CONNECT Lancefield Primary School Newsletter

Term 1 Week 3 — Thursday 13th February 2020

February

13 School Council Nominations open

13 Prep Speech Screen

14 Welcome Picnic 5.30pm-7.00pm

17 Incursion—Responsible Pets

19 No Preps

20 Get to know you interviews

22 Lancefield Market 23C

26 No Preps

26 School Council Nominations Close 4pm

March

4 Whole School Cross Country

6 CURRICULUM DAY

9 Labour Day—No School

10 Super Circus Incursion

18th—School Council AGM

News from the principal – Jo Emond Well done to all of our fabulous students for settling so well into school for 2020 and for displaying our school values and all of the great ways we work together at LPS. School Review This term is a particularly busy and important one for us. We will be completing our school review within the next few weeks. All schools undertake a review of their school strategic plan every four years. This will involve a panel consisting of an independent reviewer appointed by the Department of Education, a Sen-ior Improvement Leader (SEIL), myself, school council president, teacher repre-sentatives and two challenge partners from other education settings. We have completed a pre review self evaluation and this information will form the basis for discussions and plans for the future four years at LPS. The results of the whole school survey which was open to all parents/students and staff during term 4 last year along with a whole range of other data will inform this process and assist us in formulating our new 2020-2024 school strategic plan. Child Safe Policies Please make yourself familiar with the Child Safe policies on our website includ-ing: Child Safe commitment statement; Child Safe code of conduct, responding and reporting policy and procedures and the child safe standards 2 policy. Student toilets reminder The student toilets have received a fresh coat of paint last weekend. We ask that all students take care of our nearly refurbished toilets and behave in a re-spectful manner at all times in the toilets. I would appreciate all parents and carers reminding children of correct toilet manners and behaviours. Get to know you interviews Our get to know you interviews are being held on Thursday 20th of February from 3.30-8.30pm. Please secure your interview time now by booking on uEdu-cateUs. The interviews are 10 minutes each and are an opportunity to share information with your child/ren’s teachers which may help teachers better un-derstand your child’s needs and learning styles. Thank you A huge thank you to the families who have chosen to make a voluntary contri-bution to LPS so far this year. This money will go directly towards purchasing new bookshelves and furniture for the classroom atrium area for the benefit of all students. Our picture story books have been well sorted thanks to the hard work of Karen Madsen and our novels are next on the list to tidy and sort. All of our non fiction books are housed in the WMC. Thank you to Robin Ford for spreading our recent delivery of soft fall for the top play area on Saturday morning. We really appreciate you getting this job done for our school.

Child safe:

Lancefield Primary School is

committed to child safety.

We want all children to be safe,

happy and empowered.

News from the principal continued… 5/6 Book club opportunity Year 5/6 students have been invited by Kirsten at “Squishy Minnie Bookstore” in Kyneton to participate in a monthly bookclub. All 5/6 students are invited to write an expression of interest. The book club will run once a month on a Monday straight after school for 50 minutes so this would require a commitment from parents to collect children at 4.10pm directly from school. Squishy Minnie staff member, Connie (who is also a Secondary teacher) will run the bookclub .The purpose of bookclub is to get kids critically thinking about the types of books they do and do not enjoy, looking at writing styles, character development and themes in an age appropriate way. There is a limit of 12 spots for the bookclub so get your expression of interest in asap. Kirsty and Wiley will be discussing this further with students in class. We would like our first bookclub to happen on Monday 16th March. Connie and Kirsten from Squishy Minnie decide on the books to be read and students will have a month to read them. Students will be supplied with the books and then are to return them to school. Communication, permission forms, payments and parent information Parents and carers, please remember that is essential that payments and permission forms for excursions, camps, incursions, etc be submitted to the school on or before the due date. Due dates are set to enable us to plan effectively for events to meet the number of students attending and to pay for events. We will be strict on these timelines. Please talk to Sharon or Di about arranging a payment plan for the year; this makes things so much easier for you! Please make sure you are reading weekly reminders, messages on uEducateUs, the news-letter (published fortnightly) and see saw messages so that you are kept well informed about what is going on at LPS. We never mind a phone call if you need to double check on something . School Council Yesterday (Wednesday 12th Feb) was our first School Council meeting for 2020 and our last with some of the cur-rent School Council members. The process to elect a new School Council starts today and there are 5 parent posi-tions vacant. If you are interested in nominating for School Council, please collect a nomination form from the office. Come and see me if you would like to know more about the functions of School Council and what the role of a school councillor entails or read the information regarding School Council in this week’s newsletter. 2020 Green Team Students from years 2 to 6 were asked to express interest in being part of this year’s Green Team. The Green Team will have three groups: Chicken group, River Detectives and Junior Landcare. Students will be notified today and all Green Team members will be presented with their badges at this week’s assembly. Well done and thank you to all students who have taken such a keen interest in keeping our school environment sustainable, tidy and looking great! Student Leaders 2020 Congratulations to our new year 6 Student Leaders, Lily, Luke, Sarah and Jemma. These students along with our student council group, will have the responsibility to represent our school on many occasion over the year and we know they are up for the job! We will also a School Wide Positive Behaviour Team and Green team with three sub groups ; the chicken group, river detectives and junior landcare. Congratulations to all of these students and thank you for enthusiastically taking on these important roles at LPS. We will feature photos of these groups in our next newsletter.

