Principal's Report

I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday break! I had a lovely break at home, highlights being lots of lunches at cafes with friends and taking my niece and nephew to see Toy Story 4.

Reminder- Curriculum Day- Term 3

A reminder for parents that we have a curriculum day on Friday 26 July. Students are not required at school for that day as teachers are undergoing professional development. Team Kids will run a program for the day for parents requiring care for their children.

Parent Opinion Survey

The Parent Opinion Survey seeks parent opinion on measures of school climate, student engagement and effective teaching practice known to influence student engagement and student outcomes. The survey is aligned with the Attitudes to School Survey (completed by students). Schools use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

Approximately 30 per cent of 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 Monday 22rd July to Sunday 11th August.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 10-15 minutes to complete. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. The survey results will be reported back to the school at the end of September.

2020 Foundation Enrolments

We are currently taking enrolments for our 2020 Foundation classes. Our current families who have siblings starting in 2020 are encouraged to enrol as soon as possible. Do you know of any neighbours, relatives or friends who are looking to enrol for 2020? Please let them know about our fabulous school! We offer tours at 9.30 on most Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Please encourage potential enrolments to call the school for a tour! Our transition program starts next term and we encourage all new foundation students to attend.

Minatoku Visit

We welcome 20 students and their teachers from Minatoku in Tokyo. The students have settled well into Huntingdale. They will embark on a range of cultural and educational experiences while in Australia. Thank you to our families who have agreed to host students as part of their homestay. This is often the most special part of their visit. At assembly on 29 July we will have a presentation from the students before bidding them farewell.

Notification re: Measles and Chickenpox Reminder

Each term there is a reminder in the newsletter regarding Measles and Chickenpox. As you may or may not be aware, there are currently children in our school community who are receiving medical treatment. The children participate in the normal school program without any major limitations when they are well enough to be here. A major concern, however, is if these students develop measles or chickenpox, they can become seriously ill. I seek your cooperation in preventing this situation. If your son/daughter has or may have measles or chickenpox or is unwell, I request that you do not send them to school during this period and notify your class teacher and the office as soon as possible. Thank you for your support in keeping our school a safe place for all of our children.

Update contact details

At school we often need to contact parents for a variety of reasons. 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 contact Gill in the school office to let us know so we can update the school records.

Responding to the cold and flu season

advice from DHHS

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) advise that influenza is increasing throughout Victoria.

Schools are also reporting higher rates of students affected by influenza.

DHHS have recommended that schools respond to influenza in the following ways:

Encourage students with cold or flu-like symptoms to seek medical attention. Common flu-like symptoms include a high fever, a cough, a runny nose, loss of appetite, body aches and feeling extremely weak and tired. Diagnosis should only be made by a medical practitioner.
Any students with colds or flu-like symptoms should limit contact with others and stay at home until their symptoms have passed.
If a student becomes ill at school with these symptoms, contact the family and arrange to pick up the student.
Good general hygiene is the best defence against infection. Encourage students to wash their hands regularly. Ask them to cover their nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing.

AFLW Division Event.

On Monday 22 July, Mr Herskope and I took a group of girls to the AFLW Division Event.

Our first game was against the much taller Pinewood Primary School. In the very strong winds Katelyn worked hard in the ruck, Genevieve and Gabby showed great run and Mai W took a fantastic mark. We lost a very competitive game 23-1.

In the second game, we played Mt Scopus Primary School, who would eventually go on to the win the event and move to the regional level. They had a number of girls who played AFL on the weekend and were very skilled. To be exposed, to this level of play, was a great experience for our girls. Our team tried hard all game, losing 61-1.

Our last game against Mt Waverley PS was competitive. Both teams kicked their first goals in this game. Katelyn kicked our first two goals and Mei E kicked our third goal. In a tough battle, we lost 34-19.

Our final game was against Syndal South. We showed a great display of tackling but lots 31-1.

Congratulations to Becky, Kimi, Mai W, MIsha, Tamsyn, Yuki, Amalia, Kiara, Jade, Genevieve, Mei E, Kotone, Daisy, Gabby, Frances, Katelyn, Tamim, Hinako and Lara for putting in a great performance all day. Most of the girls had not played before, tried their hardest, supported one another and were excellent sports on the day. Thank you Mr Herskope for organising the day and taking the girls for training before the event. Thank you to the family members who also made the trip to Bulleen to support us!

Make sure you keep warm! Have a great fortnight.

Ruth Biddle

Assistant Principal's Report

I hope you enjoyed some time with your children during the 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 our Japanese students exchange program.

Minato ku Primary School’s visit

20 Grade 6 students have arrived safely from Minato ku in Japan on 23rd July and they will be with us until 29th of July.

Thank you very much to our families who are hosting the students from Japan during their visit. We could not host them without your assistance. During our visitors stay our teachers have planned a variety of Australian cultural activities for their class. I hope the children enjoy the real opportunity to communicate with Japanese students in Japanese.

We will have a special assembly for Minato ku Primary School on 29th July. You are all welcome to join in. Students from MinatoKu Primary School will present a performance at assembly.

Michael Salmon’s book fair

We will be hosting well known children’s author Michael Salmon on Monday 29th July from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. He will be here talking to all of our students including our Minato ku visiting students and teachers.

A selection of his books will be available for purchase during lunch time and after school.

Michael will also be available to sign any books purchased on the day.

If you would like to know more about Michael’s adventures and books, please follow this link: http://www.michaelsalmon.com.au/index.php/author-information

If you have any questions, please feel free to call at the office or flexibuzz us.

School Uniform

It has been very cold and windy recently. Please make sure that children come to school with warm clothes with school colours.

Lost Property

Lost property is mounting up again…Please check the tubs in the office and in the Hall to see if anything belongs to your child (as well as the classroom and corridor outside the classroom). 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 being returned to their owner. At the end of each term any items left are disposed of responsibly.

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal

Advertising