Colac Primary School Newsletter October 15th, 2020

Phone: 5231-2560 (BH) Website: www.colacps.vic.edu.au

Book Week dress up day: Monday October 19th Victorian Public Holidays: October 23rd & November 3 rd, 2020

Parent Opinion Survey:

WE WANT OUR PARENTS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion

Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted

amongst randomly selected parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of

parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, student engagement and experiences of

remote and flexible learning. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future

school planning and improvement strategies.

Randomly selected parents have been invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the

survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 12th

October to Friday 13th November.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any

convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones.

The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic,

Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

Please speak to Shelby Papadopoulos or Jill Newcombe if you would like more information.

Book Week 2020: Book week is NEXT WEEK! The theme is: Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. On

Monday @ 9.30am, our students have been invited to dress up in costume to celebrate Book Week. Costumes may be linked to the Book Week theme,

or a favourite book character. Costumes need not be new or elaborate - they can made from anything you have at home and can be simple and

creative with minimal fuss. Children are asked not to wear costumes that others (younger students) may find frightening.

Each class will show off their costumes on WebEx at 9.30am and families have been sent a link via Compass. Unfortunately this link cannot be shared with non-compass users.

School facilities update & Room 7: We are pleased to show you that our new soft-fall has been installed in all playground areas and has been well received by students as they slide and play at break times. Pictured are Mila and Summah enjoying the safer playground. We had all of our trees surveyed by an aborist (a tree doctor) and as a result the big elm trees in Lyons Street have been pruned along with others in the school. Further tree maintenance will take place over coming months and this is funded by the Victorian Schools Building Authority, which is great news! In some not so great news, as a result of the heavy downpours of rain we have received lately, Room 7 has sprung a leak! The Department of Education team have been out to the school this week and have repaired the roof flashing that lead to this unfortunate situation. They have assisted us by providing a de-humidifyer to dry out the plaster and will be back shortly to let us know what needs to happen next. We are so very grateful to our Room 7 students and staff who were able to move to Room 6 and continue with their teaching and learning program. We will not relocate students back to Room 7 unless we are advised it is fully safe to do so, but as soon as we receive that advice the students will happily re-settle in their classroom. In better news our shade sails should be returning soon after being repaired and our School Council is in the process of investigating the installation of a bike shed and improvements to the sports shed. We are a very lucky school to have the support of our School Council, the Building Authority and DET

Humidifier in Room 7 Miss Fraser with her room 7 class relocated to room 6

Happy Book Week

Shelby Papadopoulos – Principal

Calendar

Oct Occupational Code & Semester 2 medical forms due back

October Staggered drop off & pickups as advised above

Oct 17th – 23rd Book Week-Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

Oct 15th Parent survey available online

Oct 16th Assembly 2.15pm via WebEx

Oct 19th Book Week Parade. WebEx at 9.30am

Oct 23rd AFL Grand Final Public Holiday – no school

Nov 3rd Melbourne Cup Public Holiday – no school

Nov 13th Parent survey finishes

Nov 17th School photo day – if permitted

Student Banking

Student banking will not recommence for the remainder of term 4. Parents will be advised of next

year’s arrangements once more information is received.

Managing Unwell Students

A flyer with updated information for parents accompanies today’s newsletter.

Medication Updates

Please ensure your child’s Ventolin & spacer is supplied to the school for storage in the first aid room

or to the class teacher if preferred. If your child suffers from Hay Fever, their medication can be stored

here at school also. All medication must be clearly named with dose clearly marked. Please ensure

your child has handed the medication into the office or teacher. Medication must not be kept in

students bags, with the exception of their Ventolin if preferred.

Staggered start and finish times:

October:

Morning arrival Afternoon dismissal

8.55am Dingoes 2.55pm Dingoes

9.05am Kangaroos 3.05am Kangaroos

9.15am Koalas 3.15pm Koalas

This week sees all of our wonderful students really showing what they can do in the classroom! It’s

fantastic to see everyone’s bright, smiling faces each day, and everyone is coming to school ready to

learn!

Rooms 1 and 2 have been planting seeds, playing plenty of learning games and learning their Magic

Words. Rooms 3 and 4 are learning all about fractions and celebrating NAIDOC Week by creating their

very own Aboriginal artworks! With the sun shining, we can’t wait to get outside and keep kicking

learning goals.

We have been extremely busy this week!

We have been exploring poetic devices in Reading and have

been having a go at writing our own poems in Writing. It has

been fantastic to see our writers experiment with creative

ideas and descriptive language.

We have also been learning to collect and represent data in

Numeracy. We are excited to see the results of the data surveys

we have circulated through our cohort. We might even write

some persuasive letters to Miss Shelby to share our thoughts

and ideas!

