No 9 2013 - Echuca West Primary School

around mailbox. Many hands make light work so if you are
able to come and bring along some general gardening tools
it would be much appreciated. A sausage sizzle lunch will
be provided.
Personal Best at the West
echucawestps.vic.edu.au.
SMS 0428937348
NEWSLETTER
NO.9 FRIDAY 19 th APRIL, 2013
SPECIAL EVENTS NEXT WEEK
Wednesday 24 th April
Anzac Day Ceremony 10.30am
Thursday 25 th April
Public Holiday – School Closed
STUDENT LEADERS
Open Morning and Mother’s Day Morning tea
On Friday 10 th May we are conducting an Open Morning
from 9:00am to 11:00am. All parents, grandparents,
prospective parents and special friends are welcome to
attend and see the school in action. Following the Open
Morning we will be having a Mother’s Day Morning Tea at
11:00am. Children will be serving their mum a scone with
jam and cream on a decorated paper plate and teachers will
be offering cups of tea and coffee. Our Mother’s Day Raffle
will also be drawn. We look forward to your attendance.
Please bring along a gold coin donation to help pay for the
ingredients.
Anzac Day Ceremony
Next Wednesday 24 th April, Mr Leersen’s Grade Six class
have organised an Anzac Day ceremony. The ceremony will
start at 10:30am and all parents are welcome to attend.
Thank You to Greg Schultze
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Greg Schultze
for cutting up and removing a dead tree that had fallen in the
school yard after a storm last term.
Charlotte Charteris & Jack Chiswell
Congratulations to Jack Chiswell and Charlotte Charteris
who are our new School Leaders for the next two weeks.
TERM 2 FOCUS
Our School Values
Respect-having regard for self, others and the environment
Inclusion-sense of belonging
Integrity-being honest and fair
Responsibility-being responsible for your actions & words
Personal Best-striving for excellence
Each term we will focus on one of these values as part of
our whole school approach to wellbeing. In Term 2 our
focus is on Respect.
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
Working Bee
On Sunday 28 th April from 10:00am to 12:00 midday we are
having a working bee. The jobs we are hoping to complete
include: weeding and preparing the vegetable garden for
replanting, weeding footpath to bus stop, pulling up and
removing old lino in music room, moving furniture from old
music room to new music room, digging up sand pit and
playground area, cutting down and removing dead shrubs,
weeding volleyball court and cleaning weeds and bindi from
STAR OF THE WEEK AWARD
Grade Prep A: Mason Bayley – for reading well and always
practicing his readers at home every night. Keep up the
great effort.

Grade 1B: Roxi Clarke – for a very positive attitude to her
school work, being a great friend to her classmates and
having a happy, smiling face every day.
Grade 2C: Kiara Mills – for her wonderful work ethic, trying
her personal best all the time and being respectful to all
around her.
Grade 3D: Eden McInnes – for always being a polite and
friendly class member.
Grade 4E: Sophie Peterson – for a great attitude to
learning and giving everything a go.
Grade 5F: Christina Baillie – for her enthusiasm towards
physical education and participating in interschool events.
Grade 6G: Kiri Baldwin – for looking to help others around
her.
CLASS OF THE WEEK
UNIFORM
Jumpers.
Please check labels on jumpers as we have lots that have no
names on them. Because of the cold mornings, lots of
children are taking their jumpers off when it warms up.
INDONESIAN/MUSIC
It was a very busy last term in the Indonesian/music room.
The children enjoyed learning and using Indonesian
greetings as well as making their own mini books. The grade
3 children were very quick to pick up the recorder and learnt
quite a few new songs, as well as beginning to read music.
We had mini assembly performances from grade 3,4 and 5.
The grade fives put their own unique spin on the big book
‘Keluarga Saya’ (My Family). It was terrific to see so many
enthusiastic actors! Grade 6 had their first attempt at
composing their own sounds and came up with some
brilliant attempts. There was also a wonderful visit from Per
with his vaudeville type act. He had us laughing and amazed
for the hour.
