term dates for · the survey will be conducted online by orima research pty ltd and only takes 15...
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August 16th Willaura PS /800PS Band @ Ararat PS Mid Term Assembly
August 18th School Disco
August 21st Children’s Book Week Dress Up Day
August 23rd School Photos / School Council
August 28th Book Fair
Key Dates for Term 3 2017
ARARAT PRIMARY SCHOOL 800
PO Box 225 / 70 —78 Moore St
Ararat VIC 3377
P: 03 5352 1253 F: 03 5352 4926
W: www.araratps.vic.edu.au
newsletter on August 17th. The booking process is very straight forward – after entering the site, simply select your preferred night, and the number and type of seats required. Payment is by credit card. Please note that no specific password is required. Seats will be allocated, with a section of front row seating reserved for people with mobility requirements.
Invitations to participate in the Education Department’s 2017 Parent Opinion Survey have been posted to 75 randomly selected families in preparation for the opening of the portal on Monday, August 7th. The survey is designed to assist our school in gaining an understanding of parents’ perception of school climate, student engagement and relationships with our parent community. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. The survey will be conducted online by ORIMA Research Pty Ltd and only takes 15 minutes to complete. It can be accessed via desktop computer, laptop, tablet or mobile at any convenient time within the fieldwork period from Monday 7th August to Sunday 27th August. Should you require access to a device to complete the survey, please let the school office know. We will offer access sessions at school in the staff room between 2:30 and 4:00pm on August 9th, 10th, 23rd and 24th. The survey results will be reported back to our school at the end of September. Please give me a call if you require further information.
Our Year 3-4 happy campers will return to school at around 2:00pm tomorrow – no doubt, full of stories about their Cave Hill Creek adventures. It’s timely to remind all families that it is an Education Department requirement that parent volunteers hold a current Working With Children Check in order to participate in such activities. This process is completed on-line through the Department of Justice website. It is also important that Ararat Primary School is listed as the site for volunteer work. This will ensure that we are officially notified of your eligibility to work with our students.
Looking ahead, we’re in the process of organising our Winter Disco, planned for Friday evening, August 18th in the Learning Centre between 6:30 and 8:00pm. This special event, which is open to all Ararat Primary school students, is very heavily supervised by school staff, School Councillors and parents, and is lots of fun. So dust off your disco gear, dig out your dancing shoes and practise your grooviest moves ready for the big event!
Finally, a reminder that Prep enrolments for the 2018 school year are currently being taken. If you have not yet enrolled your child, please contact the school office and complete the process as soon as possible. Kind regards, Jennifer Molan
Dear parents and friends of Ararat Primary School 800, Our busy week has been enhanced by the arrival of six Chinese student-guests from Jincai Experimental Primary School in Shanghai. The children have been openly accepted into all classes across the school, and into the Johnson, Toner and Wheeler families. Kitty, Julia, Yina, Alice, Michael and Bob have enjoyed every moment of their stay with us, experiencing country life and the novelty of being in a relatively small primary school – their Shanghai school has a student enrolment of 3200 in 70 classes of nearly 50! Our six students are part of a group of 34 ten to twelve year olds who have enjoyed the week at Stawell 502, Stawell West, Willaura, Ararat West and St Mary’s schools. We’ve also been honoured to host the large contingent of teachers who have accompanied the children, with class teacher, Lihui, spending the four days with us. I extend my personal thanks to Mrs Jerram for her outstanding coordination of the students’ program, and to our school communities for making our guests feel so welcome. The visiting group will depart Ararat on Sunday morning, before continuing their journey onto Sydney.
While our Chinese guests were being welcomed into our community, we were also hosting the staff team from Beaufort Primary School, who were keen to find out about our School Wide Positive Behaviours implementation. During our eighteen-month journey, we have been fortunate to enjoy a strong commitment to SWPBS from our staff and students. There is a shared recognition of the unquestionable ‘power of the positive’, and the importance of strong behavioural expectations and purposeful values: Aspiration, Respect, Resilience and Courage. Our Staff and Student Lead Teams are currently working on the positive behaviours matrices that complement our newest values - Aspiration, Resilience and Courage. These will be published in future newsletters.
Congratulations to our two Prep classes who received the latest SWPBS award, during Monday’s assembly, for the highest number of ‘green points’ across the school. As a consequence, the children will enjoy a hot chocolate and a special games session, coordinated by our student Lead Team members, who are responsible for determining the nature of the reward each month.
As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, school photos will be taken on Wednesday, August 23rd. Individualised order envelopes have been distributed today, along with a family-photo order envelope with the eldest child in each family. Please note that photo envelopes and correct payments are to be returned to school on photo day – not before, thanks.
Our Senior School production, “Little Stars” is now only five weeks away, with the show set to hit the stage on Thursday and Friday evenings – September 7th and 8th - from 7:30pm at the Stawell Entertainment Centre (Town Hall). As of Monday, tickets will be available to our Senior School families through the website, www.trybooking.com. Bookings for all other families and friends will open on Monday, August 21st, with the website details published in the
August 3rd, 2017
Principal’s Report
School values: Aspiration Respect Resilience Courage
Term Dates for 2017—2018
Term 3 July 17th to September 22nd
Term 4 October 9th to December 22nd
Term 1 2018 January 30th to March 30th
Specialist News: Our Chinese Visitors...
Visiting Students 2017– Jincai Experimental School
Ararat Primary School has welcomed six students from Jincai
Experimental School, Shanghai – China this week. Their names are, Bob,
Michael, Yina, Alice, Kitty and Julia. The Toner, Wheeler and Cowey/
Johnson families are hosting our Chinese students, whilst they attend
Ararat Primary School during Week 3. This Sunday, our visitors will depart
Ararat, and travel on to Sydney, for the remainder of their trip. It is
currently the summer holiday break
in China.
