1. education
2. school

TERM 2– Week 4
May 14 2015
What’s Coming Up?
2015
From the Principal’s Desk
Dear Parents, Students and Friends
May
Wed 20
Parents and Friends
Meeting
Thurs 21 Alice In Wonderland OperaArts Centre-Advanced Choir
District Cross Country
Fri 22
Walk to School Day
Sat 23
School Working Bee
9:30am
Fri 29
Jun
Tues 9
Culture and Country Day
Curriculum Day
No Students
First Aid and Anaphylaxis
Update
Wed 24
Our Place in the World Expo
Fri 26
Term 2 finishes 2:30pm
Jul
Mon 13 Term 3 commences 9:00am
Wed 29 Parent-Student Reporting
conferences
Aug
Sun 30 School Working Bee
Sep
Fri 18
Term 3 finishes
Oct
Mon 5
Term 4 commences 9.00am
Nov
Mon 2
Report Writing Day
Dec
Thur 17 Last day of school year for
students
Fri 18
Walk Safely To School Day and
Walking Bus.
Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) is an annual, national event when all
Primary School children are encouraged to walk and commute safely to
school. It is a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public
Transport and the Environment.
Walk Safely to School Day asks that we all consider our transport habits and
try to incorporate more walking as part of a healthy, active way to get around.
And although walking all the way to school isn’t realistic for many of us, it’s
quite easy to figure out how you can build a walk into your family’s daily
routine.
You can teach your child the healthy habit of walking more by:
- Walking with them the whole way to school
- If they get the bus or train, walk past your usual stop and get on at the next
stop
- If you have to drive, park the car a few blocks away from the school and walk
the rest of the way.
Regular exercise like walking with your child not only helps them (and you!)
beat chronic problems like obesity, heart disease, behavioural and mental
health issues and diabetes. It also gives you a great opportunity to teach your
child safe ways to behave around roads and traffic.
Remember, Active Kids are Healthy Kids so get planning your own Walk
Safely to School Day journey for Friday
22 May 2015!
As recognition of this day we would like to not only encourage as many
students as possible to walk to school that day but also to introduce a
‘Walking Bus’ in Grand Boulevard. We do already have one informal Walking
Bus from Kirwana Grove with a few of our parents but we are hoping to have
one that starts down the end of Grand Boulevard (near the Bolton Street end)
and winds its way up Grand Boulevard. If you are interested either let us
know in the office or contact Naomi Crawford-Condie (Oliver and Samson)
2016 Planning Day for Staff
For more information about the actual day, visit www.walk.com.autime
Birthdays
Working Bee
The Environment and Facilities Committee met last Monday night and worked on
our plan for the upcoming Working Bee in a week’s time on Saturday May 23,
commencing at 9:30am..
Our main intention is to prepare the top end of the school (where the rubbish
skips used to be) for ball games and climbing activities.
Here is a sketch of what we are aiming to achieve:-
May 15 - 21
15
Alex Lloyd
Tyler Kennard
16
Atticus
Speakman-Rush
17
Jem Pearsall
Andy Pham
19
Jesse Revell
Ethan Brearley
Duncan Hulme
Sarah Cook
21
Charlie Roberts
And photos of what we are hoping to achieve:-
MANY HAPPY
RETURNS
However, there are a number of other tasks to be done as well. All the tasks
identified include:
• Cleaning and staining of BER railing and new stairs.
• Play dome structure built out of tyres
• Cleaning and painting of 5 base plates in little kids play equipment
• Tyre Mound
• Tyre caterpillar
• Downball wall
• Painting existing seating
• General maintenance/ other tasks- weeding, mulching, replacing draught stop
in kitchen, cleaning sinks, de-cobwebbing, and removal of plant guards from
established trees in embankment near hall.
Best Birthday Wishes
to all of the above
students
If you could spare even just an hour please come along and help. Cathryn Hulme,
our talented SAKG teacher has agreed to cook lunch for us!!! If you intend on
coming and have not let us know as yet, please contact either Mel Mc Murtrie or
our office to let us know.
Recently, Clare Bear put out a call for volunteers to help out in our library. You see, we have purchased quite a number of
books and Clare has been very busy, teaching, cataloguing books, covering them and putting them on the shelves. Equally with
the whole school using the Daily 5 method of teaching literacy, it has put a huge demand on the books in the library.
Answering the call for help, Esh Nye. (Sara 2J & Cooper PD) has stepped in and has been a constant source of support in the
library, week in and week out.
