Volume 22 Issue 6 Thursday 10 March 2016

P arent Modelling of Safe Practices Whether in the role of pedestrian or driver, it is important that adults model safe practices to their

children and to others! What message do we convey when we drive and park unlawfully or cross roads unsafely! The City of Casey provides school crossing supervisors to enable parents and students to cross roads safely when coming to school and when leaving school upon dismissal. Please use the school crossing and then walk the short distance to your parked car. The safety of our children must come before any perceived slight inconvenience by not doing so! SAFETY FIRST. Please DO NOT park in the school drop off/pick up zone. Please DO NOT double park alongside parked cars and please DO NOT park in the adjoining doctor’s surgery or kindergarten. Parking infringement notices have been known to be issued.

W orking Bee Thank You Last Sunday morning, we held our first working bee for the year! The weather was

pleasant, the participants collectively enthusiastic and the tasks assigned were not too daunting - the spreading of the wood chips along the school fence line under our cypress trees and into the garden beds around the school grounds. We commenced at 9:00 a.m. and stopped for morning tea at 10:30 a.m. before officially concluding at 12:00 midday; just before the heat of the day built up!! At its conclusion there was immense satisfaction for a job well done! Thank you to all our attendees for the

one, two or three hours you gave to the school. Your contribution to the aesthetics of our school is much appreciated. Our attendees on the morning were: FAMILIES Anthony Baxter Bless Bone Conroy Cowdery Cullen Donnellon Foster Johns Jolliffe Kesegic Lambie Malakizadeh Perera Smith Snelling Swinnerton Tan Wood STAFF Jim Bell, Janet Bell, Jenny Reid, Trish Shaw, Marina Botros, Michelle Conroy, Maree Dale, Daryl West and Jim Narayan Apologies if any participants have inadvertently been omitted. There are generally no more than two working bees held throughout the year and we encourage as many families to attend, even if it’s only for an hour or two! A collage of photographs has captured the occasion. Jim Bell, principal

www.brentwoodparkps.vic.edu.au

TERM DATES 2016 TERM 1 28 JAN. - 24 MARCH TERM 2 11 APRIL - 24 JUNE TERM 3 11 JULY - 16 SEPT. TERM 4 03 OCT. - 20 DEC. 14 MARCH LABOUR DAY HOLIDAY 16 MARCH MULTI-CULTURAL BIG DAY OUT ….. 21-22 MARCH PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS (FORMS DUE BACK FRIDAY 11TH MARCH) 24 MARCH EASTER RAFFLE (FREE DRESS DAY, DONATION OF AN ITEM FOR THE HAMPER) 24 MARCH LAST DAY FOR TERM 1 (SCHOOL FINISHES 2:30PM) 11 APRIL FIRST DAY OF TERM 2 21 & 22 MAR YEAR 6 APPLE STORE EXCURSION($38.00 DUE 24/3/16 PERMISSION SLIP DUE 18/3) 12 & 22 APRIL YEAR 6 MUSEUM/SCIENCEWORKS EXCURSION JIM BELL, PRINCIPAL JENNY REID, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

DATES TO REMEMBER

K ambrya Year 11 Psychology Students Visit Foundation and Year 2 Students Year 11 Psychology students visited Brentwood

Park this week to facilitate tasks with Foundation and Year Two students. The Psychology students are studying Piaget and his stage theory of development, and need to compare the responses of a group of students aged about 5 years to also students of about 7 years as a comparison in age. The tasks the students facilitated were: 1. Conservation of matter - using plasticine balls of the same size, and then rolling one of those balls into a sausage shape to see whether the students can identify that the amount of plasticine stayed the same. 2. Conservation of volume - pouring equal amounts of water into two identical shaped glasses, and then transferring the contents of one glass into a taller and thinner glass to see whether the students can identify that the volume has stayed the same 

S chool Car Park Please note that parents are not allowed to enter the

school car park when collecting children at the end of the school day. Doing so is a dangerous practice. Student safety takes precedence over perceived inconvenience The only exceptions are those families who need to use the disabled parking facility. Even then, we only have the one bay available and its use shared by five families.

