NEWSLETTER N0.38
8TH DECEMBER 2011
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT STAFFING
fourth Prep grade, each with 19 children at this stage. Great news – Trish Luke has The consequence of this is that we confirmed with us that she is recovering very well from her serious will now have three Grade 1‟s instead of four; meaning that our grade 1‟s illness and will will have 26 children in them next definitely be back year. We will be allocating an with us from the additional part time teacher to the start of next year. grade 1‟s to assist with the teaching Trish will join us program in acknowledgement of the next Tuesday for fact that the grades will be larger than Orientation Day and will meet with 21. This will ensure that the ratio of her students for next year. teaching staff to students for our CHANGES TO OUR GRADE grade 1‟s is around 1 to 21 in 2012. Alvina Seow (Lim), currently one of STRUCTURE FOR 2012 our Prep teachers will be taking the In our November 24 edition of our fourth Prep grade next year – Alvina school newsletter I wrote in answer to a Frequently Asked Question that we had been allocated a grade 1 in our early plans. would not be having any composite Prep grades next year, but that the PREP TRANSITION option of a fourth Prep grade PROGRAM remained a possibility depending on As I mentioned in last week‟s the number of confirmed Preps that we would have. Currently we have 76 newsletter, this week I enjoyed the confirmed Prep enrolments for 2012 company of the parents of next year‟s Prep children as part of our Prep and we have decided to create a
Transition program – congratulations to our current Prep team, led by Sharon Chandler, on the great program they have organised. In preparation for next year‟s trivia night I posed an unusual trivia question for them by way of introduction. The question was, „What did they, as a group, share in common with Hawthorn champion footballer, Buddy Franklin?’ No -one knew of course – the answer being 23. Buddy Franklin‟s number is 23 and they were the parents of our 23rd intake of Prep children since we opened in 1990.
CONTINUED…..
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT C ONTINUED….. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ’S) Q. Are we really finishing at 2.30pm on the last day of this school year? A.Yes! The City of Casey has decided to provide school crossing supervisors for the last school day this year from 2.30pm across the city. Schools can dismiss children from 1.30pm onwards on the last school day, and we have done this, but with the City of Casey deciding not to provide school crossing supervisors at that time, we really have no choice but to close at 2.30pm.
QUOTABLE QUOTE ‘Looking down on people doesn’t make you taller in the eyes of others’
HENRY GROSSEK
Thursday 22nd December end of Term 4 2:30pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 start of Term 1 DIARY DATES Wednesday 14th December Thursday 15th December Thursday 22nd December Thursday 2nd February 2012 Monday 6th February 2012
3/4 Melbourne Zoo 3/4 Melbourne Zoo Last Day of Term 4 1st Day of Term 1 2012 2012 Swimming Carnival Trials
Friday 9th December Monday 12th December Thursday 15th December
3/4 Melbourne Zoo Grade 6 2012 Windcheater/T-shirt Education Maintenance Allowance/School Start Bonus (Prep) 2012 Swimming Carnival Trials
NOTICES DUE BACK BY
Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) 2012 and School Start Bonus (SSB) Applications for the 2012 Education Maintenance Allowance and School Start Bonus are now available from the school office. If you have a child under 16, and hold a valid Health Care Card, Pension Card or be a foster parent you may be eligible to receive the EMA. Your Health Care / Pension Card must be valid on the 1st February 2012. The 2012 allowance of $235 is split evenly between the parent and the school and is paid in two instalments, one in March and one in August. The School Start Bonus is provided to assist low-income families with the costs associated with their child starting Prep or Year 7. If you hold a valid Health Care Card, Pension Card or be a foster parent, and have a child starting Prep at Berwick Lodge in 2012 you may be eligible to receive this one-off $300 payment. Closing Date: Parents/Guardians with Prep children commencing in 2012 need to lodge a School Start Bonus form before Thursday 15th December 2011. Education Maintenance Allowance applications must be lodged at Berwick Lodge before 29th February 2012. Please see the school office for application forms or if you have any queries.
