Newsletter 07/2016

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents and Friends,

The term is well underway with all our students settling beautifully back into the routines of school.

Last week School Council met to approve our Annual Report for 2015.  This report has now been forwarded to the Department for approval and will be available on our website shortly.

Our new school council is now established and we are working in our new sub-committees for 2016.  All members of the school community are welcome to join a school council sub-committee and contribute to the development of school policies and school grounds. A description of the work of sub-committees and how you can help shape the direction of Mentone Park PS follows:

Be Involved at Mentone Park PS! Parents are invited to join one of our School Council committees and be involved in improving MPPS for our students. Monthly meetings are listed below and held at the school. Forthcoming dates will also be in our school newsletter.
Buildings & Grounds Members – Andrew Davis, Peter Olechnowicz, Martin Walker, Alison Lough Andrew Davis will again lead an enthusiastic team who ensure that our school grounds and buildings are safe and well maintained.  Working Bees are a major priority for this committee, which plans the activities to be undertaken at these days.  The committee monitors our school maintenance plan to ensure the upkeep of our buildings and grounds. Meetings:  Mondays prior to SC Meeting at 6:00pm (next meeting 30th May)	Parents & Friends’ Association SC Representative: Fiona Longmuir Stacey Buchanan and Wendy Davis are our joint  PFA Presidents this year.  Though class representatives are a major part of the PFA, other Parents and Friends are invited to be a part of this group.  The PFA supports and promotes school activities throughout the year, as well as being a link between the school and the community.  Activities include Italian Day, School Disco, Mother’s/Father’s Day Stall, Easter Raffle and Graduation.  Meetings are attended by the Principal and Assistant Principal who provide updates on school business and activities. Meetings: Mondays 9:00am (next meeting 30th May)
Finance Members: Nikki Langhorne, Fiona Longmuir, Alison Lough, Kendra Parker, Anne Leggett This team focuses on the financial management of the school under our Treasurer Nikki Langhorne and Business Manager Anne Leggett and SC President Fiona Longmuir as well as the Principal and Assistant Principal. The school audit, program budget, grants, banking, financial spread sheets, etc are all part of our accountability framework which the Finance Committee monitors for our school. Meetings:  Friday prior to SC Meeting at 8:00am	Education Members: Lisa Grimsey, Fiona Longmuir, Maria Fakitopoulos, Mary Sampieri, Sue Grisdale, Kendra Parker This committee has the important role of reviewing and drafting new policies which include curriculum and some school operations.  We would love some extra support with this aspect of the school, which also provides parents with information about how the school operates. Meetings:  Mondays prior to SC Meeting at 6:00pm (next meeting 30th May)

NEW DRAFT HOMEWORK POLICY

At our last Education Committee meeting, we drafted a new homework policy in line with new Department of Education guidelines.  As many of you are aware, homework is an issue that divides parents - some love it and some hate it!  The new policy reflects these considerations, along with current research and understanding into the value and purpose of homework in primary school.  Please take the time to read the new policy and provide any feedback to the Education Committee by Friday 13th May.  Feedback can be via email to the school, written communication sent into the office or come in and have a chat.

2016 Homework Policy

The Department of Education homework guidelines can be found here:

Department of Education Homework Guidelines

CURIOSITY AND POWERFUL LEARNING 

This week I attended a workshop with representatives from all partners involved in the “Curiosity and Powerful Learning” program which we are implementing.  The project involves 4 school networks across Queensland and Victoria (86 schools in total) and partnerships with 3 universities – Griffith Uni (Qld), Victoria Uni and Monash Uni.  Our network is partnered with Monash Uni.  As well as implementing the Theories of Action into our schools, we are also working with the university to improve the links between initial teacher training, ongoing professional learning and school improvement.  It is very exciting to be part of such a big project that could shape the future direction of teacher education.

In regards to our own school improvement, this term we are implementing Theories of Action around challenging learning and higher order questioning.   Staff are working with the 6 levels in the “Bloom’s Taxonomy” to ensure they are asking and creating higher order questions and tasks to challenge students.  Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a way to organise thinking skills into levels, from the most basic to the higher order levels of thinking. 
The 6 levels are:
Remembering
Recalling information
Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding

Understanding
Explaining ideas or concepts
Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining
Applying
Using information in another familiar situation
Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
Analysing
Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships
Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding
Evaluating
Justifying a decision or course of action
Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging

Creating
Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things
Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing

We will be using these levels of thinking to deliver activities during our Family Science Night on Wednesday 18th May.  I look forward to seeing lots of you there!

