Message from the Principal 

BILLYCARTS

Look right, look left, look right again…that has been the advice over the last week as our students have been racing billycarts around the school. This has been an initiative to build on our work and learning in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths) education and it has certainly hit the mark. Stay tuned for a teachers race as well!

HOUSE CROSS COUNTRY

Well done to all of our students who participated in our House Cross Country Carnival last Thursday at Whatmough Park. It was a terrific day with all the elements of a successful day coming together: the weather, a wonderful level of parental attendance and support, outstanding organisation by Jordan Daley and the staff team and most importantly an amazing level of student participation and engagement. 

Congratulations to all of the students who pushed themselves out of their comfort zone and well done to those who will go on to represent our school at District level. 

Our House Sports days are a real feature of our school and a celebration of our school culture and values. Most importantly, they provide the opportunity for all students to participate at their own level with a great level of support from everyone.  Check out the photos included in this newsletter.

BREAKFAST CLUB HAS ARRIVED AGAIN!

I am excited to announce that Breakfast Club will commence again at our school. Every Monday morning, before school starts from 8.15am – 8.45am, students can access a range of healthy options for breakfast. These include oats, muesli, Vita Brits, wholegrain Cheerios, milk, baked beans, canned fruit, fruit cups, fresh apples, Vegemite and honey.

Having breakfast has been shown to have a positive impact on factors such as physical and mental health, social skills, concentration, behaviour, attendance and academic outcomes. The program is run in 1,000 school across Victoria by Foodbank. Our Greenhills Breakfast Club is located in Portable 6, which is opposite the Library. It will be run by parent volunteers so if you are able to assist please let me know and I will add you to our roster. 

Hope to see you there!

COMMUNICATIONS UPDATE

All Greenhills staff members work very hard to try and keep our school community as informed and up to date with what is happening as possible. In such an active and engaged school and in this unpredictable climate, we know that sometimes we may not  always provide everyone with the advanced notice that we aim for.

With this in mind, I am trialling the idea of hosting an evening mid-term Webex session. The thought behind this would be to outline what events and activities are coming up for the rest of the term, share some of what our classes have been doing and then provide time for any questions, suggestions and general feedback. 

The date for this will be: Wednesday 18th May @ 7.30pm via Webex. A link will be sent out prior to the evening.

CONTINUOUS REPORTING IS COMING NEXT WEEK

Next week (Thursday 12th and Friday 13th May), we will relaunch our Continuous Reporting process. This will be a sample of a students’ writing that gets uploaded to SeeSaw along with a short comment and assessment from the teacher. Our plan is to begin with two or three samples of student work each term. In this way, families at home will get an indication of the curriculum standard and level students are working at throughout the term as opposed to waiting for the end of Semester Report. 

Our Continuous Reporting process will enable our teachers to communicate more often to parents about their child/ren’s progress and in a way that is timely to when the learning task was completed. The feedback from the teacher will indicate the specific level demonstrated by the student via an assessment rubric and a short comment that outlines what the student has done well and where the next step of their learning is. This style of teacher feedback will be very useful to parents and the student as it will focus on their specific learning needs.

PARENT HELPER INDUCTIONS

We are very excited to announce that we have had over 100 parents and carers complete our 2022 Parent Helper Induction Program. Parents have also started to assist in our classrooms and on excursions. We will continue to host induction sessions over the next few weeks as more parents become involved in helping across our school.

We will communicate upcoming sessions via a Compass alert next week.    

One of the other GREAT parts of our Parent Helpers Program is the way in which we are able to use parent, carer and community expertise to assist and enrich our teaching and learning program. Read further for more information about this from the STEAM sub - community.  

NAPLAN ONLINE

This week, our Year 3 & 5 students will be completing the annual NAPLAN assessments. This year will be the first time all of our students complete these assessments online using their iPads (with the exception of the writing assessment). The value of using this platform is that the test will adapt to better match the student’s level as opposed to a one size fits all where often there is only one or two questions that stretch students at the top end. The online platform will also mean that in time schools and families will be able to access the data and results in a timely manner. In the past, NAPLAN results have been sent to schools in September which is well past the used by date for our teachers to use the assessments to guide their teaching and planning. 

If you have any questions about NAPLAN please contact me and I will share the overall school results with our community when they come through. 

TRANSITION UPDATE

Our Year 6 students and families are now in the process of organising their preferences for their placements into high school. This is an exciting time but it can also be challenging and stressful for families as they make this decision. DET Schools have to follow a very strict regime of dates and processes and it is very important that this is maintained. The next step is for all of our families of Year 6 students to complete the preference form that will be sent home shortly and send back to our school by Friday 13th May. It is also important for our Year 6 parents to understand that many schools in our area have enrolment restrictions. I encourage you to research this in detail and make the time to find out more about the school/s you may wish your child to attend. 

The Year 6-7 placement process is just one very small part of our transition program at Greenhills. The major part of our focus and work in this area is preparing all of our Year 6 students for the transition into secondary school. The feedback we get from our local schools is that our students are very well prepared academically and socially. They are well equipped to deal with the many changes and challenges they have to face including the movement from classroom to classroom, teacher to teacher and other key organisational aspects that impact on learning. 

This is the result of the way we set up and deliver our curriculum structures and programs, the quality of our teaching team and also the many extra-curricular programs we operate. As a school community we can be very proud of the achievement of our students and know that they will leave our school very well prepared for the next stage of their learning.

James Penson

Principal