We are accelerating towards the midway point in the year and lots of exciting things are happening here at Thornhill Park PS.  Our Year 6 students now have their special uniforms and are about to participate in a range of interschool sport activities.  Our 2024 Preps are starting to enrol and we are making contact with kindergartens near our school.  And we are about to receive some new buildings to accommodate the growth of our school.

Enrolments

Please ensure that if you have a child coming to our school as a Prep in 2024 or if you know of someone who intends to come to our school next year, I would ask that you remind them to get their enrolment forms in as soon as possible. We ran our first series of Prep information sessions and Tours over the last 3 weeks and had over 50 families in attendance.  We would ask that all enrolment forms are in before June 28th so that we may start the process of hiring for 2024.

Staff Car Park

I would like to remind parents once again that it is important that you stay out of the staff car park and do not enter at any time to drop off or pick up students.  This is a very dangerous practice and we want to ensure that we keep all students safe.

U-Turns and Parking on the Street

We have also noticed that an increasing number of parents are performing u-turns or getting their children to cross the street directly in front of the school.  This is a very dangerous thing to do, as it is only a matter of time before a child gets hit by a car.  Please take the extra 30 seconds to drive around the block.  We would also ask that you please stop closer to the crossing during drop off time and have your children cross safely at the supervised crossing.

Parent Meetings

At some point either this term or early into next term you will be invited to have a meeting with your child’s teacher.  Please engage with these meetings as it is an opportunity to spend some quality time discussing how your child is going at school.  If you are unable to attend in person, please ask the teacher to organise a Webex meeting.  We would like all students to make maximum progress and we feel we will get the best response if all parties are on the same page.

Compass and excursions

All excursions will be endorsed through Compass, therefore you need to ensure that you are checking all content especially in regard to excursions.  In this space you will need to respond and give permission and you will also need to pay for the excursion.  Our Year 1/2 students are about to head to the Museum and less than 40% of families have paid thus far.  If this doesn’t increase by the due date, the excursion may not go ahead.  Please speak to the office staff if you need assistance with this.

Year 6 Hoodies

As a result of the hoodies taking longer than anticipated, Dobson’s have decided to make them free of charge for anyone who purchased them.

Have a great weekend

Darryl Spiteri

Late Starts and Early Departures

Sometimes your child will need to start late or leave school early (e.g.: for a medical appointment).

If you need to drop off your children late then bring them to the main school office directly so that you can sign them in.

If you need to pick your children up early then please notify us in advance and we will arrange to have your child waiting in the school office. This is especially important during recess and lunch breaks, because your child will be out in the playground and won’t hear announcements to come to the office.

Compass

• It is very important to check the Compass news feed daily.
• Absences MUST be reported via Compass on the day of absence (early in the morning or ahead of time where possible).
• Notification of excursions and incursions requiring online consent/payment are posted to the Compass news feed. If consent/payment for incursions and excursions is not received by the due date via the appropriate Compass online consent form, your child will be unable to participate/attend.

Unexplained Absences

There are many unexplained absences for students on Compass.  It is the responsibility of the parents\carers to ensure that the attendance is correctly entered on Compass when their child\ren are absent.

Could all families please check their children’s attendance on Compass and update any unexplained absences.

If you are unsure of the process, please click here for instructions on how to enter attendance: https://www.compass.education/guide#section-attendance

Excursion Consent & Payments on Compass

Did you know that you can now consent & make a payment on Compass for your child’s excursion

Your child will be attending excursions / events throughout the year. Log into Compass on the Parent Portal via the schools website for each excursion to approve the consent and make a payment (if applicable) online by the due dates.

Compass greatly assists parents with approval and payment requirements. Parents can easily access their child’s activities, keep the school up to date with important information, and complete the permission & payment process.

To provide the consent/payment required, parents click on the notification which will appear on the home screen under “My News”. This will take you to the Events page, where you can see all events that require consent/payment, and those that may have already consented to/paid for.

By clicking the “Process Now (Online)” option, parents will be prompted to enter information regarding emergency contact details, as well as any relevant medical information.

You can also select to pay using your CSEF funds (if eligible).

If you require any assistance, please contact the General Office on 8764 3990.

School Photos

School photos have arrived and have been distributed by their classroom teacher.  If your child has not received their school photos, please come to the office to the collect them.

Medical Information

It is important that you notify Thornhill Park Primary School if your child’s medical details have changed to ensure that we provide the best care for them while they are at school.

If your child has been recently diagnosed with a medical condition that may affect them during their time at school,  please keep us informed.  This may include taking a new medication, a change in medication, a newly diagnosed medical condition such as Diabetes, Asthma, Epilepsy, an Allergy, Anaphylaxis, or any other pre-existing medical condition that the school is unaware of.

If your child has recently been diagnosed with Diabetes, Epilepsy, Asthma, an Allergy or Anaphylaxis, you will need to provide the school with an action / management plan. Once we receive an action / management plan we will work with families to develop a student health support plan or an individual anaphylaxis / allergy plan.

Education Week is an annual celebration of education in Victoria.

This year Victoria will celebrate Education Week from Sunday 14 May to Saturday 20 May.

To find out more, visit the Education Week 2023 website.

This year’s theme is ‘Active Learners: Move, Make, Motivate’, which celebrates physical activity, hands-on learning and student voice in education.

We invited our community to come and experience school life at Thornhill Park Primary School during our Open Day.  It was very well attended and we hope that visitors got a glimpse of the wonderful work that teachers and children are doing at our school. Some parents even got involved in activities like music and PE.  A couple of the big highlights of the week were the Paper Plane making competition and dancing during lunch time in the gym.

