Issue 18, Friday 24 June 2022
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The Parkhill Community touch the land and think of the Wurundjeri People and surrounding Clans of the Kulin Nation who cared for the land before us.
We share our gratitude to their Elders past, present and emerging.
As we touch this land we promise to treasure it; taking care of all its people, animals, plants and waterways.
We at Parkhill appreciate this land.
Thank you.
Principal's Message
Dear Parents/Carers
It’s so wonderful to be at the end of a full semester onsite! This is the first full semester we have been able to be onsite in a face to face teacher model since 2020.
The last week of term has been huge: children from across the school were engaged in science activities with our science show on Tuesday afternoon followed by our community session in the evening. I understand this went off with a bang! Thanks to Andrea for organising the event and to everyone who came along for supporting the event. Parkhill certainly is powering full STEAM ahead.
The school disco was a rocking success. The excitement and buzz from the children was amazing and the energy of the parent helpers was second to none. A massive thanks to Sumi for her organisation and to everyone who came along to help and have a sneaky little boogie!
As we head into Semester 2, planning continues for the school concert, swimming program and 5/6 camp. Planning around the official hall opening will continue once we get an official date confirmed.
All of these wonderful events that we hold at Parkhill help to connect us as a community which develops a sense of belonging between our students, parents and staff.
Belonging improves mental health, wellbeing and learning. All children need to feel that school is a safe place where people will care about them, where their needs for support, respect and friendship will be met, and where they will be able to get help to work out problems. When these needs are met children develop a sense of belonging at school. Belonging is very important for children’s mental health and wellbeing. Children who feel that they belong at school are happier, more relaxed and have fewer behavioural problems than other students. They are also more motivated to learn and be more successful with their schoolwork. Parkhill promotes connections and our wonderful community develops a strong sense of belonging.
You will have seen in the press some discussion regarding the Parent Payments in public schools. Recently the DET made changes to the Parent Payments – which again you will have noted when the paperwork came home at the end of last year.
We are very lucky at Parkhill to have a high return in our Parent Payments. A massive thank you to everyone who already paid. These contributions buy your child’s stationery, books, learning applications, art and craft resources, science consumables, garden program consumables, pens, pencils and more… without parent payments the school cannot afford to purchase these things.
Last week we held an additional pupil free day, in line with the Department’s guidelines. This allowed schools to provide staff with their Professional Practice Day without requiring the school to find CRTs. Currently it is difficult to source casual staff because of sickness and CoVID related isolation periods. The DET has allowed us this option in Term 3 again. The Professional Practice Day in Term 3 will be Wednesday 14th September.
There is always lots to do during the school holidays! Check out the link below for a variety of fun activities from art and craft, film, sports and much much more…
School Holiday Activities Melbourne | Fun Ideas for Winter (getoutwithkids.com.au)
I hope you have a wonderful fun pack yet relaxing break – stay safe and well.
Best wishes,
Elaine Brady
Principal
Calendar of Curriculum Events
Have a fantastic school holiday break! See you in Term 3!
Parent Payment Options
Thank you to those who are paying for school events through Compass. We hope that you are finding this an easy way of paying and providing consent for events. If you are not wanting to pay through Compass there are still other options available to you. You have the option of putting credit on your school account either via BPAY, EFTPOS or cash and then selecting the CSEF/Credit option on Compass for payment. Contact the office if you are unsure of your BPAY details. You can also visit the office and pay via credit/debit card, EFTPOS or cash. If you are paying cash, you will need to provide the correct amount as we do not have any cash on site to give you change.
Please let us know if you need any assistance with Compass, we can sit with you to help you navigate the platform.
Jo Ravida
Business Manager
Term 2 Science Week
Parkhill really has been STEAMing ahead this week. There have been science spectaculars right through the school. Class teachers have experimented with concepts such as chromatography, surface tension and forces. Chat with your child about their science exploration this week.
