BERWICK LODGE PRIMARY SCHOOL Phone: 9707 1766 Fax: 9796 2198 E-mail: berwick.lodge.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Visit our Websites : http:// www.berwicklodgeps.vic.edu.au, Camp Australia/Out of School Hours Care: 9769 8251
11TH NOVEMBER 2010
NEWSLETTER N0.34 DIARY DATES Wednesday 17th November Thursday 18th November Thursday 18th November Friday 19th November Wednesday 24th November Wednesday 24th November Thursday 25th November Monday 29th November Tuesday 30th November Tuesday 30th November Thursday 2nd December
NOTICES DUE BACK BY
Gr 3P,34R,34K,3DA Mt Martha water Gr 34P,4M,4S,4DR Mt Martha water Prep Myuna Farm Gr 5/6 Interschool sports away Gr 1 Melbourne Aquarium Gr 5/6 Lightning Premiership Gr 2 Melbourne Aquarium School Council sub-committee Second hand uniform sale 2:30-3:15pm Hot dog day PFA AGM 1:30pm
Friday 12th November Friday 12th November Friday 12th November Monday 15th November Monday 15th November Tuesday 16th November Tuesday 23rd November
Gr 1/2 Melbourne Aquarium Gr 3/4 Mt Martha water treatment Social Club Books Preps Myuna Farm Gr 6 2011 windcheater/t-shirt Gr 5/6 Interschool sports 9.00am Hot dog money
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT PARENT REQUESTS FOR GRADE PLACEMENT FOR 2011 I wrote about this issue in the newsletter on 27th October, outlining the criteria that I would consider when evaluating parent requests. As it has been our practice since we opened in 1990, I invite parents to put in writing to me requests they have with regard to the placement of their child/ren for the following year. I do stress again that your reasons need to be very, very strong as I am conscious of the importance to avoid populism creeping into the process. The closing date for receiving your requests is Monday 22nd November. Please adhere to this timeline as it is very difficult to accept requests beyond this date simply because we commence the grade allocation process the very next day. GRADE STRUCTURE FOR 2011 At this stage we anticipate a total enrolment of 690 students, this being a small decline from this year’s enrolment of 725. The impact will be that we will have 27 grades in total next year, compared with 29 this year. More than two thirds of our students still come to Berwick Lodge from beyond our local neighbourhood, which is heartening news. In planning our grade structure, DEECD and government guidelines are important. To begin with, we receive 1 classroom for every 25 students. Secondly, there is a strong expectation that schools will provide a teaching ratio in the P-2 grades of 1 teacher per 21 students. This ratio can be achieved in several ways - firstly and most simply by limiting P-2 grades to no more than 21 students per grade. This approach works well if your enrolment numbers neatly fit into grades of 21 students. That is often not the case. One
way of dealing with this is to create composite year level grades of 21 students each in total. Another approach is to allocate additional, support teachers to grades where numbers are higher than 21, enabling the average ration for those grades of teachers to students to be 1 to 21. We have often done this at our school because it gives us more flexibility, remembering that grade numbers do fluctuate anyway during the year as some children leave and others enrol. We also prefer to maximise our numbers of straight grades across our school and this at times requires that some grades are slightly larger than others – the option of providing additional support teachers to those grades helps in this regard. Another point worth remembering is that our Year 3-6 grades by definition must be larger than 25 if we are to ensure that our P-2 grades are about 21, simply because we are resourced with, as I pointed out earlier, 1 classroom for 25 children. Typically then our grades 3-6 have between 26 and 30 students in them. Having said all this, our grade structure for next year will be:
0.6 Support – Literacy/Numeracy
PREP AREA - 76 students 4 Grades (4 x 19)
HENRY GROSSEK
YEARS 1 & 2 – 190 students (100 Year 1, 90 Year 2) 8 Grades 4 X Grade 1 (4 x 25) 4 x Grade 2 (2 x 22, 2x 23) 1.2 Support – Additional Assistance YEARS 3 & 4 – 211 students (109 Year 3, 102 Year 4) 8 Grades 4 x Grade 3 (3 x 27, 1 x 28) 4 x Grade 4 (2 x 25, 2 x 26)
Years 5 & 6 – 203 students (115 Year 5, 88 Year 6) 7 Grades 4 x Grade 5 (1 x 28, 3 x 29) 3 x Grade 6 (2 x 29, 1 x 30) 0.1 Support – Audio eLearning Summary: we have achieved an average ratio in our Prep Area of 1 to 19.0, our Grade 1 & 2’s of 1 to 20.6, our Grade 3 & 4’s of 1 to 24.5 and our grade 5 76’s of 1 to 28.6. Also all grades across our school will be straight grades next year. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ’s) Q. Do you accept late parent requests for grade placement? A. As a general rule, no. There will be a reminder in next week’s newsletter – the closing date is Monday 22nd November! QUOTABLE QUOTE ‘If you’ve ever been surprised to hear that others have more confidence in your capabilities than you do, then perhaps you should seriously consider ditching your own view of yourself.’
