Principal’s Report

December 11th,, 2014 Issue 35

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

The end of the year is fast approaching now, yet there are still many events and jobs to complete before that final day on Thursday December 18th. Teachers have been busy all week with the student portfolio presentations. The Year 6 students have been busy preparing for their graduation night. We had our state wide orientation day on Tuesday. This included an information session for our 2015 prep parents. On Wednesday we thanked our volunteers and parent helpers at a morning tea in the library. Throughout the week we have been busy interviewing our 2015 aspiring leaders. Good luck to all of our students that have been

involved in this process.

Year 4 Bike Education & Year 3 Road Safety Programs

Our Year 4 students have continued honing their bike riding skills this week. There have been so many Year 4 students on bikes working in groups developing their skills. The program culminates on Tuesday 16th

December when the Year 4 students undertake their challenging end-of-program activity in riding from Leongatha to Koonwarra. They will all then do a range of activities before catching the bus back to KPS. The children have been supported by Ms Hughes, Ms Anderson, ES staff and many, many volunteer parents who have been helping the children

develop their skills.

Year Six Graduation

Our Year six students will be having their formal graduation next Tuesday evening December 16th. This is an important milestone in their development and we are sure it will be a great night. Preparations and planning are now almost complete for this special night which is a

highlight of the school year.

(Continued on page 2)

Well Done Awards Monday 8th December, 2014

Principal’s Report Cont….

Parent Information Night

On Tuesday evening we held a parent information evening that was open to all parents. Thankyou to the staff and the parents who were involved in the session. I also need to thank the students from the HPV/Pushcart team for their presentation. Some of whom took time out from their

scouts’ end of year break up to present.

The purpose of the night was to celebrate and highlight some key initiatives and programs at KPS in 2014. It was also our aim to give parents an insight into what we are planning for 2015 in relation to our

school strategic plan.

We celebrated the success of the HPV/ Push Cart teams. Mrs Rotthier shared her successes as a learning coach and the positive impact she is having on teacher’s professional learning. Mrs McPherson presented information and successes of the Developmental Curriculum and Mr Kilpatrick finished off the night with an informative presentation on Kids Matter and how we are working to cater for our student’s social and

emotional wellbeing.

Can I please direct parents that were not able to attend the evening to please go to our school website to access the presentations on Power-Point. Any parents that have questions about the topics covered please

don’t hesitate to call me at the school.

Farewells

Sadly at this time of year there are usually some farewells to mention. Ms Candice Huntly has recently accepted a teaching position at Aitken Creek Primary School. I have really enjoyed getting to know Candice. She is highly regarded within our school community and will be missed. Candice is one of those team players who is always willing to ‘go over and above’ to help her colleagues. Candice really cares for the development of every child in her class and she works hard to cater for their every need. Candice has a passion for ICT; she was responsible for getting our new website up and running. She was also the ICT coordinator in the Junior Department this year. Thanks Candice for your contribution and commit-

ment to the students at Korumburra Primary School.

We are also farewelling Pee Wee Lewis. This is Pee Wee’s final year as a parent of the school and hence will be relinquishing her current role as our 2014 P&F President. Pee Wee has had involvement with the school for a staggering 19 years. Wow! In the 19 years Pee Wee has made a huge contribution to the school as a volunteer. Pee Wee has held a variety of positions in the school. Pee Wee was a member of school council for 9 years, 3 of them as School Council President. She has been a LAP volunteer since 1998, choreographed school productions, coordinated the Schools float entries for Karmai festivals. And to add to all of these roles I only recently learnt that Pee Wee also offered aerobics to our parents and staff for 11 years. Pee Wee informs me that this was a real hit with the mums in our school community. Pee Wee

thank you. You will be missed!

Student Portfolio Presentations

Thank you to all those parents and family members who have taken the time to attend this week’s Student Portfolio Presentations. Today is our last day of these presentations. This process is an important opportunity for our students to demonstrate what learning has taken place and what

goals they have met over the year.

(Continued from page 1)

Students usually take great pride in their portfolios and have worked hard to prepare their for this week’s presentation. Thank you also to all the teachers for their work in preparing for this week of Portfolio

Presentations.

School Council and P& F

I would like to use today’s newsletter to thank the members of our School Council and of Parents and Friends for their support and their contribution to our school over the year. We are very fortunate that we have such committed parents who are willing to give up their time and work for the benefit of our school and our students. The excellent governance of our school and the many improvements in facilities and resources would not be possible without the support of these fantastic volunteers who work

hard for the benefit of all students.

