DATE: Thursday 16th March 2017 ISSUE 7

Our Purpose: The Monmia school community is committed to providing innovative programs that stimulate and challenge each student to develop lifelong learning skills and strategies. We provide a safe, nurturing environment where teachers, students and parents work in an effective partnership. www.monmia.vic.edu.au.Ph: 9364 1007

MONMIA MESSENGER

Dear Monmia Families,

WHAT CAUGHT MY NOTICE THIS WEEK

1/2A are cleaning up our school grounds regularly and showing the value of respecting our school. Thank you Ms Slatterie and 1/2A.

Thank you to the parents who attended the Parent Information Session on Building the Resilient Child with Adam Voigt.

I have enjoyed walking around the oval when I have a chance and chatting with students I meet along the way. I am so impressed with how well the children are playing on the soccer and football field.

Thank you to all the students who are showing respect for our school by eating in the courtyard and not in the sporting fields.

Principal Class Officers from our network primary and secondary schools were impressed with the learning taking place at Monmia when they visited on Tuesday for the Network Meeting. One secondary principal loved the collaborative learning spaces and wished they could have these at their school!

Wonderful to see our 3/4 students and staff working with the Prep-2 classes during Bluearth sessions.

Ms Natalie Suleyman sent me a letter detailing what she said in state parliament about Monmia which was “…on 13 February I had the opportunity to attend Monmia Primary School and meet the fantastic school captains for 2017. Education is one of the foundations and pillars for opportunity and pathways. I was extremely impressed to see firsthand the hardworking teachers and the parents working together to make Monmia Primary School a school of excellence in the region.

Our school leaders were so natural with the younger children when we took them to Monmia and Remus Way kindergartens. They were fantastic ambassadors for our school.

SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS We will not a need a school council election as we had the same number of nominations as vacancies. Therefore, I wish to congratulate the following parents: Mary Papaiannou, Al Ozmal and Manni Tsihrintzis as elected school councillors in the parent category; and Dean Squires, Vineta Mitrevski and Lucy Vorpasso as elected school councilors in the DET category. At our first meeting with the new school councillors, we will be co-opting two more parents as community members- Pragya Srivastava and Alice Tomal. This meeting will be held on Tuesday 21 March 2017 at 6pm. School Council Office Bearers will be elected and new subcommittees formed at this meeting. The Annual General Meeting will be held in April to present the 2016 Annual Report.

Warm Regards,

Lorraine Bell Principal

PARKING AT THE FRONT OF THE SCHOOL The designated area near the school crossing and at the front of the school is a DROP OFF & PICK UP ZONE. It is not a PARKING ZONE! This means that:

In the morning, you drive up to the marked spots moving to the last one vacant, not the one just before the crossing, let your children out and then move off.

In the afternoon, you drive into the spots, moving right up, wait for your children to get in and then drive off.

The intent of this designated area is a steady moving traffic flow, not for parking for 15 minutes waiting for the bell to go and your children to come out. There are four spots which means you drive to the fourth spot if it is vacant. As I am at the front of the school in the mornings and afternoons I am witnessing some distressing situations where parents are parked for more than 2 minutes, some up to 30 minutes, other parents in frustration double park or move into spots at awkward angles. This endangers other cars and also causes a bank up of traffic which then jeopardises the safety of children crossing with the supervisor. For your children’s safety and the safety of all Monmia children make sure you use this area legally and safely. Move right up to the end leaving room for other cars to also drop their children off. I am so concerned as to the parent behavior I have seen that I am contacting Brimbank Council to send a parking inspector to issue fines. If you or your child have a disability and need to park close to the school there are designated parking spots in Willys Avenue. Please also remember that it is my DUTY OF CARE to ensure the safety of all Monmia students and when the crossing supervisor, any of my staff on duty or I ask you politely to move your cars, we should be treated with respect. Any threats will be taken seriously and action will be taken. We will also be taking car registrations of those who are not willing to help us and pass these onto the traffic inspectors.

HOUSE ATHLETICS CARNIVAL A reminder to all students in Years 3-6 that our House Athletics Carnival is scheduled for Thursday 23 March. The carnival will start just after 9.00am and finish at about 1.30pm. Students will be competing in the following events: 75 metre sprint 60 metre hurdles High jump Long jump Discus Shot Put Javelin Team games All students can come dressed in their house colours on the day. Any parents/guardians who are interested in coming to watch or help out are most welcome. Justin Belovitch Physical Education Teacher

THE FOCUS FOR THIS WEEK IS: NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST BULLYING AND VIOLENCE FRIDAY THE 17th OF MARCH, 2017

