Principal's Report
Mr Millar
Congratulations to Mr Millar who participated (and made it to the finish line) in a 24 hour bike ride last weekend to raise funds for the Sandringham Hospital. What a great achievement. We wish him all the best as he enjoys Long Service Leave in Italy.
Seeds and Sprouts
We are excited to be launching the Seeds and Sprouts program next Tuesday, for 3-5 year old children in the City of Port Phillip.
At the start of 2019, Carmen Carnovale, together with Simon Millar, Holly Evans, Athena
Romic and Michelle McCormack began the process of applying for a City of Port Phillip
Community Grant to help fund the program. We received the fantastic news that we were
successful in our application for a Social Inclusion Grant and received $8800!
The Seeds and Sprouts program is a 10-week program designed to prepare children for a
primary school environment. The program is fully funded and there is no cost to families.
There is no other similar program, that is fully funded in the City of Port Phillip or surrounding area that is available to families.
We were overwhelmed with the response from the community and as a result, we exceeded our initial numbers and the numbers we proposed in the grant application. In light of this, we decided to expand the program to include more children, as we saw there was a need.
We have 57 children in the program over three sessions. The Sprouts (4-5 year olds beginning school in 2020) sessions will run on Tuesdays from 9.00am-11.00am and 11.20am-1.20pm. These sessions will be run by Holly Evans, Carmen Carnovale and an LSO.
The Seeds (3-4 year olds beginning school in 2021) sessions will run on Wednesdays from 2.00pm-3.15pm. These sessions will be run by Holly Evans, Carmen Carnovale and an LSO.
The skills and learning areas our program aims to develop are:
Cognitive skills – being curious and developing an interest in learning new things, having the confidence to learn, being interested and encouraging a a willingness to solve problems.
Language skills – asking questions and communicating thoughts and ideas, listening to
others, developing conversation skills, listening to stories and being read to.
Social and Emotional Learning – participating in play experiences, being flexible with play ideas and compromising, approaching and greeting children in a positive way and making new friends, identifying and expressing emotions appropriately, coping with transitions.
Self-help skills – using the toilet unassisted, dressing and undressing themselves
independently, exposure to a structured environment, working at the table.
Physical skills-movement- jumping, skipping, hopping, using equipment such as, balls and climbing equipment.
Fine Motor Skills – scissors, correct pencil grip, finger strengthening tasks.
Pre-Literacy Skills – Recognising and using phonics, sounds, letters and words, writing
and reading name.
Pre-Numeracy Skills – Recognising numbers and making numbers. Developing an understanding of problem solving and maths concepts.
When researching for the grant and also the need for this program, we met and liaised with some local kindergartens and day care centres, maternal & child health centres, council
advisors and local families. All those involved in this process were in agreeance that this program would offer immeasurable benefits.
As this is the first year of the program, and with the grant requirements, the program is constantly being evaluated and modifications are being made to the program where necessary. At the end of the 10 weeks we will also do a thorough evaluation of the program and its successes and areas of improvement. We hope to run the program again in 2020.
Thank you to Carmen, Holly, Athena, Michelle & Simon.
Father's Day
A very big thank you to all of those dads and male role models who were able to join us for our annual Fathers’ Day Breakfast on Friday morning, it was great to see so many of you here and we are sure that the children appreciated having you here too. Thank you to the parents who helped with catering, setting up and serving for the event too. A special thanks to Joanna Siles, Janine Seear and the Year 5 mums for organising the breakfast.
We would also like to thank the Prep students for their lovely performance to the special men in their lives.
We have spoken before about how our school is well respected in the community and this was also evident in the donations for the morning that were received from Babes Eggs at South Melbourne Market, bacon from Ralphs Butchers at the South Melbourne Market, Bakers Delight in Port Melbourne and Woolworths, South Melbourne.
Footy Colours Day
Thank you to our school community for supporting the Cancer Foundation by wearing Footy Colours last Friday. We raised $296.66.
Achievements And Stories Of The Students
Flynn and Jamie in 2B have been learning about multiplication. Multiplication helps with learning division and all sorts of things. They have been using arrays to help workout multiplication. An array is an arrangement of objects, pictures, or numbers in columns and rows is called an array. Arrays are useful representations of multiplication equations. Flynn works out arrays by counting all the dots in it, then grouping them. Both enjoy grouping the numbers, for example, 9x6 then, put 9 groups of six dots.
This week, try and find as many arrays in day to day life with objects.
