From the Principal’s Desk

Dear Parents, Students and Friends

Walk Safely To School Day and

Walking Bus. Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) is an annual, national event when all

Primary School children are encouraged to walk and commute safely to

school. It is a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public

Transport and the Environment.

Walk Safely to School Day asks that we all consider our transport habits and

try to incorporate more walking as part of a healthy, active way to get around.

And although walking all the way to school isn’t realistic for many of us, it’s

quite easy to figure out how you can build a walk into your family’s daily

routine.

You can teach your child the healthy habit of walking more by:

- Walking with them the whole way to school

- If they get the bus or train, walk past your usual stop and get on at the next

stop

- If you have to drive, park the car a few blocks away from the school and walk

the rest of the way.

Regular exercise like walking with your child not only helps them (and you!)

beat chronic problems like obesity, heart disease, behavioural and mental

health issues and diabetes. It also gives you a great opportunity to teach your

child safe ways to behave around roads and traffic.

Remember, Active Kids are Healthy Kids so get planning your own Walk

Safely to School Day journey for Friday 22 May 2015!

As recognition of this day we would like to not only encourage as many

students as possible to walk to school that day but also to introduce a

‘Walking Bus’ in Grand Boulevard. We do already have one informal Walking

Bus from Kirwana Grove with a few of our parents but we are hoping to have

one that starts down the end of Grand Boulevard (near the Bolton Street end)

and winds its way up Grand Boulevard. If you are interested either let us

know in the office or contact Naomi Crawford-Condie (Oliver and Samson)

For more information about the actual day, visit www.walk.com.autime

TERM 2– Week 4

May 14 2015

What’s Coming Up?

2015 May

Wed 20 Parents and Friends

Meeting

Thurs 21 Alice In Wonderland Opera-

Arts Centre-Advanced Choir

District Cross Country

Fri 22 Walk to School Day

Sat 23 School Working Bee

9:30am

Fri 29 Culture and Country Day

Jun

Tues 9 Curriculum Day

No Students

First Aid and Anaphylaxis

Update

Wed 24 Our Place in the World Expo

Fri 26 Term 2 finishes 2:30pm

Jul

Mon 13 Term 3 commences 9:00am

Wed 29 Parent-Student Reporting

conferences

Aug

Sun 30 School Working Bee

Sep

Fri 18 Term 3 finishes

Oct

Mon 5 Term 4 commences 9.00am

Nov

Mon 2 Report Writing Day

Dec

Thur 17 Last day of school year for

students

Fri 18 2016 Planning Day for Staff

Working Bee The Environment and Facilities Committee met last Monday night and worked on

our plan for the upcoming Working Bee in a week’s time on Saturday May 23,

commencing at 9:30am..

Our main intention is to prepare the top end of the school (where the rubbish

skips used to be) for ball games and climbing activities.

Here is a sketch of what we are aiming to achieve:-

And photos of what we are hoping to achieve:-

However, there are a number of other tasks to be done as well. All the tasks

identified include:

• Cleaning and staining of BER railing and new stairs.

• Play dome structure built out of tyres

• Cleaning and painting of 5 base plates in little kids play equipment

• Tyre Mound

• Tyre caterpillar

• Downball wall

• Painting existing seating

• General maintenance/ other tasks- weeding, mulching, replacing draught stop

in kitchen, cleaning sinks, de-cobwebbing, and removal of plant guards from

established trees in embankment near hall.

If you could spare even just an hour please come along and help. Cathryn Hulme,

our talented SAKG teacher has agreed to cook lunch for us!!! If you intend on

coming and have not let us know as yet, please contact either Mel Mc Murtrie or

our office to let us know.

Birthdays

May 15 - 21

15 Alex Lloyd

Tyler Kennard

16 Atticus

Speakman-Rush

17 Jem Pearsall

Andy Pham

19 Jesse Revell

Ethan Brearley

Duncan Hulme

Sarah Cook

21 Charlie Roberts

MANY HAPPY

RETURNS

Best Birthday Wishes

to all of the above

students

Recently, Clare Bear put out a call for volunteers to help out in our library. You see, we have purchased quite a number of

books and Clare has been very busy, teaching, cataloguing books, covering them and putting them on the shelves. Equally with

the whole school using the Daily 5 method of teaching literacy, it has put a huge demand on the books in the library.

Answering the call for help, Esh Nye. (Sara 2J & Cooper PD) has stepped in and has been a constant source of support in the

library, week in and week out.

