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Thornhill Park PS Newsletter #14

24th November 2023

Our newsletter is published on a fortnightly basis and is an effective medium of informing students and parents about various school activities, achievements, and events.

We also have a Facebook page and use Compass and ClassDojo to communicate between the school, and parents, students, and staff.

Principal’s Message

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We only have a couple of newsletters to go before the end of our first year as a school. It has been an amazing year with lots of fun and learning for the students of Thornhill Park Primary School.

End of Year Raffle

We have an end of year raffle where the main prizes are a Nintendo Switch donated by Big Childcare and a 55″ TV donated by Learning with Technologies. We also have a bunch of other prizes including vouchers for people to enjoy. Tickets are $2, so please make sure you get them back to school before Monday 18th December, which is our end of year celebration.

End of Year Celebration

Monday 18th December will be our first ever End Of Year Celebration. Students will be learning a dance to some Christmas themed music with a group called Bushwahzee and will be performing for everyone on the night. Our celebration will take place on the Soccer Pitch. People are encouraged to bring chairs and picnic blankets. All the fun kicks off at 4.30pm. We will have food trucks onsite for you to get your dinner.

Hats

Several students are still not wearing hats to school. It is a compulsory item in our uniform and children who are not wearing a hat will be asked to sit in the shade. Our office sells hats, as does our uniform supplier at Dobsons in Caroline Springs.

Crossing roads

I have noticed quite a few people taking unnecessary risks when crossing the road with their children out the front of the school. Please use the designated crossings to ensure yours and your child’s safety. We need to be particularly vigilant whilst we have extra trucks coming down the street during local road works.

Holidays and Exiting

Please let the office know if you are leaving us or if you are going on an extended holiday in the new year. We need to be able to plan accordingly, so letting us know in advance is appreciated. We do not wish children to be absent from school, however we understand that some of ht4ese holidays have been planned for quite some time.

Transition Day

Tuesday 12th December is the Statewide Step Up Day for all of our students. All our new Preps will be here on that day and most of our Year 6s will be visiting their new schools. We are hoping to have all of our new teachers here on that day.

Have a great weekend.

Darryl Spiteri

Our Learning

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Our Learning in Year 5/6

This term the Year 5/6 students have been learning about designing a business in the topic “Kidpreneur Challenge,” which focuses on economics and business. They have been learning about needs, wants, goods and services. Students are gaining a real-life understanding of the design and production process when creating a brand-new product or supplying a service. In small groups, students have planned, advertised, and will sell their goods and services in the gym next week to students from other classes (Thursday, 30^th November). Students took part in the ‘Market Manoeuvres’ incursion where they explored the differences between economic needs and wants. They encountered opportunity cost and trade-off situations and learnt about the personal and societal benefits of work and trading. Students participated in an interactive game and a whole-class economy activity in which they purchased, produced, and sold materials and goods to investigate the roles of supply, demand and government to determine prices. Within Numeracy, students have been working on multi-digit multiplication and division and gaining practical skills in budgeting by incorporating whole and decimal numbers. Students have explored percentage discounts, helping them make informed financial decisions which nicely tied in with their Inquiry topic of economics and business.

The 5/6 classes have also had a visit from the local police, where students were reminded about how to be safe online when completing schoolwork or using social media. They talked about keeping personal information secret to ensure that details are not shared with others.

From the Office

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Christmas Raffle

A book of 25 raffle tickets for the Thornhill Park Primary School Christmas Raffle have been sent home to each family. Tickets are $2.00 each.

If you are unable to sell any tickets please return them to either your child’s teacher or the Front Office.

All tickets, sold and unsold, with the correct money are to be returned by Friday 15th December. The raffle will be drawn at the end of year celebration on Monday 18th December.

Thank you for your continued support of our school.

Covid-19

There is at present an increase in community transmission of COVID-19 in Victoria.

