November 2009 Vol. 1, Issue 10 (PDF - 16.2Mb) - Department of ...

72 Nov Oct 09 Xxxx Regional Roundup
Grampians
Haddon Kindergarten held a huge family fun day to celebrate its 20th birthday
recently. Director Tracey Stalker said the day was a huge success with former
staff, parents and children attending, along with local councillors and the mayor
of the Golden Plains.
While the adults celebrated with a champagne toast and cake-cutting ceremony,
the littler guests occupied themselves with a jumping castle, face painting and
games. To commemorate the day, the children made a mural from recycled
materials, which will be mounted on a wall in the kindergarten’s courtyard.
Gippsland
South Street PS in Moe had outstanding results when their entire school
competed in the percussion ensemble section of the recent Latrobe Valley
Eisteddfod. Music teacher Belinda Johnson was full of praise for her
students who performed exceptionally well, achieving a first place, two
second places, a third place and six honourable mentions. “While our
results were fantastic, our greatest achievement was providing all of our
wonderful stars at South Street with the opportunity to step on stage and
shine,” said Mrs Johnson. South Street PS is the only Gippsland school,
and possibly the only Victorian school, to enter an entire school in a
percussion ensemble section in an eisteddfod.
Eastern Metropolitan
Yering PS celebrated its 140th birthday with a week of activities that
included an old fashion dress-up day, egg-and-spoon races, a family bush
dance and a Grandparents and Special Persons Day. Throughout the week,
the school’s 30 students participated in needlework, woodwork and oldstyle
cooking. They also had the opportunity to ask lots of questions of
past teachers and students about life at the school. To commemorate the
historic milestone, students planted shrubs with decorated stakes and laid
special pavers bearing their family name. The school also put together a
cookbook of favourite family recipes.
Southern Metropolitan
Noble Park PS represents students from over 36 different nations and
to celebrate this wonderful mix of cultures, 75 students in Year 5/6 have
created a 20-metre long mural called ‘Life is a Journey’. The children
worked with visiting artist Anu Patel and art teacher Kathy Urry to
create the mural, which depicts a road winding through a rich landscape
of culturally diverse pictures and symbols.
“The children brought in treasured artefacts from their homes and
developed detailed line drawings, which were then transferred to large
boards and painted with an array of beautiful colours,” Ms Urry explains.
Principal David Rothstadt is delighted with the colourful creation, which
has brought the school courtyard to life. The children unveiled their
masterpiece by dressing in international costumes and ‘travelling’ around
the world for the day, visiting all 12 classrooms at the school, each class
having studied a different country and culture for the term.
Students from Mt Eliza
Secondary College are
among 34 students in Years
9 to 12 who have taken
to the stage to perform
a rock opera version of
The Tempest. The students
hail from nine different
schools from Drouin to
Mornington, and have
been collaborating with
three additional schools in
Italy and Germany ahead
of their European tour
next month.