Esh we just wanted to say thank you so much for all your work in helping Clare make the library such a lovely place to be. You

have even had to put up with Clare Bear singing (again and again) ‘Let it Go’. Now that is beyond the call of duty. ☺

Wet Weather and Staff This week has been tough for the staff and the students. NAPLAN and wet weather timetables. However, I didn’t realise how

much it was getting to them until I starting getting a series of emails yesterday.

All containing bad jokes. Here is just a sample that I thought I would share with the students to see what is actually happening

with the teachers on days like this week have brought us.

Why don’t kleptomaniacs get puns? Because they take everything literally.

What do you call a fake spaghetti? An impasta

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a swimming pool? Bob

What do you call a man in a pile of leaves? Russell

What do you call a woman with one leg? Eileen. Ha! Ha!

What do you call a woman who burns her bills? Bernadette (debt)

What's the difference between dinosaurs and dragons? Dinosaurs don't smoke

How do you make a snake cry? Take away its rattle.

What kind of bees produce milk? Boo Bees.

I am looking forward to some sunshine in more ways than one.

Wishing you a lovely and relaxing weekend

Leanne Sheean

Principal

Co-operative Play at its best.

It was great to see the children working together

to build the tallest sandcastles during their recess

break.

WORKING BEE

The Monty South Working Bee is being held on Saturday

23rd May. If anyone has any non-lead based external

paint (any colours) and old paint brushes that they can

donate for use at the working bee it would be very much

appreciated. Please drop off your donations at the

kitchen.

Thanking you for your assistance.

Compass If you are having any difficulty with your Compass login please contact the office on 9439 6201.

Getting to Know Our Year 4 Team

My name is Mandy Redfern and I have been teaching at Monty South since 2007.

I have loved teaching at our school and feel very privileged to be part of our

wonderful school community. Level 4 is a great year level to teach and this year

we have a fantastic bunch of students, who love learning and enjoy participating

in all our school has to offer.

I am very lucky to have such a supportive husband and three wonderful children-

my daughter, Eliza, who is doing Year 12 this year, and my two sons, Nicholas &

Rohan, who are at university. With 5 cars, part-time jobs, weekend sport and late

nights, it actually seems busier now than when they were younger! We also have

two dogs and a Ragdoll cat. In my spare time, I like nothing better than to walk

our dogs on the beach and spend time relaxing with family and friends at our

beach house on Phillip Island.

My name is Chris Cameron and I have been teaching at Monty South since 2013. I

love teaching at MSPS because the students and families make it a fun place to be. I

really enjoy sports and teaching PE, but would never want to give up teaching in the

classroom as that is where I feel teaching is most rewarding.

I have a wonderful wife named Abbi and three children, Reese, Peyton and Eli, we

also have a dog and 4 chickens. In my spare time I play basketball, coach basketball,

fish and ride my bike as much as possible as I get bored sitting still. Most of our

weeknights and weekends are taken up by sport or outdoor activities which I think is

very important to promote to kids as a healthy lifestyle choice.

My name is Tom Davis and this is my second year teaching at Monty South. I am

teaching Year 4 for the second time and I love it. I began my Teacher Education at

RMIT after completing Year 12. After my first placement I knew teaching was for

me. I absolutely loved it! While balancing University study with personal life, I

worked at KFC. KFC taught me lots of skills, but I was certainly happy to move on!

Towards the end of my KFC employment I volunteered at Monty South in the Prep

area. I was so impressed and amazed with the things I saw, I knew I had to apply for

a job at this wonderful school. I was and continue to be grateful to work with such

lovely students and staff!

In my spare time I like to catch up with friends, go to the movies, improve my TV

series binge watching skills and go to the footy. You’ll know when Melbourne has a

win, as I usually wear the team colours on the Monday. Go Dees! I also love

technology whether that is using it, reading about it or fixing it. You will often find

me talking about or watching a TED talk.

Student of the Week

Kiefer Salisbury 2J For excellent ideas in persuasive writing.

Matthew Cook 5T For thanking everyone at the conclusion of the Quantum Victoria

excursion.

Luca Maddison-Grey 2R For including others in his games.

Luella Morrow 2R For great team work and negotiating skills.

Jess Stuart 4D For being engaged and enthusiastic during Minibeast mini presentations.

Ruby Simon 4R For always aiming to do her personal best.

Natalie Livingstone 4C For working hard on her Math tests and trying her Personal Best

Harry Curtis 5H For letting everyone play with him

Lachlan Wilkins 5N Lachlan equally respects all class members and is recognised for being a

friend to everyone. He is helpful and kind to all.

Ethan Flather 3R For showing maturity when dealing with an issue that needed his

honesty.

Cooper Noons 3R For working hard and staying focussed during NAPLAN week.

