May 5th, 2015 Issue 11

Website: www.hvps.vic.edu.au

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

8/5 Mothers Day

Breakfast 8am

8/5 Spirit of Ghana—

Arts Performance

16 & 17/5 Cycling

Fundraiser

18/5 - 22/5

Education Week

Activities

18/5 Grade 5/6

Netball - Wesley Hill

19/5 Grades 3-6

Bendigo Art Gallery

Excursion

20/5 Open Morning

9am to 11am

20/5 Grade 3/4

Netball - Wesley Hill

20-22/5 Bookfair

20/5 School Council

Meeting 7.30pm

29/5 Grades Prep - 2

The P.I.P. Parent Information Paper It’s great to finally make it back to school for this term and I thank the staff for

their great effort in “holding the fort” while I was on leave. A very special

thank you to Katrina Victor Gordon for doing the Acting Principal role while I

was away. She has made it very easy for me on my return.

We have Education Week coming up from 18th May and are planning a

number of activities for this week. There will be an open morning on

Wednesday 20th May from 9am-11am and parents are invited to come an

spend some time in their children’s room to see what happens. The Bookfair is

also scheduled for that week, so save your money for the great offers which will

be available.

This Friday 8th May is our annual Mother’s Day breakfast, starting from 8am.

We invite all our mums to come along and have breakfast with their children

before school starts. An invitation was sent last week and we would like replies

as we need these for catering purpose.

On Friday, there is also an Arts Performance called “The Spirit of Ghana”.

Families who have not paid the levy received a notice about this. Can those

families please make their payment as soon as possible.

On Tuesday 19th May, the children in Grades 3-6 will be visiting the Art

Gallery in Bendigo to view the Ned Kelly exhibition. This is a free event, but

we have to pay for the bus for this excursion, so you will be receiving this note

shortly so look out for that. We appreciate this opportunity to attend the

gallery. The students will be having lunch in Rosiland Park before returning to

school in the afternoon.

Next week is NAPLAN week for children in Grades 3 and 5. Please take a low

key approach to this with your children as we don’t want the children to get

unnecessarily nervous about the tests. Preparation has been done at school

and class teachers have talked to the children about what to expect from these

tests. We ask that parents ensure that the children are well rested and have

plenty of good food to eat all next week.

Last year towards the end of the year, Katrina Hood was nominated by the

parents of Lancefield PS (one of her other schools) for the National Excellence

in Teaching Awards. This involved a series of interviews , presentations and

referee checks over several months. Katrina was successful in making it

through the state rounds to the national level interviews and finished there in

the top 36 in Australia. We congratulate her on this fabulous effort. Well

done Katrina!

School Banking Details for EFT Payments.

Bank: Commonwealth Bank

BSB: 063509

Account: 10042656

Use your family name as the payment reference

Centrepay is now available for Centrelink customers

to enable the direct payment of your school fees and

related expenses. To set up a regular deduction from

your Centrelink payment please click on the link here

to complete and submit a form online. Brochures &

forms will be available from the office shortly.

Family statements and receipts have been posted. Some families have a credit balance, this can be offset against

uniform purchases or future camps. Payments can be made to the school by cheque, cash or internet banking

transfer—see banking details below.

When I was busy at work I would often think about what my wife must be doing. I used to conjure up an image of her playing happily with my three-year-old son in the sandpit at the local playgroup while the other two children slept peacefully nearby. With these images at the front of my mind I thought motherhood sure beat working for a living. Many years ago I discovered how far from the truth my notion of motherhood really was when my wife and I swapped roles. I must con-fess that two of the children were at school so I had it easier than my partner but it was as close as I could get. The first thing I learned was that while I may be the primary carer I could never be a substitute mother to my children. Take sickness or illness for example. When one of the kids was off-colour, had a cut or bruise or just needed some tender loving care they headed straight for their mother. Dad may do in the meantime, but I was a pale imitation of the real thing, their mum, when it comes to dispensing com-fort. I could give them just as good a hug as any female. It is just that their mum was well ... their mum. It is as simple as that. I also learned there are some things that fathers can’t do as well as mothers. In my case it was fixing my daughters’ hair. The first time I put my youngest daughter’s hair in a plait she cried. Not from pain, just the embarrassment of being seen in public with a hair-do that looked like a piece of knotty, old rope. It became accepted in my house that ‘dads don’t do hair’. I soon appreciated the unique skills that mothers develop if they are to survive the rigours of parenting on a daily basis. In particular, mothers seem to have the uncanny knack of doing three jobs at once while dealing with noisy or whingeing children.

