MARCH 1st

SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS RESULTS 2018 It is my pleasure to welcome two new parent members - Rebecca Dell and Sara Schulz to our 2018 School Council. Congratulations also to parents - Sasha Kober, Marquita Telford and Leah Davidson for their re-election to SC and to staff members Dale Goldsmith, Andrew Caulfield and Helen Clark for their re-election as well. This year is going to be an exciting year with the completion of our building works as the main highlight. Result of the election of new office bearers for 2018 is: PRESIDENT: Darrell Holden VICE-PRESIDENT: Sara Schulz SECRETARY: Leah Davidson TREASURER: Sasha Kober Membership:

RED BALLOON DAY There was much excitement today with many children dressed in red and supporting our local fire fighters by do-nating a gold coin and tying a red balloon on the school’s fence-line. I will advise families of the amount of money raised in the next newsletter. Thanks to Marquita Telford and her team for organising the balloons and to all the families who supported this great fundraiser.

February 23rd District Swimming March 2nd School Clean Up Day 7th Division Swimming 9th PFA meeting 2.45pm in the Sue Goodall build-ing 15th Aths Trials 3-6 16th Curriculum Day Region Swimming 23rd Twilight Aths Knox Aths Track 5—7 pm TERM DATES FOR 2018 TERM 1 30th Jan—29th March TERM 2 16th April—29th June TERM 3 16th July—21st Sept TERM 4 8th Oct - 21st Dec

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Parent Member

Term ends 2019

Parent Member

Term ends 2020

Staff Member Term ends

2019

Staff Member Term ends

2020

Darrell Holden

Sasha Kober Chris Donaldson

Helen Clark

Joe Rodriguez

Rebecca Dell Amy Hillier Dale Goldsmith

Sharon Dodd Sara Schulz Andrew Caulfield

Marquita Telford

Leah Davidson

CONGRATULATIONS CAPTAINS!! I am delighted to announce the results of the various captain roles for 2018. There are new captain roles this year to ensure leadership opportunities across all areas of the curriculum. I am very proud of our student leaders and confident the elected students will represent The Basin Primary School admirably. At this week’s assembly, the newly appointed Captains will be presented with their badges. As we consider all Grade 6 children leaders in the school, everyone will receive a LEADER-SHIP badge.

PREP FAMILY NIGHT We had an amazing number of prep families attend the Prep Family Night on Tues-day. It was lovely to the children and their little siblings all enjoying the activities before joining their families for a picnic dinner. Congratulations to the Prep staff team for the successful organisation of this night and a special thankyou to Dale Goldsmith, Colin Hartley and Aaron Thomson for organising the fun activities at the start of the evening. UPGRADE PROGRESS Our sincere thank you to parents for your understanding in the changed ‘drop off ‘routine last Tuesday during the large concrete pour of our new gym. On Tuesday, our site Manager took Sarah, Cath and myself on a tour of the new admin building. Currently the trade’s people are working on the interior and carpenters will soon begin fixing the weatherboard exterior. Straight away, we noticed how spacious this new building is with a larger staffroom, additional toilets for both staff and visitors, meeting rooms, larger office spaces, a spacious foyer and entrances on both sides of the building. The gymnasium is changing every day before our eyes with roofing contractors attaching cladding to the outside of the building.

Ferndale House Captains

Miller House Captains

Doongala House Captains

Chandler House Captains

Kaitlyn Eldridge Max Collins Taylah Malone Olivia Curson

Noah Nugent Sarah Hassing Wil Stephens Casey Cormack-Brown

Ferndale Vice House Captains

Miller Vice House Captains

Doongala Vice House Captains

Chandler Vice House Captains

Ethan Major Alex Dummett Charlotte Dobson Adelina Bloomfield

Indi Lee Riley Shaun Massie William Robinson Ben Griffen

School Captains

JSC Captains

Science Captains Performing Arts Captains

Zara Smith Patrick Nicholls Eloise Holden Abbey Reynold

Blake Rule Sonia Curson Andrew Berezy Patrick Knight

German Captains Visual Arts Cap-tains

Sam O’Neill Alanah Menhenett

Johanna Wedgewood

James Robinson

VISIT FROM SHAUN LEANE – Victorian MP for Eastern Metropolitan Region On Tuesday, Shaun Leane met me onsite to discuss additional top up funding to cov-er the cost of our proposed oval works. He listened with interest our goal of achieving great facilities for not just THE BASIN PS children but for our communi-ty. He indicated that he would speak with the Victorian School Building Authority in seeking additional funds. Fingers crossed! PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION Parent clubs foster closer links between parents and teachers, facilitate parental participation in their child’s school and work together with school staff and the School Council to ensure the best possible educational outcomes for the benefit of all students. Last Friday, 11 enthusiastic parents attended our very first PFA meeting for 2018. The meeting was held in the Sue Goodall building at 2:45pm. We talked about a new beginning as well as acknowledging the amazing contribution of Fiona Jackson over a long period! In the middle of 2017, the Education Department introduced a guideline that all PFAs must have a constitution. The new committee’s goals for 2018 include monthly meetings where suggested events and activities can be raised, discussed and voted upon; where committee members can share the responsible for running events and a desire to introduce a social component bringing more parents together.

