Issue 25, Friday 26 August 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
The end of term is quickly approaching with so many things still to happen! This weekend we have another concert working bee – come along and help if you can spare some time.
We are starting to plan for 2023, so if you know anyone who has a little one due to start school next year please direct them to our website where they can find details of the Parkhill Preschool Program, enrolment information and booking for school tours. We are keen to increase our enrolments going into 2023 and need your help to spread the word about the wonderful things happening at Parkhill.
We have been lucky to host some pre-service teachers from Deakin this week, you may have seen them around the school. It is wonderful to have new emerging teachers onsite. Their energy is amazing!
I would like to share some staffing news – Bella Crowe is taking leave in Term 4. She is heading off to Greece to join her partner over there. They will be working and travelling. I am sure you will join me in wishing her all the very best for this exciting adventure. We are currently working hard to find Bella’s replacement and will let you know more details as and when we can.
As I walked around the school at lunchtime yesterday, it was great to see Brent and Roger busy working in the playground, Sumi and Pete were training our upper school basketball team, and Sharon and Ruth were painting away in the kitchen area of the upper school building. How lovely to see the community in action across the school! I feel so proud.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend,
Best wishes,
Elaine Brady
Principal
Calendar of Curriculum Events
Wednesday 14 September is a Professional Practice Day. Students do not attend school on this day.
Where's Wally? - Tickets Available Now!
The students and staff are getting super excited for the upcoming school concert – “Where’s Wally?”
There will be three Performances:
* Monday 5th September 11am (Matinee)
* Tuesday 6th September 6:30pm
* Wednesday 7th September 6:30pm
Tickets are now on sale!
Tickets are $15 each and can be purchased through Trybooking https://www.trybooking.com/CBSMX
Please note:
No refunds will be available, but the school will assist in reselling, should this be necessary.
Please note that NO PHOTOGRAPHY OR FILMING is allowed during performances.
Special note for very little children: For safety reasons, there will be no room for prams or pushers in the hall. Seats must be purchased for audience members who use a seat (e.g. very little children). If your child can sit on a lap for the whole performance (1 hour 20 mins), there is no need to purchase a ticket.
Concert Stage Working Bee
Parkhill families and staff are warmly invited to a School Concert Stage Set Up Working Bee on Saturday 27th August at 1pm in the hall. We will be setting up the chairs in the audience, cutting out and gluing headbands, painting pieces of dowel, and completing lots of odd jobs in preparation for the concert on 5th, 6th and 7th September. All parents and children are welcome and afternoon tea will be provided!
Please sign up using the following form: https://forms.gle/RNHfVQtkVDkTWsrr6
Book Week 2022
Stories came alive and students’ eyes lit up with excitement during our Book Week celebration this week. Classes enjoyed reading CBCA nominated books and completing activities in their classroom. They also celebrated the occasion in Care Groups by learning more about the theme for this year’s celebration, ‘Dreaming with eyes open…’. We concluded with a special whole school celebration where students had an opportunity to share books they read in class and activities they completed for Book Week.
Des Schlack
Y2/3 Teacher
Stargazing - Change of Time
Volunteers from the Astronomical Society of Victoria will be setting up their telescopes in the school grounds so that we can gaze at the splendours of the Moon and some of the amazing objects visible in the night sky. You’ll get great views of craters and mountains on the Moon, and be able to see star clusters, and other distant astronomical objects. We will start at 7.00pm and finish at about 8.30pm on the asphalt area, a little later than originally planned due to the later sunset. Wrap up warm, as September evenings can be quite chilly. If you want to bring along a torch, make sure that the lens is covered with something red, like cellophane. White light is bad for your night vision!
Register your attendance via Compass.
Let’s give our inner Astronomer time to shine!