Special thanks to our Executive members of both our organizations and to our School Council President Anita Roberts and our P & F President Pee Wee Lewis who have both had a very successful year in their leadership

of these important roles within our school.

Semester Reports

Next week the students will bring home their Semester two reports which also include their full years’ progress. The reports are addressed to parents but we suggest that parents/ guardians sit down with their children and discuss the reports with them. This will ensure that you can discuss strengths, celebrate successes and decide how areas of concern can be addressed. Teachers spend considerable time and effort when compiling and writing these reports and the information included in them should

inform parents and students about the current levels of achievement.

Please be aware that we have a very rigorous editing process where the reports are checked and re-checked to overcome any errors; however it is quite possible that some errors may have slipped through the safety net. If there are such mistakes on your child’s report please let the class teacher know, or alert either Mr Gray or myself through the office, and we will

arrange for a reprint.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff for their hard work in compiling and writing these reports. It is a very demanding part of teachers’ duties that take a lot of time. I would also like to thank Mr Gray for leading us through this process. It is always challenging. Thanks also to Betty Hall (office), Paul Jones and Doug Alexander for their I.C.T.

support throughout this demanding process.

Please note that the reports will be sent out next Wednesday December

17th

Christmas Wheelbarrow Raffle

Thank you to our very generous parents who have donated to our annual Christmas Wheelbarrow Raffle. The wheelbarrow is over-flowing with goodies. Your generosity is most certainly going to ensure that the lucky winner has a Christmas to remember. A reminder that the raffle will be

drawn at next Monday’s assembly.

Items for Upcoming assemblies

Friday 12th December

Term 4 perfect attendance awards

Bikes ‘R’ Us presentations

Weekly House points

HPV/Push Cart Video

Monday 15th December

Perfect attendance for all of 2014 academic year

Social Service

House Points for 2014

P & F Christmas raffle

Year 6 leaders certificates

JSC certificates

Farewell Ms Huntly and Pee Wee Lewis

Thursday 18th December – students last day at school

Year 6 graduation song

2014 captains’ speech

2015 school leaders announced

Nathan Pirouet

Principal

Principal’s Report Cont….

Classes and teachers for 2015

All classes and teachers for 2015 have now been finalised. We will be having 17 classes. Students will all have a walk up to their new classes with their new teachers on Thursday 19th in the afternoon session. PLEASE NOTE DISCUSSIONS REGARDING CLASSES AND

TEACHERS ARE CLOSED.

Classes and teachers 2015

(Continued from page 2)

Grade Level Teacher

Prep Jenny Cant

Prep Jan Clark

Prep/1 Kerrie McPherson

Year 1 Fiona Simcock & Jacqui Rotthier

Year 1 Tara Young

Year 2 Robyn Cutler

Year 2 Ellyn Zizic

Year 2/3 Lynn Dowel

Year 3 Nigel Kilpatrick

Year 3 Laurie Bier

Year 4 Ben Hallas

Year 4 Haley Anderson

Year 5 Leigh McCahon

Year 5 Daniel Wells

Year 6 Christine Abbott

Year 6 Craig Friebe

Year 6 Jenny Mulqueeny

Art Rachael Warren

PE. Shelley Snooks

Music

Performing

Arts

Gabrielle Smith

Intervention Brenda Jones

Learning

Coach

Jacqui Rotthier

Middle Department

Traffic Surveys

As a follow up to the Street Scene incursion for Year 3 students and Bike-

Ed program for Year 4 students, traffic surveys were undertaken in some

classes. It was interesting to see the types and volume of traffic which

passed the school in a short time on both the South Gippsland Highway

as well as Princes Street. It also reinforced the necessity for road safety

signs around schools and busy roads. Students took tallies, created

graphs and summarised their findings.

Parent Volunteers

Thankyou to the many parent helpers, who have helped out this year with

camps, Bike-Ed, reading, science activities, cooking, swimming, Art Show

etc…. We could not run the wide selection of programs and extra-

curricular activities in our school without your help. We hope to have your

assistance again in 2015!

Student-Led-Conferences/Portfolio Presentations

Thankyou to all of the parents who have attended the student-led-

conferences/portfolio presentations during the past week. We hope that

the students proudly keep their work in a safe place and refer back to as

they continue their learning journey and see their progress.

