From the Principal

Welcome to IPS 

 During the week, students have been involved in learning activities around respect and inclusivity over Harmony Week under the them of 'Everyone Belongs'.

Today, we joined together (with a splash of orange, symbolising harmony) to celebrate our diverse community with a lunch on the oval as part of Harmony Day celebrations. Students from 4C performed, 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' on the ukelele and classes contributed to a collaborative artwork that will be on dispay in the hall.

Take a look at the images from the student lunch and the performance.

Make sure you take a look at the Student Voice to see some of the Art work in progress and check out next week's newsletter for a video of the performance too!

NAPLAN

Congratulations to all the year 3 and year 5 students who demonstrated the school values of persistence and resilience during NAPLAN testing last week.  You should be really proud of your efforts.

That's it for another couple of years.... Well done!

Year 1 Learning about Community

On Wednesday, the students in year 1 were lucky enough to have a selection of parents visit and share lots of interesting information about their jobs.  This was part of their unit called 'Our Community' and the students were enthralled.  They discovered what jobs a community needs to make it great.  They found out what these parents actually do. There was a Librarian, a Physiotherapist, a Cafe Owner, a Banker, an Air Traffic Controller, an Aged Care Worker and an Illustrator! 

Report from the School Council President 

The newly elected IPS School Council has meet twice in 2024. Parent Members of children in every year group are represented on the council and we have a strong mix of skills and experience to support the school in both a governance function and in its strategic outlook.  

The main item of business at the most recent council meeting on 20 March was to endorse the School's Annual Implementation Plan (AIP). The AIP is a key planning tool and helps the School prioritise areas of focus. The school leadership team work through in a very detailed and structured manner to plan each aspect of the AIP and how goals and targets will be achieved.  In 2024 the School continues to increase its focus on wellbeing outcomes, strive to improve already strong academic results and continue to empower and engage students while upholding the School values.  

Our next Council meeting is scheduled for 24th April and is open to all parents to attend  and will be available as an online option.  The sole agenda item at that meeting will be the presentation of the annual report for the prior year.

Hamish Wood

School Council President.

There are still a few classes without parent reps

We still have a few classes without a rep.  Classes need a parent rep to help do things such as welcoming any new parents of children starting in your child's class throughout the year, helping the teacher to send out messages asking for volunteers to help out in the classroom or volunteers to support your child's class on excursions.  You needn't be a brilliant organiser or have loads of free time, you just need to offer a little time to support the class teacher!  

We need reps for the following classes:

• 3M
• 3O
• 4F
• 4K
• 5M
• FS

If you could spare a little time or would even like to share the role with another parent, please read the entire letter on the special Parent Representative page of this edition of Inside Ivanhoe and then complete the slip (or email/dojo) and return it to your class teacher as soon as possible.

Thank you to those parents who have already volunteered to be the parent rep for your child's class.

Beginning to Read

Learning to read is essentially learning a code.  Children learn the relationship between the letters of the alphabet and the speech sounds they represent and that allows them to “crack the code” and learn to both read (decode) and spell (encode).  This is known as Synthetic Phonics and research evidence has shown that this is the most effective way of teaching children to read. 

Children learn how all words in English are reducible to units of sounds called 'phonemes', which we write down using letters or small groups of letters called 'graphemes'.  They then blend these sounds together to read words. They also learn to separate (segment) words into their constituent sounds and link these sounds to letters in order to spell them. 

If you want to learn more about Synthetic Phonics, SPELD has a very informative fact sheet. https://dsf.net.au/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=64d9ae37-e4f7-4d1d-b4c3-7e3dba1c5d63

How We Teach Early Reading and How You Can Help Your Child

At IPS we use a program called Read Write Inc.  It's a structured program that ensures consistency of teaching from Foundation to Year 2.  It helps us teach students at exactly their point of need by teaching phonemes in an explicit and structured way.

The video below explains how the program works, the stages, the sound sets and how students learn to read by decoding, segmenting and blending . 

(Note: The video refers to the National Curriculum in England)

The website below contains lots of resources, such as the sound sets and videos to help you help your child with reading.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/

Upcoming PFA Event

Our wonderful PFA have organised a Barefoot Bowls event on Saturday 23rd of March from 3pm - 8pm  and we would love to see you there.    

 Come along and be part of what makes this community great!

It promises to be a fun afternoon! 

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS)

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). 

Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, family day cares, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. 

Now in its 24th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

By facilitating NSS we aim to: 

• promote the value of reading and literacy, 
• promote the value and fun of books,
• promote an Australian writer and publisher, 
• celebrate and promote storytime activities in public libraries, school libraries, classrooms and communities around the country,
• provide opportunities to involve parents, caregivers, the media, and others to participate in and enjoy the occasion.

About the author

Aura Parker is an award-winning illustrator, writer and designer. Her picture books are joyful with a playful sense of humour, brimming with details to explore. Aura Parker’s storytelling through words and pictures inspires imagination, courage and confidence in young readers as well as a love, curiosity and passion for nature.

Finally

With just one more week left of the school term, it is timely to remind everyone that primary school students do not yet have a fully developed sense of road safety.  Please drive carefully and vigilantly around school.  Please obey the road rules and please be respectful of other drivers and pedestrians.  

A final reminder that school gates open at 8:45am and until that time there are no staff on duty.  If students are arriving early the safest place for them is be booked into our OSHC Before School program, where they will be engaged in play, be fed a morning snack and importantly, be supervised.  If however, this isn't an option for parents, then we respectfully ask that students not congregate around the OSHC gates and fence.  This causes disruption to the program and it is preferred that students wait at the gate between the hall and the Treeehouse.

Have a great week.

Pam Wright

Co Principal

http://www.ivanhoeps.vic.edu.au/ 

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