From the Principal

Welcome to IPS

That's a wrap - nearly!  Term 2 has absolutely flown by.  This Friday sees the end of term 2 and an early dismissal at 2.30pm.   The term has been jam packed with student learning and a variety of events.  

It has been fabulous to begin to conduct events in person again.  We have squeezed in so  many activities and welcomed the community back into the school. Our students have been so proud to show off how multi talented they are during the Welcome Picnic musical interludes, Battle of the Bands, Cross Country, District Sports,  Tiny Town Exhibition, Education Week Open Morning,  Year 6 Transitions and not  forgetting the Year 5  Camp.

The year 5 students, Miss Temple, Mr  McKissack, Miss Romeo and Miss McCarthy are currently challenging themselves at Camp Coonawara.  The activities they get to do on camp test their independence, confidence, resilience and persistence.  Just take a look at some of those exhilarating pursuits in the photos below.   

Even the manager of the camp took time out to email us to let us know how wonderful Ivanhoe Primary School students are,

We are having a fantastic time here with the Ivanhoe PS crew.  I had the chance to spend a session with 24 of your students on a flying fox session today. Such a great bunch of kids.

A huge thank you goes to the teachers for organising and taking care of the students on camp 24//7 for the week and an equally large thank you to our parent volunteers, Zenta, Dave and Benny for giving your time to help out on Camp.

More thanks goes again to Miss Kelly who has continued in the Acting Assistant Principal role for another week while I cover for Mr Kent who is ill. Miss Kelly has been in constant contact  with her class this week. We wish Mr Kent a speedy recovery and a restful end of term break and look forward to the start of term 3 with everyone being back on board and back to full health!

Most of all, we wish our students and families a safe holidays.  

See you soon for an action  packed term 3!

NAIDOC Week 2022

NAIDOC Week 2022 in Australia will begin on Sunday 3rd July and ends on Sunday 10th July and although it unfortunately falls in the school break, schools are encouraged to celebrate this important time in the week school resumes.

Currently, state Parliament is moving closer to a treaty with Indigenous Victorians as co-chairs of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, have addressed MPs before a debate on “a vital piece of the architecture” for the Treaty Authority Bill.

In the meantime, read about Ryhia Dank, a young Gudanji/Wakaja artist from the Northern Territory who is the winner of the prestigious National NAIDOC poster competition for 2022 with her entry, Stronger.

Ryhia says “I created this piece after reading this year’s National NAIDOC Week theme – Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! 

I knew straight away I wanted to do a graphic piece centred around our flags with text highlighting what we have been through and are still fighting for” said Ryhia. “I feel that this piece being black and white allows us to focus on the details and messages in the artwork”

Meet Ryhia and learn more about her storywork by watching this video:  

Or    https://player.vimeo.com/video/701111952?h=9bdf0c4c3f

Lost Property - lunch boxes and drink bottles

All unnamed lunch boxes and drink bottles in the lost property will be disposed of if unclaimed at the end of this week.  

Weekly Literacy and Numeracy Tips

Literacy

This  week our innovative year 4 teachers created a crime scene to teach their  students about reading comprehension.  "What has that  got to do with reading???" I hear  you ask.  Good question.   Part of understanding what we read involves us being able to  read between the lines, or work out what an author might have implied but not explicitly stated. The year 4 students had to use inference to work out this  who dunit!

The year 4 students returned from recess to discover a crime scene in their classroom. Using the clues students were able to infer what had occurred and became amazing investigators! This was an engaging journey using the reading comprehension skill ‘inferencing’. At the end of our investigation, we certainly had identified some suspects using the clues and our inference skills. Though the culprit had tried to throw us off the trail by leaving one of Mr Kent’s business cards at the scene, we were able to conclude that it couldn’t have been Mr Kent as he was away. It HAD to be Mrs Wright, the only person with access to Mr Kent’s office. We obtained a confession and closed the case! 

The students had so  much fun and at he same time developed their skills to make inferences.   Families can do this at home or on holidays.  You don't need to set up an elaborate crime scene, it could be as simple as a conversation about something you've read together, or even the lyrics from  a song.   Parents might simply ask, "what do you think they meant by that" or "when  x said that, what could they mean?".

Numeracy

As the holidays begin,  a simple way of practising numeracy is in real life situations.  Your child may like to help you with the shopping.  For example, younger children might like to help by  simply asking them to count out and put 5 apples in the shopping basket, some children might be able to estimate how many items there in the basket,  others might be more challenged by adding and subtracting items and older children might like to estimate the cost of the the weekly shop.  Turning it in a game or a family challenge can keep it fun! 

• The Victorian Maths Challenge is a fun and engaging way for families to engage in real life mathematics and explore problems together: Victorian Maths Challenge
• Play number games online with your child. Here is a short list of good websites to help begin your online search for resources:

Online resources 

• Home Page - FUSE - Department of Education & Training (select Early Childhood or Primary Students tabs)
• Resources for Primary and Secondary Students - ABC Education
• ICT Games Educational games for Infant and Junior school children

Smiling Minds - Social & Emotional Learning

We are very pleased to announce that the Smiling Mind Program is officially up and running as a whole school program here at IPS. 

The Mindfulness Curriculum provides our students with a deeper understanding of the concepts of mindfulness, personal learning as well as a regular mindfulness practise. It is mapped to the Australian Curriculum and provides a framework to ensure our students are developing essential social and emotional skills.

At some stage early Term 3 we will be holding an information session outlining the Smiling Mind Program and the way IPS will be running it.

As it is a whole school/staff/community program, we invite you to download the Smiling Mind App. Smiling Mind practises will be incorporated within home tasks given by your child’s teacher. We have attached below, the “Guide for Parents and Carers” booklet for further information.

Our strength is in our commitment to teaching and learning and continuing to build our sense of community. We may all stumble and fall from time to time but getting up is what counts. Talent is important and should be recognised but effort should be rewarded and celebrated.

Pam  Wright

Acting Principal

*Except where otherwise noted, the 2022 NAIDOC Poster is provided under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-N4 4.0). The Poster must be used in its entirety, as supplied. An alternative version using the graphic and text elements is not to be produced. The Poster must be attributed as ‘The 2022 National NAIDOC Poster incorporating the Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag (licensed by the Torres Strait Island Council).’

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Victoria and pay respect to the ongoing living cultures of First Peoples.