Friday 18th October – Student Disco and Family BBQ Book your tickets now

Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th October - Vision Portraits

Monday 21st October - Engagement Committee meeting, 7:30pm (Staffroom)

Tuesday 22nd October - Parents and Friends meeting, 7:30pm (Staffroom)

Tuesday 22nd October - BookClub Orders close

Thursday 31st October - Hot Lunch Day - ORDER NOW

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)

LADY NORTHCOTE CAMP My grateful appreciation to the staff and volunteer parents who attended last week’s Lady Northcote Camp in Bacchus Marsh. Your dedication and commitment made it a wonderful social, and learning experience for the Grade 5 students who attended, who all came back regaling us with their highlights and positive comments. Special thanks to camp coordinator, Karli Mooy, who planned and oversaw her first camp as leader with great expertise!

REGIONAL ATHLETICS At time of writing the results aren’t in, but regardless of podium finishes or not, I would like to congratulate the following seven students for their efforts in making the Northern Metropolitan Regional Athletic Championships held on Wednesday at Meadow Glen Athletics Track – Charlie Ndongo, Daniel Golland, Rhys Muir D’Orazio, Zoey Ryan, Ryder McMurray, Athanasia Patroungas and Cathal Finn

STUDENT DISCO One of the highlights of the school year for our students is the annual student disco to be held tomorrow night, October 18, in the school gymnasium. Expertly coordinated and overseen by our Parents and Friends Committee, the evening kicks off at 6pm for our Foundation to 2 students with the Grade 3 to Grade 6 students partying from 7.30pm until 9.00pm. DJ Nate once again returns to our school to make the night a guaranteed success.

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.

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.

Have a great weekend,

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

ICAS ASSESSMENT RESULTS Congratulations to all our students who took part in the UNSW ICAS English and Mathematics assessments held in the last week of term 3. Results in both tests ranged from High Distinction to Participation.

All students who completed the assessments recently took home a notice informing parents of the unique student ID and pin number required to access the results portal in order to see student results and print certificates.

ASSISTING YOUR CHILD’S LEARNING Over the coming weeks, I will share recommendations for developing your child’s numeracy skills at home.

BIRTH TO YEAR 2: NUMERACY

Developing numeracy skills early gives children an important foundation for their learning and development. It helps prepare them for daily life, including general problem solving and handling money.

Maths includes noticing numbers, shapes, patterns, size, time and measurement. Incorporating maths into everyday experiences is easy and fun. Maths is everywhere – in the playground, at the shops and at home.

Children need lots of experiences in making, counting, drawing and talking about numbers. You may feel the maths your child is doing is different from how you were taught, but you can still support your child in many ways. Make connections for your child by explaining how numbers and counting are a part of everyday life.

DOING MATHS TOGETHER AT HOME

Talking about maths It is important for children to develop specific language skills related to maths. Visits to the playground, or helping at home, provide rich and meaningful contexts to develop these skills. It might take time for your child to use these terms and language effectively, but exposure to this mathematical talk is a strong support for future learning.

Some activities to develop mathematical language:

• Use specific terms when asking for items. For example, ask your child to get the ‘one litre’ milk bottle from the fridge, or the ‘one kilo’ bag of flour from the cupboard.
• When cooking, talk about different measurements used, such as teaspoons, millilitres, litres, and cups. Discuss ideas about empty and full.
• As you walk, talk and play together describe your child’s movements as they climb ‘over’ the fence, slide ‘between’ the poles, and swing ‘under’ the monkey bars. This helps your child understand language related to spatial awareness.
• Sorting activities support your child to understand concepts such as ‘same’ and ‘different’. Use recycling as an opportunity to sort items to place in the rubbish. For example, paper, plastic, food waste and general waste.

YEAR 3 TO YEAR 6:

Providing opportunities to discuss and engage in mathematics supports your child’s learning in and out of school. Your child will also begin to connect the importance of maths with their everyday activities, such as navigating public transport, comparing and choosing the best item to buy in stores, setting a budget, and cooking.

