Sustainability with Serena

Serena is going to make cloches for planting winter vegetables and would like clean 2L plastic milk containers. Can you please collect and send in for next Thursday's session?

3-4-5 in the garden with Serena

NAPLAN Information for parents

This year the NAPLAN tests are being completed in Term 1. Information has been sent home to parents with students in grade 3 and grade 5. You can find the pdf here. 

students participated in a practice test this week to make sure the technology is working and to look at the format and tools in the platform. NAPLAN assessments will start next Wednesday, with the students sitting one test each day: Writing, Reading, Language conventions and Numeracy.

From the Office

Year 6 T-Shirts

Order forms have gone home with students, please return these by tomorrow,  Friday the 10th of March.

Swimming Payments

Thank you to all who have paid for swimming.  If you have not already paid, payments can be made by bank transfer or cash to the office.

Cost: $60 or $20 if student has a Chewton Pool pass.

School Photo Day

Our school photo day is tomorrow, Friday, the 10th of March. Please remember to return photo envelopes with online order number or cash enclosed tomorrow.

Family photo envelopes and spare envelopes can be collected from the office.

Absences

Please remember to promptly record student absence reasons. This can be done through Sentral. Please see Kitty in the office if assistance is required.  

Alternatively, if you can no access Sentral on the day please phone in or email your child's teacher and cc Bernadette/Kitty.

Camps, Sports & Excursions Fund (CSEF)

CSEF is provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.

If you hold a valid means-tested concession card or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF. A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. The allowance is paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child.

 .The annual CSEF amount per student is:

• $125 for primary school students

• $225 for secondary school students

• New applicants should contact the school office to   obtain a CSEF application form or download from the website below.

• If you applied for CSEF at your child's school last year, you do not need to complete an application form this year unless there has been a change in your family circumstances. 

• You only need to complete an application form if any of the following changes have occurred:

• new student enrolments; your child has started or changed schools this year.

• changed family circumstances; such as a change of custody, change of name, concession card number, or new siblings commencing this year.

Check with the school office if you are unsure.

Sushi Fridays

Sushi on Fridays

We are continuing Sushi once a month Fridays again this year. Dates are in the calendar above.

Here is a reminder of the steps you need to do to order Sushi.

1. Go to www.schoollunchonline.com.au to register your family

2. Choose ‘My orders’ and select ‘Create order‘

3. Select the date of the Friday you wish to order for

4. Add items to order by clicking on the ‘tick’

5. Select ‘add to bag’

6. Review order and check it is all correct, then click ‘next’

7. Choose how you want to pay and then select ‘submit’

   *Update your billing details under the tab ‘my account’

*Pay as you go or top up your account regularly

*No minimum order or long term commitment

*Order ahead up to any time within the current term

Orders need to be made by 5pm on Thursday to ensure order is placed for Sushi at lunchtime on Friday.

School Uniform Trial

School Council have decided to have a trial in Term 1.

Friday 10th March Full school uniform for our school photos

Week 7 and 8: Optional- choice of wearing uniform or casual clothes (clothing must be appropriate for school) (13th March-24th March)

Week 9 and 10: Survey of school community- students, parents and staff to find out views on uniforms. Final date for survey response

School Council to review staff feedback and initial parent survey response at our 30 March meeting.

School council elections – information for parents

This year we have 4 vacancies for School Council: 2 for returning councillors and 2 new vacancies. Please consider nominating for council. We also have a vacancy for a community member to join our council. If you know of someone with a connection to the school and local community who would have skills to offer our council, please encourage them to contact the school. Nomination forms will be available from the office on Monday 6th March. Our AGM will be held on 30 May at 6pm, followed by the March School council meeting.

School Council meets on the last Thursday of each month at 6:30pm. 

Time line for School council elections

9th March: Call for nominations

16 march: Close of nominations and assess whether ballot is required (more nominations than positions available)

23 March: Send out ballots

28 March: Poll closes

29 March: Count and declare election results

30 March: AGM 6pm and March School Council Meeting 6:30pm with new councillors

Nomination forms are available in the office: parents can self nominate 

8 Ways : 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning

As part of our curriculum day on Monday, teachers and support staff learnt about 8 Ways Pedagogy. We will incorporate this into our work and teachers spent time updating their Inquiry planner.

https://www.8ways.online/ 

This is a pedagogy framework that allows teachers to include Aboriginal perspectives by using Aboriginal learning techniques. In this way, focus can remain on core curriculum content while embedding Aboriginal perspectives in every lesson. It came from a research project involving DET staff, James Cook University’s School of Indigenous Studies and the Western New South Wales Regional Aboriginal Education Team between 2007 and 2009. AECG and SERAP approval was granted for the project.

The research project sought to engage teachers with Indigenous knowledge at the Cultural Interface (overlap) between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures, finding innovative ways to apply this common-ground knowledge in the classroom. It was contended that Aboriginal perspectives do not come from Indigenised content, but from Indigenous processes of knowledge transmission. So Aboriginal learning processes were identified and a rich overlap was found between these and the best mainstream pedagogies (e.g. Quality Teaching). A common-ground pedagogical framework was developed and trialled during this Aboriginal research project, using an Indigenous standpoint methodology inspired by the work of Dr Karen Martin and Dr Martin Nakata.

Story Sharing: Approaching learning through narrative.

Learning Maps: Explicitly mapping/visualising processes.

Non-verbal: Applying intra-personal and kinaesthetic skills to thinking and learning.

Symbols and Images: Using images and metaphors to understand concepts and content.

Land Links: Place-based learning, linking content to local land and place.

Non-linear: Producing innovations and understanding by thinking laterally or combining systems.

Deconstruct/Reconstruct: Modelling and scaffolding, working from wholes to parts (watch then do).

Community Links: Centring local viewpoints, applying learning for community benefit.

Smart Spelling

Over the past few weeks teachers and support staff have been doing professional learning about the Smart Spelling program. Students from grade 2-6 will be taking part in this. Prep-1 students will use the Little Learners Love Literacy Program.

This week all classes have started the program. Each week students will have a new set of words with a different spelling focus to practice at school. As part of this learning it would be great for students to practice saying and writing their words each day at home. Each student's words will be highlighted on their own sheets. We would love parents to spend some time during the week with their child completing the spelling activity. 

Jobs that need doing... 

Working Bee 9:30am-11:30am Sunday 19th March 

Lots of gardening to be done

Can't make the working bee? Have a spare hour or two that you can offer the school? 

Can you take a load of green waste to the tip?

We have a google doc that shows jobs that are needed. Please put your name to one and mark when complete. Many hands make light work. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XaBY5PpytuXhLlmffMAMG752ysMIo-QsEzgzS9pJCcE/edit?usp=sharing 

Friends Of the Box-Ironbark Forests and Art class

Students in Grades 5/6 were recently invited to participate in a 25th Anniversary exhibition created by members of Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests.  

Students were asked to create drawings in the bush behind the school, using ochres, charcoal and watercolour paints. 

All students in grade 5/6 will have their work on display in the Exhibition which runs until Monday the 13th March at the Newstead Arts Hub. 

Please try and visit the exhibition to see our lovely school represented in the wider Arts community.

For more information on the exhibition and on FOBIF see here:

https://newsteadartshub.org/portfolio/responding-to-country-friends-of-the-box-ironbark-forests-1998-2023/

Community Notices

Dja Dja Wurrung websites

Djaara (Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation)  https://djadjawurrung.com.au/ 

DJAARA - Home | Facebook 

Nalderun Education Aboriginal Corporation https://nalderun.net.au/