Message from the Principal 

GREENHILLS CHOIR SHINES AT MONTSALVAT

Our Greenhills Primary School Choir performed at the Montsalvat Choral Festival last Sunday. This is always an incredibly special and prestigious event to be part of and our choir’s participation and performance was a shining example of all the things that make Greenhills a GREAT school.

Thank you to Kate Stewart for her dedication and commitment to our extra-curricular choral program and continuing to advocate and support our students learning, experience and joy of music. Thank you also to all the parent that assisted and attended. 

JUNGLE BOOK LOGO COMPETITION

We are excited to have another whole school production this year and the organisation for this is really starting to take shape. Part of this is for our school to have it’s very own Jungle Book logo. This will be used for posters and other promotional materials. 

We are encouraging students to enter their own design into our logo competition. These can be hand drawn or completed using technology and printed out but there are a couple of important rules.

1 – the logo must be completely original (and not based on any other logos).

2 – a hard copy of the logo (no larger than A4 size) must be submitted by Monday 20th May at the office (make sure you include your name and class).

The winner will be announced at assembly on 24th May where they will also receive a $30 prize voucher.

               LEARNING TO LEARN -FOCUS ON                                                              FEEDBACK                                                                                                            

For many years, our school has had a strong focus on developing and growing student agency. This has taken many different forms including student focus groups, student goal setting and conferencing just to name a few. It is so important to us, that agency forms one of our central pillars (along with reading and number fluency) where we ensure that there is dedicated time and processes each school day to focus on it.

This year we continue to build on the way we support our students to develop and grow their agency. Part of our strategy is for all classes to have a dedicated lesson each week where the focus is on “Learning to Learn”. This weekly program is built around the key elements or dimensions of agency and have included organisation and mindset. 

This term, in Learning to Learn we have started to focus on Feedback. This includes self to self, peer to peer and self to teacher. An example of the Learning Intention for this week was:

Learning Intention: To give feedback to yourself. 

P – 2 Success Criteria:

• I can understand what I was learning about during a lesson.
• I can decide if I have shown the learning intention in my work.
• I can decide what I could do next to improve my learning. 

3 – 6 Success Criteria:

• I can understand what I was learning about during a lesson.
• I can decide if I have shown the learning intention in my work and explain how I know this. 
• I can give myself feedback on what I did well and what I need to work on 

EXCURSIONS & INCURSIONS PERMISSION FORMS

Excursions and incursions certainly offer our students rich and engaging learning opportunities. They are also often some of the most memorable events and experiences students remember during their time at our school. They are also a significant load for our staff to organise and run. 

As such we need your support in finalising permissions and any associated payments 48 hours prior to the event.

This allows time for staff to make final checks on numbers and print out all the required paperwork and handbooks. These include the emergency contact details of those that attend so that in the case of an emergency we can ensure we have everything we need. These handbooks are printed and distributed to all staff attending and a copy is also left at the school office. Our staff need to complete this on the day before the event to minimise all the other requirements needed to do on the day itself.

This process will be strictly enforced. We will be unable to make telephone calls home on the morning of an event to follow up any missing permissions. If you are having trouble accessing Compass, need a hard copy of a permission form or require support to make a payment please let the office team know. We do not want any students to miss these opportunities and will do everything to support you prior to the day to ensure that everything is organized as it should be. 

   TERM 2 WORKING BEE             

Just a quick reminder that we have our Term 2 Working Bee on Saturday 18th May from 8.30am - 11.30am.  Even if you can only help for an hour, it will really assist us to look after and maintain our school grounds. This is a challenge with the funding our school is provided with, so our working bees each term are critical.

 Please register via https://www.carebookings.com/code?z=TYHjtk using the code: JGU9L

HAPPY MOTHERS & SPECIAL PEOPLE DAY

Happy Mother’s & Special People Day this Sunday. I know our Parent Association stall on Thursday is always a special part of the day and seeing our students taking their time to shop and find something special to purchase as a gift is a real highlight. 

On behalf of our whole Greenhills school community, we wish our mums and special people a very happy day. We hope that you know how much you mean to us and how grateful we are for everything you do for us. 

James Penson 

Principal