Friday 22nd November - Year 1 Late Night Experience

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

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)

SCHOOL CAPTAINS It gives me great pleasure to announce the 2020 School Captains:-

GIRLS

• Phoebe BUERCKNER (Captain)
• Annabella MADDEN (Vice Captain)

BOYS

• Luke WHITBY (Captain)
• Joel ARUL (Vice Captain)

These positions were announced to all of the Grade 5 students at a special assembly last Friday. My sincere congratulations to all students who nominated for these positions, and special mention should be made of the extremely gracious way in which all shortlisted candidates accepted the announcements. It has been pointed out that we can all be leaders in one way or another, and the opportunity exists for further roles to be filled in upcoming weeks as elections for House, Environment, Japanese and Music positions are conducted. We hope that Anthony Carbines, the Member for Ivanhoe, will grace us with his presence in upcoming weeks to make the formal badge presentation to our new school captains who demonstrated great capacity, initiative and commitment in their presentations to their peers and interviews with the selection panel. Well done!

WORKING BEE Grey skies greeted us on Sunday morning, but that didn’t deter many willing workers who turned up for our final working bee for the year. Nature strips and the oval were mown, a fence constructed at the ‘chook enclosure’ end of the vegie garden, mulch swept up from the tiger turf, breezeways ‘blower vacuumed’, art works completed near the Japanese garden, weather stations serviced and a range of other maintenance activities completed. The Buildings and Grounds subcommittee is one of the most passionate and committed subcommittees I have seen, and it is a credit to all members how much work has been done in the interests of our school and students. Thank you!

2020 FOUNDATION INFORMATION EVENING This is scheduled for tonight, November 21, with up to 93 families in attendance to hear final information in preparation for next year. Looking forward to welcoming many new families to our school.

GRADE 1 LATE NIGHT EXPERIENCE And to complete a busy week, the Grade 1s are staying back for up to four hours of very enjoyable ‘detention’ tomorrow night as they participate in their late night experience, in preparation for their sleepover in Grade 2.

BUILDING WORKS Plans have been confirmed for the new 8 classroom construction taking place from Term 2 next year. The site plans will be on display in the noticeboards outside the main building and the Northern classrooms for your interest.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

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2019 PARENT HELPERS’ MORNING TEA We are incredibly lucky at Viewbank to have many wonderful school community members who generously help our school.

Throughout the year, we have helpers assisting with reading, SAKG program, library, Book Club, school banking, sporting events, excursions, camps, Inquiry expos, working bees, School Council and its sub committees and Parents and Friends to name a just few.

We could not run the amazing programs that we do and provide the varied experiences to our students without the contributions made by our helpers.

To show our appreciation and say a big THANK YOU, we would like to invite everyone who has assisted this year to a special morning tea on Friday 13 December at 10.45am in the gym foyer. We look forward to seeing you there.

Please refer to the invite below for further details.

THANK YOU I would like to thank Hunter Lane café in Rosanna for their ongoing sponsorship of our Citizen of the Month Award throughout 2019 and into 2020. They kindly donate a kids’ meal voucher to each of our Citizen of the Month recipients. Thank you for your generous support of our school.

ICAS ASSESSMENT CERTIFICATES The school has received the certificates for all students who participated in the UNSW ICAS assessments in English and Mathematics in term 3. These certificates will be distributed to students on Friday 22 November. Congratulations to all students on their achievements.

Have a great week

Gill Nicholls

Attendance The below table sets out the attendance figures in each class for the first 6 weeks of this term. Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what happened to our attendance figures in Week 5? If you said the Melbourne Cup Monday, you are correct! Lots of families took advantage of having a long weekend before the home stretch into Christmas! We are hoping to improve our attendance rate between now and the 20th December!

The following graph has our 2018 absences in blue and 2019 absences in green. The red lines are public holidays and the gaps are term holidays. It is quite clear that in 2018 and 2019, there is a massive ‘spike’ in absenteeism on the Melbourne Cup weekend.

Kookaburra Kids: Supporting Kids Living In Families Affected By Mental Illness

Do you know of a family whose children are affected by a parent or other family member’s mental illness? If so, https://kookaburrakids.org.au/ may be of benefit.

Kookaburra Kids supports children aged 8-18 living in families affected by mental illness. The program provides mental health psych-education and basic coping skills embedded within recreation camps and activity days. They strive to empower young people with age-appropriate mental health knowledge and options for support, as well as the opportunity to form ongoing connections with new friends who share common experiences.

They offer:

• Activity days;
• Recreation camps; and
• Defence Kids Activities (for serving and ex-serving ADF families)

Eligibility Criteria: https://kookaburrakids.org.au/how-you-can-help/refer-a-child/

• Referred child must be aged between 8 to 18 years or in Grades 3 to 12.
• Referred child must have a parent/caregiver or sibling with a mental illness.
• Children referred from ADF families must have a serving/ex-serving parent with a mental illness.
• We do not provide specialist mental health intervention, ongoing support, and/or intensive supervision. We are therefore unable to support children with severe and complex needs.
• Kookaburra Kids may contact the referrer and parent/caregiver for further information.
• A child’s acceptance into the program will be confirmed directly with the parent/caregiver.
• Invitations to camp and accompanying activities days will be emailed directly to the family when these events are offered in their local area.

