Download our latest newsletter May 2014 - Parkwood Green ...

8
28th of May 2015
District Cross-Country Carnival
INSIDE…
………………………
*Compass
*Student Led
Conferences
*Working Bee
*Panorama Drive
*Parent Forums
*School Council
Report
*Gr5 Fundraiser
*What Have Students
Found?
*Walk To School
*Early Bird Readers
*Uniform
*Science Discovery
Centre
Parkwood Green Primary School attended the Caroline Springs District
Cross-Country Carnival on Monday 18 th May. Our school had some outstanding
individual achievements with 16 of our students advancing to the Western
Ranges Division Cross Country Championships. As a team, Parkwood Green
finished 1st place overall, winning the district shield for the fourth consecutive
year. Congratulations to all students for representing Parkwood Green in an
outstanding manner. Further congratulations must go to the following students for
finishing in the top 10 places in the district carnival. These students will now be
given the opportunity to represent our school at the Western Ranges Division
Cross Country Championships on the 28 th May.
9/10 Girls – Rachel Lillie 3 rd
9/10 Boys – Oliver Murray 1 st , Marcus Watson 3 rd and Zech Ross 7 th
11 Girls – Charlotte Baskaran 1 st , Casey Duffy 4 th , Nikayla Brownbill 7 th and
Audrey Diaz 8 th
11 Boys – Alex Lambrou 4 th
12/13 Girls – Abigail Thomas 1 st , Elly Markovski 5 th , Nifemi Omibiyi 8 th
12/13 Boys – Riley Harper 1 st , Nathan Branagan 2 nd , Jacob
Kitanovski 3 rd , Jack Cogger 5 th
Congratulations and Well Done! All at Parkwood Green P.S. are extremely proud
of your efforts and achievements.
PAGE 2
National
Reconciliation Week
PAGE 3
District Cross
Country
Hannah Coloe,
Physical Education

DATES TO REMEMBER
Fri 29th May - 9am Parent Forum “Getting Your Child To Excel
At School”
Fri 29th May - Out Of Uniform Day - Dress In Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Flag Colours - $1 Donation
Mon 1st June - Year 3 Swimming Begins
Mon 1st-Wed 3rd June - Gr 5 Camp 5GD, 5LM, 5JP, & 5AM
Wed 3rd-Fri 5th June - Gr 5 Camp 5CL, 5DA, 5IB & 5KC
Mon 15th June - Year 5 Swimming Begins
SUN 14TH JUNE - MIDDLE SCHOOL
WORKING BEE: 1PM - 4PM
Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends of Parkwood Green
PS,
Well here we are at Week 7 of Term 2, almost the end of the
first Semester for this school year. As we head into our
formal reporting period, we have already provided for you two
(2) Progressive Reports on your child’s EFFORT,
BEHAVIOUR and HOMEWORK. How are they going? As I
mentioned last week the Progressive Reports are new for us
all and are the result of our use of a parent friendly, Student
Record and tracking package known as COMPASS. At
Parkwood Green we know and want parents as partners in
their child’s learning because if you are, then the learning and
achievement your child experiences is more SUCCESSFUL!
COMPASS: At this stage only 60% of our families have
logged onto COMPASS. When we have delved into this we
are finding that not all parents have provided their email
address. This information transfers to COMPASS from the
Student Enrolment Form you completed when your child
started at Parkwood Green. Maybe at that time you didn’t
have an email address or a computer.
This time will be provided before, during (when the teacher
is free) and after school on June 27 th . This enables all
parent requirements to be met. There will be one evening
until 6pm and one evening until 8pm for each subs-school.
Working Bee for the Middle Sub-School Parents and
Friends: Your personal invitation is on its way. This is the
ONLY time we ask for your assistance at the school to
continue to develop or maintain the outside learning
environment for your child. This time we will be continuing
to develop the garden beds for the Kitchen Garden. We are
trying SUNDAY from 1-4 so we will start with the Sausage
Sizzle as an enticement (a bit like Bunnings!) Hope to see
you then.
Panorama Drive: The traffic flow has improved over the
past 21 days. Thank-you for tolerating my redirecting and
direct manner. The Kiss and Drop/ Wave and Go is a
process to help all parents, but the Melton City Council was
clear that it wouldn’t be at the cost of the local residence or
safety. Keeping the traffic flowing, taking a park as they arise
has helped this enormously. By instructing your child to
watch for you, and if you park, to tell the teacher on duty and
move to where you are parked, are behaviours of
independence supported by a safe environment. Well done
everyone. Keep up the considerate and cooperative
behaviours. Oh and by the way you are NOT ABLE to do a
RIGHT HAND TURN into or out of Germander court at the
back of the school. There are TWO signs showing this.
There are a lot of points and $$$$ to be lost associated with
such actions.
