Issue 05 Thursday 02 March, 2017

Regional Swimming Team

Congratulations to Lachlan M, Luke N, Miakoda M, Alannah E, Eva P, Sarita V, Thibo P, Tom H, and Will R who all com-peted in the Regional Swimming Competition this week. All swimmers did their best and we congratulate Luke N who will now progress to the next level after winning his 50m freestyle event.

School Council Elections

I'm pleased to report the results of our School Council elections for 2017. Nominations closed on Thursday 2 March at 4.00pm and with two parents nominating for two spots, I can declare the following members duly elected:

Dan Edwards – parent member

Andrew Gaff – parent member

I am also thrilled to welcome Liz Nevill and Catherine Slaughter to School Council as DET staff representatives.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank David Weisinger, Linda Curnow and Rachel Tit for their years of ser-vice to our community through the School Council. All three decided not to stand for re-election. I also thank Mr Shane Grinter, Ms Chloe Mansbridge and Dyon Hunt for their service to our school as DET council members over the last two years. We are so fortunate to have such dedicated staff who put in extra time and commitment to the running of our school.

2017 School Council

As a result of the nominations process, I am pleased to announce our councillors for 2017:

Parent Members:

Greg Ditton

Garry Scott

Anny Murray

Dan Edwards

Andrew Gaff

April Minniece

Vanessa Cowley

Jane Pingo

Staff Member category:

Elaine Brady

Michelle Smith

Liz Nevill

Catherine Slaughter

Rod McKinlay – Executive Officer

Community Member position/s

To be advised

As we received the exact number of nominations for School Council as there were vacancies, an election does not need to be held. I thank the community members above for their goodwill and offering of their time and look forward to working with them to make our great school even better. The first meeting of our newly formed Council will be on Thursday 16 March at 7.00pm. During this meeting, our community is invited to our AGM which commences at 7.00pm and will be followed by the election of office bearers for the year and subcommittees will be formed.

A slow start!

Yes, we have some impatient students who are keen to see our old buildings demolished! With asbestos removal due to be completed this weekend we should start seeing some destruction next week!

TWILIGHT SPORTS: Tuesday 21 March 5.45 for a 6.00pm start!

Twilight Sports are a Parkhill tradition where all students from Foundation to Year 6 dress in their House colours and compete in a variety of tabloid sport type events. Events range from tyre relays to tunnel ball to fun sprinting races (including a parents’ race!)

All parents are invited to come along on the 21st March at 5.45pm for a 6.00pm start. Bring along your picnic rug and chairs, along with your picnic dinner and sit on the grassy hill and watch our young chargers participate in a variety of events that represent their House for the first time this year. All events are multi age and the emphasis is on low key fun activity!

Please note that our Athletics team is selected during a more formal Athletics Carnival held at Bill Stewarts Athletic track later in the year.

Twilight Sports are a great way to kick the year off with a fun community event that involves the whole family!

Year 6 Jacket Presentation:

All Year 6 parents will have received a letter via email this week inviting you to our jacket presentation at assembly to-morrow commencing at 3.00pm in the Hall.

Foundation students go fulltime in Term 2:

Our Foundation students, commencing in Term 2, will attend school full time.

Student Free Day: Tuesday 18 April

A reminder that the first day of Term 2 will be a student free day. Staff will be participating in professional development on this day. Students commence Term 2 on Wednesday 19 April.

And finally, I will be taking some family leave, commencing on Tuesday 14 March. In my absence Elaine Brady will be covering for me. Elaine will be supported by our Leadership team and Education Department staff until my return at the start of Term 2.

Have a great weekend.

Rod McKinlay

Hat Reminder - All months of the year with an

“R” in the name are the months that students must wear HATS.

Uniform Shop Hours: Monday 3.00pm—4.00pm & Thursday 8.30am—10.00am

Uniform orders with payment can be dropped at the office and Sam will have items delivered to

your child\ren’s classrooms.

Administration Information

BPAY is our preferred method of payment.

