FROM THE PRINCIPAL`S DESK

MITCHAM PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWS – 22nd April 2015
294 Mitcham Road, Mitcham, 3132
Telephone: 9873 1551 Facsimile: 9873 4505
DIARY DATES 2015
TERM 2 2015
Kym Lardner Author Visit
Wednesday 22nd and Thursday
23rd April
3/4 Murrundindi Visit
Email: mitcham.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au
Web: www.mitcham.ps.vic.edu.au
MITCHAM PRIMARY SCHOOL FETE
Saturday September 12th 2015
PRINCIPAL’S VALUE OF THE MONTH—Responsibility
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK
Friday 24th April
Dear Parents,
Mitchkids Starts
Working Bee
Friday 24th April 10.00 to
11.ooam
Thanks to the following parents who assisted at last Saturday’s
Working Bee: Stephanie Western, Delphine Song, Bee Yoong Soh,
Nidhi Sharma, Adam and Lucille Matthews, Rob Webb, Yuki Mogi,
Lijimol Sebastian, Cathy Perry, Ghazaleh Ranjehshahi and April
and Peter Walsh. Staff member Val Berardini also attended.
Scholastic Bookclub
Orders Due Tuesday 28th April
Robotics
Friday 15th May to Friday 22nd
May.
Open Day
Many jobs were accomplished and the school looked spick and
span on Monday.
Cockle Bay School Exchange
We had a tremendous week with our 12 Cockle Bay School students
Saturday 16th May 10.00am– 1pm and their four teachers. On Thursday a group of 27 students from
Mitcham and Cockle Bay went into the city by train and then
walked to the Victoria Market. They went through the delicatessen
section, food section and general merchandise section. After the
Monday 18th May 11.30am—1pm children had eaten a snack and bought mementos, we got on a
Working Open Day
tram and travelled to Flinders Street. From there the group walked
Thursday 21st May 10.00am– 1pm to Federation Square, where everyone ate their lunch.
After lunch we walked to Hosier Lane, after which we walked to the
School Photo Day
MCG, where we had a guided Tour and spent 30 minutes in the
Tuesday 26th May
Museum of Sport. From there, when our time expired, we walked
to Richmond station and caught a train back to Mitcham station,
from where we walked back to school.
Grandparents /special friend
Day
Lunch orders will be available
Mondays and Fridays
throughout the year.
School banking is on
Wednesdays
This was an excellent day, well spent and all the children really enjoyed themselves.
On Friday it was back to school and our visitors spent the day with
their “new” classmates. We finished the school day with a special
assembly and a video montage of the week’s events. Thanks to parents who sent up photos and videos which we were able to incorporate into displays. All our visitors spoke to the assembly about
their week and what the differences were between their school and
ours.
Uniform shop .
Unit 12/100 New St Ringwood.
New Online Ordering Options.
Go to the school website to downMr Ryan Pilkington spoke on behalf of the Cockle Bay teachers and
load the Order Form.
Hats are available at the office. thanked Mitcham Primary School for arranging such interesting
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK CONT
and unique experiences for their children and presented a thank you card and a beautiful picture of
a native New Zealand bird to the school.
The staff provided our teacher guests with afternoon tea and then we prepared for a BBQ dinner for
the visitors and our host families.
On Saturday morning, it was back to the airport and farewells were said.
I want to thank our 12 incredibly generous host families for their kindness and generosity. Many of
them took their billeted child to see and do some amazing things and the week would not have been
the incredible success that it was. I would also like to highlight the great work that our teachers did
in planning, booking, welcoming our guests into their classrooms, meeting our guests at the airport
and travelling to the airport to say goodbye. The School Council were also very supportive of this
venture and their support was well-rewarded. We look forward with great anticipation to a return
visit to the land of the long white cloud.
NAPLAN testing
Parents are reminding that shortly, Grade 3 and Grade 5 children will be undergoing NAPLAN testing. Because of the security that the test booklets must be kept under the Office will not be entered
by anyone whom I have not authorised. There is a requirement for a double lock security system to
be in place and we meet this requirement.
Montessori Compliance Testing
I am pleased to advise parents and the School Council that we met all the requirements of the Montessori Australia Foundation Compliance testing with flying colours (and are the only Australian
Government school to have done so according to the MAF web site). Many independent Montessori
schools have not attained this honour either.
Sincere congratulations to our staff members who made this happen. It is a strong and clear recognition of the excellent quality of our program.
Referrals and intervention
Some parents may not be aware of how we deal with matters involving children when they fall behind, have a significant learning difficulty or a speech disorder.
