Principal's Report

2020 Grade 6 Captains

On 29th November many of our Year 5 students presented their speeches to become a captain for 2020. The calibre of the speeches was excellent and we congratulate all students for putting in their personal best and showing courage in applying for a position. I am pleased to announce the following students have gained a captain position in 2020:

All of our Year 6 students have chosen a leadership role 2020. They will be shadowing our current Year 6’s in performing the role ready for next year.

South Oakleigh College visit

On 2 December the Year 5’s visited South Oakleigh College to participate in a leadership day. Run by the students at the college, our students completed different activities focused on personal and leadership development. We hope that they implement the skills they have learnt in their roles next year.

Year 4 Rotary Scholarship Winners

Each year the Rotary Club Oakleigh Clayton Huntingdale donates four scholarships to Year 4 students who display leadership qualities or make a significant contribution to the school. The scholarship is $375 which can be used over Year 5 and Year 6 to enhance learning opportunities. The students write a letter to me stating why they should be selected. This week the Year 4 teachers and I selected the following students to receive the scholarships: Jenithya 3/4P, Mei 3/4G, Keitaro 3/4B and Eirto 3/4P. They were presented with a certificate at this week’s assembly from David Whiting (Rotary). Thank you to the Rotary Club for making these scholarships available.

Steve Dimopoulos and Heang Tak Visit

On Friday 6th December Heang Tak, State Member for Clarinda and Steve Dimopoulous State Member for Oakleigh, visited Huntingdale Primary School. Steve and Heang saw the preparations for our building projects starting next year. Most importantly, they met with the Year 5/6’s to present an award each for an achievement of a Year 6 student.

Steve presented his Community Leadership Award to Hasiru from 5/6W. Hasiru has been an active member of our school community being Hokkaido House Captain and an excellent buddy to foundation students. Hasiru is a polite and well respected member of our school and embodies the school values of Kindness, Courage, Personal Best and Creativity.

Heang presented an award for Excellence in Japanese Learning. This was awarded to Eric from 5/6W. Eric has been at Huntingdale for around 2 years. In this time he has shown significant improvement in his Japanese learning. In Japanese classes he is very positive towards completing challenging tasks and he is a risk taker, trying to speak Japanese whenever he can. Eric is very studious.

Well done to both boys on these achievements! Thank you also to Heang and Steve for visiting our school. They are great supporters of Huntingdale Primary School.

Taiko Performance at the Rotary Glen Eira Japanese Festival

On Sunday 1 December I once again had the privilege of watching our Taiko Group perform. This time it was at the Glen Eira Town Hall for the Rotary Club Japanese Festival. Our group once again ‘wowed’ the crowd with their wonderful performance. The sound was absolutely fantastic with clean, ‘in-sync’ drumming. Many people approached me after the performance to say how great the group were. Well done to the students! Special thanks goes out to the parents of the students who had to battle torrential rain and lots of stairs to get the drums inside the hall. Thank you also to our Taiko teacher Tadashi Hanazono for teaching this group of students.

Carols in the Park

On Friday 6th December our Taiko Group and Senior Choir performed at the Oakleigh Carols Service at Warawee Park. The choir sang ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer’ in English and Japanese and they sounded fantastic! The Taiko Group had another opportunity to perform their routine to the packed crowd and they didn’t disappoint! Thank you to our students, Smith sensei and Hanazono sensei and our families that came to watch the performances.

Christmas Concert

Just a reminder that our annual Christmas Concert performance is this Thursday 12th December on the basketball court. Parents can arrive from 6.00pm (BYO your own picnic) with the performances starting at 7.00pm. Watashi Mo will have a bake sale on the night and there might even be a visit from a very special man in a red suit! See you all there!

Last Day of School- 20 December

I wanted to remind the school community that school will finish at 1.30pm on Friday 22 December at Huntingdale, as has happened in previous years. Team Kids will be open from 1.30pm for parents who need to use this service.

Team Kids Holiday Program

Team Kids will start their popular vacation care program from Monday 6 January. If you would like your child to attend over the summer holidays please register online. See Team Kids page in this newsletter. The program is always exciting with many different activities.

Ruth Biddle, Principal