Friday 25th October - Daniel Morcombe Day - Dress in Red - Gold coin donation

Friday 25th October - Hot Lunch Day Orders Due - ORDER NOW

Friday 25th October - Year 2 Sleepover

Thursday 31st October - Hot Lunch Day - ORDER NOW

Tuesday 5th November - Melbourne Cup Day (Public Holiday)

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

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

Friday 22nd November - Year 1 Late Night Experience

Thursday 28th November - Hot Lunch Day

Friday 6th December - Carols By Candlelight

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)

REGIONAL ATHLETICS Congratulations to all seven students who competed at the Regional Athletics Carnival at Meadow Glen Athletics Track last Wednesday. Everyone should be very proud of their achievements. Special congratulations to Athanasia Patroungas (1st in Long Jump), Zoey Ryan (2nd in both shot put and discus) and Charlie Ndongo (2nd in Triple Jump) who have now qualified for the State Championships. A wonderful effort by you all!

STATE CHESS TOURNAMENTS Congratulations to the three girls who qualified for the Northern Star Chess Primary Girls State Finals which were held on Monday, October 14 at St Bridgets Primary School, North Balwyn. Tanisha Fazal, Yue Shan Gao and Claire Li all played very well placing 26th, 4th and 30th overall out of 83 girls from Foundation to Grade 6. Yue Shan’s efforts were particularly noteworthy as she is only in Grade 2!! She received the ‘Top Player Prep-Grade 2’ award which was a wonderful effort. Thank you to Jim Cannon for his efforts teaching Chess at our school ably supported by Daniella Van Zyl Smit. The Open event, run by the same company is scheduled at the same venue for Tuesday, October 29 with ten students taking part.

STUDENT DISCO Many thanks to the Parents and Friends for coordinating and facilitating a wonderful disco night for our students. They had a ball, thanks to DJ Nate, their own enthusiasm and the efforts of the P & F. This extended to booking the DJ, catering with drinks and a sausage sizzle (thanks to the caterers and cooks), maintaining an efficient sign in and sign out system and then the clean up at the end of the night including sweeping and mopping the gym and toilets. As always, events like this don’t just ‘happen’ and require the collective efforts of many. Greatly appreciated.

SLEEPOVER And we do it all again this Friday night with over 85 students and nine staff staying at school all night with the Grade 2 sleepover. A highlight for the students and typical of the dedication of the teaching staff at Viewbank PS. Please make sure you thank a bleary eyed staff member or two on Saturday morning when you punctually collect your child!!

FAMILIES MOVING SCHOOLS IN 2020 If there are any families who are moving schools in 2020 for whatever reason, could you please advise the office, or Bill Kersing personally, as soon as possible please? This will ensure that your children are not included in grade placements for 2020, and it gives us a greater degree of certainty when planning grade structures, determining whether or not we need to select new teachers and a range of other organizational matters.

PARENTAL REQUESTS FOR STUDENT GRADE PLACEMENTS Over the next three weeks we will be requesting input from our families with regards to the placement of students into classes for 2020 (if that is necessary). At this stage, we have not assigned teachers to grade levels for next year, and in fact still need to select a few teachers to fill those roles next year. There are no guarantees that teachers currently teaching at certain grade levels will be teaching there next year, as leadership needs to take into consideration a range of factors including the development of our teaching staff and teacher preferences before this allocation is completed. Having said that, if there are special circumstances that we need to know about, you are welcome to let us know of these.

Such special circumstances might include but are not limited to health, emotional or learning matters, peer or sibling relationships or changes in the home situation. Selecting a particular teacher does not fit within the realm of special circumstances, and if your request includes that information it will be denied. Information requiring our consideration needs to be addressed to ‘The Principal’ and handed to the office by Friday, November 1. Please note that letters received after this date will NOT be accepted.

You are welcome to contact your child’s classroom teacher for advice before submitting your WRITTEN request. This especially pertains to peer relationships and learning matters that they will have significant and specific knowledge about. You may find that you have no need to submit the request having spoken to your child’s teacher.