To rectify this and enable you to access COMPASS there will
be a request to provide your email details. If these have
changed this is a perfect opportunity to UPDATE as well as
provide.
Most of the important child/school information will be coming
to you via the COMPASS site including Homework Updates,
Excursion Notices Permission Forms and bookings for
Student –Led Conferences so you will need to be informed.
STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES: We are coming up to our
Student-Led Conference time. On the Parent Calendar you
will see they begin the week of the Long Weekend (week 9)
and continue into week 10. End of Semester Reports will be
available in paper and electronic form this Semester. Reports
will be sent home on the Wednesday of Week 11. As in
2014, the samples of learning, Learning goals, and learning
intentions will be the evidence provided for the achievement
assessment given to your child. We will be generating the
reports from the COMPASS reporting package.
Your child is able and should be involved in speaking about
their learning and the Student –Led Conference provides this
opportunity. As with the end of year reporting process parents
will be asked if they require additional time with the teacher to
discuss the learning outcomes for their child. Cont next page...
Parent Forums: The second Parent Forum with Giovanna
Mercuri will be held this FRIDAY morning at 9.00am in the
staffroom. At our first Forum Giovanna spoke about routines
and the importance of these in the home and how they
support learning achievement at school. She also gave
parents a road map so they could avoid the road crash or a
disaster when dealing with children at home. We can
always refine our parenting skills and learn more to make
our homes places of harmony, learning and enjoyment.
Giovanna returns on Friday May 29 th . ALL WELCOME. The
Forum is in the Staffroom just follow the signs.
Well that’s about it from me. Until we meet in person.
Yours sincerely
Kerri Simpson
Your Principal
Excellence & Opportunity | PAGE 2

NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK
As part of National Reconciliation Week the Junior School
Council are embracing the theme of “It’s time to change it up”
holding an out of school uniform day on the Friday 29 th May
2015. Students will need to wear colours from the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flags as well as
with donate a gold coin. All donations will go to the
Indigenous Literacy Foundation to help provide books and
literacy resources to remote aboriginal communities as well
as provide the opportunity for a positive change to the
communities.
Kylie Jennings,
Classroom teacher - 6KJ
SCHOOL COUNCIL REPORT
“Before reporting on School Council’s most recent meetings,
I would like to introduce myself as the new School Council
President. My name is Simon Parker, I have a daughter
Kayla in grade four, I look forward to working on your behalf
with the rest of School Council to improve on the already
great Parkwood Green Community and meeting as many of
you as possible.”
On Monday 18 May the yearly AGM for school Council was
held. During the meeting reports were received from Kerri
and the various sub-school principals as well as the leading
teachers for each grade. The information provided showed a
steady increase across all measured levels. This included
the academic results and Naplan as well as the social
benchmarks that are reported on. The results are testament
to the hard work of all staff concerned and to the efforts of
the students from the Parkwood Green Community,
congratulations to all.
WHAT HAVE STUDENTS FOUND????
A small group of budding archaeologists are emerging from
the Grade 2 area. They have been sectioning off an area at
the back of the Gym each break playing explorations and
GUESS WHAT? They have found or should I say reclaimed a
grate that covers a pipe. Well can you imagine the
EXCITEMENT! Well done to our archaeologists! The next
step is for John to reclaim these areas. Perhaps in the
holidays.
Kerri Simpson
WALK SAFELY TO SCHOOL DAY
Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) is an annual, national
event when all Primary School children will be encouraged to
walk and commute safely to school. It is a Community Event
seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public Transport and
the Environment.
Thank you to Amanda Pretty for organising stickers and NRL
cards for those students who walked to school. The number of
packs of cards we gave away indicates that quite a few
students got on board! We will be publishing the data in future
newsletters and setting targets to increase the numbers of
students walking to school regularly.
Watch this space for more exciting walk to school incentives.
Last year 2 lucky children won bikes!
Julie Andrews,
Sub-School Principal
Council then moved on to its regular monthly meeting,
discussing a variety of topics and receiving reports from the
various sub-committees. These included briefings on
upcoming camps as well as a report on the recent successful
grade 6 Canberra excursion.
Fiona, our outgoing school Council President was also
thanked for all her hard work and commitment during her four
years in the role; I would again like to echo those thanks on
behalf of the School Council and the entire Parkwood Green
family, thankyou Fiona.
Till next month, happy educating to everyone,
Simon Parker
GRADE 5 FUNDRAISER
On the 15 th of May the grade 5 students participated in a
morning tea fundraiser to raise funds for the two students
that PGPS sponsor, Apple and Ayan. Parkwood Green
Primary School has had a long association supporting the
education and welfare of two students in developing
countries. Apple is a 16 year old girl who lives in The
Philippines and Ayan is a 14 year old boy who lives in India.