Dear Parents and Guardians, This year the Monmia PS community will be participating in the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence on Friday the 17th of March. The day is set aside for all community members to focus on what bullying is, what bullying is not and what to do if you get bullied or see someone else being bullied. The school views this day as an introduction to the concept of Bullying. In term 2, staff and students will learn concepts and strategies in greater detail as part of the BounceBack, Wellbeing and Resilience Program. In 2017 the school will revisit Bullying concepts each term so the community has a stronger understanding of ‘Bullying’ and the very important role of the ‘Active Bystander’ if you see Bullying happening. It is important to know what bullying is and what it is not. Monmia has NO TOLERANCE on bullying. We often hear the term “bullying” being used, but most of the time it is not used correctly. It’s hurtful but NOT bullying if students just have an argument or if someone says or does just one nasty thing to someone else. It is very important to understand what bullying is and what it is not. The Department of Education and Training’s definition is: ‘Bullying is when someone, or a group of people, deliberately upset or hurt another person or damage their property, reputation or social acceptance on more than one occasion. There is an imbalance of power in incidents of bullying with the bully or bullies having more power at the time due to age, size, status or other reasons’. Bullying can take many forms: 1. Direct physical bullying includes hitting, tripping, pushing or damaging property 2. Direct verbal bullying involves name calling, insults, ‘put down’ comments and racist remarks 3. Indirect emotional bullying is harder to recognise and often carried out behind the person ’s

back. It is designed to harm someone’s social reputation and cause humiliation. Indirect bullying includes lying and spreading rumours, playing nasty jokes or mimicking to embarrass and humiliate, encouraging others to socially exclude someone or damaging someone’s social reputation and social acceptance

4. Cyber-bullying, which involves the use of technologies such as the use of email, text messages, chat rooms, Facebook or Twitter to humiliate and distress.

Family Activity Check in with your child and reinforce what bullying is, what it is not and what their role is as a bystander if they see or hear bullying happening. Warm Regards, Lucy Vorpasso

Assistant Principal - Student Engagement and Wellbeing

WHAT IS BULLYING?

SPOTLIGHT ON BOUNCE BACK A WELLBEING AND RESILIENCE PROGRAM

Student Engagement and Wellbeing

Introducing… Dear Parents and Guardians,

Monmia is a Bucket Filling School! We fill buckets and we don’t dip!

We use our lid to keep our bucket full and keep the drops in! I love how the Bucket Fillers Philosophy has been embraced by our school community this year. I know that we can keep filling other people’s buckets and make Monmia Primary School a warm, positive and caring place to be. When we all fill other people’s buckets then all community members benefit from these acts of kindness. There is so much to acknowledge at Monmia Primary School! Here are some ‘drops’ for you to read.

Remember that when you fill someone else’s bucket, you fill yours as well so keep filling buckets Monmia! Happy Bucket Filling!

Kind Regards,

Lucy Vorpasso

Assistant Principal - Student Engagement and Wellbeing

PRA - Teona Z

For always trying her best to learn and being helpful to others. Great Job!!

PRB - Dion S

For always using great manners and being a caring friend! Keep it up Dion!!

1/2A - Michael E

For great listening during the basketball clinic.

1/2B - Tommy G

For listening and following instructions and being a wonderful role model!

1/2C - Amy T

For always working co-operatively with others. You are a responsible student Amy!

1/2D - F J A

For using great care, effort and neatness when presenting his work. Congratulations .

3/4A - Davis C

For always being a great friend and including everyone.

3/4B - Natalia T

For always putting her best effort in and helping others!! Wonderful effort Natalia.

3/4C - Lola J

For her outstanding drawings shared as our class VIP. You are so talented.

3/4D - Juliette C

For always putting in 100 % effort in her work. I’m so proud of you Juliette.

5/6A - Brandyn L

For overcoming a challenge and having a positive mindset.

5/6B - Thomas V

For working diligently and completing set tasks in Place Value workshop in the time given. Keep up the good effort!

5/6C - Josese K

For working productively during maths, a wonderful effort! Keep it up!

5/6D - Amber K

For confidently volunteering to correct daily maths in front of the grade. Well done Amber and keep up the fantastic work.

LANGUAGES– JAPANESE - Dash N For learning the major islands and cities of Japan.

VISUAL ARTS - Irfan H

For working with persistence, effort and pride on his self portrait. Well done Irfan!

Cultural Diversity Week: ‘Our Journey Our Stories’

Here at Monmia we are so EXCITED to be celebrating Cultural Diversity week during

March 27th-31st

as a finale to term 1.

During our whole school Assembly on

Monday the 27th of March there will be a

Spectacular Showcase Of all the Different Cultures

that are represented at Monmia.

