Acting Assistant Principal’s Report

August 21st, 2014 Issue 22

Private Bag 1, Mine Road, Korumburra. 3950 Telephone: 5655 1309 Email: korumburra.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Fax:: 5655 2861 School Hours: 9.00 a.m.—3.30 p.m. Web address:: www.korumburraps.vic.edu.au

K.P.S. PRESS

Special Religious Instruction

The decision by DEECD to introduce a requirement for families to ‘opt in’

to Special Religious Instruction (SRI) has meant that we needed to

re-evaluate the provision of this program at KPS.

At the beginning of this term the mandated DEECD SRI Permission

forms were sent out to all families to indicate whether they want their

child/children to participate in SRI at Korumburra Primary School. The

parents of about one quarter of the student population elected to ‘opt in’

to SRI.

This significant decline in participation in SRI places pressure on our

school as we try to manage the needs of all students. As there are other

accessible opportunities for students to participate in religious education,

School Council has decided to withdraw the program for 2014. We fully

expect to survey parents at the start of 2015 and re-assess the situation

at that time.

On behalf of the entire school community I want to thank the SRI

volunteers who have contributed countless hours to support students at

KPS. The annual Christmas concerts are special memories for many in

our community.

If you have any queries about the school decision on this matter please

don’t hesitate to contact Nathan at the school.

My last week.

This has been my last week as Acting Assistant Principal. I would like to

acknowledge the help and support I have received by all my school

colleagues as well as the professional way everyone gets on with the job

of making Korumburra Primary a great place to work and learn.

(Continued on page 2)

Well Done Award Winners 18th August, 2014

Acting Assistant Principal’s Report Cont….

Strategic Plan 2014-2017

Over the last week the leadership team and staff have spent time and

provided input into the development of the School Strategic Plan, in

particular our Key Improvement Strategies and the way we work. This

plan will guide us to continue to deliver a quality education to our students

in the next 4 years. From this Plan, teachers are now completing their

Professional Development Plans to reflect the goals of the school.

Sickness, colds and absences.

We have had a large number of students and staff suffering from the

recent out-break of colds and flus which include a persistent cough. If you

feel your child is not well enough to spend an active day at school please

make the decision to keep them warm and quiet at home. Whilst we

advocate that students do not stay home if well and miss valuable time at

school, they cannot function and sustain the energy for a full day if they

are unwell.

Behaviour

The long winter term is nearly over and we are beginning to see some

warmer light at the end of the tunnel. Students have been quite tolerant of

time spent indoors due to rain and cold weather, but sadly some

expected playground behaviours have been forgotten in the excitement of

actually being out in the sun! We ask parents to support the school to

remind their children of responsible and thoughtful play and games that

ensure their and others safety.

Young Ambassadors Program;

This morning we had a fabulous presentation at assembly from our

school captains and vice captains on their experiences in the Young

Ambassadors Program held last Thursday and Friday at Coal Creek.

Once again we are proud of our school ambassadors and their

participation. Presentation of the Young Ambassadors projects will be

held on September the 11th at Coal Creek.

(Continued from page 1) ESO month.

August is the month when all Education Support Officers are recognised

for the great work they do in schools all across the state. We at KPS

value and respect the huge contribution that the ESOs at Korumburra

Primary make to the students they work with and across the whole

school. So many things could not happen the way they do without the

dedication and commitment of these staff members. Thank you.

Production

Production preparation continues full steam ahead. We are now having

combined class rehearsals and ‘run throughs’. Costumes and props are

being finished and gathered and the excitement is definitely building. The

combined talents of our staff and students are clear to see.

Treats & Pleasures

One of the perks of being ‘up in the office’ means there is often a passing

tray of food that has either been brought to school to celebrate an

occasion or a result of cooking and ‘procedural writing / recipes’ in the

classrooms. Thank you!

Another pleasure of being in the office is to have children proudly bring

their work and creations to share. I have had great pleasure in seeing the

results of writing learning where senses are being used to write

descriptively about weather, completed with a fully published piece. Well

done!

I have also continued to spend some time with a group of year 6 students

in our literacy appreciation sessions. I am impressed with the level of

engagement in The Watertower by Gary Crew, a particularly ‘creepy’

picture fiction text aimed at older students. To see a group of students

grouped around one text that they are totally absorbed in and animatedly

talking about is very encouraging. There is a deeper level of

understanding emerging about the author’s intent and the visual imagery

that is used in this text. We hope to continue to explore other Gary Crew

works and other similar texts to further develop our challenge & critical

thinking.

