Congratulations to

Thank you to

Bus Travel Walking School Bus—Friday 20th May

Many thanks to all the parents and children who helped out at the Work-ing Bee last Saturday. It was heartening to see the turn up. We achieved a great deal and many hands make light work. Thank you to the following families who either helped on the day or who completed jobs prior to the Working Bee. • Chris and Rachel Bills, Steven, Pauline and Liam Powell, Andrew

Balfour, Andrea and Dan Kellett, Linda Robertson, Lisa and Mark Wilms, Brendan North, Graeme and Brett Ferguson, Pauline Black-shaw, Jenny and Mark Turra, Lynne Raven and Graeme Fenn.

• Bea Nave, Emma Gramlick, Kristy Williams. Some jobs still need to be completed. If you can help out please see Ann Construction of a new raised garden bed between the mandarin trees (Hazel’s Garden).

Accounts will be sent home today. Please check your account balance. Thank you to those families who have either paid or continue to come in on a regular basis to pay off their account, however there are a number of families who have not contacted the school about payment or paid an-ything towards their account. The school is reliant upon families paying the Essential Education Con-tribution. Like all government and non-government schools we also have a tight budget to work within. If you are having financial difficulties please speak to Ann. Arrangements can be made to fit your circumstances. If you have concerns/queries about your account it is best to speak to

Cathy Tisdale. Cathy can bring up your account on the computer. Cathy

is at school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Willow Grove School and

Community Newsletter 5 T H J U N E 2 0 1 4 V O L 1 4 : I S S U E 1 6

DATES FOR 2014

} 5th June—Grade 2 Sleepover

} 6th June—Report Writing Day

(Student Free Day)

} 9th June—Queens Birthday

} 6-9th June—Tanjil Valley Art

Show

} 10th June—Curriculum & Policy

Comm Meeting 7.00pm

} 11th June—Parent Association

Meeting 9.15am

} 12th June—Finance Committee

Meeting 11.30am

} 13th June—Science Day—

Chemical Changes

} 17th June—School Council Meet-

ing 7.30pm

} 26th June—School Reports dis-

tributed

} 26th June—School Disco

} 27th June—Term 2 finishes—

early dismissal 2.00pm

TUE WED THU FRI

9

Queen’s Birthday

Public Holiday

10

Curriculum Comm

Meeting

(no Bldg & Grounds

this month)

11

Parent Assoc Mtg

12

Music lessons

Grade 5/6 Bike Ed

Finance Comm Mtg

13

Science Day

16

17

School Council

Meeting 7.30pm

18

19

Music lessons

Grade 5/6 Bike Ed

20

June 2014

Find us at—

www.willowgroveps.vic.edu.au

It’s not okay to be away … it’s not great to be late …

News from Ann

Financial Accounts

Grade 2 Sleepover tonight

Tanjil Valley Art Show on at the

old Hill End School this long

weekend.

REMINDERS

Parents play a major role in assisting and supporting their child to ac-quire strong literacy skills. Literacy learning started when your child was born. Parents play a vital role as their children’s first literacy teachers. Consider all the things that children learn before school as they mix with others, observe what others do and try to do the same things. Much of this learning happens naturally and within a social context. Oral lan-guage is the foundation of learning to read to write. Encourage your chil-dren to talk about and express their feelings and ideas. Provide experi-ences that expand their concepts and vocabulary. Children do not al-ways needs loads of money spent on them. Varied family outings, games inside and out, just pottering around with you as do jobs will ex-pand their notion of the world. They will bring their knowledge and under-standing of the world to their reading and writing. Literacy learning is a social experience because it depends on demon-strations from, collaboration with, and continuous feedback and re-sponse from, other people, it happens, at home and at school, when chil-dren are surrounded by people who listen, talk, think, read and write. Children need to see the purposes for reading and writing.

Here are some ideas for you to support your child develop literacy skills over the year levels. Share experiences (a picnic, camping, gardening, cooking, farming) which are then talked about at home Share books (especially stories) and talk about them with more experi-enced readers Have plenty of books to handle and read See print all around them Have models of how people read and write Have opportunities to read and write Know that people expect them to read and write Are given choices about what they read and write Feel free to ‘have a go ‘ at reading and writing (including spelling) Are able to talk about their reading and writing Experience feelings of success Feel responsible for their own reading and writing Have confidence in their own ability Understand what reading, writing and learning can do for them We need to work together, parents and teachers, to develop a part-nership which will support our literacy learners and to ensure a life- long learning. As adults we know that literacy provides the keys to life.

Can you help?

News from Ann

P A G E 2

Kate Mether, Rachel Bills, Belinda Nave and Lynda Earle—our Walking School

Bus Co-ordinators.

Kate Mether—Parent Helper at Grade 2 sleepover.

W I L L O W G R O V E S C H O O L A N D C O M M U N I T Y N E W S L E T T E R

Mechatronics

Thank You to

Grade 1, Grade 2/3 and Grade 5/6 students were involved in a Mechatronics activity last Tuesday. Mr Kelvin Slade came into the school and talked to the children about engineering automation and robotics. The children then had the opportunity to learn about some aspects of robotics using the models present-ed. Our students will have further opportunities to construct robotic models over the

next few months. Some of our students may also have opportunities to enter

into a competition with other schools.

