Volume 24 Issue 15 Thursday 24 May 2018

N ew Attendance Requirements If your child is sick or absent, you are required to notify the school as soon as possible on the day

of absence. Notifying the school of your child’s absence either prior to, or on the day that they will be away, helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and will fulfil your legal responsibility. By now, parents should have received a letter in the post advising them again of the changes and their legal responsibility. Parents are asked to complete the PERMISSION SLIP—SMS MESSAGES. This will allow Brentwood Park Primary School to update CASES 21 and enable SMS messages to be sent to mobile phones. Email addresses are also requested. Confidentiality of the information provided will be maintained and only used for the specific purpose, unless otherwise required by law. Jim Bell, principal

E ducation Week 2018 All government schools and kindergartens throughout Victoria are in the midst of Education

Week and in recognition of it, Brentwood Park Primary School opened its doors to parents and the broader community. Parents were invited to view classroom and corridor displays and to participate in exploring this year’s theme of Celebrating the Arts during our Open Evening which was held on Tuesday 22 May 6:00—7:00 p.m. A number of families took the opportunity to attend this year’s evening session. Over one hundred and fifty “passports” were collected as children and parents filed through the school’s entry foyer. Nevertheless, with four stamps collected in the “passports”, indicating at least four classrooms had been visited, our attendees subsequently gained entry into the “lucky draw”!

One of the highlights of Open Night was the student performances on stage in our Performing Arts Centre when both our violin ensemble and choir showcased their developing talents. I’d like to thank all staff for their attendance and contributions to the evening and to the parents and children who took the opportunity to attend our Education Week celebrations! It was great to see the children’s enjoyment of being at school in the evening and in showing their parents around the school, and participating in a variety of activities focussing on this year’s theme of Celebrating the Arts.

B ook Fair 2018 This current week has, once again, been one to stir student enthusiasm in literature with it being our

Annual Book Fair. Our Multi Media Centre was transformed to complement our Paws for Books theme which assisted students to find purr-fect books!! This year’s Book Fair will, again, help develop imagination and good reading habits by facilitating a dog-gone good time for students as they sniff out books from Scholastic and other publishers that would make tails wag!!

There was an awesome Match the Staff Member with their Pet contest, and a fabulous Dress Up Day on Tuesday 22 May. Thank you to the families who supported their child’s love of reading and our school through this fundraiser!!

www.brentwoodparkps.vic.edu.au

term dates 2018 term 1 30 jan - 29 march term 2 16 april - 29 june

term 3 16 july - 21 sept term 4 08 oct - 21 dec

28-30 MAY CAMP YEAR 6 PHILLIP ISLAND ADVENTURE RESORT. 08 JUNE STUDENT FREE DAY—STAFF REPORT WRITING DAY. 11 JUNE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY - STUDENT FREE DAY. 12 JUNE GRADE 3 METRO RAIL INCURSION. 13 JUNE GRADE 5 1850’S DAY. jim bell, principal jenny reid, assistant principal

DATES TO REMEMBER

B ook Fair To help launch our Paws for Books Book Fair, we had Cranky Bear visit our students at

assembly on Friday 18 May. Hopefully, his visit encouraged us to continue to Be Enthusiastic About Reading [BEAR]!!

S chool Assemblies As you are aware, school assemblies are held in our gymnasium each Friday at 2:30 p.m. They

provide us with the opportunity to address the children collectively and to give recognition to student achievement through the presentation of student awards such as Stars of the Week.

Assemblies also provide the opportunity for students to perform. These performances are enjoyed equally, not only by parents and students in the audience, but also by the performers themselves! Last week, those children who are learning keyboard through the Primary Music Institute had the opportunity to showcase their skills!

The performers and compositions played were:

Amira A. 2CM Hot Cross Buns

Olivia B. 4BM The Rakes of Mallow

Rohan G. 3CH Battle Song

Timothy B. 3SH Polly Wolly

Hunter F. 5JG Frere Jacques

Merha K. 5JG Fun for Two

Jack J . 4GD Greensleeves

Elina C. 5LF The Can Can

V COP at Assembly Last week, children had to submit a sentence containing WOW words! Our senior winners

were Tina 6JA and Fatima 4SM, and our junior winners were Andy 2AA and Bowen Prep SM. This week, the sentence was provided and the challenge is to “up-level” the sentence by the inclusion of adjectives, adverbs, phrases and clauses!

F undraising Would you like to meet new parents whilst fundraising for our wonderful school? We meet

once each month and have a casual catch up to discuss fundraising ideas for our school. New faces and ideas would be a welcome addition to our team. Please contact Donna on 0412007818 or Sandra on 0402455548 if you are interested.