SCHOOL AWARDS Congratulations to the following students who received awards over the last week.
Elizabeth PL Beren PM Thomas PC Louis PT Jak PW
Andrew PL Ainsley PM Venuki PC Taylah PT Jarrah PW
ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT PREP TRANSITION 2011 Next Tuesday we commence our Prep Transition Program for the students enrolled for 2011. Week One of the program consists of a child focused tour of the school including a visit to the current prep classrooms. The children will be in transition groups that have been put together based on their kinder groupings. They will remain in these groups for Weeks Two and Three to experience activities in the art room, music room, gymnasium and ICT centre. In Week Four the children will be placed in their 2011 class groups for an orientation session in their classroom for 2011.
LOST GLASSES A pair of glasses were recently lost in the vicinity of our school. They were half frame (black) ‘Gant’ brand reading glasses in a navy case. If you have found these glasses, please contact the owner, Michael Ma on 0437 851 876. CITY OF CASEY CHILDREN’S SERVICES The City of Casey Primary Years Support Officer, Children’s Services, Natasha Florance, has provided us with a flyer outlining programs that are currently being offered for families. We have included this flyer in today’s newsletter for your information. We encourage families to read this flyer and take advantage of the excellent programs on offer.
CHRISTMAS HAMPER COLLECTION GRADE 3/4
BLPS OSHC NEWS
Grade 3 & 4 students are collecting food (no fresh food please) and Christmas goodies to make hampers for disadvantaged and needy families for the Christmas season. The non-perishable food and goodies collected will go to the St Andrew’s Uniting Church in Berwick to be made into hampers and then taken to Uniting Care ‘Connections’ in Narre Warren to be distributed to disadvantaged and needy families in this area. Christmas fare of some kind such as shortbread, bon-bons, sweats, cakes and puddings, and soft drinks are most acceptable, and packet and tinned foods suitable for families are appreciated. The food hampers generally contain several staple food items and luxury and festive goodies. No Christmas gifts please, just food items. All collections will end on Friday 3rd December, 2010. Thankyou for your support. It is much appreciated. Lyn Chudleigh
PAST STUDENTS We are always very proud to read and hear about the achievements of past students. We have recently learnt that Christie, Kirsty and Shannon, who attended Year 6 at BLPS in 2005, have been named as School Captains at Berwick Secondary College for 2011. Congratulations! We would also like to acknowledge Adam Silva, another BLPS Year 6 student from 2005, who recently signed a seven year contract with American Major League Baseball franchise, the New York Yankees. Adam began playing baseball with our local club in their under-12 team. LYNNE BRENNER & DEBBIE CUSACK
Hi All, my name is Jess and I am very pleased to be working in the OSHC team at Berwick Lodge. I have worked in the childcare field for the past four years and have a Certificate III in Children’s Services. I am currently studying my Bachelor of Education at Victoria University and am aiming to be teaching my own primary class by 2014! I really enjoy working with your children they are all great! I look forward to meeting you if I haven’t already! Jess
starting from December 20th to 23rd at Berwick Fields or Lynbrook. Please talk to us if you have any questions regarding this. Next week: Under the Sea M: Small Sea Creatures T: Pirate Hats W: Large Sea Creatures TH: Cooking Green Jelly F: Paper Plate Fish Our operating hours are: Before school care 6:45am8:45am After school care 3:30pm-6:30pm Our direct line is 9769 8251 or you can call the admin team at Camp Australia on 8851 4160.
