Newsletter - Serpell Primary School

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3 February 2015
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
AN OUTSTANDING START TO THE YEAR
Congratulations to all students, teachers and parents for
supporting such an outstanding start to the 2015 school
year. The children have come to their exceptionally wellprepared classrooms ready and eager to learn. Thank you
to the teachers for their extensive preparation in their
holiday time and the amazing office staff who made the fee
collection, book pickup and uniform sales so smooth this
year.
A warm welcome is extended to our new staff members,
who will enrich our teaching profile in many diverse ways:
Michael Ramsey is our new Assistant Principal and comes
to us from his position over the past three years as
Principal at Dookie Primary School in Northern Victoria.
Kim Jones is the Team Leader of Year 5 and has taken a
promotion to Serpell from her previous school at Plenty
Parklands, where she has taught Year 6 for several years.
Lucy Morris is teaching in Year 1. She has experience in
several schools, and her previous school was Hawthorn
West Primary, where she taught Year 3.
Claire Laidlaw is teaching in Year 3 and is well known to us
as she worked here at Serpell in Year 2 in 2014, completing
her Masters Degree. Claire has previously had a career in
nursing.
Katherine D’Aquino is teaching a Year 5 class and brings
experience in the teaching and coaching of gymnastics as
well as a theatrical background.
Rebecca Squire will be teaching a Foundation class in
2015.
She has been a keen traveller and brings
international experience from living in many, many
countries.
John Zheng joins our LOTE Chinese teaching team and will
teach Chinese as well as extended graphics, coding and
computer gaming design. This is certain to be a very
popular elective!
FOUNDATION COMMENCES THURSDAY
The Foundation students will have their first day at school
this coming Thursday. This is a really exciting time for both
the children and their families and we wish them all a very
happy and positive learning experience. We welcome our
new families to Serpell and hope that they will quickly enjoy
contributing to and being a part of our thriving community.
The Foundation students will be arriving in the car park in
the mornings, so please take care and watch for tiny
children. For the month of February they will dismiss in
the afternoon at 3pm, so we suggest that regular
parents come after that time in preparation for the 3.30
pickup.
HOLIDAY WORKS
Over the vacation we had a new portable building installed
at the end of the driveway, the sandpit refilled, artificial turf
laid along the concrete pathways adjacent to Year 3 and 4
classrooms, cabling for ICT and many more facilities
projects. Unfortunately we also had a flood in the stadium
which will necessitate a complete new floor. The building
was insured, but it will be out of action for about three
weeks later in the term whilst a new floor is installed. We
will also take this opportunity to have the stadium painted
and refurbished. I would particularly like to thank Assistant
Principal Rhys Coulson, who willingly organised and
supervised all of the works in his holiday time. Our school
gardener, Kevin Francis is also to be congratulated on the
brilliant job that he has done transforming our beautiful
gardens and play areas.
NEWSLETTER TUESDAYS
The school newsletter is published each Tuesday and is
distributed in paper form to the eldest child in each family.
It is also available on line at www.serpellps.vic.edu.au and
on Facebook. Twitter will alert parents to significant dates
and school events.
ASSEMBLIES ON MONDAY AFTERNOONS.
School assemblies are held in the stadium each Monday
afternoon at 2pm for Years F/1 & 2, 2.30pm for Years 3 & 4
and 3pm for Years 5&6. We also have whole school
assemblies regularly, which will be detailed in the
newsletter. Parents, grandparents and friends are most
welcome to attend our assemblies and to join in the fun.
Assemblies will not be held in extremely hot weather.
WILMA CULTON
Please fill out the return slip below if you are interested in
attending this Literacy Education Program and return it to
the school office. We will be in contact with you before the
workshops begin to confirm that we have sufficient
numbers to run these classes.
Sue Young
Barbara Bell
Assistant Principal.
Reading Recovery Teacher
FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Parent Literacy Education Sessions
Welcome to 2015…a BIG Walking year!
Our Walk to School program is up and
running again from this Thursday. Come
along and join in the fun from the Black
Checkpoint and challenge yourself to walk
850metres to school! The first group will walk to school at
8.15am, next at 8.20 and the final group will leave at 8.30
sharp. So, set your alarms, eat a good healthy breakfast
and see you at Green Gully Park in Serpells Road!!!
Sue Young and the ‘walking crew’…Mr. Niblo, Miss Sleeth,
Mrs Brunelli, Mr Tottenham, Miss Hoskin, Mrs Rees, Mr
Sais, Mrs Waters ….and more great teachers.