EDUCATION WEEK

Each year we celebrate Education Week across the State to acknowledge the wonderful work being done in our State Government schools.  This year there will be several activities happening at Mentone Park to celebrate Education Week:

• Junior School Excursion to Botanical Gardens
• Italian Day
• Maths Olympiad
• Family Science Night
• Prep Open Classrooms afternoon

Hopefully you will be able to get involved in one of these activities to acknowledge the great work we do.

Next week we say farewell to Signora Beer for the rest of the term as she heads off to have some much needed surgery on her knee.  We wish her a speedy recovery and look forward to her return in term 3.  In her absence, Mrs Nikki McCallum will be teaching the Italian program.

Have a great week!

Kendra Parker

PRINCIPAL

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S REPORT  

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

MAKING FRIENDS

Some children make new friends easily, while others take a while to warm up. It is important to know that both are normal. Teachers play an important role in supporting children to make friends. Teachers can identify which children are chatty, confident and good at interacting with other children, and which are a little more cautious. They arrange classrooms and groups to play to everyone's strengths. 

Here are some important things to talk about with your child/ren about making friends:

• Let your child know that if one child doesn't want to play with them, they still have friends and people who care about them. 
• Encourage your child's interests and get them involved in clubs or groups that have similar interests. 
• Whether your child has one special friend or many friends doesn't matter as long as they are happy and content. 
• Don't be alarmed to discover that children's friendships are often very up and down. 
• Help them to understand that conflict is a part of everyday life, and that they can cope. 
• Help them to maintain friendships outside of school, so they know the world is bigger than the school playground. 
• Talk to your child about forgiveness. Being able to overlook and forgive mistakes and upsets are sure ways to keep good friends.
• Make friends with other parents - having a support network of other parents can be invaluable. 

For more information on childhood friendships, head to the Raising Children Website

RESILIENCE

The word resilience is used to describe a person’s ability to cope, adapt, learn and thrive in the face of change, challenge or adversity. While some children find it harder than others, all children can develop positive coping strategies that will benefit them their whole lives.

At school, we support students to learn valuable life skills, such as building relationships, seeking help, and making decisions. The school environment provides children with lots of chances to learn and grow as people. At primary school they can learn to understand and assert themselves, get along with others, face challenges, make friends and deal with conflict – all personal skills they will need as teenagers and adults.

KEY SKILLS FOR RESILIENCE

• Self-awareness– understanding emotions and needs and being able to communicate them to others.
• Self-control– managing anger and anxiety and the expression of emotions.
• Social awareness– being aware of the needs and feelings of others, and building the capacity to respect those with different views or beliefs.
• Social management– developing the skills and confidence to talk and mix with other children and adults, and to work and play well with others. 
• Responsibility– taking responsibility for a range of tasks, such as tidying up, doing their homework and helping others.
• Effort and persistence– understanding the importance of hard work and persistence. 
• Hope– believing in the possibility of a good future and in the value of education.
• Self-esteem– feeling proud of the effort they make at school, and their efforts to get along with others, and to be part of the family.
• Problem-solving skills – building the capacity to think about how to deal with a range of challenges.
• Positive coping strategies – developing the capacity to cheer themselves up, calm themselves down, ask for help when needed, and to work out ways to solve a problem.

Please take some time to read through some of the information in the following parent brochures regarding building resilience, implementing positive coping strategies, solving problems, seeking help and the importance of emotional literacy.

Building Resilience - Overview

Challenges to Resilience

Positive Coping strategies

Understanding Problem Solving

Emotional Literacy

Help Seeking

ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Congratulations to our achievement award winners from the past two weeks:

(Names and reasons can be found in Area Newsletters)

TERM 2 WEEK 1

WELL DONE!

                                         

TERM 2 WEEK 2

CONGRATULATIONS!

Alison Lough

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

PFA

SUSTAINABILITY

Marine Ambassadors: Our Marine Ambassadors are supported by the Dolphin Research Institute who run amazing educational programs and conduct research for marine conservation. Sunday 1st of May they are holding a fundraising walk, along with other activities to raise funds to continue their wonderful work. You can join the walk or find out more information here. 

  Students started planting around the outside of the Chook Shed for shade and preparing the inside. Our exciting news is that we are going to be incubating and hatching our own chooks!

ITALIAN

SUPER EFFORT!

We are very proud of Liam from 3S for his recent efforts - participating in a cycling fundraiser to raise money for the Monash Children's Hospital and Starlight Children's Foundation. Liam and his family know first hand of the crucial work and support these organisations provide for children and their families in caring for children who are sick or injured. Liam appeared in the Sydney Daily Telegraph on the 16th April. 

