Principal's Report

It’s a busy time of the year with lots of celebrations and excitement. I remind families to ensure that their children still have plenty sleep so they are well-rested and ready for activities at school.

2023 Christmas Concert

Thursday 7 December is our annual Christmas Concert. The stage will be the new basketball court and families can enjoy a picnic dinner on the oval area from 5.30pm.

The concert will start at 6.30pm and go to approximately 8.00pm. The Christmas Raffle will be drawn at that time.

We look forward to a fantastic community event.

House Spirit Sports Day

As part of their leadership development, the Year 6 Captains are organising a ‘House Spirit’ Sports Day.

On Monday the 18th of December at 11:30am (after recess) there will be an assembly. Then at 11:40am the first activities will start, with the event concluding at 1:20pm.

Students are encouraged to wear a t-shirt on the day which is their house colour.

Bunnings BBQ success

On Saturday 25 November we ran a highly successful Bunnings Sausage Sizzle at Oakleigh Links. On a day that threatened with rain, we sold 816 sausages and countless drinks and snacks. It was wonderful to see students helping out with the selling. I thank our parent volunteers, Watashi Mo and Ben Chapple for organising the event.

Rotary Scholarship Winner

Each Year the Rotary Club of Waverley offers a ‘Sporting Attitude’ Award to one of our students. This is not for a student who is the best at sport but for one who shows a positive attitude.

This year the teachers chose Gene from 6B for this award for the following reasons:

Gene has demonstrated all round skills in both sporting attitude and ability.

Although he is quiet, Gene is self-assured and respected by his peers. He shows genuine spirt of fair play in a variety of settings. As a member of the rounders and volleyball teams, Gene displayed leadership qualities by listening to his teammates, guiding them to help improve their skill level, organising the team and caring for their wellbeing. Gene includes both girls and boys in games, listening to them and solving problems fairly. Even when his team doesn’t win, he is humble and encourages his team to improve. Gene is flexible to change the game to include others and listen to teachers' advice.

Well done Gene!

Reminder- Planning for 2024

The school has almost confirmed the organisation for the 2024 school year.

If you are planning on moving interstate, to another country or away from Huntingdale PS and are yet to notify the office, please do so as soon as possible. Numbers have a significant bearing on our planning, and we appreciate early notification where possible.

If you hear of anyone wishing to attend Huntingdale in 2024, please send them to the office to enrol. If you have not enrolled any younger siblings, please do so as quickly as possible.

Clare O’Neil Christmas Card Competition

We got a lovely email from Clare O’Neil, Member for Hotham and Home Affairs Minister, congratulating our students on their wonderful entries in her annual Christmas Card Competition. Unfortunately, none of our entries were this year’s winners. There were hundreds of impressive entries making their job really hard!

However, Clare wanted all our community to know that the artwork is being displayed at her offices at 17 Atherton Road in Oakleigh and she welcomes families to come and view the artwork there.

The winning Christmas cards will be sent out soon, so watch out for them!

COVID Reminder

The Department of Education has asked me to remind families about reducing COVID-19 transmission.

There is at present an increase in community transmission of COVID-19 in Victoria.

You can help us keep our school as safe as possible by taking 2 important steps:

Ensure your COVID-19 vaccinations are up to date. Information on how and where to get vaccinated is available on the Get vaccinated webpage.
If your child shows symptoms of COVID-19, please ensure they stay home and get tested.
The easiest way to test is to use a rapid antigen test (RAT).
Free RATs are available from your local council where you can collect 2 packs of 5 RATs and an extra 2 packs for each person in your household. People with disability and their carers can get 4 packs of 5 RATs. You are not required to have a Medicare card and you can collect RATs as many times as you need. You can also buy RATs at supermarkets, pharmacies and other retailers.

If your child has symptoms but tests negative, please ensure they stay home until they no longer have symptoms.

If the RAT test result is positive, please ensure they say home for at least 5 days and until there are no more symptoms.

Enjoy the rest of the term.

Ruth Biddle

Principal

Assistant Principal's Report

It’s December! Our children have started practicing their number for our Christmas Concert on 7th December and have also started sharing their learning in many ways.

Kinder visit by Year 5 Student Leader

From the perspective of a student who went to Germain Street Kinder. It was an eye-opening experience. Especially because my brother was at the kinder. We read a Japanese book, taught them “head, shoulders knees and toes” in Japanese, the name of different parts of their bodies like hands and we played a game that involves sitting, standing and looking at different directions.　Elin　

わたしはジャァーメインキンデーにいったとき、たのしいことをたくさしたのでちいさいこともたちと、日本ごの本をよんだり、ゲームもしました。わたしのおとうともキンダーにいったので、ほとんどのこどもたちのなまえをしってた。またこういうことをしたいです。エリン

As a student that went and visited the students of Germain Street Kindergarten, I thought the experience was very educational, as it helped myself and others improve in our Japanese and English translation skills.

１２月６日水曜日にわたしたちは、ジャーメインストリートのようちえんにいきました。ようちえんじのみんなはわたしたちのことについてよくきいていました。うちらは本をよんでゲームもちょっとしたあとにようちえんじのみんなさんにつくったおりがみをあげてさよならとがっこうにかえりました。

But overall the experience was amazing and I had a lot of fun. Julia ジュリア

Firefighters visit to Foundation

Foundations had a visit from the firefighters this week. We learnt about good fires and bad fires. We learnt that smoke goes up and we need to ‘’Get low and go go go!!” Our homework is to talk to our family about having a meeting place in case of a fire, such as the letterbox.

Written by Miss Wood

Zoom session with Mitama Kinder in Japan

Each Foundation class has had a Zoom session with a Japanese kindergarten and the students were very excited to communicate with them in Japanese. It was an exciting opportunity to use their language skills in a real and authentic situation.

Written by Smith Sensei

STEM Classes

In Term 4 of STEM, students built on the knowledge they gained from previous terms by connecting software and hardware to program their EV3 Mindstorm Robot to follow their designed path. They followed our Design Thinking methodology to empathise with the problem and who they are helping, to prototype, design, and program a solution. They have been manually designing a program with instructions for the robot to move different paths and then using the light sensor peripheral for their path-finding algorithm. They have done a brilliant job of furthering their understanding of the relationship between hardware and software while developing their critical and creative thinking.

Written by Mr Gorney

Lost Property

Lost property is mounting up again. Please ask your child to check the tubs in the office and their classrooms to see if anything belongs to them. Please also remember that if you put your child’s name on their lunch box, jacket, hat, etc., there is a better chance of them finding their owner. At the end of each term items not collected are disposed of responsibly.

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal

Bulletin Board