PARENT
LITERACY
SESSIONS.
EDUCATION
CLASSROOM
HELPER
TRAINING/SUPPORTING
CHILDREN IN EARLY YEARS LITERACY LEARNING.
Morning and Afternoon sessions Term One.
Parent training sessions for the Classroom Helpers
program will be held in the morning and afternoons this
term. These sessions are designed around the areas of
Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. If you are
interested in assisting in the Foundation, year one or year
two classrooms, attendance at the four training sessions is
essential. If you would like to learn more about the way
your child learns literacy skills, you are most welcome
to attend.
There are four sessions each of
approximately 90 minutes duration. You must commit
to the whole four sessions.
The following sessions will be held this term:
Mornings:
9.15 – 10.45 on Wednesday Feb. 18;
Wednesday Feb 25; Wednesday March 4 and
Wednesday March 11
Afternoons: 1.30– 2.45pm on Friday Feb.20; Friday Feb
27; Friday March 6 and Friday March 13.
All sessions are held in the staff room.
No pre-school children please.
I will be attending the Parent Literacy Education
sessions. Please circle the session you will be
attending.
Morning
OR
Afternoon
(Circle One)
Parent Name:___________________________________
Contact Telephone Number:_______________________
Child’s name:_______________________ Class ______
Summer break Facilities upgrades
As you may have already noticed, we were extremely busy
over the summer break with the upgrade and maintenance
of many facilities and resources around the school. The
Christmas break is always the perfect time to organise
such projects and these included:
Installation of a new double portable classroom
(Rooms 36 and 37)
Synthetic turf upgrade along the Year 3 and 4
walkways
Installation of fibre optic cabling to enlarge and
speed up our internet capacity
Installation of the new bike rack we received in a
grant (located outside Mrs Cavalcante’s
classroom)
Many landscaping maintenance and upgrades,
including outside the art room, canteen area and
basketball court
Carpentry, electrical, playground and plumbing
maintenance
A big thank you must
go to Serpell fathers
David Pappas (Imogen
in
Year
2)
and
Nishantha
Jayawardena (Pavara
in Year 5) for giving up
their time to construct
and install the bike rack. It is the contribution of parents
such as Nishantha and David that makes Serpell such an
amazing community.
Rhys Coulson
SCHOOL BANKING
School Banking will resume next Tuesday, 10th February,
2015.
If you don’t have a Student Bank Book, you can go into any
Commonwealth Bank to sign your child up. If you are not a
Commonwealth Bank customer, please take 100 points of
identification with you – please see the Commonwealth
Bank website for more details.
PARENT’S ASSOCIATION
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AGM – FRIDAY 13 FEB
Welcome to 2015!
The first PA meeting for the year, which is also the AGM,
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will be held on Friday 13 Feb in the staffroom after drop
off. If you would like to get involved, find out some more
information or just hear about the plans for the year, please
come along.
If you have any questions feel free to email me on
natlauder@gmail.com.
2015 CLASS REPRESENTATIVES NEEDED
Would you like to be a Class Representative for your child’s
class? This is a very special, valuable and important role
that will not only enable you to become more involved with
your child’s class, but with the school community as a
whole.
As a Class Rep all you need to do is to prepare and
distribute your new Class’s Friendship List. The Class
Friendship List enables us to keep in contact with each
other and for the class children and parents to keep in
touch with each other. You are also encouraged to arrange
at least one social activity per term which could be morning
teas, an after school play in the park, school holiday social
events, mum and teacher dinner or mums movie night, a
whole family dinner event etc. There are so many ideas of
things you can choose to do with your class.
Ideally we need two class reps for each class so this is
perfect to do with a friend, as it is a very easy and
rewarding role, which doesn’t take up much time either.
If you would like to volunteer please e-mail Dora Demos our
Class Rep Coordinator at dora.demos@bigpond.com with
your name, your child’s name and class and your phone
number.
Natalie Lauder
President, Parents’ Association
DIARY
Thu 5th
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Thu 5
First Day of 2015 – Foundation (Prep)
Foundation parents morning tea staffroom
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Fri 6
Feb Yr 4,5,6 Swimming Trials – Aquarena
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Tue 10
Feb School Banking resumes
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Fri 13
Feb PA AGM & morning tea for new
families
Mon 9th
Mar Labour Day Holiday
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Tue 10
Mar School Photos
Wed 11th Mar School Photos
SCHOOL ASSEMBLY
School Assemblies are held every Monday afternoon in the
Sports Stadium. Each session runs for ½ hour.