Frog Bog Update The frog bog plants have grown well over the summer break and are now providing some shade for the ponds. At the end of 2019 Sam Harrison and the green team introduced some water bugs into the ponds and the quality of the water has greatly improved. It seems the frogs agree and overnight a froggy friend has deposited some spawn in one of the ponds. Hopefully LPS will have it’s first tadpoles soon!!!

Student Achievement Awards Congratulations to the following students for their Achieve-

ment Awards:

PREP Harvey outstanding start to the year 1MR Levi following SLANT in class & being a great role model 23C Will showing great persistence with his writing and showing a ‘have a go’ attitude Anni positive attitudes at school and demonstrating persistence with her recount writing 23W Jack listening attentively at all times and completing a fabulous Photograph 4NJ Tyson demonstrating persistence to achieve your learning goals. Well done Tyson, keep up the amazing effort 56K Peter awesome start to the year. Top effort with work in the class Room 56W Bridgett positive attitude and greetings everyday MUSIC Zayne recalling facts about Vivaldi PE Rowan excellent participation in all activities in PE

RESPONSIBLE PET OWNERSIHP INCURSION

On Monday 17th February all years will have an incursion with a Responsible Pet Ownership teacher. The Program focuses on teaching students about dog safety: when dogs should be left alone things we should not do to dogs how can you tell if a dog is happy, frightened or angry a safe way to approach and greet a dog what to do if approached by an unknown or aggressive dog.

Do you buy 1 litre tetra packs (milk, stock, juice etc). Please drop off clean

empty packs at the office. We are in need of approximately 20 for an ex-

periment in the SAKG gardening classes with the 5/6 students next week.

Thank you to everyone who has already donated them.

February Birthdays

Happy birthday to all of the staff and students that celebrate birthday’s in February!!

Abbey Lukas Seth Trinity Ayla Patrick Lewis

From the Preps… It has been an amazing first couple of weeks for the Prep students. They have amazed not just myself but all the other staff with how settled and comfortable they are at school. They have been to all the specialist clas-ses and attended their first assembly and taken it all in their stride. We have begun our phonics program and have been looking at two sounds per week, so far we have covered S, A, T and P. The children have been learning a song and action that goes with each sound to help them re-member. You can have a look for yourself by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZenGE6hkvY (apologies for the American pronunciation of some of the words, this video is good because all the songs are in the one clip) In writing, we have been looking at the difference between a word, letter and sentence and they had a go at independently writing their own sentence. They all did a brilliant job and should be proud of what they did. Maths has been focusing on counting, ordering numbers and matching digits to amounts.

SOME FIRST DAY SNAPS

A few reminders to finish: I will start checking reading diaries next week. All students have one day of the week that I will collect

their diary and write a comment in it. The roster is at the front of the class. I hope everyone has received the Seesaw note and are now able to see your child’s work. I will also send

out a short note on a Sunday to inform you of what we will be doing in class for the upcoming week. If you need help accessing Seesaw please come in and see me.

Please continue to put the blue reader bags and the clear communication folders in the box on the table at the start of the day. This makes everything so much smoother and easier for myself and the kids.

As always, if you have any questions please come in and speak to me. Cheers, Andrew PS: you child has completed 8 days of school, they now only have approximately 2592 days left until they finish Year 12.

Year One Happenings Term 1

Our class has settled into the new year well. Thank you to all our families for your support in getting your children ready for a new year.

We have been focusing on creating a calm and sup-porting learning environ-ment, with a huge empha-sis on our school values, Learning, Positivity and Safety.

The students are involved in literacy and mathematics every day. They have been producing some amazing writing and have been loving learning through number games. Our Play Based Learning curriculum is up and running, during the last ses-

sion of most days. The students self-select the learning centre that they will engage with for the session, enabling your children to learn based on their needs and interests and be in-trinsically motivated to extend their skills.

