Message from the Principal 

GREENHILLS A G.R.E.A.T. PLACE TO BE IN 2023

Welcome back to the new school year to all our families and a very warm welcome to the new families joining our Greenhills Community in 2023. I hope you all had a terrific summer break and enjoyed lots of quality family time. How good was the weather! 

2023 will be a very exciting year for our school. We will continue to work proactively to further develop our home-school partnership as we strive to ensure that our students are provided with an environment and experience that enables them to make strong connections, grow their curiosity and embrace challenges. 

Greenhills has so many strengths as a school community and this school year is another opportunity for us to take the next steps to keep ensuring that our school is a G.R.E.A.T. place to be in 2023.

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

I really love these three photos. They were taken at 9.10am on the very first day of school and highlights how GREAT our students really are and how our love of reading focus is really taking shape. Every day, the very first thing our students do is to read for 15 minutes. As you can see this can look different every day and it may be as an individual, with some friends or with a staff member, but in all cases engagement and enjoyment levels are high. If this represents our very first day, imagine what potential and opportunity this year will present us with.

FIVE IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW

1. This year, our staff will have a choice of using their first names or surnames with our school community. Our Principal Team (James, Janine & Brad) will all be using our first names so in that way – you can know us on a first name basis!
2. All of our student toilets are now fully redeveloped and open for students to use and what an improvement. This also means that the toilets located near the Art room are both labelled as “All Gender” and as such can be used by all students. The toilets in the main building are separate boys and girls toilets as are the toilets in next to the STEAM room. We would really appreciate you reminding your child/ren that they must look after these toilets in exactly the same way as they do at home.
3. We have a significant amount of temporary fencing around the school as our building works really take off. We understand the impact this is having with our space but we also know that in the long run the improvements at our school will be awesome. At all times, safety is paramount and we have regular meetings with the builders and project team to monitor and ensure disruptions are minimized and learning is not interrupted.
4. Our new Curiosity Creek play space is taking shape and it is only a week away from completion. I know our students cannot wait for this fence to come down and have some fun in the sandpit, along the walkways and bridges and even pumping water down our creek bed! 
5. We are launching our very own Greenhills “Gazillions” economy. Students will be able to earn Greenhills 10c coins for demonstrating our G.R.E.A.T values and in doing so build towards individual, classroom and whole school rewards. In fact, the first reward is an icy pole for all students when our school earns a combined total of $200! 

WHAT’S HAPPENING @ GREENHILLS 2023

MEET WITH THE TEACHER - PARENT MEETINGS

Our optional “Meet the Teacher” - Parent/Teacher interviews will be held on Wednesday 22nd February between 3.50pm and 6.50pm. Whilst these interviews are not compulsory to attend, the main purpose is for parents to meet with the teacher and pass on any relevant information that will assist our students to have a successful year. We will also send home a questionnaire sheet that outlines some of the information you could share with us. In this way, if you are unable to attend you can simply complete the sheet and we will still have what we need to ensure we do our best to build strong connections with all of our students. 

Bookings are made through Compass so that you can select from the times available which suit you best. These will open tomorrow and close on Tuesday 21st February at 4pm.

BE ON TIME FOR SCHOOL EVERY DAY

This year our classrooms will be open from 8.50am each morning. We know that getting off to a GREAT start each day is critical for learning, so we are encouraging everyone to be on time and ready to go inside classrooms before the 9am bell.

At the other end of the day a bell will ring at 3.30pm where students will be dismissed and again at 3.45pm. This is a reminder to any student who remains unsupervised that they need to report to the office so that we can ensure they get home safely as yard supervision finishes at this time each day.

ROAD SAFETY AROUND SCHOOLS

Speed zones, pedestrian crossings and parking restrictions around school are there to improve the movement of traffic during peak times and maximise safety for children and road users.

It is vital that as adults, we lead by example and set good road safety practices travelling to and from school. As such we are asking all parents and carers to observe and obey parking signs and in particular No Stopping and No parking signs. 

Banyule City Council have asked us to remind our school community that it is an offence to: 

• double park by stopping next to a legally parked vehicle, even for a short time or to drop off/pick up passengers
• stop or park across a driveway, footpath or dividing strip 
• stop or park within 10 metres of an intersection or corner that doesn’t have traffic lights
• stop or park across or in a bus zone

Council Local Laws Officers will be active around our school area to issue warnings and fines.

PRIVACY INFORMATION

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Department of Education’s Privacy Policy.

Please take time to remind yourself of the school’s collection statement which is included in this newsletter.

For more information about privacy, see:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/Schools-Privacy-Policy-information-for-parents.aspx

 This information is also available in nine community languages.

HAVE INPUT INTO OUR SCHOOL…SCHOOL COUNCIL NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN

We know that one of our school’s key strengths is our strong parent input and involvement. Our School Council is one the main forums in which parents and staff work together for the benefit of all our students. At the beginning of each school year we have a number of vacancies for School Council. There are 4 x Parent member positions to fill this year for a period of two years. If you are interested in nominating, please collect a form from the school office or contact me and I will arrange one to be sent home. These must be lodged at the office by 4pm Friday 10th February.

Please contact me if you would like more information about being a parent on our School Council.

penson.james.j@edumail.vic.gov.au

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK! 

Happy birthday to the following students who celebrate their birthdays this week:

Keith E, Amelia S, Kristina J, Agata T and Emma D.

James Penson

Principal