Parkhill Primary School Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

It is so lovely to have students back onsite today! Great to see everyone on the yard catching up from missing the past two weeks. Thanks to those of you who came onsite to say hi and honoured the restrictions outlined in yesterday's communication - I will list them again below:

• Face masks to be worn at all times on school grounds

• Physical distancing of 1.5m honoured

• Good hand hygiene practices

• No whole school assembly

• No choir practice this week - will resume next week Friday 18th June

• Parent helpers in class can continue honouring the above restrictions

• Music instrumental lessons and visiting specialists will continue as normal as well as the upcoming soiree

• Sick children must stay home, or will be sent home

I would like to take this chance to share some lovely news with you - Lucy Magura (Y2/3 Team leader and classroom teacher) is having a baby. She will be with us until the beginning of term 4 before she heads off to embrace motherhood!  I am sure you will join me in congratulating Lucy on this wonderful news. 

The final week of remote learning again saw high engagement across the school - I am so proud of the efforts made by all families and children this round of remote learning. The ease of restrictions comes at the perfect time for us to relax over the long weekend and get back to school for the remaining two weeks of term. 

CHAPLAINCY AT PARKHILL:

For many years, since my time as a teacher at Parkhill and even before that, we have had a school chaplain. Suzanne Carmody has been a member of the Parkhill team since 2012. She works closely with some of our families and students in a support role, organises our Bring it Breaky’s and connects with outside community groups who offer support for camps and excursions and a multitude of other support and care arrangements.  

We are able to have Suzanne as part of our team due to department funding - sadly this funding ceased at the end of 2020. We were working with the agency who employs Suzanne to fund her for the remainder of 2021, however late last week we received word that they were no longer able to support this funding. Very sadly we will say goodbye to Suzanne at the end of term. 

We will host a morning tea, providing restrictions allow, on Thursday 24th June to say goodbye.  More information will follow. 

SWIMMING:

Our annual swimming program will be running in term 3 through weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6. Details will come home soon around payment, etc. – please do keep your eyes open for the orange letter! Please do complete and return the slip as soon as possible – even if you do not intend on participating. The swimming element of the curriculum is very important and the school’s swimming program run through Huntingtower is excellent.  It is important to note that a school swimming program is just that. It is not club swimming. The program is intended to cater for the majority of students at their ability. Huntingtower has wonderful facilities that suit the needs of Parkhill. 

Reminders:

• Monday is a public holiday - no school

• 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. 

Monday 14 June - Queen's Birthday Public Holiday

Thursday 24 June - Afternoon Soiree - see information below

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

As part of our ‘milestones’ inquiry, Y6 have been looking at adaptations. An adaptation is a long-term process that an organism undergoes to become better able to live in its habitat or habitats. We’ve looked at all manner of change, from an animal’s camouflage giving it an edge, to a plant’s response to bush fire. In a social context, an adaptation can be any reasonable change that can be made to accommodate and include people with disability or impairment. This past week, we started by looking at the Invictus games, and then looked at how sports, activities, and built environments can be adapted to encourage inclusivity.  

A social model perspective does not deny the reality of impairment or the impact on the individual and instead seeks to change physical, attitudinal communication and social environments to accommodate people living with impairment. It does not seek to change persons with impairment to accommodate society.  

A young person with disability has a right to be a fully participating student. There are some schools that are better funded and structured to support disability and impairment, but here are some changes or adaptations that Y6 have identified that could be made to a school environment:

• Braille on doors and important places 
• Ramps to assist those with mobility challenges 
• Curriculum and project-based learning 
• Text-to-speech 
• L.O.T.E – Auslan for hearing impaired 
• Tactile tiles in front of doors for sight impaired 
• Rattles and bells in balls for play and PE activities 
• Posters and visible learning  
• More computers 
• Special play equipment.  

Chris Logan

Y6 Teacher

Due to the lockdown, the Attitudes to School survey was postponed until the end of the term. We are planning for students in Y4-6 to now sit the survey from Tuesday 15 June to Friday 24 June. They will complete the survey in their classrooms.

This annual survey asks the students about their perceptions and experiences of school. Students will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer relationships, bullying, life in general, as well as health and wellbeing questions.

Information about the survey was sent out to families with Y4-6 students prior to lockdown. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Policy committee met this week via video conferencing and churned through three policies - Anaphylaxis, Child Safe Standards action list, and CCTV.

The Anaphylaxis policy outlines how we manage anaphylaxis at Parkhill, including identification of anaphylaxis, setting up Individual Anaphylaxis Management Plans, locations, risk minimisation strategies, emergency procedures and staff training. 

The Child Safe Standards action list is a handy document that the policy committee uses to survey our compliance with the Child Safe Standards. All of our Child Safety policies can be found on the school website.

The CCTV policy is a fresh new policy to add to the set, as we have CCTV cameras installed at the school. The policy determines what the cameras are used for, general locations, and how long the data is retained.

Our policies can be found on the school website, but the latest policies are waiting for our new website to be launched and will be updated by next week.

Our committee will next be meeting in September, so you have plenty of time to write me an email letting me know that you can join us! Send it to michelle.smith@education.vic.gov.au and I’ll reply with your first invitation!

Michelle Smith

Assistant Principal

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

Executive Committee:

President:  Rossanne Clay                  

Vice  President: Kylie Brown

Treasurer:  Sumi Sundram

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

TRIVIA NIGHT

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.

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 Sechler, Luke Smith, Kate Pearson, Dan Edwards, Briggite Garret, Sumi, Kylie Brown, Astrid, Harri, Sophie Kost, Joanna Argaet, Vanessa Cowley from our community. THANK YOU!

TRIVIA SETUP/PACKDOWN HELPERS NEEDED

If you're able to spare one hour to help with setup or packdown 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

CUPCAKE STALL

Our cupcake stall has been postponed until further notice.