If a class teacher becomes aware of a deficit, learning difficulty, behavioural issue, speech imperfection or other issue needing attention in a child’s makeup, they will normally contact parents to discuss this. We do have several intervention programs: MiniLit normally for children in Grade 1 or 2,
for remediating reading difficulties and a numeracy intervention program.
We have access to a DET Psychologist and a DET Speech Pathologist, but their time is very limited
and we may be lucky enough to have between 10 and 15 children seen every year and sometimes
more than that.
Participation in all our intervention programs is determined by Mrs Wood and me, because we are
in the best position to ascribe priorities across the school. Parents are welcome to discuss your
child’s needs with us, but we will have a much more comprehensive knowledge of what needs there
are across the whole school.
External Master Plan
We are making good progress on this task and shortly hope to see final drawings and specifications.
Planning for the new sand pit is also well-advanced.
Annual Report
The School’s 2014 Annual Report was presented at the previous School Council meeting for ratification. Any parent wishing to read the report should ask at the office.
Kind regards,
Ian Sloane
Principal
FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S DESK
New Zealand Visitors:
great prep art work in the corri- The grade 5 students will be involved in the making and decoWe had a wonderful week with dor area near the Prep rooms.
rating of ceramic poppies with a
the Cockle Bay students. On Fri- Mosiac Artwork:
day night we had a farewell BBQ We have placed three pieces of visiting artist at the end of April
and beginning of May.
with all the hosting families. It
mosaic artwork done by the stuwas a lovely night and a great
dents with Ms Ricardo’s guidway to end the week. On Satur- ance on the wall near the flag
day morning all families and
pole. These show the school
four of our staff went to the air- motto ‘Thinkers, Learners,
port to see the students and
Leaders’. We will have more moCockle Bay staff off. There were saic pieces going up around the
some emotional moments and
school in the near future.
the children were sad to say
good bye to each other, but they
all boarded the plane and arrived back in Auckland safely.
Corridor Displays:
Please take the time to look at
the Art displays in the main corridor between rooms 5 & 6.
The Coral Reef art work has
been done by the 3/4 grades and
the other display has been done
by the students in grades 5 & 6 ANZAC Service:
and the Montessori Cycle 3.
Our grade 6 students went to a
commemorative ANZAC service
at Box Hill today. Our school
captains took a wreath to lay at
the memorial. The service was
organised by the RSL and Rotary. Some local schools were given the opportunity to attend.
There is also a display of some
Chess:
Chess club starts today,
Wednesday 22nd April and will
continue until the last Wednesday of term, 24th June.
Regards
Heather Wood
Assistant Principal
Mitcham Primary’s Birthday Stars
The students below celebrate their birthdays from
20th April to 26th April.
Megan 5/6C
Carly 1-3J
Alyssa 1/2N
Tissa 1-3M
Tarsha 4-6W
Students
Of the Week
Prep B Seth
1.2N
Alec
3/4P
Le Yan
3/4H
Ella
5/6G
Tao
5/6W
Elaheh
5/6W
Ryan
HAVE YOU REGISTERED YET?
Konnective is a mobile app solution that will allows us to
communicate with you, our parents, straight to your
smartphone. We send news, events, photos and more so
that you can be even more connected with your children’s
activities and events at the school. Using the Konnective
app, you can add events directly to your phone's calendar,
set reminders for things you need to do and receive important alerts (similar to a text message) as soon as they
are released.
Speak to the office for more details.
SUPER SCIENCE!
ROBOTS EXPLORE UNDERWATER VOLCANO!
When mysterious lumps of pumice stone washed up on beaches in Tasmania, Australia, Rebecca Carey knew that they must be coming from an underwater volcano.
Rebecca is a Tasmanian volcanologist (someone who studies volcanoes), and she had been tracking
the travelling pumice for more than a year. She knew these large chunks of floating solidified magma were coming from a huge underwater volcanic eruption around 1000 kilometres north of Auckland.
The eruption was first noticed by a plane passenger who saw large rafts of pumice floating on the
water.
Rebecca is now travelling to the volcano that produced the pumice, aboard US ship Roger Revelle,
to find out more about its eruption. Researchers are keen to take a closer look as we know little
about deep underwater volcanic magma eruptions.
We are interested in how those pumice particles are transported once they leave the vent,” says Rebecca.
Rebecca says the team will use two robots to find out more about the Havre volcanic eruption. One
is an autonomous underwater vehicle, called Sentry. The other is a remotely operated vehicle, called
Jason.
More information
Find out more about the voyage and ask the scientists a question
Pumice rock found by Rebecca Carey.
JOKE TIME!
Ever heard of the chemistry student who was
reading about helium?
He just couldn't put it down!