Following an election process the following OFFICE BEARERS were elected -

PRESIDENT: Lauren Croisent & mentor Marquita Telford VICE PRESIDENT: Renee Burley SECRETARY: Jacqui Nicholls TREASURER: Sara Wood COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Liz Wigney, Megan Foote, Sara Schulz, Sophie Dalton and Michelle Peak.

The PFA are keen to have more parents join the committee. The next meeting will once again be at 2:45pm in the Sue Goodall building on Friday 9th March. The com-mittee is quite open to holding meetings at times where more people can attend so it is important we hear from those who would like to join this new and exciting com-mittee.

OUR SCHOOL CHOIRS - KNOX FESTIVAL This Saturday our Junior, Senior and German choirs are all performing at the Knox Festival and we hope they have a wonderful time showcasing their beautiful voices to the audience. Many thanks to Colin Hartley, Greg Oswald and Cornelia Tyrrell for firstly their passion and for the time they spend with their choirs.

CAMPS, SPORTS & EXCURSIONS FUND (CSEF) If you hold a valid concession card or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF. The allowance will be paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child. The annual CSEF amount per student in primary school will be $125.00. Please see Sarah Wallace if you believe you are eligible for this funding.

SCIENCE CONNECTIONS with THERMO FISHER Two staff members deliver our Science program – Greg Oswald takes Preps to Grade 4 children and Helen Clark Grade 5&6 children. Through Helen’s science contacts she has been instrumental in developing an amazing relationship with Thermo Fisher, a large worldwide science company with a base nearby in the Caribbean Gardens ar-ea near Scoresby. In term 4 last year Thermo Fisher supported a STEM challenge at our school and gave us amazing K’nex technology sets for teams of our grade 5/6 students to use in their challenge. They have also conducted slime- making incur-sions with our younger grades for the past two years. We have also received the generous donation of science equipment to enrich student learning in our Science program. Thermo Fisher are very keen to continue their involvement in our whole school science program. Kristalee Pollock and Claire Saliba were invited to a gala night in the city as guests of Thermo Fisher where we received a beautiful engraved silver plate thanking us for allowing them to be involved in our school. WORKING BEES Our Buildings & Grounds Committee work hard to ensure we have safe, tidy and beautiful grounds for our children to enjoy. There are Working Bee days set once a term and we would really appreciate as many parent volunteers on these days as possible. We have big grounds here so the more helpers, the better. The dates are 21st April, 21st July and 13th October and the committee dedicate the whole morning to carry out the required jobs. Even if you can only attend for an hour, that would be fantastic! ANNUAL PERMISSION NOTES The Basin Primary School offers a range of activities that require the written con-sent of parents and guardians. To save extensive paperwork several of these activi-ties can be covered by gaining your written consent only once each year. All families will receive a form with an explanation of the activities and we encourage parents to return the signed annual permission page ASAP. SOUND WAVES – A NEW SPELLING PROGRAM One of our improvement goals this year is to improve our students’ spelling. After an extensive research of available spelling programs last year, the staff has select-ed ‘Sound Waves’. This phonemic approach uses a sound-to-letter strategy, which acknowledges that sounds can be represented more than one way in written form. This phonics approach focuses first on the basic units of sound in our language – phonemes. It then explores the letters that represent these sounds and how they can be put together to form written words. Last night our teachers participated in a professional learning activity delivered by a Sound Waves consultant. Earlier this year we purchased resources including individual student workbooks, which all stu-dents will use on a daily basis and an online licence to access the online Soundwaves program for all children to use at school. We plan to commence using this program as soon as possible. Graeme Russell

February 25th Kyah Kilmartin-Chatfield 27th Charlee Millar Addie Evans Riley Mitchell Blake Rule 28th Cooper Adam Charlotte Noblet Summer rodwll March 1st Kumar Rajendran Charlotte Torkington Paddy Fimister 2nd Willow Horn 3rd Hudson Donovan