Esh we just wanted to say thank you so much for all your work in helping Clare make the library such a lovely place to be. You
have even had to put up with Clare Bear singing (again and again) ‘Let it Go’. Now that is beyond the call of duty. ☺
Wet Weather and Staff
This week has been tough for the staff and the students. NAPLAN and wet weather timetables. However, I didn’t realise how
much it was getting to them until I starting getting a series of emails yesterday.
All containing bad jokes. Here is just a sample that I thought I would share with the students to see what is actually happening
with the teachers on days like this week have brought us.
Why don’t kleptomaniacs get puns? Because they take everything literally.
What do you call a fake spaghetti? An impasta
What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a swimming pool?
Bob
What do you call a man in a pile of leaves? Russell
What do you call a woman with one leg? Eileen. Ha! Ha!
What do you call a woman who burns her bills? Bernadette (debt)
What's the difference between dinosaurs and dragons? Dinosaurs don't smoke
How do you make a snake cry?
Take away its rattle.
What kind of bees produce milk?
Boo Bees.
I am looking forward to some sunshine in more ways than one.
Wishing you a lovely and relaxing weekend
Leanne Sheean
Principal
Co-operative Play at its best.
It was great to see the children working together
to build the tallest sandcastles during their recess
break.
WORKING BEE
The Monty South Working Bee is being held on Saturday
23rd May. If anyone has any non-lead based external
paint (any colours) and old paint brushes that they can
donate for use at the working bee it would be very much
appreciated. Please drop off your donations at the
kitchen.
Thanking you for your assistance.
Compass
If you are having any difficulty with your Compass login please contact the office on 9439 6201.
Getting to Know Our Year 4 Team
My name is Mandy Redfern and I have been teaching at Monty South since 2007.
I have loved teaching at our school and feel very privileged to be part of our
wonderful school community. Level 4 is a great year level to teach and this year
we have a fantastic bunch of students, who love learning and enjoy participating
in all our school has to offer.
I am very lucky to have such a supportive husband and three wonderful childrenmy daughter, Eliza, who is doing Year 12 this year, and my two sons, Nicholas &
Rohan, who are at university. With 5 cars, part-time jobs, weekend sport and late
nights, it actually seems busier now than when they were younger! We also have
two dogs and a Ragdoll cat. In my spare time, I like nothing better than to walk
our dogs on the beach and spend time relaxing with family and friends at our
beach house on Phillip Island.
My name is Chris Cameron and I have been teaching at Monty South since 2013. I
love teaching at MSPS because the students and families make it a fun place to be. I
really enjoy sports and teaching PE, but would never want to give up teaching in the
classroom as that is where I feel teaching is most rewarding.
I have a wonderful wife named Abbi and three children, Reese, Peyton and Eli, we
also have a dog and 4 chickens. In my spare time I play basketball, coach basketball,
fish and ride my bike as much as possible as I get bored sitting still. Most of our
weeknights and weekends are taken up by sport or outdoor activities which I think is
very important to promote to kids as a healthy lifestyle choice.
My name is Tom Davis and this is my second year teaching at Monty South. I am
teaching Year 4 for the second time and I love it. I began my Teacher Education at
RMIT after completing Year 12. After my first placement I knew teaching was for
me. I absolutely loved it! While balancing University study with personal life, I
worked at KFC. KFC taught me lots of skills, but I was certainly happy to move on!
Towards the end of my KFC employment I volunteered at Monty South in the Prep
area. I was so impressed and amazed with the things I saw, I knew I had to apply for
a job at this wonderful school. I was and continue to be grateful to work with such
lovely students and staff!
In my spare time I like to catch up with friends, go to the movies, improve my TV
series binge watching skills and go to the footy. You’ll know when Melbourne has a
win, as I usually wear the team colours on the Monday. Go Dees! I also love
technology whether that is using it, reading about it or fixing it. You will often find
me talking about or watching a TED talk.
Student of the Week
Kiefer Salisbury 2J
For excellent ideas in persuasive writing.
Matthew Cook
5T
For thanking everyone at the conclusion of the Quantum Victoria
excursion.
Luca Maddison-Grey 2R
For including others in his games.
Luella Morrow
2R
For great team work and negotiating skills.
Jess Stuart 4D
For being engaged and enthusiastic during Minibeast mini presentations.
Ruby Simon
4R
For always aiming to do her personal best.
Natalie Livingstone 4C
For working hard on her Math tests and trying her Personal Best
Harry Curtis
5H
For letting everyone play with him
Lachlan Wilkins 5N
Lachlan equally respects all class members and is recognised for being a
friend to everyone. He is helpful and kind to all.
Ethan Flather
3R
For showing maturity when dealing with an issue that needed his
honesty.
Cooper Noons
3R
For working hard and staying focussed during NAPLAN week.
Otis Renwick
1H
For making good choices and applying his personal best in his work.
