Newsletter 12/02/16

Principal

Mandy O’Mara

Assistant Principal

Tracy Peters

Assistant Principal

Brianna Morelli

Assistant Principal

Michael Laird

3-19 Parkvista Drive Truganina Vic 3029

Phone: (03) 9296 1800 Fax: (03) 9296 1899

www.truganinasouthps.vic.edu.au E: Truganina.south.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Facebook: Truganina South Primary School

SCHOOL VALUES

Relationships

Excellence

Acceptance

Collaboration

Diary Dates & other info

Wednesday 17th February Parent Helpers Course Last day to register

Monday 22nd February Years 3-6 District Swimming Werribee Outdoor Pool

Thursday 25th February AFL player visit North Melbourne Players

Monday 29th February Leap Day Easter raffle fundraising

Tuesday 1st March Science works Excursion Turquoise and Garnet 12I

Wednesday 2nd March Science works Excursion Opal and Garnet 12J

Wednesday 02 March Year 6 High School visit Hoppers Crossing Secondary College

Friday 4th March National Ride to School Day

Parents of children in P-2 will need to

accompany them whilst they ride to

school

Monday 14th March Labour Day NO SCHOOL

Thursday 17th March Food Truck Festival Meet and greet evening

Wednesday 23rd March Cross Country and Fun Run Whole School

Thursday 24th March End of term 1 2pm Finish

Friday 10th June Curriculum Day NO SCHOOL

Monday 13th June Queens Birthday NO SCHOOL

Thursday 16th June School Photos Whole School

Wednesday 22nd June School led conferences Prep — 2

Thursday 23rd June School led conferences Years 3 - 6

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!

To our current and new parents and students a very warm welcome to another exciting year at Truganina South Primary School. We are looking forward to working with you and to sharing news and events through our news-letter. This year we will be distributing the newsletter through Compass. Compass is an online program which gives parents greater access and flexibility in terms of accessing information regarding their child’s attendance, goals and achievements, payment of school charges, camps and excursions. If you have any difficulty accessing Compass please come in to the office where staff will gladly assist. We have had a very smooth and calm start to the year. We currently have 712 students enrolled. Our 139 Foundation students have settled really quickly

and although tired are really excited to be at school.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce some new staff.

I am also pleased to welcome back:

Michael Laird, Assistant Principal, who has returned from a secondment to Manor Lakes and

Greer Marshman, 3/4 who has returned from Family Leave.

Meet & Greet

I am excited to announce that we are planning a “Meet and greet evening” for 17 March between 5:00 – 8:00. We have organised a number of food trucks to attend and the student leadership group is coordinating activities for the night. Staff are looking forward to using this opportunity to get to know the families and children across the school. Staff will not be discussing individual student progress or needs at this event. We look forward to seeing you and your family at the event - children must not attend without adult supervision as teachers are not on duty at this time. Please also note that alcohol must not be brought to the event and legislation prohibits smoking on school grounds at any time. Keep an eye out for an invitation from your child to attend the event. The event promises to be a fun opportunity to meet teachers, students and parents from across the school. We encourage you to save the date!

Late Arrivals

If for any reason your child arrives after the official start of the day (8.50am) they will need to enter school via the front office where they will be marked on Compass as a late arrival. Parents will then be able to enter the reason

directly on Compass at a later time.

Collection of Children during the School Day

We completely understand that children may have to be collected from school to attend medical or dental ap-pointment etc. To ensure the least disruption to classes and to enable the smoothest transition of the child to the parent, ALL children who are leaving prior to the official end of the school day (3:00pm) must be collected from the office and will not be released from the classroom. Likewise if the person picking up the child is not known to office staff they will be required to provide photo identification and, if prior arrangements have not been made,

office staff will contact the parents to ensure they have permission to remove the child from school.

Jessica Worpel - Prep

Ainsley Smith - Prep

Christina Pitivera - ½

Ebonie Shola - ½

Betty Puku - ¾

Jane Pigdon ¾

Elysia Mitchell 5/6

Julie Graham – AUSLAN LOTE

Chanel Rizzardo- Speech Therapist

Attendance

You may have seen the “Its Not OK to be Away” campaign. I would like to reiterate the importance of

regular attendance. Please see the article attached. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of tak-

ing holidays during the school breaks. Extended overseas holidays impact greatly on student achieve-

ment. Please read the attached and ensure your child is at school every day.

It’s NOT OK to be Away

In the ‘good old days’ it used to hard to get a day off school. Now it seems to be easy, maybe too easy?

The wider school community, parents and students need to fully understand the impact of missing too

many school days.

If a student has a day off, once a fortnight, this would add up to 20 days in a school year (approximately

40 weeks in a school year). 20 days is the same as missing a tenth of a school year.