Otis Renwick 1H For making good choices and applying his personal best in his work.

Noah and Tayla collect the

weekly Sports Award for Tyto.

JUNIOR SCHOOL COUNCIL Sports Colours Fundraiser

for the Royal Children's Hospital

Just to let you know that we will be having a Sports Colours Say. So come dressed in your favourite team colours, which can be any sport. It will be held on Thursday the 18th of June. We decided to raise money for Liam Hall and children like him. We will be fundraising for the Royal Children's Hospital so please bring a gold coin donation which will be a big help for the children in need. If you would like to, please click the link below to make a donation. Soon there will be posters around the school advertising the Sports Colours Say. https://give.everydayhero.com/au/amanda-redfern-1 By Brianna Johnstone, Kate Hamilton, Nicholas Makridis

YEAR 2 Classroom Clippings After reading about helping our environment, Grade 2J decided to take their thinking to the next level and write letters to the editor about the use of plastic bags. Here are some thoughts from our young people about our environment.

Green Wins Again Now you listen, yeah that's right I'm talking to you. You too Tony Abbott. Now us Aussies are killing poor and innocent sea animals. How would you feel if you were stuck in a plastic bag? If you keep using plastic bags there will be less clean places in the world. Today, right now, you put down those shocking plastic bags and pick up a green bag. Us Aussies are ruining our country. I'm sick of it. You should feel guilty. In Ireland 90% of people stopped using plastic bags. If they can do it, we can do it. If we recycle kids can live in a clean and happy place. By Ben

No plastic bags I think we should stop using heaps of plastic bags. Australians use 10 million plastic bags a day and too many are going into the ocean. And if you have a favourite animal that is a sea creature they can die by eating plastic bags. One million sea birds die from plastic bags. Stop using these awful using plastic bags and start using green bags. Plastic bags are damaging all kinds of animals. You should be ashamed. And these awful plastic bags take 1000’s of years to break

down. Australia is going to be a mess. By Sara

Go Green Now everybody listen up carefully now. Did you know that only 10% of people recycle their plastic bags? I am horrified. We should stop it using plastic bags and start using green bags. Look at Ireland they have and now 90% don’t use plastic bags. We have to STOP IT. GET IT STOP I SAID STOP. I am really disgraced at what we are doing to our cool earth. By Angus J

GO GREEN! Listen up! Now I know I`m right, never ever use plastic bags, it’s 100% true. Now let`s get serious, plastic bags kill more than 1000 animals, and we need to pick up the green bags, and pick… I mean drop the plastic bags in the bin. Do we Australians use green bags or NOT!? Us Australians are hurting lovely animals, seriously people. Do you want to grow up in a dump? By Jacob

We Need To Change What! I’m feeling mad and sad. This is because stinky plastic bags are hurting our environment. Did you know that Australians throw away 7150 plastic bags every minute? I am disappointed! Why are we doing this to our special world? Tyler

P&F Update

Firstly, we want to wish all of our lovely mums a belated happy Mother’s Day! We hope you enjoyed the presents from our Mother’s Day stall. Many thanks to Jo Scott for coordinating this event and to the many helpers who assisted on Monday 4th, Tuesday 5th and Thursday 7th May.

Thanks too for the kind assistance and support given to the VIPA Book Fair at school this week. It is always a busy time for our hardworking librarian Clare and everyone’s help running the book fair was greatly appreciated.

Our Pavers fundraiser continues to run with orders still being accepted at the office. We would like to complete this project as a whole (rather than complete small parts at a time) and hope to commence shortly. It is a big project involving excavation and drainage works. The more pavers we have to put down, the better it will be! Thank you to those who have already purchased a paver – we can’t wait to see what the finished result will look like!

We also held our first second hand uniform sale this week. We received so many donations of second hand uniform items and there were many bargains to be had! We hope you found this to be valuable and hope to run this event again in the future. Sincere thanks to Judith, Pam, Karen, Cecile, Gail and Vanessa for helping on the day and thanks to the MSPS community for donating items to be sold. Entertainment Book orders are ongoing as is School Banking which saw an increase in the number of students banking as a result of a visit from Pat the Dog in assembly earlier this month.

P&F have the following upcoming events this month:

• P&F Committee meeting – Wed 20th May 7.30pm in the Staffroom – ALL WELCOME • Pie Drive – notices coming home shortly

Thanks for your continued support in our fundraising activities. All monies raised are put directly back into MSPS to make it even better for our kids!

Should you wish to join the Committee or help out in any way, please email nicci.green75@gmail.com

Nicci Green President – 2015 P&F

PARENTS AND FRIENDS – BRICK PAVER FUNDRAISER

Have you forgotten to order your paver? Don’t panic – the Parents and Friends Group are still accepting orders.