This week Class of the Week is Grade 5: For encouraging
and helping the younger students in the school learn how
to skip.
ANZAC BADGES
We have ANZAC badges or wrist bands for sale in the
school office. If you would like to purchase badges they are
priced at $1, $2 and $4, whilst a wrist band is $3.
FUNDRAISING
Major Fundraiser.
Congratulations to Logan Blachford, who guessed the
correct amount of eggs in our Easter Competition. We
raised $185.00. Fantastic effort.
Woolworths Earn & Learn.
This fantastic fundraiser is on again and began on Monday
8 th April. So when you shop at Safeway/Woolworths you
can collect Woolworths Earn & Learn points from the
checkout operator and place them on a points sheet.
There’ll be one point for every $10 spent (excluding liquor,
tobacco and gift cards). Once completed, you can place
your Points Sheet in the collection box in the undercover
area, either at your school or at your local Woolworths. The
program runs until 9 th June.
SCHOOL PHOTOS
Our School Photos are being taken on Monday 6 th May.
Order forms will be sent home next week. Orders and
correct money are to be given to the photographer on the
day. No change will be given on the day.
Family Photo order forms are available from the school
office.

ACTIVE AFTER SCHOOLS PROGRAM
Our Active After Schools Program will commence Monday
29 th April and run for 7 weeks. We are running sessions
between 3.30 and 4.30 on Monday and Wednesday.
Activities include:
Monday 29 th April – Football
Wednesday 1 st May – Hockey
Interested children can pick up a form from the office.
Children will be given a snack straight after school. Please
make sure that you pick your child up at 4.30pm.
PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE
Our school has once again registered students in Grades 3-6
to participate in the Premier’s Reading Challenge. This is a
wonderful opportunity for children to read lots of books.
Children in grade 3-6 are required to read a total of 15 books
including 10 from the challenge list to complete the
challenge which runs from February through to September
2013. If you would like you child to participate in the
Premier’s Reading Challenge please sign and return the
consent form. There are two parts to the consent form, one
is for participation in the challenge and the second part is for
consent to publish name in the Achiever’s Roll in the Age.
Happy Reading!!
STUDENT BANKING
Dollarmites Treasure.
To be in the running to win this competition, students
simply need to make three or more School Banking deposits
during Term 2, regardless of the value. They will then be
automatically entered into the competition. One student will
win a $5000 family adventure holiday and $5000 cash for
the winning student’s school. There are also lots of fantastic
runners up prizes. For more information please visit
www.commbank.com.au/adventureisland
SCHOOL SPORTS STATE SWIMMING
HAVE YOU RECEIVED THE SCHOOLKIDS
BONUS?
Do you know about the Schoolkids Bonus? It is a new cash
payment to help eligible families and students with the costs
of primary and secondary school studies. Around 1.2
million families have already benefitted from the first wave
of payments in January 2013 – have you?
If you receive a family or income support payment,
including Family Tax Benefit Part A, you could be eligible
to receive $410 a year for each primary student and $820 a
year for each secondary student, with half paid in January
and half paid in July.
The Schoolkids Bonus replaces the Education Tax Refund
(ETR) and is a much simpler system. You no longer need to
collect receipts and payments are made automatically so you
don’t have to wait months to make a claim via your tax
return. Unlike the ETR you can choose how you use the
payment to best support your children’s education – whether
it be school books, stationery, uniforms, school fees, or
excursion. For more information call Centrelink on 132
468.
PRIVATE MUSIC LESSONS
Anyone interested in starting private music lessons please
contact the school for more information.
Instruments offered include drums, guitar, keyboard and
singing.
STUDENT ACCIDENT INSURANCE
Parents are reminded that the Department does not provide
personal accident insurance for students. Parents and
guardians are responsible for paying the cost of medical
treatment for injured students, including any transport costs.