C hinese Language and Culture

CHINESE SISTER SCHOOL VISIT... For the last three years, Brentwood Park Primary School has hosted very successful visitations from our Chinese sister school; Yangzhong Experimental Primary School. Such visitations are facilitated throughout the state between Victorian schools and Jiangsu schools. Following the previous successful visits to Victoria over past years, the schools in Jiangsu would like to visit their sister schools in Victoria again this year. The school visits will be for 7 nights/ 6 days between 23 July 30 July 2017 depending upon flights. The maximum number of visitors will be twelve students and two teachers from each school. The host school activities / homestay arrangements would be similar to last year. This continues to be a great opportunity for our school community and we remain hopeful that with support from volunteer school families, we can accommodate this year’s visitation. We will soon be forwarding more details to families and seeking interest for hosting. Research in sister school relationships often highlights the positive impact that such relationships can have across a range of areas for students, schools and the school community. Sister schools contribute to:

Intercultural understanding within the school community

Increased global awareness and internationalisation within the school community

Opportunities to better understand one’s own culture/country

Personal development of the student e.g. leadership, maturity, independence

Improved ability of students to adjust to different situations

Opportunities for sharing pedagogies and engage in joint curriculum development

Opportunities for reciprocal travel

Enhancement of the reputation of the school

FRIENDSHIP

C hinese Language and Culture VICTORIAN SISTER SCHOOLS VISIIT TO CHINA

I am excited to be able to inform our school community that Jiangsu Education Services for International Exchange [JESIE] are again providing funding support for the Victorian sister schools to visit China this year! Schools who wish to visit their sister schools in Jiangsu, China, in September will be provided with funding to partly cover the inland costs with each participating school only having to pay $2,000 per person, for the whole trip which is including international airfares and visa fee! The twelve days itinerary will include visits to Beijing and The Great Wall, and Shanghai.

JESIE and Jiangsu sister schools will co-host the visit. JESIE will assist in organising the airport transfers and school transfers and all cultural tours in China and individual sister schools will look after the school and homestay programs.

It is expected that the bulk of the visit will take in the first week of the September school holidays! This is a great opportunity being afforded our students and I hope that with parent support, Brentwood Park Primary School will be able to participate for the second consecutive year.

FRIENDSHIP

This is a wonderful opportunity for our students and I remain hopeful that some of the families of our current Year 5 and 6 students will give this opportunity substantial thought with regards to participation. If any parent requires additional information, please don’t hesitate to speak with me or Jo-Anne Doran, personally. Jim Bell, principal

Term 2 Week ending 18 May, 2018

FTL Victor using his listening skills and showing great effort. FCV Ethan for always being positive and putting 100% into every activity. FBC Arsh for being such a helpful member of our class and having such a good attitude. FSM Victor for showing kindness. You are a good friend! FJH Hayden for his amazing effort when revising our CAFÉ strategies! FLP Vishvan for ‘having a go’ at sounding out words during writing time. Well done! AWESOME work! FJF Sapanta for focusing to produce great work! 1MK Arnav for trying his best in everything he does. Well done, Arnav! 1BV Egypt for developing an excellent understanding of ‘10 more’ and ‘10 less’ in maths. Well done! 1HG Brody for your amazing efforts with your reading. WELL DONE! Keep it up! 1KC Zoya for growing in confidence to share her ideas and ask questions for clarification! Super effort! 1NC Akesh for always giving your best in all class activities! You are awesome! 1EN Hasrat for writing an interesting and well-structured letter to a fellow student from 1NC - super for being an amazing helper in class and very caring to her classmates. Well done! 2DK Kiran for her increased confidence and positive attitude. Keep smiling, Kiran! 2AK Ruby for always making positive choices and demonstrating the BPPS values! 2CM Wendy for reading beautifully on your new reading level. Well done! 2AD Brinleigh for his fantastic fraction solving this week! Creating shapes into halves, fourths and quarters. Well done! 2AA Ali for experimenting with different ‘WOW’ words in your writing! Well done! 3CH 3CH for being completely fantastic during your first ever NAPLAN! I am so proud of you all! 3MS 3MS for being absolute superstars during your first NAPLAN! I am so proud of you! 3SH 3SH for trying your hardest and having growth mindsets. I am beyond proud! 3MF 3MF for giving your best efforts for your first ever NAPLAN. I am so proud of all of you! 4SM Anjali for demonstrating your excellent skills in solving multiplication and division algorithms. 4GD Abbi for challenging herself to improve her learning. 4BM Angus for working extremely hard and diligently on his story during his writing project.