Know any good science jokes?
Send them in and we’ll publish
them!
OTTERLY LOVE!
With Mother’s Day approaching I thought this photo was timely!
EDUCATION WEEK
Education Week will be celebrated at Mitcham Primary School from Saturday 16th May until
Friday 23rd May 2015. We have several activities planned to enable all members of the school
community to visit and participate in this week.
Saturday 16th May: Open Day- 10:00am - 1:00pm.
Monday 18th May: Grandparents’ Day- 11.30am - 1:00pm.
Wednesday 20th May: Prep Information Evening - 6:00pm - 7:00pm.
Thursday 21st May: Working Open Day – 10:00am - 1:00 pm.
Crack the code with maths! is the theme of this
year’s Education Week, 17-23 May 2015.
The Education Week website now features information for parents and students about the value
of maths and computer coding education, and
the diverse study options and rewarding career
paths it can lead to.
To find out more about Education Week and the
value of maths and coding, visit:
www.education.vic.gov.au/educationweek
GRANDPARENTS’ DAY
Monday 18th May
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Grandparents’ and Special Friends’ Day will
be held at the school on Monday 18th May.
This is a wonderful opportunity for extended
family members to connect with our school
and spend time in the classroom with the children. You may also like to bring a small picnic
lunch and a drink to share with the children
whom you are visiting.
We look forward to seeing you.
School photo day is on
Tuesday 26th May
If you wish to purchase a family photo please
collect an envelope from the school office.
SCHOOL BANKING
School banking takes place every Wednesday.
To help reward individual savings efforts, every time a student deposits into their
Youthsaver account through School Banking, regardless of the amount, they’ll receive a Dollarmites token.
Once they’ve collected 10 tokens, they can redeem them for a variety of exciting reward items. They’ll also receive a certificate when they reach certain savings milestones.
OSHClub News
Before School / After School Care ProDear Mitcham OSHClub Parents,
It was nice to see the children excited and happy first week back after the short break. Last week we worked on designing our
own garden.
We are still dropping preps in the morning and collecting in the afternoon from their classes. We will continue the same and let
you know when the things change.
This term we will be working to develop a veggie patch outside the OSH room next to the windows. Your ideas and suggestions
in this matter will help us to work on it. We are looking for some pots and thermocol boxes for our veggie patch. Along with that
we are also working on the patchwork project. Children are enjoying working with fabric.
We need some books for our library. Donation in this matter will be highly appreciated.
Parents when you are in look at our Quality Improvement Plan Tree, new arrangement of the room and feel free to give feedback/suggestions. Your input is highly valuable to us.
Remember bookings can be made right until 12pm the night before, or you can book on the day by calling or leaving the text
message but there will be an extra charge of $3.00 for bookings within 24 hours. If you’re ever stuck and would like your child
to attend After School Care you can call me or leave a message on 0422 097 497 and I will get back to you. For some reason if
you need to cancel the child from attending the after school care session you can cancel online or leave a text message on the
program phone (0422 097 497) if it is on the day.
Please remember to update the contact details (Especially the phone numbers, address and any medical condition) on the enrolment form if there is any change. You can do so online.
NEXT WEEKS ACTIVITIES
Before care
activities
After Care
Activities
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Animal habitat
&
Premiers reading
challenge
Alphabet art
&
Evacuation
procedure
Sharing circle
&
Kids catch up meeting
Watering and
weeding our garden
&
Silent ball
Animal habitat
&
Kids catch up meeting
Alphabet art
&
Skipping rhyme
game
Sharing circle
&
Hangman
Watering and
weeding our garden
&
Kick the ball
Friday
Leadership
Development
&
Line tiggy
Leadership
Development
&
Broken window
Parent Information
OSHC program phone: 0422 097 497
Coordinator: Jagruti Shah
Assistants: Lekky Le (Permanent) Mona Chhed and Victoria Horn (Casuals). Alex is on placement
for the first three weeks.
OSHClub Head Office: 03 85649000
All families must be enrolled to attend the program, remember this is Free!! Please create an account
online at www.oshclub.com.au all bookings and cancellations can also be managed via your online account. For on the day bookings please contact the Coordinator direct at the program.
Advertising material is included in this newsletter as requested but is not necessarily endorsed by Mitcham Primary School
Advertising material is included in this newsletter as requested but is not necessarily endorsed by Mitcham Primary School
Advertising material is included in this newsletter as requested but is not necessarily endorsed by Mitcham Primary School
Advertising material is included in this newsletter as requested but is not necessarily endorsed by Mitcham Primary School
Advertising material is included in this newsletter as requested but is not necessarily endorsed by Mitcham Primary School