Message from the Principal 

THANK YOU  

After such a positive start back to school this year, I wanted to send out a big thank you to all of our staff, students, parents and carers for doing everything you have to make this happen. Remembering to wear masks, completing RA tests at home before school, making sure you have neat school uniform and hats, filling out our Meet the Teacher Google form and most importantly coming to school with a great learning attitude has all combined to set the scene for a very positive and productive year.

My photo this week shows how assessment for learning takes place at our school. You can see Miss O’Connell working with a small group of students during a maths lesson. Each student is provided with time and space to show what they can do and as importantly how they can do it. This allows the teacher to have a deep insight into each individual student’s level of understanding of the concept. This data is then recorded and collected by the teacher via an iPad and then used with the rest of the teaching team to develop future lessons based on student need. 

In this way, the assessment looks and feels just like a normal lesson would. These sorts of assessments, conferences and observations take place everyday across our school. Most importantly the students are able to continue their earning as they are assessed and their future learning is also being developed and planned for.   

SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTION 2022

Thank you to Miranda Jensen, Sam Redman, Adam Laws, Justin Parr-Davies, Alissa Lim, Jaime McCowan, Jessica Allen, Amber Shepherd, Irina Fainberg, James Stewart for nominating as candidates for election to our School Council. We have four vacancies to fill for a two year period on School Council.

Election material will be sent home to all school families via the eldest child tomorrow (Friday 18th February). These envelopes will contain a letter outlining the process to complete and return your vote, summary statements from each candidate, the ballot paper and two envelopes. To vote you must mark 4 boxes by placing a clear mark beside each of the 4 candidates you select. Then place the completed ballot paper into one of the envelopes and then place that envelope into the second and ensure your name and address is written on the back of it.  This can then be delivered in person to the office or post to the school before the closure of the ballot at 4pm on Friday 25th February. You can also directly place the envelope containing the vote into the ballot box at the office and print your name and address in the register of voters.

The votes will be counted by myself and Victoria Harris our Business Manager on Monday 28th February and results announced on that day.

Our first School Council meeting will be held in the following week.  At this meeting, we will elect our School Council office bearers including our School Council President. We will also organise the membership of our sub-committees. The actual core work of our School Council is achieved via our sub-committees and we encourage parents to become involved with these each year. I will outline the role of each sub-committee and the meeting schedule after this first School Council meeting.

CAR PARKING BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL

Do you model our G.R.E.A.T. values each morning and afternoon during drop off and pick up???? 

Grit = is the ability to keep working towards a goal and overcoming challenges and sticking with it even when it’s hard. You can model grit during the challenge of the morning and afternoon drop off by following all of the road and parking rules all of the time, even when it might be an easier thing not to! 

Respect = not parking across the driveways of our neighbours. It is hard to believe this happens and even harder to hear that when asked not to do this, a parent has responded rudely. Let’s all treat our neighbours like we would our own family members. 

Effort = it does take effort and energy to get going in the morning and leave the house with plenty of time to make the drop off as smooth and calm as possible. You can model the importance of doing this every day, even on those days when it’s cold, rainy or when you haven’t had enough sleep.

Adventure = why not park a bit further away and walk up to school or have your child/ren walk part of the way home and have a meeting spot not too far away? This builds the independence of your child/ren which has many positive spin offs at school as well. Even just using the “kiss and drop” off in the morning works well. In recent times seeing our students say good bye at the car and walk in to school has certainly made the school mornings much more settled.

Teamwork = we all need to remember that our Greenhills school community includes all of our neighbours as well. If we look after everyone in our community by doing the right thing all of the time, we all make our school and the local area a better place to live and learn.

YEAR 6 CAMP

Our Year 6 Camp to Anglesea is fast approaching and our staff team are working through ensuring that we can make the camp as Covid safe as possible. We are hosting a Webex for parents and carers who might like to find out more about this camp and also have time for any questions you may have as well. 

The Webex will be at 7pm on Tuesday 1st March:

Meeting Number: 2651 719 9781

Meeting Password: greenhills

If you have any specific concerns or questions that you would like covered please email them through to me:

james.penson@education.vic.gov.au

SCHOOL TOURS 2022

I have started hosting school tours each week at 9.30am on Wednesday as we begin our enrolment program for 2023. If you know of anyone with a child ready to start school next year please direct them to our school website or have them make contact with our school office so that they can join me on a tour and see what our school has to offer. 

ARE YOU A LIFELONG READER?

What are you reading at the moment? Modelling reading and good reading habits is incredibly important to our children. If they see you actively engaged in reading on a regular basis, they will also have a greater chance of becoming a lifelong reader.