The JSC captains and vice captains were responsible for
organising and informing their peers about the two children.
Each student in grade 5 donated a gold coin and together we
raised a total of $193! The proceeds will go towards Apple
and Ayan.
A fantastic effort by all. Thank you to the grade 5 students on
a wonderful effort!!
Irma Barrientos,
Classroom teacher - 5IB
EARLY BIRD READERS
Early Bird Readers will be starting for Grades Prep to Four in
Room 25 very soon. We are looking for some Parent helpers
to assist us with listening to students read
from 8:30 to 8:45am on Monday,
Wednesday and Thursday mornings. If you
are willing and able to assist us on one or
more of these days, please let one of the
following staff members know: Jaime
Gardner, Christina Mastroianni, Adele
Halligan or Simone Manolis. Thanks in
advance.
Jaime Gardner, Grade 2 teacher
UNIFORM SALE
The school will be holding a second-hand uniform sale on
Monday, 1st June, 2015 at 9.00am until 9.30am.
This will be held outside the Learning Centre. If it is raining it
will be held in the Learning Centre.
Items to be sold include second-hand clothes (various sizes).
All second-hand clothing items - $5.00
ALL ITEMS WILL BE SOLD AS CASH ONLY
parkwoodgreen.com | PAGE 3

PEC - Sharlice Frendo & Leon Culph
PSK - Lilly Cooper
PAH - Gisele Abraham
PAM - Alijah Gordon
PBR - Ruby Weir
PDT - Lukas Curmi
PJV - Sherleen Kaur & Mikayla Buttigieg
1JE - Raquel Dimech & Jamie Muzoski
1RD - Roman Lal
1ML - Bella Ramsay
1SC - Fizza Syeda
1RC - Tsion Gebremariam
1JB - Leyla Hassan & Koray Islay
1CF - Aiden Robertson
2SB - Kelvin Kong
2BZ - Paolo Baldassarro
2BC - Adam Darwish
2MM - Riley Hodgson
2KS - Monique Bajada
2GP - Matthew Leimonitis & Alexandrea Coomans
3KW - Isaac Kennealy
3KH - Lana Fyssarakis
3TS - Olivia Lech
3SS - Maya Petrevski
3SG - Noor Aulakh
3JP - Areej Ahmed
4KL - Tahlia Sammut & Aryan Dhingra
4AP - Deon Batinovic
4MB - Anna Junhomfung
4AS - Caitlyn Coomans & Joshua Zammit
4MP - Jack Talia
4JS - Christella Autelitano
5KC - Selena Cini
5CL - Abbey Psaltis
5GD - Mason Bosevski
5JP - Jessica Kutniewski & Afthab Nazly Mohamed
5AM - Andy Kangalis & Beau Denis
5IB - Ethan Parrish
5LM - Nathan Cassidy-Natano
6KJ - Luke Autelitano
6ST - Cem Karahusseyin
6KC - James Bezzina
6NW - Nicholas Buttigieg
6KE - Bleona Abazi
Performing Arts - PSK, 2SP & 4AP
Library - 3SS, 1RC & 6ST
Visual Arts - PJV
OUR SCIENCE DISCOVERY CENTRE
Well what excitement we had over the last couple of weeks as we launched our Science Discovery Centre. Children have been
immersed in scientific language and activities. Teachers and classes are now timetabled into the Science Discovery Room on a
regular basis so look out for the excitement of transferring their learning into your home!
Can I also acknowledge and thank publicly the work of our Science Volunteer Ms Sharelle Brownbill. Sharelle is a scientist by
profession, and has worked tirelessly to establish our Discovery Centre. She has been ably assisted by our Resources Manager
Andrea Houlden and many parent volunteers. What a great learning opportunity for our students.
Kerri Simpson, Your Principal
Kitchen Recipe - Zucchini, Cucumber & Pomegranate Salad
What to do:
1. On a large salad plate stack the zucchini and cucumber. Scatter with radish,
mint and chives.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together orange juice, pomegranate
molasses, oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.
3. Top salad with crumbled feta cheese. Slice the pomegranate in half and
using the back of a tablespoon, tap hard on the skin of the pomergrante to
release the little ruby seeds. They will scatter over your salad. Pour dressing
over salad and serve.
4. Helpful Hint: If you want to jazz your salad up a little, try using a
vegetable peeler to peel your long vegetable (zucchini and cucumber) into
thin pretty ribbons. It is a nice way to present your salad.
Ingredients:
2 zucchinis, peeled into ribbons
2 Lebanese cucumbers, peeled into ribbons
2 radishes, sliced
1/4 cup mint leaves
1/2 bunch chives, roughly chopped into batons
1/2 an orange, juiced
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (or juice)
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1 fresh pomegranate, seeds only