Greenhills Primary School Newsletter

Message from the Principal 

James Penson 

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

 

My photo of the week highlights the successful completion of our Curiosity Creek play space and some new line marking games under the shade sails. The shade sails themselves are also an asset for shade, outdoor play and of course assemblies, BBQ’s, and musical events. This whole area now has a completely new look to a few years ago and is a big improvement for our school community.

We are now well and truly into the full swing of a year of learning at Greenhills Primary School. After an important period of settling in, making connections with classmates and of course the teacher too, our teaching and learning program is fully up and running. 

 

Each week I have the pleasure of spending time in our classrooms, getting to know our students and seeing the teaching and learning in action. One of my favourite places to visit is our Prep classrooms. The first year of school is such a wonderful time. Our preps are always so excited, curious and ready to learn. 

 

Our teachers are excited, curious and ready to learn too. We see this each week through their commitment to working in their teams through an evidenced based cycle each term. In schools, this process is formally called a Professional Learning Community or PLC.

 

Each of our teams is currently in the first phase (there are four phases) which is Evaluation & Diagnose with a particular focus on student writing. Through this process, our teachers identify the specific learning required for cohorts of students and then plan detailed and focused learning to meet their point of need. Our teaching teams or PLC’s spend time each week on a Tuesday after school between 3.50pm and 4.50pm working through the cycle. 

         

One of the most powerful results of this work is our staff learning from each other, collaborating and reviewing what effective teaching looks like through a better understanding of what is working or not working and why.

CONGRATULATIONS & WELL DONE TO OUR DISTRICT SWIMMING TEAM

GREAT news, on Tuesday our swimming team was the overall winner of the Diamond Valley Primary School Sports Association Swimming Carnival and that makes four out of the last five years. Well done to the whole team and thank you to Jordan Daley for organising both the selection of our team through our House Swimming Day and our team attending at the District Day. You can read more about this in the sports section of this newsletter next week.

FUEL FREE FRIDAY

This week on Friday 24th February, we are encouraging students to walk, ride or scoot to school. This is an initiative of our Sustainability and Environment Sub-Committee with the aim of fostering behaviours that help our environment whilst also building a strong sense of school community. We have started with one day each term and over the last couple of years we have seen this initiative really take shape. If you live further away and need the car, you can still get involved by parking a little further away than normal and walking the rest of the way. 

MEET WITH THE PRINCIPAL TEAM

Keep the date free: Wednesday 8th March at 7.30pm. This will be our Term 1 Mid-Term Meet with the Principal Team. The session will be held via Webex with the link sent out shortly. Some of the topics that we will cover include:

  • School Review Parent Feedback (Strengths & Areas for Improvement)
  • Whole School Wellbeing Focus
  • How we are communicating with you about your child’s progress 
  • Capital Works Update
  • Suggestions and feedback

Hope to see you there!

PARENT ASSOCIATION 2023

Thank you to everyone attended our first PA meeting for the year. We had a strong attendance, and it is GREAT to be part of a school that has such terrific parent involvement. 

At the meeting Josh Lucas was elected as our PA Convenor.

This term we can look forward to our end of term BBQ on Friday 31st March. Other plans this term include an Easter Raffle and Hot Cross Buns drive. The team also discussed options around our plans to hold a Spring Fair this year. Given the impact of our gym not being ready until late October, the current plan is to reschedule for early 2024. We are also on the lookout for someone to co-ordinate this event. If you are interested, please contact the school:

greenhills.ps@education.vic.gov.au 

I will outline the full calendar of PA events for this year one they have been approved by our 2023 School Council and the next PA meeting is on Tuesday 21st March at 7.15pm in the staffroom.

                                                                                        

James Penson

Principal