Multi-task masters

Anyone who can cut a round of sandwiches, prepare breakfast for a family, find a missing pair of socks for tiny feet while making sure everyone is on track, has my vote. I have trouble getting myself dressed in the morning, let alone worrying about anyone else. There is no place in a mother’s repertoire for tunnel-vision or focusing on one task at a time. These are luxuries reserved for the work-place, not the family home. The fact that kids are noisy, demanding and often unpredictable means anyone who spends a fair time in their vicinity must be flexible, patient and able to keep cool under extraordinary pressure. Qualities I still don’t possess. Take cooking for example. The job of preparing a decent meal wasn’t too hard. I could – and still can – usually produce something quite edible with a minimum of fuss. However, rarely did I have the chance to cook in isolation. There was always a child interrupting, asking for help or just wanting to chat. Not to mention fitting cooking around bathing, hearing kids read or picking them up from sports practice. An increasing number of mothers do full- time paid work then come home for their second shift of parenting. Any mention to these moth-ers of my trials with the juggling act, simply evokes a shoulder shrug and a ‘welcome to the real world’ look. If anyone says that motherhood is not like real work, send them my way. After many years of being the primary parent to my children – usually the preserve of women – I can really set them straight. It’s hard yakka that largely goes unrewarded.

Happy Mother’s Day! Here’s to happy parents and happy kids, Take care,

Michael Grose

Reading Nights Week 4

25 nights: Noah

50 nights: Shannon, Shelby, Kate

75 nights: Amina, Fletcher

Group Music Lessons—Drew Thorpe

Congratulations to Michael, Alistair and Piers for their hard work all day and their fantastic performances in the CSC Youth Orchestra on Tuesday last week. They rep-resented the school in excellent fashion and should be very proud of their efforts.

Well done and thank you,

Drew

Cool to Be at

School

Grade Prep/1

The Cool to Be at School Cup is awarded each

week at assembly to the grade with the least

number of absences in the previous week. It is a

term long competition and each class is keen to

win it.

The reward for winning is an extra five minutes

play at playtime.

Early Bird

Grade Prep/1

The Early Bird Award is also awarded at assem-

bly to the grade which has the least number of

late arrivals in the previous week.

WINNER

WINNER

Term 2 Lunches & Duty Roster

A special thank you to Veronica for making all the desserts this term. Duty begins at 12:30 and should be done by about 2pm. All the food will be pre-prepared, ready to heat and serve. If there are leftovers

please enjoy them or take them home. Thanks again! Jacq Cue 0418 35546

*Please note- there have been some changes to this terms menu*

********************************************************************************************************************* May Menu Duty 8

th Baked Potato, Apple Crumble Naomi & Lauren P

15th

Pumpkin Soup & Bread, Choc chip biscuit Jayne & Rebecca E 22

nd Ham, Cheese, & Pineapple Pizza, Apple Cake Lorella & Di

29th

Baked Potato, Jam Slice Amy & Lynda Q June 5

th 2 X 3 inch Sausage Rolls, Vanilla Cupcake Jason & Veronica

12th

Pasties, Jelly Cup Jodi-Maree & Gen 19

th Pasta Bake, Honey Joys Celia & Kendall

26th Pumpkin & Spinach Risotto, Brownie Jacq

********************************************************************************************************************* Payment Options -fill out a form and pay each week, due by 9am each Wednesday.

Harcourt Valley Primary

School Wilkinson Street

HARCOURT VIC 3453

Phone: 03.54742266

Fax: 03.54742706

E-mail:

harcourt.valley.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

Harcourt Carpet Bowls Association Inc

is holding a “Come and Try” night. Come along

and try your hand at Carpet Bowls on Wednesday

6th May from 7.30pm-9pm. Anyone from 8 years

and up can enjoy a warm and friendly atmosphere,

and we will provide you with everything you need to

play bowls. We will even provide supper!

Come to the Harcourt Leisure Centre in Binghams

Road . If you can’t get along to this event but want

to find out more, please contact Loretta on

54742453 or Tyrone on 54742126

Thank you all for all donations so far for the Sierra

Leone Orphfund.org shipping container.

It is nearly full with clothes, desks, chairs, filing

cabinets, some bikes and more. All this is for

children who have lost their mums and dads to

ebola; we are setting up their new home.

There is a little bit of room left: We DO still

need DONATIONS of especially BOYS clothes

but also GIRLS in sizes 7 - 14 KIDS sizes!! NO

MORE adult clothes thank you! You can drop off

your bundles in carport at 19 Lemon Street, Camp-

bells Creek or in front of gate 11 McEwan Street,

Castlemaine . NO stuffed toys - ONLY IF you have

(an) educational game(s), wood puzzle, stationery,

toothpaste, toothbrushes, soaps THANK YOU!

Guinea Pigs for Sale

$10 each

Phone Lynda—5474 2534