NEWSLETTER 3rd May, 2017

ISSUE 12

DET International CRICOS Code - 00861K

From The Principal…

Dear Parents/Carers

Education Week will be celebrated from 21st – 27th May 2017,

when we will open our doors to parents and the broader

community through our Twilight School. It enables all

members of the community to witness a school day in

progress. The Twilight School is an official 'Variation to School

Hours Day'. The school day officially begins at 1.00pm and

ends at 7.30pm (students arrive after 12.45pm). The Twilight

school date for 2017 is Thursday 25th May.

School Hours for Twilight School: 1.00pm – 7.30 pm

1:00pm – 3:00pm Session 1 and 2

3:00pm – 3:30pm RECESS

3:30pm – 4:30pm Session 3

4:30pm – 5.15pm RECESS

5.15pm – 5:30pm Dinner

5:30pm – 7:30pm Session 4 and 5

It is expected that students who cannot be supervised at home until 1.00pm be sent to school as usual. Letters will be sent home to all parents to ascertain who requires arrangements for supervision at school from 8.30am -12.45pm. Please note that Afterschool Care will not operate in the afternoon on this day.

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2017 for Years 3 and 5 students will be held over the next two weeks. NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Camilla and Andrew Worsnop (parents of Jack and Darcy) who have very generously donated $1500, which is the balance of the funds required to purchase the defibrillator.

We officially said farewell to our Assistant Principal, Mr Stuart Boyle, at our Monday morning assembly. Stuart has served the Rowville community as an educational leader for over fifteen years - at both our school and previously at Rowville Secondary College.

As was obvious from the tributes, Stuart was a much admired Assistant Principal. We thanked Mr Boyle for the support he has provided to students, parents and staff. We wish him every success in his new role as Principal of Belgrave South Primary School.

Anne Babich

Principal

Farewell Stuart

Congratulations to the following students who earned Mathletics Certificates last week.

Silver Certificates

Bronze Certificates

Gold Certificates

From the Acting Assistant Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

On Friday, Ms Babich and I attended a Principals` conference about Inclusive Education. We heard from a number of inspirational leaders who each offered insights into including everyone and making a commitment to provide each student in the community and each citizen in a democracy with the right to belong. Inclusion assumes that living and learning together benefits everyone, not just students who are labelled as having a difference. At Rowville Primary School we pride ourselves on including one another in the classroom and in the yard. I spent some time visiting classrooms to ask

students what inclusion means to them:

Madeline (Year 5) - “Inclusion is when no-one is left out. It feels good to belong because people care about you and you care about them.”

Danica (Year 6) – “That everyone is being included, that everyone is treated equally. Everyone playing together in big groups happily and no-one is on their own.”

Joseph (Year 3) – “Inclusion is asking someone if they want to play.”

Elizabeth (Year 4) – “Helping others in the classroom when they need support.”

Luke (Year 4) – “If you aren’t close friends with somebody you still let them play in the yard.”

Eliza (Year 1) – “You play with people and you lend someone a pencil in class if they don’t have one.”

NAPLAN testing is scheduled for Year 3 and Year 5 students next week. This ongoing assessment program looks at the writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, reading and numeracy skills of our students. The reports and information collected support planning, curriculum development and refinement of high impact teaching strategies. For more information about the tests, please visit the VCAA website at

www.vcaa.vic.edu.au or the NAP website at www.nap.edu.au. If you have any questions or concerns about NAPLAN testing then please contact me.

Last week, I enjoyed meeting with a group of parents to receive feedback from the community about the work we do at Rowville Primary School. The feedback collected will be used as part of our school review process for 2017 and will help guide the vision for the next four year strategic plan. We have generated an electronic copy of the questions below:

https://docs.google.com/a/rowvilleps.vic.edu.au/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScERol91d7IKppZkalPD5JW9aopiM53JctWRhWPj3riKD7edw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Please take the time to respond to this online questionnaire as we would like feedback from all of our parent community.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Liam Jury

Acting Assistant Principal

Aadhi S

Ada Y

Adam O

Aiden C

Akil B

Anthony D

Ashley H

Ava P

Bardia H

Bradley S

Cedric C

Chinmayi S

Chloe V

Claire S

Danica C

Disha A

Dylan L

Ebony G

Elizabeth H

Evangelina D

Farah O

Giuseppe R

Jackson K

Jake D

James K

Jamila B

Jay W

Jayda-Lee S

Jayden A

Jordan B

Josephine F

Lance F

Lauren K

Luca C

Mahkayla C

Mariam I

Natalie L

Neha C

Peter T

Prachee A

Sebastien L

Sienna K

Simone R

Siobhan L

Sophia H

Sophie K

Steven B

Tanvi P

Tayla K

Temperance L

Titus W

William K

Wyatt S

Yianna L

Zac B

Zarah M

Eloise R

Ethan V

Jad E

Jazmin M

Jenna C

Olivia N

Xavier V

Ziad B

From The School Council President…

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to Term 2. I am amazed how fast this year is going.

School Council met last Wednesday 26th April. We welcomed our two newest members - Adrian Pearce and Lionel Beer, to their first general meeting.