Art Award Piper

Playground Award Jess

Student of the

Week

Dane

Happy Birthday

Gemma

Jordon

P.E. Award

Alex V

Monday Public Holiday

Wednesday Tracey Rees

Friday Lynda Earl

LUNCH ORDER ROSTER

Childcare Reference Number

407144619S

Willow Grove Primary School

Tanjil Valley Art Show

This term the children have been busy working on their 3D ‘alien’ art projects for selection into the Tanjil Valley Art Show. The quality of chil-dren’s work this year has been outstanding, which made it very hard to select a limited num-ber for entry. Selection is based on the require-ments all children work towards when producing pieces of art; completeness, craftsmanship & creativity. Well done to Gemma, Natalie, Kyan, Piper, Liam, Bailey, Darcy R, Braedan, Thomas, Nathan, Ashley, Izabella, Angel, Clarry, Kate, Brydie, Gus, Jordyn, Tristan, Ben, Katie PH, Fe-licity, Ryan, Lilly, Xavier, Kafil, and Lucas V. We hope families can visit the Tanjil Valley Art Show this long weekend to see these great pieces of work and also the work of our stu-dents who enter individually from home. On the Friday evening there will be a special light show and an appearance from E.T, to showcase all of the youth art. All our Aliens will be on display towards the end of the term. Make sure you drop in for a look!

Willow Grove kids are friendly kids

This term we will be working on—Respect

This week we have been looking at Respecting Adults and next week we are looking at Respecting Differences There are many things we have in common and share at Willow Grove PS. But there are many ways in which we all differ. Some of us like football, while others prefer netball. Some like maths, others prefer reading books. Some people like to listen to CDs; others like to play on the computer. Some like the Hawks and some go for the Bombers. Some of us are tall, some of us are short. Some are strong and some are fast. In some way or another we are all different and that makes us all the more interesting. It would be pretty boring if every-one went around doing exactly the same thing - we would all be like robots. Thankfully we are not robots, we are human and we are all different. Even in the same family we are different from our brothers and sisters. Rather than worrying about these differences we need to accept and respect them, and also to celebrate them. It is good that we are all different; all special and unique. Let’s celebrate this and find the good in us all.

Willow Grove PS Kids are e-Smart kids Respect different levels of proficiency Accept individual’s preferred choices of games/programs/activities

PART ONE OF “THE ELDER SCROLLS, SKYRIM”

By Angus Leeson (inspired by the game).

In this story the narrator is a cat called Y’harkr. He is about to start an adventure in Skyrim. I wake to hear people talking, they’re stormcloaks. “The cat’s

awake I see, my name is Ralaf,” a blonde man says, I hiss at

him for being so rude to my kind.

“We are called khajiit!” Ralaf gives me a strange stare

“I am sorry if I offended you.”

“My name is Y’harkr, I am 21 years old. I am J’zargo’s brother

and I also have royal blood,” I reply.

“This is Ulfric Stormcloak, the true high king of Skyrim possi-

bly all of Tamriel,” Ralaf says pointing to a nord (human) sit-

ting next to me. He has been gagged so he can’t use his thu’um

(a power nords and the dragonborn use to shout). About ten

minutes later we arrive at Helgen for our final destination. A

stormcloak steps up to the execution block that is ready for

his death. The executioner raises his axe and swings down on

to the man’s neck. His head falls into a basket below, and blood

squirts everywhere “Now the cat!” the axe-man says, I hiss

and walk up to the block. They didn’t even clear the basket.

The executioner raises his axe again, and suddenly we hear a

massive roar “What was that?” a man asks.

LOWANNA BY BEN TURRA

“OMG this going to be so much fun” all the girls screamed as they got off the bus. All the grade was saying “hi” to the people that they knew. We were at Lowanna for a Secondary Aware-ness Day. “Well hello everyone my name is Mr Mitchell but you can call me Mitch”. “And as you know my name is Samantha but you can call me Sam. So first you have maths” Samantha said with a big grin on her face. In maths we played mystery numbers on the floor and then we went back to the tables and we did mini maths number sheets I was partnered up with Damo. And after we finished that I went and caught up with a couple of my mates and we shot some hoops and then I went and played Markers Up with the boys. Do you know what I really liked? The P.E! We did a mini commando course and we did tumble turns, skip-ping and star jumps. My second favourite was the technology because we made snails out of little strips of metal and then we had to weld it together. Also the sparks looked like mini fire-works! And on the way home I nearly fell asleep from all the fun I had.

So before you judge Lowanna think of all the great activi-

ties there are on offer.

Lowanna Day By Damo Paul “Mum, mum guess what? I’m going to Lowanna Secondary

College today! I’m going to be a high schooler” I shouted

to my mum in excitement. I was so excited that I got

dressed in ten minutes and I was fully ready for school.

When I got to school Mrs E did the roll and then it was

pretty much time to go to Lowanna. When we got to Low-

anna I was so excited to just walk around and see what

was going on. They gave us a tour of Lowanna and told us

where everything was. We went to assembly next. After

assembly we did maths.

In maths we got introduced to the math teacher Miss

Clarke. She was nice and happy to all of us. Miss Clarke

said that we were going to do mystery numbers. In mys-

tery numbers Miss Clarke would write clues on pieces of

paper and we had to look at the clues to figure out what

number Miss Clarke was thinking of.

When maths was finished I had my first high school re-

cess. At recess I got to catch up with all of my basket-

ball mates and got to see all of the kids that used to go

to Willow Grove (like Mitch).

After recess we had metal work. In metal work we made

snails with the spot welder. Sparks flew when we used

the spot welder but the sparks didn’t hurt us.

When we had English we played Scattergories. In Scat-

tergories, my partner was Tahra. I thought that we

worked well together. Miss Mann the teacher said a let-

ter and Tahra and I had to put different words starting

with the letter in the different categories we had.