The Torch ARARAT PRIMARY SCHOOL 800

PO Box 225 / 70 —78 Moore St

Ararat VIC 3377

P: 03 5352 1253 F: 03 5352 4926

E: ararat.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

W: www.araratps.vic.edu.au

Principal’s Report Great effort, one and all! Photos from our assembly will be published in next week’s newsletter.

Our semester one SRC representatives were also presented with their badges of office during the course of the assembly. Congratulations to the following students on their leadership appointments: Prep D – Emily Watkins and Dustin Barrie

Prep S – Ada Croft and Charlie Billett

1/2 TS – Tilly Belcher and Kade Bond

1/2 V – Larni Sargent and Riley McArthur

1/2 FJ – Lilli O’Donnell and Levi Wilson

3/4 H – Bella Belcher and Wilbur Pope

3/4 K – Stella Wheeler and Tequijuan Harmer

3/4 C – Zoe Flamsteed and Maxi Starick

5/6 SP – Ellouise McAuliffe and Joe Pearce

5/6 C – Milly Billett and James Johnson

5/6 KF – Bella Bartlett, Sruthi Kalluri and Sonny Kettle.

Well done, everyone!

Head lice checks commenced this week, and we’re pleased to inform you that only a small number of children were identified as requiring treatment. Thank you for your vigilance in checking your children’s hair regularly. We recommend a quick, daily check, and a conditioner follow-up treatment, if required. Please let us know if you have discovered and treated live lice, so that we can remind other families to carry out checks. Thank you, also, to our wonderful team of parent screeners, who provide us with a great service.

“We are respectful…” “We are responsible…” This afternoon, our

students enjoyed their first School Wide Positive Behaviours

celebration for 2017, and a wonderful time was had by all, as

children and their families brought their favourite games to share.

Thank you to everyone who joined in the fun.

Our Earthlings will lead tomorrow’s Clean Up Australia Day activities,

with class groups allocated specific areas in the playground and

surrounding blocks as their clean up ‘zone’. The team suggests that

children come prepared with some of the following – gloves, tongs,

plastic bags or buckets – and their SunSmart hat. Parents and friends

are very welcome to join us.

Our Year 3 and 4 students will conduct their first “Community

Games” next Wednesday afternoon at school, with children

participating in Lego construction, POD construction and a treasure

hunt. Once again, parents, friends and family members are invited

to be part of the action.

Finally, best wishes to our Bamboozle team, who are set to perform

from 11:00am at Sunday’s Willaura Market. It’s their first public

performance for the year, and we wish them well.

Kind regards,

Jennifer Molan

March 2nd, 2017

Dear parents, friends and students of Ararat Primary,

Well done to all of our students on their efforts at last Friday’s “Welcome Back Games”. Our Year 6 students proved to be outstanding teachers and coaches, as they organised and conducted a broad range of fun and engaging activities. Our Year 5 students provided great support for their Prep Buddies (not a tear to be seen), and our Year 1 to 4 students joined in with enthusiasm and sportsmanship. Thank you to Mr Collins for his organisation of the event.

Prior to the games, we gathered to launch our mission statements – copies of which are printed overleaf. We hope you enjoy reading them, as they communicate, very powerfully, the ethos that underpins all that we do at our school. Upon release, the balloons scudded into a strong southerly, and made quick time towards the horizon. At 2:30pm, we received a phone call from Mr David Greene, a farmer in the Rochester area, near Echuca, who had found our Specialist statement…and was suitably impressed. Fingers crossed that more of our messages to the world are retrieved over the next few days.

Congratulations to our team of twenty-six students who represented us at Tuesday’s Black Ranges Division Swimming Sports. They were great ambassadors for our school, achieving personal bests while supporting and encouraging the efforts of others. Special congratulations to Adam Quiao, Ashlyn Wheeler and the members of our 11 Years Girl’s Relay Team (Ashlyn, Summer Merrick, Sophie Cooper and Sevahn Maxwell) who have qualified for the Regional level of competition on March 24th in Ballarat.

Thank you to our team of parent supporters – Steve Madex, Tracey

Bell, Rowena Fennell, Tracey Merrick and Amanda Cranstoun - and to

Mr Pilgrim and Miss Vernon for their organisation and coordination

of the day.

Yesterday’s mid-term assembly proved to be a very busy one, with a range of presentations made, and special performances by our Junior Choir and Prep students. We extend special congratulations to the following students on their academic, social and leadership efforts and achievements, recognised during the assembly:

Prep S – Akylah Leehane and Zakk Herbert Prep D – Ava Fisher and Ryder Belcher 1-2 FJ – Miami Sherwell and Malik Ghazal 1-2 V – Ella Clarke and Liam Johnson 1-2 TS – Toneya Curtis and Lachie Mullin 3-4 K – Eliza Farrington and Tyson Vermeend 3-4 C – Natalie Kumnick and Gio McKinnis 3-4 H – Sarah Ghazal and Wilbur Pope 5-6 C – Bree Bond and James Johnson 5-6 KF – Ashlyn Wheeler and Rhylan Interlandi 5-6 SP – Ellouise McAuliffe and Matthew Fisher Specialists’ Awards – Arie Cavanagh, Tyson Cartwright and the

students of 3-4K

School values: Respect Honesty Self Awareness Learning Belonging

Term Dates for 2017

Term 1 January 31st to March 31st

Term 2 April 18th to June 30th

Term 3 July 17th to September 22nd

Term 4 October 9th to December 22nd

Key Dates for Term 1, 2017 Wednesday Mar 2nd SWPBS games afternoon

Sunday Mar 5th Bamboozle @ Willaura

Wednesday Mar 8th 3 - 4 Community games

Thursday Mar 9th First Aid for Gr 5-6

Friday Mar 10th First Aid for Gr 5-6

Specialists’ Report . . .