We look forward to seeing you all at the Wel-come Picnic (February 14) and the Get to Know you Interviews (February 20).

Michelle Waterman and Bec Welsh

LEARNING FOCUS LITERACY

-Jolly Phonics

-reading circles

-strategies to read and

create meaning

-retell and recount

writing

-onomatopoeia

MATHEMATICS

-counting

-patterns

-place value

-graphing and data

-time

PLAY BASED LEARN-

ING

-four days a week

-learning centres to

engage and support

learning

-prompts to extend

learning

-learning reflections

School Wide Positive Behaviours School

It’s been a great start to 2020! All of our classes have been busy learning our school

values and expectations, undertaking different activities and programs to aid our un-

derstanding and implementation. Everyone has made a named circle which will be-

come a display in the atrium of their commitment to using our school values, please

come and check it out! Kirsty had a catch up meeting with Michelle Stone, our SWPBS mentor, and we are

pleased to let you know we are going very well with the initiative but have more work to do to in meeting

our expectations! Thanks to all of our staff, students and parents for a positive beginning to 2020.

LPS Chook Eggs available from the office

$4.00 (per dozen)

Year 2,3 & 4’s Overview Welcome back to the new year! We’ve had an especially exciting start to the year with our Minibeast incur-sion during the first week stimulating lots of discussion about caterpillar growth especially! We’ve also been busy establishing our class agreements and routines to help us work together as a team.

This term the 2/3/4s are looking at Minibeasts for their Inquiry topic. Minibeasts is a term for a variety of ar-thropods and other invertebrates, including spiders, ants, termites, butterflies, bees, wasps, flies and many others. This term we have the opportunity to explore different Minibeasts, their life cycles, parts of their bod-ies, habitats etc. In addition, each of the 2/3/4 classrooms received a caterpillar kit. The caterpillar kit included six or so caterpillars, an enclosure, a water tub and plant cuttings. Over the next few weeks, we are looking forward to watching our caterpillars turn into beautiful butterflies!

In English we will be continue to develop our writing skills through narratives and factual writing activities. We will be using the Seven Steps writing program to further the students’ use of writing strategies, such as sizzling starts. For our spelling we’ll continue to follow the Words Their Way spelling program and the Jolly Phonics program to students with letter sounds and the different combinations. Reading will involve group and inde-pendent reading sessions and the development of comprehension skills and ability to respond to a text. We will be establishing our reading strategies, including stretchy snake, chunky money, finger slide and flippy dol-phin. There will be planned and more informal opportunities to develop speaking and listening skills through-out the term. In Mathematics, we will be exploring the place value number system. Students in year 2 will be working to-wards and understanding of numbers to at least 1000, year 3 to 10,000 and year 4 to 100,000. This involves recognising, modelling, representing and ordering numbers and applying this knowledge to calculate and solve problems. In Measurement, students will learn about time, especially months of the year, and telling the time from quarter past and quarter to, to minutes and solve simple time problems. They will be learning to collect and represent data as a graph and tell the story or interpret this data. If you have a special interest or knowledge in minibeasts, we would love to have you visit and share this with our students. Also, please send along any books etc about the topic that you may have at home. Later in the term, students will have an investigation to complete at home about minibeasts.

Looking forward to a fabulous year together,

Celeste, Wendy and Natalie.

5/6 Term 1 Outline Our Integrated unit is called Light It Up. Throughout the term we will be learning about light through science experiments to investigate elements such as transparency, refraction and circuits. In the SAKG program we will be cooking our way around the world. Through our incursion and class content the grade 5/6’s will discuss and practise safe internet and computer conduct. We will be working on our SWPBS expectations and continuing to develop our classroom expectations and whole school values. As well as working on Achievement as part of the You Can Do It program. In our Resili-ence, Rights and Respectful Relationships program we will be learning about Emotional Literacy. In English we will be furthering our writing skills through narrative, persuasive and informative writing exercis-es. We will be following the Words Their Way spelling program and implementing grammar lessons to incor-porate the features of writing. Reading will involve group and independent reading sessions and the develop-ment of comprehension skills and ability to respond to a text. We will be implementing our reading strategies, including predicting, questioning, visualising and summarising as well as developing reading stamina. There will be planned and more informal opportunities to develop speaking and listening skills throughout the term, such as student lead presentations on topics. In Maths, our focus topics for the term include Place Value, Shape, Four Operations and Data. We will be using a variety of tools such as activities and tasks on Chromebooks (Manga High), written methods and book work, task cards, concrete materials/hands on activities that enable us to practise, consolidate and establish new skills. Our core online tools will be Seesaw and Google Classroom, where we will build up resources and tasks for the students to participate in, encouraging their creativity and curiosity through different online resources.

