26 Grant St, PO Box 199, GOORNONG, VIC, 3557

Tel: 5432 2236 Fax. 5432 2425

Website: www.goornongps.vic.edu.au

Friday May 6th, 2016

Issue 12

Dates to Remember

Next Week

10th—12th May NAPLAN Testing, Grades Three & Five

Wed 11th May MARC Library

Fri 13th May Campaspe Cluster Winter Sports @

Colbinabbin, Grades Three—Six

Term Two

Wed 25th May Gym Program Session One

Thurs 26th May Special Persons Day

Fri 27th May MARC Library

Mon 30th May Student-Free Day

Wed 1st June Gym Program Session Two

Mon 6th June Science Excursion to Elmore, P-6

Wed 8th June Gym Program Session Three

Fri 10th June MARC Library

Mon 13th June Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday

Wed 15th June Gym Program Session Four

Mon 20th June School Council Meeting

Fri 24th June MARC Library

Last day of Term Two, 2.15pm dismissal

2016 Term Dates

Mon 11th Apr. — Fri 24th June Term Two

Mon 11th July — Fri 16th Sept. Term Three

Mon 3rd Oct. — Tues 20th Dec. Term Four

“Learning for the future in a caring rural setting.”

Weekly Awards

P-2: Values Award– Thomas Literacy– Charlie Maths– Ellsie 3-6: Values Award— Samantha Literacy– Olivia Holmes Maths– Matthew Awards are presented each Friday at assem-

bly at 3.00pm.

Wood Raffle Thank you to those families who have sold raffle tickets and returned these and the money to the school! Raffle tickets were with last week’s newsletter. Prizes for the raffle include one 6’x4’ load of fire wood and one clay fire pit donated by Bunnings Warehouse Epsom. Proceeds go towards the completion of our NEW PLAY-GROUND!! A reminder that tickets and money are due back at school no later than Wednesday 1st June. The raffle will be drawn on Friday 3rd June at 3.00pm. Mother’s Day Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums! Thank you to those families who paid $5 to cover the cost of the materials for our special Mother’s Day gifts. These have been sent home with the students today.

The staff and students of Goornong Primary School

would like to invite

Parents, Grandparents and all members of our school

community to our

Special Person’s Day

Thursday 26th May, 2016

10.00am—11.00am Classrooms Open

Come into our learning spaces and

participate in learning activities and games

with the students.

11.00am—11.30am

Morning Tea

We hope to see you

there!

NAPLAN ASSESSMENT—GRADES THREE AND FIVE

Next week is NAPLAN week and our Grade Threes and Fives will complete the NAPLAN tests. These tests are completed by all Year Three, Five, Seven and Nine stu-dents across Australia. There are four tests which the students complete—Reading, Writing, Spelling & Gram-mar and Mathematics. Individual student results from these tests are provided to the school later in the year and are available to parents.

All tests are conducted in the morning on the following days:

Tuesday 10th May—Writing and Language Conventions.

Wednesday 11th May—Reading.

Thursday 12th May—Mathematics.

As a school we are often asked by parents what they can do to ensure their child does well on the NAPLAN tests. The tests are designed to assess Literacy and Numeracy skills that students have developed over the course of their entire education. They assess a student’s overall understanding of concepts which are built on through-out a child’s schooling, thus cramming or completing extra study for the tests is not recommended.

Some tips to help your child to achieve their best in-clude:

Encouraging your child to simply do the best they can.

Reassuring your child that whilst it is important to do your best, the result of the tests will have no impact on their future opportunities.

Ensuring your child gets a good night’s sleep prior to the testing days.

Ensuring your child eats a healthy dinner and break-fast prior to the testing days.

Understanding that NAPLAN is not the be all and end all—performance on NAPLAN has no impact on a per-son’s success in life.

If you would like further information please feel free to come and see me. We wish all our Grade Threes and Fives good luck for next week!

Principal’s Report SCHOOL UNIFORM—LABELLING CLOTHING ITEMS

I wish to congratulate our students and families for their efforts to ensure that students are attending school in proper uniform—keep up the good work!

As the cooler weather approaches we ask that parents please ensure that their child’s jumpers are clearly la-belled. The students often begin the day with their jump-er on and take them off when they get hot running around at playtime, increasing the possibility of the item being lost or misplaced. Clearly labelled clothing items can easily be returned to their owner!

NEW STUDENT

This week we had a new student begin at our school. We welcome Olivia (Grade Three) and her family to our school community!

