Friday 8th November - Fundraising Tea Towel Orders Due - ORDER NOW

Monday 11th November - Remembrance Day Assembly, 10:45am. All Welcome

Sunday 17th November - Working Bee, 9am to 12pm

Monday 18th to Friday 22nd November - Viewbank Primary School Book Fair

Thursday 21st November - Hot Lunch Day Orders Due Today (Dumplings & Rice) - ORDER NOW

Friday 22nd November - Year 1 Late Night Experience

Thursday 28th November - Hot Lunch Day (Dumplings & Rice) - ORDER NOW

Tuesday 3rd December - Viewbank Primary Parents, Guardians and Friends Dinner Out - Sir Henry Barkly Hotel, 7:30pm (All Welcome) - R.S.V.P. HERE

Wednesday 4th December - Think U Know Parent Education Session, 2pm & 7:30pm - BOOK NOW

Thursday 5th December - Think U Know Parent Education Session, 7:30pm - BOOK NOW

Friday 6th December - Carols By Candlelight

Tuesday 17th December - Year 6 Graduation at Loyola College

PUPIL FREE DAYS

• Monday December 16, 2019
• Tuesday January 28th, 2020
• Wednesday January 29th, 2020
• Two extra days yet to be confirmed in 2020

TERM DATES

• 2019 TERM 4: Monday 7th October - Friday 20th December (1:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 1: Tuesday 28th January - Teachers start (All students start Thursday 30th January) - Friday 27th March (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 2: Tuesday 14th April - Friday 26th June (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 3: Monday 13th July - Friday 18th September (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 4: Monday 5th October - Friday 18th December (1:30pm finish)

CAMP DATES

• Year 6: Canberra Camp (Mon 25May to Fri 29May 2020)
• Year 4: Anglesea Recreation Camp (Wed 27May to Wed 29May 2020)
• Year 3: Arrabri Lodge Camp (Mon 27July to Wed 29July 2020)
• Year 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp (Tue 06Oct to Fri 09Oct 2020)

I trust everyone had a great Cup Day holiday with family and friends. Just a short few notes from me this week.

SCHOOL COUNCIL A final reminder that the November meeting of School Council is scheduled for tonight at 7pm in the staffroom. The Finance subcommittee meeting precedes this at 6pm.

WORKING BEE The final working bee for 2019 will be held on Sunday, November 17 from 9am until midday. As always, this is a great opportunity to catch up with other members of the community (perhaps some you may never have met before), work cooperatively to complete a task that benefits the school and its grounds, and have a cup of coffee and a sausage to boot. We ALWAYS have plenty to do, and always appreciate your input and support.

PUPIL FREE DAY I hope everyone is fully aware that we have one more pupil free day for 2019 which has been approved by School Council. It is set down for Monday, December 16. Day care is available through OSH Club. Staff will not have a planning week this term, but will rather use this day to commence planning, in teams, for 2020.

REMEMBRANCE DAY On Monday, November 11, as well as having our normal assembly at 9am in the gymnasium, we will also be holding a short Remembrance Day ceremony just prior to 11am.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

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OUTSTANDING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Our students participate in a wide range of activities outside of school hours and it is always lovely to hear of their achievements.

Last week, Zachary O'Reilly, of 1E became our newest State Champion, in Gymnastics. Zachary has been attending PIT Gymnastics in Mill Park since he was 3 years old.

On November 2, he competed in the Men's Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) Level 1 Under Category (for competitors 7 years and younger) at the Gymnastics Victoria State Championships. The gymnasts have to perform 6 routines on different apparatus-Pommel, Vault, Parallel Bars, Floor, Rings and Horizontal Bar.

Zachary performed exceptionally well achieving a 3rd place, three 2nd place finishes and two 1st place finishes. Based on all around aggregate scoring of the six routines, Zachary was then declared Victorian State Champion MAG Level 1 Under for 2019 and awarded the State Champion trophy.

Congratulations on your achievements Zachary, we are so proud of you!

SECOND HAND UNIFORM SALE We will be holding a huge second hand uniform sale along with the school working bee on Sunday, November 17 from 9.00am until 10.30am. We have a lot of second hand uniform items in stock in all sizes. All jumpers with the school logo, summer dresses and winter pinafores will be $5.00 and all other items including polo tops will be $2.00.

ASSISTING YOUR CHILD’S LEARNING

NUMERACY: BIRTH TO YEAR 2

Playing with shapes

Playing with shapes helps develop your child’s awareness of different shapes. It also improves their hand-eye coordination.