Jacqui Rotthier Acting Assistant Principal

KING KARMAI

Ticket order forms

to be sent out

MONDAY the 26th

August.

Senior Department News

An Update Year 6

The Year 6 team have continued looking at an Integrated Studies Unit titled, Work, Citizenship and Government. The children have been very busy

designing a town where a community’s needs are met. Maps have been drawn and enlarged using the principles of scale drawing. These have been

displayed in the BER building. This week in particular the children have been asked to come up with a business that would service the needs of that

community. This has involved designing a shop front, business card, an advertisement for the local paper and yellow pages.

In Mathematics there has been a focus on reading time on analogue, digital and twenty four hour clocks and next week we will focus on reading

timetables in preparation for next year at Secondary College. We also are having Linda Jennings, the Year 7 Co-ordinator from Korumburra Secondary

College, come and speak to us this Friday. The children have been preparing questions to ask Linda during her visit.

We regret to inform you that The Water Warriors Program that has been run by the South Gippsland Water Board will not run this year. The program

which was funded by the State Government has had its funding withdrawn and so The Water Board is unable to offer this to our students.

Jenny Mulqueeny

Year 6 Classroom Teacher

An Update From Year 5

The last few weeks has been a productive time in Year 5, with students continuing to work well in their reading groups and showing a positive start in their newly formed maths groups. Having completed a post-test in addition and subtraction only last week, many students have shown a clear level of growth across this topic area, developing skills in 3 digit addition and carrying across more than one column. Students have or will soon be lucky

enough to see their growth plotted on a graph, allowing them to make a clear visual link to their progress in this area. Great job Year 5's!

Recently the Year 5's also had an in depth discussion and lesson based around resilience. This was a great opportunity for the students to voice their opinions, thoughts and concerns about issues that may arise at school. The students were offered sound advice and strategies on how to deal with many of these situations and I know we're looking forward to seeing how these kids are going to continue to develop and grow this year, ready for Year

6.

Miss Abbott’s class were also lucky enough to have a Skype catch up with classmate Jorja Whyte, who is currently away exploring Australia! I know

Jorja had just been swimming, the sky was blue and she looked really happy.. we're not at all jealous here at KPS!

Keep your eyes peeled for the next newsletter, as we're hoping to have some photos of the students 'Out Of This World' holiday flyers! All classes have been busy, working hard on researching other planets in our solar system that could one day provide a great holiday destination. You'll have to ask Ellie

Stewart which planet is great for honeymoons, given it has the nickname 'The Planet of Love'.

That's all for this week, so thanks for reading! The Year 5 team...

Dan Wells

Year 5 Classroom Teacher

40 HOUR FAMIME

What a great effort by our Senior Students who

participated in the 40 Hour Famime. Over $600.00 has

been raised by our students.

Thankyou to everyone involved.

Middle Department News

YEAR 4 CAMP With only a few weeks before camp, it is important that families keep up to date with payment plans. If there are any problems with this, please speak to our Business Manager, Annie, as soon as possible so that your child doesn’t miss out on camp. Medical forms and clothing lists will be sent home next week, so please be on the lookout for these! KIDS MATTER Following on from our in depth staff PD on the Kids Matter initiative, we have been talking with the students in the middle department about Kids Matter and the current focus of “Every Face Has a Place” and what this means. We are hoping that as our display takes shape you will come into the middle department and check it out. A lovely book to share with children is “The Wrong Stone” by Russell Deal; the idea behind the book is that everyone is different and has something to offer. SCIENCE Both Years 3 and 4 are working on SCIENCE units – Solids, Liquids and Gases, and Forces and Energy. We have had some very interesting conversations, and some great ideas have been put forward from the students.

The Year Three classes have begun their Science topic States of Matter. We have been learning about the properties of and differences between

solids, liquids and gases. We have learnt that these three substances are made up of molecules with a different amount of atoms contained in them.

We look forward to participating in many exciting experiments in the coming weeks to become even more knowledgeable about changing solids, liquids

and gases.

YEAR 4 NUMERACY The Year Four students have been working on fractions and decimals, so help them out by having lots of conversations about fractions. Cooking and

shopping are the best for this, especially with measuring ingredients or looking at money.

