NEWSLETTER N0.17
ACTING PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
FIRE SERVICE UPGRADE REPORT GHD have informed me that they are approaching the finalisation of this project, with the system expected to be fully operational by Friday 8th June. Following a successful inspection of the system the GHD team will be involved in cleaning up and reinstating the affected areas of our grounds to their original condition. Hopefully this work can be completed prior to the commencement of our refurbishment project. The completion of this work will also enable us to initiate some grounds improvement works in and around the gazebo area
7TH JUNE 2012
between the Prep and Years 1 and 2 of the first week of Term 3, Friday playgrounds. 20th July. Parents will be offered the opportunity to discuss their child‘s REPORT WRITING DAY report at Student Progress Teaching staff are currently busy Discussion Meetings that will be held working on finalising student on Tuesday 24th July and Wednesday assessments in preparation for the 25th July. Notices regarding completion of appointments for these important Semester 1 meetings will be distributed prior to student reports. the end of this term and All staff will have a appointment times will be sent pupil free home with student reports. Report Writing Day tomorrow, PLAYGROUND AUDIT AND Friday 8th June, to support them in MAINTENANCE undertaking this time consuming During May, Activity Playgrounds task. On the completion of the completed the annual audit of our reports teachers pass them on to be playground equipment to ensure read by a Principal Class member. that all equipment is in safe working When finalised, the reports will be sent home with students at the end order and meets with the current Australian Standards.
FRIDAY 8TH JUNE 2012 CURRICULUM DAY NO STUDENTS REQUIRED TO ATTEND SCHOOL
ACTING PRINCIPAL’S REPORT COMTINUED…... This annual audit is one aspect of our maintenance and inspection schedule that includes weekly visual inspections of the equipment and regular raking of the playground soft fall. As a result of the audit a range of maintenance works will be carried out on Thursday and Friday of this week. These include replacement of components showing signs of wear, topping up of the soft fall material, and replacement of the two slides on the senior play equipment. The total cost of these works is $6105.00. PREP BLOGS This week I took some time to visit our website to view updates regarding activities undertaken at school and take a look at our Prep blogs that were launched recently in celebration of education week. This was a most enjoyable experience and I would like to encourage families to take a look at the great work that has been highlighted in a range of photos and captions. The Prep teachers are now hoping that they will be able to attract comments from visitors to the blogs so that they can share the feedback with their classes. INDUSTRIAL ACTION The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has requested we provide parents with access to a letter from the Minister responsible for the Teaching Profession and the Minister for Education about the current industrial action. Parents can access this letter at www.education.vic.gov.au/about/enterpriseagreements/teachers/ parents.htm FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ’S) Q: When is a good time to enrol my child for next year? A: Enrolments for next year are accepted throughout the year including Term 4. However, we do prefer to receive Prep enrolments by the end of Term 3 to enable us to make informed decisions about our staffing and class structure for the next year. It is also important that Prep students are enrolled in time to take advantage of the Prep Transition Program that runs in Term 4 and is invaluable in preparing the children for a successful transition to school. If you have not yet enrolled your child for Prep 2013 please do so as soon as possible. QUOTABLE QUOTES ‘To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.’ John Ruskin
LYNNE BRENNER ACTING PRINCIPAL
DIARY DATES Wednesday 13th June Thursday 14th June Wednesday 13th June Monday 18th -Wednesday 20thJune Wednesday 20th - Friday 22nd June Monday 25th June Tuesday 26th June Thursday 2nd August
5/6 Lightning Premiership Prep Fire Safe Kids Step into Prep—7pm 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp 5C, 6P, & 6W 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp 5D, 5T, 6K, & 6N 5/6 internet Safety Presentation Fountain Gate Discovery Day Australian Mathematics Competition
NOTICES DUE BACK Thursday 7th June Friday 15th June Monday 18th June Tuesday 19th June
Somers Camp 3/4 Camp Rumbug Deposit Chocolates/ Money International English Competition 5/6 Internet Safety Presentation Fountain Gate Discovery Day
ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT FREE FOOTY TICKETS The Alannah and Madeline Foundation have contacted us this morning and are again offering free football tickets to the Tigers' Round 11 clash with Fremantle at the MCG on Saturday, June 9. Children (aged 15 years and under) can register their details (http:// membership.richmondfc.com.au/ forkidsvsfremantle.html) and will be provided with a ticket to the match that can be picked up at Punt Road Oval from 11am, before the game commences at 1.40pm. "Our young Tigers are the future of our Club and we would love to see as many of them as possible at the 'G when we take on the Dockers in Round 11," said Richmond's CEO Brendon Gale. In addition to the free tickets for juniors, there will be plenty of kids and family activities running at Punt Road on the day. Inflatable games, 'specky' machines and footy clinics will all be running free of charge on the oval from 11am - 1.30pm. The Tigerland Superstore will also provide up to 50% off selected junior apparel on the day. CYBER SAFETY PRESENTATION Are you concerned about your child’s use of social media and online activities when accessing technology such as computers and mobile phones? Would you like information to support their online safety? On Monday 25th June we are offering a series of workshops to address these and other important issues related to children‘s
computer and phone usage. These workshops are being conducted by a representative from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Student workshops will be held for Years 5 and 6 classes during school time, the staff will participate in a Staff Meeting PD session and a parent workshop will be conducted at 7:00pm. Whilst the children in grades 5 and 6 will have already seen the Student Workshop during the day, they are encouraged to accompany their parents to the parent session in the evening. For families who would like to attend but cannot organise care for their children, child minding facilities will be made available in the adjoining library for students for school aged children. We received very positive feedback from the families who were at the last Cyber Safety workshop which ACMA ran at our school and we encourage all families to attend this very valuable session. Further information has been sent home this week. ‘STEP INTO PREP’ A reminder that next Wednesday, 13th June is our Step Into Prep information evening. The evening, which will be held in our current Prep rooms, begins at 7:00PM. In addition to our Prep teachers who will discuss various aspects of the children‘s first year at primary school we have also invited a guest speaker, Dot Deviney, who will discuss school readiness. If you are
DONATIONS Grade 3 & 4 are requesting donations of any wool/ knitting needles for their social program. If you have any spare could you please take them to Mrs Knight’s Room 33 (BER building).
