Principal: Mr David Tyler

5 Harriet Street TOORA, 3962 Ph: (03) 5686 2283 / Fax: (03) 5686 2451

Email: toora.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Website: www.tooraps.vic.edu.au

TOORA PRIMARY SCHOOL

Newsletter Issue 03 Thursday 5th March, 2015

2015 CALENDAR MARCH 6th World Day of Prayer 6th Assembly 3:00pm Leadership Badge Presentation 7th PFA Catering at Welshpool Flower Show 9th PUBLIC HOLIDAY 12th Parent /Teacher Interviews 13th Assembly 3:00pm ALL WELCOME 16th Portrait Workshop Session 1 19th Athletics Sports in Foster 20th Assembly 3:00pm ALL WELCOME 23rd Portrait Workshop Session 2 26th School Council AGM 27th Last Day Term 1 early dismissal at 2:20pm APRIL 13th School resumes Term 2 25th ANZAC Day public Holiday MAY 15th Toora Primary School Cross Country 12th NAPLAN Testing commences Gr3 & Gr5 19th School Photos 22nd Principals Conference - Melbourne JUNE 4th Division Cross Country - Stony Creek 18th Regional Cross Country - Lardner Park 26th Last Day Term 2 JULY 13th School resumes Term 3 16th State Cross Country SEPTEMBER 10th Division Athletics Sports - Mary Mackillop 18th Last Day Term 3 OCTOBER 5th School resumes Term 4 13th Regional Athletics - Newborough NOVEMBER 30th Aquatic Education Program commences P-6

Parent / Teacher - Getting to Know You Interviews will take place on Thursday 12th March 2015. As an important part of our “Reporting to Parents” policy at Toora Primary School, we conduct formally timetabled meetings during the year. Parent / Teacher “Getting to Know You” Interviews for all Grades will be held on Thursday 12th March from 1:30pm to 6:00pm. This is an opportunity for you to share relevant information about your child with his/her teacher, and to discuss home/school strategies that will support your child to develop specific learning objectives. On Thursday 12th March there will be classes for all students. Students will be involved in whole-school activities in our Sports Hall with Mr Tyler and Mr Whittle during the afternoon. If you haven't already returned your preferred interview time to school, please do so asap or alternatively contact the Admin office 56862 283. All families will be notified via formal letter of their scheduled interview time - these will go home next Tuesday.

Lexi and Kurtis proudly showing off our new school sign. After being ordered last year it is wonderful to have it finally erected. We should no longer be mistaken as the Toora heated pool building!!

SCHOOL ASSEMBLY - Leadership Team Badge presentation

YOU are invited to come along to our School Assembly tomorrow at 3:00pm.

Hi Everybody, On Tuesday afternoon I was excited to accompany Mrs Janssen to Leongatha for our first Kidsmatter briefing of the year. The quote below from kidsmatter.edu.au gives a broad overview of this framework; KidsMatter Primary is a flexible, whole-school approach to improving children’s mental health and wellbeing for primary schools. It can be tailored to schools' local needs. Through KidsMatter Primary, schools undertake a two to three-year cyclical process in which they plan and take action to be a positive community; one that is founded on respectful relationships and a sense of belonging and inclusion, and that promotes:

social and emotional learning (including evidence-based social and emotional learning programs) working authentically with parents, carers and families support for students who may be experiencing mental health difficulties.

When schools take on KidsMatter, they build on the work that they are already doing in these areas. This term we have begun focussing on developing the children’s ability to problem solve things which ‘stress them out’. These common child stressors relate to things like "A friend not talking to them or not letting them play", "A friend who was nasty or said rude words" or "The task the teacher gave out was too hard and I didn’t get it, I didn’t know what to do, I am stupid". When faced with events out of their control, or events that make them feel anxious, children can react in a variety of ways. Here are some common examples: getting angry with themselves and others; withdrawing into themselves and not connecting with other people; racing to adults demanding that they ‘solve’ their issues, usually by "telling the other per-son off’; giving up, or not trying their best; school absence; tummy upset; being aggressive to others or physical; mood swings; lying; crying, etc. One of our goals this year is to assist children to develop a ‘growth mindset’ in order to help them be able to cope when they are faced with difficulties. The use of probing, yet positive language from adults help children develop a growth mindset and build resilience to be able to cope when things get tough. As part of our Kidsmatter journey we will be forming an action team that will be made up of teachers, parents, and students. This action team will access training and meet to set the course that Toora PS will be taking in the area of student wellbeing for the next several year. If you think this sounds like something you would be interested in being a part of please let me know. Thanks, David

FROM OUR PRINCIPAL

PARENTS’ AND FRIENDS ASSOCIATION (PFA) Our fabulous PFA are having their first fundraising task on Saturday at Welshpool Flower Show. We thank EVERYONE who has donated food, money or time towards this function.

