ENewsletter

Principal's Message

Dear Parents/Carers,

Happy Friday!

What a super busy week this has been as we head towards the end of term 1. I am very excited to share some staffing news with you. Although we are saddened to say goodbye to Mark Tunnicliffe in Y6 we are happy to be welcoming back Sasha Guy. Sasha took a period of sick leave this year to complete her cancer treatments and is very thrilled to be coming back to school next term. I am sure you will join with me in wishing Mark all the very best and welcoming Sasha back to the team!

LEARNING CELEBRATION AND PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Thank you to all of the families who engaged in our Parent Teacher Interviews this week. Please do email me if you would like to share your thoughts about the interviews – we are always looking for feedback to help us improve our communication.

It is important to remember that you are always welcome to meet with your class teacher and I encourage you to make appointments throughout the year to touch base and talk about your child’s learning progress.

BRAIN FOOD

We have been very lucky to be working closely with Woolworths Ashwood this term. Woolworths are donating food packages to school for us to distribute alongside fresh fruit. We now have ample fresh fruit in classrooms for children to access throughout the day! Thank you Woolworths!

SLEEP AND MOOD

As with a healthy diet sleep is a critical part of a child’s health – both physical and emotional. We all know that a sleep-deprived child is a whirlwind of behaviours. Children who come to school tired find it so difficult to concentrate on their learning. Not only is class time more challenging, but so are their social interactions. Taking turns becomes harder, compromise feels impossible and managing conflict is just too hard. Children can become easily frustrated when they are overtired. As adults we are able to identify in ourselves that the reason we feel grumpy is because we are tired – children don’t always have this ability and cannot always connect tiredness to mood. There is a lot of helpful information about the importance of sleep, and managing those bedtime challenges that we all encounter:

‘Just 5 more minutes mum…’
‘One more turn…’
‘I need a drink!’
‘I’m hungry’
‘My tummy hurts’
‘I need to tell you something…’

I’m sure you all have the same list!

The sites below offer some helpful advice and tips for those of us who are struggling with bedtime!!

http://sleepforkids.org/html/cant.html

https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/node/3695

The National Sleep Foundation recommends the following amounts of sleep – I have to say I had a little giggle to myself when I read this!!!

Newborn (0-3 months) — 14-17 hours
Babies (4-11 months) — 12-15 hours
Children (1-2 years) — 11-14 hours
Preschool (3-5 years) — 10-13 hours
School Age (6-13 years) — 9-11 hours
Teens (14-17 years) — 8-10 hours
Youth (18-25 years) — 7-9 hours
Adults (26-64 years) — 7-9 hours

How do you fair?

REMINDERS

2021 school fees (Essential Education Items) are overdue – if you have not yet paid this fee please contact the office ASAP. A statement was issued last week if your account was outstanding. It is important to note that the school has to subsidise any fees that are not paid by families. These subsidies are paid out of our curriculum budgets.
Morning drop off: Supervision on the playground is only from 8:45am.
On Tuesday 16th March we look forward to our Twilight Sports event.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Elaine Brady

Principal

Calendar of Curriculum Events

Tuesday 16 March - Twilight Sports

Wednesday 17 March - GATEWAYS Eureka program (selected students)

Thursday 18 March - GATEWAYS Eureka program (selected students)

Friday 19 March - Bully No Way Day

Monday 22 March - SDSSA District Athletics

Thursday 1 April - Term 1 ends at 2:30pm

Student of the Week

F/1A - Rose M

F/1B - Kenzo D

F/1C - Elias B

2/3A - Eddy C

2/3B - Sarang K

2/3C - Rebecca L

4/5A - Jasper W

4/5B - Annabella B

4/5C - Shuji N

6A - Sakura M

6B - Zac P

Twilight Sports

It's Twilight Sports time again and after a year off the students are itching to get back on the track. Bring a blanket and relax on the hillside at Parkhill this Tuesday evening, starting at 5.30pm. There will be many activities for the students to participate in, culminating in some sprint races, and maybe even one for the adults - if your hamstring is up to it!

Dean Sciacca

PE Teacher

SRC Update - Bully No Way Day

Hi, your SRC Captains speaking! As most of you know, Clean Up Australia Day was postponed due to Parent Teacher Interviews but it will be coming back next Tuesday 16 March. We will collect rubbish in our care groups so it will be a competition to see who can collect the most rubbish!

We also want to talk about the next event which is Bully No Way Day! It will be next Friday and it is going to be a free dress day. The aim is to wear your brightest clothing like wacky socks or something that makes you stand out from the crowd, because it helps people who have been bullied and who are being bullied to feel safe and confident.

On Bully No Way Day we do activities that tell us what is the best thing to do when you are in a situation where you are being bullied or teased. If you are a bystander, the victim or even a bully it is always hard to know what is right or wrong and that is why Bully No Way Day is so important. If you ever feel that you are being bullied remember that the best thing to do is speak up for yourself and tell a teacher, parent or anyone that you feel comfortable with. Thank you!