Our Year Three scientists have spent time in mathematics this week measuring the volume and capacity of liquids. NC3 joined NK3 today and

enthusiastically measured out different amounts of coloured liquid into beakers and graduated cylinders. We now know how to accurately measure

liquid using millilitres and that 1000 millilitres makes 1 Litre. Maybe you can find objects in your home that can be used to measure or hold liquids or

maybe you could also do some baking at home? Please enjoy our photos of our very clever scientists below.

Natalie Ciavarella

Year 3 Classroom Teacher

Junior Department News

All Prep parents will have received the information note about the Prep Night for Wednesday 3rd September. We hope that giving this information out in

advance will give you adequate time to organise your child’s costume. The Consent Forms will be coming home shortly. When you receive them please

fill them in and promptly return them to school.

This is another friendly reminder regarding the deadline for the Preps to have their named pyjamas at school by 1st September. The pyjamas are part of

their costume for the up and coming School Production. We thank you in advance for your help in these organisational matters.

During this term the Preps have been challenged to use their ever developing writing skills to be a Reporter during our Investigation time. Children, in

turn, get to report and write about what they see other children doing during their Investigations. The children are really enjoying this special but

purposeful writing and proudly ‘report’ back to the class during Reflection time. The children also use the ipad to take a photo to go with their news

article.

Jan Clark

Classroom Teacher

Reporter - Kameron Allamby proudly

showing his news article about the

Pirates.

The Pirates – Laili Post and Lucas Fox

working in the small world.

BIKES R US

The Bikes R Us team

need clean rags.

If anyone has clean

rags can they please

send them along to

school.

Thankyou

Matt Stear

HPV & Pushcart Program 2014

Term 3 has been one made up of practise sessions and working specifically on our presentations. Outdoor sessions on the vehicles have involved

honing our skills and developing a sense of cooperation and teamwork throughout these sessions.

Casey Fields Visit – Thursday 4th September

We have a scheduled training session at the Criterion Cycling track at Casey Fields on Thursday 4th September. This will give all students a chance to

‘ride’ under semi-race conditions (HPV teams), test their fitness using one of the school bikes around the track (all students), or refine their riding and

changeover skills on the pushcart. Matt Stear our School Chaplain will be driving the minibus to and from this session.

Important Dates and Details

Listed below are all of the important upcoming dates and details for the HPV/Pushcart program in Term 4. We will hit the ground running to make sure

we have a smooth transition to the Maryborough event.

A number of Information Nights for parents and students will be scheduled for early Term 4 to smooth out any issues, questions or concerns.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at school regarding anything HPV and Pushcart related.

Craig Friebe

HPV and Pushcart Co-ordinator

W

e

e

k

N

o.

Week

Starting Week Plan Notes / Evening Activities

1 6/10/2014 Raffle & Lap-a-thon Announce-

ment at Assembly (Mon 6th Oct)

Evening Training Session 3.30 - 5pm at KPS (Thursday

9th Oct)

2 13/10/2014 Evening Training Session 3.30 - 5pm at KPS (Thursday

16th Oct)

3 20/10/2014 Lap-a-thon (HPV at Stoney Creek,

Pushcart at KPS - TBC) Stony Creek Evening Session 5 - 7.30pm (Friday 24th Oct)

4 27/10/2014 Draw Raffle at Assembly (Friday

31st Oct) Stony Creek Evening Session 5 - 7.30pm (Friday 31st Oct)

5 3/11/2014 Display Boards FINISHED

(Thursday 6th Nov) Stony Creek Evening Session 5 - 7.30pm (Friday 7th Nov)

6 10/11/2014 Night ride at KPS (Thursday 13th Nov) 7.30 - 9.00pm (HPV

& P/cart)

7 17/11/2014 Maryborough HPV & Pushcart (Wednesday 19th November - Saturday 22nd November)

SCHOOL VEGETABLE PATCH

Hi to all of our parents and guardians,

Our vegetable patch is in need of much love.

Do any of you have a green thumb just aching to get stuck into the garden?

We are hoping that there may be some of you out there that may be interested in rejuvenating our vegetable

patch and working with small groups of children to assist you at lunchtimes?

Please leave your name and phone number at the office with Betty, Annie or Helen if you, or anybody that you know may be interested in helping our school out and I will be in contact with you as soon as

possible. Volunteers must have a Working With Children Check.

