Huntingdale Primary School

Principal and Assistant Principal's Page

Principal's Report

Welcome back to Term 3! It’s lovely to see the familiar faces of our students and we welcome several new students and their families to the Huntingdale community. I trust you all had a wonderful term break. I spent a few days in Brisbane and explored exhibitions in Melbourne including visiting the Lume ‘Connection’, which had some outstanding Aboriginal art pieces and the ‘Goddess’ exhibit at ACMI. 

 

Staff Updates

Dan Thomas, 3B English teacher, is taking leave this term as his wife is expecting their second child. Kate Gray, who is a regular replacement teacher at the school will teach 3B during this time.

Linda Ooi-Chan is taking long service leave and is travelling during the term. Audra Simkus will teach 6A during term 3.

We welcome both Mrs Gray and Mrs Simkus this term!

 

School Uniform

The weather is chilly in the mornings and its best to ‘rug up’ to keep warm! In the front pages of the school diary, it clearly states what your child can wear to keep warm. You can purchase a Huntingdale beanie and scarf as well as a soft-shell jacket from PSW to wear. 

 

What can I wear?

Huntingdale items- your choice

  • Polo shirt
  • School Dress or pinafore
  • Jacket/jumper
  • Wide brimmed hat
  • Navy blue tracksuit pants, shorts, skirts, skorts and leggings

 Accessories

  • Use a Huntingdale school bag
  • Any accessories such as tights, scarves, beanies, bike shorts must be navy blue 

 Additional Layers

  • Layers of clothing such as a rain jacket or puffer jacket may be worn in navy blue 
  • Undergarments may be worn underneath the uniform for added warmth, provided these are completely hidden or are in navy blue or white.

2024 Enrolments

We are taking enrolments for the 2024 school year.

 

If you know of any neighbours, relatives or friends who are looking to enrol for 2024 please direct them to our school office or website for information about our school. 

 

Any of our current families who have younger siblings starting at the school should enrol now!

 

Change of details

At school we often need to contact parents for a variety of reasons. Over the break many families’ telephone numbers, home address and email addresses have changed. If you do change telephone numbers, email, and/or home address or there is an update on personal/medical/family situation, it is most important that you change your information on Operoo and contact Gill in the school office to let us know so we can update the school records. We thank you for your cooperation with this.

 

Animation After School Activity

Exciting News! Huntingdale Primary is launching an 'Animation Afterschool Program' for Grade 2-6, starting July 17th and running every Monday for 8 weeks from 3:45-5:00pm.  Dive into the captivating world of coding! Click here to book https://my.codecamp.com.au/course/2634 Use IVM-AST3 at the checkout for $15 off. 

 

Upcoming changes to NAPLAN Reporting 

NAPLAN results for students are being released from Monday 17 July 2023. There are some changes to this year’s reporting being introduced nationally by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). NAPLAN will continue to measure student achievement in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, and grammar and punctuation but the results will now be presented in 4 proficiency levels. These are: exceeding, strong, developing and needs additional support. 

This change will give schools, parents and carers clearer information that details student achievement against new proficiency levels. 

Students’ NAPLAN reports will continue to show how they are tracking against their peers and provide an indication of their skill levels against national averages and where we would expect them to be in order to get the most out of schooling. This provides valuable information to teachers about how we can continue to support your child. 

Each set of NAPLAN results is an important milestone but it’s also important that students know that one result does not define them – these results are about making sure every student gets the support they need so they can continue to get the best from their learning. When we provide you with your results, you will also receive information about what the new proficiency levels mean. 

We will let families of Year 3 and 5 students know when their results are available and how to collect them via Operoo. 

 

Stay well this Winter 

In Victoria, influenza (flu) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection numbers are high among children aged 5 to 11 years, particularly in those in their first few years of school. The Victorian Department of Health expects more respiratory infections over Term 3.

Most children with flu or RSV have a mild fever, runny nose, or cough. Some children, particularly babies and children with underlying medical conditions, may have more severe illness.

Keeping our school community well 

Parents, carers and students are encouraged to:

  • wash and sanitise their hands regularly
  • avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands
  • cover their nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing
  • stay at home if unwell and consult a general practitioner (GP) or NURSE-ON-CALL as needed
  • stay up to date with flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.

Our school has masks for staff, students, and visitors if they want to wear them. 

 

Flu vaccinations

Vaccination is the best way to protect yourself and your family from getting the flu.

Annual flu vaccination is recommended for everyone aged 6 months and older. As part of the National Immunisation Program, it is free for:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 6 months and older
  • children aged 6 months to under 5 years
  • people aged 6 months or older with underlying medical conditions.

Flu vaccinations can be booked through GPs, pharmacies, or your local council immunisation service. 

For more information about staying safe this winter, refer to:

Respectful Relationships

This term’s Respectful Relationships is Topic 3: Positive Coping. Learning activities in this topic provide opportunities for students to identify and discuss different types of coping strategies. When students develop a language around coping, they are more likely to be able to understand and deliberately utilise a range of productive coping strategies and diminish their use of unproductive coping strategies. Students learn to extend their repertoire of coping strategies and benefit from critically reflecting on their own choices and being exposed to alternative options. Activities introduce students to the concept of self-talk and practice using positive self-talk to approach and manage challenging situations. Positive self-talk is a key strategy for coping with negative thoughts, emotions and events. It is associated with greater persistence in the face of challenge and can be learnt or strengthened through practice.

