SKiPPS Newsletter

Important Notices

Working Bee - thank you!

Last Saturday we had a beautiful morning that was perfect for the school working bee.

 

I would like to thank the large number of families who attended, rolled up their sleeves and worked so hard to complete our job list.

Working bees make such a difference to the look and feel of our great school and allow us to keep our physical environment in the condition that our students and staff deserve.

 

Sadly government funding alone does not allow us to engage contractors to complete these jobs so, without regular working bees, they would not get done and our school would be a poorer, less welcoming (and messier) place as a result.

 

Thanks again to our beautiful school community.

City of Port Phillip Community Grants Program

I am really excited to share that our application for the City of Port Phillip Community Grants Program 2024/25 has been successful.

 

Earlier in the year an amazing team of parents and staff submitted a funding application to allow us to build and install nesting boxes and pollinator hotels for a wildlife corridor around the school.

 

The successful proposed project entails the construction and placement of nesting boxes for native birds within our school grounds, in collaboration with the St Kilda EcoCentre.

 

These nesting boxes will provide crucial habitats for native bird species, offering safe spaces for nesting, roosting, and raising their young. Moreover, by extending this initiative to offer nesting boxes to our school families for installation in their gardens, we aim to create a network of biodiverse habitats across our local area.

 

We are excited to receive this grant and will keep you updated on this exciting project to improve the biodiversity of our local community.

Book Week - August 17-23

 

Teachers have been sharing the 2024 nominated books with their classes and students have started voting on their favourites from each category.

The categories we are voting on are;

  • Early Childhood
  • Picture Book
  • Non-Fiction
  • New Illustrator

Encourage your children to share their votes and favourite books with you. The display is up in the quadrangle. The colour dots that have been placed on the books are representing the year levels.

 

  • Foundation students are voting with Green dots,
  • Year 1/2 students are voting with Red dots,
  • Year 3/4 students are voting with Orange dots and the
  • Year 5/6 students are voting with Blue dots.

At an upcoming assembly, we will share the SKiPPS winning books for each category. All these books have been purchased for each level and will be shared amongst the classroom libraries. There has also been a copy purchased of each book for the school library.

Book Week Costume Parade - Friday 30th August

This year we will be getting our Book Week costumes on a little later.

 

On Friday 30th August we invite all of our students, staff (and parents) to dress up as a favourite book character. As an added challenge, you might like to interpret the 2024 Book Week theme of "Reading is Magic".

 

The parade will take place at the end of our Friday morning assembly and be led by our Year 6 Library Leadership Team.

Dads & Special Persons Morning - Friday 30th August

With Father's Day on the horizon in a couple of weeks, our Parents' Association are holding a special Friday morning event on the 30th August.

 

We will have a before-school event with delicious pastries for sale and a chance to craft a special father's (or special persons) day card together. This will happen in the school grounds from 8:15am.

 

As the day co-incides with our Book Week dress-up day and parade, we invite our students (and parents) to get into the spirit by dressing as a favourite book character on the morning -perhaps in line with the theme of 'Reading is Magic'.

2024 SKiPPS Olympics - parent social fundraising night

Last week we shared news of our upcoming parent night on Saturday 14th September at the Bowls Club.

The first lot of tickets sold out in record time and we are now working with the venue to arrange for greater capacity so even more of our families can come along, let their hair down, have fun and raise money for our school.

 

We will keep you updated on this including when any further tickets go on sale.

Donation of trackpants/shorts 

With students slipping over in wet grass and puddles this winter, the school is in need of replacement clothes, so the students can get changed and get on with their day. 

If your child has outgrown their trackpants or shorts and they are in great condition, please consider donating them to the school, so there is always a spare change of clothes available. 

 

Donations can be dropped off to the Sick Bay anytime. 

SKiPPS Orchestra news

Due to the ongoing maintenance works at school, the orchestra cannot currently rehearse in the Performing Arts Room. So we are planning to make music in a different manner for the rest of this term. Michael (our conductor) will offer a singing and song writing workshop each Wednesday from 8am-8.45am. 

 

The song writing aspect will include the option for children to enter the National Songwriting Competition run annually by the Australian Children's Music Foundation. https://acmf.com.au/national-songwriting-competition/

 

I know this is very different to the Orchestra program but, in terms of musical development, it is valuable and hopefully lots of fun.

We will start NEXT WEDNESDAY 14th AUGUST in the BER, the library area in the BER building, which Neil and teachers have kindly made available to us. Parent helpers are always welcome. 

 

Contact Michael for more information: Michael_roper@fastmail.fm or 0433911773