Well done, Liam!

TERM 2 CALENDAR

Activities Calendar

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

Dear Parents,

Here is the Kids Café class roster for Term 2, please make a note in your diary of your class dates. I will send tiqbiz reminders to individual classes as your week approaches. To make things easier for the class reps, please call or text me on 0413 009 493 to let me know of your availability on your rostered day.

Term 2

April      

             29th     3B

 May       6th      3G

              13th     4H

              20th     4W

              27th    5/6L

June      3rd       5/6R

             10th     5/6S

             17th    Prep B

             24th    cleaning - all welcome

 

Thank you,

Liz and the Kids' Café Team

OSHC NEWSLETTER 28th April

The last couple of weeks the children have really enjoyed cooking. We have made some very tasty cupcakes and cookies with a couple of children taking on the responsibility of being head chef.  We are going to continue cooking new things each week based on the kids' suggestions.

Tuesday the 3^rd May we will be having our first WHEELS DAY!  We are encouraging all those that attend to bring along their favourite set of wheels e.g. bicycle, scooter, roller blades etc…

Our new weekly program is on our OSHC parent information board, we have made changes so that it shows separately what the educators and children have initiated that week. There is also space provided for parents to add their suggestions on what you would like to be included in the program, we encourage all parents to have input by either noting down their ideas or talk to one of the staff directly.

Anicca & James 

Working With Children Check

All parents/guardians, visitors & volunteers to the school MUST sign in & out of the school and display their WWCC in a lanyard, which is available at the school office.

The Department of Education requires any person involved in an activity where children may be present to have a current WWCC or have supplied proof that they have applied for a WWCC with the Department of Justice. All schools are required to comply with the Working with Children Act 2005.

Volunteers are expected to carry the WWCC card on their person at all times when working or volunteering at the school or during school related activities.

There is no fee for this check. Apply now by visiting: www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au

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.

PIANO LESSONS

Piano lessons are available for Grade 2-6 students during school time.

If you are interested, please contact Mrs Jocelyn Millard on 0418 629 586 or 9583 6172.

POCO MUSIC INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC LESSONS

NEW ENROLMENTS Term 2

Local Music School POCO MUSIC offers private Brass and Woodwind, singing, strings, and drum kit lessons at Mentone Park primary school during class hours.  Lessons are conducted in a fun environment by qualified teachers teaching students the basics and expanding to AMEB exam preparation if needed.  If you would like your child to commence lessons in term 2 visit our website and fill out the online enrolment form at: www.pocomusic.com.au , alternatively you can email us at: admin@pocomusic.com.au or call our office on 9584 7341.

hot tips n tan

Come meet the team at hot tips n tan, for all your beauty needs.

You are all fabulous and once you feel fabulous it becomes an addiction!

9585 1111

11 Follett Road Cheltenham

treat no wheat

Pure Gluten Free Bakery

13 Follett Road Cheltenham

0418 808 566

MORDIALLOC NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSE

Drawing and Sketching

This drawing class is designed to introduce the fundamentals of drawing through a series of structured exercises: line, tone, proportions & contours. Students will be given the opportunity to explore different mediums such as graphite, pencils, charcoal and pen.

Monday: 1.00 – 3.00pm

May 2 – June 6 (6 weeks)

Cost: $75, concession $65

Materials list supplied upon enrolment.

For further information to enrol, please phone:

Mordialloc Neighbourhood House; 9587 4534

 

MORDIALLOC NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSE

TERM 2

Introduction to iPads and technology.

Tuesday: 9.00 – 11.30am

April 12 – June 21

Cost: $60, concession$50 (11 week class)

*Enrolments are accepted anytime throughout the duration of the course.

*(pro rata costing applied)

For further details or to enrol, please phone: 9587 4534

Come and Play Girls Footy in 2016.

Join us in season 2016 as we celebrate our 6th year of Girls Footy at Mordi-Brae JFC. Since we started our Girls only teams in 2011, participation has grown enormously due to the passion and commitment of our Girls and their supporters to the game.
Our club will be fielding 3 Girls teams in U12 & U15 in 2016. They will be supported with experienced and dedicated team of quality coaches, assistant coaches and team managers.

Interested? Then Come and Join Us!

Interested in playing or would like to find out more?  Contact Girls Footy Coordinator Jason Pribil 0458 988 264 or email jason.pribil@gmail.com.