Colac Primary School Newsletter March 18th, 2021
Phone: 5231-2560 (BH) Website: www.colacps.vic.edu.au
Athletics: Our whole school Athletics, held on Tuesday this week was an extremely successful day
with perfect weather, great enthusiasm and really good sportsmanship displayed in all areas. Thank
you to everyone who assisted by helping to set up, marshall events, cheer on students and pack up at
the conclusion. Mr Tillack will provide a full report in today’s newsletter. A special acknowledgement
of our House & Vice Captains for their work to support and encourage students to have a go in the
many events on offer.
Harmony Day: Colac Primary will be celebrating Harmony Day on Monday
March 22nd. Students are invited to wear national dress or colours of a chosen
country (for example red and yellow for China as the colours on the flag, or
for Italy green red and white). All students will undertake a lesson on the day
that expands the theme of ‘Everyone Belongs’ and classes will have guest teachers to lead this work.
We look forward to a great day that celebrates our school value of RESPECT.
Tutor Learning Initiative: The Tutor Learning Initiative enables
schools across Victoria to engage qualified teachers as tutors to work
with small groups of students and support their learning. The initiative
is consistent with Australian and international evidence, which shows
that small group tutoring is one of the most effective educational
interventions available to support students to progress in their
learning. The Tutor Learning Initiative is additional targeted learning
support that our school will be providing to 83 students this year. This
additional support is available in 2021 through the Victorian Government’s investment in the Tutor
Learning Initiative, which supports schools to address disruptions to students’ learning as a result of
COVID-19. Our Tutor Co-ordinator Mrs Launer commenced working with students this week and this
work will continue in 6 week blocks for the remainder of the year to support students in the areas of
Reading, Writing and Maths.
School review: Today saw the commencement of our School review. All schools must participate
in a school review every 4 years to provide assurance of ongoing compliance with the minimum
requirements for school registration, and to inform the development of the four year School Strategic
Plan. Our review team, which consists of our School Council President (Mrs Harper) an external
reviewer, two challenge partners, a DET Senior Education Improvement Leader and representatives
from our school Leadership Team undertook some classroom observations today and examnined the
schools results in curriculum and wellbeing. Our school policies were also reviewed as part of the
Victorian Regulation Quality Assurance process and School Council are to be commended for their
work in this area as the school remians fully compliant. Thank you to students in Rooms 2, 7 and 9 who
were working hard during our observations today and spoke to the review team when they visited.
Stay safe & well, Shelby Papadopoulos – Principal
Social Services: This terms Social Service fundraising will be donated towards the Royal Children’s
Hospital Good Friday Appeal. Students are asked to bring along any loose
change for their class social service collection to go towards the overall
school donation.
To ensure our money is ready to go in time for the appeal, we will hold
our Term 1 Casual Dress day on Friday March 26th.
To support the Royal Children’s Hospital, students and staff are invited
to wear their pyjamas or leisurewear and bring gold coin donation to add
to our fundraising. Please support this worthy cause and watch out for
our school donation to be announce as part of the Good Friday Appeal telecast.
Calendar
Mar 19th National Ride2School Day
Mar 22nd Harmony Day
Mar 26th Casual Day for RCH-gold coin donation
Mar 26th Colac Division Athletics-qualified yr 3/6’s
Mar 29th Colac Secondary College Open Night
Mar 30th School photo day-family & spare envelopes available
Mar 31st Colac PS house cross country-whole school event
Apr 1st Last day of term – Easter raffle drawn - 2.30pm dismissal
Apr 19th First day of term 2
Our value of the fortnight is PERSONAL BEST
It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, just do your personal best.
Office News Parents Club News - Easter Raffle
Parents Club are asking for Easter egg donations for their Easter raffle this year. Please bring donations
to the office. Tickets will be sold in classrooms for 50 cents.
Harmony Day
On Monday the 22nd of March, Colac Primary School will be celebrating 'Harmony Day'. Students and
staff are encouraged to dress in the national dress or colours of their chosen country. Think the colours
of a flag or traditional outfits/costumes!
School Photos School photo day is Tuesday 30th March. Family envelopes are available at the office if you’d like the option of a siblings photo taken. Spare envelopes are also available in case your child’s envelope has been misplaced.
Breakfast Club Update Our Breakfast Club operates on Tuesday and Thursday mornings in the stadium from 8.15am to
8.45am. All students welcome.
What a week we have had! We have been working extremely hard in all areas of the
curriculum and had a fantastic time at our Athletics Day.
