Thank you to everybody who

contributed to our fantastic Biggest

Morning Tea during this week. The

food on offer was fantastic and

produced by our very own Master

Chefs in our new kitchen.

It was announced in the 2011-12 Victorian State

Budget that the School Start Bonus (SSB) payment

of $300 will be targeted to provide assistance to

those families most in need. Commencing in

2012, eligibility for the School Start Bonus will be

based on similar eligibility criteria to the

Education Maintenance Allowance i.e. the

parent/guardian must be a holder of a valid

Concession Card, such as a Health Care Card or

Pensioner Concession Card. Funding will assist

eligible families of Prep & Year 7 students to meet

the cost of sending their child to school.

I am very grateful to Bill & Julie Pendred, parents

to Louise and James, for developing a Symbol

Catalogue for Parents. The symbols used in the

catalogue are from BOARDMAKER, a symbol

system that assists a large number of our student

in their daily communication. There are over

13,700 symbols available and they can be

customised to suit your requirements. I will make 5 copies of the catalogue available at

school and will also post the document on our school website.

PRINCIPAL REPORT Issue #7: Friday 20th May, 2011

PRINCIPAL REPORT – CONTINUED

Some of our Secondary Students turned

film stars last week. The Bendigo &

Adelaide Bank, sponsors of our new

kitchen, sent a film crew to our school to

make a short feature film about the work

of our students in the new kitchen. It is a

fantastic reflection on the outstanding

programs we provide for our students. You

can access the short film on our website.

The newsletters are also available via our

Peninsula SDS web site. Please go to the

website and have a look at

www.peninsulaspecialist.vic.edu.au .

Peter

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday 26th May Schools National Sorry Day

Sunday 5th June World Environment Day

Thursday 9th June Peninsula SDS Athletics Carnival

Monday 13th June Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday

Tuesday 24th June Red Nose Day (S.I.D.S)

CLASS 11 We have been bringing nature to us in our class by creating grapefruit bird feeders. Photo by Tom Steele.

CLASS 6

On Monday we went to the Briars Park to have a talk with Jarrod & Tom the Park Rangers

and experience the wetlands. We were shown where hundreds of noisy Common Froglets

live, learnt lots about water birds and what makes the wetlands unique.

On Tuesday everyone pulled together providing & serving food, setting up and cleaning up

and donating to a very worthy cause. We received over $450 in donations! Well done

everyone. A special thank you to all the parents, senior students and Swinburne University

of Technology.

CERTIFICATE II IN HOSPITALITY

Seven of our Senior students have been enrolled in an exciting program to

earn a qualification in Hospitality through practical means. This program

provides extensive training in a range of skilled operational areas of the

hospitality industry. Students will gain knowledge in food and beverage

service and some basic cooking skills. Participants will receive supervised

training four days a week at Pelican Pantry, Hastings in a fully operational

commercial café. The course will take 3 months and is fully certified by

Chisholm Mornington Peninsula.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY Daniel is practicing pushing his elbows away from his

body with his Vibrating T bar. Daniel loves vibration

and usually puts objects into his mouth to explore

them but with his Vibrating T bar, Dan does not

receive the vibration unless he is pushing away!

Many thanks to TADVIC (Technical Aids for Disabled,

Victoria) for their expertise in designing and

manufacturing this tailor-made project for Daniel.

TADVIC have also included provision for Daniel to

experience different levels of vibration.

Left: Chloe loves to clean her teeth in her Classroom

Teeth Cleaning session. Well done, Chloe!

Bottom Left: Connor can pick up two pegs at a time

and place them into the board without using his left

hand or his body in order to manipulate them within

his hand so that the stick is facing into the hole! Well

done Connor!

Bottom Right: Billy has been learning about the

Alert program and different ways to calm himself so

that he is breathing deeply and slowly from his

diaphragm.

SPRINGTIME FAIR 2011

Well it’s that time of year again when we need to start preparing

for our annual “Springtime Fair.” For those of you that are new to

our school we began this fair as a way for the children to

practically use their maths and literacy skills in a relaxed and

comfortable setting in preparation for the wider community. Each

class and specialist teacher offers a stall or game for everyone to

enjoy. Hot food is sold and some

rides are brought in. Vendors from

the wider community including

Victoria Police and the CFA have also supported this event. The purpose is

for students to bring some money and purchase goods by themselves.

Everything is sold for 10¢, 20¢, 50¢ or $1. Some other local schools are

invited to join in the fun, as well as our parents, families and members of

the local community. We also have school bands and performers to entertain. Continue to watch this

space in the newsletter for updates regarding the fair. If you have any ideas or can help in any way please

contact Kathy via the school. Phone (03) 5987 2649 or email peninsula.sds@edumail.vic.gov.au

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Congratulations to ALL the students who have worked really hard!

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

We were very lucky to have Alice from Basketball Victoria’s Disability Inclusion Program run

some basketball clinics for our students. Everyone had fun learning new skills.

Peninsula 1 – 40pts V Emmerson 1 – 8pts

Peninsula 2 – 18pts V Southern Autistic - 24pts

Peninsula 3 – 2pts V Frankston 4 – 14pts