Issue 30, Friday 14 October 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
What a super wet week this has been! The rain just keeps on giving…
It didn’t stop you, the Parkhill community, from coming out on Tuesday and joining us at the Term 4 Parent Forum. It was great to see so many people at school and more online joining us to celebrate the successes of 2022.
We looked at our planning processes, celebrated the STEAM program and discussed the Parent Opinion Survey data.
I have added some of the data below:
It was so pleasing to see that in the domain of communication, 81% of parents gave positive feedback. Communication is something we have been working really hard to improve, with the introduction of the Compass parent portal, the weekly year level emails and the return to face to face meetings.
The impact of our Koorie engagement strategies, whole school events such as Diversity Day, community events including working bees, Trivia Night and more are all evident in the positive responses shown above. I am so proud to be part of such a beautiful community and an exciting journey.
A huge thanks to Dan, Melo and Elle for their organisation and to Alex, Andrea and Bianca for the time they spent preparing their presentation around Professional Learning Communities.
We are ready to roll, so they say. The work around PLCs is coming to an end in terms of learning, and the real work in terms of implementation is just beginning. It has been a fabulous journey of professional collegiality and networking which has reaffirmed some key aspects of our planning model at Parkhill while presenting the perfect platform for us to revisit our whole school essential agreement and develop a school cultural action plan.
It was great to welcome Lucy Magura back to Parkhill last week. She has been doing a few CRT days for us. Lucy will return part time to Parkhill in 2023. As a result Jamie Dimopoulos will sadly be leaving us at the end of the year. Jamie has secured a position at Glen Waverley PS. We wish her all the very best for her future. Further staffing news: Sasha Guy is moving to Mount Waverley PS in 2023 and will end her many years of service at Parkhill this term. Again I am sure you will join with me in wishing Sasha the very best for her next adventure.
A promise: It was a pleasant surprise to have Asher Judah and David Davies visit the school on Wednesday morning with a promise to invest $5 million in Parkhill and the development of our play spaces and grounds should they be successful in their campaign for state government. Exciting times for us at Parkhill. During the past builds we have compromised our playground and look forward to being able to bring the grounds in line with our fabulous state of art buildings.
Have a super weekend.
Best wishes,
Elaine Mitskinis
Principal
Calendar of Curriculum Events
Loud Shirt Day
Next Friday 21st October is Loud Shirt Day, SRCs final recognition day before Remembrance Day in Week 6. Loud Shirt Day recognises children born with hearing impairment and raises money for technology and therapy to help these individuals lead a normal life.
On Loud Shirt Day next Friday, we would like students to wear their loudest and brightest shirt and bring a gold coin donation to support this charity.
Alex Davies
SRC Coordinator
Walk to School Month
October is Walk to School Month. This term students will be tracking how often they walk, ride or scoot to school. It would be terrific if you could help your children to get active and involved by:
- Coming up with some fun routes, including picking up friends along the way or visiting a park or playground on the way home;
- Having relevant road safety discussions.
Walking to school helps to build independence and confidence and is a healthy alternative to driving. We hope that you can help your child to participate in Walk to School Month!
SRC
Interactive Parent Night: Mental Health Coping Strategies - I Am Mindful
WHEN: Tuesday 25 October 2022
TIME: 7:30pm – 8:30pm
HOW: The presentation will be made over Zoom. Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2442225089?pwd=b9pTG3G8I6Q6GWMzaPbHQSNSOMR6GT.1
Meeting ID: 244 222 5089
Passcode: IAM1*
Keynote speaker event: Stephanie Silver, Positive Psychology Practitioner and Founder of I Am Mindful
For: Parents
Overview: I Am Mindful (I.A.M) is a prevention focused and evidence-based school program designed to help young people and their support system learn lifesaving evidence-based mental health coping strategies. I.A.M is supported by The University of Melbourne and The Melbourne Clinic Psychiatric Hospital. In this parent only event, learn through a hands-on, psychoeducational and interactive approach how to help support your child to cope with tough times in a fun and healthy way. This will include information on the I Am Mindful classroom boxes and coping planning resources that your children will have access to this year as well as how you can purchase your own I Am Mindful mental health toolkit for your family if you would like.
