Message from the Principal 

A BIG WELCOME TO OUR NEW PREPS

A very special welcome to all our new Prep students and to our new families. The Prep team is ready and excited for a GREAT year ahead, full of curiosity, new connections and challenges. A big thank you to our Prep team who were able to deliver a best practice transition program throughout 2023 and into this year. This effort will certainly have a very positive impact on how our students have started school this year. 

You can also read more about our Get Set Connect Program in our Wellbeing section of this newsletter. Here Janine & Brad will outline more about this program that we have designed to support all our students across the school to have a positive start and set a foundation for learning this year built on wellbeing and connection. 

INTERNATIONAL BOOK GIVING DAY

Not only is Tuesday 14th February Valentine’s Day it is also International Book Giving Day. This is GREAT for Greenhills because we love reading! On this day all students will be able to bring their favourite book to school to share with a friend. This will be part of our 15-minute reading time which we have moved from the morning to straight after lunchtime.

 We also asking students to either: 

• bring a gold coin to donate to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. If we raise $500, we will be able to support the translation of stories into First Language. 
• bring a book they could donate to the collection that we will be sending over to a school in Papua New Guinea later this year. 

iPad’s @ GHPS

As we start up the school year, all our Years 3-6 students have taken home a hard copy of our Acceptable Use Policy & Agreement. This is a document containing the responsibilities held by teachers, student and parents when taking part in digital learning. This is updated and sent out each year to remind us of all how to use technologies responsibly. Teachers will go through the document with students and have them sign it. We also ask that you read this and countersign if you approve. This process assures that everyone is aware of the rules before we really get started.

We will also keep you updated through our newsletter and other communications about all the things we can do together to ensure that our students are using iPads to their full potential as learning tools.

On that note, I can confirm that our students are not permitted to use their iPads during recess or lunchtimes without Principal team approval. Our staff team are continuing to focus on ensuring that screentime is used effectively and that our students develop social and personal connections through time away from technology.   

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WOMEN & GIRLS IN SCIENCE

Sunday 11th February is the International Day of Women & Girls in Science. Days like this are a GREAT way to think about the things we can all do to inspire, promote, engage, and excite our girls in all thing’s science. We can all work together to do this as a Greenhills team. This short YouTube clip promotes the idea of encouraging and enabling “a-ha” moments. It sounds very simple – but this might also be a really powerful way to grow the curiosity, connection and challenge that form the foundation of science and inquiry learning. I bet Katherine Johnson’s mother and father used the power of “a-ha” to inspire her!

International Day of Women and Girls in Science (youtube.com)

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Our uniform dress code reinforces in students a pride in their own appearance, instils recognition of themselves as an integral part of the school community, and assists in developing pride in representing their school. The uniform dress code aims to promote equality amongst all students. This term as part of our wider focus on our value of RESPECT we are seeking your support to ensure that all students are dressed each and every day looking like a full member of our school team. 

We are lucky to have so many uniform options provided through PSW, and I also encourage any families having difficulties providing school uniform to contact me at the school so that we can assist.

If a student is not in school uniform as listed in our policy, a member of the principal team will issue them with a uniform pass as a reminder. We will then also follow up with families to help ensure and support our students to follow the policy. 

FINAL CALL FOR SCHOOL COUNCIL NOMINATIONS

This is a final reminder that we have 4 x parent vacancies for School Council for a period of two years. If you are interested in nominating, please collect a form from the school office or contact me and I will arrange one to be sent home. These must be lodged at the office by 4pm Friday 9th February.

WE NEED YOUR HELP – STUDENTS WITH LIFE THREATENING ALLERGIES

We have a number of students at our school with potential life-threatening allergies. These anaphylactic reactions are often triggered by coming into contact with nuts. Whilst we can never say we are a nut free school, we do ask all members of our school community to help keep our students safe by not bringing nuts and nut related products e.g.  No Nutella to be brought to school at anytime. We appreciate your support and assistance with this request. 

James Penson 

Principal