p FOUNTAIN GATE PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER School No. 5072 12 March 2015 Prospect Hill Road, Narre Warren 3805 Telephone: 9703 1187 Fax: 9703 2001 Email: fountain.gate.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Website: http://www.fountaingateps.vic.edu.au DIARY DATES Wednesday 18th March Monday 23rd March Tuesday 24th March Wednesday 25th March Friday 27th March End of Term Vet visit - Preps Harmony Day-See Principal’s comments Casey Cup Soccer Tournament – Selected Grade 5/6 students only Grices Road Reserve, Berwick. Waste Management Session – Preps 11.30-1.15pm All students will be dismissed at 2.30pm. PREP STUDENTS All prep students now attend school every day Monday-Friday Compulsory wearing of hats in Term 1 All students must wear a school hat during term 1 for recess, lunch and any outdoor activity YMCA School Holiday Program – Book now! The YMCA will be running an Autumn School Holiday Program in Strathaird Primary School, offering heaps of awesome activities, including Swimming Adventure, Circus Extravaganza, Crafty Woodwork and more! Bookings open on 24 February, for full details and to book, visit: www.childrensservices.ymca.org.au. EBM Student Cover – Individual Personal Accident Insurance Policy. Information is available at the school office for interested parents/guardians. Principal’s Comments Dear Parents, 2015 Reporting and Parent Teacher Student Interviews This year there will be changes to the way our school runs parent teacher student interviews and reports on student progress. The Education Department no longer requires that we use a standard report format. We will be creating our own report format. The one we have been using is very long and has a huge amount of detail. The time it takes to write these reports takes teachers away from their core business; doing the best possible job of helping each child learn to the best of their ability. If you have concerns about your child please come and see their teacher and arrange a time before or after school. You can also talk with Jenny Duggan (principal), Michelle Granland (assistant principal) or Maryse Mannix (wellbeing coordinator). Our doors are always open. We’d much rather talk with you about a concern than have you worry about your child while they are at school. Harmony Day, Monday 23rd March We have some fun-filled activities planned for Harmony Day. These include dressing up in the national dress of the country where your family comes from. I plan to get out my Dutch hat again. We will have a parade of the costumes at 9.10am in the big gym. All welcome. The new half year report will be a summary showing each child’s achievement in each learning area, and a brief overview of the child’s time at school. This will include the “dots” you will recall from our old report. This report will be given to parents at the half year interview. At this interview, parents will have the opportunity to ask any questions they may have about their child’s schooling. The new end of year report will have more information that parents will find useful and relevant, such as social skills, attitudes to work and comments about each child’s wellbeing. It will also show how far your child has progressed since half year in each learning area using the “dots” on a progression line. .. In summary: Half Year: Brief report and interview End of Year: Full report Kind Regards, Jenny Duggan STUDENT OF THE WEEK Prep B Madeleine Heffernan-Green Annabelle Teycheney Being a thoughtful and helpful class member. Always completing her best work. 3G 4M Sameem Mershedi Prep S Ailya Rezaiee 4P Denis Xiang 1M Noriah Jafari Always working hard to present his work beautifully. Well done!! Writing some great stories. 4R Johnnay Tuiga 1P Tahira Jafari 3/4E Melvin Lim 1V Behzad Sahil Using “stretchy snake” to sound out her words when reading. Working hard to hear all the sounds in a word when writing. 5/6B Anissa Eminovski 2H Anisha Melkic The awesome deep thinking she was doing when unpacking a seed in writing. Well done! 5/6C James Basso 2M Junior Sula Looking after a friend and making sure they are safe. Being thoughtful and taking care of others in order to keep our classroom safe. Her wonderful openminded portrait of the character ‘Lola’. Great thinking! Demonstrating deep thinking skills when doing an open minded portrait on the Rainbow Fish Book. 5/6J Blake Bye 5/6L Mustafa Taha Finishing his addition learning sequence. Well done!! 5/6M Salma Yaqoobi For making valuable contributions during Readers and Writer’s share time. 5/6T Rithik Deo Being a hard working student week after week. You always strive to do your best with excellent results. Well done!! Displaying kindness and helpfulness towards his classmates at all times. Prep R Mikayla Edwards 2W Monique Maireroa 1/2C Taualeiu Ulale 3C Violet Lui Making outstanding contributions to our class discussions regarding visualisation. The improvement he has made during handwriting lessons. You demonstrate commitment and persistence in areas of learning. Well done!! You are also a star when we play charades. Unpacking a seed and using his thoughts to plan a writing piece. Always being a positive role model, well-mannered and respectful individual. Effectively using the questioning strategy to promote deep levels of thinking during Readers Workshop lessons. Well done!! Writing his snapshot using the characters voice which created strong emotions for the audience. ATTENTION JUNIOR SCHOOL PARENTS Dear Junior School Parents, Over the last couple of weeks the children in Prep have been learning “Advance Australia Fair” (our national anthem). This is sung at Assembly every Friday, so it is important that they feel part of the group. All Preps have been given a copy of the anthem and I hope the rest of the family can help them to learn it as well. The children in grades 1 and 2 have been revising the anthem and a copy is in the newsletter. Hopefully all the family can work together to learn the anthem. Meredith Dinsdale Performing Arts BOOK CLUB PLEASE NOTE CHANGES TO BOOK CLUB FOR 2015. We have decided to support a company called Lamont for our book club this year. This is the same company that we used for our Book Fair last year. Lamont is a 100% Australian family owned company and Victoria’s largest school library supplier with 25 years’ experience supplying books to schools. Being an independent distributor, they are free to choose the best books from every publisher. We will be participating in one issue per term, namely Issue 2, 4, 6 & 8. Issue 2 brochures will be distributed to students next week. There are only 3 brochures available in easy to browse age groups – •Prep to 2 – Junior •Grade 3 & 4 – Middle •Grade 5 & 6 - Upper Two options for ordering :•Students hand in order with a cash payment to the School Office OR •Parents order online using their credit card at www.lamontbookclub.com.au CLOSING DATE FOR ISSUE 2 MONDAY 23RD MARCH All orders will be delivered to the school for distribution to students at the beginning of Term 2.