Parkhill Primary School Newsletter

Issue 27 Friday 16 October, 2020

Principal's Message

Dear Parents/Carers

How wonderful to have the children back onsite! It’s been lovely to get to see many of you at drop off and pick up, and the place feels so vibrant!  The children were tired at drop off this morning but still buzzing from the excitement of returning to school and seeing their friends. 


I would like to thank you for your flexibility around the change of pick up arrangements that came about earlier this week. The arrangements seem to be working really well now and physical distancing is easier. 


Thank you also for adhering to the rules we have implemented as a way of trying to keep us as safe as possible. I have noted a few parents not wearing face masks on drop off and collection - please ensure you are playing your part in reducing the risks for our whole community. 


CoVID-19 RETURN TO SCHOOL STRATEGY:

I have kept the arrangements here for you to refer to: 

  •   Children must enter the school and leave the school through   designated gates

    • F/1 use the front gate of the school, walk around the admin building to their classrooms.

    • 2/3 will enter via the oval and use the path at the side of the soccer park to access the decked area and their classrooms.

    • 4/5/6 classes will enter the school via the Roger Beech Hall gate and use the undercover walkway access to get to their classrooms. 

  • Parents are not allowed on site. There will be school staff at the gates to meet and greet the children and help support the transition

  • Volunteers and parent helpers will not be needed for the initial weeks of term 4, or until further notice.

  • School will start at 9am . Children can start to arrive from 8:50.  

  • Children cannot be onsite before 8:50 and must meet a member of staff at the allocated gate. Please use the 10 min as a staggered drop off and avoid waiting before 9:50 in a cluster. The 10min allows for people to ‘dribble’ past and drop the children off. 


Additional information:

  • Children will not be allowed to use the drink bubblers - please send a drink bottle with them. 

  • The Department of Education has added additional daily cleaning hours for high touch areas.

  • Any students who are showing symptoms of cold and flu must not attend school and will be sent home immediately if exhibiting symptoms. 

  • Students with any illness should stay home at all times.

  • All adults must wear a face mask as per the government restrictions, students may wear face masks if they wish. Children in primary school aged 12 and over are not required to wear face masks during the school day if they don’t want to. 

  • Any devices loaned must be returned to school with your child on their first day.

    *Children riding bikes or scooters can enter and exit via the front of the school.


    Staggered pick up: 

    The children will be released from class in waves from 3:10 – 3:30.  Your family will be allocated a pick up point and time.

    These pick up points and times are organised using your oldest child’s surname and sorted by alphabet.  Please see the table and example below:

Example 1: your oldest child (Y5) has the surname Jones.  You will pick up the whole family from the Cassinia Avenue exit at 3:30pm

Example 2: your oldest child (Foundation) has the surname Peters. You will pick up from the front of the school main exit at 3:20pm

Example 3: your oldest child (Y3) has the surname Fred. You will pick up at 3:10pm from the Cassinia Avenue exit.

Any children attending OshClub will stay in class until 3:30 and head straight to the hall at the end of the ‘normal’ school day. 


2021:

We are heading into 2021 soon. We are starting to think about planning for the year to come and discussions have begun about class compositions and the school structure. Our school structure will be as follows: 

3x F/1 classes

3x Y2/3 classes

3x Y4/5 classes 

2x Y6 classes

If you have anything you would like to share with me regarding your child’s placement in 2021 please do email it through. It is important to note that these requests can not always be honoured and should be heavily based around your child’s learning. Individual teacher requests are not appropriate. 


SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING:

Let’s make our kids more amazing! With difference, equality, change, diversity, culture, progress, growth; with challenge such as friendships, learning, right and wrong, rules and challenge; trauma, disability and more… what do our kids really need? 

https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/this-is-how-to-make-your-kids-amazing-4-secrets-from-research


Reminders: 

  • Friday 23rd October is a Public Holiday - school will be closed. 

  • The 12th October was originally pinned as a school based curriculum day – this will no longer be the case.  The curriculum day has been rescheduled for November 16th.