CLUSTER WINTER SPORTS (GRADES THREE-SIX)

A reminder that our Grade Three-Six students will be at-tending the Campaspe Cluster Winter Sports day at the Colbinabbin Recreation Reserve next Friday 13th May. The students have selected from three sports—netball, soccer or football and will participate in activities and matches in mixed teams with students from the other Campaspe Cluster Schools.

The students and teachers will be travelling by bus, de-parting at 11.15am and returning by 3.15pm. The activi-ties and matches for each sport will begin at about 12.00pm.

Our Winter Sports is always a fun day and I encourage parents and other family members to come along and support. There is some room on the bus for those parents who would like to travel to Colbinabbin with us—please let Mr Cox know.

A permission note for this excursion was attached to last week’s newsletter.

In line with VCFL requirements, students that have chosen to play football at the Winter Sports will be required to wear a helmet when playing. These will be provided on the day. Our school requires a written and signed note from parents, should they wish for their child to play with-out a helmet.

Quote of the Week

“Fair is not each student getting the same thing,

fair is each student getting what they need to be

successful.”

Jason Cox

Principal

HIGH FIVE

A high five this week to the FOTS, along

with Mrs Wickham and Mrs Mulqueen, for

their efforts in organising the students’ gifts

for Mother’s Day—thanks to all who have

contributed to this special occasion!

Our school wishes to acknowledge the support of the Elmore / Lockington / Rochester

Community Bank branches, who provided a grant of $7,500 for our playground project.

We encourage our families to support the bank that has supported our school!

Student Banking at Goornong PS

Goornong Primary School offers student banking through the

Elmore and District Community Bank. Student banking is a great

way to teach children about saving money. Parents are able to open

an account for their child at the Elmore Branch. If your child

already has an account with the Bendigo Bank that was opened at

another branch, you can complete a form (available from the school

office) and return it to any Bendigo Bank branch to ensure your

money is rewarding your community.

Once the child’s account is open families are able to follow the instructions below to make deposits

into their child’s account.

1. When you wish to make a deposit, simply insert the money and

your passbook, into a clearly labelled and sealed envelope.

2. Place the envelope into the School Banking box in the school

kitchen.

Each Tuesday the school will take the deposits from the box and deposit them into each

student’s bank account.

3. Passbooks will be returned to students on the Friday following Tuesday collection.

The first collection of student banking deposits will be on Tuesday 10th May.

There will be a representative from the Bendigo Bank at assembly on Friday 6th May to talk

more about student banking and to answer any of your questions. Alternately, you can speak to

Tymika on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

Grade 3-6 Celebrity Tippers of the week: Round 7

Ruby A’Vard

– Haw, Coll, Eagles, Essendon, Suns, Bulldogs, Giants, North Melb, Port Adelaide

Mr Cox

– Haw, Carlton, Cats, Swans, Suns, Adelaide, Giants, North Melb, Lions

Community News

Train Station in Goornong

There is a petition at the reception desk at the

school for a train station in Goornong. This

petition will be presented to Jacinta Allan,

State Member for Bendigo East and Minister

for Public Transport.

A train station in Goornong would allow the

train that runs between Bendigo and Echuca

to stop in our town.

We encourage members of our school and

wider community to sign this petition.

Garden Science Program

This week the Grade 3 to 6 students carried out water quality tests on a sample of water from the Campaspe River. This is

our third year testing water from Englishs Bridge as part of the River Detective Program. Reactive Phosphorus, salinity and

pH were excellent however the turbidity test indicated that the water was not as clear as usual. The students thought this

may be due to the recent rainfall. The Prep to Grade 2 students continued their studies on plant anatomy and biology and

had a lesson on the germination process.

A big thank you to the families that have donated manure for the gardens. We are still after lucerne bails (even spoiled hay

would be great).

Dont forget there are eggs and rosemary for sale at the school.

Felicity Johnson

… She takes me to buy a toy at Target. Cooper

… She always wins the AFL tipping every year. Daniel

… She always lets me knit and she is gong to teach me to crochet. Alla

… She takes me to Auskick. Thomas

… She gives me lollies. Lillie

… She has bough me two hundred trains. Jesse

… She takes me to Maccas and gets me a Happy Meal. Kahlia

… She takes me to Melbourne and takes me to the footy. Hagan

… She taught me to ride my two wheeler and makes my bed. Beau

… Sometimes we have a party at Maccas. Ellsie

...My Nan is special because she teaches me how to make her bed. Savannah

… She lets me sew stuff and gives me cuddles. Charlie

...She spoils me and gets me cars. Mitchell

… She bought me a ginger kitten. Alliera

...She gives me money when I do jobs. Jaxson

… She lets me do the dishes. Ruby

… I tell her whispers and she tells me whispers too. Wade