Dear parents and carers,

Student Reports

The end of a semester is a busy time for teachers as they finalise their assessments and complete written reports for the students they teach. All parents and carers will be given access on Compass to their child’s report for this semester from Friday 16th June. This is the first of the written reports that parents and carers receive for the year. A student's report provides a formal record, at a point in time, on their progress and achievement. The key purpose of reporting is to support student learning by providing information to students and parents about student achievement and progress.

Parents will be given the opportunity to discuss their child’s reports on Thursday, 22nd June. This day is a pupil free day for students.

Illnesses

This a reminder that if your child has cold/flu like symptoms they should not be attending school. Over the last few weeks, staff absences have been higher than normal. Please be aware that replacement teachers are very hard to come by already, even before autumn is over. We can only envisage that the situation will get worse as the winter ‘lurgies’ set in. We work hard to avoid class splits – but avoiding splitting classes to the cohort is not always possible.

Year 6 Canberra Tour

Recently, Year 6 students have undertaken an education tour of the national capital, Canberra. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy.

Visits to the National Museum of Australia, National Film & Sound Archives, National Electoral Education Centre, Museum of Australian Democracy – Old Parliament House, Australian Institute of Sport, National Capital Exhibition, CSIRO, Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House, Questacon and an Embassy Drive, were all part of the tour.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government have contributed funding of $45 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program which was used to offset the cost of the tour. The rebate will be paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion and submission of relevant documentation.

Some of the highlights included our visit to Parliament House and having two Members of Parliament, Andrew Giles and Ged Kearney speak to the child as well as be given a wave from the Prime Minister when we visited the House of Representatives chamber. Students’ general knowledge of Australia’s System of Government, deep questioning and engagement in what was being presented to them was some of the positive feedback that both staff and parents received from different presenters of the places we visited in Canberra.

A big thank you to the six staff members and six parent volunteers who attended to help make it such a successful tour for our Year 6 students.

Swimming and Water Safety

While it may be strange to be talking about swimming at this time of the year, The Health and Physical Education curriculum plays a significant role in building the knowledge, skills and understandings that apply to a range of health, wellbeing, safety and movement contexts, including swimming and water safety. At the beginning of this term our Year 3 & 4 students participated in a swimming program that consisted of 10 lessons at the Collingwood Leisure Centre and focused on these two areas;

Fundamental movement skills which focused on the development of movement skills that provides the foundation for competent and confident floating and moving the body through water.
Safety which addressed safety issues that students may encounter in their daily lives including safe practices when near water.

Once again having the support of parent volunteers to help walk students to and from their swimming lessons enabled this program to take place.

Gareth Buck

(Assistant Principal)

Clifton Hill Primary School acknowledges the Wurundjeri people as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we come together to learn, and we pay our respects to Elders of the Kulin Nation past and present.

Year 6 Songwriting

by Valerie and Lily