Thank you to those families who have come on board with our preferred method of payment. We appreciate the fol-low up emails advising of the break down of payments.

For families needing their personal BPAY code please refer to the monthly emailed statements or alternately you may send an email to the office and we will reply with the details.

Essential Education Items annual payments were due on Friday 17 February. If you have not made payment please do so at your earliest convenience or if you need to make arrangements, please call or email to make an appointment with the Principal.

Excursions 2017:

Reminder: This year Excursions are pay as the event happens. We ask for the return of notices and payment together; as you can imagine the follow up of 335 plus students is time consuming.

Please remember the following when making payments to the office:

Childs name, Teacher | Grade, Amount Paid, What you are paying for. Insure this information is on both the no-tice & the envelope with any monies enclosed.

Newsletter and email distribution: For your information emails are sent to Adult A in the Primary and Alternate fam-ily's enrolment details.

Canteen Orders: Please remember to change your child's year level within your online ordering system for both Flexi Schools & Classroom Cuisine lunches.

Jo & Mazz

Waverley District Netball BBQ – THANK YOU EVERYONE!

2017 Calendar of Curriculum events

Friday March 3 Y4 IMAX & Museum Excursion buses leave prompt at 9.00am

Friday March 3 Y3 Circus Skills Incursion Program commences 5 week program

Friday March 3 Year 6 Bomber Jacket presentation at As-sembly

Wednesday March 8 Mini Working Bee 2.00pm

Monday March 13 Labour day Public holiday—No school

Tuesday March 14 Foundation Puffing Billy excursion

Wednesday March 15 Y5 VSSEC Excursion—Mission to Mars 8.30am arrival at school

Sunday March 19 Working Bee 10.00am—12.00pm

Monday 20 March School Nurse visit

Tuesday March 21 Twilight Sports 6.00pm—7.30pm

Friday March 24 District Athletics Y4, 5 & 6

Tuesday March 28 Foundation Learning Celebration 2.15pm—3.30pm

Thursday March 30 Whole School Science Day (TBC)

Tuesday April 18 Curriculum Day—No School

Tuesday May 16—Friday May

19

Y5&6 Camp (TBC )

Student

of the

Week

Name

FR Flynn

FT Bianca

1BC Chloe

1S Will

2M Aston

2S Ravyn

3H Tom

3MR Noah

4N Rudraksh

4ME Juod

5D Dan

5H Olivia

6G Alannah

6S Kayla

Birthdays

Liam H

Sean R

Daniel W

Shahida M

Orlando T

Luke C

Fiona Y

Alexis R

Juod K

Nyagoa K

Xavier E

Aston K

Thibo P

Akira H

Felix C

Anjali R

Isabel M

Caleb T

Addison G

Reuben G

Edward T

Julia R

Lazar A

Lauren B

Head Lice has

been report-

ed in Year 2

SRI—Special Religious Instruction. For those families who have paid for SRI , please be advised we are currently working to establish the set up of the program. More information will be available as soon as possi-ble.

Sarah Robinson

Heroes Corner

Thank you to Kerry & Sumi for the recent effort in holding a second hand uniform stall. Your efforts are appreciated by many in the Parkhill com-munity.

A big thank you also to April & her team of volunteers for the Mini Work-ing Bees being held on Wednesdays. The school grounds certainly do need up keeping. Please note the dates of Working Bees elsewhere in this Newsletter.

Icy Pole Sales continue!!

Friday afternoons .50cents each. Sales from the Roger Beech Hall.

Please contact the PFA if you are able to assist.

GARDEN The Year 3 and 4 students have been cooking up some delicious dishes during our garden cooking classes with Miss Watson. Tom and Evan in 3H fried some eggplant and tomatoes in preparation for *Marrekesh Eggplant and Tomatoes on Focaccia Bread. *See recipe elsewhere in this Newsletter. Dyon Hunt

NATURAL DISASTERS INCURSION

“Time to do some experiments!” Crash! Bang! Boom!