There may be a composite class or two at Grade 3 and 4 and/or Grade 5 and 6 in 2020 with numbers determining this in upcoming weeks. Whilst we could elaborate at length on the relative benefits of composite classes, if you have a STRONG objection to the placement of your child in a composite class, please also advise us.

All letters will be dealt with in the strictest confidence. Whilst each request will be given consideration, no guarantees can be given as there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration whilst grade lists are being compiled, with gender balance, diversity of learning styles, abilities and friendship groupings being some of the major ones. Finally, if you consider you have special circumstances, please make the request in writing EVEN if it has been made before – as much as we would like to think so, we can’t remember everything from years gone by!! We do appreciate your trust in our professionalism in these regards.

That’s enough from me this week. Have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

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PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE DAYS All staff are currently in the process of organising their term 4 Professional Practice Day.

The majority of staff will use this day to assess student progress and for data collection and analysis. This day will allow teachers time to assess students individually as well as assess writing samples and collate data, all in preparation for writing end of year student reports.

ASSISTING YOUR CHILD’S LEARNING NUMERACY: BIRTH TO YEAR 2

Counting

Counting is one of the first experiences of maths for young children.

Learning to say numbers often begins with a favourite song or rhyme and the repetition of the number names. Children will often say the numbers before they visually recognise and identify individual numbers.

Here are some activities and tips to engage your child with counting:

• Listen for the counting sequence in these songs and rhymes, which can all be found on www.youtube.com:

• Children will begin by counting all objects in a group, for example fingers and toes, the buttons on their clothes, steps to the house, or their toys.
• As children move on to counting a set of objects, they begin to link each object with one number. In the beginning, encourage your child to touch each object as they say the matching number.
• When beginning to count a group of objects, children may need to arrange the objects in a line to help them count. Later they will be able to start counting from any object without arranging the objects.
• Once your child is confident, use different numbers as the starting point for practising counting. For example, start counting from 6 or 10. Ask your child to count forwards and backwards. Ask what number comes before, or what number comes after, a given number.

Counting everyday

You can incorporate counting into everyday activities such as:

• Cut fruit into six pieces and ask your child to count the pieces.
• Count the pieces of toast you cooked at breakfast.
• Add the total number of cutlery items at the table.
• Count the number of people travelling in the car or on the bus.
• Count the number of houses as you walk along the street.
• Count how many steps it takes to walk from the kitchen to the bathroom.
• Practise counting when grocery shopping with your child (for example, counting the number of apples you put into the bag).
• Encourage your child to talk about the number of things in the pictures they draw.

NUMERACY: YEAR 3 – YEAR 6

EXPLORING NUMERACY WITH YOUR CHILD

Exploring sports

Sports provide a good opportunity to engage your child in maths, particularly if they are a keen sportsperson.

Here are some questions to ask your child when watching or playing their favourite sport:

• How does your favourite sport tally the score? What maths is presented on the tally?
• How do other sports tally the score – for example, tennis, golf, cricket, netball, football?
• What maths do you use to find the total of the scores?
• Who is at the top of the ladder? How is this determined?
• Are there other ways to record the score?
• How long do your favourite sport games go for in minutes and seconds? How is the time in the game divided? Into halves, quarters or something else?
• What are the shapes of different playing fields and courts? Talk about edges and angles.
• How can you estimate the perimeter and area of a playing field?
• How many cars could be parked on the MCG field? How could we work this out?

Watching the weather

Because it changes daily, the weather can be a great topic to discuss maths with your child.

Try these activities:

• Visit the Bureau of Meteorology website
• Ask your child the difference between each day’s minimum and maximum temperatures. Do they notice a pattern or trend in the weather changes?
• Find a seven-day forecast, then record the actual temperature for each day and compare. Ask your child if the forecast was accurate. Ask them what similarities and differences they notice.
• Use the information on the weather website to explore differences in weather between your area and other areas. Ask your child how much rain you get compared to other areas. Ask your child to identify differences in temperature between your area and other areas. Who might be affected by an increase or decrease in rainfall?

