Parkhill Primary School Newsletter

Issue 25 Friday 11 September, 2020

Principal's Message

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are closing in on the holidays!  R U OK?  Yesterday was R U OK? day. I believe everyday should be R U OK? day - check in with the people around you and ask them how they’re going… check if they R OK.

Next week is Wellbeing Week at Parkhill. The children will have a choice of activities presented by teachers from across the school.  These activities will form the basis of their learning in week 10. Children will have a skeleton literacy and numeracy curriculum each day and choose a couple of wellbeing tasks every day to have a go at! The Wellbeing Week activities will be hosted in the same place as the Learn From Home packs and will be available on Monday morning. The link will be posted in your child’s classroom as well as below:

https://sites.google.com/education.vic.gov.au/lfh-with-pps

As the week progresses the children will also have the fun chance to identify the teacher in our Staff Masquerade video, have some fun with Footy Day activities and enjoy the virtual Footy Colour Parade on Friday. 

The teachers have planning days and professional practice days next week too.  Check out the chart below to see when your child’s class teacher is offline.  On these days your class teacher will not be available to run class meet sessions or give comprehensive feedback on work submitted. The School Improvement Team is heavily involved with planning across the school therefore will not be available online during Monday and Tuesday as well as on their professional practice day.

DAYTeachers who are offline this day
MondayF/1 Team, 2/3 Team, Mr Davies, Mrs Crane, Specialist Team
TuesdayAll teaching staff
Wednesday4/5 Team, 5/6 Team
ThursdaySpecialist Team, Mr Davies


SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING:

Some kids are self-motivated. And other kids are less motivated and need a little push here or a lot of prodding there. If you’re wondering how to motivate your child, you might automatically think of rewarding your child for every step they take in the right direction, and applying negative consequences for steps they take in the wrong direction. In reality, the best approach is to go easy on the rewards and punishments and cultivate their internal motivation—help them to tune in to the feelings of accomplishment and the pride they feel for a job well done.

Take a look at these 10 ways to up the motivation:

1. Set Goals.

2. Make a Plan.

3. Celebrate Accomplishments.

4. Make Things Competitive.

5. Encourage Them.

6. Take Interest.

7. Discover Passion.

8. Remain Positive.

9. Peer Pressure.

10. Excite Them.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/growing-friendships/201903/what-s-wrong-sticker-charts-and-reward-systems


ENROLMENTS: 

Just a reminder to those of you who have little ones transitioning to school next year to ensure you have your enrolment paperwork submitted.  Next term we will launch our online storytime and virtual tours.

Enrolments can now be completed online. Just follow the link https://forms.gle/2u6289Szpowgwur78


LEARN FROM HOME PACKS:

The Learn from Home packages will be made available from 10am every Monday. Please keep the work that your child completes so that you can return it to school once we are back onsite. 

https://sites.google.com/education.vic.gov.au/lfh-with-pps

I hope you are all well and that you are staying safe. Please reach out if you need support, help or have any feedback at all to offer elaine.brady@education.vic.gov.au


Take care and best wishes,

Elaine Brady

Principal


Policy update - September 2020

Policy committee met recently and reviewed two policies: the Head Lice policy and Asthma policy.

We created a handy summary to convey all the important bits of the Head Lice policy:

  • The responsibility of controlling head lice is with families.

  • If live head lice is found, at the end of the day a note will be issued and the student will be excluded from school until the day after treatment has commenced.

  • Families will be notified about infestation in the school newsletter.

  • The school will only conduct visual head lice checks as and when appropriate, for example if there are indicators of the presence of lice.

  • Head lice do not live or breed on furniture, carpets, clothes or soft toys. We encourage parents to tie their child's hair back if it is long; and at school will put in place strategies to minimise head-to-head contact.

If you’d like to read the whole policy, click the link: DET Head Lice policy

The Asthma policy had only minor changes. It remains a comprehensive summary of what asthma is, as well as procedures and structures the school follows to manage asthma in students.

We extend our thanks to Emily Payne who has just left our committee. Her keen eye for detail and well-placed words are littered throughout our policies. Thanks, and good luck!

Don’t forget that you can join the policy committee at any time - if you’re that person who always corrects street signs, it might be the (second) job for you!

