Parkhill Primary School Newsletter

Issue 15, Friday 28 May 2021

Principal's Message

Dear Parents/Carers,

I am filled with mixed feelings this week as I write our newsletter. The start of the week felt like our Parkhill community was back to what it used to be with a busy working bee, families and children buzzing around the school. Seeing so many of you at the Open Morning was also amazing!  

I would like to thank all of the families who helped out at our working bee, and to Ross and the PFA for organising a sausage sizzle to end the afternoon!  What a wonderful turn out.

On Tuesday morning the classrooms were buzzing with parents helping their children with learning and wandering through the school. We also had our school captains offering tours for prospective families.

Tuesday afternoon/evening was also a roaring success despite the reintroduction of masks and tightening up of restrictions. We were able to modify our final gathering and stream live to the classrooms. The choir was absolutely amazing as usual, and I would like to thank Marinda and Kirsten for their work, and of course the children for their dedication! It was super to see children representing our school in school uniform and, again, our prospective families were toured through the school by our school captains. 

The lower school hub was a hive of activity with Bee Bots and rock painting, and in the upper school we had some engineering bridge building and the chance to have your photo taken with our Bungal wings. I do hope you took time to chat with our teaching staff.

It is hard to believe we find ourselves in lockdown again. The staff are working hard to launch our online platforms, and information should have made it home today. As well as our online platforms there are the downloadable ‘Learn From Home’ packages that you can access through our website. These will be uploaded on Monday.  https://sites.google.com/education.vic.gov.au/lfh-with-pps/home

You should have received information from your class teacher and from myself regarding the provision of onsite supervision and any information specific to your child. 

Our remote platforms include whole class, one to one, small groups and open meets for children to have access to their teacher. They also include teaching videos, explanations and examples of tasks as well as the live stream so the children can ask questions. Please do contact your child’s class teacher with any concerns or queries you have. 


Reminders:

  • Please spend a few minutes of your time completing our connected schools community feedback survey: https://forms.gle/88sRY7ELbZn34CQv9 

  • Calling any parents with grant writing skills!! We are looking for some help - there are many and vast opportunities in the community to access funding through grant applications. The process is a little time consuming and requires certain skills. If you think you could help us in our drive to acquire grants to improve aspects of the school please do shout out and let me know! 

  • In term 3 we will hold our whole school assemblies on a Monday afternoon. Assembly will start at 3pm as usual. We intend to move afternoon tea break back by 10 minutes to allow us more time in the assembly space.

Best wishes,


Elaine Brady

Principal

Calendar of Curriculum Events

Wednesday 2 June - Y5/6 Camp Information Session - POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Thursday 3 June - Mabo Day & Y4/5 Monash Civic Centre Excursion - POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Friday 4 June - Wear It Yellow Day  & Y5/6 Camp full payment due

Wednesday 9 June - Thursday 10 June - GATEWAYS Eureka

Monday 14 June - Queen's Birthday Public Holiday

Tuesday 15 June - Friday 18 June - Y5/6 Camp Kangaroobie

Friday 25 June - Term 2 ends at 2:30pm

Working Bee - Thank You!

A big thank you to the following people who helped out at our Working Bee this week. We appreciate your time and effort spent improving our school grounds!

Megan B, Luke S, Elsie M, Ross C, David P, Marinda T, Tamica M, Nicola C, Rob P, Su L, Emily C, Iona T, Aiden D, and Jacquie E. Thank you!

Y2/3 Woolworths Excursion

On Wednesday 26 May, what was supposed to be a trip to Woolworths turned into an ‘in-house’ shopping expedition! The Y2/3s have been inquiring into needs and wants this term and learning that not all individuals have equal amounts of wealth to purchase groceries.  Over the past few weeks, Y2/3 students have thought hard, researching and finalising a $10.00 meal that would feed a family of four! They used a criteria checklist to help them organise their meal for their meals:  

  • Is my meal $10.00 or under? 
  • Do I have all the ingredients I need? 
  • Will my meal feed a family of four? 

With the help of our wonderful parents, students spent Wednesday using Woolworths online to find their ingredients. Parents spent the morning buying the groceries for all three classes, brought them back, and created our own mini supermarket! Students were so grateful that they could still have the experience of shopping and bagging their items, taking them home and cooking for their families. What a unique experience! 


Lucy Magura

Y2/3 Teacher

Garden Class - Easy Lemonade Scones with Cheese and Herbs

INGREDIENTS
  • 5 cups of self-raising flour
  • 2 generous cups of grated mature cheddar (or other strong hard cheese)
  • 3 tbs of finely chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, and basil)
  • 250ml / 1 cup of cream
  • 340 ml can of lemonade (such as Sprite)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg lightly beaten


INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 C.
  2. By hand add the self-raising flour to a large bowl and add the cheese, herbs and salt. Give it a good mix.
  3. Add the cream and lemonade and mix until well combined but don’t overwork the dough.
  4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and work into a ball adding a bit more flour if necessary. Lightly flatten it out with your hands to a height of about 3.5cm. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out the scones and place on a lined baking tray (line with baking paper or silicone baking mats). Brush the tops with the beaten egg (do not brush the sides) and bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden brown and risen.
  5. Serve straight away with lashings of butter and more cheese.