Thank you,

Natalie Ciavarella

P E NEWS

Our meeting last Monday was dominated by talk of the Father’s Day Stall and the upcoming production.

I can hardly believe that Fathers’ Day is less than three weeks away, but there you are – it’s on Sunday the 7th of September. We therefore have our

usual Father’s Day Stall coming up on the Wednesday before that date – the 3rd of September. You will receive a reminder, the night before the stall,

about your children bringing along their $4 for a gift. We will be wrapping our Father’s Day gifts on Thursday the 28 th of August at 9 am in the staffroom,

so feel free to join us if you have a spare hour that morning (we have over 500 gifts to wrap before the teachers come in for their cuppa at recess so we

would really appreciate your help, if only for half an hour).

King Karmai, our biennial school production, is less than FOUR weeks away. P and F will be lending a hand at the dress rehearsal; but in addition,

before both performances we will be selling tea, coffee and slice for the grown-ups, and bags of ‘worm lollies’ for the kids. We hope you will support us

and come along and make a purchase, to help get in the spirit of this fantastic event at our school.

Finally, in case you have heard your children talking about the little ‘self-portrait face’ they drew in art class, this is for our tea-towel fundraiser (i.e. every

family in the school will have a chance to purchase these great tea towels, which have the hand-drawn face of every child in the school on them). This

will be happening towards the end of the year, after Father’s Day and the production are done and dusted. Stay tuned for more details.

All for now!

Stay rugged up and I will speak to you again around production time.

Pee-Wee Lewis President, Parents and Friends

Production

We are still madly practising and polishing the dances for the production each week in PE. Classes have been combining and working together to perfect

moving on stage, performing and moving off stage. Parts of the costumes have even had a run this week. This all takes time and patience, but is abso-

lutely necessary to result in a fantastic production!!

We have managed to squeeze in some work on ‘Net’ games (eg, badminton) in the Year3-6 and have had some balloon fun in the P-2 classes.

Sporting Events

The mixed netballers continue to devote spare time to practise at lunchtimes for their upcoming tournament on Tuesday 9 th September. Travel arrange-

ments are just being confirmed and notes will go out shortly to those concerned.

Trials are underway for the District Basketball Tournament (Year 5/6) on Thursday 18th September. Teams will be confirmed next week.

Notes went out early this week for the Division Athletic Sports which is being held at Mary Mackillop, Leongatha on Thursday 11th September. Please

see me if your child did not receive a note and thought they should have.

Shelley Snooks

P E Coordinator

Parents and Friends

So far this term the Art Room has been abuzz with production preparations. Students in all year levels have created elements of their own costumes,

props and scenery elements during their Art classes. Students have had the opportunity this week to wear their costume items during production

practices – and they look fantastic! I would love to share some pictures of them with you, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

Putting a production together on this scale is a big job and we are very grateful for the help we have received. We have been fortunate to have been

supported by two local business that I would like to sincerely thank. Ivan Olsen from Ivan Olsen Soft Furnishings supplied the back drop material at cost

price and sewed it together for us for free. While Dorene Blum from Fabrication Fabrics also gave us a great price on material for various costumes. To

the both of you, a very big thank you!

During planning week of Term 2 we ran a competition to design the poster to promote our production ‘King Karmai’. Students were able to create a

poster by themselves or as part of a group. I

have great pleasure in announcing the winner

(or should I say winners) of the competition…

the students of Mrs. Dowel’s Year 1/2 class.

Congratulations!

Fiona Simcock

Art Teacher

Art News

Mrs Dowel’s Year 1/2 Class

Maggie Elford—Artist of the Week

Library News

Book Club – Orders for Issue 6 need to be back at School by Friday 29th August. Please note we have been advised by Scholastic that Item 402 on the Star brochure (Title – Build, Discover, Survive! Mastering Minecraft) is not available. They are not able to supply this item so please don’t place an

order for it. If you have already placed an order for this item you will be issued with a consolation book and voucher.

Book Week – A small number of children have been coming to the Library at lunchtime this week to participate in the Book Week activities. So far we have looked at ‘Banjo and Ruby Red’, ‘The Windy Farm’ and ‘Granny Grommet and Me’. The children have enjoyed making chickens,

windmills and surfboards.