Christos P and Penny R

SRC Captains

Choir Performance - Next Friday!

Our school choir will perform at assembly next Friday! Assembly is held in the library at 3pm. Come on down to watch our wonderful choir sing!

Camp Connect - A Camp at CYC The Island for Selected Y3-6 Students

For the first three days of term 2, 19-21 April, some students from Y3-6 will be heading up to CYC The Island camp on Phillip Island.

Students were chosen to join in for all sorts of reasons, but mostly to provide an opportunity to connect with others.

Attending camp together as students provides unique learning experiences - both in learning new skills, and learning how or building on past experiences of being part of a live-in non-family group. It provides safe opportunities to grow new friendships, through cabin groups, meal time and extended free-time interaction, leading to growth in self-reliance, personal decision making and responsibility.

Social and physical skills develop through a variety of activities offered in a setting different to the home, school or local environment. We also hope to support growth in personal security, self esteem and the capacity to develop positive relationships with friends, family and teaching staff. The particular objective of this camp is to connect students with each other.

Please note, our usual Y3/4 camp at Weekaway in May and Y5/6 camp at Kangaroobie in June will still proceed - with all students in that year level. Camp Connect is in addition to those camps.

If you have any queries about Camp Connect, please contact Michelle on michelle.smith@education.vic.gov.au, or inquire at the office.

Garden Cooking - Vegetable Pasties

Our Garden classes cooked up some wonderful vegetable pasties this week using ingredients from our orchard. See the recipe below if you would like to cook these at home with your little ones!

Keep up to date with our Garden on Instagram at parkhillcommunity

Vegetable Pasties

Ingredients

450g sebago potatoes, peeled, chopped
250g broccoli, cut into very small florets
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled, finely chopped
1 small zucchini, finely chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
3 teaspoons mild curry powder
6 sheets frozen reduced-fat shortcrust pastry, partially thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten
Tomato sauce, to serve

Method

Step 1 - Cook potato in a saucepan of boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes or until just tender, adding broccoli for last 2 minutes. Drain. Return to pan. Using a fork, roughly mash texture.

Step 2 - Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until softened. Add celery, carrot and zucchini. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until carrot starts to brown.

Step 3 - Add potato mixture, peas and curry powder to pan. Stir to combine. Cool.

Step 4 - Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius/180 degrees Celsius fan-forced. Grease 3 baking trays. Using an 11cm cutter, cut 4 rounds from each pastry sheet. Spoon 11/2 tablespoons mixture over centre of 1 pastry round. Brush edge with egg. Fold up sides to enclose filling. Press edges to seal and form frills. Stand on 1 prepared tray. Repeat with remaining mixture, pastry rounds and egg. Brush pasties with egg.

Step 5 - Bake, 1 tray at a time, for 20 minutes or until golden. Stand for 5 minutes. Serve with sauce.

Solar Challenge

Solar Challenge is a group challenge project for students in Y4-6. In a team, students will design, make, test and race a solar boat, car or kit car. There is a whole of state competition at Scienceworks in October. Expressions of interest forms went out this week, and if you are interested in applying for the project, please fill in the EOI form and hand in to Miss Smith or the office. Get in quick as teams will be chosen very soon!

Download

Library News

Hi Parkhill Families,

Thank you to the families who have placed orders for Issue 1. The books were delivered to school and distributed out to students on Wednesday.

You would have received the next Book Club issue which was sent home this week.

If you would like to place an order, you will need to do so via the Book Club LOOP platform. It is easy to order and allows you to pay by credit card.

Browse the online catalogue: Book Club Issue 2 2021
Place an order at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play
The cut off date for orders is Friday 19 March

Scholastic upgraded their system during the summer holidays and are experiencing some technical issues, resulting in delivery delays. Kindly note that we may only receive book orders after the term 1 break.

If you have any queries or need further information, please email me angelita.williams@education.vic.gov.au.

Angelita Williams

Librarian

Homework Policy at Parkhill

You may have heard about homework in our information sessions at the beginning of the year and wondered why it looked so different to the homework that you may have done as a child (I know it looks different to mine!)

We now know that homework doesn’t necessarily improve learning, and that the benefits of homework can be found peripheral to the homework content itself. This includes building good habits for study, encouraging a love of learning, connecting the family to the school, and improving organisational skills.

At Parkhill our homework is a weekly Mathletics task, daily (or near to) reading, and the optional STEAM grid. We aim to encourage family time, sharing learning together, and avoid homework becoming a negative experience for our students.

You can find the Homework policy on our website: https://parkhillps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Homework-Policy.pdf

If you have any questions, please ask Michelle or Elaine.