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
16TH DECEMBER 2010
NEWSLETTER N0.39 DIARY DATES
NOTICES DUE BACK BY
Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Office will be open for payment of fees from 9:30am-4:30pm Friday 4th February 2011 All students return to school
DECEMBER 17TH END OF TERM 4 1:30PM FINIS H PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
YEAR IN SUMMARY What a great year it has been for our school on many fronts. I was reminded of this at last Monday‘s Graduation Celebration. In congratulating this year‘s graduates I thanked them for being the wonderful leaders that they are and more importantly still, they had been a great team of students from their early days in Prep. That is not always the case, but for the Class of 2010 graduates it most certainly has been. Thanks! Not only have our graduates brought great credit on our school and themselves, but so too have all our students, in so many different ways – I simply love hearing kids say to me as I might be walking down the main corridor, ―Hello Mr Grossek, how are you?‖ or when out in the yard swarming in my direction to help with cleaning up the playgrounds. Just walking around our school reveals so much - I am sure that you have seen umpt een examples, bot h in classrooms and on displays in corridors, of the stunning work of our students. This brings me to our staff, both teaching and non-teaching - they are a superb team, without whose dedication, professionalism and enthusiasm our school would be the poorer. Across the board and throughout our school, our staff provides a very high quality of service – be it at the front office where a friendly smile and prompt
attention is so important to that after school chat with your child‘s class teacher that can be very reassuring to any of the many highlight activities P-6 and in our specialist programs. Many people comment on the great state of our facilities— our cleaning and maintenance staff keep them in tip top shape. Thanks. A great deal of credit for our success this year is due to the outstanding leadership of our two AP‘s— Lynne Brenner and Debbie Cusack. They certainly make my job a lot easier too. Thanks. Our PFA deserve a special mention for their contribution to a great year at our school – not only have they raised $30,000 in fundraising activities, but they have been a wonderful team in the process and highlights such as the Student Disco and last week‘s Outdoor Film Night would not have been possible without their terrific efforts. Last week we held our final school council meeting for the year I congratulated all members for the sense of camaraderie that was generated throughout the year. A lot o f s c hoo l co un c i l w o r k i s unglamorous and attracts very little attention, yet it sets the tone and direction for our school. Richard Power, our president will be retiring from council early next year, after having been involved for the past seven years while his daughter attended our school. Thanks Richard
for your objectivity and passion - in particular your very public and sustained support for our school with the BER. STAFF CHANGES Most of these have already been acknowledged in recent newsletters. Our final one for the year relates to Grade 3D – Ms Karise Dell‘s grade. Karise is working 4 days per week again next year and her team teacher for the 5th Day (Thursdays in 2011) will be Lia Whitelaw. Lia is well known to many of us as she has been a fulltime teacher here in the past for many years and more recently as part time teacher, filling many different needs. It is great to have Lia working with us in this capacity next year. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ’s) Q. What are you doing over the holidays? A. Relaxing with family and friends and simply pottering around. I hope you are all doing some of that too! Merry Christmas and take care. QUOTABLE QUOTE
‘One of the best gifts you can give others is yourself, well cared for!’ HENRY GROSSEK
ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT YEAR 6 GRADUATION What a fabulous night we all enjoyed on Monday as we celebrated the graduation of our grade 6 students. Students, family members and staff joined together to reflect on the seven years of primary school and congratulate our graduates on their a c h i e v e m e n t s . O u r S c h o ol Captains, Amy and Cameron, reflected on their journey through primary school and their roles as School Captains. Special thanks needs to be extended to the grade 5/6 teaching team who organised all aspects of the night, from the emotional power point presentation to the memento folders that were given to each student. Thanks also to other staff members who attended the evening and helped out on the night. Many of our students and parents have provided us with positive feedback regarding the professionalism and organisation of the evening. Everyone involved enjoyed Bernard‘s performance and his personal ‗words of wisdom‘ for our students and parents. The staff were very impressed with the exemplary behaviour of our students and the mature manner in which they presented themselves. Good Luck to all of our graduates for the future!