News from 5/6K We began our SAKG program this week in our new kitchen! It was an amazing experience, thoroughly enjoyed by our class. We began in Mexico, cooking salads, chili non carne, soft tortillas and a fruit dessert accompa-nied by a cucumber drink. We will be making our way around the world, preparing and sampling dishes and can’t wait for next Monday! If you are available please come and join in the fun.

Music Term 1 2020 LPS This term, all students will be introduced to the Music of Vivaldi; in particular “The Four Seasons – SPRING”.

Preps and Grade 1 will be watching a string orchestra perform and look at visual listening maps - where they can see high and low pitched music as well as the fast and slower music. They will also view other interesting artistic re-sponses that have been created to Vivaldi’s music.

Junior students will also be developing an understanding of beat, rhythm, pitch, tempo and dynamics through rhymes, games, songs and instrument activities.

You may want to watch this lovely time-lapse video with your child. They have already seen it in class and all enjoyed seeing the magic of nature. Google:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frWGn4h-h2Q Students in Grade 2 / 3 will be introduced to “Spring” through YouTube clips including string orchestras, visual maps and other artistic responses that have been created. They will use their knowledge of beat to follow a visual beat chart that will highlight the repetition that occurs on music as they begin to learn about form in music.

Songs, games and instrument activities will continue to build on their knowledge of beat, rhythm, melody and musical terminology. You may want to watch this visual map with your child. Google: “animated score – Vivaldi’s Spring” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcrrXHnN5uU Students in Grade 4 will be viewing many YouTube clips that explore this piece of music including an orches-tra, visual maps, different versions (there is even a rock version for them to create an opinion about) and one of the most interesting art creations reflecting the moods and music of all four pieces. Students will be analys-ing the music so they can develop an understanding of how moods are created in music.

A particular focus will be on the repetition of the music (known as form) and we will work as a class to create a “rondo form” piece using songs and tongue twisters that they will learn over the term.

You may want to watch this with your child.

Google: Sand art – Vivaldi’s Spring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-dHxJNsxJc

In Grade 5 / 6, students work in groups to develop independent learning habits that will be helpful as they prepare for high school. Over the course of this term and next term, they will develop skills in note reading and learn how to play “Spring” on an instrument of their choice and / or an online piano. They will also be exploring composition using “Garage Band” to cre-ate a mood sample or some music to tell a story and lastly, students will be analysing and comparing different versions of the music.

At the Farm’ Bags

Farm bags are available from the office—$20 each. Each bag has been designed by all of the students at

LPS.

Physical Education

P/1 In Physical Education this term students are thinking about demonstrating the school values (Learning, Positivi-ty and Safety) in PE through games. We are also thinking about developing locomotor skills such as running, walking and galloping. This focus will also link to our PMP program where students will continue to develop their locomotor skills us-ing various pieces of equipment. We are also learning about our bodies through rhythm and movement. If any parents are interested in helping out for PMP please feel free to come and see me on Tuesdays and Thursdays or talk to your classroom teacher. 2/3 Students in the 2/3 unit are thinking about demonstrating the school values (Learning, Positivity and Safety) through games and activities. We will then begin to take a closer look at the skills needed in both cricket and tennis. 4/5/6 Grade 4, 5 and 6 students are learning the different skills involved in both volleyball and tennis in preparation for Summer Sports. We are currently looking at volleyball and thinking about setting, digging and serving the ball. Grade 5/6 students will have the opportunity to participate in a number of different sports throughout the year. Dates to remember in Term 1 19th Feb- Cobaw District Tennis (selected students) 27th Feb- Lancefield PS- Whole School Cross Country 2nd March- Summer Sports

WHOLE SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY @ LANCEFIELD PARK THURSDAY 27TH FEBRUARY 9.30am Prep and Year 1 students will run 2 laps of the football/cricket oval 10.00am Year 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 cross country runs will start 10.00am Year 2 boys Year 2’s do not progress to Hanging Rock Cross Country 10.10am Year 2 girls This is a practice year 10.20am Under 9 boys 10.30am Under 9 girls 10.40am Under 10 boys 10.50am Under 10 girls 11.00am Under 11 boys 11.10am Under 11 girls 11.20am Under 12 & 13 boys 11.30am Under 12 & 13 girls PE Timetable term 1 Please make sure your child comes prepared for PE on their day. Students need to wear runners, drink bottle, and sun smart clothing.