Here are some tips and activities:

• Jigsaw puzzles, tangrams or shape sorting toys help teach your child problem solving skills and spatial awareness.
• Name and notice the similarities and differences between shapes. For example, shapes with curves, corners or edges.
• Help your child draw shapes, cut them out and sort them into groups. Ask your child to explain why they have sorted the shapes this way.
• Use cookie cutters to explore different shapes using playdough.
• Encourage your child to identify shapes in their everyday life, such as a round ball, square window or hexagonal ‘STOP’ sign.
• Making paper planes together combines many mathematical concepts, including angles, shapes, halving and symmetry.
• Once complete, you can compare which plane flew the furthest and have fun measuring too.
• Use building blocks to create a tower. Using the same number of blocks, ask your child to build another tower that’s different to the first tower.

Making patterns

Recognising and making patterns are important maths skills for exploring numbers, shapes and symmetry.

Activities include:

• Identify and explain visual patterns on clothing, wrapping paper, buildings, crockery, cards and furniture. Create a scrapbook to refer back to for ideas during arts and crafts.
• Use coloured pegs, blocks, beads or cutlery to begin a pattern for your child to continue. Once confident, ask them to create a pattern of their own.
• Try to incorporate some patterns in rhythm. Create a clapping pattern and ask your child to copy and then create their own pattern.
• Encourage your child to draw, create and describe their own patterns. Use them for borders on greeting cards.

Moving with maths

These ideas use movement of the body to experience counting:

• Count each toss of the ball as you play a game.
• Estimate how many jumps it will take to get to… Then count how many jumps it takes to get to…
• Count with your child as you climb steps or walk from the park bench to the slide.
• Ask your child to find ways to balance their weight with a friend on the see-saw.
• Sing rhymes and songs that involve counting while skipping.

NUMERACY: YEAR 3 – YEAR 6

Travel timetables

Here are some questions to ask your child that improve their knowledge of time and their problem solving skills:

• Can you identify your starting point on the timetable?
• What is the earliest and latest time to travel on this route?
• How long does it take to travel the entire route?
• How many stops are there on this route?
• What is the difference in the time travelled when not making all the stops?
• What is the cost? Is it good value compared to other travel options?
• Which is the best route to travel? Why do you think this?
• To get to training on time, when will you need to leave?

Handling money

Encouraging your child to think about money, saving money, and considering how they spend money is very important.

Here are some tips and activities:

• Encourage your child to work out how much change you will get after buying something.
• Investigate costs for family trips together. For example, a visit to a theme park may include the cost of transport, entry tickets, food and transport.
• Discuss saving money for presents or something your child may want to buy. Work out how long it will take to save this much if they get a small amount of money each week.
• Negotiate increases in pocket money as percentages. For example, a 5% increase would be how much money per week? Is this better than a monthly increase?
• Encourage your child to save a percentage of their pocket money or birthday money and work out how much this would be. For example, how much money would you have if you saved 40% each week?
• Calculate together how much a mobile phone costs per month. What percentage of total cost is spent on messages and what percentage on phone calls?
• Read the newspaper or watch the news. Discuss what is happening with the stock market and why these changes may occur.

Have a great week

Gill Nicholls

Attendance Coming to school every day, and being on time to class, is vital to the success of your child’s education. We realise that sometimes traffic issues and family difficulties before school can impede your ability to get your child to school on time. Also, travel companies make it enticing to have a mid-term getaway interstate or overseas. Sickness plays a part in absenteeism, but we would much prefer that you keep your child at home if they are unwell to prevent the spread of any illness to others. Over the next few weeks, I am going to share some absentee data with you.

Did you know? If your child is late to school by 15 minutes every day, they will have missed:

*All calculations are approximate and do not take into account public holidays, Curriculum Days etc.

Add a one week holiday every year for 13 years to the above figures, and your child could be missing out on over a year of schooling!

The following is a table that shows the percentage of students at Viewbank Primary School who have taken 20 days or more away from school. This data includes illnesses, holidays, ‘approved’ and ‘unapproved’ absences. The ‘Current’ column will change upwards between now and the end of the year. The same cohort of students in 2018 eg Grade 3, is ‘Current’ in Grade 4 – these have been colour coded the same (see arrow below). There are some differences in cohort sizes due to students enrolling in 2019 as well as leaving at end of 2018.

Percentage of students with more than 20 days absence from all causes

I am hearing from teachers that there is an increase in students who are refusing to eat, or are eating a bare minimum at school. We understand that, like many adults, they may have a preference to either snack through the day with a big breakfast and/or a big dinner, or increase food throughout the day, or some other combination. Regardless of your child’s preference, a lack of their normal intake of food can lead to behaviour and attention difficulties in class. As parents, you are in the best place to monitor your child’s food intake. The school will do our best to ensure that no uneaten food is thrown out at school and is sent home.

Our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program for Grades 3 and 4 is an excellent opportunity for students to broaden their pallet and to try something that they may not have had an opportunity to try before. Most times, the students will try it – some will like it and some won’t – that is ok. However, there are an increasing number of students who will refuse to try some food items, even though they have never tried it before.