Parents, carers and Grandparents are more than welcome
to attend.
Feb
Feb
2:00pm Year Foundation, Year 1 & Year 2
2:30pm Year 3 & 4
3:00pm Year 5 & 6
FROM THE SCHOOL OFFICE
Absences: If your child is absent from school there is no
need to ring the school, just send a note explaining their
absence upon their return to school. The absence note
must have the child’s full name and class on it.
If you child arrives late to school, you do not need to come
via the office, just take your child straight to class and let
the teacher know why they are late, the class roll will be
adjusted accordingly.
If you wish to pick your child up early from school, you must
come via the office, complete an early release slip and then
take it to your child’s teacher.
Messages: Please only ring the office with messages for
your child if it is urgent.
Sending Money: Please ensure any money sent to the
office is in a sealed envelope with your child’s full name
and class on it.
Your assistance with this is much appreciated.
SPORT
Swimming Trials
Children from Year 4,5 and 6 will participate in the school
Swimming Trials to be held at Aquarena this Friday, 6th
February from 10am – 12.30pm.
After the trials a swimming squad will be selected to
compete at the Templestowe District Swimming Carnival
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on the 13 February at Aquarena.
Any parents who can assist at our Swimming Trials will be
most welcome.
Graham Matthews
Sports Coordinator
BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CARE
Welcome to Camp Australia Before and After School Care.
We hope everyone is settling back in after a fun and restful
holiday. With the start of term 1 there will be lots of time
outdoors and to follow regulations, the children need to be
wearing sun-smart hats; this is either a bucket shaped hat,
wide brimmed hat or a legionnaire hat. We do acknowledge
some of the children are required to leave their hats in the
classroom. Please supply a hat that can stay in your child's
bag. Any questions please stop in and see us.
We also require all enrolment forms to be updated. Please
allow time to sign forms over the next few weeks as we
work our way through the enrolments. We also require you
to update us with any medical changes for anaphylaxis,
asthma, allergies, dietary requirements and also update
medication if necessary.
This week we will be celebrating summer with the warm
weather on its way back. Fun sunflowers, sun catchers,
games of cricket, soccer and basketball along with fun
drawings, indoor games and so much more, come along
and enjoy the fun.
To register for before school and after school care please
visit our website:
www.campaustralia.com.au
Bullen Primary School Competition
Games are held on week nights at the Bullen Stadium or
Templestowe Leisure Centre and the summer season
commences in March.
For further information please contact:
Gordana Duvnjak
Co-ordinator – Serpell Community Basketball Association
(Bulleen)
gordana.duvnjak@bigpond.com
Mob:0418 147 817
COMMUNITY NOTICES
NEW STAR ART CLASS 2015 ENROLMENTS NOW
OPEN
The New Star Art after school art classes this
term have been very successful with many of
the students achieving outstanding results.
They are now taking enrollments for
term1,2015 and welcome all those that wish to develop
their creative skills further.
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Term1,art classes will start on Tuesday 3 Feb 2015
Tuesday 3:45pm – 5:15pm (during school term) Library,
Serpell Primary School
For more information please check the school website :
newstarart.com. (online enrollment is available)
Contact Ms Jiang: 0417104975 or John 0411491201Email:
yaping.jiang@gmail.com
Christine and Educators
SERPELL BASKETBALL CLUB
The Serpell Community Basketball Association provides the
opportunity for both Serpell & St Charles students to
represent their schools in basketball throughout the year.
We aim to provide a fun environment for our kids to
experience a great team sport. We participate in 2 primary
school competitions:
Leeds St Primary School Competition
Games are held on Saturday (girls in the morning & boys in
the afternoon) at Leeds St or DISC and seasons follow the
school terms.
The summer season commences this Saturday 7 February
2015 & whilst most teams are full, we still have vacancies in
the following divisions:
·
Girls U9 (Born 2007, 2008) – Serpell Sunrays;
·
Boys U11 (Born 2005, 2006) – Serpell Spartans.
If you are interested in joining one of these teams or require
further information please contact:
Kim Voulanas
Co-ordinator – Serpell Community Basketball Association
(Leed Sts)
kvoulanas@bigpond.com
Mob: 0400 546 855
The Department of Education does not endorse the products or
services of any private advertiser. No responsibility is accepted
by the Department of Education for the accuracy of information
contained in advertisements or claims made by them.