BIRTHDAYS IN THE SCHOOL THIS WEEK
We would like to wish a happy birthday to Jayda Golding,
Imogen Tall and Roxi Clarke who are celebrating their
birthdays this coming week. We hope they have a great day.
ADVERTISING SPACE
If you would like to sponsor our newsletter and advertise
your business in this space we would love to hear from you.
This will cost $20 each week to include your business card
or logo in our weekly newsletter. If you are interested
please contact the school on 54822263.
Congratulations to Lara Judd for finishing 4 th in the 11 year
old girls 50 metre backstroke event at the School Sports
Victoria State Swimming Finals.
REMINDERS
Lunch Orders are Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
Lost Property Box is in the Undercover area.
Bank Day is Thursday
FUTURE DATES
Sunday 28 th April
Working Bee 10am-12pm
Monday 29 th April
Active After Schools Program – Football

Wednesday 1 st May
Active After Schools Program – Hockey
Friday 3 rd May
Prep-2 Melbourne Aquarium Excursion
Monday 6 th May
Whole School Photos
Active After Schools Program – Football
Wednesday 8 th May
Active After Schools Program – Hockey
School Council Meeting
Friday 10 th May
Open Morning 9am-11am
Mother’s Day Morning Tea 11am
Tuesday 14 th May
Naplan
Wednesday 15 th May
Naplan
Thursday 16 th May
Naplan
Friday 17 th May
Netball Tournament
Monday 20 th May – Friday 24 th May
Education Week
Wednesday 22 nd May – Friday 24 th May
Grade 3-4 Sovereign Hill Camp
COMMUNITY NEWS.
NETSETGO JUNIOR NETBALL.
An introduction to Netball, promoting participation, skill
development and fun. Registration: Monday 29 th April from
4pm Ages 5-10. Moama FNC Netball courts. Rego: $70
includes: Insurance, bag, netball, pencil case, T-shirt and a
10 wk program – 6 th May to 29 th July. Enquiries to Tania
0438 254 289.
TAKE HOME A BIG BROTHER OR BIG SISTER
Give your children the wonderful opportunity to have an
international big brother or big sister by hosting one of our
exceptional international students arriving in Australia in
July 2013 for their 3, 5 or 10 month programs. Our
international students from France, Germany, Italy, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Spain will live as a local,
attend a local secondary school, arrive with their own
spending money and comprehensive insurance cover – all
arranged by Southern Cross Cultural Exchange. Visit us at
www.scce.com.au, email scceaust@scce.com.au or call us toll
free on 1800 500 501, request our international student
profiles, and capture the spirit of family and friendship!
AUSSIE HOOPS.
Basketball program for children between 5 and 8.
Where: Echuca Basketball Stadium (Stubberfield Group
Entertainment Centre)
When: Wednesday 1 st May – 19 th June 2013.
Time: 4.15pm -5.00pm
Cost: $70 – you receive Ball, backpack, t-shirt, drink bottle,
certificate and 8 sessions. $60 – you receive 8 sessions &
certificate. Program starts with Registration day on
Wednesday 24 th April at 4.30p.m. Registration forms
available from the Stadium.

ECHUCA WEST PS GRADE REPORTS
Prep A: The Preps are all refreshed after the lovely Easter
break. We are very excited about our first big excursion to
the Melbourne Aquarium Friday 3rd of May. A permission
note is in the Home School Journal today and a more
detailed note will follow next week. Our room has changed
into a big fish bowl and the Preps have already started to fill
it with great writing and creative art pieces. We have had
the skipping ropes out and we are honing our skipping skills
ready for Jump Rope for Heart day later in the term. Enjoy
the weekend.
Grade 1B: It was great to see everyone back this week with
happy faces, a few less teeth and lots of stories to share
about their holiday experiences. We spent some time this
week working on a recount about the holidays and learning
how to edit our writing before we do our good copy. Our
new unit is Commotion in the Ocean and we are having fun
making our room look like an ocean scene with different
brightly coloured sea creatures swimming around. We read
an information book about sea stars this week and we found
out a lot of fascinating facts about them. In maths we
worked on our addition skills and investigated patterns of
objects and shapes. We love going on Live Mathletics and
practising our number facts by competing against each
other or even students around the world. As this is Jump
Rope For Heart Term, our P.E. focus is on skipping. We are
really enjoying practising our skipping and learning new
skills and tricks. In Science we are learning about sound
and light.