Key outcomes:
- Learn about ‘The I.A.M school program and how it will be rolled out at Parkhill Primary School in 2022.
- Learn how The I Am Mindful Mental Health Toolkit can be used at home as well as at school to assist with emotion regulation and distress tolerance.
- Understand what the I Am Mindful coping plan is and how it complements the I.A.M Mental Health Toolkit.
- Explore how the coping plan can not only help your child but also you and your whole family.
Save the date - Robotics Rodeo
Our students have been exploring robotics programming, building their knowledge and solving challenges. Monday 7th November will be an opportunity for you to share in their learning. Stay tuned for booking details in the next few weeks!
Andrea Crane
STEAM Teacher
Parkhill Yearbook Cover Competition - Final Week!
The Parkhill Yearbook Cover Competition is officially open! Students can work by themselves or with a partner or two. Make sure you include the name of the school, the word “Yearbook” and the year (or we have to disqualify you). You can submit any number of entries – 1 or even 100!
Students can submit their cover competition entry through the submission portal. Submissions close Friday 21 October.
We can’t wait to see your cover designs!
Save the Date - Working Bee
There will be a Buildings & Grounds Working Bee on Saturday 12 November. Further details are to come soon. Stay tuned!
KINDER TRANSITION PROGRAM
The Y5 students will all get a chance to visit Ashwood Memorial Kindergarten as part of our Kinder to Foundation transition program. The Y5s did a super job mingling and interacting with all the kinder kids as well as chatting with Robyn, the educator at the kinder.
Here is a snapshot of the experience written by Layla and Kara:
“On Monday, a few Parkhill students, including Hamzeh, Imran, Kara and Layla, went to Ashwood Memorial Kinder. When we arrived, we played with different kinder kids. We all got to know them more and they got to know us. Eventually it was time to go. We were all really sad but remembered that they could be our future buddies!”
Anne McGregor
Kinder to Foundation Coordinator
Odd Sock Day
Well done to everyone who helped stand out on Odd Sock Day on Friday! It’s always great to support a good cause and today we shone a light together on some of the challenges around mental illness, helping our kids to understand that just because someone looks okay on the outside doesn’t mean they’re feeling okay on the inside.
Alex Davies
SRC Coordinator
PE at Parkhill
It has been a very busy and successful fortnight for our wonderful athletes at Parkhill. At Division Athletics, Jack (long jump), Jasper (hurdles) and Somo (triple jump) all managed to come third. Our Under 12 Boys relay team came fifth in their heat. At Division Basketball, the boys finished as semi-finalists coming equal third at the end of the carnival. A great effort indeed! A big thank you to all the parents who helped out, whether at the venues or with transportation but especially to James, Sumi and Pete for their time and effort.
From a very proud PE teacher!
Dean Sciacca
PE Teacher
STEAMing ahead in Technology
Students in Y2-6 have been working hard this week using their critical and creative thinking to solve the coding challenges presented to them. Y2/3 worked on programming Indi to travel the longest distance using the full array of coloured squares. While all teams achieved personal bests, the winning team achieved in excess of 8 metres.
In Y4/5 students learned about using loops to refactor or improve their coding sequences. All groups achieved programming a square using the loop function. Some even found time to add colours and sounds to their code. It will be great to see them apply this learning to solving their final challenge during our next session.
Finally, Y6 students worked toward constructing and coding their Mindstorm robot to clear an arena of foam balls. There were many unique solutions to this problem and I look forward to sharing the competition outcomes with you in a few weeks.