RECONCILIATION WEEK 

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is next week. It is an opportunity to strengthen community understanding and pride in reconciliation, and gives schools a chance to reflect and learn more about our shared history in Australia.

NRW is held from 27 May to 3 June each year, when all Australians can:

• reflect on our shared histories, cultures and achievements
• explore how we can join the national reconciliation journey.

Our Learning…. in Grade 3/4

Maths

We have been learning about whole number. Students have been participating in a variety of activities to revise their knowledge of place value and how we can use it to partition and rename numbers. Students have been highly engaged in hands on activities using MABs. They have been identifying the different parts of a number using place value e.g. in 135, there is 1 hundred, 3 tens and 5 ones. The MAB is also assisting them to rename numbers e.g. 426 can be 4 hundreds + 2 tens + 6 ones or 4 hundreds + 26 ones or 2 hundred + 220 tens + 6 ones (this concept will be necessary when we move onto addition and subtraction algorithms).

Home Reading

It is wonderful to see most students reading at home and tracking this in their journals. All students are expected to read for 10-15 minutes each school night and are welcome to read on the weekend too. We now have levelled home readers available for students to borrow, however they are welcome to read books from home, the council library or online (Reading Eggs, Reading Eggspress or Epic!).

Reading journals are checked regularly and progress recorded. We have had a number of students progressing through our Reading Wall, where students get to put their name once they reach a milestone in their take home reading journal. Students get to celebrate their success with the Year 3/4 cohort when we have assemblies. More than 14 students have already reached the 100-night goal and they are well on their way to 125 nights, such an amazing effort!

Please encourage your child to record in their journal neatly, completing all the sections. We also ask that parents sign the journals at least once a week.

Some ways you can support your child with Reading at home:

• Encourage them to have a regular reading time and provide a comfortable place to read.
• Get them to read aloud to younger brothers and sisters.
• Ask them questions about their reading e.g. What did you think of what you read? Are you enjoying the book? Why?
• Ask them to pick a few interesting words to discuss the meaning and use.
• Encourage them to write about their reading. This can be as simple as a brief summary in their journal or longer pieces like a letter to the author/character, a book review or a set of questions/wonderings.

Introducing the School Leaders

Blue House Captains for 2023

My name is Genesis and I am the Blue House Captain.  My favourite things about being a house captain is that you can lead activities for special events, and you get to have fun when leading one of the activities.  My favourite session is P.E.  because you can have so much fun and you’re playing with your friends.  You can play new sports or games you’ve never heard of or played before.  The main thing about P.E is having fun.  My 2^nd favourite lesson is Art because after P.E. it takes my adrenaline out of me and  takes it inside my art.  My 3^rd favourite is Music because in music we’ve been learning  about pitch; what has a low pitch and high pitch.  Many things have pitch like opera singers because they sing high notes.  On Monday we used ukeleles in class and played Old McDonald.

Hi, my name is Simon and I’m from Thornhill Park.  Thornhill Park is a great community, and they have a great school here especially because you do sports and you have fun and I love STEM because you learn new things like coding.  That’s why Thornhill Park is the best.  I love the community because it makes you feel safe.

BULLYING IS NEVER OK

What is bullying?

Bullying can happen at school, at home or online. It is never okay and it is not a normal part of growing up.

There is a new nationally agreed definition of bullying which all Australian schools now use:

Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening.

Bullying can happen in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). Bullying behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital records).

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have immediate, medium and long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.

There are 3 main features of bullying are:

• the misuse of power in a relationship
• it is ongoing and repeated
• it involves behaviours that can cause harm.

What is not bullying?

There are also some behaviours, which, although they might be unpleasant or distressing, are not bullying:

• mutual conflict that involves a disagreement, but not an imbalance of power. Unresolved mutual conflict can develop into bullying if one of the parties targets the other repeatedly in retaliation
• single-episode acts of nastiness or physical aggression, or aggression directed towards many different people, is not bullying
• social rejection or dislike is not bullying unless it involves deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike by others.

Parents and carers play an important role in identifying and preventing bullying.

For information and advice, visit :  https://www.vic.gov.au/bullying-information-parents

To read our Bullying Prevention Policy, please visit our school website:  https://thornhillparkps.vic.edu.au/our-school/documents-policies-reports/

Congratulations to the following students who received awards during our assemblies!

Keep up the great work!

Students of the Week – Ending 26/05

Students of the Week – Ending 02/06

Congratulations to the following students who are celebrating a birthday in May and June!

We hope you had a lovely day!

Harnoor 56B
Franchesca 12D
Lineesh PD
Mia 56B
Satgun PA
Rajvir PA
Anaiah PC
Traliyah 34A
Joshua 34B
Lucas 12A
Dyuthika 12D
Avah PA
Jesiah 34B
Preeya 34A
Perez 12C
Hassnain 12D
Jashanpreet [Jashan] 56B
Saroop PD
Nimrat 56B
Genesis 5/6
Prabhraj PD
Jireh [Tuli Lui] 12B
Ali Zaigham 12C
Ellie 5/6

School Term 2

Monday 24 April 2023 – Friday 23 June 2023

Thursday 8th June – Lightening Premiership – Tee Ball and Netball

Monday 12th June – King’s Birthday Public Holiday

Friday 16th June – Year 1/2 Melbourne Museum Excursion

Friday 23rd June – Last Day of term (early dismissal at 2.30pm)

School Term 3

Monday 10 July 2023 – Friday 15 September 2023

Book Week – Theme – ‘Read, Grow, Inspire’ – 21st August till 25th August

School Term 4

Monday 2 October 2023 – Wednesday 20 December 2023