Enjoy the weekend everyone!
Grade 2C: Welcome to Term 2! It was great to see all the
smiling, refreshed Grade 2 children ready for an entire new
term of learning. We have a new student in Grade 2 and we
warmly welcome Seth to our classroom and his family to our
school. Under the Sea is our first theme for the term. We are
looking forward to learning lots of interesting facts about
sea creatures and we look forward to our upcoming
excursion to the Melbourne Aquarium. Please keep an eye
on your child’s home school journal for important notes
regarding this. Skipping is our focus for P.E so ensure that
your child has comfortable footwear for skipping on
Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We’ve had a great first week
back, I’m sure the children are looking forward to a welldeserved
weekend rest! Mrs B and Grade 2 xox
Grade 3D: Welcome back to Term 2! The year is flying by
extremely fast. We have a very busy term ahead of us. Some
upcoming dates to remember are:
- ANZAC Day Ceremony next Wednesday at 10:30am
- Mother's Day Morning Tea on Friday May 10th
- NAPLAN Testing from May 14th to May 16th
- Camp from May 22nd to 24th May
During class time in Literacy, we are doing lots of
persuasive writing in preparation for the NAPLAN test. We
have started a new class text 'Charlotte's Web ' which we
are all enjoying. In Maths, we have been refreshing our
memory on Place Value and practicing our addition with
trading. In PE, we have begun our skipping program. We
love skipping and trying out new tricks. Our Unit of Work
this term is Gold. This is a fantastic unit and we are already
very interested in it. We have been discovering all sorts of
information about the Gold Rush in Australia. We look
forward to learning many more interesting things before we
head off to camp.
Enjoy your weekend everyone! From Grade 3 & Miss Hill
Grade 4E: Eureka! There was a gold rush in Grade 4 this
week. Ms Martin hid “golden” counters in some of our
locker tubs and we had to search for them. Some students
struck it rich while others were penniless! Afterwards we
talked about how we felt and related this to how the real
goldminers would have felt 150 years ago. In Writer’s
Workshop most of us are up to publishing our information
reports and in our Reading Focus we have continued to look
for interesting words. In maths we have been practicing
different mental addition strategies such as number
complements, near doubles and the jump strategy. Next
week we will be applying these strategies to our written
addition.
By Ms Martin and Grade 4.
Grade 5F: What a wonderful week we’ve had back at school
in grade five. After a class catch up on Monday morning it
was time to dive straight back into work, with Miss Fehring
being incredibly impressed with the effort we have put into
all tasks this week. Who said anything about a ‘holiday
slide’?! Our new Maths topic is fractions, and this week we
have focused on understanding fractions, and finding
equivalent fractions. After we started talking about them,
we realised how often fractions are mentioned in everyday
life. Our Literacy program has changed slightly this term
and we’ve enjoyed having new reading and writing
activities, such as acting out plays to practice fluency. Our
persuasive writing focus this week has been using powerful
and emotive language, which we know is important for
making our writing more interesting and convincing. 12 of
our students are off to Cross Country today (along with
seven students from grades 4 and 6) and we wish them lots
of luck!
Grade 6G: It is great to be back and back into routine. This
week we have researched the importance of ANZAC Day.
The students have been doing a fantastic job with the songs
for the Anzac Day ceremony on next week. In maths we
have looked at fractions and have built on the skills and
have become even more confident. In P.E. we have been
expanding our skipping skills preparing for the Jump Rope
Jump Off later this term. We all have been working hard
learning lots of new tricks and it has been pleasing seeing
our class sharing these skills with the rest of the school.
Keep up the great work at school and at home.