Message from the Principal 

We are now well and truly into the full swing of a year of learning at Greenhills Primary School. After an important period of “Get Set and Connecting” which was underpinned by the High Impact Wellbeing Strategies, our teaching and learning program is fully up and running. 

Each week our Principal team have the pleasure of spending time in our classrooms, getting to know our students and seeing the teaching and learning in action. One of our favourite places to visit is our Prep classrooms. The first year of school is such a wonderful time. Our preps are always so excited, curious and ready to learn. A special highlight this week was seeing our Year 6 buddies share a picture story book they had written outlining our school values to our preps. 

Our teachers are excited, curious and ready to learn too. We see this each week through their commitment to working in their teams through an evidenced based cycle each term. In schools, this process is formally called a Professional Learning Community or PLC.

Each of our teams is currently in the first phase (there are four phases) which is Evaluation & Diagnose with a particular focus on reading and writing. Through this process, our teachers identify the specific learning required for cohorts of students and then plan detailed and focused learning to meet their point of need. Our teaching teams or PLC’s spend time each week working through the cycle. One of the most powerful results of this work is our staff learning from each other, collaborating and reviewing what effective teaching looks like through a better understanding of what is working or not working and why.

THANK-YOU INTERNATIONAL BOOK GIVING DAY

Thank you for supporting our International Book Giving Day last week. Through a gold coin donation, we raised over $150 for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and we also collected over 4 tubs of books that will be given a second life at a school in Papua New Guinea.

BUILDING PROJECT UPDATE

We continue to crawl to the finish line, but we are getting closer! As you can see from the photos, the outside of the gym is nearly fully cladded and we are even more excited to see the flooring being installed and sports equipment in place (basketball and netball rings and volleyball nets). At this stage we are hopeful of our students being able to access this space early Term 2.

STUDENT SAFETY – MINE STREET KISS & DROP & GREENHILLS RD CORNER

We have noticed that some parents are parking in the drop off zone in Mine Street between 8am and 9.30am and walking their children up to school. This means that our “Kiss & Drop” zone cannot work as it should. The six carparks in this area have been set up to allow a flow of traffic and when these rules are followed by everyone, our students can get to school on time and more importantly, get there safely! 

Alarmingly, I have also received news from parents that we have families parking on the other side of Greenhills Road across from the laneway (back entrance or “Pumpkin Patch”). Some are even parking in the “No Standing” area right at the bend. It has also been reported that some of our students are running across this section of the road to get to and from school. This is an extremely busy time on this road and as such this creates an extremely dangerous situation.  The crossing is only a short distance up the road! Please follow all the road rules and in doing so, set an example to your own children and our school community about how to get to and from school safely!     

MEET WITH THE PRINCIPAL TEAM

Keep the date free: Wednesday 6th March at 7.30pm. This will be our Term 1 Mid-Term Meet with the Principal Team. The session will be held via Webex with the link sent out shortly. Some of the topics that we will cover include:

• Whole School Wellbeing Focus
• How we are communicating with you about your child’s progress 
• Capital Works Update
• Suggestions and feedback

Hope to see you there!

PARENT ASSOCIATION 2024

Thank you to everyone who attended our first PA meeting for the year. We had a strong attendance, and it is GREAT to be part of a school that has such terrific parent involvement. At the meeting the following office bearers were elected:

Convenor: Melanie Lucas

Treasurer / Secretary: Lorelle Mills

School Council Community Position: Sarah Ahsan 

This term we can look forward to our end of term BBQ on Friday 22nd March. Other plans this term include an Easter Raffle and Hot Cross Buns drive. The team also discussed options around our plans to hold a Spring Fair which could possibly be in the form of a twilight event by building on the format of the mini fair that we ran last year.  If you would be interested in helping to co-ordinate this event, please contact the school: 

greenhills.ps@education.vic.gov.au 

I will outline the full calendar of PA events for this year one they have been approved by our 2024 School Council and the next PA meeting is on Thursday 14st March at 7.15pm in the staffroom.

James Penson 

Principal