You can help us keep our school as safe as possible by taking 2 important steps:

1. Ensure your COVID-19 vaccinations are up to date. Information on how and where to get vaccinated is available on the Get vaccinated webpage.

2. If your child shows symptoms of COVID-19, please ensure they stay home and get tested. The easiest way to test is to use a rapid antigen test (RAT). Free RATs are available from your local council where you can collect 2 packs of 5 RATs and an extra 2 packs for each person in your household. People with disability and their carers can get 4 packs of 5 RATs. You are not required to have a Medicare card and you can collect RATs as many times as you need. You can also buy RATs at supermarkets, pharmacies and other retailers.

If your child has symptoms but tests negative, please ensure they stay home until they no longer have symptoms.

If the RAT test result is positive, please ensure they say home for at least 5 days and until there are no more symptoms.

Thank you for your support – these steps will help us all stay well.

Mental Health & Wellbeing

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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.

The 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.

Information and advice

https://www.vic.gov.au/bullying-information-parents

Attendance

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PRIMARY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day – missing school puts them behind.

If your child is sick or absent, you are required to notify school as soon as possible on the day of absence using one of the following methods:

Online: log the absence directly using Compass.
Telephone: the school office and let the staff know your child’s name, class, date of absences and reason.

Notifying the school of your child’s absence either prior to, or on the day that they will be away, helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and will fulfil your legal responsibility.

Why do I need to notify the school if my child is absent?

Schools need to know when and why a child is absent and you need to know if your child isn’t at school.

If your child is absent on a particular day and you have not contacted the school to explain why, the absence will be marked as unexplained.

This system also promotes daily school attendance. Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education, they learn new things every day – missing school puts them behind.

What is your responsibility?

You are legally required to ensure your child attends school every day or you must provide an explanation for their absence. You should let the school know in advance of any upcoming absences or let them know in the morning if your child won’t be at school. Avoid making routine medical and dental appointments during the school day or planning family holidays during the term.

Recognising great attendance and punctuality.

Our attendance target is 96%. Each week, we reward the class with the highest attendance (which includes getting to school on time!), with our school mascot, Ripwell in their classroom for the week.

Week Ending: 17th November

Congratulations to 12D , who had the best classroom attendance for the week ending 17th November

Week Ending: 24th November

Congratulations to 34C , who had the best classroom attendance for the week ending 24th November

Students of the Week

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

Keep up the great work!

Students of the Week – Ending 17/11

CLASS	TEACHER	STUDENT
Prep A	Mrs Nicoll	Serenity M
Prep B	Miss Belovitch	Aaron S
Prep C	Miss Thomas	Aarika S
Class 12A	Mrs Scott	Arya S
Class 12B	Miss Afxentiou	Lionides B
Class 12C	Mr Lindsay	Amayra K
Class 12D	Miss Duffy	Isaac S
Class 12E	Miss Trigueros	Ekamdeep M
Class 34A	Mr Micallef	Zayden B
Class 34B	Miss Baba	Avneet G
Class 34C	Mr Luca	Kultaaj S
Class 34D	Mr Smith	Mataius F
PE	Mr Ford	12E
Performing Arts	Ms Falls	56A

Students of the Week – Ending 24/11

CLASS	TEACHER	STUDENT
Prep C	Miss Thomas	Aveer S
Class 12A	Mrs Scott	Noah G
Class 12B	Miss Afxentiou	Prabhvit S
Class 12C	Mr Lindsay	Ali U
Class 12D	Miss Duffy	Blake T
Class 12E	Miss Trigueros	Auddie O
Class 34A	Mr Micallef	Evaleen M
Class 34B	Miss Baba	Eric G
Class 34C	Mr Luca	Chinaza K
Class 34D	Mr Smith	Aria D
Class 56A	Ms Fabbro	Rob A
Class 56B	Mr Soumbassis	Alisha K
Class 56C	Mrs Hackworthy	Mia
Art	Mrs Shoebridge	56C
PE	Mr Ford	34B
Performing Arts	Ms Falls	12D