A S S I S TA N T P R I N C I PA L S ’ R E P O RT GRADE PLACEMENT 2011 Class lists for 2012 will be placed on display tomorrow afternoon (after 3:00PM) in the following locations: The Library office windows and doorway, the Performing Arts Room windows, the Art Room external door and side windows and the Staffroom windows at the front of the administration building. These final class lists are a result of an extensive consultation process within teaching teams, as well as across teams. Individual placement of all children has been carefully considered, taking a range of criteria into account. Parent support of our decisions regarding class placement will be greatly appreciated. Students will be told their 2012 grade by their class teacher tomorrow afternoon. ORIENTATION MORNING Next Tuesday morning our current student in Years Prep to 5, new students to the school for next year and our 2012 prep students will participate in a whole school transition program from 9:30AM until 1:30PM. (the new prep students will arrive at 9:45AM) The aim of this program is to familiarise all students with their class group and teacher for 2012. Students will have the opportunity to play in their 2012 play areas and meet some new friends throughout the morning. Lunch orders will be collected and returned to their 2012 classroom. Students transferring out of the school (Prep to Year 5) will be involved in a range of cross age activities in the Library and Art
Room for the morning. Most of our current Year 6 students will be attending their respective Year 7 transition programs. Those not involved have been invited to assist in the new prep classes for the morning. LAST DAY ARRANGEMENTS Parents are reminded that school finishes on Thursday 22nd December at 2:30PM. Please note that this is a change from the 1:30PM finish advertised in the School Calendar. Due to the early finish time Camp Australia will operate their program from 2:30PM until 6:30PM. Students not booked into after school care need to be picked up, or make their way home as soon as possible. The yard will be supervised by staff between 2:30PM and 2:45PM. After this time children remaining in the grounds will be directed to wait at the office area and parents will be contacted. PARENT HELPERS MORNING TEA Thank you to those parents who have responded to the invitations that were sent home with students last week for our annual Parent Helpers‟ Morning Tea. This will be held on Tuesday 20th December 2011 at 11:00AM in the school gymnasium. If you have been one of our wonderful helpers and have missed out on an invitation we apologise for missing you. Please feel most welcome to attend the morning tea.
LOST PROPERTY Please could all parents check in the lost property for any lost items of clothing that their children maybe missing.
STUDENT WELLBEING This week we have been notified of a confirmed case of whooping cough (Pertussis) in the junior area of the school. In the case of a whooping cough diagnosis the child must be excluded for a minimum of five days following the commencement of antibiotic treatment. Unimmunised siblings aged less than 7 years should be excluded for 14 days after the last exposure to infection or until they have taken 5 days of a 10 day course of antibiotics. We have also been informed of a confirmed case of school sores (Impetigo) in prep. Children who have school sores should be excluded until treatment has commenced. Any sores on exposed surfaces must be covered with a waterproof dressing. For your information we have included information regarding both whooping cough and school sores in this week‟s newsletter and we encourage families to familiarise themselves with this information. Families are also reminded that we have had a number of cases of chicken pox across the school throughout this term. Children with chicken pox must be kept away from school until all the skin spots have crusted over. Should you have any queries about any of these illnesses please contact your local doctor.
LYNNE BRENNER & DEBBIE CUSACK
GRADE 6 WINDCHEATERS Reminder to all Grade 5 students please return their Grade 6 Windcheater forms by Monday 12th December 2012.
SCHOOL COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT Welcome everyone to my School Council President‟s Report. PREP TRANSITION Over the last couple of weeks, I have been privileged to be involved in our annual Prep Transition Program. It has been wonderful welcoming our new Prep students for 2012 and their families to Berwick Lodge Primary School. It has been great to see our newest students enjoying their time in each of our specialist areas of Visual Arts, Performing Arts, ICT and Sport over the past two weeks. I am sure they are all looking forward to their half day at their new school next Tuesday. There are many Prep students that are joining us from existing Berwick Lodge families, so thank you for continuing to support our school. There are also many Prep students that are joining us from families new to Berwick Lodge. We understand that there are many primary schools in our area to choose from, so we are delighted that they have chosen Berwick Lodge for their children‟s primary school education. I look forward to meeting more of our Prep students and families next year.
