Principal's Prattle

Term Four is underway!

The first half of Term Four has been a whirlwind already and we have enjoyed a number of events and successes. We are heading in to the final four weeks of the year and there are many activities organised for students and families to enjoy. A calendar of events has been sent home for families to refer to. FInal decisions are underway regarding class structures and teaching staff for 2019. Parents will be advised shortly.

A large amount of work happened in our school during the holiday break with the new garden path concreted, admin offices refurbished and the sheds cleaned out and tidied. Many thanks to Wil Jelbart and Matt Morris for their efforts in coordinating the path. The bike shed has also had a massive clean out and again many thanks to Matt and Em Morris, Shareena Boyd and Dayna and Geoff Lightowler for their hard work.

Our new garden path is now open with some hard work from parents and students back filling the edges with soil and clearing up rubble. This new path will reduce the slipping hazard. We have new blinds in the Brolga rooms to help with the bright sunlight and new signage in our grounds will be installed over the Christmas holidays.

We have welcomed some new happy faces to our school. Please share in the smiles and say hello as you meet our new families.

Arthur Sullivan

Max Harvey

Jack Harvey

Timothy Martin

Jaelah Milkins

Rylan Thornell

We also welcome back

Jaiden Junge and Maddie O'Sullivan

We have welcomed Karen Morse to our teaching team who is working in the Lorikeet Learning space and providing literacy intervention and support to students. We have also welcomed Educational Support Staff, Kerry Harvey to our team.

In our admin office, Jodie Olden is in three days a week as our Business Manager and the office is also attended at different times by Shareena Boyd, Megan Le Serve and Kerry Harvey. Please be patient with us as it will take us a while to adjust to the new space and new roles in the office. Please drop in and say hello.

Dyslexia Awareness Month

October was Dyslexia Awareness Month and Loch Primary School was involved in the ‘Get on Board’ campaign to increase awareness about dyslexia. Students participated in STEM activities and enjoyed a paper plane ‘Fly Off” competition as did teachers at their recent PD day with Dr Lorraine Hammond.

Dyslexia is the next learning disability which is included in our newsletter. I encourage all parents to read the information provided. It is important to note that it is estimated that as many as 15–20% of the population as a whole—have some of the symptoms of dyslexia, including slow or inaccurate reading, poor spelling, poor writing, or mixing up similar words. For schools, this means that classes can expect to have at least 5 students with dyslexia.

Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with other language skills such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words too.

Dyslexia occurs in people of all backgrounds and intellectual levels. People with dyslexia can be very bright. They are often capable or even gifted in areas such as art, computer science, design, drama, electronics, math, mechanics, music, physics, sales, and sports. In addition, dyslexia runs in families; parents with dyslexia are very likely to have children with dyslexia.

Day for Daniel

Students participated in “Day for Daniel” on 26th October. It was great to see so many students wearing red and actively involved in learning about how to stay safe. Children participated in discussions and activities to help develop their knowledge and skills about what to do if they find themselves in a situation where they feel unsafe. Children were taught to ‘Recognise, React and Report”.

We raised $125 as a school which is a terrific effort and will go to the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.

About the Daniel Morcombe Foundation

The Foundation's key role in the community is the education of all children about their personal safety. By directly assisting educators and parents through the funding and development of child safety educational resources as well as assisting young victims of crime, the Foundation continues to empower all Australians to make their local communities safer places for all children.

The Foundation is strongly committed to the development and education of Respectful Relationships for children and teenagers in our schools and communities and also assisting in reducing the over-representation of Indigenous Australians in the Child Protection sector.

OBJECTIVES

1. To educate children regarding their personal safety (including abduction).

2. To assist victims of crime, particularly where crime involves children.

3. To remember Daniel with suitable child safety community awareness events.

4. To support the families of Missing Persons particularly where it involves children.

Safe Schools Bus travel

Students enjoyed a special Bus Safety session with Keith Foote and Wayne Harley earlier this term. Students participated in group activities where they explored the features of each of the charter buses and listened to important information about bus safety. Many thanks to Harleys Bus company and to Keith and Wayne.

Walk to School

We enjoyed a beautiful morning for our annual “Walk to School” event. Students met at the Loch Railway station and walked along Victoria Road to school. Breakfast was delicious with toast, cereal, pancakes and fruit quickly devoured. Students enjoyed the opportunity to talk about healthy choices. Huge thank you to Dayna Lightowler who organised our event and to all of the staff and parent helpers.

Sport Successes!

Congratulations to both Paige Barry and Bianca Monson who competed at the Regional Athletics competition. Both girls are talented athletes and have enjoyed success this year. Reaching this level of competition is a wonderful achievement. Paige jumped a huge 1.4m in high jump winning her a first place and personal best record. Bianca ran well in the 1500m and placed 11th amongst very tough competition and also placed 4th in hurdles.

Paige’s outstanding results at the Regional Athletics competition enabled her move on to the State level competition. This is a highly competitive level of athletics and involves the most talented students across the state. Paige competed with determination against the best of the best! She is to be congratulated on her commitment to her training and skill development and her passion for her sport. She is one very talented high jumper!

