Exford Primary School Where Children Count!

www.exfordps.vic.edu.au

At Exford, these qualities are really important: Respect Kindness Personal Best … and it’s up to all of us to show them every day in every thing we say and every thing we do!! Principal: Ms Lisa Campo Phone: 9743 5025 [email protected]

NEWSLETTER 2016 No.19 (Term 3, 2016) Thursday 17 November 2016 You are represented on School Council by: Parents: Adele (Olivia & Alexander), Beck (Imani), Belinda (Nicholas and Kade), Bonnie (Caleb), Jackie (Claire & Ben), Jenny (Aimee & Daniel), Katy (Adele, Hamish & Maddison), Sharon (Charlie & Archie) and Susan (Jessica). Community Representatives: Graham Staff: Ms Campo, Mrs Farrugia, Mr Parker and Mr Bright

Follow this link to Exford’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRQsi70kyo0V7OFJsBcOF3w Reminders! These payments are due for our students:  Student Book Pack - $140  Mathletics subscription - cost $13  Prep -2 children only – Reading Eggs subscription - cost $24  Year 3-4 and Year 5-6 Camp payments

Ms Campo’s News... Our Oval – as sent out on Tiq Biz yesterday The answer is YES!! Our oval will be reinstated, with an anticipated completion date of mid Term1 at this stage. I had a conversation with DET late yesterday, where I was informed that DET is assessing the proposed schematic design and recommendations with relation to play elements, the land topography and related water issues. I will receive confirmation of which option we will have for our oval within the next week or two, but have been told this afternoon that our oval is going to be reinstated and that I could share this news with our School Council last night and share it with our community. This has been a real community achievement – from the work of our School Council Presidents, Katy and Bonnie before her, to our families for their letter writing campaign and to our school’s unceasing communications with DET about this issue. To our kids, families and staff who have been amazingly resilient about making the best of a difficult situation, you are wonderful!

Cut out & stick me to the fridge!

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Dates to Remember: Please add them to your calendar!

2016 Dates Term 4 Dates Friday 18 November Prep excursion to Anakie Fairy Park Kids are coming dressed up as a fairy tale character! Mon 21 – Fri 23 November Yr 3-4 Camp Wilkin (Anglesea) Thursday 1 December Yr 1 Camp Tuesday 29 November 2017 Preps Transition Visit No 3 2017 Yr 1-6 Kids Transition Visit No 1 Tuesday 6 December 2017 Preps Transition Visit No 4 2017 Yr 1-6 Kids Transition Visit No 2 2017 Yr 7 Transition visits Thursday 8 December Yr 6 Graduation evening Tuesday 13 December Meet the teacher and new class day Wednesday 14 December

6:30 pm – EPS Christmas Concert!! All welcome! Thursday 15 December Semester 2 Reports to parents Friday 16 December Exford Fun Day Canteen - Red Food Day Tuesday 20 December Last day of 2016 school year 1 pm Assembly 1:30 pm Dismissal (Buses from 1:3 pm)

Farewell to Ms Colangelo Congratulations to Ms Colangelo who has been successful in gaining a position at a school much closer to her home. We wish Ms Colangelo all the best for her new school but want her to know that we will all miss her very much.

Welcome to Ms Kapper Welcome to Ms Kapper, who will be our new Physical Education teacher next year. She will be visiting in a few weeks to meet the children and to have a welcome morning tea with our staff. Ms Kapper is a keen sporting enthusiast and has competed professionally. We welcome her to Exford!

SeeSaw – Student Driven Digital Portfolios Two of our classes, Year 2 Graham and Year 3/4 Lynch, have been trialling a new student digital portfolio program throughout this year. Here is a link to the website for you - http://web.seesaw.me/ SeeSaw is a fabulous way for students and teachers to share the learning that is happening in a real-time way. Students can use SeeSaw to upload:  Work samples – Art works, a Maths or Science exploration or experiment  Photos of projects,  Video grabs of their explanations or reading demonstrations,  Rubrics which outline the learning- for example, a writing rubric would identify the writing behaviours a child has demonstrated in the displayed piece of writing.  Learning goals and examples of how they are meeting their learning goals. We have been so impressed by the power of SeeSaw that In 2017, we will be taking SeeSaw school wide! Exciting times, so stay tuned!

Djerriwarrh Festival Thanks to our students and staff for coming to Djerriwarrh Festival on Saturday 4 November. Thank you to Mrs Quayle, Ms Lynch, Mr Jenner and Ms Waites for coming along to support our kids in the annual Djerriwarrh Festival event. These children attended the Exford PS entry:         

Charlie and Archie Chloe S Ciara and Helaena Ella B Ellie C Emily T, Indy Ivy

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Jaron, Jared and JV Kash Krysta-Ray, Jakob and Stella Madi E Maddie and Charlotte Molly and Teliah

Ruby and Symone and Raisa and Raima came to visit, before attending their Parade entries.