This would equal to missing a year of schooling up to Year 10.

A key message that needs to be embraced by schools, parents, and the wider community is that “It’s

Not OK to be Away”. The ‘fallout’ of poor attendance is very real. These students will be at risk of not

achieving their potential and therefore limit their life choices. Also, other real consequences are:

· Social isolation

· May place themselves at risk of harm while absent

· Could get too easily involved in socially unacceptable and / or illegal activities

· Will have gaps in their learning of knowledge and basic concepts

· May feel insecure in the school environment

· More likely to leave school early

· Be over-represented in the juvenile justice system

· Be the victims of bullying and harassment.

When you consider all the above, schools, parents and the wider community need to work in partnership

with each other to ensure students enjoy school success and as a consequence more enriching life

choices.

Some Benefits of Regular School Attendance

For Students:

· The development of skills and attitudes such as self-discipline, punctuality, and being organised

will optimise life choices

· Regular attendance leads to making friends and learning how to maintain relationships over a

length of time

· Regular attendance leads to learning social skills necessary to live and work with others

· It’s safer at school than on the street

· The more students attend, the more they will learn and the more they will like school.

For the Community:

· Young people are the next generation of community leaders and community citizens

· Community agencies can work in partnership with schools towards the shared goal of developing

future community leaders and citizens

· Young people who attend school regularly are more likely to be safe

· Young people who attend school regularly are less likely to be involved in crime

· The more students attend, the more they learn and the more likely they are to make a positive con

tribution to society.

How many days of school has your child missed this semester?

0-6

This is within normal range. A child with this attendance rate is able to take full advantage of the teach-

ing and learning opportunities available to them.

7-10

This attendance rage is below average. A child with this attendance rate could miss over one year of

schooling between prep and Year 10

11-20

This is a poor attendance rate. A child with this attend-

ance rate days could miss out on up to two years of

schooling between prep and Year 10

20+

This is a very poor attendance rate. A child with this at-

tendance rate could miss over two and one half years of

schooling between prep and Year 10

Remember

· Students need to attend school regularly to make

the most of educational opportunities.

· There is a direct link between school attendance and achievement later in life.

· Poor patterns of attendance in the early years lead to poor patterns of attendance throughout the

school years.

· Poor attendance makes it difficult for children to form positive relationships with their peers.

· When young people are in school every day, they are safer and less likely to be victims of crime, or

become involved in crime.

With thanks to Yarra Schools Network School Participation Project.

Mandy O’Mara

Curriculum Report

Welcome back to another school year! I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our

new families to Truganina South. We are positive that you will enjoy your time with us. If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to speak to your community teachers. The start of the year has been a very smooth one and I congratulate all the students and staff on

this. All children have settled well and are ready to begin their learning journey for 2016!

This term our staff will work with all students to develop their understandings of how they learn and what their preferred learning style is. Students will also work on revising and unpacking the school rules. During this time, our staff will work on getting to know the children to ensure they are providing purposeful and personalised learning tasks. This will ensure that all goals set will

be accurate and achievable for your child.

Our Prep students had a smooth start to their school life last week. It was great to see so many happy and eager faces that were ready to learn. Please remember that Prep students will not attend school on Wednesdays for the month of February. Parents should have booked an inter-view time via Compass, which they will need to bring their child to. The interview will take about 45-60mins per child. If you have lost your interview time, please ensure you speak to your child’s

community teacher. This information allows teacher to personalise the learning for your child.

Please don’t forget to check Compass regularly. All events will be placed on the school calen-dar and all our notes will be shared via Compass, including excursions. So please check your emails, login online to Compass via the web or download the Compass app for both Apple and

Android to get push notifications.

Our Parent Helpers Course will also begin this term. By completing the parent helper’s course you will be able to assist in the communities. The course is run over 5 sessions and will cover Literacy and Numeracy. To complete the course you must attend ALL 5 sessions. Upon com-

pleting the course you will need to then apply for you Working With Children’s Check (WWCC). Applications can be found online at the following link: http://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au.

If you would like to help out on excursions, etc you will also need to apply for one of these.

Just a reminder to all families that children are able to arrive at school from 8:30 am when Yard Duty supervision begins. If you need to leave your child earlier than this, please make a booking with the YMCA. Afternoon pick-ups need to be made by 3:15 pm as Yard Duty supervision fin-ishes at 3:15 pm and staff are committed to afternoon meetings from that time. Emergencies do happen and we are happy to support you in those instances – we would appreciate a call to let us know that you have been unavoidably delayed.

Tracy Peters

Assistant Principal

Message from the Sick Bay

Did you know that we have items of 2nd hand uniform for sale?