SINGAPORE TRIP A decision was made this week to confirm that our trip to Singapore will proceed. Families of the students who have been selected to attend have been notified and the children have indicated that
they will be madly saving towards their spending money for the trip. We thank all parents who expressed an interest and have supported this initiative. When staffing has been confirmed we will commence a program of activities to encourage the students to build positive relationships with their fellow travellers. STUDENT REQUISITES Families are reminded that the payment for their child’s requisites for 2011 should be paid prior to the commencement of the school year. Payments can be made up until the close of school on Friday 17th December or prior to the commencement of school. The office will be open to receive payments on Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd February between 9:30AM and 4:00PM. Payments can also be made using Bpay. Information regarding this option is provided on the Student Requisite notice. SCHOOL HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES The City of Casey offers a range activities and events to suit children of all ages during the school holidays. They have provided us with a number of booklets with a directory of the activities on offer. These booklets are available from our office. This directory is also published on the City of Casey website which lists additional activities as information becomes available. Visit http://www.casey.vic.gov.au BEST WISHES Tomorrow we will be farewelling some students at various year levels. We would like to wish these students all the best, and thank them and their families for their contributions to our school over the years.
To Lyn Chudleigh, Andrew Searle and Ashley Jacobs, good luck in your endeavours, and thank you for all of your hard work and commitment to BLPS. We would like to say a big thank you to Meenu Bhuvan who has filled a variety of roles at our school this year. Her flexibility has been greatly appreciated. We also say farewell to Kylie Silvester who has worked in 3DA one day per week. Kylie is leaving us to have her third child and we wish her luck with her expanding family. Emily Nolde will be taking leave without pay during 2011 and we hope that her plans for the future work out well. We wish our whole school community a happy and safe holiday break and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.
LYNNE BRENNER DEBBIE CUSACK
&
SCHOOL AWARDS Congratulations to the following students who received awards over the last week. Josie PW Makani PW William PT Jade PT Ben PM Halinka PL
Anthony PW Adam PC Taylah S PT Whitney PL Kristen PM Madison PC
JSC NEWS
VISUAL ART NEWS
On Friday 3rd December, the JSC ran a Crazy Dress Up Day. Through your kind donations, we raised $765, which will be donated to the Monash Children‘s Cancer Centre. The Grade that raised the most money on the day was 1K, with $53.00. The best dressed person in the Prep area was Nikkitah Prep C. In the 1/2 Area it was Brittany 1C. In the 3/4 area, it was Edward 3/4K and in the 5/6 Area, it was Delanay 5E. 1K received an email from one of their class mates who is a patient at the Monash Children‘s Cancer Centre: ―I have just arrived home today after spending one week in hospital. Mum showed me your email and all of the funny photos of you on Crazy Dress Up Day. You all did a great job to raise so much money! The Monash Children‘s Cancer Centre is where I have my treatment. They will be very grateful for the donation. I am excited about Christmas too! We have put our Christmas tree up at home and when I was staying in the hospital I helped the nurses with decorating the kids‘ ward, they have an Aussie beach Christmas theme this year. I even painted pictures on some of the windows!‖ On behalf of the JSC we would like to say a big thank you for your generous support this year.
A TEAM EFFORT! We would like to take this hance to thank our fantastic parent helpers who have given up their time over the last few weeks to assist us in the completion of our new Mosaic Wall. A huge thank you to the following mums: Toni Sier (1M), Paula Tuininga (1K), Oslyn Franks (2B), Leasah Nowak (4M), Jo Holmes (1C) and a very dedicated Leah Bailey (6P). As a team these parents worked tirelessly alongside Helen Harman (the artist) and the students, mounting tiles, grouting tiles as well as enjoying learning about Mosaic application. I think you will agree with us, that all the hard work everyone has put in has resulted in a stunning and fabulous piece of art in our school that the students should be extremely proud of. It has been a pleasure working as a team and we look forward to another great year in 2011 with a new project! If anyone is interested in Mosaic classes for student/ adults or January school holiday classes please contact Helen on: artopia-helen@bigpond.com Enjoy a very Merry Christmas and a safe New Year. Jo Zammit and Julie McLeod Visual Arts Teachers
Vanessa Porter and Jodie Luketic.
