Message from the Principal 

Today we enjoyed a wonderful celebration of Book Week 2023. 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.

A highlight was having a very special guest author – our very own Karen Carter who is one of our parents at Greenhills. Karen has written “The Ant, the Plant, and the Caterpillar” a picture story book that tells the tale of a very special symbiotic relationship between Lucinda the caterpillar, Nathan the Notoncus ant , and the Sweet Bursaria plant. The story follows the journey of a protective ant and a little caterpillar and their great friendship as the caterpillar forms to become the delicate Eltham Copper Butterfly. 

Karen Carter is an academic, designer and illustrator who began her career as a commercial artist in communications, spending much of her career in the university sector including RMIT, lecturing in design, advertising and communications. Karen has shifted her focus towards working more on ethical causes, education, campaigns for social awareness and conservation. Karen’s love for nature and the compulsion to aid in building community awareness of environmental issues led to writing this book. At our Bookweek parade, Karen presented a copy of the book to each class to keep in their reading corners.

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 2023 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. In fact, Jen came dressed up as “The Places You Will Go” which is one of our favourite Dr. Suess books– 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 we commit the start of each day with 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 then. 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

We are certainly “Wild About Reading” and at this stage we have 50% of our school who have completed the 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge. There is only a couple of weeks to go, and it would be GREAT to increase this percentage 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 will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Wednesday 9th August to Friday 8th September.

The survey will be 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 a newsfeed.

A big shout out to the 58 families that have taken the time to compete the survey. This represents 17% of our school family population. Please contact me if you would like more information: james.penson@education.vic.gov.au 

WORKING BEE THIS SUNDAY 9am – 11.30am

It will be all hands-on deck this Sunday for our Term 3 Working Bee. We have started to get some terrific participation at these events and this support certainly makes a big difference to the way we can keep our grounds and facilities clean and well maintained. The main focus this Sunday will be mulching an area next to the Bruce Oval to turn into a cubby building zone. All students that attend and help will receive a $5 canteen voucher.

FATHERS & SPECIAL PERSONS DAY BREAKFAST – THURSDAY 31ST AUGUST 7.45am – 9am

This community connecting event is run by our Parent Association and will be held on the outdoor basketball court from 7.45am – 9am. The Cheers Cheese Toastie Truck and a couple of coffee carts are ready to go so all you need to do is make sure you pre-order via QKR (orders close midday Friday 25th August) and then come along to enjoy a tasty breaky with your kids.

James Penson

Principal