S chool Assembly School assembly is a great opportunity for the whole school to be together and recognise

individual and collective achievement! “Stars of the Week” are announced and certificates presented. It is also a great opportunity for grades to showcase what they have been learning in our Performing Arts program!

Last week, Year 6JA performed the rhythm of “Stoddola Pumpaa”, a folk song from Czechoslovakia, on buckets!! It was an enthralling performance and captivated the audience!!

S ports Shorts Swimming News: Well done to all of the students who swam at the district carnival on Friday. The

competition was very tough and our swimmers gave their best efforts. Congratulations to all of our students and we hope the following students compete well at ‘Division Swimming’. Freestyle: Jack, Ty and Senuth Backstroke: Jack, Nikola and Tyson Breastroke: Ty and Cooper Butterfly: Ashley Freestyle relay teams: Ty, Ashley, Billy and Max. Tyson, Senuth, Brodie and Lilly. Once again the standard of swimming was super with all of our swimmers giving their best efforts. A special thanks to all of the parents and friends who have supported the swimming team. District Tennis: Last week, Senuth and Alex participated in the district tennis carnival. Both boys started well, winning their first match 6-1 respectively. Unfortunately, both boys lost their second match 1-6. The loss meant that both boys were then placed into a secondary draw, where they played some very competitive tennis. Alex and Senuth displayed great sportsmanship and it was pleasing to see both represent the school with such enthusiasm. Congratulations boys, on a super effort.

C hinese Language and Culture

CHINESE SISTER SCHOOL VISIT... As you may be aware, last year in February, Brentwood Park Primary School hosted a very successful visitation from their Chinese sister school; Yangzhong Experimental Primary School. We were one of a number of such visitations facilitated throughout the state between Victorian schools and Jiangsu schools. Following the successful visit to Victoria last year, the schools in Jiangsu would like to visit their sister schools in Victoria again this year. The school visits will be for five days in late July 2016. The maximum number of visitors will be twelve students and two teachers from each school. The host school activities / homestay arrangements would be similar to last year. This is a great opportunity for our school community and we remain hopeful that with support from volunteer school families, we can accommodate this year’s visitation. Research in sister school relationships often highlights the positive impact that such relationships can have across a range of areas for students, schools and the school community. Sister schools contribute to: Intercultural understanding within the school

community Increased global awareness and internationalisation

within the school community Opportunities to better understand one’s own culture/

country Personal development of the student e.g. leadership,

maturity, independence Improved ability of students to adjust to different

situations Opportunities for sharing pedagogies and engage in

joint curriculum development Opportunities for reciprocal travel Enhancement of the reputation of the school

Friendship

M aths Extension Classes at Kambrya On Monday the Year Six students attended the extension mathematics class focusing on algebra.

LEARNING GOAL: To successfully solve one step and two step equations. SUCCESS CRITERIA: To apply knowledge of algebra to solve one and two step equations. The class revised the terms learnt last week: Constant: a number by itself is called a constant. Pronumeral ( variable): a letter that represents a number e.g. x, y, r Term: consists of one or more pronumerals and /or numbers e.g. 5a, 7p, 3pr Coefficient: the number written in front of a pronumeral and can be positive or negative e.g. 7p, 2x, 4y Expression: a mathematical phrase which can contain numbers, operators (add, subtract, multiply, divide), and at least one variable (like x, y) to represent operations e.g. 2a + 7q= 13 Equation: An equation says that two things are equal. It will have an equal sign "=" e.g. 4x-7=5 The students then solved one and two step equations involving positive and negative numbers. Have a go yourself: a) 22 = - 11k b) v-10= - 9 c) n+5 = -1 d) 8+ b = 5 -16 -4 ANSWERS: a) k=-2 b) v=1 c) n=11 d) b=12