All of the grade 3/4 students have been working so hard and

have been trying their personal best in every task. Thank you

for all of your hard work!

Year 5/6 students have settled back into the classroom like true ‘superstars’. It has been wonderful

seeing and hearing everyone being so cheerful and enjoying being back at school. We have been busy

engaging in our learning and would like to congratulate everyone on their efforts to date. Keep up the

great work legends!

This week, our learning has focused on making our

Writers Notebook, letter writing, comparing and

contrasting Paul Jennings text and small film and

working with decimal numbers. We have also

began looking at physical sciences and the concept

of light.

This week students have been busing working on their entries for The Colac Otway Makers Space

online art exhibition “Sweet”. The Prep to Grade 2 students also revisited their Jasper John inspired

number prints - a work in progress started back at the beginning of Term 3.

Yes, next week is CBCA Book Week! We will be celebrating Book Week on Monday. You are all welcome to dress up! You can come as a character from your favourite book or choose a costume that matches the theme ‘Curious Creatures Wild Minds’. It is of course quite different this year but I am looking forward to seeing all the classes on screen. Hope everyone enjoys the day! P -2 students have been enjoying a variety of picture storybooks that have been shortlisted in the CBCA Book Awards. They will get a chance to name their favourite book in Library class next week.

Story Box Library - if you would like to watch a favourite CBCA book or new one. Search in theme filter for CBCA shortlist 20

USERNAME: Colac Primary PASSWORD: library

Grades 3 – 6 will also participate in Library lessons based on CBCA shortlisted books next week. There will also be opportunities to explore more wonderful Children’s Book Council of Australia shortlisted & notable fiction & non-fiction books in the future. Take good care. See you Monday! Kind regards, Mrs Briffa

Gardening News with Mrs Rosevear Lots of great help from my two assistants this week, Banjo and Sam. We harvested beetroot, taste

tested vegetables, dug, raked, spread mulch, pruned and much, much more. We searched for the

illusive blue-banded bee in the bok choy flowers but we were out of luck. It’s good to let some

vegetables go to seed to help the insects.

One of the trees in the Indigenous garden is up to Sam’s waist. There was a trigger plant in flower as

well as some chocolate lilies.

AUSSIE BACKYARD BIRD COUNT

OCT 19 – OCT 25, 2020

The #AussieBirdCount is a great way to connect with the birds

in your backyard, no matter where your backyard might be —

whether it's a suburban backyard, a local park, a patch of forest,

a farm, down by the beach, or the main street of town.

All you need to take part is 20 minutes and your favourite

outdoor space - you don't even have to leave home, making it

the ultimate Covid-safe activity! As well as contributing to BirdLife Australia's knowledge

of Aussie Birds, you will have the chance to win some great prizes.

Head to the website and register as a Counter today. https://aussiebirdcount.org.au/

Well done on a GREAT SECOND WEEK everybody! This week the PE report is very low key and there isn’t

a lot to really report on. Keep up the great work everybody.

PE this week

Students have continued to learn about a number of different sports that originated in other countries.

This week students have continued to play Molkky or Finska (originating in Finland) and European Handball (originating in Scandinavia/Germany) and there have been some great games being played. Handball in particular has been taken outside during recess and lunch, which has been great to see. It is a very engaging sport where everybody gets a chance to touch the ball as it moves so fast! It is also a great game for those playing netball, enhancing their ball movement and passing. Students have also really enjoyed competing against each other after not being able to do so for the Remote Learning period. Classes have also learnt about Sumo Wrestling (Japan) where contestants not only eat a lot food and can top 260 kilograms, but they train long hours and devote their life to being a Rikishi (wrestler). Sumo

Wrestling is Japan’s national sport and the best are televised on national television. The other sport that students have learnt about is Kabaddi (India/Sri Lanka) which is a game played on a ‘badminton sized’

court. The aim of the game is for a player from team A move into the opposition’s half of the court and try and tag one of their players and then get back to their side of the court before being tackled.

Sports Shed

I must say a HUGE well done to our Sports Shed monitors this term, as well as those who were monitors earlier in the year. Students nominate for the job and then I make a roster for the term. Jobs include listing the students who have borrowed, making sure the equipment is returned and cleaned, as well as keeping the sports shed neat and tidy. All of the students love the responsibility and that key is the most prized possession in the school Well done monitors! Photos

Mia, Phaze and Lexie T have been enjoying our games of Finska. Our new tennis nets have been a real hit with students like Isaiah, Jordan, Blake, Laker and Jasper.