Last week, 2C learnt about punctuation, especially quotation marks. Dearne from 2C told us that they've learnt that when someone is speaking you end that either with a comma, full stop, exclamation mark or question mark. We gave Dearne this sentence for her to fix with quotation marks:
George said, I want chocolate!
His mum replied, No!
Dearne fixed the sentence as:
George said, “I want chocolate!”
His mum replied, “No!”
2C were writing a narrative altogether called ‘Fish can’t sing’ this is where Dearne had to try really hard and use quotation marks correctly. Now Dearne successfully knows how to use quotation marks and believes that they help the story make more sense and now the reader of her stories will know when a character is speaking. 2C also touched on using capital letters in between quotation marks. This is a great skill to acquire and will help in the future.
By Ali
4C Minis and Ooshies Fundraiser
13 SETS! WE HAVE 13 SETS!
4C have been blown away by the number of donations we have received of Coles Minis and Woolworths Ooshies. A big thank you in particular to 3L (Week 7 winners) and Prep E (Week 8 winners) and we hope they enjoy their prize given to them in Assembly.
We have 13 whole sets of Coles Minis in boxes and we have a ton of individual Coles Minis and Woolworths Ooshies to sell. Raffle tickets for the whole Coles Mini sets will be on sale after school starting next week and continuing in Week 10. Raffle tickets will cost $5 each and the sets will be raffled off at the end of term assembly.
If you are looking for a couple of Minis or Ooshies to complete your collection, then we will be selling any individuals that we have for a gold coin donation after school in Week 10. 4C Students will be running the shop over the next two weeks next to the Bank Street gate.
We are in the final stages of choosing where the money will be going and will let you know over the next few assemblies. We cannot wait to reveal our final total at the end of term Assembly.
4C and Mr Coaley
Beachside Athletics
Best wishes to the following students who will be representing the school in the Beachside Athletics tomorrow at Lakeside Stadium:
-Charles K (Year 5) - 100m and 80m hurdles
-Joseph P (Year 6) - 80m hurdles
-Dane G (Year 4) - 100m and Discus
-Laura S (Year 4) - 200m
-Bridget S (Year 6) - 200m
-Oliver O (Year 4) - 1500m
-Adele D (Year 5) - Shot put
-Lara N (Year 4) - High jump
-Mietta G (Year 5) - Shot put
Also, congratulations to Dylan L (Year 6) for making the Victorian State Football team tomorrow.
CEMSIS
Envelopes were sent home on Monday containing information about this years CEMSIS. If you did not receive an envelope, please ask your child's classroom teacher or Wendy in the Office.
The results of the survey assists us with developing a School Improvement Plan for 2020.
Some of the initiatives implemented since the results of the last survey were:
LEARNING FOCUS
-whole school approach to spelling using SMART spelling program
-uninterrupted timetabled Reading and Maths blocks
-classroom support teachers in P-6 for Reading and Maths (P-5 Reading and 3-6 Maths)
-introduced Perceptual Motor Program (PMP) for P-2
-employed 3 new LSOs, Occupational and Speech Therapists
-continued Year 3-6 camps and Year 2 sleepover at school, introduced Year 1 extended day
-continued results in NAPLAN show high achievement scores (see Learning & Teaching page for 2019 results)
PARENT PARTNERSHIPS
-introduction of Community Conversations
-English and Maths Parent/Child Workshop Nights
STUDENT SAFETY
-introduced 2x 40min breaks to help reduce lunch time risk of injury
-introduction of 5 areas at play times to lessen congestion on the yard
-School Yard timetable introduced for various play areas
EXTRA CURRICULAR
-break time clubs for students to join (Chess, Craft, Garden, choir, Maths Olympiad, SRC, Debating, Drama and Sport)
-continued instrumental program with 2 x soirees
-introduction of Seeds and Sprouts Program
SOCIAL SKILLS
-staff trained in Peaceful Kids Program to help build emotional resilience
-staff trained in Seasons for Growth Program to support students who have experienced change or loss
-introduced Buddy System where older grades buddy up with younger grades as a mentoring role
Year 2 Sleepover
The Year 2 Sleepover is happening on 19-20 September. Staff and students are getting very excited about the camp. Thank you to Miss Bamford, Miss Mason, Mr Martello and Sharon for volunteering their time to supervise the students overnight and to Miss Coome, Miss Burke and Miss Smith (Junior Level Leader) for organising the details of the camp.
Deepest Sympathy
As a community, we extend our deepest sympathy to the Henry L (2B) on the passing of his grandfather, father to Anastasia.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him.
Danielle Gerecke & Carlo Martello
Acting Principals