Last Friday, the Year 4s had an incursion in the hall with a scientist called Mark. The incursion was about natural disasters which we are learning about for our In-quiry Unit.

First we did a milk, food dye and detergent experiment to simulate how magma moves inside the mantle. The mantle is the second layer of the Earth.

After that we made Oobleck to show that the mantle looks like liquid and moves like liquid but is solid under pressure.

Finally we made a volcano in a bottle with a lid on so we could see the gases escap-ing like they do from a real volcano.

It was an awesome incursion and I recommend it to people who want to learn more about natural disasters.

By Shannyn Yew 4N

YEAR 3 & 4 ART INCURSION

Amazing drawings all over the board… I imagine thousands of cartoon characters. So many Ideas!

“PHYLLIS!” Whoops, I’m getting distracted!

On the 16th of February the Year 3s and 4s had an incursion about cartooning. The cartoonist was

a guy called Mr Cardy, he was quite bald, but I didn’t mention it.

First he showed us how to draw the expressions on animals and people’s faces, like shocked, an-

gry, sad and envious.

Then we started drawing cartoon characters and Mr Cardy said we could do an expression on our

own. I did a face like someone had eaten a red chilli. We also watched some cartoon videos.

After that, Mr Cardy drew a comic strip about a queen asking a mirror… well I’m sure you’ve

already heard that story! When we finished copying the comic strip Mr Cardy said we could do

our own, so I did one about a kid who had brought a massive dog to school on pet day.

When the bell rang I knew it was time to go. I loved this incursion. I hope we get to do some-

thing like this again.

Phyllis Tan 4N

Garden

The other day I was checking the water timer in our garden and discovered a frog living there! Nearly 5 years ago

the Year 3 and 4 students set up a frog bog next to the science kitchen. I was so proud to see that their efforts

have encouraged frogs to live at our school. Frogs are a great sign of a healthy ecosystem!

Clean Up Australia Day is this Sunday (5th March). A local site has been set up on the Gar-

diners Creek Trail at the BBQs in Holmesglen Reserve near the corner of Warrigal Rd and

Power Ave. You can join online at www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au or rock up on the day between 9-11am.

Katrina Watson – Garden Teacher

Interview with Mrs Andrea Crane 1. Tell us about your teaching at Parkhill? I have been a relief teacher at Parkhill for nine years and I have enjoyed moving around the school getting to know many of the students, staff and parents. This year is super exciting and I get to share Year 6SC with Miss Smith. As a teacher I love working with enthusiastic students, helping them to learn about all areas of the curriculum. I am particularly passionate about science and building thinking skills in my students. 2. Who was your biggest influence when you were at school and why? My big sister Robyn was the biggest influence on me when I was at school. She was always so much older and wis-er, or so I thought, and I wanted to be just like her. I studied hard, was involved in lots of school activities and I was a leader of my school, hoping that I could achieve the great success she did. These days 5 years doesn't seem like such a big deal, but I still look up to her and believe she is a great role model. 3. You’re a very chirpy happy person. I can’t imagine you ever getting angry at anything. Does that actually ever happen? There isn't very much that makes me angry, however if I had to name one thing it would be people littering our en-vironment. Whether I am in the city or hiking at Wilson's Prom, humans have left a trail of rubbish behind them. I believe that we should leave no trace of our visits to any location. If we were all responsible and dispose of our rub-bish thoughtfully, Australia would be a much healthier and beautiful country. 4. What do you enjoy doing with your family on the weekends? My weekends are filled with many activities, but my favourites are basketball and geocaching. I am a basketball coach for the Whitehorse Mustangs and spend my Saturdays travelling around the eastern suburbs coaching bas-ketball. Basketball has been a passion of mine since I was 10 years old and although I don't play anymore I enjoy working with teenagers to improve their skills and support them on game day. I also love spending time geocach-ing with my family. Geocaching is a world wide treasure hunt based on GPS coordinates. If you ever have time check out 'BYO H2O' it's a cache that I made, careful though it's a puzzle cache and tricky to find.

