Issue 30, Friday 6th October 2023
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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
Welcome back to the “home stretch”! It’s been exciting to see everyone back on board after the school break, and ready for Term 4.
There are lots of great thing to look forward to this term: while it’s also a hard working term for students and teachers alike, it’s a period of time where we can celebrate all our learning and look forward to what comes next. I spoke recently to the students at assembly about focussing on our own personal excellence for this term: or as my Dad would have said “start as you mean to finish”! I wish all students the very best for this term and know they will all achieve great personal milestones in the coming 12 weeks.
While the weather this week has been typically Melbourne, it was fantastic to see the installation of the new shade sail over our playground this week! A big thank you to the PFA (and you all) for funding this much needed addition to the grounds: a big shout out also to the SC council members who organised the job.
Another big thank you from me this week is to all the families who helped organise and distribute my introductory letter to our wider community. It is no mean feat to cover off a whole suburb, and I am greatly appreciative to everyone who helped get this job done: it has already started to draw positive attention to our school!
In other news, we are very happy to welcome back several staff this term. Lucy M will be joining us for the remainder of the year and early in 2024 will be returning to parental leave: congratulations on your new addition to your family, Lucy! We are currently in the process of organising recruitment and staffing for next year, and when we have all matters finalised, I will let you know our teaching profile for 2024.
Additionally, if you are planning on moving or enrolling in another school for 2024, could you please notify the office as soon as possible. This allows us to plan and allocate resources for next year.
In the coming weeks we are asking students to submit a front cover page for our Parkhill 2023 yearbook. We’ve already had a couple submitted, but it would be fabulous to see more coming in – if you have any artistic students at your house, please encourage them to submit a cover. The theme for this year is “My favourite book”, and the cover should include something uniquely Parkhill, along with our four values. Please remind your child if they submit to check their spelling and write their name and class on the back of their A4 design.
Finally on Wednesday 25th of October at 7pm we will be holding a Parent Forum evening with the School Council to be held in our library. This evening will cover results from the community survey, our strategic plan for the coming years and information from School Council regarding our building works. I look forward to seeing you then.
Enjoy your weekend everyone.
Jo Jolly
Principal
Calendar of Curriculum Events
Loud Shirt Day
Friday the 20th is Loud Shirt Day! Loud Shirt Day recognises children born with hearing impairment. Students will do some learning around this in Care Groups on Tuesday, but on Friday’s Loud Shirt Day, we would like students to wear their loudest and brightest shirt to help show solidarity for this cause.
There is no gold coin donation required.
Alex Davies
SRC Coordinator
Looted Lunches - A Forensic Family STEAM Night
There have been a number of lunch thefts from the staff room and hungry teachers are calling for action. In order to corner the culprit, we need you! Together we will use forensic science to analyse the evidence, compare findings and identify the guilty party.
Places are limited – booking is essential via Compass.
Date: Monday 23rd October
- Session 1 – 5:00pm – max 12 families (please provide consent for one child per family)
- Session 2 – 6:15pm – max 12 families (please provide consent for one child per family)
Location: STEAM Room
Cost: A donation to the STEAM program
Andrea Crane
STEAM Teacher
Solar Challenge at Parkhill, Sunday 15 October
Solar Challenge is an annual event, where students from all over Victoria come together to race model solar vehicles they have constructed in teams against one another. It’s a really exciting event, and this year, we are proud to host the Solar Challenge at Parkhill.
Selected students from Y5/6 at Parkhill have created boats to race in the Junior Boat competition. We welcome visitors to the event and it would be great to see you there to cheer on our keen teams on the day. We also hope that it is nice and sunny!
Our fantastic PFA and Y6 team will be raising funds for the Y6 Graduation – sausage sizzle and more.
Please join us on Sunday 15 October. The event will be open from around 8:00am to 3:00pm. For more information, please visit the website https://www.modelsolar.org.au/
Michelle Smith
Solar Car Coodinator
Parkhill students' artwork showcased
In Term 3, Y6 students created an artwork based on an endangered Australian animal with their work being submitted into the Wild At Art Competition. We are thrilled to have been notified that six of our students will have their work showcased in The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) Chisholm Community Group’s showcase on November 4.
Congratulations to Shaurya, Matthew, Mia, Kara, Carmen and Alice for creating outstanding art pieces to be displayed at this very special event.
Marinda Tanner
Technology - Y1/2
What a fabulous start to Term 4 Technology. Y1/2 were working hard on Code.org using the repeat function to loop sections of their code. This enabled them to solve an array of problems, including collecting treasure for their ‘sprite’ (character). I can’t wait to get our robots out again and apply our knowledge of using repeating code or loops to our robot controls.
Andrea Crane
STEAM Teacher
Library News
Dear Parkhill Families,
Welcome back to Term 4. This term promises to be a busy term with our Scholastic Book Fair in November and an official opening for our library. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information.
We had our working bee on Tuesday and a great big thank you to Julie Fagan and Sharon Fagan who assisted with sorting our books. They also put out picture book recommendations – come check these out! The library looks wonderful and ready for another term of books.
Book Club has arrived. Look for your copy of Book Club in your child’s school bag. Find the link to the online catalogue for your browsing pleasure – Book Club Issue 7 2023.
Books as Gifts?
Scholastic has turned on the Gift Function for this issue – this feature enables book orders to be tagged as a gift and delivered to school marked accordingly. Arrangements will be made for you to collect your orders from us. Please select this option if you want the book order as a surprise gift for your child.
Orders can be placed at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or by using the LOOP app. Remember there is no obligation for you to make a purchase.
The cut-off date for orders is Thursday 19 October.
Please get in touch if you have any queries or need a hand with your order.
Angelita Williams
Working Bee
We have a working bee coming up on Saturday 21st October. If you have not been before we encourage you to come along with your children and enjoy making your school look great, socialising and enjoying a lovely afternoon with some delicious afternoon tea treats. See you there!
OG Comes to Parkhill 2024!
Continuing our MSL and synthetic phonics journey in 2024, we are proud to host the Orton Gillingham training at Parkhill Primary School. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone working in education or allied health (such as speech pathology or occupational therapy) to take up this week of training here at Parkhill. The first four days are basic certification with an optional fifth day of advanced morphology training. Hosting a training week also means that we can send our own staff at a reduced rate to this valuable PD. If you know of any people who OG training would appeal to, please book via the links at the bottom of the flyer.
PFA News
President: Zoë Littlewood
Treasurer: Chris Fagan
General Members: Adam Keens, Emma Gullan, Lih-Shan Yam, Marinda Tanner, Michelle Wickman, Trish King, Vanessa Cowley, Iona Tsykalo, Jo Argaet
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
Order Here – https://au.entdigital.net/orderbooks/9r34937
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
If you are unable to print a copy of the form, please see the office and we can provide one to you!
