Message from the Principal 

James Penson 

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

15 MINUTES READING – WHAT A WAY TO START EACH DAY

On Monday, we enjoyed our 15 minutes of reading to start the school day as a whole school out on our greenhills. I think this is one of the most powerful and positive initiatives our staff team has introduced at Greenhills is recent years. The proof is in our students love of reading, books in hands and to steal a line from the movie “The Castle”, the “vibe” across our school each morning. 

 

HOUSE CROSS COUNTRY

Well done to all students who participated in our House Cross Country Carnival last Thursday at Whatmough Park. After a delayed start, as we waited for a rainy weather band to pass over, we were able to run (see what I did there!)  a successful day. We had 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 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. Stay tuned for the announcement about which of our houses won the Poulter Cup this year.

 

MICHAEL YMER PARENT NIGHT 

 7pm Wednesday 17th May in the Library

After such positive reviews last year, we are hosting another maths parents’ night with Michael Ymer. Michael is an experienced maths teacher and consultant who has been involved in numerous Victorian State initiatives in mathematics. He continues to support our staff professional learning program with classroom demonstrations and modelling. A bonus is that he also provides a terrific insight for parents about how we teach maths and the things you can do at home to support this. He is a very enthusiastic and entertaining presenter and I know you will find the evening both information and engaging. 

 

BREAKFAST CLUB

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 schools across Victoria by Foodbank. Our Greenhills Breakfast Club is in Portable 4, which is opposite the Library. It is run by parent volunteers through our Parent Association so if you can assist, please let me know and we can add you to our roster. Hope to see you there!

 

WE WANT OUR STUDENTS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!

We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of our school. The Attitudes to School Survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Our school will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience. Students from Years 4 to 6 at our school will participate in the survey. Your child will complete the survey online during school hours using a purpose built secure online survey tool.  It is important to note that we are not in any way “testing” your child. Your child has the right to refuse or withdraw from the survey at any point before, during, or after completion of the survey. 

 

Your child will be provided with a unique login to complete the survey. The student login is an assigned identifier that may be used to link data for statistical and research purposes only. All responses to the survey are kept anonymous in the response file. Personal identification data will not be recorded in the survey response file. This ensures that the confidentiality of your child’s responses is always protected.

 

This year the Attitudes to School survey will be conducted at our school over the period Monday 8th May to Friday 26th May. The survey only takes 20 minutes to complete and occurs during your child's class time. The survey results will be reported back to the school later this year. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified. If you would like more information, please contact me: james.penson@education.vic.gov.au

 

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 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 12th 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.

 

PARENT ASSOCIATION UPDATE

Our Parent Association is getting ready for our Mother’s & Special Person’s Day stall next week on Friday 12th May.

 

If you are able to assist setting up from 1.30pm on Thursday 11th May or at the stall itself during the day Friday please contact: maguireemma@hotmail.com

 

There will also be a special second hand uniform sale from 3pm-4pm on Friday 19th May. We have set this time up as it is also an assembly afternoon.  If you have any uniform items to donate please send them through to the office. 

 

James Penson

Principal