Message from the Principal 

SPRING IS IN THE AIR….

The weather has been a little bit warmer and there are lots of signs that Spring has arrived. This is a time of the year that many of us really love and there is light…indeed longer daylight at the end of the tunnel. 

We have all worked hard to get this far this year and with only a couple of weeks of term left we are in the final stretch. There is lots to look forward to including our Fathers & Special Persons’ breakfast being organised by our dedicated Parent Association, Student Agency Conferences which are a powerful opportunity for you to be involved in your child’s education and a special Gazillions day in the last week. 

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

If you get the chance to walk up to our school over the next week, please take some time to view the Finding Our Heart Story Walk. “Finding Our Heart” is a children’s picture story book written by Thomas and illustrated by Blak Douglas. It is about the creation, intent and invitation of the Uluru Statement From the Heart and will be on display at our school until Friday 8th September. Thank you to the Monty First Nations Allies and Janine Hough for organizing this display. 

For your information, we have also included a link to the full Uluru Statement from the Heart.  Home - Uluru Statement from the Heart

THANK YOU WORKING BEE LEGENDS

We had our Term 3 Working Bee last Sunday. A big shout out to the dedicated group of parents, students and staff that attended. I hope you agree that our Greenhills certainly looks much neater! It is always a challenge maintaining our grounds and the working bees we hold each term enable us to complete some of the bigger tasks that we need to do. We will hold another working bee in Term 4 so stay tuned for the date once it is confirmed.

PARENT PARTNERSHIP IN ACTION

One of the real strengths of our school is the partnership and involvement of our parents, caregivers and other community members. We certainly recognise and acknowledge this and never take this for granted.

A brilliant example of this was our Year 3 and 4 students working with Karen Carter, current parent and author, illustrator of The Ant, the Plant and the Caterpillar and Joanne Thom, current parent and landscape designer. The end result, being a deeper understanding of habitats, lifecycles and the environment and of course a new garden bed planted out. Yes – more green space in Greenhills! This space will be called the Butterfly Garden and we can enjoy watching the plants grow and bugs and butterflies finding a new place to call home. 

TRANSITION PROGRAM

Our 2024 Preps have continued to participate in our Experience Greenhills sessions and we look forward to building momentum around our transition and preparation for next year. Thank you to our Prep Team of Sam, Bec, Betty, Andrea and Emily for their organization. At this stage we are planning to run 4 x prep classes of 18 students for next year.

END OF YEAR DATES FOR THE DIARY

Planning for Term 4 continues, and we would like to hold our last Professional Practice Day for 2023 on Tuesday 19th December. I understand that these days can be difficult and inconvenient for parents, so we have carefully considered the timing of this day to ensure the least interruption to student learning. Having this in the last week of school, rather than during the term will minimize any lost learning time for our students which is our highest priority. With our Year 6’s attending their final excursion to Funfields on Monday 18th December, we have scheduled our final end of year assembly for Friday 15th December.   

So, to confirm these arrangements: Semester 2 reports will be available via Compass on Wednesday 13th December. Our Year 6’s will have their Graduation evening on Thursday 14th December. We will have our last school assembly on Friday 15th December. Monday the 19th December will be a normal school day with our Year 6’s attending the Funfields excursion. Tuesday 19th December is a pupil free day and our last day of school will be Wednesday 20th December with a 1pm dismissal time for those students that do attend. 

Cheers,

James Penson

Principal