Some other exciting activities to look forward to are:

Monday 27th- March-31st

An invitation to all parents/grandparents to share their cultural backgrounds and memories to the students of Monmia.

Thursday 30th March Students bring traditional costumes or cultural artifacts that they may have to share

with the grade.

STUDENT LED CONFERENCE Reminder: The student led conference is a conversation conducted by your child about their learning. It is a self-reflection of the way in which they have commenced the school year as well as demonstrating next steps for future progress for the semester. This is a valuable opportunity for your child to share their learning goals and successes experienced through effort thus far. All student led conferences will be held in your child’s learning space. The student led conferences will take place on:

All online bookings have now opened. Please ensure you arrange a suitable time for the student led conference using the online booking system. To make your booking go to: www.schoolinterviews.com.au Enter THIS school event code zuukg, then follow the 3 steps Booking system closes on Tuesday 21st March, 3.30pm Each student led conference will be for duration of 10minutes. Your child will be expected to lead the conference discussion in the presence of their teacher and a parent/guardian. If you have specific questions /concerns you would like to discuss please arrange a meeting time outside of the Student Led Conference with your child’s teacher. Specialist Teachers will be available on Wednesday 22nd March for parents/guardians to speak to them regarding Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Languages- Japa-nese and Physical Education learning. This is not a Student Led Conference. The Spe-cialist Teachers will be in the Languages room from the following times listed be-low. Bookings are not required and parents/guardians will be seen as they enter.

The Student Led Conference is an opportunity for students to open communication between school and home, it teaches self-evaluation and reflection and focuses on goals setting and learning. Come along so that we can work together to support the learning of your child. Vineta Mitrevski Assistant Principal- School Improvement

Wednesday 22nd March All classes Year P-6 2.30pm-7.30pm

Tonia Burridge (Visual Arts Teacher) 4.00pm-5.00pm

Cassandra Ward (Performing Arts Teacher) 4.00pm – 5.00pm

Anne Jose (Languages- Japanese Teacher)

4.00pm-5.00pm and 5.30pm-5.45pm

Justin Belovitch (Health & Physical Education Teacher)

4.00pm-5.00pm and 5.30pm-7.30pm

GRADE 5/6 INTERSCHOOL SPORT FIXTURE SEASON 1 Sports: Hot Shots tennis, soccer, netball and teeball Friday March 17 NO GAME. Opposition school have forfeited. Friday March 24 HOME vs Keilor Views Primary School Friday March 31 HOME vs Saint Mary Mackillop Catholic Primary School Friday April 21 AWAY vs Emmaus Catholic Primary School Friday April 28 AWAY vs Taylors Lakes Primary School Friday May 5 HOME vs Overnewton Taylors Lakes Campus Friday May 12 HOME vs Cana Catholic Primary School Friday May 19 GRAND FINALS

DATES FROM THE DIARY

Fri 17th Mar

Bunnings BBQ Taylors Lakes

Fri 24th Mar

Raffle tickets to be

returned

Wed 22nd Mar

Out of uniform day

Easter hamper donation

Mon 27th Mar

Raffle drawn at

assembly

Wed 22nd Mar

Student Led Conferences P– 6

2.30pm—7.30pm

Fri 31st Mar

End of Term 1 2.30pm Dismissal

Thurs 23rd Mar Year 3-6 House Athletics Carnival

Tues 18th Apr

Term 2 starts

Join the Dollarmites on a savings adventure in the future with School Banking! Every year the School Banking program launches a new savings theme and eight new exclusive School Banking reward items. In 2017, School Banking is getting children excited about the future with a brand new look for the Dollarmites. As Future Savers, students will join the Dollarmites on a journey to reach the Savings Hover Park, an amazing playground up in the clouds of a hi-tech city. There are 8 new reward items for 2017 from the Future Savers range:

Cyber Handball

Colour Change Markers

3D Chalk Set

Tablet Case

Smiley Emoji Keyring

Volt Handball

Pencil + Tech Case

Epic Earphones

Win a family adventure holiday at Tokyo Disneyland!

This year, School Banking is running a Future Savers Grand Prize competition that will take one lucky School Banker all the way to Tokyo, Japan. The winner gets an unforgettable family trip, for up to two adults and three children, where they’ll explore Tokyo Disneyland with its amazing attractions, including the futuristic Tomorrowland, plus enjoy the fun rides at Tokyo DisneySea. Students who make 15 or more School Banking deposits by the end of Term 3, 2017 will be automatically entered into the draw. This is another great way to motivate students to save regularly and reach their savings goals.

If you would like to know more about School Banking, please ask for a 2017 School Banking program information pack from the school office or visit : commbank.com.au/schoolbanking