P LEASE DIRECT MONEY FOR EXCURSIONS, ETC TO YOUR CLASSROOM TEACHER - NOT TO THE OFFICE. Please hand money and permission slip in sealed envelopes to classroom teacher first thing in the morning. By following this process teachers are aware that your child will be attending the excursion and mark them

off their lists. Money is collected by office staff and processed each morning and a receipt given back to teachers along with permission slips. All money is tallied and banked daily – no money is left on the premises. If you wish to pay by credit card, a proforma is available from the office. This can be filled out with details and placed in a sealed envelope and handed to your classroom teacher

Please deliver cash in a sealed envelope with your child’s name and grade on the front by 9.30 a.m. If you have a number of children attending an excursion you can place all money and permission slips in the one envelope with children’s names and grades on the front and deliver to one of the children’s teachers. The office staff will be able to allocate money to the children’s particular items and distribute permission slips and receipts back to teachers. Enve-lopes are available at the office. If you have a large amount to be paid or need to process an EFTPOS transaction through a savings account you can make arrangements to pay at the office. We also have a new Qkr payment system on our Skoolbag app. If you download our Skoolbag app and Qkr payment app you can now pay for your child’s excursion on line.

All change will be delivered to the children in the afternoon. Re-imbursements will only be made under certain circumstances – they will be made by cheque (no cash transactions are made).

Notices are sent out with a final collection time – please adhere to this time. All money and permission slips are re-quired to be sent back by this date – otherwise your child will not be able to attend. This enables us to confirm book-ings and numbers with bus companies and organisations we are visiting. Also we need to send details to the Depart-ment of Education Emergency Management for all excursions, camps, etc. We also need to accommodate students who will not be attending.

We would appreciate it if parents could please follow these processes.

Term 1 Week ending 4th March 2016

FBM Amaya For being a great friend to everyone in the class. FBV Yun For utilising her sounding out strategies during Pirate Day writing. FLP Shayaan For being a SUPER enthusiastic student who loves to learn! Awesome effort! FSM Rex For working well with others and being helpful. FTL Crystal For the great effort she puts into all her work. 1/2R Rison For always doing his best and showing respect to others. Keep smiling, Rison! 1HG Ty For demonstrating persistence with everything you do. CONGRATULATIONS! 1MB Noah For his enthusiasm during Pirate Day activities. Well done! 1MC Mithra For writing an excellent recount about making Chinese dumplings. Well done! 2AD Angus For his fantastic use of VCOP in his writing this week! Well done! 2CM Sarah For being a fantastic classroom helper and a super role model! You’re a star! 2DK Agam For being so persistent and always trying to do his best in writing. Well done! 3CH Duoth For always smiling, showing his school values and trying his best everyday! 3LM Leeyam For showing your ‘You Can Do It’ attitude during our SRC elections. 3SH Paru For being a super star member of 3SH! You always use your manners and love helping others. Well done! 4CP Tiannah For a great start to the year. 4CV Elle For being such a thoughtful, positive and nice member of 4CV. 4VK Kavee For always doing her best in all her work!  5/6T Arron For being an organised student with a positive attitude to learning. 5LF Farman For improved concentration and organisation with class activities. 5SM Sam For being focussed and getting all tasks done to a high standard. 6JA Paniz For showing persistence with her maths and ALWAYS doing her best. Impressive! 6JD Mrishalen For his positive, polite and enthusiastic attitude for learning. 6JP Georgia For your beautiful manners & eagerness to succeed in all that you do.

Term 1 Week ending 4th March 2016

‘SPECIALIST’ Stars of the Week

Staff Super Star Jenny For making the class photographs run so smoothly and staying a COOL cat! Health & P.E. 4VK For an outstanding effort with ‘shot put’.

Visual Arts FLP For concentrating so hard whilst drawing your mice. Very, very, nice!

Performing Arts 4CV For demonstrating teamwork and persistence during our first ‘Maypole dancing’ experience! LOTE FBM You are fast learners! Within 7 minutes you’ve learned to do the Little Apple Dance beautifully.   LOTE FLP For your excellent demonstration of working peacefully and joyfully with class FBM in the Chinese classroom.