Library books/home readers

Please check at home for library books and home readers as these need

to be returned by the end of the school year. We would rather have books

back late after being found at the back of cupboards or in school bags

etc. than spend extra money replacing lost school property!

Nigel Kilpatrick

Classroom Teacher

Wow, we can’t quite believe it’s coming up to the end of Year 5 already! It’s been a busy year and I’m sure the students are feeling pretty worn out… particularly after running action stations, taking on peer mediation duties, preparing their applications for leadership roles and finishing all

those class activities over the last few weeks!

So, in preparation for the end of term (and to give the kids a bit of ‘down time’), we’re hoping to get each of the classes to ‘bring a dish’ ready for their class party on Tuesday next week. We’ve decided to hold a combined class party this year with all the year 5’s, consisting of a ‘dance room’, ‘movie room’ and ‘chill-out room’. If the students are able to bring a small dish, it would help considerably during this busy time! Please see

details below:

Mr Well’s Class – Savoury dishes

Miss Abbott’s Class – Sweet dishes

Mrs McCahon’s Class – Party Drinks (cups will be provided)

Students have also been working hard to finish their ‘timeline projects’ for their Inquiry topic. They’ve confidently worked through all the units for Soundwaves this year and they’ve nearly finished their online book on Storybird, summarising and celebrating their time in Year 5. There have been some beautiful pieces of work created this year and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed displaying these in the BER building and the classrooms, celebrating the wonderful things our students can create!

Well done Year 5’s!

As a final reminder for this year, it’s really important that students collect all their belongings and make sure all personal items return home at the end of this term. There have been a large number of jumpers and other items left in the BER building over the last few weeks and these will simply

get added to lost property if they’re not claimed or collected in time.

Finally, on behalf of myself, Mrs McCahon and Miss Abbott, we would just like to say a final thankyou to all the parents, students and fellow colleagues for making this year such a success and giving us all so many happy moments, particularly around school and in the classroom! We wish this year 5’s all the best for Year 6 next year and we look forward to hearing how they get on! Have a great Christmas and New Year and we

look forward to hearing all the stories at the start of next term.

Dan Wells

Classroom Teacher

Year 5 Report

Artists of the Week

Farewell Message

As most of you may be aware, I am

leaving Korumburra Primary at the end of

the year to take on a new teaching

position at a primary school in

Craigieburn.

I would like to take this opportunity to

thank the parents of KPS for their

continued support both of myself and

their children in my classes every year.

Learning is definitely a partnership

between home and school and I have

enjoyed building these partnerships with families here since I arrived in

July 2006.

Each year I thoroughly enjoyed starting back to school as I always had a

wonderful new group of students to get to know, work with and learn

alongside. I have great memories and experiences from many different

classes (and year levels!) that I will always remember – from camps,

filming, sports days, netball games, choir songs, class antics and creative

sessions with ICT. Thank you to the students – I treasure each and every

memory and will continue to do so.

As much as I am looking forward to this new step in my teaching career, I

will miss the school community of KPS. As excited as I am, my heart is

sad as I plan to leave a place that has been my home and family for the

last 8 ½ years. It was here that I learnt how much I love teaching and

realised that this was a profession I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Korumburra Primary definitely has a place in my memory and heart and I

wish everyone all the very best for the future.

~ Ms Candice Huntly

Farewell Ms Huntly

We have finished another fantastic year at Reading Before School Club.

There has been 1850 visits to Reading Club during the year and it has

been a pleasure to read with so many of our students. On Monday at

assembly we made a special presentation to foundation book club

member, Kai Misawa. Kai began Reading Club when it started in 2009 as

a year one student. He has consistently attended Reading Club for the

past six years and it has been a privilege to watch his journey as a reader.

On Wednesday morning we celebrated our year with our annual breakup

breakfast. Reading Club resumes on February 2nd, 2015. See you there!

Merry Christmas to all our book clubbers and their families.

Brenda Jones, Jacqui Rotthier, Helen, Sharon, Kathy, Emma

and Jenni

Reading Club

P E News

JUNIOR SWIMMING PROGRAM

The Junior Swimming Program concludes this week. Congratulations to all the junior school students who completed the swimming program. The

students have impressed with their swimming ability and understanding of water safety. The students developed their understanding of water safety and

rescue skills by taking part in many different activities that enhanced their swimming and knowledge of water safety such as rescuing and identifying

dangers in the water. A big thank you to all the parents who gave up their time to help instruct and support the students. A special mention to Sharon

Jones, Kim Fowles and Kerrie McPherson who dedicated an exceptional amount of time to helping the program run smoothly. Without any of these

individuals the program would have not been possible and the students wouldn’t have experienced and developed such an important life skill.