During their visit, the Jincai Students
will be participating in a variety Ararat Primary School’s Learning Programs,
such as English- Literacy, Numeracy, Circus, Art, Discoveries and/or
Mappen. They have also contributed to Chinese lessons, and will be
spending time in all grades from P – 6.
The Visiting Students Program is of great benefit to all of our students, and
has many positive outcomes for our
school community. Having Chinese students visit and spend time with us
greatly enhances Ararat Primary School’s social studies and Chinese
Language Programs. Our students are provided with an authentic purpose
for learning Chinese language, and a valuable opportunity to develop
friendships and learn about the interests and daily life of children living in
China.
Our visiting students have settled in well, and are enjoying the variety of
learning experiences Ararat Primary School offers them, which are
sometimes very different to their classrooms and programs at home.
Thank you to Adam and Tracey Merrick for helping to prepare the host families for their visitors, by sharing
their hosting experiences in 2016, and to the Jennings family who started off our program last year by hosting
two students. The Jincai Visiting Students Program highlights the importance and benefits of learning Chinese
language, and gives our students a valuable opportunity to listen to native Chinese speakers.
Thanks also to the Toner, Wheeler and
Cowey/Johnson families, who have enabled
Ararat Primary School to run this program
once again. A special thank you too, to all of
our Ararat Primary School students, who
have given, Bob, Michael, Yina, Alice, Kitty
and Julia, such a warm welcome. You’ve all
been very impressive!
Heidi Jerram
Acting Assistant Principal
Chinese Language Program Coordinator
Your child’s best learning time is
at the beginning of the day.
Literacy... Soundwaves
We have three spelling sounds this fortnight. This week will be ‘p’ as in party and ‘r’ as in race. Next week, the focus will be ‘ar’ as in star.
The ‘ar’ sound is tricky for students, as it can be made in a variety of ways. Some examples are: ‘al’ as in palm, ‘as’ as in fast, ‘ar’ as in card, ‘augh’ as in laugh, ‘a’ as in avocado, ‘uar’ as in guard. It will be helpful to notice the different ways that we can spell this phoneme when reading with your child. By becoming a ‘reading detective’ and noticing the different ways that words are created, students can be-come familiar with the complex English language.
Big Write
This term, students will be completing a Coldwrite, which is an assessment writing piece from the Big Write program. Students complete five of these a year, including recounts, narratives and persuasive texts. Teachers will use these writing pieces to assess students’ current understandings and decide on the direction of future teaching as well as cre-ating writing goals for each child. Please make contact with your child’s teacher if you would like to discuss these writing assessments!
Nicole Kelly
Literacy Leader
School starts at
8:50am
DON’T BE LATE!
CHILDREN’S BOOK WEEK DRESS UP DAY
Monday, August 21st “Escape to Everywhere”
Let your imagination fly... Come dressed as your favourite book character.
When your child misses
just…
that equals… which is… and from Prep to Year 12,
that is...
10 minutes a day 50 minutes of learning each
week
Nearly 1 1/2 weeks per year Nearly 1/2 a year of school
20 minutes a day 1 hour and 40 minutes of
learning each week
Nearly 2 1/2 weeks per year Nearly a year of school
1/2 hour a day 1/2 a day of learning each
week
4 weeks per year Nearly 1 1/2 years of
learning
1 hour each day 1 whole day of learning each
week
8 weeks, or nearly a whole
term, per year
Over 2 1/2 years of learning
MON TUE WED THU FRI
School Banking is
processed on Tuesdays
3rd Breakfast Club
Grade 3/4 Camp
4th
LUNCH ORDERS
Grade 3/4 Camp
5th NICA
7th
Assembly
AC students to talk to
Year 6’s Coding Club—3:20-4:30pm
8th
Breakfast Club
9th
Bamboozle 3:20 to 4:45pm
10th
Breakfast Club
9th
LUNCH ORDERS
14th
Assembly
Coding Club—3:20-4:30pm
15th
Breakfast Club
Primary Schools’
Parliamentary Convention
16th
Willaura PS/Ararat PS Bands
@Ararat Primary
Assembly
Bamboozle 3:20 to 4:45pm
17th
Breakfast Club
18th
LUNCH ORDERS
Disco 6:30-8:00
21st
Children’s Book Week
Dress Up Day and
Parade
Coding Club—3:20-4:30pm
22nd
Breakfast Club
23rd
School Photos
Bamboozle 3:20 to 4:45pm
School Council
24th
Breakfast Club
25th
LUNCH ORDERS
August 5th Banjo Ramsay
Miharo White
6th Acacia Merrick
8th Toneyha Curtis
Inika McKinnis
Izaiyah Turner
9th Maxi Starick
Breakfast Club
Tuesday—Thursday 8:30
Community Forum Corrections Victoria will be hosting a community forum for the local school communities on Monday evening, August 7th, to talk about the Ararat correctional precinct. The forum will cover a range of topics, including reforms to the post-sentence scheme, one of which is the new 20-bed secure residential facility that is being built next to Hopkins Correctional Centre. There will also be updates on Corella Place and Hopkins Correctional Centre. Representatives from the Ararat Rural City Council, Ararat Correctional Facilities Community Advisory Group (chaired by former Mayor Bill Jones), Victoria Police and the Department of Justice and Regulation will be in attendance. If you are interested in attending, go online and register attendance, then further details (including location) will be sent to you:
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/ararat-community-forum-school-community-tickets-36085143636
Tara McGrath Project Officer, New Facilities Serious Offenders Reform Branch Corrections Victoria Department of Justice and Regulation