is that spelling rules have been condensed to just 4.  WOW that saves a lot of memorizing! 

Over the next few weeks, teachers will be introducing this approach and sending home a weekly sheet of words being studied in the classroom.  Like Maths, Spelling is based on patterns and this helps the students see the links with sounds and letters. 

Remember, saying the words and counting sounds rather than individual letters help establish the pattern.

Well done to Mrs. Sue Grisdale and the English Learning Team for organizing this worthwhile day.

BOOK WEEK

Favourite ‘Book Character’ Parade

Monday 24^th August 2014

To celebrate Book Week the students are encouraged to dress up as their favourite ‘book character’. They will participate in a morning parade and then work in multi-age groups exploring a range of literacy based activities.
Who is your child’s favourite character from a book?
There will be a parade of book characters at 9.10am on the basketball courts. Parents welcome.

 ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS

We have one Entertainment Book at $65.00 for sale.  If you would like to purchase it, please contact the Office.

WOOLWORTHS EARN & LEARN STICKERS

We are currently collecting the Woolworths Earn and Learn Stickers.  Families, please can you ask for the stickers when you shop at Woolworths?   If you shop at the Thrift Park store we have a collection box there.  You can also deposit stickers in the box near the office at school.

The stickers will be redeemed for equipment to support our programmes here at Mentone Park.

Thank-you.  

Kerry McKenna

CAN YOU HELP?

We require new 4 litre plastic ice-cream containers for our water saving program.  Please deliver to Mrs Unwin's room.

Thank you

Noela Unwin

Hydraulic Splitter

If anyone has access to a Hydraulic Splitter or knows of someone we may approach to borrow one, could you please contact the school office,

Here is the Kids Cafe class roster for the rest of the year. Please note that there is a new link for the online roster;  http://vols.pt/mvLArg

If your class are not rostered on you are still most welcome to come along, but please use the link so that I know who is helping me on that day.  

Thanks very much,

Liz

TERM 3

August

 7th - 1B & 3/4H
14th - 2O & 5/6S
21st - 2R & 5D
28th - 1/2U & 6W

September

 4th - prep to 2

11th - grades 3 to 6
17th - clean up - all welcome

TERM 4
October

 9th - PS & 3/4G
16th - PM & 3/4O
23rd - 1O & 3/4S
30th - 1B & 3/4H
November 

 6th - 2O & 5/6S
13th - 2R & 5D
20th - 1/2U & 6W
27th - prep to 2
December

4th - grades 3 to 6
11th - clean up - all welcome

SCHOOL BANKING

PIANO LESSONS

If you would like your child in Grade 2-6 to learn the piano in school hours at Mentone Park Primary School please contact Mrs Millard (B.MUS. Ed) on 9583 6172 or mob. 0418 629 586.

OSHC

Hello to all our parents at OSCH, this week has been very cold and wet and has not been in our favour to play outside but we have had a lot of fun inside with our house games and colouring in competitions, movies and even indoor ball games. All of our children have enjoyed playing with dress ups and making cubby houses using sheets and blankets. If any parents are getting rid of sheets, clothes, dress ups and would like to donate please speak to Anicca for more information.

From Anicca and the OSCH team       

COMMUNITY SERVICE & ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Department of Education & Early Childhood Development and Mentone Park Primary School do not endorse the products or services of any private advertiser. They accept no responsibility for accuracy of information contained in advertisements or claims made by them.