School Council moved a motion to endorse the very popular 'Twilight School' which we hold every year as part of the celebrations during Education Week. Twilight School is one of the highlights of the school year and raises much excitement throughout our school community. Parents and carers are able to come into their child's classroom and watch the learning in progress. It gives working parents a great opportunity to come in and participate if they would like to. Twilight School will be held on Thursday 25th May 2017. The school day will commence at 1:00pm and conclude at 7:30pm. As in previous years, arrangements will be made for students who cannot be supervised at home until 1:00pm. We will be sending out dinner menus and order forms shortly.

We have been receiving a lot of positive feedback from before and after school pedestrians using the staff car park since the closure to traffic. As communicated previously, the traffic management plan was a policy we had no option but to put in place after the safety audit. School Council was disappointed to hear that Les has been the brunt of some abuse from a couple of parents.

School Council reviewed and ratified the following policies:

Assessment & Reporting Policy

Mathematics Policy

All policies can be found on Compass and our website at http://www.rowvilleps.vic.edu.au/index.php/news/policies

On Monday, I was honoured to be able to speak at assembly on behalf of the parent community to farewell Stuart Boyle. Stuart has been our Assistant Principal for the last 2.5 years and was behind implementing initiatives such as; the 1 to 1 devices and Compass among many other things. Here are a couple of paragraphs from my speech at assembly:-

Who could ever forget the assembly where Mr Boyle set Ms Babich up by giving her the wrong name of one of our guest speakers; or at the closing of last year’s production when he had the students get Ms Babich on stage to do some ballet moves! There was also the assembly when it was Ms Babich’s birthday and everyone had Ms Babich face masks on! Mr Boyle was the King of Pranks although Ms Babich always sorted him out by giving him the jobs she didn’t want to do. Not to mention having a few pranks of her own in store for him!

From the day he arrived at Rowville Primary School, Mr Boyle brought a unique sense of fun and cheekiness to our school, yet at the same time he also commanded our respect, not through being authoritarian, but through his kind and caring nature. Mr Boyle would always get the job done and always had an open door policy with parents, who would frequently just pop in to say hello.

Mr Boyle and Ms Babich had one of the most amazing working partnerships I have ever seen and together they brought a

unique dynamic to Rowville Primary School. We were all very fortunate to have been a part of something truly magical,

witnessing a duo who were true role models, on how a good relationship can and should be.

Mr Boyle will be truly missed by all of us here at Rowville Primary School and on behalf of the parent community I would like to wish him every success in his new role as Principal at Belgrave South Primary - they are very fortunate to have secured him!

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 24th May.

Have a safe and happy week.

Vikki Fitzgerald

School Council President

Bronwyn Richards & Cindy Gardiner

Canteen Team

Rowville Kids Café News Thank you to our helpers for Term 2

Monday 8th May K. Hopkins

Tuesday 9th May L. McConnochie

Wednesday 10th May G. Davey

Thursday 11th May T. Challis

Friday 12th May S. Schmidt &

HELP NEEDED

A copy of the full café menu is available on the website: rowville.ps.vic.edu.au

Specials Menu POPCORN MONDAY Freshly Popped Popcorn $1.00

SUSHI HANDROLL TUESDAY Lunch order only

Crispy Chicken $3.20

Tuna and Avocado (GF) $3.20

Avocado & Cucumber (V, GF) $3.20

Teriyaki Chicken $3.20 Soy Sauce will only be provided on request –please note on order

Wacky WEDNESDAY Lunch order only

Chicken Chippies (bag of 6) $3.00 a bag

Please help our volunteers. We’d love to return lost property to students. Please name items sent to school, especially windcheaters and jackets. If you have lost a uniform item, please regularly check the red lost property bins in the corridor of the main building.

Walkathon Please send in your completed sponsorship form together with money collected to school as soon as possible.

Entertainment Books Rowville Primary School is once again selling the Entertainment Books/Digital Memberships as part of our fundraising efforts. The Book/Membership is $70 and an order form is enclosed in this newsletter. Alternatively you can purchase online at; https://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/187w714

Mothers Day Stall

Mothers Day Stall - Tuesday 9th May from 11.00am to 1.00pm All gifts are $5.00 each. Students are able to buy gifts for the special people in their lives.

Please bring a plastic bag on the day to carry your gift home. If you would like to help on the Mothers Day stall, please come on the day at 10.45am. You will need to sign in at the office.

Please make regular checks to ensure your child has all absences and late arrivals to school approved on Compass.

Parents are notified on the top right section of the Compass home page in the news feed if there are late arrivals or absences to be approved.

Absences can be entered in advance on Compass by Parents.

Once an absence is entered, there is no need to telephone the school to notify us that your child is absent for the day.

We thank you for your assistance in this matter and ask you to telephone the school should you have any queries regarding this process.

NEITHER ROWVILLE PRIMARY SCHOOL NOR THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING ENDORSES THE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OF ANY PRIVATE ADVERTISER. NO RESPONSIBILITY IS ACCEPTED BY ROWVILLE PRIMARY SCHOOL OR THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR THE ACCURACY OF INFORMATION CONTAINED IN ADVERTISEMENTS OR CLAIMS MADE BY THEM.

Commonwealth Bank School Banking

School Banking is every Friday at Rowville Primary School

If you would like to open a school bank account please go to your local Commonwealth Bank branch and mention

Rowville Primary School. Our school receives $5 for every new account opened.

Information packs are available on the information stand in the school foyer.