NEWSLETTER 7/2017

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents,

NAPLAN

Congratulations to all of our Grade 3 and 5 students on completing the NAPLAN assessments last week. As with any assessment, all we ask is that the students perform to their best and make improvements along their learning journey. After speaking with the staff, I am as confident as they are that all families should be as proud of their children as we are of our amazing students. Well done.

THANK YOU MUMS

Thank you to all of the mums, nans and grandmas who came along to our afternoon tea last Thursday. It was an amazing success thanks to the hard work of so many people. We even had a number of families pay at the door who had not pre-booked as the word spread about this great event. Thank you so much to the PFA, led by Amber and Kate, Vicki who also organized the Mother’s Day Stall and Linda for allowing us to borrow your beautiful China. It all added up to a beautiful celebration of the wonderful women in our students lives.

EDUCATION WEEK – MAY 21 to 27 – NEXT WEEK

Education Week is an annual event where schools open their doors to parents and family to show of the learning opportunities. Mentone Park PS will have a number of events including Italian Day on Tuesday May 23, Kinder Transition Activities on Wednesday May 24 and then Open Night on Thursday May 25. Our classes will be open from 6 – 7pm with a theme based on Curiosity and Powerful Learning. We look forward to welcoming you to your child’s classroom.

TIQBIZ HAS CHANGED TO FLEXIBUZZ

By now most of you will have noticed that TiqBiz has changed its name to FlexiBuzz. Please ensure that you have logged in again so that you do not miss any important communications. We always strive to ensure that our communication is timely and effective and to do this successfully we request that all parents have FlexiBuzz loaded on their smartphones and mobile devices.

ENROLLING FOR 2018

It may seem like the year has only just started but plans are already being discussed for 2018. If you have a child who will be starting Foundation next year, or you know another family with a 2018 Foundation student could you please come to the office to get your enrolment forms. This will assist us with our planning and enable all students to participate in transition activities during terms 3 and 4.  

PARKING AND ROAD SAFETY

Could all parents please take care and note of the road safety signs around our school, especially during drop off and pick up. Whilst it can be a little busy during these peak periods, our ultimate wish is that all students arrive safely to school and are prepared for a challenging and rewarding day of learning. Please also be aware that the staff car park should not be used as a path to the school buildings as there are paths that allow for the safe passage of pedestrians. Thank you for your consideration because as I said, your safety is our priority.

CROSS COUNTRY

Congratulations to the cross-country team for your performance yesterday. Whilst we had some amazing, individual performances that will result in these students progressing to the next level I would like to congratulate everyone for their enthusiastic participation. You have done our school proud. Thank you also to our staff, Cameron Riley, Elijah Roberts and Jess McDonald for your organization and passion for our students extra curricula events.

Best Wishes

Cameron Agars
Principal

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

NEW FLAGS

A big THANK YOU to Ms Clare O'Neil, Federal Member of Parliament for Hotham, who has kindly donated two brand new flags for our flagpole! A new Australian flag along with the Aboriginal flag will be proudly hung tomorrow before assembly. Hopefully we have nice enough weather to hold assembly outside so we can see our new flags flying high! 

PLAY IS THE WAY

All of our students are well into the routine of participating in weekly games and classroom activities from the Play is the Way behaviour education program.

It has been great to walk around and listen to the students discuss and debate their ideas around what treating others how you would like to be treated actually looks like, what it really means to have reasons for the things you say and do and how it’s so important to pursue your personal best no matter who you work with.

These are three of the key concepts we are teaching through the games and classroom activities, along with it takes great strength to be sensible and be brave – participate to progress.

Here is an outline for you on how these key concepts relate to our school values and expectations.

What we want, is for students to develop self-mastery of these concepts!  To help them become the masters, not the victims, of their own feelings!

To help with this, we use a Self Mastery Checklist. Teachers pose the questions on the checklist to enable students to consider their choices around their actions and behaviour. The checklist is on display in each classroom so the children can refer to it themselves also. These are the questions on the checklist:

• Am I doing the right thing or the wrong thing?
• Am I making a strong choice or a weak choice?
• Are my feelings in charge of my actions or is my thinking in charge?
• Am I running away from the problem or am I dealing with it?
• Am I being my own boss or am I inviting my teacher to be my boss?
• Is my teacher trying to help me or hurt me?   

Using these questions encourages students to consider whether they are in control or whether they need someone else (a teacher, staff member, parent, coach) to 'be their boss' and tell them what they should be doing. We would rather that they are able to make strong/good/right decisions for themselves and 'be their own boss'! 

    

Saturday 20th May 9am – 1pm

Time to get on the tools! Now it is May and the weather is getting cooler (okay very cold), it’s time to ditch the sunhat, put on some gumboots and an old jumper and head on down to help us in making improvements to our school grounds! This working bee will focus on:

· Gardening

· removal of old equipment, furniture and junk from around the school

· cleaning out and tidying up the school hall

· removing some old fence posts and fixing sections of the external fence

· tidying up the dumper area

· painting some external classroom doors

As usual, there will be a sausage sizzle and refreshments for all who come to help! A raffle will also take place with one lucky family in attendance receiving a prize!

Please let me know via the school office or email if you can attend and how many are coming (for catering). Students and other children are most welcome!


Alison Lough

Assistant Principal 

FROM THE OFFICE

              

Dear Parents & Guardians,

Please note all signed permission forms and any payment must be given directly to your child/ren’s teachers. This allows the teachers to check and mark off each child’s permission form and payment.  

PAYMENTS FOR EXCURSIONS/INCURSIONS
Payments for Excursions/Incursions can be made via Qkr under School Payments using the EXCURSIONS 2017 TAB
Families can enter the amount they owe and also add a note e.g Wellbeing Incursion

Spare clothing
Please ensure that you pack extra underwear and clothing for your child/ren. Due to OHS guidelines, we are no longer allowed to provide underwear.

Please feel free to phone or come into the office if you have any questions.

We are more than happy to assist with showing you how to use Qkr and tiqbiz .

Thank you

Administration Team

Dear Parents & Friends,

Please, if you have any time (even if it’s only a small amount of time) available on a Friday to support Kids Cafe please either email or phone on my mobile.    lizpleasants@me.com or 0413 009 493

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Please note the new cutoff time for Kids Cafe orders is now 8.00am Friday morning. Orders can be placed at any time during the week.

Liz and Kids Café team

OSHCLUB

PFA

Mothers’ Day Stall 2017

What an amazing day!! 

NAPLAN was not going to stop us from having our stall, we just worked around it.  Thank you Alison for the timetabling it worked at a treat.

This year preparing began early for our stall, this allowed us to take advantage of all the goodies that the suppliers had to offer and that we did not miss good items for our mums.

I hope your children brought you home a lovely gift from our stall that you can enjoy.

I would like to thank all of the people who were able to help me out before, on, and after the day, and believe me there were heaps of helpers. Without your help, I could not have done it.

Thank you to, Lillian Vrionis, Amber Whalan, Bek Grubb, Christine Gill, Jo Gray, Amanda - Jo Price, Louise Coleman, Katherine Rowe, Kate Solomon, Tara Shepherd, Siobhan Wilson, Jodi O’Sullivan, Nicole Savage, Sharon Costello, Maria Serafimidis, Amy Tonkin, Carol Caesar, Phillipa Murray, Anna Buist  and also to Andrew Davis for allowing access so I could prepare the stall prior to the day.

Thank you everyone for your assistance.

Vicki Limnios

SCHOOL BANKING

SCHOOL UNIFORM

ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS

Working With Children Check Reminder

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.