District Cross Country

We were lucky last Friday to hold the District Cross Country at Jells Park. The children were all amazing, trying their best and supporting each other. To all the parent helpers, we can’t run an event like this without everyone doing their bit and you all stepped up to do just that. Our sincerest gratitude to all. 

The following students made it into the top 20 for their age group and will move onto Division Cross Country:

Orlando T, Lucas V, Jasper W, Noah S, Benjamin E, Ayesha K, Anna S, Nathan T, Lachlan S, Sakura M, and Gemma E.

Our school came 3rd in our division even though we only had 31 students (due to Y3/4 camp falling on the same week) participating instead of 48 like most other schools. 

The date for Division Cross Country will be confirmed when it has been released.


Liz O'Meara

Y4/5/6 Sports Coordinator

PE Football Clinic

This week the Foundation to Y3 students participated in a footy clinic run by Steffano from the AFL. The students were learning how to kick and handball. Their talent was on display to several lucky parents during are open day. Well done everyone!


Dean Sciacca

PE Teacher

Wear It Yellow Day; An initiative of Children’s Ground

To conclude Reconciliation Week and celebrate our valuable learning experiences, next Friday 4 June we will be encouraging all students and teachers to take part in a yellow themed casual dress day. This is to raise funds for First Nations organisation, Children’s Ground.

The National Reconciliation Week theme for 2021 is ‘More than a word. Reconciliation takes action’. This theme encourages all Australians to take action to achieve equality between First Nations and non-First Nations people. That is why Parkhill Primary has decided to participate in Children’s Ground’s ‘Wear it Yellow’ day. As part of ‘Wear it Yellow Day’, students will engage with Reconciliation Week learning material.

Students and teachers who take part are reminded to bring a gold coin donation and wear a touch of yellow. For more information on Children’s Ground, head to https://childrensground.org.au/

On this day, students will take part in a range of Aboriginal Games. Our Koorie Education Ambassadors, Luxe, Ravyn, Santanah and Sariaha, will be revealing Parkhill Primary School’s new Acknowledgement of Country during Assembly. This was made by all students during their Care Group learning session.


Bella Crowe

Koorie Ambassador

Walk and Wheel to School Safely Day

On the morning of May 19, as Y3/4 students were lugging suitcases and sleeping bags to their cars to drive to school for camp, students from other grades were making very different preparations... Tightening helmet straps, checking brakes and keeping an eye on the weather...It was Walk and Wheel to School Safely Day and as it turned out - a beautiful, sunny morning!

It was wonderful to see all the students walk and wheel through the front gate! Everyone was wearing their helmet and everyone had a big smile on their face. Most importantly of all, everyone arrived safely. The previous afternoon in Care Groups, students had learned all about how to walk and wheel safely so it was good to see that everyone knew just what to do! A big thank you to everyone who participated, but especially to all the parents who made special preparations that allowed some of our younger students to join in or students who live a bit further away from school.

The SRC is currently working to respond to student feedback requesting more frequent walking and wheeling days on our school calendar, so stay tuned!


The SRC

Wonder Recycling Program

Great news, Parkhill! 

Parkhill has registered for the Wonder Recycling program. As a community we can recycle more plastic and turn our bread bags and tags into new sports equipment for the school.  

Get collecting and deliver your bags and tags to the office collection box. 

Together we can make a difference to the environment and our school. 


Andrea Crane

Learning Support

Library News

Hi Parkhill Families,

Many thanks to families who placed orders from Issue 3. All orders were distributed on Wednesday.

The brochures for Issue 4 are also out! You can browse the online catalogue Book Club Issue 4 2021. You can place an order at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or by using the LOOP app.

Kindly note the cut off date for orders is Thursday 10 June.

Every Book Club order earns Scholastic Rewards for the school to purchase additional resources, however there is no obligation for you to make a purchase.


News from the Library

Our appreciation to the library working bee group of magnificent mums: Marinda, Pia and Suyi who worked tirelessly in getting our new books wrapped up.

We have bought a handful of new books for all year levels with the Scholastic rewards earned from Book Club. Thank you to the Condell family for their donation of the Dog Man series to our school library.

Stay tuned for more news on our new book acquisitions - I am working to get the books catalogued and cannot wait to share them with our students.

Please email me angelita.williams@education.vic.gov.au if I can be of any assistance.