Carson doing a great job in the egg and
spoon race!
Grade 2 girls having a go at tunnel ball.
Caleb’s amazing response to ‘Where’s My
Teddy?’
Lexie, Ned, Milly,
Caleb and Mineth
proudly accepting
their 25 nights of
reading stickers!
Room 3 and
4 extending
their
knowledge of
Place Value
and MAB
blocks. Room 3’s Truffula Seed writing wall.
We speak for the trees!
Making Connections
In Reading lessons this past week we have been
learning how to make text-to-self and text-to-text
connections. This has involved us engaging with a
range of texts and discussing the connections we can
make to them. Have a look at some of our student’s
ideas for ‘If they were Prime Minister’.
We encourage you to discuss the connections your child is making with their at home reading books.
This week in Grade 5/6, students have enjoyed leading the school on the Athletics day, well done to
everyone who had a go at the events, dressed up and cheered their house on!
In Maths, we have been exploring how to read, create and interpret different types of graphs. Students
have used the Athletics day to plan and conduct surveys, then represent information effectively.
We have completed our focus on descriptive language in Writing, and it was great to see so much
improvement over the last few weeks in students adding descriptions to their stories! We are moving
on to a unit of persuasive writing now.
For Reading, students have been practicing clarifying words in context, and are exploring figurative
language. Students have also been working on expanding their vocabulary knowledge in spelling.
Please remember students should be reading each night, and working on their spelling and maths
homework. It was amazing to see some of the awesome BTN ‘All about me’ reports that students
submitted over the last few weeks.
Inspired by a poem in the ‘Last Peach’ by Gus Gordon, Grade 3 & 4 students have been writing a letter
to their favourite fruit. As a lead up students have become ‘adjective collectors’; using the text, Roald
Dahl’s ‘James & the Giant Peach’ & 5 sense adjective charts as sources. Please see some creative
responses below!
On Tuesday we held our Athletics Sports here at school. It was a wonderful day for all involved, with the weather turning it on and lots of family members in attendance throughout the day supporting and cheering on our athletes. In the end the KOALAS won the day, a huge congratulations to them and their captains, Dallas, Jack, Jess and Sophie. For the 10, 11, 12 and 13 year old students, they will be finding out if they have made it through to the Colac Division Athletics on Friday the 26th of March over at the Central Reserve. As I have explained to the students, the top 2 in each event will more than likely qualify, although in some events there are certain distances or times that have to be met to make it through. If there are any 9 year old students who have outshone their 10 year old counterparts, they will be asked if they would like to go on the 26th of March. Students that have qualified will have to choose no more than 5 events for the day, that is including relays.
Age Champions A huge congratulations to the following students who were age champions. Both Will Mc and Ava S were overall champions for both the boys and girls. Abbey D – 5 x 1st 2 x 3rd Rupert E – 5 x 1st 1 x 3rd Ava S – 7 x 1sts (every event) Alex T – 6 x 1st 1 x 3rd Chloe B – 6 x 1st 1 x 2nd Harper L – 5 x 1st Jess D – 6 x 1st 1 x 2nd Will Mc – 6 x 1st 1 x 2nd Athletics Records Holders A large number of students have also broke CPS Athletics records that have been recorded over the last 5 years. This is a huge accomplishment and will go up in the foyer when entering the stadium. Well done! Ava S – 800m, Triple Jump Will Mc – 800m, 70m hurdles, High Jump Jess D – 800m, 1500m, 70m, 70m hurdles, High Jump, Triple Jump Brock W – 1600m Mila T – 70m Rupert E – 70m hurdles, Shot Put, Triple Jump Chloe B – 70m hurdles Carter W – Discus Abbey D – Shot Put Harper L – Shot Put Olivia A – Triple Jump
Upcoming Sporting Dates – Term 1
Thursday March 26th – Colac Division
Athletics @ Central Reserve (Selected
Grade 3-6 Students who have qualified
at CPS Aths)
Wednesday March 31st – Colac Primary
School Cross Country @ CPS (Whole
School Event)
CPS Sporting Star – Week 7
Hint: This person loves to run. She is in Grade 5 and has an
older brother that used to go to CPS.
Reminder: Put your name, room and
who you think the sporting star is in the
box in the stadium foyer.
CPS Sporting Star – Week 7
The Sporting Star from last week
was Phaze from Grade 1. We had 5
people pick correctly, but the
winner who got drawn out of the
hat was Crystal from Room 8 she
will be able to collect her prize in
the stadium.