Before signing off, remember to save the date for the Robotics Rodeo in week 6, Monday 7 November. You will have the opportunity to book a timeslot between 4pm and 6pm and spend 15 minutes sharing your child’s recent learning.
Andrea Crane
STEAM Teacher
Fence-raiser - Stake your claim!
You may have noticed some plaques with family names appeared on the inside of the new fence overnight (have a look along the Cassinia Ave side). These were part of a fundraiser held during the Trivia Night last term.
If you missed out on that fundraiser, we now have another opportunity for you to purchase a plaque and have your family/kids names on the new fence!
Plaques are $150 each, all proceeds go directly to funding the fence.
You can register for your plaque here:
Smile Squad is coming to Parkhill!
Dear Parkhill Primary School families,
The Smile Squad team from Link Health and Community is coming to our school soon.
Smile Squad is the Victorian Government free school dental program.
This means all students can get a free dental check-up, preventive services, and treatment at school.
How to access free dental care
We need your consent before we can provide services. Consent is usually provided by a parent or guardian.
Sign up to Smile Squad at: https://bit.ly/smilesquadvic
Please complete and submit the consent form by 28/10/2022.
The Link Health and Community Smile Squad team look forward to seeing you soon.
Library News
Dear Parkhill Families,
We are calling for overdue books which have not made their way home to the library after the holidays. Reminder notices were emailed home on Wednesday and we will appreciate it if you are able to look for the lost books at home.
Kindly email me if you are unable to find your books at home. I will update the system so that your child will be able to continue to borrow books from the library.
We are not requesting payment for any lost books. However, if you have lost a book and would like to make a donation to the library, you can do so via BPAY or credit card at the office. Kindly note that this is completely voluntary.
Please do get in touch if you have any queries. You can email me or leave a message with the office.
A quick reminder that orders for Issue 7 are due next Wednesday 19 October.
Orders can be placed at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or by using the LOOP app. Here is the link to the online catalogue for your browsing pleasure – Book Club Issue 7 2022.
Take care and happy reading!
Angelita Williams
Librarian
Hats!
A reminder that hats need to be worn outside by students during Term 4. Please make sure you send your child to school with a hat. Hats can be purchased from the school office.
PFA News
COMEDY NIGHT
Comedy Night is back! Bring your family and friends. Show starts at 8pm. Drinks and snacks will be available for purchase before the show and during the intermission. www.comedyforacause.net/PH
PARKHILL COLOUR FUN RUN – ONLY 2 WEEKS TO GO!!!!!!
Thursday 27th October 2:30 pm
Our aim is to reach $8,000! So far, $1,195 has been raised and F/1A is still in the lead for donations!!!! However, 4/5B is catching up fast! To start fundraising for your child, sign up here https://chuffed.org/project/parkhill-colour-fun-run and share the link with friends and family!!!!!!! The more your child fundraisers, the better choice in their prize of Lego or sports equipment!!! GO PARKHILL!!!!!
Winning Class and Prizes
There will be a special surprise reward for all children in the class that raises the greatest amount of money.
On the Day
On the day of the Colour Fun Run, pack a light coloured or white T-shirt into your child’s school bag. This is an extra fun way to show-off the colours from the dye on the day. There will be an early afternoon brain food break, then straight after the fun run will begin at 2:30pm. Parents and guardians are most welcome to come to cheer on their loved one.
Further Information
Detailed instructions on how to sign-up to start fundraising are attached below. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the office or Zoe on 0459 841 337.
Sign up instruction: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RfB_Z8flV5JCLMfGXf7lSM5qE-UepGeE/view?usp=sharing
NOTE: You will need a different email address for each child.
COLOUR FUN RUN SIGN-UP – 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm
The PFA is looking for volunteers to help out with the running of the Colour Fun Run. Eighteen volunteers are required to set up the course and to throw the kids with dye and water and two volunteers are required to cut up oranges. Please sign-up! https://signup.com/go/eikOWwi
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