Congratulations to Levi Perkins who enjoyed a successful day at the Regional Golf day. Levi came home with a first place and a huge smile. He is acknowledged for his fabulous achievement competing against students three years older than himself. His success at the regional competition enabled him to go on and compete at State Level where he again took out first place. Such a fabulous achievement.

We have celebrated all three students at school and have acknowledged their high level achievements. Well done to all.

Professional Learning for our teachers

Explicit Instruction with Dr Lorraine Hammond

Teachers enjoyed a dynamic and motivating presentation from Dr Lorraine Hammond on our curriculum day. We shared the day with over 90 teachers from across Victoria, many of whom had travelled long distances to see her. Dr Hammond presented research and evidence about teaching children using an explicit method of instruction. We are implementing explicit instruction at Loch Primary School and are very excited to have the support and guidance of Dr Hammond. We are looking forward to continuing this work into 2019 when Dr Hammond again will work with teachers in Term Two..

Managing and Responding to disclosures of Family Violence

Staff participated in an important Family Violence workshop as part of our involvement in the Respectful relationship initiative. Andrea Penrose led the session and covered a large amount of information about Family Violence is, the statistics about Family Violence and how this can affect family members. Below is a link to an article published by ABC Life "How to help a friend in an abusive relationship.

https://www.abc.net.au/life/how-to-help-a-friend-in-an-abusive-relationship/10456286

16 Days of Activism for a Violence Free Victoria

16 days of Activism for a Violence Free Victoria and prevention of violence against women will be launched on November 25th.

The 25th November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
The 10th December is Human Rights Day
White Ribbon Day is 23rd November (moved to this date from this year) https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/day/
16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is a global campaign dedicated to raising awareness about the impact of violence, particularly on women. The Victorian Government is committed to a “Violence Free Victoria”.
The campaign starts 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and concludes 10 December, Human Rights Day. These dates were chosen in order to symbolically link violence against women with human rights issues. In particular, this campaign emphasises the fact that violence, in any form, is a violation of human rights. https://www.whise.org.au/our-work/campaigns/16-days-activism

Learning Disabilities, Difficulties and Differences

Rachael Geerts and I, completed our involvement in the Learning Disabilities Toolkit Project earlier this term. We now have some new assessments we are able to administer and further knowledge about working with students with disabilities which we will share with teachers and families. The project included twelve schools across Victoria and we were very lucky to be selected to be involved.

As in previous newsletters, I have included some information about Dyslexia, another learning disability, in this edition. I encourage all families to read this information and to develop their understandings and awareness of the needs of many of our students.

A note From Lyn Leppin

'I would like to thank everyone who made my last day at Loch Primary School a very memorable one. I thoroughly enjoyed the morning tea which was shared with Mrs. D, all of the students and the parents and staff who were able to attend. I would especially like to thank Mr H and Mrs M for their kind and sincere words and all of the children who spoke for their fantastic effort and for all the stories, handshakes and cuddles I received. To all who provided the very yummy morning tea and those who sent flowers, gifts and good wishes I would like to say a very heartfelt thank you to you all for not only my last day celebration but for being a part of my time at Loch PS. I hope that I have in some way made your experience at Loch Primary School a little easier. I cannot emphasize enough how lucky you all are to have the amazing staff of Loch PS to guide and care for your children. I am privileged to have worked with such caring and committed staff, some for a very long time. I have lots of happy memories to take with me and treasure from my 32 years and hope that our paths will cross at some stage in the future.

Many Thanks,

Lyn'

Coming Up Soon

Year 5/6 Lions Club Speeches

Monday 3rd December

Student Led Conferences

Tuesday 4th December 1.30 - 8.00pm or

Wednesday 5th December 12.30 - 5.00pm

Log on Compass to book

HUSH Education for Year 5/6

Thursday 6th December ALL DAY Program

Log on to Compass to give consent and make payment.

Junior Camp Warratah Bay

Year Prep/One/Two

Thursday 6th and Friday 7th December

WHOLE SCHOOL MUSICAL & AWARDS

Our end of year musical is confirmed for

Friday 14th December.

Mark this date in your calendars as it will be a fabulous night that you will not want to miss! All students are expected to attend and participate in the musical items. Classes and Mrs Birnie have been working towards this performance all year and any absences will have an impact on the performances. It is a special evening for us to gather as a community and celebrate the year past. This evening will also involve the presentation of end of year awards.

Reminders for Parents

Enrolments for 2019

We only have a few places left for 2019 and are sending out a final call for enrolments. If you know anyone who is intending on enrolling their child please remind them to complete their forms and return to the school office as soon as possible.

Attendance

Please be aware that students are involved in important rehearsals for the school musical and learning activities right up until the last day of school. Please ensure your child is in attendance at school. If students are absent parents are to notify the school on the day of the absence. Parents can log an absence using COMPASS or call the school office.

Please read the 'IMPORTANT INFORMATION page for PARENTS' to keep up to date with news from the school office and for details regarding Parent Payments for 2019.

Provocation

Included in this newsletter is some information about Restorative Practices and managing conflicts between students, and I encourage parents to take a few minutes to read this information.

Tracey King

Principal