PARKHILL PFA NEWSLETTER 02 March 2017

Calendar

Tuesday March 14th PFA Annual General Meeting

Waverley District Netball BBQ – THANK YOU EVERYONE!

A MASSIVE thank you to everyone who came along and volunteered some of their time last Saturday to help with

our BBQ at Waverly District Netball. We are so pleased to announce that we managed to raise over $1,500 on the

day which should easily pay for a new sandpit and potentially some other playgroup equipment. A shout out to

Mark Havas for taking on the role of coordinator for this event – we really appreciated you stepping up Mark and

are so pleased to have you as part of the PFA. A special mention for Grade 6 student Isabella Ditton too who was

there to play netball and saw that we were low on volunteers and jumped in to help fulfil orders. What a star!

Thank you Isabella!

Easter Raffle Donations Required

We are now collecting donations of chocolate and other Easter themed items at the office to be included in the

Easter Raffle prizes. If you would like to donate something to go towards an Easter Raffle hamper then please

drop them off at the school office.

PFA Annual General Meeting

Our AGM will be held on Tuesday March 14th at 7:30pm in the Staff Room here at Parkhill. This is a

great meeting to come along to and learn about what the PFA is and how you could potentially get

involved. For more information please drop us an email at parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com

Crowd Sourcing/Funding Marketing Experts Required

The PFA is exploring some fundraising opportunities this year that would involve Crowd Sourcing and we would

love to talk with anyone in our school community who has some experience in this space. Please contact us via

parents.friends.secreatary@gmail.com

Ritchies/IGA Community Benefits

If you ever find yourself shopping at Ritchies or IGA stores, don’t forget to sign up for their Community benefits

scheme and nominate Parkhill Primary as your community organisation. Foundation parents received a pre-

registered Key Ring in their information packs. Every year we receive a donation from them that reflects the vol-

ume of shopping they have recorded for Parkhill.

President: Vanessa Cowley Vice President: Donna Edwards

Treasurer: Sumi Sundram Secretary: Wendy Douglas

Committee Members: Katrina Battle, Joanne Dodds, Lisa Jacobson, April Minniece and Anny Murray

Marrekesh Eggplant and Tomatoes

Ingredients 1-2 eggplants, cut into 1cm-thick slices

125ml (1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, to drizzle

95g (1/3 cup) tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon firmly packed saffron threads

250ml (1 cup) verjuice

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 handfuls of tomatoes, halved

Crusty bread to serve

Method Place eggplants in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil, then, using your hands, toss to coat. Re-

peat with another 2 tablespoons oil. Add tomato paste, then, using

your hands, rub into eggplants to evenly coat.

Heat a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Working in 3

batches, add eggplants to pan and cook, drizzling with a little extra

oil if necessary to prevent sticking, for 4 minutes each side or until

tender and golden. Transfer to a flat dish.

Meanwhile, place saffron and verjuice in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large frying pan over medium

heat. Add onion, garlic and 1 teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring fre-

quently, for 5 minutes or until onion is soft. Add cumin and paprika,

and stir for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add grape tomatoes and stir to

coat in onion mixture. Add truss tomatoes, cover with a lid and cook

for 8 minutes or until all tomatoes have softened. Add verjuice mix-

ture and bring to a simmer. Season.

Layer eggplant and tomatoes with cooking juices on a platter.

Garden

The other day I was checking the water timer in our garden and discovered a frog living there! Nearly 5 years ago the

Year 3 and 4 students set up a frog bog next to the science kitchen. I was so proud to see that their efforts have en-

couraged frogs to live at our school. Frogs are a great sign of a healthy ecosystem!

Clean Up Australia Day is this Sunday (5th March). A local site has been set up on the Gardiners Creek Trail at the BBQs

in Holmesglen Reserve near the corner of Warrigal Rd and Power Ave. You can join online at

www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au or rock up on the day between 9-11am.

Katrina Watson – Garden Teacher