In addition we were lucky enough to have Ben from Fizzics Education come and share his wondrous knowledge with students in a whole school show, Big Science, Big Fun. We had many students up and taking part in the show, sitting on a seat of nails, combusting flour, nearly getting wet with a water balloon and spreading toilet paper with a leaf blower. Most students I have spoken to absolutely loved the flames that danced to music vibrations.
Tuesday night we continued with the Family STEAM night. Students and parents from right across the school joined us in the hall for an hour and a half of chemistry fun. Chromatography, square bubbles, the movement of colour and the properties of dishwashing liquid were just a few of the experiments shared on the night. Many thanks to those families who attended and made the night a great success.
Finally, Wednesday morning, Rebecca Dawkins from the CSIRO joined the Y4/5/6 students discussing her research and role at the CSIRO. She then wowed the Y5/6 students the coke and mentos and elephant toothpaste experiments, before moving on to the Y4/5 where they set about testing the pH (acidity) of many common household fluids. What a great end to a fabulous term of chemistry.
Stay tuned next term as we head into robotics. I can’t wait to see students learning about coding bots and problem solving those inevitable coding errors.
Thanks to everyone for yet another productive term of STEAM.
Andrea Crane
STEAM Teacher
Soccer Round Robin
Our girls and boys teams both had a fantastic day at Eastern Lions Soccer Ground today. Our girls showed tremendous courage and persistence to come 3rd in a team where many players were playing the game for the first time and learning as they went. Our boys did a fabulous job also, winning their division and just losing out to division one winners, Pinewood, in an exciting penalty shootout.
According to students, highlights were: “working with my friends”, “Mia and Sariaha scoring their first goals”, “Seb’s header”, “Niki’s goal from halfway”, “Benji’s goal”, “William’s two assists” as well as a series of hat tricks from Raf, Niki and Seb. As coach, my highlights were watching the girls go from being nervous to complaining that there weren’t more games to play! Also, it was very special watching our extremely skilful boys team show care and sportsmanship by restraining themselves when playing one particular team who were clearly still learning the game.
Alex Davies
Y5/6 Teacher
School Council Update - Buildings & Grounds
Our newly formed Buildings and Grounds subcommittee has been super busy throughout Term 2. We have seen the digging up of garden beds and laying of top soil on our Koori garden at our working bee back in April. We also held a mini bee in May which laid 20 cubic metres of soft fall throughout all of our playground areas. We were so happy with how the school looked in preparation for our Open Day. We want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who participated in these projects – the turnout from staff, students and families has blown us away.
What’s coming up?
- Riverbed concreting will commence in the first week of Term 3. The rocks that our families have painted at recent Open Days will be concreted into the river bed. This will be an ongoing project where every new family that joins the school will be invited to paint a rock which will then be added to our Parkhill river.
- Term 3 Working Bee – Saturday August 6th. We will be doing some minor improvements to our playgrounds, clearing the lower car park preparing it for future use, laying mulch and clearing a garden bed to create a new seating area. Moving forwards, we will only have one big working bee each term so please take note of the date, keep your calendars clear and come join us as we look to make some further significant improvements to our school grounds.
- Tree Day is coming to Parkhill on July 29th where kids will bring native seedlings to school and they will get to plant them as well.
How can you help?
We currently have a few specific areas of need:
- Grant writing skills – we need money to undertake the bigger projects on our radar and grants are one of the primary ways we can achieve this. If you have experience in writing grant applications we would love to talk with you.
- Mulch, or a mucher or a woodchipper – we need them all!
- If you are a landscaper, carpenter, plumber, electrician or a general handyman/woman and you have some spare time to support your school, we would LOVE to hear from you.
If you can help with any of these, please let the team at the office know or have a chat with Wendy Douglas directly.
Overall from a School Council perspective, at our meeting last night we were encouraged to see that 65% of our Parent Payments have now been paid – thank you! It is also really encouraging to see some families taking up the opportunity to contribute directly to our Buildings Fund and/or our Grounds Fund. For more information about how you can contribute directly to these important areas please contact the office.
