Message from the Principal 

Greenhills is certainly a hive of connection, curiosity and challenge as we near the half-way mark of Term 3. Our photos of the week highlight our prep students in a S.T.E.A.M. lesson built on (yes….I like the pun too!) on engineering, construction, testing designs and then making modifications. The photo shows two prep students working together to build a house using natural materials. This follows on from last week where they did a similar thing using Lego and then water tested the structures.    

Our Inquiry units are also taking shape across the school. These have been enriched with excursions and incursions which really help to make the learning authentic and purposeful. This photo was taken during the Year 2 Animal Adaption incursion on Monday. Very brave Suzie!

WE WANT OUR PARENTS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!

Greenhills is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst all parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions about your child’s learning, teachers at the school and general satisfaction with the school. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. All parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Wednesday 9th August to Friday 8th September.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

An invitation to the survey with a link and password will be sent out via Compass today.

Please contact me if you would like more information:

james.penson@education.vic.gov.au

CHILDRENS BOOK WEEK – DRESS UP PARADE

At Greenhills we love to celebrate all things reading. A highlight of this is our dress up parade as part of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Annual Book Week. This will be held on Wednesday 23rd August at 9.15am on the Tigerturf.

The theme for this year is Read, Grow and Inspire. Time to start thinking about that costume!

GETTING READY FOR 2024

This week we start our “Experience Greenhills” sessions with our 2024 Preps visiting the Art room. The 2024 preps will also visit our other specialist areas each week over the next month, as we build towards our students starting school next year. We have 71 students enrolled in Prep next year, so at this stage we anticipate to run four classes. 

On three of the Experience Greenhills dates, we will also be hosting short parent sessions in the Library. This will be a GREAT chance to catch up for a chat and find out a little more about our school. The sessions are open to all or our parents and carers, not just our Prep 2024 ones!

The session outlines are as follows:

Thursday 17th August 2023  “Literacy” presented by Sharon Draper who is one of our Literacy experts. Sharon will talk about literacy at home and how to spark a love of reading.

Thursday 24th August 2022 “Numeracy” presented by Nigel Dunne or Becc Stephens, who are our Learning Specialists. They will talk about ways to engage with math’s at home and how we teach math’s through the school.

Thursday 31st August 2022 “Meet with the Principal Team” - an opportunity to meet with the Principal Team with both myself, Janine Hough and Brad Ryan to answer any questions you may have.

James Penson

Principal