ARMADALE PRIMARY SCHOOL

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1 ARMADALE PRIMARY SCHOOL Newsletter No. 41 Excellence 13 December 2018 At Armadale Primary School we value Honesty Kindness Learning Respectfulness Thursday 13th December Grade 6 Graduation Dear Armadale Community, Year 6 Graduation is on tonight! This is one of those great moments in a child s primary years when they look forward to their Year 6 graduation. Similar to any rite of passage, it is a significant milestone and signifies the next step of the educational journey into high school. Thank you to all the parents who have assisted the committee and who have also helped in some way to transform the MPC into a magical space. Special thanks to Michelle Moffat for her expert co-ordination and oversight of the entire event; Kim Fleetwood for her generosity and delicious catering, the House of Orange for decorating, Michelle Iezzi for printing and Lisa Stewart for the ticketing. I look forward to seeing the children tonight and hearing their graduation speeches and song. Prahran High School Orientation day I have heard nothing but amazing feedback from the 14 Year 6 s who are attending Prahran High next year. Although the school has not officially opened yet, the photos we see look incredible with state of the art facilities and technology. I am so pleased that our relationship with Prahran will continue and strengthen with Ricci Thompson working there as a Youth worker and Paul Motion as a School Councillor. I will also continue to advocate for Armadale PS students to have entry to Prahran High school in spite of zone limitations. Tragedy strikes one of our Armadale Families! It was incredibly sad to receive messages on the weekend that one of our families, Sam and Ben Taylor and their 2 girls, Isabella and Rosie s home had unfortunately burnt down. It could have happened to any one within our community. To make matters worse, what wasn t lost to the fire, was then cruelly stolen in 2 burglaries after the fire, including Sam s jewellery and some very precious items. Thankfully, the family is safe and unharmed but now facing a horrendous financial battle. Sam and Ben are desperate to keep the girls at APS, as school offers stability, community and a sense of safety. The school community has been so generous to date with donations, and it is incredibly appreciated by them both. There have also been a number of people assisting with the salvaging of household items, offers of accommodation and storage, donations of clothes and toys for both girls. This is such a wonderful reflection of the Armadale families and our community. Unfortunately, as you know insurance takes a long time to negotiate, and even when finalised, it will not cover the cost of rebuilding, replacing contents and interim rental accommodation. Close friends have been talking to Ben and Sam over the last few days about what would be the most impactful way of supporting them over the coming months, and as a result Gen Gowland has set up a go fund me page looking to raise $50,000. It would be wonderful if our community could rally to support the GoFundMe page (see link and photos on page 2). continued on page 2 Address: Densham Road, Armadale 3143 School Phone: Website: OOSHC Phone: This Week s Events School Fax: E: armadale.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au OOSHC E: ooshc@armadaleps.vic.edu.au 1 Friday 14th December Year 3/4 Biomes Expo Monday 17th December Student free day Tuesday 18th December Whole school transition Thursday 20th December Year 6 Luna Park Excursion Friday 21st December Last Day for 2018 students will be dismissed at 1.30PM following our final assembly Coming Events Wednesday 9th January 2019 OOSHC Holiday program begins Wednesday 30th January 2019 Student free day Thursday 31st January 2019 First day for years 1-6 Monday 1st February 2019 First day for new Preps

2 I note that at the time of writing this over $4000 has already been raised. I hope that we can add to this significantly before Christmas fa6074f6b43c9&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w continued on page 3 2

3 In addition there has been a call to action for our school network and any contacts you may have that can also help. Information can be forwarded to Gen Gowland. Felicity Mace is the first in our network to respond to this. In support of the Taylor family Felicity Mace ( Mum of Milla and Amalia) from Salon Mace, will be setting up a stall at school on Thursday the 20th of December from 3pm. Her products will be sold as well as cut and blow dry vouchers. Vouchers are to be used in January, Tuesday to Thursday. Great Christmas gift ideas or a great chance to stock up on products. Please pay cash on the day. All Products are salon quality. Shampoo, conditioner and styling products $25. Blow dry voucher $50 Children cuts $35 Ladies cut and blow dry $110 Men's cut $55 All proceeds will go to the Taylor family. Thank you so much Felicity for your very generous support of the Taylor Family Parents please be vigilant in shopping centres in keeping both eyes on the children. In this very busy period leading up to Christmas, it is so easy to be distracted by all that the shopping centres and stores offer. A recent from the John Mackenzie community reminds us that children can wander off in the blink of an eye and be lured away by threatening and menacing individuals. The child thankfully was unharmed but it s not a coincidence that hectic times and busyness makes our children more vulnerable to strangers. Continue to teach your children about stranger danger and give them permission to scream, should anyone unknown ever try to approach them or take their hand. Our appointments of staff have not yet been finalised but we will have this completed by Tuesday. I apologise to our community that I am not in a position to publish our full staffing list yet, as our final class teacher has as yet, not been appointed. But I anticipate that this will occur before next Tuesday -our meet the teacher day. We have read over 400 applications and had to interview for 6 different positions just in these last 5 weeks. Those in HR can appreciate the time this takes, positions only close after 2 weeks of advertising, then shortlisting, and then each interview lasts for an hour including panel deliberations afterwards. Then we ring referees. We have also deliberately been very selective in ensuring we have secured the best four graduates for our children for As well we have secured a new teacher for a family leave position and the last one will be a classroom teacher with several years of expertise to replace Colleen Johnson. All children will meet their classroom teacher on Tuesday at 2.30pm Scooti filming will take place in our school grounds and MPC on Saturday December 15th Our school will once again be a location site for an advertising company this coming weekend. Please allow the company, who made our Pick My Project video, to shoot their commercial and keep the children from our grounds on Saturday. The children will be allowed to return on Sunday. Thank you for your assistance with this request. There is no school for the children on Curriculum Day -Monday 17 th On Tuesday 18 th December we will have our normal assembly am and on Friday 21 st December will be our final assembly to farewell staff, students who are exiting Armadale and especially a farewell to our Grade 6 s. Rochelle Cukier Principal 3