Upcoming events for our kids Term 4’s events  Friday 18 Nov – Prep excursion to Anakie Fairy Park  Mon 21 – Wed 23 November – Year 3-4 Camp Wilkin  Thursday 1 December – Year 1 day Camp  Thurs 8 December – Year 6 Graduation evening  Tuesday 13 December – Meet the 2017 class day  Wed 14 December – EPS Christmas Concert  Fri 16 December – EPS Fun Day and Red Food Day

School Council Meeting Report At our School Council meeting last night, we discussed the update on the Audit carried out late last year:

Issue 1: Our Oval – see page 1 of this newsletter - YEAH! Issue 2: Treatment Plant works You may have noticed the yellow temporary fencing that has been installed down the side of the oval. This has been placed there by the work team who have begun looking at our Treatment plants. They have placed a barrier up between where they may be working and where our kids are playing. As always, if they need to bring vehicles or machinery on sight, it is done during class time by preference, or we clear the area of children and then there is a worker walking in front of the truck as a ‘spotter’. They are looking at a way to extend the capacity of our Treatment Plants, as requested by our School Council.

Issue 3: Our Power Supply audit Our power supply audit has now completed and School Council and I await the formal report. We received a major power upgrade at the end of 2012, increasing our power capacity and also ensuring that the phases were balanced. Given our growth since 2012, we requested this investigation as part of the OHS Audit completed late last year. The power audit has tracked our power usage and how balanced the loads are. The only works required now is to link our emergency back-up generator in an automatic way, rather than our needing to manually switch to generator power. They will also create better ventilation for the generator shed. Other School Council discussed and ratified:  Our draft School Self-Evaluation document, which will form the basis of our School Review which will be held early next year  Our draft 2017 School Budgets  2017 Student Book Packs and the DET Parent Payment Policy – these will be sent home to you within the next week o Including ‘Reading Eggs’ for Prep-Year 2 students o Gymnastics program (8 week program) o Recorder for Years 3-6 students as part of the Arts program  Year 5/6 Camp for 2017. We will be returning to Camp Cooriemungle (near Port Campbell) and will hold that Camp from Wednesday 18 – Friday 20 April. o Camp forms for students in Years 5 and 6 in 2017 will have the camp forms sent home shortly and the anticipated cost is approximately $250 (student numbers depending)

Some news from some of our talented students.

Sophie, Isabelle and Olivia – our young ladies enjoying each other’s company!

Fun times in the Year 2 Team

Jessie and Eila during their Melbourne Cup activities.

Millie and Ella ‘horsing around’!

Some keen Scientists gardening.

Djerriwarrh Festival photos.

Attendance … Every Day Counts

Fundraising News Our 2016 target is… $15,000 - $25,000.

Our Tally so far…

$20,219.65

(Not including Shopping Day yet)

Christmas Concert Raffle Tickets

Did you know that: If your child has missed 5 days or less this school year. This will support your child to achieve their best at school – academically and personally. If your child has missed more than 10 days this school year. The amount of time your child is missing will impact on their learning and their friendships. If your child has missed more than 15 days this school year. Your child is missing so much time from school that it will be extremely difficult for them to keep up with their learning, their friendships and to feel connected to school.

Congratulations to these classes for having perfectly punctual classes – Week of Monday 31 October 

Year Prep Christensen, Year Prep Pengelly and Year 2 Colangelo

Week of Monday 7 November 

Year 1 Ambrose, Year 1 Roe, Year3/4 Humphries, Year3/4 Lynch, Year 5/6 Ciantar and Year 5/6 Gundry

Exford’s BEST Attendance Award trophy goes to … Week of Monday 31 October  Prep King and Year 5/6 Gundry Week of Monday 7 November  Prep Pengelly and Year 5/6 Ciantar

A reminder that all holiday absences require an Absence Learning Plan, developed with your child’s teacher and signed by the Principal or Assistant Principal to cover your child’s absence.

Our Christmas Concert Raffle Tickets were sent home today. This is our final and our biggest fundraising activity of the year and it is always such a team effort. If you are able to donate or source a prize or can help with the BBQ, please contact the school to let us know that you can help. Early draw for our Christmas Raffle tickets – all tickets in by Friday 25 November will be in the running for the family ticket to Santa’s Kingdom for Friday 2 December. We will draw this prize at our Monday morning Assembly on Monday 28 November.

Happy Birthdays!! To our students who celebrated their birthdays from 17 - 30 Nov Carmen, Toby, Argene, Adrian, Jasper, Isabella, Hannah, Elodie, Thomas S, Stella, Levi, Amelie, Grace, Ivy, Thomas M, Charlie M, Mia b, Benjamin T, Brydie H, Olivia B, Jared D, Mikhala P, Oliver E, Joel Ch, Kayla H, Ella B and Aaron T. Happy Birthday to you!! Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear kids, Happy Birthday to you!

We love celebrating birthdays at school, making a fuss over the child who is celebrating and birthday cup-cakes are always welcome! We also love for birthday children to visit us in the Office for a sticker and birthday song. Having birthdays at school is a very special event and if your child is absent on their birthday, they miss out on all the fuss made over them.

We have a page from our Djerriwarrh Festival entry, our revitalised sand pit play area and some Year 5/6 Camp photos. Our next newsletter will have more pages about our Year 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp.

Hope you enjoy reading our newsletter!

 Ms Campo

Year 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp

Here are some photos of our Year 5/6 kids at Sovereign Hill Camp, where they were transported back in time to being children of the 1850s. They experienced Ballarat during the Goldrush, where life on the goldfields was tough, silence was golden, and mottos such as ‘Manners maketh the man’ ruled. Our children spent two days in one of the goldfields’ schools, St Peters, St Alipius or Redhill school, where they learned the fine art of copperplate calligraphy, writing with a slate and a quill, imperial money units, sewing, drawing and playing simple games and with old fashioned toys.

Sandpit Sand & Toys! I think our sand and new sand-pit toy delivery are a hit!