The pavers are not only a great way to acknowledge your presence at the school but they will make our

boat area look absolutely FANTASTIC.

Parents & Friends - MONTMORENCY SOUTH PRIMARY SCHOOL

PIE DRIVE

We have organised with TONY’S PIES OF ESSENDON to conduct a Pie Drive.

Tony’s Pies will supply us with a range of their freshly baked pies, pasties, quiches and sausage rolls on Tuesday, 2nd

of June

All the products will be freshly baked and will be suitable to go straight into the freezer if you wish.

So order up BIG. Remember, the more you order the more we make. All orders and payment to be returned by

Wednesday, 27th of May.

We need the support of everyone to make this fundraising a success.

This week in the kitchen...

This week in the kitchen we have compared modern varieties of wheat with ancient varieties. The

students have learnt about einkorn, the earliest wheat variety grown by Neolithic man 9000 years ago.

We have also talked about the wheat variety emmer – as grown by the Egyptians. Modern durum wheat

looks very different to these ancient varieties. With wheat as our inspiration we have prepared a feast

using bread in many different ways.

We have made mini cob rolls, ribollita soup (Italian soup that uses stale bread), silverbeet and lentil gratin

(breadcrumbs on top for crunch), Fattoush (Middle Eastern salad containing crispy pittas) and an old

fashioned pear and ginger bread and butter pudding. Bread is very versatile!

Many thanks to Alexis, Cailey and Courtney from 5N, who volunteered during their recess to keep the

kitchen looking neat and tidy!

Volunteer help is required in the kitchen on the following dates:

3R Tuesday 26 May 9.30-11.30

5N Thursday 28 May 12.30-2.30

5H Thursday 21 May and 4 June 12.30-2.30 Please contact me if you are able to assist, Cathryn Hulme on 0419 322 782.

From the garden... The temperature has certainly dropped as we near the end of Autumn and start planting out our winter veg. The 'Brassica family' are well represented in our current plantings, which include broccoli, cabbage and kale. Apart from seasonal changes, important days on the calendar can also be a marker for when to plant certain things, Anzac day, for example, was symbolic for a lot of reasons including when to start planting out your broad beans. Our current garden topic is 'What a waste', which looks at our school's waste systems and how we can divert some of our waste from landfill. The children may come home talking about 'Nude Food', which is just as the name suggests - naked food or food without packaging. We'd love your support with our quest to reduce our school's waste, even if by supporting Nude Food Wednesdays, together we can make a massive impact! Stay tuned for upcoming Nude food tips.

Anyone interested in volunteering for chicken duty or garden sessions, please leave a note at the office for Jenna.

Happy gardening!

RAP News

Last Wednesday evening we held our inaugural RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) meeting. It was a wonderful opportunity to

meet everyone involved in the group and to begin the process of sharing our ideas about reconciliation. There is a lot of

passion and energy in the group as well as a broad range of skills and experiences. I would like to thank everyone involved

and I can’t wait to see where this journey will take us!

Volunteers Needed

May 27- June 3 is National Reconciliation Week. On Friday 29th of May we will be holding a ‘Country and Culture’ Day which

will provide exciting opportunities for our students to engage with and learn directly from Indigenous educators. The day will

start with a ‘Welcome to Country’ by Wurundjeri elder Bill Nicholson and will be followed by class rotations around a variety

of activities including dance, language, arts, music and tree planting.

We would love some family/community volunteers for the day so if anyone is interested and available to help out from 9:00

a.m. – 2:30 p.m., please contact Tara on 0429 478 261.

Aboriginal Skin Group System Education Session I would also like to let everyone know about a community education session that will be held at the school on Wednesday 3rd

of June from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. the session will be run by Jim Poulter, a local author and historian, who has close family

connections with the Wurundjeri people from the time of first settlement in this area. In this session Jim will explain how the

skin group system works across all Aboriginal groups within Australia. He will allocate participants to ‘families’ (using the skin

group and moiety system), explain the resulting interconnected relationships and also address some of the implications of tis

system (such as species conservation and marriage pairings). I’m sure it will be a very engaging and informative evening!

Please RSVP to rap4montysouth@gmail.com or contact Tara on 0429 478 261.

JUNIOR SISTERS AND MISTERS

For children who love to sing and

perform.

Practice session on SATURDAY 16th MAY

2:30 pm to 4:30 pm at

Monty Primary School

60 Rattray Road Montmorency

Interested???? Call Irene Bennetts on

0412 822 126