Holiday Program Parents, you can now register Thank you, OSHC team. online for the holiday program
YOU CAN DO IT! Eliminate Different types of negative thinking that lead to poor emotional resilience.
Before discussing the different Negative Types of Thinking listed below, you will want to discuss with the young person’s teacher/parent the extent to which the young person may hold one or more of the Negative Types of Thinking. You may use the accompanying ‘Negative Types of Thinking Checklists’ to help the young persons' teacher/parent identify with Negative Types of Thinking to eliminate. Select one or two of the following Negative Types of Thinking held by the young person for discussion. Explain to parents and teachers that they will want to hold a conversation with the young person where the young person is shown why his/her way of thinking is negative and does not help him/her to be successful and happy. You will also want to review with the teacher and/or the parent the positive Habit of the Mind to strengthen. Explain to the young person that he/she is made up of many characteristic —some good, some not so good. Have the young person come up with five good things about his/her skills, talents, and personality and five things that could be improved on. You can help the young person if he/she gets stuck. Then, you should explain that because he/she possesses good qualities, it never makes sense to think ‘I’m hopeless’ or ‘I’m a loser’ when something bad happens. Instead, encourage the young person to think, ‘when a bad thing happens, I do not lose my goods points. I am still me—capable and likeable.’
COMMUNITY NEWS FREE to good home Kittens grey/tabby/black short and long hair 7 weeks old. Phone 9702 5592 FOR SALE Jack Russel puppies long and short hair ready 15th-22nd December 2 girls 3 boys. To view please phone Michelle 0418 498 396
Unclaimed Halloween costumes need to be collected from the office.
Individual Literacy Sessions now available. Would your child benefit from an intensive individualized program to help improve their reading and writing skills? For all enquiries please call Karen Perrin on 03 5944 3777 or leave a message at the school office.
BLPS Parents and Friends News Next Meeting: Thursday 2nd December at 1:30pm in the after school care building. This meeting will also be our AGM to elect next year’s committee. Everyone is welcome including toddlers. PFA welcomes anyone wanting to join the fun and make a difference.
Current events
AGM MEETING FOR PFA: Our AGM will be on the 2nd December at 1.30pm in the after school care building. If you would like to nominate your self for a position on the PFA please get a form from the office and fill it out and hand it in. Anyone welcome to join the PFA. We have only got a small amount of mothers helping and would welcome anyone wanting to join us. We have a lot of fun. Cookie Dough: We have sent out forms for Cookie Dough. These forms must be in by Tuesday 16 th November. We have sampled the Christmas cake and it is lovely. There is also shortbread. Great for homemade Christmas presents. Orders will be delivered 2 weeks after forms are given in. Remember if you want to make Christmas cookies to get your orders in. OUTDOOR TWILIGHT CINEMA: WE are having an outdoor cinema on the oval at the end of term (Friday 10th December). If your company would like to advertise before the movie please send a note to the office for the PFA, and you will be contacted. Forms will be sent out later in the term. Forms will be going out with in the next week. Shopping Tour: The shopping tour was last Saturday. Thanks to everyone who went I was told everyone had a fantastic time and got many bargains. Thanks again to Jodie Warwick for running this event. Hot Dog Lunch: Forms have gone out for our next hotdog lunch. Please get your forms back as soon as possible. WE are going to need a few mums to help us on the morning of the lunch to prepare the lunch so if you are able to help out for a few hours please let us know by sending a note to the office with your phone number on it and we will contact you. The date we would need help is 30th November.
The PFA would like to thank you for your continued support.
ELECTION DAY 27TH NOVEMBER BB I am able to help with the BBQ on 27th November. 8am – 9am 9am – 10am 10am-11am 11am -12noon 12noon – 1 pm 1pm – 2pm Name: ___________________________________Phone:___________________ Childs Grade:_________________
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CRYSTAL CLEANING SERVICES P/L For all your carpet/upholstery and general cleaning needs Special Offer 3 rooms/3 seats Professionally steamed cleaned for $77.00 incl. gst Free deodorising Free stain treating Other services: Vacate clean-up/ready for sale For bookings & enquiries contact Steve 0411 752 279 $1.00 from each booking goes back to BLPS. Plus $1.00 to Royal Children's Hospital