Its not easy co-ordinating an event , especially when it’s at a community event outside our own town. For people who have offered to donate goods, we ask that you drop these at the school no later than Friday (Tomorrow) 9:00am.

For those families who are donating their time, please don’t forget to come to Welshpool Hall at the time you indicated - we need all the help we can get.

Our 2015 PFA would love to see anyone interested in supporting the school through a social, fun group who do an amazing job coordinating the fundraising to enable us to purchase value-added items for our school.

The next meeting will be at 9:00am on Wednesday 11th March in the Multi-purpose Hall to finalise the “Toora Pear Party” details.

CAPTAINS CORNER It has been a great first five weeks of this term. There have been new goals set for the whole school focussing on being organised and being on time. We have Athletics sports coming up in two weeks - we encourage all our peers to support this fabulous day and do our best in each event: Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, Triple Jump, Discus, Hurdles and Sprints and Endurance. We are hoping to keep the Shield at Toora! GO TOORA. We have noticed lots of great things going on in our school yard, new sandpit plans, older kids helping the younger kids. If we all try hard it will be the BEST place to be.

- Lexi & Kurtis, School Captains

The Prep/One classroom is a nice place to be with our Preps doing all the right things and showing how great they are at learning routines. It was nice to see the classroom full this week with our preps now attending 5 days a week. As the swimming program has now finished we were able to begin practicing our athletics for the carnival which is only 2 weeks away. Over the past fortnight we have been learning the sounds 's' and 'd' as well as progressing with our writing and introducing the grade ones to writing recounts. We are very fortunate to have Kerry Corcoran in to assist with literacy 2 hours per week. In maths students have been learning about simple 2D shapes and location. Here are some photos of our class under the monkey bars and beside the slide! - Miss Williams

CLASSROOM NEWS

The students in Grade 5/6 have been working on educational basics – we’ve been adding adjectives, adverbs and openers to simple sentences . . . so “The boy ran to school” could become “It was 8.59am, so the disorganised boy sprinted madly to school”. We’ve inferred meaning, thinking of what could be behind the statement, “the woman shouted” . . . with suggestions ranging from “she was angry” to “her child was going to step on to the road” to “her team scored a goal”. Maths basics have been a focus too, with all students making impressive improvements in timetables and geometry. We have also discussed classroom rules and expectations. Four of our favourite are ‘respect leads to respect’, ‘learning is a right and a responsibility’, ‘aim high’ and ‘smile’. On Monday, we were lucky enough to have one of our parents visit and share her passion for making loom-band creations. Cheryl gave us her time, telling the students about how she planned and designed a huge range of creatures, ranging from Smaug the dragon to a giant pink poodle. She also gave 18 of these creations to our students, which were much appreciated. Thank you so much Cheryl! - Mrs Janssen

In Music students have been using computer software to merge and blend different types of instruments to identify rhythms and beats.

Physical Ed sessions have concentrated on Athletics training and will continue up to Thursday 19th March. Thank you to Jen Delaney for her expertise in the Throwing events as a former “Little Aths Champion” her experience is invaluable. Kitchen Garden - is a work in progress with the assistance of Sharon Jones and Sam Dale students have begun a major clean-up operation and this week took cuttings and are experimenting with different soil types. We look forward to seeing what takes root from these cuttings. Can anyone Help us? Our Kitchen Garden areas around the Multi-purpose Hall are being developed and we a seeking a donation of old sileage - contact Mr Whittle at school ph:03 56862 283 - Mr Whittle

The grade 2/3/4 class has been exploring the world of narrative texts! We have been busy sharing our wonderful ideas and building enthusiasm and excitement for our stories, all which involve the works of a hero. Our authors have followed the writing process, to plan, draft, revise and publish some wacky stories that are sure to

entertain! - Mrs Louise Gilbertson

Marshmallow Land One squishy day I went outside and I ate ten marshmallows, then I went to School. When I put my bag down marshmallow’s started to drop out of the sky. Then a Gigantic marshmallow came falling to the ground. Suddenly, a cute puppy walked under the path of the big marshmallow. Then it stood up and held his arm out and took hold of the big marshmallow and saved the day. By Sunday

There was a Girl that went Crazy. One girl crazy day there was a little girl at school, in Welshpool. When the little girl was at school, when it comes to schoolwork and she does not know the answer, she goes crazy! This time it was not just crazy… it was terrible. She got so mad that she began throwing chairs across the room. When the teacher saw her, she screamed, “THAT’S IT!!! If you don’t stop then I’m ringing the police! And you can go to kids jail.” Then the girl stopped and stared at her teacher and began to think of what would happen if she went to kids jail. Would she ever see her family again? And if she didn’t what would happen? Would it look dark and scary? Would she get to eat yummy food and get any toys? Then she decided I don’t want to go to kids jail, so she stopped being crazy. By Jodie