Thanks so much – everything we have achieved so far is because of our amazing community here at Parkhill.
Wendy Douglas
Buildings & Grounds Convenor
Lost a Scooter?
Is anyone missing a scooter? Please claim from the office.
Just a quick thank you to those families who have collected their bread bags and deposited them in the box near the front office. For every 5kg of bread bags we collect we gain 500 reward points to go toward sports and play equipment. Let’s try and maximise our rewards by collecting the capped amount of 2,500 points. Collection will continue until September, so we have plenty of time to achieve this goal. Keep up the good work for both the environment and our fabulous school.
Andrea Crane
STEAM Teacher
PFA News
Executive Committee:
Treasurer: Chris Fagan
Secretary/Communications: Vacant
General Members: Elle Delmee, Sumi Sundram, Vanessa Cowley, Jo Argaet, Iona Tsykalo, Lih-Shan Yam, Emma Gullan, Trish King, Marinda Tanner, Alex Cilsby, Emily Meagher, Nadine Philips
Firstly, I wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU for all the support this term. We could not do the events without you. Have a great holiday and see you next term for more bake sales and trivia night.
Student Disco!
The kids were loud, the music was louder, and the energy was electric!
We witnessed the conga, break dancing, the worm (actually a few worms), the macarena and the nutbush (expertly demonstrated by Jayda).
Thank you to everyone who helped. The smiles on the kids faces said it all.
TRIVIA NIGHT IS BACK!
Time to dust off those clothes that have been hiding in a box in the garage or raid the local op shop and get ready for some fun – Trivia Night is back in 2022!
WHEN: Saturday 13th August 2022 at 7:00 PM until late (7:30pm kick off)
WHERE: School library
TICKETS: $25. You can purchase a table of 10 or individual tickets.
THEME: Op Shop Glam – There are individual and group prizes so get your table together and start planning now!
Book your tickets here – https://www.trybooking.com/BZJQI or scan the QR code
Silent Auction Donations
Parkhill PFA will be running a silent auction as part of Trivia Night in August.
If you have anything to donate or know a business that would like to help, please email PFA.
ENTERTAINMENT BOOK
They cost $70 and provide over $20,000 in discounts to all the things you love to do…dining, attractions, shopping, travel and more! They are filled with up to 50% off or 2-for-1 style offers, they are a great way to discover new favourites and enjoy the value at the same time. The proceeds of the books sold goes to Parkhill Primary School. Please order one now via this link
REMEMBER TO SAY ‘PARKHILL PRIMARY SCHOOL’ WHEN SHOPPING!
Rebel Community Kickbacks Program.
Under this program, Parkhill Primary School can earn 5% of your purchases at Rebel Sports as an in-store credit to spend on our school sports programs.
You can sign up in store or log into your rebel Active Member account when shopping online at www.rebelsport.com.au to attribute the expense to the school.
RITCHIES COMMUNITY BENEFITS
$52 Million is up for grabs!!
It’s quick, simple and easy to: Download, Register and Activate.
Scan QR code below
Nominate ‘Parkhill Primary’ as your chosen school.
Don’t forget to share the news with family and friends.
Need more?? Visit a store within 14 days of activating your card, spend $100 or more in a single transaction and scan your Ritchies card or app.
Get $10 off instantly. (Valid for one transaction).
DON’T MISS A THING!
Join our Facebook page.
Search for us using the name “Parkhill Primary School Community Page”.
Then click the “join group” icon.
A group administrator will confirm your association with the school and approve your request.
If you would like to be on our email distribution list and receive communication and minutes from our meetings please email parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com
Contact us on WhatsApp – https://chat.whatsapp.com/DtYmFR9RjrZ7ayDpYAVy6L or email parkhillpiranhas@gmail.com
Lunch Orders
You can find the links to the lunch orders on the website under Quick Links.
FLEXISCHOOLS LUNCH ORDERS
community notices
