Message from the Principal 

BOOKWEEK FUN

Last week we enjoyed a wonderful celebration of Book Week 2024. For me, these types of activities and events are what school is all about. Dressing up on special days is such a fun way to enjoy and promote a love of reading. It was certainly a GREAT parade, and the staff and student costumes were simply amazing. A big shout out to all our parents and carers for supporting our students to source or make costumes and getting fully into the spirit of the event.  This is not always an easy thing to do but know that your commitment was worth it.

The Children’s Book Council of Australia presents annual awards to books of literary merit, for outstanding contribution to Australian children's literature. Congratulations to all the winners of the 2024 Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards.  Many of the books are available in the school library for our students to enjoy. 

Book week is also a GREAT opportunity to acknowledge and thank Jen Ellis for her work in our school Library – you are awesome Jen!

Greenhills Primary School is a GREAT reading school. and we want to keep getting even better. Our reading data is improving all the time and we are seen as a leader of/ “influencer” in this area across our local schools. We have great teachers, a superb Library and of course a strong level of parent support for reading for pleasure at home.

So how do we keep working to make sure we remain such a strong reading school?

At school, we will achieve this through a very strategic and detailed professional learning plan based on ensuring high levels of staff knowledge around what high quality reading teaching is and how we deliver this consistently across the whole school each day. In fact, reading is so important at our school that each day we commit 15 minutes focused on this in every classroom. You can also participate with us by doing something similar at home too.

At home, you can assist your child to find an extra 10 minutes a day to read. It might be as simple as 10 minutes less on technology or reading for 10 minutes before dinner. We know that you can become better at something if you focus on it more. Reading becomes easier and more enjoyable the more you do it! If you need some motivation have a think about this: If your child currently reads for just 1 minute a day, they will read 21,000 words this year. Increasing this by 10 minutes a day will lead to 321,000 words being read in a year. It also works for those students that are already reading for the suggested 15 minutes a day. Currently these readers would be churning through 1.8 million words a year. Ten minutes more would take this to over 2.7 million! 

Help your child to choose different types of books to read and take turns to read with them. Talk about the book and look for words to pay special attention too. Most importantly, make the experience as fun and engaging as possible.

PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE

At this stage we have 143 of our students who have completed the 2024 Premier’s Reading Challenge. There is only a couple of weeks to go, and it would be GREAT to increase this even more. Imagine a school that has a 100% completion rate!   

PARENT / CARER OPINION SURVEY

This is another reminder that our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst all parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions about your child’s learning, teachers at the school and general satisfaction with the school. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. All parents have been invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey has been extended and will close at the end of this term on Friday 20th September.

The survey is conducted online, only takes 15-20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

An invitation to the survey with a link and password has been sent out via Compass as newsfeed.

Please contact me if you would like more information:

james.penson@education.vic.gov.au

YEAR 2 (YEAR 3 2025) IPAD INFORMATION SESSION

A reminder that our Year 2 iPad (Year 3 2025) information session will be held on Tuesday 3rd September at 7.30pm via Webex. Topics covered will include the purpose behind the program, what screen time looks like and how to order a device through the school portal.Here is the Webex Link:

https://eduvic.webex.com/eduvic/j.php?MTID=m088786b20b4f759f770eb2efe7e40d55

Meeting Number: 2650 539 1601

Password: greenhills

SUPPORT YOUR CHILD’S LEARNING - CYBERSAFETY EVENT

One of our aims is to provide you with information that helps you to support your child's learning. Based on recent feedback from our parents, our school has organised a ThinkUKnow presentation on Tuesday 10th September 7pm - 8.30pm and all parents and carers are encouraged to attend. The session will be held in the Library and is for adults only.

ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence-based education program delivered nationally to prevent online child sexual exploitation.

ThinkUKnow Australia is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police, Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The program is delivered in collaboration with policing partners New South Wales Police Force, Northern Territory Police, Queensland Police, South Australia Police, Tasmania Police, Western Australia Police, as well as Neighbourhood Watch Australasia.

The presentation will be delivered by a local law enforcement member and an industry volunteer. The presentation is pro-technology and addresses topics including self-generated child abuse material, online grooming, sexual extortion, and importantly encourages help seeking behaviour.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to learn more about young people and the online environment, and how you can help them to be safe and responsible users of technology.

If you wish to attend this event, please rsvp  here https://forms.gle/heZ3TKcrNAQkHpwj8

For more information, you can visit www.thinkuknow.org.au.

James Penson 

Principal