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 very best wishes,

Elaine Brady

Principal



Calendar of Curriculum Events

Thursday 22nd October - Book Day  (See below)

Friday 23rd October - Grand Final Public Holiday                                   

Tuesday 3rd November - Cup Day Public Holiday                                   

Monday 16th November - Curriculum Day - No School  

Friday 18th December - Last day Term 4 - 1.30pm Finish

Book Week

Next week we will be celebrating Book Week by holding a whole school book day on Thursday 22nd of October. Students can dress up as a book character and wear their costume to school for the day. 

Classes will also complete activities inspired by Book Week books and this year’s theme of Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. 

I can’t wait to see all the marvellous book characters come alive next week at Parkhill! 

Ms Schlack


Ideas you might have at home!

School Learning

Y5/6 STEAM

It was very exciting to have our students back in the STEAM lab. The buzz of chatter, scientific discovery and enthusiasm was fabulous to see. This week Y5/6 finished their exploration of negative numbers by making a thermometer using water, a bottle, straw and food colouring.

Students explored the impact of heat and cold on the movement of coloured water up and down the central column.  We then substituted the water for rubbing alcohol and noted that the thermometer was more responsive to temperature changes. A great deal of discussion followed this discovery as we endeavoured to explain our observations.

We can’t wait to STEAM it up next week.

Andrea Crane

Y5/6 Teacher

Dear Parkhill Families,

It has been wonderful to have all the kids back at school! 


You may have seen an issue of the latest Scholastic brochure as we distributed them earlier in the week.


If you would like to place an order, you will need to do so on 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 7 2020.


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 Thursday 29 October.


Kindly note that all orders have to be placed online, we are not accepting cash orders. Orders will be delivered to school and distributed to your child. The expected delivery timeframe is 2 weeks after the cut off date.


Parents who are registered on LOOP receive exclusive sneak peeks, downloads and offers throughout the school year. To register, you will need to set up:

  • your details (name, email address and password)
  • your child’s details (name, class and school)


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.


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

Chaplain’s Corner

Christmas is coming…

We don’t really know what Christmas will look like this year yet. But if you need a hand we’d like to make it a bit easier for you. December is a strange time of year, one that is often accompanied by financial pressure. We will be aiming to provide Christmas Hampers, free of charge, for any families that need them.


If you need a Hamper can you please get in touch with us by either filling in the form below or simply emailing me. suzanne.carmody@education.vic.gov.au 


Please register your interest by  Friday 6 November. We want Parkhill to continue to be a loving community where no one misses out. If you need a regular hamper rather than a Christmas Hamper please get in touch as we can organise those as well.

Rent Relief 

If you are having difficulty paying your rent, you may be eligible for a rent relief grant.

A one-off payment of up to $3,000 is available for people who are renting and have financial hardship due to coronavirus (COVID-19).  This fund is for people who are 'paying more than 30% of their income in rent' and have limited personal savings and income.  People who live in share houses are eligible for the funding.  Information about the rent relief grants have been translated into 30 languages: https://www.housing.vic.gov.au/help-renting/rentrelief.  Applications must be made here: https://rentrelief.covid19.dhhs.vic.gov.au/.

PMI Music Institute

Primary Music Institute are now able to offer guitar and drums lessons on-site at Parkhill PS beginning this term. This is in addition to the keyboard/piano lessons already being offered to students.

The easiest way is to enrol via their website: www.primarymusicinstitute.com.au

Here you will also find further information on the lesson options too.

PFA News 18 September 2020

Office Bearers:

President: Rossanne Clay       

Treasurer: Vacant

Secretary/Communications: Kylie Touloupis

General Members:  

Elle Delmee, Maria Andrakakos, Sumi Sundram, Vanessa Cowley

PFA Meeting

Monday 19th October 8.30pm

Click to join us online at meet.google.com/qtn-psom-unr 

Vacant - Treasurer

We are still on the lookout for one of our amazing families to step into the Treasurer’s role.

The PFA cannot continue without a treasurer, so please consider helping out.

It’s a great time to ‘try before you buy’ with so few events happening in our Covid calendar year. Have a chat with one of the team or jump onto one of our monthly calls. We would love more volunteers to brainstorm new ideas, and connect us to the others in our community.

TICK TOCK PARKHILL!

How many hoops can you shoot? Always dreamed of filling your cheeks with Marshmallows? Ever wondered how many times you could write your name in 1 minute? Well watch this space the Challenge-a-thon is on its way!

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