COMMUNITY SPORTS

A big congratulations goes to Milly Hurst and Riley Olden who participated in a soccer skill acquisition program and Galah day recently! This was a

great experience for both students and with persistence and dedication they could possibly be recruited to a representative club. Well done on your

efforts and good luck!

HOLIDAYS

I would like to thank everyone from the Korumburra Primary School Community for making me feel so welcome and a part of your school this term. I

have really enjoyed my time at Korumburra Primary, particularly getting to know the students and watching their progression in Physical Education.

Corresponding to this I would like to wish the Grade 6’s the best of luck next year and I’m sure you will all continue to develop into exceptional young

adults. As you stride from school for the last time, stop and look back at the building where you have grown, been guided, encouraged and taught for

the last six years and be proud.

A special thank you to Betty Hall for assisting and answering my hundreds of questions each week!

A very Merry Christmas and safe New Year to everyone! Remember to slip, slop and slap on a hat!

Daniel McGinley

PE TEACHER

CANTEEN SPECIAL THURSDAY

18TH DECEMBER, 2015

Don’t forget to get your orders in for Hot Chips on

the last day of school for 2014

$3.00 per serve

No other lunch items available on this day.

Snacks, drinks and ice-creams will be available.

A NEW EXCITING PROGRAM FOR SRI STUDENTS IN 2015

WOW………. A totally re written, newly designed program (formally known as Christian Religious Education or CRE) specifically aimed at Junior, Middle & Senior school students is rearing to go. Plus a simpler, less confusing parental consent form has been redesigned by the DEECD in consultation with ACCESS

ministries for 2015. A fully qualified trained group of SRI teachers are ready…..set…to…....go!!

Every student in the school will be receiving an informative brochure about the “Explore Christianity” program, outlining the wonderful Biblical stories and values that can be explored in 30 minute interactive sessions. The program is designed to look at developing the “whole child” including physical, social, emotional, mental and spiritual areas through discussion, interactive games, acting, puzzles and a whole lot more! Sometimes MIND BOGGLING…but

FUN!

FREE……..

The 2015 program will be FREE with funding of the KPS SRI program being jointly supported by the Combined Churches of Korumburra & the school. So if you would like your student to participate in learning about peace, community, obedience, boundary setting, respect, curiosity, love, compassion, responsibility, generosity, doing your best, creativity, trustworthiness, freedom, duty, fairness, friendliness, inclusion, environmental sustainability, care,

tolerance, integrity, forgiveness, humility, honesty, excellence, faith, diversity and service…..

SIGN YOUR SRI CONSENT FORM……..

Return…… THE SIGNED CONSENT FORM….. to the school by 15th Dec 2014…. and go into the Christmas Hamper Draw.

***only signed returned forms will be eligible for THE HAMPER DRAW on the last day of school.

Korumburra SRI Team

Calendar of Events

2014

December, 2014

12th December - Junior Swimming

15th December - P & F Meeting

- Xmas Raffle Drawn in Assembly

16th December - Year 6 Graduation

- Year 4 Bike Hike

- Class Parties

17th December - Student walk up to new classes for 2015

18th December - Term 4 Ends.

Last day for students.

3.30 pm. finish

January, 2015

23rd January - Book Collection Day

29th January - Term 1 2015 begins.

K.P.S a UNITED

Community School

WELL DONE

AWARDS

Amber Thompson

Mackenzee Swain

Harry Taylor Smith

Matt Allen

Beau Wilson

Beau Grabham Andrews

Shannon deBondt

Piper Harding Matuk

Siena Lane

Harrison Clark

Ishkah Butler

Kirrah Belvedere

Lacee Sullivan

Rory King

Dylan Marrow

Tarkyn Taylor Wilton

Thomas Veltri

Jason Grogan

Regan Guest

Mollie Fernandez

Thomas Farbus

Ruby Jobling

Alexndra O’Neill

Jai Henderson (absent)

Isabel McNaughton (absent)

Ambrin Narwal (absent)

Library News

All student borrowing has finished.

Please return all books to the Library by tomorrow, Friday the 12th December, 2014

Helen Cripps

Library Technician