Under the Grill with Mr Till As we work through our school and house captains and vice captains, my

attention turns to a very quiet and talented dancer , Dingoes Vice Captain by

the name of Sharrene. She always gives her personal best in her learning tasks

and that in itself made her a great choice for a leadership position at school. At

times it is hard to get a lot of information out of her, but this time there is no

holding back so let’s find out a l ittle more about her and put her Under the

Grill!

Name: Sharrene Bateman

Now we know you are one of 2 Dingoes Vice Captains, what made you want to be a ‘house captain’? Because I love chanting songs and love supporting my team Dingoes.

This year has been a little odd with Covid-19 disrupting school for some time, but I am wondering what you have enjoyed about being captain so far, and are you looking forward to any ‘special’ captain roles coming

up? I enjoyed having the responsibility of becoming Dingoes vice-captain.

Being a school leader means that you were also a buddy to our new preps. Who is your little buddy and how

did it all go?

It was amazing! My buddy is Phaze and she is the best buddy you could ask for.

What is the best thing about CPS? All of the students love to learn and it’s a great school!

What are your favourite subject/s at school? Why?

My favourite subject is writing because you can express yourself in whatever you do.

Can you give the younger CPS students some advice that you can share from your days as a student? Always try your best and never give up. I believe you can do anything you want that you put your mind to.

What school are you going to next year? What are you most looking forward to? I’m looking forward to making new friends at CSC and having a new start

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I don’t know yet I will just see were life takes me.

What is your favourite food and drink?

My favourite food is lasagne and chips I don’t have a favourite drink.

What are some of your favourite things to do outside of school? (Hobbies or Interests) I love to dance and singing. They have been a passion of mine for as long as I remember.

How have you coped this Remote Learning Period? Anything that you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy as much?

I don’t really like yoga because of my sore back.

What is the ‘biggest’ thing that you have missed during the Covid 19 period? I’m sadly going to miss the Colac show, which I go to every year.

Now growing up with younger sister Lorelei, how has that been? What do you 2 sisters like doing together? We like to dance together and muck around.

Now Lorelei tells me that she does the cooking with mum and you sit on your iPad, how come you don’t help

in doing the cooking? Because I’m not that good at cooking but I will try and help.

Tell us something we don’t already know about you …

I’m 13 years old and I love dancing and singing.

Thank you for your time and being a WONDERFUL house leader!

Under the Grill with Mr Till

Last week we quizzed our school vice-captains about their schooling and they

had some wonderful answers. This week we turn to one of our House Captains

in Zanthe, who is one of 2 leaders of the Koalas house. Zanthe is a quiet

student who always leads by example and is a wonderful role model for her

peers. Look out as we are putting you Under the Grill!

Name: Zanthe Browes

Now we know you are one of 2 school Koalas house captains, what made you want to be a ‘captain’? What have you enjoyed about it so far?

I wanted to be a house captain because you would be a role model to other younger students’ and I enjoy

cheering for koalas on sports events.

What is the best thing about CPS?

The teachers and students.

What are your favourite subjects at school? Why? All of them to be honest.

Can you give the younger CPS students some advice that you can share from your days as a student?

It is fun and I think you should be nice to everyone here.

What school are you going to next year? What are you most looking forward to?

I’m going to CSC next year for high school and I look forward to the new uniform and probably everything about going to a new school.

What do you want to be when you grow up and why?

I don’t know yet, but I would like to go to university when I’m older.

Being a leader means that you were also a buddy to our new preps. Who is your little buddy and how did it all go?

My buddy is Spencer and she is really funny and nice to everyone so it is great.

Have you got any funny stories from the Preps?

No, not that I can remember.

What is your favourite food and drink? As a dessert I like cheesecake and my favourite drink is water.

What are some of your favourite things to do outside of school? (Hobbies or Interests) I like netball and I did swimming for a bit.

How have you coped this Remote Learning Period? Anything that you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy as much?

I didn’t enjoy that my friends weren’t next to me to talk haha.

What is the ‘biggest’ thing that you have missed during the Covid 19 period? My friends probably.

Once everything gets back to normal and we are allowed to do whatever we want, what is the first thing you

will do or persuade mum and dad to do?

Let my friends come over for a sleepover.

Tell us something we don’t already know about you … Well over the holidays I gave myself a concussion trying to do a karate kick haha.

Thank you for your time and being a WONDERFUL Koalas captain!

Elliminyt Tennis Club

*** Wanted ***

Division 3 Tennis Players

Our club is looking for 3 Junior

Tennis players to join our Div 3

team. PDTA Saturday morning

tennis competition. You need to

have a good understanding of how to play Tennis and

be able to get a serve in from the back line. If you have

a child who could be interested please get in touch.

Contact us via Facebook: Elliminyt Tennis Club or

Call the club secretary on 0417144273 ASAP.

Competition starts Saturday 31s t of October 2020.