Noah and Tayla collect the
weekly Sports Award for Tyto.
JUNIOR SCHOOL COUNCIL
Sports Colours Fundraiser
for the Royal Children's Hospital
Just to let you know that we will be having a Sports Colours Say. So come
dressed in your favourite team colours, which can be any sport. It will be held on
Thursday the 18th of June. We decided to raise money for Liam Hall and children
like him. We will be fundraising for the Royal Children's Hospital so please bring
a gold coin donation which will be a big help for the children in need. If you would
like to, please click the link below to make a donation. Soon there will be posters
around the school advertising the Sports Colours Say.
https://give.everydayhero.com/au/amanda-redfern-1
By Brianna Johnstone, Kate Hamilton, Nicholas Makridis
YEAR 2 Classroom Clippings
After reading about helping our environment, Grade 2J decided to take their thinking to the next
level and write letters to the editor about the use of plastic bags. Here are some thoughts from
our young people about our environment.
Green Wins Again
Now you listen, yeah that's right I'm talking to you. You too Tony Abbott. Now us Aussies are
killing poor and innocent sea animals. How would you feel if you were stuck in a plastic bag? If
you keep using plastic bags there will be less clean places in the world. Today, right now, you put
down those shocking plastic bags and pick up a green bag. Us Aussies are ruining our country.
I'm sick of it. You should feel guilty. In Ireland 90% of people stopped using plastic bags. If they
can do it, we can do it. If we recycle kids can live in a clean and happy place.
By Ben
No plastic bags
I think we should stop using heaps of plastic bags. Australians use 10 million plastic bags a day
and too many are going into the ocean. And if you have a favourite animal that is a sea creature
they can die by eating plastic bags. One million sea birds die from plastic bags. Stop using these
awful using plastic bags and start using green bags. Plastic bags are damaging all kinds of
animals. You should be ashamed. And these awful plastic bags take 1000’s of years to break
down. Australia is going to be a mess.
By Sara
Go Green
Now everybody listen up carefully now. Did you know that only 10% of people recycle their plastic
bags? I am horrified. We should stop it using plastic bags and start using green bags. Look at
Ireland they have and now 90% don’t use plastic bags. We have to STOP IT. GET IT STOP I
SAID STOP. I am really disgraced at what we are doing to our cool earth.
By Angus J
GO GREEN! Listen up!
Now I know I`m right, never ever use plastic bags, it’s 100% true.
Now let`s get serious, plastic bags kill more than 1000 animals, and we need to pick up the green
bags, and pick… I mean drop the plastic bags in the bin. Do we Australians use green bags or
NOT!? Us Australians are hurting lovely animals, seriously people. Do you want to grow up in a
dump?
By Jacob
We Need To Change
What! I’m feeling mad and sad. This is because stinky plastic bags are hurting our environment.
Did you know that Australians throw away 7150 plastic bags every minute? I am disappointed!
Why are we doing this to our special world? Tyler
P&F Update
Firstly, we want to wish all of our lovely mums a belated happy Mother’s Day! We hope you enjoyed the presents
from our Mother’s Day stall. Many thanks to Jo Scott for coordinating this event and to the many helpers who
assisted on Monday 4th, Tuesday 5th and Thursday 7th May.
Thanks too for the kind assistance and support given to the VIPA Book Fair at school this week. It is always a busy
time for our hardworking librarian Clare and everyone’s help running the book fair was greatly appreciated.
Our Pavers fundraiser continues to run with orders still being accepted at the office. We would like to complete this
project as a whole (rather than complete small parts at a time) and hope to commence shortly. It is a big project
involving excavation and drainage works. The more pavers we have to put down, the better it will be! Thank you to
those who have already purchased a paver – we can’t wait to see what the finished result will look like!
We also held our first second hand uniform sale this week. We received so many donations of second hand
uniform items and there were many bargains to be had! We hope you found this to be valuable and hope to run this
event again in the future. Sincere thanks to Judith, Pam, Karen, Cecile, Gail and Vanessa for helping on the day and
thanks to the MSPS community for donating items to be sold.
Entertainment Book orders are ongoing as is School Banking which saw an increase in the number of students
banking as a result of a visit from Pat the Dog in assembly earlier this month.
P&F have the following upcoming events this month:
•
•
P&F Committee meeting – Wed 20th May 7.30pm in the Staffroom – ALL WELCOME
Pie Drive – notices coming home shortly
Thanks for your continued support in our fundraising activities. All monies raised are put directly back into MSPS to
make it even better for our kids!