A frightening statistic quoted in the below article is that “Research suggests around one in three girls as young as five engage in disordered eating behaviours, such as restricting food intake”.

This week’s article is from the ABC.

Tips for helping your kids develop a healthy relationship with food

Meal times can be a source of frustration and conflict in many families.

In a scenario that is familiar to many parents, you go out of your way to provide healthy meals and encourage your kids to eat their leafy greens. But all they want to eat is pie, chips or pizza. Of course you want to encourage your children to eat well. It sets them up for a lifetime of good health and helps them avoid obesity, which we know is a big issue in Australia. Recent data shows one in four Australian children aged between two and 17 is overweight or obese. However, it is less well known that children who are overweight or obese are at higher of developing disordered eating and binge-eating behaviours.

And these bring with them their own health risks.

Disordered eating is broad term used to describe restrictive dieting, compulsive eating or skipping meals. It can be an early warning sign of an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, and has also been linked to a range of other health issues, such as obesity, depression and anxiety.

So how do we encourage healthy eating in our kids, without inadvertently triggering disordered eating that may result in an actual eating disorder? While people who are dieting are at increased risk of developing an eating disorder, Butterfly Foundation CEO Christine Morgan said it was too simplistic to say that dieting causes eating disorders…

Continue reading here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2016-07-29/preventing-eating-disorders-in-kids-by-promoting-healthy-eating/7666430

Have a great weekend everyone!

Patrick

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OSHClub (Before/After School and Vacation Care provider) is open all day on the pupil free day Monday 16th December.

SCHOOL BANKING School Banking has been temporarily suspended until it has been discussed at the next school council meeting on Thursday 7th November.

TERM EXPENSES Just a reminder that term 4 expenses are now overdue, please make payment and provide consent via Compass.

Thank you

Foundation — Morgan, Pippa, Suvir & Luke

Year 1 & 2 — Blake, Tegan, Flynn, Ann & James

Year 3 & 4 — Milly, Angus, Taya, Ikhlaas, Isabel & Nikki

Year 5 & 6 — Thomas, Ryan, Freddy, Amrita, Xavier, Ruby, Isabelle & Lachlan

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SECOND HAND UNIFORM SALE - Every Friday, next to the music room. Jumpers with the school logo, long and short sleeve school polo tops and school dresses will be $5.00 and all other items $2.00. We are currently asking for donations of any unwanted reusable school uniform items to sell at our stall.

END OF YEAR DINNER All parents, guardians & friends of Viewbank Primary School are invited to an end of year celebration dinner at Sir Henry Barkly Hotel in Heidelberg. Tuesday 3rd December, 7:30pm.

This is a great opportunity to get together with other school parents and guardians to finish off the school year. Everyone welcome!

For restaurant booking purposes can you please indicate via Trybooking your intention to attend the dinner before November 26.

ICY POLE FRIDAY Students are able to buy icy poles over the counter at lunchtime. All icy poles cost $1.00 each. We are asking for parent helpers to assist with the sale of these icy poles on Fridays from 1pm to 1:30pm.

2019 VIEWBANK PRIMARY THINK U KNOW PARENT EDUCATION SESSION

Three sessions to choose from:

• Wednesday, 4th December - 2:00pm
• Wednesday, 4th December - 7:30pm
• Thursday, 5th December - 7:30pm

Venue: Viewbank Primary School

Psychology service for students at Viewbank Primary School This is just a reminder about our new psychology service that may be of use to you - DBT in Schools.

Areas that DBT in Schools can help with (from http://dbtinschools.com.au/individual-therapy/):

• emotional stress such as depression and anxiety
• grief and sadness
• bullying
• sexuality issues
• substance abuse issues
• trauma
• family breakdown or parent problems, or
• friendship and relationship issues

If you would like any more information and may like to access this service, please contact the school (9459 1512) or send an email to viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

HATS ON From 1st September until 30th April school hats must be worn outside during all outside activities.

RUNNING GROUP Every Thursday from 8:15am on the oval, for any students in years 4-6. All abilities welcome. Pack a spare pair of socks/shoes in case the oval is damp. Hope to see you there!

SCHOOL CHOIR Every Wednesdays, 8.30, in the Music room. Everyone from Year 2 to 6 are welcome!

Spring has definitely hit and our vegetable garden is overloaded with produce. This Monday, we will selling produce after assembly in the vegetable garden. All money raised will go back into our Stephanie Alexander program.

We have broad beans, radishes, asparagus and lots more!

The program is scheduled on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Of course, volunteers are essential to the success of the program, so we are always looking for anybody willing to work with a small group, in the kitchen or garden. You do not need to be a ‘masterchef’ or have a green thumb! Enthusiasm is the only requirement.

Poppies are now available for purchase from the Viewbank Primary School office.