The young person must be eligible for camp in order to attend an activity day. Children cannot be referred directly to, or only to an activity day.

Children can be referred by:

• School Counsellors
• Mental health workers
• GP’s
• Family members
• Community workers

They can be contacted at:

1300 566 525

https://www.facebook.com/kookaburrakidsfoundation/

@kookaburrakids

Have a great weekend everyone!

Patrick

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2020 School Charges/Fees - $320 per Student School Charges are paid through Compass. Payments can only be made online from Saturday 21 December 2019 and are due by Monday 27 January 2020. If you are having issues with Compass, have forgotten your password or have no access please contact the school office as soon as possible.

Alternate Payment Arrangements and Assistance: Please be advised there are alternative payment options for families who may be experiencing financial hardship or who would prefer a regular payment plan. Families holding a valid means-tested concession card are eligible for the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) that provides payments for eligible students to attend activities. The CSEF is an annual payment to the school to be used towards camps and term expenses for the benefit of the eligible student (2020 primary school student rate is $125).

Please contact me if you wish to arrange a payment plan prior to the end of the school year.

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

Kind regards

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

Foundation — Jack

Year 1 & 2 — Jack, Harley, Zachary, Dakota, Harry, Erick, Reece & Emma

Year 3 & 4 — Max & Emma

Year 5 & 6 — Joel, Charlie & Oliver

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Watch this space for Viewbank’s upcoming MUSIC SOIREE!

Tuesday 26th November

GYM:

• Gabriella’s singers – 6pm performance
• Strings with Mr Cai – 7.15pm performance

MUSIC ROOM:

• Ella’s piano/keyboard students - 1.15pm performance & evening performances starting at 6pm

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.

Hello parents and guardians. This term we have been working on an inquiry action to help Big Group Hug which is a charity that provides clothing and other items to families need so that they are insured a happy life. We would like to inform you that on the 25th of November next Monday we will be visiting the student’s classrooms and will be letting them know that we will be giving out order forms so that if the students would like to buy our homemade products such as custom Pom Pom pencils, custom pencil holders, scrunchies, bookmarks, tie dye t-shirts and custom made lip balms.

From Charlize,Jovina,Tabatha,Reyna,Liah and Mia

COLGATE COMMUNITY GARDEN CHALLENGE A huge congratulations to all of the students and families of VPS. Of the 1100+ pre, primary and secondary schools, VPS placed 18th in the Colgate Community Garden Challenge. Together, we have diverted close to 200,000 pieces of oral care waste from Australian landfi lls. Although the competition is over for this year, we will continue to do our part in recycling toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, toothpaste caps and floss containers! Please drop any empty oral care waste (any brand is accepted) into our recycling monster located at the office. We will ship to Terracycle to be recycled.

ENVISION HANDS This term, VPS will begin to collect bottle caps for Envision Hands. The Envision Hands project recycles plastic bottle lids bound for landfill, and turns them into colourful, superhero hands for children in need, in Australia and around the world.

What sort of bottle caps are accepted?

Currently, Envision Hands use all flat soft drink, water and milk bottle tops, including those from long life containers. The tops should be numbered either No 2 or No 4 in the recycled triangle but not all are marker. Please ensure all caps are cleaned before they are donated and no extra plastic, metal or other material is attached.

You can find more information about the project here: https://envision.org.au

Reverse Advent Calendar Some 6W students have chosen to run a Reverse Advent Calendar as their action for Inquiry.

The idea is to do an advent calendar in reverse!! Instead of taking something each day, we are asking people to give. The donations will go to Diamond Valley Food-share and The Big Group Hug. 2 local organisations that help those less fortunate.

So instead of getting stuff like lollies, we will be giving things to people that can’t afforded to buy a lot of things this Christmas. You can bring things in like packeted food that will last and things that don’t need to be refrigerated. As well as pre-loved goods such as clothing, blankets, toys, books, or new unwanted toiletries.

Each year level will have a day to give and we will pick up any late donations at the end, so don’t worry if you forget or miss your day.

These are the days for each year level:

• Year 6 will be on Monday the 18th
• Year 5 will be on Tuesday the 19th
• Year 4 on Wednesday the 20th
• Year 3 on Thursday the 21st
• Year 2 on Friday the 22nd
• Year 1 on Monday the 25th
• And Foundation on Tuesday the 26th
• Plus a final back-up collection on Wednesday the 27th.

Thank you. All these items will go to Diamond Valley Food-share and Big Group Hug. We would love the support and so would these amazing charities as it is coming into the Christmas season.

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

The final Book Club for this year (Issue 8) orders close on Wednesday 27th November. No late orders can be accepted as Scholastic Warehouse closes soon after our last delivery. Thank everyone who has supported Book Club this year, enabling us to obtain many free books for the Library.

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 Tuesday and 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.

ROSANNA LIBRARY Summer Reading Club Launch

House of Stories – The Kitchen. Tuesday 3 December, 4.00pm-5.00pm