Principal's Report

Welcome back to Term 3! I trust everyone kept warm in the holidays and had some time to relax! I spent time at home reading, catching up with friends and completing some long overdue home projects.

Term 3 is filled with lot of exciting events, most notably our Whole School Production. I know the year 6 students have been very busy preparing for the show. Classes have continued with their weekly gymnastics sessions. I thank the many parents and assistants who have helped in these sessions. The production is on Friday 7 September at the Robert Blackwood Hall at Monash University. Please highlight this date in your calendar. Details about tickets for the night have been released yesterday via Flex Buzz.

We welcome students and teachers from Minato-ku Primary School. Thank you to the families who are hosting students in their homes. This is an amazing experience for everyone!

Don’t forget that our School Athletics Day is on Thursday 2nd August. Let’s hope the weather will be perfect for the day!

Curriculum Day - Term 3

A reminder for parents that we have a curriculum day on this Friday 27 July. Students are not required at school for that day as teachers are undergoing professional development. I believe OHSC will run a service if there is enough interest from parents.

Bilingual Kinders Program

Jenny Mikakos, MP, Minister for Early Childhood Education is pleased to announce the Government’s Early Language Program.

Our local kindergarten, Germain Street, is interested in putting in an application for this program.

Part of the application process is to gain perceptions from the community about languages and the program.

Many of our families will have children who may attend Germain Street Kinder in the future.

Germain Street Kinder have asked our interested parents if they could complete a short survey about the kinder engaging in a Bilingual Program. You can access this survey at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LNDD5XL

For further information, you can access the program’s website at www.education.vic.gov.au/eclanguages or contact the team directly via email ec.languages@edumail.vic.gov.au

Traffic and Parking

A number of parents have received traffic and parking infringements notices from the City of Monash in the first week back at school. I urge parents to please follow the parking rules around the school, for the safety of students and the flow of traffic. If you believe there are issues with traffic management in the area, please direct your complaints to the City of Monash. In recent times I have had a couple of our neighbours complain to the school about parents illegally parking near their homes. Please be mindful of our neighbours and park correctly.

Overall, the flow of traffic in our car park has improved. In the mornings parents are following the parking arrangements. However, in the afternoons, many parents are parking in staff car parks. Please do not do this! A number of our staff work in different settings and return in the afternoons for meetings. We have DET staff who visit the school in the afternoons and need to park.

Watashi Mo - Curry Fundraiser

Thank you to our wonderful Parents Association ’Watahsi Mo’, for selling curry on the last day of school. It was a huge success and the curry sold out very quickly. They raised $622, which will go towards redeveloping the area behind the Gillian Penfold Hall.

2019 Foundation Enrolments

We are currently taking enrolments for our 2019 Foundation classes. Our current families who have siblings starting in 2019 are encouraged to enrol as soon as possible. Do you know of any neighbours, relatives or friends who are looking to enrol for 2019? 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 on 8th August and we encourage all new foundation students to attend.

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.

Have a great fortnight!

Ruth Biddle

Principal

Assistant Principal's Report

I hope you have 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 very exciting term coming up with the Japanese student’s exchange program and the Whole School Production. It is so nice to see that many parents are volunteering to help with the production by working with the Grade 6 students as well as helping with the gymnastic sessions for our students. A big thank you to these parents. It is amazing to see what can be achieved by working together.

Minato ku Primary School’s visit

From 24th to 30th of July our school is hosting 20 Grade 6 students from Minato ku in Japan

Thank you very much to the families who are hosting these students during their visit. We would not have been able to host them without your assistance as host families. Each of our classes has some Japanese visitors assigned to them and teachers have planned a variety of Australian cultural activities for their class. I hope the children will enjoy the opportunity to practice their Japanese with the Japanese students.

We will have a special assembly for Minato Ku on Monday 30th July. You are all welcome to join in. Students from Minato Ku Primary School will present their performance at the assembly.

School Uniform

We have had some very cold and windy days recently. Please make sure that your 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 there is anything belonging 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 having them returned to their owner. At the end of each term all items left are disposed of responsibly.

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal

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