Term 2 Week ending 18 May, 2018

4VK Thara for explaining how the maths equations work. 4CP Thomas for always being a helpful and chatty friend. Absolutely FANTASTIC! 5LM 5LM for successfully completing the 2018 NAPLAN tests. You are all stars! 5LF Saalaar for writing an excellent NAPLAN persuasive piece. Well done! 5SI 5SI for doing an excellent job preparing and completing the NAPLAN assessment! You are all superstars! 5JG 5JG for being brilliantly calm and collected during NAPLAN testing and remembering the breathe. 6MB Ankita for always being kind and considerate. We are so lucky having you in 6MB. 6LM Zach for his persistency with his reading journal. Well done! 6JP Jackson for hard work and persistence in the classroom this week. Keep it up! 6JA Tina for demonstrating perseverance with her maths and being a kind and caring girl.

SPECIALIST CLASSES LOTE: Chunyan 1NC for your excellent writing practice this week. Well done, 1NC! LOTE: Daisy 5JG for asking your classmates what food and drink they prefer in Chinese! Well done! Performing Arts: Kenneth 2CM for confidently dancing during your lesson. The way you showed “Team Work” by encouraging each other was fantastic. Performing Arts: Troy 6JA for making a great start in using technology to create music. Physical Education: Jim FBC for outstanding running through the skill ladders. Physical Education: Mel 4VK for their amazing, light footwork across the skills ladder. Visual Arts: Joi FLP for identifying primary & secondary colours in the pom pom game. Visual Arts: Jessica 1KC for your enthusiasm during our lesson whilst exploring clay modelling techniques. Well done!

ATTITUDES TO SCHOOL SURVEY

We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of our school. The Attitudes to School Survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Our school will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience. Students from Year 4 to 6 at our school will participate in the survey. Your child will complete the survey online during school hours using a purpose built secure online survey tool. It is important to note that we are not in any way “testing” your child. Your child has the right to refuse or withdraw from the survey at any point before, during, or after completion of the survey.

Your child will be provided with a unique login to complete the survey. The student login is an assigned identifier that may be used to link data for statistical and research purposes only. All responses to the survey are kept anonymous in the response file. Personal identification data will not be recorded in the survey response file. This ensures that the confidentiality of your child’s responses is protected at all times.

This year the Attitudes to School survey will be conducted at our school over the period Monday 23 April to Friday 1 June. The survey only takes 20 minutes to complete and occurs during your child's class time. The survey results will be reported back to the school before the end of term 2. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified. As you are aware when reading the Annual Report each year, results from the Attitudes to School Survey assist the school to improve our programs.

LATE TO SCHOOL

We have noticed a considerable rise in students being late to school this term; up to 36 daily!

This is unacceptable.

Punctuality is an important aspect of school life and allows fewer class disruptions in the morning.

Being on time ensures students, engage in the introduction to

lessons and maximises their learning opportunities.

P LEASE DIRECT MONEY FOR EXCURSIONS, ETC TO YOUR CLASSROOM TEACHER - NOT TO THE OFFICE.

Please hand money and permission slip in sealed envelopes to classroom teacher first thing in the morning. By following this process teachers are aware that your child will be attending the excursion and mark them off

their lists. Money is collected by office staff and processed each morning and a receipt given back to teachers along with permission slips. All money is tallied and banked daily – no money is left on the premises. If you wish to pay by credit card, a proforma is available from the office. This can be filled out with details and placed in a sealed envelope and handed to your classroom teacher

Please deliver cash in a sealed envelope with your child’s name and grade on the front by 9.30 a.m. If you have a number of children attending an excursion you can place all money and permission slips in the one envelope with children’s names and grades on the front and deliver to one of the children’s teachers. The office staff will be able to allocate money to the children’s particular items and distribute permission slips and receipts back to teachers. Enve-lopes are available at the office. If you have a large amount to be paid or need to process an EFTPOS transaction through a savings account you can make arrangements to pay at the office. We also have a new Qkr payment system on our Skoolbag app. If you download our Skoolbag app and Qkr payment app you can now pay for your child’s excursion on line.

All change will be delivered to the children in the afternoon. Re-imbursements will only be made under certain circumstances – they will be made by cheque (no cash transactions are made).

Notices are sent out with a final collection time – please adhere to this time. All money and permission slips are required to be sent back by this date – otherwise your child will not be able to attend. This enables us to confirm bookings and numbers with bus companies and organisations we are visiting. Also we need to send details to the De-partment of Education Emergency Management for all excursions, camps, etc. We also need to accommodate students who will not be attending.

We would appreciate it if parents could please follow these processes.