You can find all policies on the school website at https://parkhillps.vic.edu.au/information/#policies

Home Learning Update

F/1S – Royal Character Pictures and Descriptions

               

The Y2/3s have been investigating 3D shapes. Here are some of the things they found!

Y5/6 VISUAL LITERACY

Week 9 in Y5/6 has seen us explore the concept of visual literacy, using political cartoons as our text. The LIE approach asks students to identify literal aspects of the image, then infer and interpret, and lastly evaluate and think critically about the implied meaning. We have seen some impressive thinking this week. What do you think this cartoon implies?

Vivaan

L - I see students doing online learning too much and they don't know how to use a pencil.

I - I think the kids are much too used to a laptop that they have forgotten about a pencil and how to use it.

E - I infer that kids are getting to used to online learning and have forgotten about usual school stuff such as using a pencil.


Amelia

L – I can see that in almost all the pictures people are on technology.

I - I think that the students are used to using things like computers that they have forgotten how to use stuff like pencils and paper.

E - I think it is telling us to spend less time on technology.

 

Indi

L - Students don’t know what a pencil is, kids on technology, incorrect spelling.

I - Students don’t know how to spell because they are used to auto correct.

E - Technology should have a schedule like only an hour a day.

 

Fynn

L - In the cartoon, I can see students studying for the NAPLAN test in a classroom. Then see the students sitting the test. I can also see a caption that talks about writing standards going backwards and asks why.

I - I think that means the students have forgotten how to hand write on paper because on the first four pictures (when they are studying) it shows them on computers and on the last two pictures (when they are doing the actual NAPLAN test) it showed pencils and paper.

E - Students should be tested on computer and the learning system is outdated.

LOTE - Design a Mascot for Parkhill's Athletics Day!

This is Luxe’s mascot for our school’s Athletics Day.

This is Norman, he is a koala with a platypus bill and kangaroo legs.

He loves eucalyptus leaves and playing in the sun.

His best friend is Bindi, a dingo with a lizard tongue. They love to catch flies together.

           

Dear Parkhill Families,

We hope this finds you all safe and well as we head into the final week of term before the school holidays.

There is still time to place an order from the latest two Scholastic brochures  - Issue 5 and Issue 6. Scholastic offers a wide range of great value books across different reading levels and interests. Have a browse through the brochures to find a birthday present, or perhaps stock up for Christmas.

As we are in lockdown restrictions, we are offering home delivery for orders with a $5.99 delivery fee. The home delivery option allows you to purchase books from both issues to the end of term, which is next Friday 18 September.

Your order earns us Scholastic Rewards, which can be used to purchase additional books and resources for our school. Thank you to the families who have placed an order, we are grateful for your support.

Orders can be placed via the Book Club LOOP platform. Remember there is no obligation for you to make a purchase.

Please do get in touch if you need a hand with your order or have any questions: angelita.williams@education.vic.gov.au.

PFA News 11 September 2020

Office Bearers:

President: Rossanne Clay       

Vice President: George Andrakakos

Treasurer: Maria Andrakakos

Secretary/Communications: Kylie Touloupis

General Members:  

Elle Delmee, Wendy Douglas, Donna Edwards, Sumi Sundram, Vanessa Cowley

Next Meeting: Monday 19th October 8.30pm (online)

 

THANK YOU PARKHILL!

Thanks to our amazing hosts, PFA and the Parkhill community, our Father’s Day Family Trivia afternoon was a huge success.

35 families jumped online and together with Luke and Conor (the hosts with the absolute most!) we laughed and cheered ourselves on through multiple rounds of questions.

A highlight of the afternoon was watching the creative team names jumping around the leader board, especially when ‘Second Place’ was in 2nd place!


CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR LUCKY WINNERS!

ROUND 1: 1st – Barnett-Smith

                   2nd – Eleni

ROUND 2: 1st – Morrins

                   2nd – Connie 

ROUND 3: 1st – Douglas

                    2nd – Fynn L

ROUND 4: 1st – Edwards (Gemma)

 ROUND 5: 1st – Dutta

Adhering to State restrictions we aim to organise and distribute prizes during Term 4.   

Once again thank you all. It was great to connect and see some familiar faces smiling back. We added a few $$ to our fundraising total as well which was a bonus.

We would love to hear from you about what else you think we can do to create events where our school community can ‘click to connect’ and come together online and have some fun. If you have any ideas please feel free to share them with us at 
parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com.

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