Tuesday

PAH PMP 1BM PMP 2/3C 1BM 5/6K

Thursday

2/3W 4N 5/6W PAH PE

Stephanie Alexander

Kitchen Garden (SAKG)

Grades 56K and 56W commenced their SAKG cooking classes this week. This term in cooking they will be focusing on food from different cultures. This week they cooked various Mexican dishes—Bionico (Mexican Fruit Salad), Cu-cumber, lime and mint drink, Chilli Non Carne, Soft Taco Shells, Green Spicy Coleslaw and Corn Salsa. For all the students this was their first opportunity to use the new kitchen and it was fabulous to see it in action. Thank you to Jade and Jenny for their help with cooking. We really need volunteers to help—if you are able to assist 56W will be cooking from 9.50am—11.30am and 56K from 12.00pm—1.40pm.

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberries 1 cup rockmelon 1 cup papaya 1 cup pineapple ½ cup sour cream ½ cup plain yoghurt ½ cup condensed milk 2 tspn vanilla essence Chopped pecans Raisins Sweetened shredded coconut Granola

What to do:

Dice fruit and combine in a large bowl.

In a second bowl combine sour cream, condensed milk, vanilla essence and yoghurt, mixing well.

Scoop yoghurt mixture, evenly into the bottom of 4 serving bowls, leaving about ½ cup in the bowl.

Top each bowl with an even mixture of the fruit.

Sprinkle the rest of the yoghurt mixture on the top of the fruit in each bowl.

Top the fruit bowls with raisins, pecans, granola

and coconut.

The Mexican Fruit Salad (Bionico) was a particular hit. Please find the recipe below if you would like to try at home.

School Council Elections - Information for Parents

WHAT IS A SCHOOL COUNCIL AND WHAT DOES IT DO? All government schools in Victoria have a school council. They are legally constituted bodies that are given powers to set the key directions of a school within statewide guidelines. In doing this, a school council is able to directly influence the quality of education that the school provides for its students.

WHO IS ON THE SCHOOL COUNCIL?

For most school councils, there are three possible categories of membership: A mandated elected Parent category – more than one-third of the total members must be from this category. De-partment of Education and Training (DET) employees can be Parent members at their child's school as long as they are not engaged in work at the school. A mandated elected DET employee category – members of this category may make up no more than one-third of the total membership of school council. The principal of the school is automatically one of these members. An optional Community member category – members are coopted by a decision of the council because of their special skills, interests or experiences. Department employees are not eligible to be Community members. Generally, the term of office for all members is two years. The term of office of half the members expires each year, creating vacancies for the annual school council elections.

WHY IS PARENT MEMBERSHIP SO IMPORTANT?

Parents on school councils provide important viewpoints and have valuable skills that can help shape the direc-tion of the school. Those parents who become active on a school council find their involvement satisfying and may also find that their children feel a greater sense of belonging.

DO I NEED SPECIAL EXPERIENCE TO BE ON SCHOOL COUNCIL?

Each member brings their own valuable life skills and knowledge to the role. Councilors may need to develop skills and acquire knowledge in areas that are unfamiliar to them. What you do need is an interest in your child's school and the desire to work in partnership with others to help shape the school's future.

HOW CAN YOU BECOME INVOLVED?

The most obvious way is to vote in the elections, which are held in Term one each year. However, ballots are only held if more people nominate as candidates than there are positions vacant. In view of this, you might consider standing for election as a member of the school council encouraging another person to stand for election.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO STAND FOR ELECTION?

The principal will issue a Notice of Election and Call for Nominations following the commencement of Term one each year. All school council elections must be completed by the end of March unless the usual time line has been varied by the Minister. If you decide to stand for election, you can arrange for someone to nominate you as a candidate or you can nominate yourself in the Parent category. Department employees whose child is enrolled in a school in which they are not engaged in work are eligible to nominate for parent membership of the school council at that school. Once the nomination form is completed, return it to the principal within the time stated on the Notice of Elec-tion. You will receive a Nomination Form Receipt in the mail following the receipt of your completed nomina-tion. Generally, if there are more nominations received than there are vacancies on council, a ballot will be con-ducted during the two weeks after the call for nominations has closed

REMEMBER

Ask at the school for help if you would like to stand for election and are not sure what to do Consider standing for election to council this year

Be sure to vote in the elections.

WHAT’S ON