Book Fair – It’s almost time! Our annual Book Fair will be arriving on Tuesday 2nd September

with sales commencing on Wednesday 3rd September and running until Monday 15th September.

Opening times will be before school 8:30 – 9:00am, during lunchtime and after school 3:30 –

4:00pm. There will be the usual novelty items, posters and of course, books!

Helen Cripps

Library Technician

Music News

PREMIERS

READING

CHALLENGE

Joel Hewitt

Tanner Walker

Riley Sullivan

Gina Tanoa

Mrs McPhersons Preps

Mrs Cants Preps

Only 3 weeks to go

KING KARMAI BIG congratulations to our new caterpillar Dylan Fox who has replaced our previous caterpillar with great enthusiasm and commitment. We look forward

to seeing your very funny performance on the night of King Karmai.

Caterpillar: Dylan Fox

Tickets are going on sale This Friday the 22/8/2014 and will be on sale until the 10th of September.

As there are lots of families, and we would like to make it as fair as possible for every family to attend, we ask that you choose to come to either the

Matinee at 1:00pm on the 17th of September, or the Night Performance on the same day at 6:30pm, as no two people will be able to attend the perfor-

mance twice. Please consider with care.

We hope to see lots of friendly and excited faces as we would love to share this big event with you all!

Practises have been in full swing with the main characters meeting every Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes, and by golly they know their words off by

heart!!!!! We have a very talented and committed bunch of students representing us this year in King Karmai, and I thank-you parents for your dedication

in helping your child succeed in doing this. It is wonderful to be working in a community that really values their child’s success with support and love.

Thank-you from the bottom of my heart.

We have been practising out bottoms off in P.E, Art and Music this week combining the items and doing mini dress rehearsals…Looking great so far

everybody. Thank-you to every student who comes to class ready to listen and have fun, it has made this week very enjoyable. Thank-you to all the staff,

parents and students who have been continually offering your support and cooperation for the operation that is the whole school production! King Karmai

here we come.

Please start bringing in the basics for your costumes asap, to be handed to your teacher in a plastic bag, or as requested by their teacher, with their

name clearly labelled on it. Thank-you these items will not be used in the lead up, it is merely to ensure every student has their basics for the dress

rehearsal and performance day happening on the 15th of September and 17th of September.

Keep up the great work.

Gabi Smith

Music Teacher

Calendar of Events

2014

22nd August - KSC visit to Year 6

25th August - Tickets for Production go on sale.

September

2nd—16th September - Book Fair

3rd September - School Council Meeting

8th—10th September - Year 4 Allambee Camp

9th September - Netball Victoria Schools

Championships

11th September - Division Athletics

- Young Ambassadors

Presentation.

15th September - Parents & Friends

Production Full Dress Rehearsal

16th September - Bike Ed Challenge

17th September - School Production

18th & 19th September - Year 6 Transition to KSC

19th September - Term 3 ends

October

6th October - Term 4 begins

15th—16th October - Year 3 Camp Phillip Island

17th—31st October - Art Show

23rd October - Year 2 Sleepover

- Division Summer Team Sports

24th October - Zoo Excursion Preps

27th October - State Athletics

28th—29th October - Music Camp (Tentative)

November

3rd November - Curriculum Day

Pupil Free

4th November - Melbourne Cup Day

5th November - School Council Meeting

6th November - Regional Summer Team Sports Final

7th November - Junior Swimming Starts

14th November - Junior Swimming

19th - 22nd November - RACV Energy Breakthrough Maryborough

21st November - Junior Swimming

28th November - Junior Swimming

December

3rd December - School Council Meeting

5th December - Junior Swimming

12th December - Junior Swimming

15th December - P & F Meeting

16th December - Year 6 Graduation

19th December - Term 4 Ends.

K.P.S a UNITED

Community School

WELL DONE

AWARDS

Chloe Allman

Zane Wilson

Annie Osborne

Katie Smith

Ryan Hill

Zahli Butler

Dylan Fox

Liam Egan

Harrison Clark

Georgia Lindhe

Blake Webb

Jazmyne Austin

Ysabella Graham

Ebony Henry

Ferne Hurst

Josh Clapton

Jacquline Turton

Bryce Riddell

Abbey Nicholls

Isabella Tomkinson

Hayden Simcock

Ruby Jobling

Ben Woodberry

Riley Franklin

Thomas Farbus

Blake Dean

Jai Henderson