aware of any families with preschool children who may like to attend this evening, please encourage them to contact the school to register their interest. Our existing families are also reminded that we are now accepting Prep enrolments for 2013. Enrolment forms may be collected from the school office. If you would like enrolment forms sent home with a current student please contact the office. LOST PROPERTY Our Lost Property baskets are again overflowing with unclaimed/ unnamed children‘s clothing. This raises two concerns. Firstly, as most of the clothing items are not clearly named, they cannot be returned promptly to their rightful owners. We understand clothing is expensive and it is difficult to distinguish individual ownership of similar items and so we are asking you to please ensure all clothing is clearly named. Secondly, we are concerned with the large number of lost items that are not being collected and ask for your assistance in checking whether your children are missing items of clothing. Lost property will be on display in the corridor of the main building. We encourage you to come along and check for those items you may have noticed have gone missing in recent weeks.
DEBBIE CUSACK & PAUL WHITEHEAD
If you were unable to attend the Grade 3/4 Camp Information Evening last Wednesday night and you would like to be a parent helper, please collect an expression of interest form from the office. These forms are due back along with the Camp deposit payment by Thursday 7th June 2012.
2012 Premier’s Reading Challenge Congratulations to all students participating in this year‘s challenge. It is great to see so many enthusiastic readers eagerly borrowing books from the recommended booklists. Don‘t forget to let your teachers know when you have completed a book so it can be verified on the Premier‘s Reading Challenge website by a coordinator. All books must be entered online and verified by 10th September 2012. Congratulations to the following students who have completed the 2012 Premier’s Reading Challenge. Jackson B 6N Josh S 6N
PROFESSOR MATHS TRAVELLING SHOW The children were fortunate to have a visit from the Professor Maths Travelling Show. Professor Math's had so many fun Math's games for the children to play. They worked in groups of four and moved around as many activities as they could. There were shape puzzles, addition fishing, addition ten pin bowling, jigsaws, mazes, cube building and lots, lots more. The children learnt to work as a team in order to solve problems. They discovered that the first answer is not always the best answer. It was great to see all children having a go and persevering when the activity was challenging. The children were very excited to solve the special challenge tasks because they got to wear Professor Math's wigs as their reward.
MATHS IN MY LUNCH BOX Thank you to the parents who put a special effort into preparing a special lunch with a Math's focus. The children thought about all the Math's in their lunchboxes. They found lots of different things like the shapes of their containers, sandwiches and fruit, fractions, the numbers and weight on food packaging, the size of their food and money we could spend at the canteen.
Grade 1 and 2 discovered that there is Math's everywhere.