Talk positively about maths so your child also values it. If your experiences in maths at school were less than ideal, avoid making comments like “I was bad at maths at school,” or “I didn’t like maths because it was too hard.” Comments like these can lower your child’s expectations of themselves, and can perpetuate myths about people being naturally bad or good at maths.

Conversely, if you did well at maths in school, avoid jumping in with answers or solutions. Encourage your child to talk about how they might work out maths problems. This helps boost their confidence and deepens their understanding.

Regardless of your own school experiences in maths, be reassured that maths today is not about learning by rote. Today, the focus is on recognising that there are multiple ways to get an answer, and being able to explain how and why you chose the approach you did.

There are many activities you can do at home to help explore maths with your child. When participating in these activities, avoid associating them with speed. Expecting your child to work quickly on maths can cause maths anxiety. Try to focus on the process and not the outcome.

Have a great week,

Gill Nicholls

Term 4 is always a period of change and uncertainty. The weather is warming up and talk between friends and family, naturally, turns to next year. This can be unsettling for some students that may require more than a quick word or two that everything will be ok.

Resilience enables people to shift back along the mental health continuum towards good mental health. It’s not static but is something that can change over time due to experiences and circumstance.

This week’s information comes from a fact sheet from Be You (a part of Beyond Blue) https://beyou.edu.au/fact-sheets/wellbeing/resilience . Please follow the link to find out some information about:

1. Characteristics of resilience
2. Why is resilience important?
3. How does resilience develop?
4. Resilience and mental health
5. How can services and schools build resilience
6. References.

Resilience is particularly important for children and young people. A child or young person’s ability to be resilient can depend upon many things, particularly their relative balance of risk and protective factors. Depending upon their situation, a child or young person’s resilience may vary. Importantly, specific situations or events that one child or young person may find challenging, another may not.

The transition from being a child to an adolescent to a young adult occurs over a relatively short period of time. Rapid changes in physical, psychological and social development can present numerous challenges. Children and young people who are more resilient are better able to stay on track with the biological, psychological and social demands of growing up and moving through early childhood into adolescence and beyond.

Being resilient is associated with better academic performance and school behaviour and, over the longer term, fewer mental health issues and greater life opportunities (including employment and relationships). Individual resilience (as well as family and community resilience) is something that can be fostered and developed over time.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Patrick

​

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

Thank you

Engagement news! Well, it’s not quite as exciting as someone getting engaged. The School Council is placing a priority on increasing Engagement. Broadly speaking, Engagement is about increasing participation with the school and includes areas internal and external to the school. This can be kindergartens, community groups, neighbours, our VPS students, our parent community and all people who work or volunteer at the school. Any parent or carer who has an interest in contributing towards creating a more engaged school please come along to the meeting. The more input the better! We will be meeting at the Staff Room this coming Monday 21st October at 7:30pm for up to 90 minutes. Tea and coffee on arrival.

​

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.

The Parents and Friends Committee Meeting - This committee has operated in various formats for a long time at Viewbank Primary School and has raised significant amounts of money over the years. The Term 4 Parents and Friends meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 22nd October at 7.30pm in the staffroom. Our ‘meetings’ are very informal, and we would love to see you there. Everyone is welcome!

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.

STRINGS, DRUM KIT, GUITAR, UKULELE, FLUTE, SINGING, KEYBOARD AND PIANO

Information and “Expression of Interest” forms are available at the general office. Alternatively, you may contact Gabriella on 0413 676 733 or gabriella@the.inter.net.au

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.

SCHOOL BANKING Calling for volunteers – we need your help!

Our students really enjoy participating in the Commonwealth Bank School Banking program and to keep this program running we need your help.

The program requires a volunteer School Banking Co-ordinator to facilitate the banking and distribution of School Banking rewards. This only takes a small amount of your time one day a week and the Commonwealth Bank will provide support in how to run the program. Your help with the program will greatly benefit students as they develop vital saving skills and also help our school with fundraising.

If you are interested in volunteering for this great program, please contact the school office.

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.