Have a great week

Mrs Nicholls

Daniel Morcombe Day Don’t forget that tomorrow (Friday 25th October) we are participating in Australia’s Biggest Child Safety Lesson organised by the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. You can find more information about this here https://danielmorcombefoundation.com.au/. Your child can wear something red and all gold coin donations will be forwarded to the foundation.

Child Mental Health from Beyond Blue

Beyond Blue has a range of resources available to help parents and children. Sometimes, we are not quite sure whether our child’s ‘moodiness’ is normal or something to be concerned about – as the parent of 2 teenagers and a 12 year old, I know it is not always easy to work out what is going on!

Youth Beyond Blue have designed a checklist that you could use to measure a broad range of social, emotional or behavioural difficulties your child may be experiencing. It is suitable for children aged four to 16 - you could do it together, or just on your own.

It is important to remember that the results of the checklist are not a diagnosis. Instead, it aims to provide you with a snapshot of your child’s mental health to help you think through your concerns and seek appropriate support. Regardless of the checklist results, if you are worried about your child’s mental health at any point, you should talk things through with a health professional.

You can access the checklist here: https://healthyfamilies.beyondblue.org.au/age-6-12/mental-health-conditions-in-children/child-mental-health-checklist

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 — Henry C, Henry W, Sebastian, Ashton & Caitlin

Year 1 & 2 — Zave, Darragh, John, Jacob, Samuel, Hamish, Whole Class 1G & 1R

Year 3 & 4 — James, Zara, Roahn, Rory & Chloe

Year 5 & 6 — Ryan, Macey, Maya, Yui, Kade, Kitty & Lachie

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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.

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.

MY STORY MY CULTURE On Thursday 19th September, some of Gabriella’s singing students performed at the Rosanna Fire Station Community House, where they also spoke to their audience about their cultural backgrounds. The main aim of this event was to build connections between different social and cultural groups. Through these connections we believe people will have an opportunity to learn about other cultures and develop a mutual respect and understanding. The evening was very interesting and entertaining. Special thanks to all who were involved and to Jasdip for the invitation!

CONGRATULATIONS TABATHA Exciting news… Tabatha in grade 6 recently competed in the Northern Performance Challenge held at Doncaster Secondary College and placed 1st in 3 different categories!!!

These were: Amy Shark’s “I Said Hi”, “Who You Are” by Anna Clendening and the 3rd award was for her original composition, “Wave of a Time”.

VICTORIAN STATE SCHOOLS SPECTACULAR Bill Kersing recently wrote about Lachlan’s involvement in the VSSS. I have asked Lachlan to write about his amazing experience… so here it is – and congratulations to Lachlan, especially considering how difficult it is to be selected for the 38-piece choir (with only 3 or 4 students at Primary School age)…

State schools spectacular was the event that changed my life. I had to go through several auditions including 2 individual auditions and a group workshop. After the very first audition I felt so bad because I thought that I did terribly, until I got an email saying that I got in to the second audition for the Victorian state schools choir. I couldn’t believe my luck! Rehearsals started in March and I had to commit to go every Saturday to Collingwood for 3 hours. I also had to commit to multiple rehearsals on other days and in other places including the Melbourne town hall and Melbourne Arena for full day rehearsals and performance week commitments.

It is a rather large commitment but it is worth the effort. It taught me the meaning of commitment, that’s for sure! I made so many friends, I learnt from industry professionals (including Chong Lim)

and how to sing as part of a Choir. We got to experience so many things including going to a recording studio and getting recorded. We got to perform live in front of 10,000 people twice, and in the final performances, we got to perform on stage with an opera singer.

If you love performing, in any way, go for it! There are so many opportunities for so many different talents.

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!

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. If you are interested in volunteering, please complete the Volunteer Information form and return it to the school office. Once you have completed the form please book in to volunteer via one of the program staff.