Angelita Williams

Librarian

Chaplain's Corner

Waiting. There are times in life when we all have to wait. Sometimes it’s as short as waiting in a queue or for the kettle to boil. Sometimes we know how long the wait will be, we can count down the seconds on the timer or the days on the calendar. At other times waiting is more complicated, more fraught; the kind of waiting one endures when expecting results, a prognosis, news of how a loved one has gone through a surgery. At times like these waiting can take on a heaviness. I think it comes from the ‘what if’s’ and the not knowing. In these moments it’s good to have a few good friends or family members on hand to offer love, comfort, or support and to let us know we’re not in this alone. For that to work well we need to be brave enough to share, to be transparent and authentic enough with those in our lives so that they know what we’re going through.  

Then there’s that other peculiar kind of waiting we’ve done a lot of in the last 12-18 months. The waiting on politicians to tell us what kind of restrictions we face next. It’s bizarre in that we are all going through it at the same time, all waiting. We can’t exactly lean on each other because we’re all going through something, and this can be difficult. But we can share our unique experiences and frustrations with each other, and although we all have different stories somehow there is still a lightening of the burden that comes in the sharing while we wait together. 

 

Suzanne Carmody 

Chaplain 

PFA News - May 28

Executive Committee:

President:  Rossanne Clay                  

Vice  President: Kylie Brown

Treasurer:  Sumi Sundram

Secretary/Communications:  Kylie Touloupis

General Members:  Elle Delmee, Vanessa Cowley, Trish King, Marinda Tanner.

On behalf of the PFA we are looking forward to meeting you at one of our many upcoming events!


TRIVIA NIGHT - Postponed

To all our trivia night ticket holders, due to the new restrictions we will be postponing the Op Shop Glam Trivia Night event. Currently we are setting the date to Saturday July 17th (first Saturday back in term 3). Thanks for your understanding with this and we hope that this new date will be workable for you. If you have any queries regarding the changes please contact Rossanne on 0480 171 847 or parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com.

Parkhill Primary Trivia night - You can purchase a table of 10 or individual tickets 7:00pm arrival for a 7:30pm start Dress code - OP SHOP GLAM

We've received lots of great things from Will Fowles, Chemist Warehouse (next to Officeworks), Feminae, Mr Burton's on High St, Ashburton Meats, Officeworks, Bunnings, Dan Murphy's, Bugs Gymnastics, My Beautiful Abode, and also the donations of people in our community: Adele, Nikki S, Luke S, Kate P, Dan E, Briggite G, Sumi, Kylie B, Astrid, Harri, Sophie K, Joanna A, Vanessa C. THANK YOU!

TRIVIA SETUP/PACKDOWN HELPERS NEEDED

If you're able to spare one hour to help with setup or pack down of the Trivia event on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning please sign up here. Many hands make light work: https://signup.com/login/entry/1216988316556698095

ENTERTAINMENT BOOK

Thank you for your continued support. Did you know 20% of every Entertainment Membership goes directly to Parkhill Primary?

Follow the link and support us today: https://au.entdigital.net/orderbooks/9r34937

RSA licensed? WE NEED YOU!

If anyone in the community has an RSA (responsible service of alcohol certificate) – to help behind the bar at future events we would love to hear from you! Please email parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com to get in touch.

 

RITCHIES COMMUNITY BENEFIT PROGRAM

Our Fundraising Partner Ritchies IGA supermarkets have launched their new revamped community benefit program. Every month Parkhill will receive a % from our members’ spend. Please download the Ritchies loyalty app today and start saving!

Don’t forget to mark ‘Parkhill Primary School’ as your favourite Community Recipient. Our school has received a whopping, $7,638.68 from Ritchies since the program inception. See the flyer at bottom of the newsletter for details and QR codes.

Thank you.


        

REBEL COMMUNITY GIVEBACKS

Rebel community givebacks is a program designed to allow schools to earn instore credits at rebel to purchase essential sporting equipment and teamwear.

Parkhill is rewarded with 5% back on sales linked to a member or student who is a rebel active member.

So please, remember to mention ‘Parkhill Primary’ on your next visit.

The credits raised have been invaluable in enhancing the school equipment over the years we have been involved.

Young Engineers- After-school STEM Lab- Parkhill PS - Learn, imagine, build and explore with our STEM program. Our world-class programs are designed to enrich the students’ knowledge in STEM through the use of K’nex®, LEGO® bricks, coding and robotics techniques making it possible for the students to understand and solve a problem by practical application of theoretical concepts. This is what makes the Young Engineers a pioneer in education.

revolutioniseSPORT is an online end-to-end online platform for sports management. Manage memberships, finance, events, governance and more.

Beyond Online

Dear parents and students of Y1-6, 

Our Term 2 Beyond Online classes begin in the final week of May . These programs run after-school hours and across four consecutive weeks, each connected by a subject area that explores a different concept weekly. Students can join at any time as each session covers a stand-alone concept.  Please note: This is a parent-nominated program. 

  • Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoon programs are available.
  • Years 1-4: 4:30 - 5:30 pm - $30 per session
  • Years 5-6: 4:30 - 6:00 pm - $45 per session

Contact G.A.T.E.WAYS on 02 9940 0303 if you have any questions or need assistance with the enrolment process.

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