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Term 1 Week 9 2021 Grapevine

Mon 29th Mar

Easter Hat parade decorating at school.

Mon 29th Mar

Cross Country

Fri 26th Mar

Donations for Easter Raffle close

Thu 1st April

Easter Hat Parade Last day of Term

Tue 20th April

Term 2 Begins

What’s on

Dear parents, carers and community,

We start the reflection of this week considerate of the many homes, schools and people

affected by the recent weather incident. It is an indeed a true reflection of the accuracy of

our National Anthem as we consider the communities who have had drought, fire and

flooding plains impact upon their lives. As we hear their stories, we are reminded of the

strength of the human spirit, to prevail through hardship and to just keep on keeping on but

from a mental health perspective, there must be some who are exhausted by what Mother

Nature can offer….and that for some who have endured, this could be a tipping point. At

this time is is encouraging to stop and be grateful for all that we have and to consider, that

as human beings, we don’t need a lot to survive.

Our site has experienced some water leaks and the Department has been out to assess. Mr

Shoesmith’s room has experienced a leak that has damaged some soft furnishings and

carpet. They will be working from our Multi-purpose room until the end of term as the room

receives some repair/replacement work. We also had a tree come down and the SES

attended to that last Sunday. We are indeed fortunate enough to be on high ground.

It has been a difficult week for the students and teachers as outside play has been limited.

The students may need a lot of outdoor activities this weekend.

Our year 3 and 5 students participated in NAPLAN Readiness processes this week. The

process aims to ensure that all students can log on efficiently in the system, and that all

devices are working within the platform. It was a good experience for our students and we

thank Ms Turnbull for her expertise in this process.

On Tuesday night we held our General P&C meeting as well as the AGM. It was exciting to

see so many new faces at our meeting and for new representation being voted in for many

of our roles. We are always grateful for the volunteer work that P&C members do within our

school and our last activity is certainly a fine example of the power of this group. Annika

Coulson, our re-elected fundraising leader reported back to the group that the recent

Colour Run event raised over $40,000 and the P&C, after paying for the company services

will make close to $25,000 in profit.

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This in turn should see the P&C be in a position to contribute to some major works in the school to revamp our Top

COLA into a colourful sports court.

Congratulations to our new P&C Team for 2021

President: Shannon Ramadge

Vice President: Kylie O'Brien

Vice President: Kelly Peverill

Treasurer: Douglas Walton

Secretary: Alison Wolf

Empowered Community Connections - strengthening relationship between staff, parents and the wider community

is a feature in our 2021 - 2024 Strategic Improvement Plan.

Bring on the Easter hats!!!

Regards,

Mrs Saurins Principal

Commercial Representative: Jodie Robertson

Band Representative (Band Convenor: Kylie O'Brien

Fundraising Representative: Annika Coulson & Emma Gibbs

Social Media & Communications: Annika Coulson & Emma Gibbs

Sub-Committees

Band Convenor(Band Representative: Kylie O'Brien

Band Minute Taker: Leah Best

Commercial Representative of Treasurer

(Commercial convener: Emma, Kylie, Jodie)

A big thank you to Harper S in year 1

who took the time on the weekend

to make our office ladies a beauti-

ful Easter display for the counter. She

did all the work herself and was very

excited to hand it over. We have

had plenty of compliments all week.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far and also to our resi-

dent Easter bunny helper for sorting out the influx of donations this

morning. Koby has done an amazing job.

Raffle Donations

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What’s Hot • Our staff are currently reviewing and commenting on the new K-2 English and

Mathematics draft document that will be mandatory in 2022

• Making Easter Craft Nature Eggs with 4G

Children out in the sun playing again

The garden is powering with the combination of lots of water and sunshine☀

Playground equipment that is being moved to make way for the OOSH building has

started but is now rain delayed

• Sophie H - preparing for State Swimming and Ashley W for State diving

• Our Chook Team - looking after them in the trying conditions

• Our teachers - always working hard…knowing our children so well

Miss Olivia’s Dance - thank you for being so flexible while we are ‘space starved’ waiting for our OOSH building

Bonjour!

Welcome to the Stage 3 Book Tasting!

On Wednesday the 24th March, all Stage 3 classes entered their classrooms and were immediately

ushered into a diner of delightful books! A Book Tasting was imminent! Seated at tables with tablecloths,

individual place cards and menus, each student began a five course menu of children’s books.

Students read and reviewed a range of quality children’s books in a series of ‘courses’, designed to

broaden their knowledge of storylines, illustrations and themes relevant to kindergarten age students.

Stage 3 students are creating a picture book for their Kindergarten buddy as the legacy item for our

REAL focus: Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds: Into the Book. This book tasting was an essential com-

ponent of their journey to becoming authors and illustrators.

Au Revoir!

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Martin Chatterton Author Visit Thursday the 18th of March started out as just another ordinary day at Valentine Public School, albeit a

bit wet! Suddenly, some envelopes arrived for Stage 3, inviting them to a mystery event starting at

midday that day! Students were then taken down to the hall and greeted by the fabulous Martin

Chatterton, a world renowned author and illustrator and his wonderful wife, Annie. The students were

taken on a journey of Martin’s extensive career as an author and illustrator from his early childhood in

Liverpool in the UK, to his current success as an international speaker and performer. As his website

states, Martin has appeared extensively at schools, festivals, conferences, TV and radio in the UK,

Australia, India, China and the USA. His performances feature large-scale interactive ‘live’ drawing,

'mind-reading' and plenty of audience participation. Wide-ranging and funny, the sessions include

sharply targeted insights into different kinds of writing, the intricacies of the publishing industry, the telling

of tall tales, story ‘beginnings’, and personalised dissections of what goes into a book, all of which draw

and expand on Martin’s thirty year writing and illustrating journey. Martin is skilled at delivering key

educational motivation contained within an entertaining external package and is particularly adept at

engaging reluctant readers. Martin has appeared in front of audiences of over a thousand but is

equally at home in more intimate settings.

Follow the link to read more about Martin Chatterton, http://www.worldofchatterton.com/

Feedback from Annie Chatterton:

Dear Stage 3 Teachers,

It was so lovely to meet you last Thursday. It was quite an emotional moment as it was almost twelve

months to the day since our last school performance before Covid hit. We wanted to send this follow

up email to say a big 'thank you' for inviting Martin to talk to the students at Valentine Public School and

for making the set up go so very smoothly. We hope the students got something meaningful out of the

Chatterton Experience! It certainly felt like they did. On a side note: we visit a LOT of schools and we

have to say that Valentine School was truly exceptional in terms of how beautifully things were

organised and how wonderful the students and staff were: engaged, enthusiastic and appreciative.

From Martin and Annie Chatterton.

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