 

Dogs in the school grounds

Just a reminder that dogs are not allowed in the school ground during the operational hours of 6.30am-6.30pm.  This poses a risk to student health and safety, particularly as we have several students that are afraid of dogs. This is in line with DET policy. Our  Dogs in School Grounds Policy can be found on our website. 

 

NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year’s celebrations were from 2-9 July. The theme for 2023 NAIDOC Week was ‘For Our Elders’. This is an excerpt from the NAIDOC Week website:

 

Across every generation, our Elders have played, and continue to play, an important role and hold a prominent place in our communities and families.  They are cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones.  Our loved ones who pick us up in our low moments and celebrate us in our high ones. Who cook us a feed to comfort us and pull us into line, when we need them too.   They guide our generations and pave the way for us to take the paths we can take today. Guidance, not only through generations of advocacy and activism, but in everyday life and how to place ourselves in the world.  

We draw strength from their knowledge and experience, in everything from land management, cultural knowledge to justice and human rights. Across multiple sectors like health, education, the arts, politics and everything in between, they have set the many courses we follow.  The struggles of our Elders help to move us forward today. The equality we continue to fight for is found in their fight. Their tenacity and strength has carried the survival of our people. It is their influence and through their learnings that we must ensure that when it comes to future decision making for our people, there is nothing about us - without us. 

We pay our respects to the Elders we’ve lost and to those who continue fighting for us across all our Nations and we pay homage to them.

 

NAIDOC Week’s origins can be traced back to 1938 with the Aboriginal rights movement. On Australia Day 1938, protestors marched through the streets of Sydney about the poor treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. This protest was one of the first major civil rights gatherings in the world and it became known as the “Day of Mourning”. 

Between 1940 and 1955 the Day of Mourning was held annually on the Sunday before Australia Day and was commonly known as “Aborigines Day”. 

In 1955 it was decided that Aborigines Day should include a celebration of Aboriginal culture, heritage and achievement. This is now celebrated as NAIDOC Week, which highlights the achievements of Indigenous people all over Australia. NAIDOC stands for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’ which was the name of the committee that was originally responsible for organising NAIDOC Week activities.

NAIDOC Week is celebrated by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in recognition of their culture, history and achievements. These celebrations are open for other Australians to participate in too. NAIDOC week is a great time for Australians of all different ethnic backgrounds to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

For more information, visit the website https://www.naidoc.org.au/

 

Have a great fortnight!

Ruth Biddle

Principal

 

Assistant Principal's Report

I hope you enjoyed spending time with your children during the recent school holidays. It is nice to see children coming back to school with enthusiasm and feeling refreshed. We have a pretty exciting term coming up with Science Week, Book Week, Literacy and Numeracy Week.

 

Brighten up Winter Casual Clothes Day!

Date: Friday 21st July

Students can wear their colourful casual clothes on that day instead of their school Uniform.

The Student Leadership Council is asking for a Gold Coin Donation if you wear your casual clothes. Donations will go towards a new Outdoor Learning Area for the students.

 

Morning Tea Hang Out

You are invited to join our School Chaplain Susan every Monday from 8:55am for morning chat and coffee in the Hall.

 

Incursion for Book Week

We are very lucky to have organised SHOWKO COMEDY to present a RAKUGO Workshop and Puppet Show as part of our Book Week 2023 celebrations.

 

WHAT IS RAKUGO?

RAKUGO Is 400 year old Japanese comic storytelling.

It is a form of entertainment best described as Japanese sit-down comedy or comic storytelling with 400 years of history.  During a show, the Rakugo performer sits on a small pillow dressed in a kimono and actions out the whole story by themselves, equipped with only a fan (Sensu) and hand towel (Tenugui) to help convey ideas.

A Rakugo story is told through the conversations between characters, there, the performer must be able to play the role of each distinct character by changing personality, facial expressions, mannerisms, speech, etc.  In most cases, the characters have strong stereotypical personalities and characteristics so that as the performer switches from one character to another the audience readily detects the change.

To be a professional Rakugo performer you have to ask a Rakugo master to become their protégé and only a person who can complete training for 3 years can be accepted as a professional Rakugo performer.

 

PERFORMANCE DATE/TIMES:

Date :  25th August 2023

Times: 

Foundation to Grade 2 – 11.30am to 12.30pm

Grades 3-6 – 12.30pm to 1.30pm

School Uniform

 

We have been having many cold and windy days recently. Please make sure that your child/ren come to school with warm clothes with school colours.

            

Lost Property

Lost property is mounting up again…Please check the tub in office to see if anything belongs to your child. And, please remember, that if you put your child’s name on their lunch box, jacket, hat, etc., there is a better chance of them finding their owner. At the end of each term items left are disposed of responsibly.

 

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal