Assistant Principal

Syndal South News

Book Week Celebrations

To celebrate the Children’s Book week, running from 17th-23rd August, we would love our students to dress up as their favourite book character. The theme for this years Children’s Book week is “Reading is my Secret Power”. Mrs Inger Robinson has purchased copies of the shortlisted books and she has them on display in the library for reading and borrowing in the library by staff. Students can borrow the short listed books the following week.

Disco

Congratulations to Lisa, Janine the Syndal South PA and the many wonderful parent volunteers who supported this event to make it the best ever disco Syndal South has staged. We had many of our students attend the evening and the sale of Glow items was quite popular this year. This event has been long held at Syndal South and is always a highlight for the children. We look forward in anticipation to the next disco in 2020.

Fete News-Lucky Jar Collection

Next Friday, we would like all of our students to bring a lucky jar for the fete, instead of a gold coin donation for Book week dress up day. We would like the clean jars to be filled with exciting items that customers would like to buy at the fete. Eg. Hair accessories, stationary, sealed lollies, small toys etc. Please see the flyer below.

John Monash Science School

Albin, Sanjaya, Sathee and Nupur spent a wonderful afternoon at John Monash Science School exploring the topic of physics. I love this topic at JMSS as the activity taught engages the students immediately and allows them to demonstrate their collaborative and creative thinking skills. Albin has written a great article to share his recount of the afternoon.

John Monash Science School: 

“Little Scientist Program - Session 2”  

This week at John Monash Science School (JMSS) we learnt about physics and how planes fly. If you remember our article from last week, you will know that we learn at JMSS by participating in group activities.

After a quick class on the principles of flight and wing design, our first activity was to make paper planes. Two of us were chosen to throw our paper planes across the classroom and we discussed why they went as far as they did. 

For the second activity, we had to make parachutes for eggs. Our team had $1000 of fake money to spend on supplies. We bought a balloon, a plastic bag, a meter-long piece of string, masking tape and some bubble wrap with our money. 

The idea of our parachute was to put the balloon under the little bubble wrap so when it hit the ground the balloon would break instead of the egg. Also, we had a plastic bag on top to catch the air so that it would fall slower. 

   Unfortunately, our egg broke after being dropped from roof height. Although our egg broke it was still fun to watch the other teams. The team that won had a good design because they had 4 balloons under a little cage where the egg was. 

Parent Opinion Surveys

A huge thankyou to the parents who have completed the Parent Opinion Survey. One hundred and six parents were sent a link to the survey and at this stage we have had a 33% response. We would appreciate if parents who have yet to complete the survey could spend the time to do so, as the responses you provide the school, help us to understand from a different perspective the successes and challenges Syndal South faces. This year is our review year where we have been reflecting upon the last four years and what we have achieved in our 2016-2019 Strategic Plan. The information parents provide within the 2019 Parent Opinion Survey will be of extreme benefit to help guide us in the writing of the Strategic Plan for 2020-2024. Even if you have been randomly selected to complete a Parent Opinion Survey in the past 4 years, we would still appreciate your input for 2019.

Parent Workshop H.E.L.P education (Health. Empowerment. Lifeskills. Performance)

Next Wednesday 21st August  7-8pm, Judd Murray co-founder of the Cognercise Foundation will be presenting a very special workshop to the parents at Syndal South.   I highly encourage parents to attend this workshop. We are being made increasingly more aware of the rise of anxiety in young people from sources within the media and newspapers. The more that we can educate ourselves about the link between physical activity and improved and sustainable health and well-being in students, will no doubt be of a huge benefit to all of our children.

H.E.L.P for parents is a 60 min practical workshop, which focuses upon positive parenting and family well-being.

We look forward to seeing you there.

If you are interested in learning more about the Foundation please follow the link below.

https://cognercisefoundation.org/

School Aerobics Championships- Queensland

I would like to take the time to wish all of our students the very best of luck this weekend for their exciting Aerobics finals in Queensland. Thank you to Michelle Dodson who has coached our teams this year with the support of Clare Searle. Helen Freeman and Danielle Canavan will also be attending the finals to support our students. The entire school looks forward to hearing all about the success of the event next week.

School Entrant Health Questionnaire (SEHQ)

Thankyou to all of our Foundation parents who returned to school this week their child’s School Entrant Health Questionnaire (SEQH). This questionnaire is a clinical tool, which assists the school nurses to identify children who may require further assistance and support in the first year of school. Teachers and the school nurses then work collaboratively with families to improve outcomes for children.

If you have a child in year’s 1-6 who is new to the school and you believe needs to be seen by the school nurse due to concerns about their vision or hearing, please contact Rebecca Stonehouse-Melke Assistant Principal, or your child’s class teacher, so that we can arrange for you to receive a questionnaire to complete.

School Policies

As part of the governance of a school, school policies need to be monitored and reviewed by an Education Committee and then ratified by School Council. For our parents who are interested in polices that govern Department of Education Schools, you have had the chance to view a selection of them on our Syndal South School website. This website is continually being updated, so when new polices are ratified by School Council they will be also uploaded onto the current website.

This week the Department of Education released its new department policy relating to Privacy.

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/Schools-Privacy-Policy-information-for-parents.aspx

Parents are encouraged to read this document as it will answer any questions you have in regards to student privacy.