MARCH

20th March No assembly 24th March Easter raffle tickets due back

27th March Easter raffle drawn

27th March Last Day Term 1—No assembly 2:30pm finish

April

14th April 1st day term 2

22nd April School photos

FOR THE DIARY

March 19th 2020

DHHS Statement on school closures in Victoria.

Our student free day was a great opportunity for our staff to work together to develop our understanding in teaching Writing, Maths and School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). Our work on Writing focused on the “6+1 traits of writing”, which outlines the six key parts of writing including development of ideas and content, the organisation of the text, author’s voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions. The plus one is for presentation. We believe if we focus on developing these traits in our students’ writing then their learning outcomes will make great progress. During the maths session, we reviewed a set of planning documents created by our Maths Specialists which aligned the curriculum from each year level with the Big Ideas in maths. The Big Ideas relate to key aspects of maths that once established, ensure the next level of learning is more easily achievable. An example is “trusting the count” is expected to be established by the end of the foundation year. This ensures student understanding of place value is more likely to be attained by the end of year 2. Without “trusting the count” being established, a student will have difficulty understanding place value which is needed to consolidate understanding of additive thinking. Our work on SWPBS revolved around reviewing our school vision. We also started to develop our school behaviour matrix and also discussed an acknowledgement system for rewarding preferred behaviour. As we work to develop agreement amongst staff, we will seek feedback from or students and parent community as well. On Tuesday, I attended a workshop on improving attendance. It was pleasing to note that our school has made quite significant progress over the past five years, reducing our average days by almost four days to just over 13 days per student which is quite a low level of absence compared to our local network and the state. We have also made improvements in reducing the number of students with more than twenty days absent. In 2019, we had just 14% of students with more than twenty days absent which is a strong result, but is a result I believe we can improve on this year. We are tracking quite well already this year, however in the current circumstances, I will remind everyone to ensure they stay home if they are showing flu like symptoms. The School Council Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday night. It was a great opportunity to thank the outgoing members, Tania Vandervoort, Rob Mielke, Julie Gerrand, Shelley Irving and Dane Heinrich whilst welcoming our new members, Kait Evans, Mal Duncan, and Annie McAdam. Election of office bearers took place and I am pleased to announce Nat Scott will continue in the role of President for this year, while Lauren Smit has taken on the role of Vice President. Fiona Robinson will continue with the Secretary’s duties while I will

remain as the Treasurer. Other members will take up a position on sub-committees including Education, Finance, Facilities, Fundraising and Junior School Council. I look

forward to working with our School Council throughout the year.

Joel Fraser

Principal

23rd March Jeremy Haines turns 11

If you have a current health care card, you may be eligible for the Camps, Sports and Excursion fund. The annual amount for a primary school student is $125, this is paid directly to the school to be used towards students camps, sports or excursion activities. If you think that you may be eligible please see Fiona for an application form. NB. Families who received CSEF last year and are still eligible this year will not need to re-apply, this will happen automatically.

Name: Zoe McGrath

Grade: Foundation

Favourite subject: Reading

Favourite sport: Running

My current learning goal is: I am trying really hard with my writing

Favourite song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Start

On the weekend I like to: Pat Toby the cat

In line with Department of Education guidelines as directed by the health authorities we will not be holding assembly until further notice. Students will continue to be recognised amongst their peers for excellence with awards being presented in

class.

Thanks to everyone for supporting our Book Fair again this year. A special thanks to all of our indispensable Parent and Grade 6 helpers. Congratulations to the winners of the raffle this year: Alexis, Matilda A, Mitchell, Rylan, Jessie, Pip, Allison, Ben S, Grace and Milly L. Prizes can be collected from Mrs Sweeney. We are pleased to report that the Book Fair has allowed us to choose over $400 worth of books for our school library at no charge.

Book Fair

No Assembly

The grade 6 students will be running an Easter raffle this year. The raffle will be drawn on Friday 27th March 2.20pm at assembly.

Families are invited to please make a donation of an Easter Egg/bunny that can be used as the prizes. Donations can be handed in at the office or given to classroom teachers.

Raffle tickets have been sent home this week for all families, if these could please be returned by Tuesday 24th March. Additional tickets are available at the office if required. Due to having no assembly, the Easter raffle will be drawn in the grade 6 classroom at 11am on Friday 27th, winners will be published on Facebook prior to 12 noon on this day. Winners who do not have a representative present at school will be contacted via phone to collect their prize. Any prizes not collected by 3pm will be available for collection from the office in term 2.

Easter Raffle

Breakfast club has been very popular with students. We would like to invite any parents wanting to assist to please donate fresh bread that we can freeze and use as required.

Thank you to everyone who supported our hot cross bun fundraiser. We hope you enjoyed them. We raised $764 towards the end of year whole school incursion.

Parents & Friends have Aqua

bags for sale from the school office for $25.00. These bags are not only waterproof, but

they also float. Great for

FOUNDATION CUMMING

Ned Brand – For challenging himself to write words using sounds.

ONE/TWO HILTON/DYCE

Leah Vennells – For writing a narrative with a strong beginning and uh-oh.

ONE/TWO TURNER

Ben Evans - For being an enthusiastic writer and writing a narrative with a strong beginning, problem and solution.

THREE/FOUR ARMSTRONG

Ava Pattinson – For being an encouraging and supportive member of the class. Jessie Gerrand – For being an encouraging and supportive member of the class.

THREE/FOUR

LYON

Addie Duncan – For Demonstrating excellence and integrity while participating at the Regional Swimming Sports.

Cienna Searle - For Demonstrating excellence and integrity at the Regional Swimming Sports.

FIVE MOWAT

Ben Swasbrick – For demonstrating exemplary learning behaviours in all areas.

SIX McMASTER/ROGERSON

Tayla Ireland – For always thinking during class discussions and sharing her ideas.

MR FRASER Isobelle Scott – For being responsible and helping younger students to sort out their difficulties in the yard.

This week’s ‘Family Maths Challenge’:

Grade 1 and 2 students have being making use of our new fitness circuit during PE this week. Students were required to complete the full circuit whilst balancing a bean bag on their head.

Congratulations to Cienna and Addie for making it all the way through to the Regional Swimming Sports. Both girls put in their best effort with Cienna finishing 4th in Butterfly and Addie finishing 9th in Breaststroke.