4 School Council News School Council held the final meeting for 2018 on Monday night. It was a very positive end to mark what has been a busy year of activity. I know that there is great mystery about what School Council actually does (I didn t understand the role until I joined), so I have tried to provide a summary of some of the main discussions. An update on 'Pick my Project and the Master Plan was provided as both of these projects have initiated and are being overseen by School Council. In 2019, expect to hear more about the timelines and deliverables of these two very exciting projects for the school Jodie shared the great news about the 2018 PFA success (I won t steal her thunder). The proceeds from the Mother s Day Lunch and Trivia Night are being used to upgrade the library over the holidays, ready for the start to the new school year, and the remainder of the profits will be used to fund future projects identified in the Master Plan. A forecasted summary of the financial position for the year was discussed, which highlights the financial health of the school, ably managed by Christine Leyshan with Laurie Conheady as Treasurer. We are very grateful to Christine for her patience and tireless efforts to keep the school in such a strong financial position and will miss her as she moves onto her next chapter. The Holiday Program for January 2019 was presented and approved with a great variety of activities to suit all age groups. We are immensely proud that we have managed to keep this important service in-house, and thank Ben, Trevor and the rest of the team for providing such an important, inclusive and engaging service to the community. Due to rising entrance fees and staff costs, we approved a very modest $5 increase for OOSHC incursions and excursions from This rise in price still keeps us well below other programs in the area, including those run by local council, but will allow us to cover our costs and invest a small amount back into the school. After 8 years at Armadale Primary and 4 years on School Council, this is my final update to the school. I will be back in 2019 for the AGM to formally hand over the reigns, but will be enjoying some family time in the interim. It has been a great honour serving the community and importantly, enhancing the learning environment for our kids. I have thoroughly enjoyed working in partnership with Rochelle and all of the passionate and skilled members of School Council. I will miss standing in a quadrangle being surrounded by 380 happy children, but have so many friends from the school who will stay with me for life. On Monday I thanked my fellow members of School Council for their support, and I also wanted to thank the broader community for your trust. Armadale Primary has a very exciting future and I look forward to seeing it evolve in news ways. Nicki Batagol School Council President 4

5 Landscape Masterplan Update Thank you again to everyone for your contributions to the development of our landscape masterplan for our school grounds. We re continuing to receive responses via our online survey which is open until Friday 21 December Please go online if you were not able to attend the forum or if you did attend and have more thoughts and comments to share. Our Working Group has compiled all of your feedback from the Community Forum, all responses received so far and ongoing from the online survey, and Laidlaw & Laidlaw Design has been considering all of this information as well as a huge number of insights and ideas gathered with students and teachers in workshops held on Tuesday 27 November and their own site analysis. The site analysis and community consultation will be complete by Friday 21 December. Laidlaw & Laidlaw Design will consider this information and, working with the Master Plan Working Group, will use it to develop a realistic, achievable project brief. This will then be used to develop the big picture schematic design for our school grounds. This stage of the design process will be managed by the Master Plan Working Group in close consultation with Facilities and School Council. It s expected the final design will be available for public comment in May Preliminary themes Some preliminary themes have emerged from our consultation with students, teachers, parents and wider school community. These themes will inform the Master Plan and will be used as guiding principles to help guide our decision making processes. There were many more ideas received than those listed below and which will also be considered as part of the Master Plan. These points are just a general overview of some of the key themes gathered from everyone s comments: Themes and guiding principles' shaping the masterplan: Sustainability care for our school, care for our environment, not doing any harm, promoting a respect for the natural environment Creative play fostering natural creative play, adventure, sensory elements, climbing, building, making, immersion in the natural environment Connection to nature opportunity for children to connect to nature through play and build a love of the natural environment Food production vegetable gardens and composting areas and the way they are incorporated into the curriculum and used to teach life skills Art art as part of the landscape and school culture, integrated into the landscape and life of the school Places for all children need mixes of active and passive play spaces. Sports areas and equipment for the active kids, and quiet secluded nooks for the children who need space to withdraw Making the most of what we have spaces that are flexible, can be used to their best potential and for a range of activities Practical needs to be workable, able to be maintained, able to be built, able to be afforded Specific issues the master plan needs to address: Configuration of sports courts and shade structures to support the Pick My Project sports courts upgrade Improving the central asphalt area to make it safer, more useable and a pleasant space to be in Providing more shade Providing more greenery and softening the concrete jungle Improving how people move into and around the school to make it easier, safer and more accessible Providing safer sports surfaces and better sports facilities Providing more passive play options Providing more play equipment choices continued on page 6 5