BETTER BUDDIES PROGRAM Following on from our successful partnership with the Alannah & Madeline Foundation and the eSmart Program, Berwick Lodge Primary School has applied for and been successful in becoming a Better Buddies School. We have been running a student Buddy Program in our school for a number of years very successfully. However by becoming a Better Buddies School we will now receive a sponsored Better Buddies Framework, courtesy of the National Australia Bank which will further enhance our Buddy Program. We look forward to bringing you further updates next year when our new Better Buddies are introduced ! As school council president, I am very interested in any comments that our parent community has to offer. If you wish to discuss any other issue, please feel free to contact me directly or any one of the school council team. We look forward to hearing from you. I can be contacted via the school office or you can email me on norton.jodie.j@edumail.vic.gov.au Jodie Norton School Council President
SCHOOL COUNCIL DIRECTORY President: Vice-President: Minute Secretary: Correspondence Sec.:
Jodie Norton Michelle Sarjeant Lois Smethurst Michael Tabone
Principal: DEECD Members:
Henry Grossek Lynne Brenner Sue Naismith
Parent Members:
Prashad Sujenthiran Craig Benedick Carolyn Mehr Lesley Lees
PFA Co-Optee:
Samantha Cline
Contact Details: Phone: 9707 1766 Email: norton.jodie.j@edumail.vic.gov.au
Fax: 9796 2198
WHAT IS PERSISTENCE? Teach Types of Thinking That Develop Persistence
Discuss with the young person the difference between an “I Can Do It” optimistic type of thinking and an “I Can Do It” pessimistic type of thinking. Explain that when schoolwork or another activity seems too hard, thinking that you are more likely to be successful than fail can help you continue to be confident and try hard.
Explain that when “I Can Do It” thinkers are not successful at a task, they remind themselves of other work where they have been successful. “I Can Do It” thinkers tend to think they are totally bad at everything when they have difficulty with their work, and that they might as well stop trying.
Encourage the young person to stretch, struggle and succeed. He/she needs to know that, although teachers and parents will help if they have to, completing schoolwork independently is the young person‟s responsibility. Do not protect him/her from work that is hard.
Teach the young person to think of the last time he/she was successful at doing something he/she didn‟t think he/she could do. He/she can use this experience when approaching something new that is hard and think, “I did it before, I can do it again.”
Parents & Friends Association
ND
2 HAND UNIFORM SHOP: The 2nd Hand Uniform Shop will re-open next year. Any donations of uniforms would be greatly appreciated. PFA CAFÉ: The PFA Café is closed for the remainder of the year.
NEW PFA committee New members of the Berwick Lodge Primary School PFA Committee President Vice President Secretary
Carly Baker Michelle Sarjeant Jodie Norton
UpcomING events BILLY G’S COOKIE DOUGH: Thank-you to all the families that placed a Cookie Dough order. The orders will be distributed via your child‟s classroom at the end of the day on Tuesday 13th December 2011. As the tubs of dough are quite heavy please ensure that you arrange for someone to collect your order if you are unavailable, as they are too heavy for a child to carry. Tubs must be collected on Tuesday 13th December as they need to be kept cool and there is no storage at the school. Alternatively you can organize for someone to collect it on your behalf. Orders are due for collection on Tuesday 13th December 2011. SUNSCREEN: We are selling roll on sunscreen which is available to purchase for $6.00. It is a perfect size to place in your child‟s school bag, your handbag or in the glove box! It can be purchased from the office or from the PFA café on a Thursday afternoon.
A HUGE THANK YOU The PFA of 2011 and would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped us in so many ways this year. We are very grateful to all the parents who helped out at the various stalls, the walk-a-thon, the discs and the hot dog days to name just a few. We would also like to thank all the businesses in our local community who have donated goods and their time to help our school. We wish all families of Berwick Lodge Primary School a wonderful, safe and relaxing Christmas and New Year with their families and friends. As I am no longer on the PFA committee, I would like you to join me in extending my congratulations to newly formed PFA. Carly Baker, is our new PFA president and I am certain Carly will do an amazing job. Michelle Sarjeant, who has in previous years been PFA president, and is now returning as Vice President of PFA, and Jodie Norton, who has taken on the new role of PFA secretary, (previously PFA treasurer). I would like to wish the newly formed PFA committee all the best in their future projects and fundraising events. I‟m sure you will achieve spectacular results. I would also like to sincerely thank all the parents and teachers at Berwick Lodge Primary School for their ongoing support of the PFA during my time as PFA president. A special thanks to Andrea, Sam C, Jenny, Toni, Johanna, Jackie, Debbie, Sam O, Sarina, Jodie and Belle for their continued efforts, hard work and time dedicated to the PFA this year. Without this group of ladies, we would not have been able to achieve the results we have. I am so proud of our accomplishments, and our team dedication to fundraising has seen the PFA raise almost $50,000 over the past two years. This money directly benefits our children with enhanced facilities and programs. It helps to make our great school, even greater. Many thanks to everyone again for your kindness help and support during my time as PFA president. I look forward to seeing our wonderful school continue to grow, and I will see you on the playground.
Sarah Hartnett, PFA President 2011
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