Captain Goo Goo The year was 1920, Captain Goo-Goo had a mission, Dr. Un-derwear was back to stink bomb the world in a giant nappy. Quick revision, ok, Dr. Underwear is the bad guy and Cap-tain Goo-Goo is the good guy. Now back to the story. Captain Goo-Goo had lost his nappy and he began to wail and ran away. Suddenly out of the black Captain Goo-Goo returns. This time in a Nappy boat firing ‘full-nappy’ bombs! The biggest of the bombs hits Dr Underwear right in the face. He fell into the sewers and was defeated forever. By Django

It was a sunny day. It was a sunny day. Deacon woke up early to watch Pokémon. All of the sudden the bus came! He rushed to the bus and was on the bus when he remembered that he had forgotten his hat! Deacon got to school feeling very sad, he wouldn’t be allowed to play outside. Then Deacons mother arrived in a helicopter with his hat and saved the day! By Deacon

THE KID One sunny day a kid named Mary got kidnapped. da da da! Trapped in a glass box she was lowed into the sea. Lower and lower she went until it stopped and the glass started to crack. Water flooded in, she was scared. Then a Superhero came and brang the box up, but the villian defeated him and the girl was being lowered again. She was doomed… until a light came on and she burst out and defeated the villian. She brang back the Superhero and she lived in an invisible house and they lived happily ever after in the invisible house. By Erin

Thursday 19th March is our Prom Coast Athletics Carnival which sees our Toora school

compete against one Welshpool team and three Foster teams. The emphasis for the day will be on participation,

having a go at the events and doing our best. The day is set up to be fun for all students whilst also being used as

selection trials for the Prom Coast combined team to compete at the Athletics carnival in Leonga-tha.

All grades P-6 will compete at the South Gippsland Secondary College (SGSC).

All students to be at SGSC by 9.00am on Thursday 19th MARCH

Parents are expected to make their own arrangements to transport students to and from the sports day.

The sports are expected to finish at approximately 2.45 - 3.00pm and parents are asked to collect students at this time. All students are to be signed out on leaving the grounds, you will need to find your child's

teacher and sign the roll sheet. If someone other than a parent is to collect your child please let their class teacher know and ensure that they know to sign the roll.

Students are under the supervision of teachers whilst at the sports. We look forward to seeing plenty of our parents at the Sports next Friday cheering Toora along.

Toora PS will compete as one team. Students should arrive wearing our Dark Blue Sports tops, or a dark blue T-

shirt with navy or black shorts with comfortable shoes suitable to run in, and bring a positive attitude with them on the day.

No student will be permitted to remove their shoes. Students are to wear hats when not competing.

TRANSPORT TO AND FROM THE ATHLETICS SPORTS AT FOSTER

The Athletics Sports day is an important component of our Physical Education program

and we expect all students to attend. Parents are expected to make their own arrangements to transport

students to and from the sports day. In the past parents have organised amongst themselves how to best share the

transporting of students to and from Foster for the day.

If you are having specific difficulties with transport please see your child’s teacher / or communication book.

PARENTS: You may like to bring folding chairs or rugs to sit on up on the bank and around parts of the track. Please keep pre-school youngsters with you so that they are not near the running track. Students will move to each event in Age groups lead by a designated staff member, they will be able to join you during the lunch break. Families may choose to bring a picnic lunch and snacks for their children, the Secondary College canteen will be open to purchase drinks and snacks for those wishing to do so.

WHAT IF? If the weather is unkind to us it will mean a postponement of the Thursday event to Wednesday 25th March. We will take the weather and the forecast into account and make a staff decision by end of school Wednesday 18th.

COMMUNITY NEWS

WELSHPOOL FLOWER SHOW

The Welshpool & District Horticultural Society's annual Autumn Flower Show will be held on Friday and Saturday 6th/7th March over the Labour Day weekend. This is a Dahlia specialty show, providing keen gardeners with the opportunity to enter hanging baskets, pots, cut flowers, photos, home produce, vegetables and floral art. Lunch and afternoon teas are available both days. Located in the Welshpool Community Hall

A Community Information Night on Auditory Processing Disorders Wednesday 18 March, 7.30 pm Chairo Campus - Pioneers Hall, Leongatha Campus, 101 Horn Street Chairo Christian School, Leongatha campus, invites you to hear Lesley Tan of Listening works talk about Auditory Processing Disorders. Auditory Processing is listening and understanding what has been said. Children with normal hearing can hear speech well but might not be able to convert this speech into a meaningful message. The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, have identified two specific Auditory Processing factors that can affect children when their Auditory Processing is matur-ing slowly. Signs of an Auditory Processing Disorder can vary between children depending on personality and experiences. Signs include:

Lack of concentration Poor motivation for school work Low self-esteem Poor organizational skills Inability to follow instruction Problem behavior, hyperactivity Selective hearing Confusion or vagueness

Come and learn more about Auditory processing disorders and how you can help your child. The session is free of charge and includes 1.5hour talk followed by question time. There will be booklets available for purchase.