6 Thank you again for your contribution to redesigning our school grounds. Please continue to share your ideas and if you have any questions please contact any of the Landscape Masterplan Working Group: Rochelle, Connie, Peter, Vita, Pippa, Zaim, Steve Kruk, Cara Bodsworth, Abby Imhoff or Fran Johnson. 6

7 Sports News Changes to Swimming We have modified some swimming times to allow extra time to compensate for the missed lessons today and last Friday. Pease see the revised times for all remaining lessons. If you are a parent helper, please contact your class teacher if you are unable to assist at the updated times. Reminder: We will be departing school approximately 30 minutes prior to the swimming times listed below. Revised times for swimming : Fri 14th & Wed 19th, Thurs 20th Dec 9:30-10:30am 1G & 1Z 10:30-11:30am 1K & 2B 11:30-12:10pm Prep D 12:10-12:50pm Prep S 12:50-1:30pm Prep N 1:30-2:30pm 2Z & 2E Updated Times for Tues 18th :10am 1G & 1Z :50am 1K & 2B 10:50-11:20am Prep D 11:20-11:50am Prep S 11:50-12:20pm Prep N 12:20-1:00pm 2Z & 2E Can all students remember to bring their hat a drink bottle and a raincoat to swimming each day for all remaining lessons please. If your child is unable to swim for any reason please contact your class teacher. Any further changes will be communicated via Compass. Thank you for your ongoing support. Peter Cracknell Sports & Health & Wellbeing Co-coordinator ICY POLE FRIDAY'S Don t forget icy pole Fridays!! $3 each. Made from fresh fruit, nothing else! 7

8 UPDATES TO OOSHC Dear parents, As of January 1st, 2019, OOSHC will be increasing the Holiday Program and Curriculum Day price by $5 per day. This small increase will ensure that we can continue to provide an exceptional service to our families, without operating at a loss. We have not had a price increase for 2 years and in that time, costs for activities, entrance fees and staff wages have risen. Our new price of $65 for incursions and $75 for excursions is still significantly lower than the fees charged by other holiday programs, including those run by local council. There will be no change to the price for the before school and after school program. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Cheers OOSHC team. 8

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10 The Arts Our school has a story that we can discover and contribute to through The Arts Year 2: Textiles The students excelled in their commitment to this project. Please take the time to appreciate the effort they put into their stitching when they bring their work home. Year 1 and Year 3/4: Armadillo displays The students took a lot of time drawing and using different media to create a background for their respective plasticine or clay models. Year 5/6: The students art projects and Victorian Tiles will be on view in the Art and Music room on Thursday 20 Dec from pm. Parents and students are invited to drop by the Art room after school on Thursday, 20 December to view the work. The tiles will be incorporated into the school grounds as part of the school s Masterplan. This is a great opportunity to view the students tiles and artwork. All welcome! The school orchestra and members of the SSG and Junior Singing group joined together to perform a rousing addition of Jingle Bells and I hear Santa at assembly this week. Thank you Karen from Hello Music for providing this performance opportunity. Don t forget that Hello Music s Carol by Daylight Concert will be screened on Channel 31 on Monday 24th Dec at 5pm and Tuesday 25th Dec at 3.30pm. SSG and Junior Singing Group: Thank you to all the students who attended their rehearsals each week with Allira, Miss Sozzi, Rosana and myself. It s been another great year of singing and we look forward to recommening rehearsals in Please note that there are no rehearsals next week for either the SSG or Junior Singing Group. If any students are planning to learn an instrument in 2019 parents are encouraged to contact the two private companies that provide lessons at school Hello Music and Junior Rockers to discuss different instruments and learning options available. I encourage parents to consider an extra curricula music option for their child or children in Pippa Cocks The Arts Co-ordinator 10

11 SUSTAINABILITY NEWS Nude Food Monday Competition Please remember that Julia and Ivy (5/6P) will come around to check on your class on Mondays and the best NUDE FOOD class will be announced at assembly each week. Vita and Pippa Sustainability Co-ordinators 11

12 OOSHC drop off and pick up reminder. Can parents ensure that they sign their child in and out of OOSHC each time please. It is a requirement that parents accompany students on and off the school grounds. Now that day light savings are underway please note that pick up from afters is strictly 6pm. OOSHC hours: Befores 7:00am-8:45am Afters 3:30pm-6:00pm Whilst all care is taken to ensure the validity of advertisements in this newsletter we take no responsibility and imply no endorsement. 12

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