We have a number of jumpers and jackets, especially in the smaller sizes that we sell for $10.00 each.

There are also limited numbers of dresses, tunics and polo shirts that are $10.00 each. We also have some school hats for $5.00 each.

All sales are cash only, as the money goes towards programs for student welfare.

Please call into the sickbay if you are interested in purchasing any of our second hand items. Unfortunately we do not have much in sizes 12-14.

Also, if you have any uniform that your child no longer fits into, donations are always gratefully accepted.

Friendly Reminders:

Please ensure all uniform (especially hats and jackets), lunch boxes and drink bottles are clearly labelled with your child’s name.

It is a good idea for all Foundation students, and any others who are prone to “accidents” to have a change of clothes in their bags. We cannot guarantee to have a change of clothes to fit your child.

Virginia

First Aid Officer

eBooks for Students Truganina South Primary School is happy to announce that we will be providing an

eBook library for our students.

Students will be able to borrow books from our eBook library using the Wheelers

ePlatform app on their iPad. Limitations will be that each student can borrow 1 title at a time for a

maximum length of 14 days (after 14 days the book will automatically be returned to the eBook Li-

brary if not sent back sooner).

Usernames and Passwords will be provided to students over the coming weeks, so they will have

access to the eBook Library for the last few weeks of term and over the school holidays.

The process to use the Schools eBook Library will be as follows

1. Search and download the ePlatform app from the App Store on your child’s iPad

2. Click on “Find your Library” and search for Truganina South Primary School

Click “Sign in” and enter the students username & password (these details will be provided soon!)

The students will receive their username and password in the next coming weeks.

Kerri Cahoon

Library Assistant

On Friday March 4th, children all across Australia are encouraged to

ride to school. This year Truganina South Primary School is getting in-

volved too. So save the date!!! If you don’t already ride to school,

take some time to plan your safest route. You might like to have a

practice ride on the weekend and start riding to school straightaway!!

Parents of student in P-2 will need to accompany their children on the

ride due to safety concerns.

Information/ideas for helping kids with maths at home! Mathematics is often the subject that most parents tend to shy away from, so here are a few simple suggestions for things that you can do at home to improve your child’s under-standing of maths.

1. Maths at breakfast: Instead of presenting each child with their individual pieces of toast, present it altogether on one platter. Have each piece cut into quarters and ask your children how many pieces of bread there were originally. For older children, ask the question after a few of the quarters have been eaten.

2. Maths while out for a family walk: Look at the house numbers as you walk up and down a street. Have your child predict the number of the next house. The numbers can go up or down, usually by twos, in either odd or even numbers.

3. Maths while planning your week: Time is one of the most difficult concepts for kids to un-derstand. Try asking your kids to work out how long it is until… (e.g. If we need to be at Grandma’s at 3:00 and it takes 15 minutes to get there, what time do we need to leave?) This is really important to do for days/weeks as well as hours/minutes. For example, “It is Thursday today, so how many days are there until you start school again on Monday?”

4. Maths while shopping: Estimating weight can be really tricky for kids. Why not get them to estimate how much your bag of apples weighs then confirm by measuring it on the scales? Also, remember to talk about price comparisons. For example, if Kipfler potatoes cost $4.99/kg but washed potatoes cost $5.99 for a 4kg bag, how much more expensive would the Kipflers be for the same amount? Estimate rather than calculating exactly (e.g. Kipflers would be $5 for one kilogram, or $20 for 4kg whereas the washed potatoes would cost $6 for 4kg).

5. Maths with pocket money: Giving kids a small amount of pocket money and teaching them to be responsible with it is one of the most valuable things that children can learn. In-stead of just having a generic piggy bank, consider using a multi-sectioned container so that the money can be allocated for different things. Our sections are: spending, saving, pre-sents and charity. When your kids ask for a toy, talk about the price in terms of weeks of pocket money rather than absolute dollars. This gives them a sense of the relative cost and will help them to become more money savvy in the long run.

6. Maths with plastic bottles: Skittles is a great way of helping kids to become solid with their number understandings. Setting up 6 plastic bottles and rolling a tennis ball at them is a great way to spend an afternoon. My little kids love yelling out “I knocked three down, I have three left!”

7. High five alternatives: Why not try doing “cool high fives” with fingers from both hands? You can have two fingers on one and three on the other…

Have lots of fun making maths part of your everyday life.

Science with Amethyst

Science with Topaz

What better way to start a new year of art, than by winning $250 in Eckersley's Doodle Compe-tition? Doodles can be detailed or sparse, representational or abstract, and are a great way of

visualising emotions or thoughts. Follow the link, or look on the art rooms noticeboard for more information! Act soon, because the competition closes soon!

https://www.eckersleys.com.au/competition/doodling

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