Should you wish to join the Committee or help out in any way, please email nicci.green75@gmail.com
Nicci Green
President – 2015 P&F
PARENTS AND FRIENDS – BRICK PAVER FUNDRAISER
Have you forgotten to order your paver?
Don’t panic – the Parents and Friends Group are still accepting orders.
The pavers are not only a great way to acknowledge your presence at the school but they will make our
boat area look absolutely FANTASTIC.
Parents & Friends MONTMORENCY SOUTH PRIMARY SCHOOL
PIE DRIVE
We have organised with TONY’S PIES OF ESSENDON to conduct a Pie Drive.
Tony’s Pies will supply us with a range of their freshly baked pies, pasties, quiches and sausage rolls on Tuesday, 2nd
of June
All the products will be freshly baked and will be suitable to go straight into the freezer if you wish.
So order up BIG. Remember, the more you order the more we make. All orders and payment to be returned by
Wednesday, 27th of May.
We need the support of everyone to make this fundraising a success.
This week in the kitchen...
This week in the kitchen we have compared modern varieties of wheat with ancient varieties. The
students have learnt about einkorn, the earliest wheat variety grown by Neolithic man 9000 years ago.
We have also talked about the wheat variety emmer – as grown by the Egyptians. Modern durum wheat
looks very different to these ancient varieties. With wheat as our inspiration we have prepared a feast
using bread in many different ways.
We have made mini cob rolls, ribollita soup (Italian soup that uses stale bread), silverbeet and lentil gratin
(breadcrumbs on top for crunch), Fattoush (Middle Eastern salad containing crispy pittas) and an old
fashioned pear and ginger bread and butter pudding. Bread is very versatile!
Many thanks to Alexis, Cailey and Courtney from 5N, who volunteered during their recess to keep the
kitchen looking neat and tidy!
Volunteer help is required in the kitchen on the following dates:
3R Tuesday 26 May 9.30-11.30
5N Thursday 28 May 12.30-2.30
5H Thursday 21 May and 4 June 12.30-2.30
Please contact me if you are able to assist, Cathryn Hulme on 0419 322 782.
From the garden...
The temperature has certainly dropped as we near the end of Autumn and start planting out our
winter veg. The 'Brassica family' are well represented in our current plantings, which include
broccoli, cabbage and kale. Apart from seasonal changes, important days on the calendar can
also be a marker for when to plant certain things, Anzac day, for example, was symbolic for a
lot of reasons including when to start planting out your broad beans.
Our current garden topic is 'What a waste', which looks at our school's waste systems and how
we can divert some of our waste from landfill. The children may come home talking about 'Nude
Food', which is just as the name suggests - naked food or food without packaging. We'd love
your support with our quest to reduce our school's waste, even if by supporting Nude Food
Wednesdays, together we can make a massive impact! Stay tuned for upcoming Nude food tips.
Anyone interested in volunteering for chicken duty or garden sessions, please leave a note at
the office for Jenna.
Happy gardening!
RAP News
Last Wednesday evening we held our inaugural RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) meeting. It was a wonderful opportunity to
meet everyone involved in the group and to begin the process of sharing our ideas about reconciliation. There is a lot of
passion and energy in the group as well as a broad range of skills and experiences. I would like to thank everyone involved
and I can’t wait to see where this journey will take us!
Volunteers Needed
May 27- June 3 is National Reconciliation Week. On Friday 29th of May we will be holding a ‘Country and Culture’ Day which
will provide exciting opportunities for our students to engage with and learn directly from Indigenous educators. The day will
start with a ‘Welcome to Country’ by Wurundjeri elder Bill Nicholson and will be followed by class rotations around a variety
of activities including dance, language, arts, music and tree planting.
We would love some family/community volunteers for the day so if anyone is interested and available to help out from 9:00
a.m. – 2:30 p.m., please contact Tara on 0429 478 261.
Aboriginal Skin Group System Education Session
I would also like to let everyone know about a community education session that will be held at the school on Wednesday 3rd
of June from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. the session will be run by Jim Poulter, a local author and historian, who has close family
connections with the Wurundjeri people from the time of first settlement in this area. In this session Jim will explain how the
skin group system works across all Aboriginal groups within Australia. He will allocate participants to ‘families’ (using the skin
group and moiety system), explain the resulting interconnected relationships and also address some of the implications of tis
system (such as species conservation and marriage pairings). I’m sure it will be a very engaging and informative evening!
Please RSVP to rap4montysouth@gmail.com or contact Tara on 0429 478 261.
JUNIOR SISTERS AND MISTERS
For children who love to sing and
perform.
Practice session on SATURDAY 16th MAY
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm at
Monty Primary School
60 Rattray Road Montmorency
Interested???? Call Irene Bennetts on
0412 822 126