COLES DOCKET NEWS Congratulations to all our families and friends who contributed to raising 91,135 Coles dockets for Berwick Lodge PS. The dockets have been redeemed for equipment and will be received in February 2011. Awesome effort everyone.
BLPS Parents and Friends News THANK YOU
On behalf of all the Committee members, we would like to say thank you for your continued support of our fundraising this year. We have had an amazing year and would like to thank you for your generous contributions and assistance. I would like to thank our wonderful PFA members who have worked so hard this year to make every and all our events a HUGE success. Andrea Douglas, Sam Cline, Sarina Kovacs, Belle Burgess, Lisa Badenhop, Sophie Blake. Tracy Walsh, Sam Oldfield, Rose Hughes and Debbie Pace, I couldn‘t do this without you. This small group of women are AMAZING!!!!! Also I would like to mention Jodie Norton who just recently joined our PFA but has been here for everything including the cookie dough floods. I would like to give a huge thank you to our wonderful Office Staff. Janine, Julie, Linda and Denise. With out all you help this year we would not have been able to organise everything so well. You have been a huge help and support every time we have needed you. Linda you will be missed. I would also like to make special note to Mr Grossek, Mrs Cusack and Mrs Brenner who went out of there way to help and support our efforts continually this year. You have guided me and our committee, and to the WONDERFUL teachers who work so hard through out the year just looking after our kids, who volunteered there time for the disco and came to our Clover Cottage night and have helped and made our night amazing. A special thanks to Ms Rapinett who helped save our Disco. Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time for our Mothers Day and Fathers Day stalls, our disco, our BBQs and hotdog lunches, without your help we wouldn‘t be able to run these events. We are hoping to get some more parents to join our PFA next year as we have an exciting year ahead. We are organising events like a market, Clover Cottage dinner, Walk-a-ton and the drive in as well as Mothers and Fathers Day stalls once a term. We will have a special lunch day and we are doing 2 discos. We know how hard it is to help with everything but next year everyone is so busy but we are looking to Sub-committee major events so if you think you could help us even in some small way please come and let us know as we are grateful for any help you are able to give. Thanks to all the families who came to our Drive in at Akoonah Park. I am so pleased we had a great response. Our school community came together and enjoyed a wonderful night. There were so many chairs out and kids just having fun. There was laughter and good times had by all. A great way to end our school year on a high!!! Thanks also to the companies who had Advertisements before the movie. They were fantastic and the kids who did voice over‘s were terrific too. With a huge thanks to Mrs Smethurst who organised all the Advertisements for us. Sarah Hartnett on behalf of the PFA members 2010 WE ARE IN URGENT NEED OF 2ND HAND UNIFORMS. IF YOU WANT TO DONATE OR YOU WANT US TO SELL FOR YOU, PLEASE GIVE TO OFFICE EVEN ON THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL OR ON THE THURSDAY 3RD FEBRUARY WHEN WE ARE OPENING THE 2ND HAND UNIFORM SHOP ALL DAY 9.30AM – 3.00PM. WE ARE STILL OFFERING $1.00 VOUCHERS FOR THE CANTEEN FOR EACH PIECE OF CLEAN USEABLE UNIFORMS DONATED TO THE SCHOOL
PFA would like to thank you for your continued support.
BUSINESS ADVERTISING Kittens available to good homes. Wormed and de-flead, available 24th December. Contact Jo 0412 605 932
- Mansfield St. Food Mart Mansfield Street, Berwick
Monday – Saturday 6.30am – 9.00pm Sunday & Public Holidays 7.00am-9pm
Mel’s Guidance Counselling Specialising in: ▪ Relationship / Family violence ▪ Grief / Bereavement, including suicide ▪ Anger Management ▪ Depression ▪ Family Breakdown ▪ Child / Adolescent Issues Please call Melissa on ▪ Teenage pregnancy 0413 333 547 to ▪ Eating Disorders arrange an ▪ Self esteem appointment ▪ Personal Development You can also visit my website: www.melsguidancecounselling.com.au
CRYSTAL CLEANING SERVICES P/L Merry Christmas to all at Berwick Lodge Primary School. Thankyou for you support throughout the year.
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