Hurray We Won During the past weeks, some of the grade six LEEP students had been participating in an international debate called the Eracsim Debate, organised by the Flat Classroom Projects. The debate topic was ―Governments requiring immigrants to adopt the beliefs, habits and languages of the dominant culture does more harm than good‖. Each speaker was given 5-7 minutes of opening their statements and presenting their points. Then, the other team was given 3-4 minutes of time to rebut the opposition‘s arguments before opening their case for another 5-7 minutes. The debate was international, making it hard to do live because of the time differences, so it was asynchronous. We used a web 2.0 tool called VoiceThread but responded to each speaker as if it was live. Our school had 2 teams entered into the debate. In the first round, we had one team being the proposition team, and an opposition team. The proposition team had had it easy, for the school (which was Maplewood) had forfeited, leading them to go straight into the semi-finals. The other team had played against SMS Palumbo in Italy (who were not native English speakers, making it hard to understand due to their accents), however they had not made it through to the next round. In the semi-finals, our school had been the proposition team, debating against Midpark High. In the end, the judges selected the Berwick Lodge Primary School team to go into the grand final. The opposition team who had lost in the first round had another debate for a consolation match against Phoenix School, but still, the judges had chosen the other team to go through. In the grand final, Berwick Lodge PS was up against Van Avery Prep school in California. Because this was the grand final, the debate had to be live. We had to come early to school because they were 15 hours behind us. We arrived at 8 am and got ready for our last debate. The programme we used was Blackboard Collaborate. It was a very nerve-racking debate, because we all hoped that we would win. Once the debate had finished, the judges had quite a while to finalise who had won and who had come runners-up. During the time for the judges to make their minds up, Berwick Lodge and Van Avery had a moment to ask questions, whether they be about debating, or just simple questions. One person from Van Avery had a very amusing comment, ―I like your accent and by the way, what do you eat for breakfast?‖. We all had a crack up when she had said that, and we all took turns to say what we ate for breakfast. After a long wait, about 30 minutes, the judges had finally chosen who would win. All along the judges had said it was a very close debate. However, the long hours of working and staring at a computer screen had come with an award… Winning the 2012 Eracism debating project! Everyone had done a great job during the debate, working together to formulate the arguments even if they didn‘t make it through to the finals. The people involved in this debate were: Ebony 6K, Grace 6N, Ben 6P, Jemma 6N, Reshma 6P, Liam 6K, Jessica 6P, Kara 6N, Jarrod 6N, Callum 6K, Cole 6P. Reported by Grace 6N
PHYS ED NEWS Divisional Cross Country On Wednesday 6th June 2012 the Casey North Divisional Cross Country trials were held at Sydney Pargeter reserve in Endeavour Hills. Berwick Lodge Primary School had six representatives on the day and each one ran beautifully. Every runner from Berwick Lodge PS finished in the top fifteen which is an amazing effort considering the quality of the competition. Congratulations to the following runners: Tara P - 3rd in 10 year old girls Indi A – 3rd in 10 year old boys Sam N – 10th in 10 year old boys Katie F – 12th in 11 year old girls Lilli A – 11th in 12/13 Girls Jake M – 7th in 12/13 Boys The top 10 finishers in each race have qualified for the Regional trials. 11th and 12th place finishers are emergencies. So well done to the above students and good luck in Frankston on the 18th June 2012! Nick Pryor Phys Ed Coordinator
Parents & Friends Association Cadbury Chocolate Drive
The support for the chocolate drive this year has been simply AMAZING!! We are on track to reach our goal of $10,000. There are only about 20 boxes left in the store room so if you can, get to the office, grab an extra box and help us get there by next Friday ;) Many families have already sold multiple boxes so the race for the major prize is on!! If you have already returned your chocolate money thank you. Just a reminder that to be eligible to go into the prize draw all money raised must be returned to school by Friday 15th June 2012. All families who sell their box and return the money by the due date will go into the draw to win a fantastic prize. Don't forget that you can pay cash, by BPay or by Eftpos at the office.
Ritchies Community Benefit Card Program
The Ritchies' Community Benefit Program donates a percentage of the money spent by customers to their nominated club, school or charity. Richies have kindly provided the school with a number of Comminity Benefit Tags so you can now help raise money for our school at no extra cost to you!! If you shop at Ritchies please collect a tag from the office and each time you shop the school will receive the benefits, too easy :) The next PFA Meeting will be in room 31 next Wednesday 13th June at 9.30am. The coffee is hot, the kids are welcome and we love a new face. Our next major event is the Term 3 Trivia night so if you have experience, ideas our just want to be a part of it all please come along and get involved, you won't regret it!!
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HOST A FAMILY Thousands of volunteer families have enjoyed hosting a visiting teenager from another country. Many of them come back every year and host again. By opening their home and hearts, to an international exchange student, families can also: Make a life long link to a family in another country Learn about another culture Share the beauty of Australia and our culture Gain a new family member Contribute to International goodwill Develop a friendship that will last for many years Our students bring with them their own spending money, health insurance and a wonderful attitude and desire to learn about their new host country. The whole family….and relatives and friends….will grow and learn as they all get to know their new ‗son‘ or ‗daughter‘ from another land. All students have at least basic levels of English, would attend a school in your local area and live the life of a local. Our group of students cover a wide variety of interests and hobbies. If you would like to provide your students, parents or language/music teachers with further information on our inbound students you can also download some student profiles in PDF Format. This is just a small sample of all the students who will be arriving. Our staff members will be happy to discuss which student might be best suited to a family. Hosting an exchange student can be a truly rewarding experience. It allows a family to experience a foreign culture first hand, be exposed to a new language and pass on a bit of our own culture. They might even make a friend for life! Student Exchange Australia New Zealand is a not-for-profit secondary exchange organisation which is registered with education & regulatory authorities in each State and Territory. You can find out more about our organisation by visiting www.studentexchange.org.au.
FOR SALE 2 x Brindle puppies (1 male & 1 female) 5 weeks old (as of 4th June 2012) Cost: $150 includes first needle & wormed Mother Pug x Chihuahua Father Staffy x Jack Russell Both with great temperaments Please call 0407 555 040
HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR ADDRESS OR PHONE NUMBER? Please ensure you let the school office know if you have changed address or updated mobile phones with new numbers. This information alleviates stressful situations on students when they are ill and we cannot contact parents