Yellow Brick Roads, Mad Hatters and many other novel ideas.

Well, it would be rude not to mention the Comedy Night that took place on Friday night. It was an incredible night that produced so much entertainment. A big thank you to the PFA, Declan, Josh and Alasdair for their thoughtful insights into our school and Coburg community. I look forward to posting this message out on SENTRAL 12 times. I have no doubt that a few people woke up with sore heads from all the laughter that took place…

This week has been book week! Angelica, Sergio, Juan, Katherine and Kylee have all jumped into the library at lunch time this week to read their favourite books to the students. All the students have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to hear the incredible story telling powers of our teachers. We also had a special guest this week; author Anna Battese, whom was certainly the talk of the Newlands playground. The highly anticipated Book Day Parade will be taking place today, I look forward to seeing all the students dress up as their favourite book characters. The parade, taking place at 2.30pm, has been a hot topic not only amongst students, but also staff, who go above and beyond every year.  We also look forward to the parents joining in on the fun. A big thank you to David, who has gone over and above to make sure Book Week continues to be an important week in our community. 

If you didn’t already know, the players of the Newlands World Cup are now famous. Led by an incredible interview with Raul, his stunning dulcet tones were heard all over Australia on the ABC radio . The school has lots of correspondence about how great it was for our school; we know our community are very keen to know when the final is! Well, it is... drum roll....... TODAY! After a long training and strenuous playoff series, Venezuela plays against Argentina at 11:10am. Students have been working in the classroom preparing posters and flags for the event. 

There has also been some incredible learning taking place this week. 

The F/1s have been publishing their narrative stories. There are many dragons being slayed and characters being rescued from castles, in both English and Spanish. All the students in the F/1 area have been finding some much joy in their writing and are keen to share their finished products. A big congratulations to the F/1 area families who have been engaging in Nessy. Over the last month, the F/1s have utilised this program almost twice as much as the rest of the school. I know the F/1 teachers appreciate the support and have seen the improvement the program is having in the classroom on their literacy program. 

The 2/3s have been drafting and beginning their 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional collage pieces for the Art Show.  The feedback from the students has been positive as the students are working through Math Builders activities in Multiplication and Division in English, and the Spanish Builders activities have been focused on the relationship between addition and subtraction. The teachers are very proud of how the students developing their ability to make the connections between the four operations and utilise the same strategies in both languages. The students are also writing narratives and the teachers are very impressed with the quality of writing coming through when students are effectively using a planner. 

The 4/6s have been talking about Guido…If you don’t know who Guido is, you are about to find out!

As you would have seen on SENTRAL, Team Kids had to cancel their session last night due to a medical emergency. Here is the new information!

It is that time of the year for the annual Parent Opinion Survey! This survey is essential in helping us understand what the community thinks our strengths are and where we need to continue to work. The Education Sub Committee this year have been working with School leadership dissecting last year’s data to help identify areas we can improve on to meet our community’s needs. To coincide with the survey this year, the staff have created several videos to showcase some of the work that Newlands does behinds the scenes that may not be too transparent to our community. We will be releasing a video every day next week, which we hope will provide some further clarity and insight into what we do. The link for the survey will be in next week’s newsletter.

Next Week

The school has received so many emails from new and existing parents about the first transition session for our 2024 foundation students. We hope the experience will continue to be engaging as our students return back to the school next Tuesday. The school is really excited about welcoming 80 new foundation students to our school and look forward to being a part of their important schooling journey. We know some families have not returned enrolment forms, immunisation forms and/or medical forms, this is just a friendly reminder to bring them in as soon as you can!

After the success of last term, the Spanish Sub Committee are hosting another evening for families to catch up again at our new favourite Spanish spot, Neruda's cafe on Thursday 31st August.   Come over and enjoy a delicious Pisco Sour, make some new friends while you practice your Spanish. All levels of Spanish are welcome. Please email the school at newlands.ps@education.vic.gov.au  if you are interested in participating.  

They are coming back! Those famous Values Sandwiches and Keystones Buns are making another appearance. This time we are providing our fathers the opportunity to feast on what may be considered a culinary game changer. The first set of buns will be ready to go, with our lovely staff giving up their morning to come in and cook and thank the dads for everything you do. First buns will be ready by 8:10am, last sandwiches will be served at 9:15am. This breakfast experience is most enjoyable with your child/ren. Make sure you bring them along!

Finally, you would have received a couple of messages (maybe bonus messages) from SENTRAL this week. Our upcoming parent teacher interviews are not that far away. You are now able to book your interview times through SENTRAL. On our parent teacher interview day, Raul has organised an event to coincide with the Health and PE day at the Coburg Athletics. We are asking families to contribute 12 dollars to the day, which can also be paid on SENTRAL. 

We hope you have a fantastic weekend and look forward to seeing you in Week 8. As I have already spoken to some families, I will be travelling to Spain next term with the family to try and develop a stronger network to support our bilingual program. If anyone has any must see sites or visits, please let me know! I have recently spoken to Ross whom had a fantastic trip in Europe, but is very excited to be back at Newlands in Term 4. 

Thanks, Luke