Andrea Crane
STEAM Teacher
F/Y1 Chance Language
The F/Y1s have been learning about chance language. It was wonderful to find out what students already knew about this vocabulary in our maths moderation task which gave us our next steps in each student’s learning. While the Foundation students learn to identify events that ‘will happen’, ‘might happen’ or ‘won’t happen’, the Y1 students have added different vocabulary and placed words including ‘certain’, ‘likely’, ‘unlikely’ and ‘impossible’ to our chance continuum.
We are getting so great at using this language on a daily basis as we change our calendar each morning and use chance words to describe the weather. And of course, it’s always fun to throw in those impossible scenarios.
It was great to share our learning with you on Monday during Assembly. Well done F/Y1s, you really did shine bright!
Bella Crowe
F/Y1 Teacher
Figure 1 – ‘We might have a wet weather timetable today’ (Tara and Maryann)
Figure 2 – ‘I will play and learn at school tomorrow’ (Indie and Yaqub)
Figure 3 – ‘I will not see a flying pig today’ (Linc and Oscar)
Steam Update
What a sensational week in STEAM. I have been astounded all week by the critical and creative thinking shown by our students right across the school. In the junior school, students engaged and explored our brand new Sphero Indi robots. Their learning was to determine the effect each coloured tile had on Indi’s movement. In the Y2/3 classes this was extended to include debugging their code to achieve set challenges and using tiles to cause a loop, in which the same action was repeated. The enthusiasm for this learning was boundless.
Our senior school students have been working on block coding with either the Sphero Mini or Lego Mindstorms. Once again students were learning basic commands and then using debugging strategies to solve coding errors. They also explored loops, using the loop block to ensure the robot would repeat the same behaviour four times. What a clever bunch of students we have here at Parkhill. I can’t wait to see their knowledge and mastery of coding develop in the next few weeks.
If your student has a particular love of coding check out the Coding Club flyer below in Community Notices, we have an opportunity to host right here at Parkhill. Register your interest and with enough interest we will get it up and running.
Andrea Crane
STEAM Teacher
Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey 2022
WE WANT OUR PARENTS/CAREGIVERS/GUARDIANS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!
Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents/caregivers/guardians think of our school. The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. We encourage families to participate in this survey. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.
A random sample of approximately 30% of parents/caregivers/guardians has been selected to participate in this year’s survey. If your family has been selected, you will have received a letter care of your child during the week.
The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 22nd August to Friday 16th September.
The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.
Please email michelle.smith@education.vic.gov.au if you would like more information.
Michelle Smith
Assistant Principal
Interim Reporting
We are trialling a new way of reporting to parents at the conclusion of this term with Interim Reports. Teachers have collected work samples in writing and maths and will provide achievement feedback to parents through Compass.
It is important to note that the feedback is reflective of the task itself and may differ from the end of semester report. This is because when compiling the end of semester report, teachers take into account many different assessments and work samples to make their judgements.
Interim Reports are an exciting move in the direction of Continuous Reporting, where we hope to provide feedback in a more ongoing, task by task, nature.
More information about Interim Reports, including how to access them, will be forthcoming.
Michelle Smith
Assistant Principal
Library News
Dear Parkhill Families,
Thank you to families who have placed orders.
Issue 6 is the last issue before Term 3 ends. A reminder that book orders close today! If you haven’t had a chance and would like to place an order, jump online at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or by using the LOOP app.
We expect delivery of orders to come in the next two weeks and they will be distributed to the students, in time for the school holidays.
If you have any queries about the library or your Scholastic order, please feel free to get in touch.
Angelita Williams
angelita.williams@education.vic.gov.au
Librarian
Muddy Play and Spare Uniforms
The weather is a bit wet and muddy at the moment and if your child may be one who is drawn to the mucky play, please pop a change of clothes into your child’s bag so that they can change if necessary and be comfortable for the rest of their school day.
Canteen Closure Dates
Please note that Flexischools lunch orders will be unavailable on the following dates due to events at Ashwood High School:
Tuesday 11th October – Athletics Sports Day
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
What's Next?
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.