Monday’s Professional Development Session . . .

Mathemagicians . . .

CIRCUS NEWS

DET’S ART LEARNING FESTIVAL

We have applied to participate in this festival, which is a showcase of the creative talent of students throughout Victoria.

Fingers crossed we are accepted.

LEGGINGS OR SHORTS

Could all girls wearing dresses please wear leggings or shorts underneath? We are doing strength and flexibility training, and

it saves embarrassment.

BAMBOOZLE @ WILLAURA

We are performing at Willaura this coming Sunday. We will be onstage at 11am. Hope to see you there!

NEW EQUIPMENT RAFFLE

This year we are planning on running a raffle for a Thermomix. These wonderful machines make cooking a breeze, and are

an amazing timesaver. A Thermomix retails at over $2000, so save your change so you can purchase a ticket. We will draw it

around Mother’s Day. Tickets will be around the $20 mark, and there will be a limited number.

CLASS TIME

All students are busy working on their SMART goals. In Circus, we are currently working on ‘Can I

explain the next steps in my learning?’ We are identifying what it is that we are not quite doing

correctly, related to the skill we are learning. By identifying what is holding us back, we can then

work on the steps we need to take to resolve it.

FINALLY

All the SPECIALISTS and classrooms are focusing on developing John Hattie’s Visible

Learning Qualities. Our aim is to empower all students to become Visible Learners. Visible

Learners are in control of their learning, and are resourceful. They are able to solve their

learning problems and be their own teachers.

As teachers, we want your children to love writing! We are aiming to inspire them to find their voice and share it with others in their class, their community and even the world. We are aiming to equip them with confidence and the technical skills of writing, to do so.

Monday was a student-free day, which allowed staff to participate in a whole-school professional development session about our new writing program, VCOP and Big Write. VCOP stands for Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation – all elements of writing which give voice and life to a person’s writing. The Big Write is a method of getting students to show all the skills that they have learnt over the week or fortnight, in a complete piece of writing. You might hear some of this language coming home with your children – which would be fantastic! The program allows teachers to assess writing, students to asses their own and others’ writing, goals to be set and amazing work celebrated. Together, these programs, which overarch the other things that are already happening in each classroom, allow writing to be fun, creative, inspiring and for students to continually improve. A large component of this program is getting students to talk before they write; it allows them to plan ideas, brainstorm vocabulary and think about our goals for the class.

We were inspired by the VCOP and Big Write programs and had a ball playing the games, self-assessing our own writing and learning how to inspire our own students. Today, my students got to experience their first taste of VCOP – we played a word game in which they competed against each other to list nouns and verbs (which they could explain to Ms Molan when she visited our class). They also used and discussed some Ambitious Vocabulary or WOW words throughout the day: harrowing and sophisticated. Not to mention that they had fun when they were doing it!

We look forward to sharing our learning with the students, and for them to share their learning with you, very soon.

Nicole Kelly\ Literacy Leader

Parent Tip #2: Develop a positive working relationship with teachers. It’s important for parents to work with their child’s teacher

to ensure they are able to support the learning of mathematics. As your child gets older, their learning will become more complex.

If you’re unsure of ways you can help at home, or simply don’t understand the maths, ask your child’s teacher. They’ll be happy to

help.

Here is this week’s Mathemagician activity. Don’t forget that you can send any photos through to Lisa. We’d love to see our

budding Mathemagicians in our next article. Her email is: hannet.lisa.n@edumail.vic.gov.au

The Month of March Design a calendar page for the month of March. Think about what you will need to include. Make it clear. Add detail. It would be

wonderful to display this work at school, so make sure you write your name on your page, and leave it at the office for me to

collect.

Bernie Fitzpatrick\ Numeracy Leader

“Have–a-Go” Swimming Sports . . .

Balloon Launch . . . PREP

In Prep World, we are learning to be respectful and

responsible learners. We can use “The Power of Yet” to

help us stick at hard things, keep trying and not give up.

We like to help each other and have lots of fun!

1-2

In Grade 1 and 2, at Ararat 800 Primary School, we will work together as a TEAM

(Together Everyone Achieves More) to be the best that we can be. We will use a Growth

Mindset, following our school values of Respect and Responsibility to stretch our brains

and achieve our goals.

3-4 In the Middle School, we use our Growth Mindsets to challenge ourselves to better our

learning. We are always respectful and responsible in all aspects of learning and

friendships, to allow everyone to feel safe in the school community.

5-6 As responsible and respectful role models, the Senior School students at Ararat

Primary will be kind, honest and helpful to others. No matter how challenging the

task, we will use the ‘Power of Yet’ and strive to achieve all of our goals. We will

take every opportunity to try our best and inspire others.

Specialists We, the Specialist Team of Ararat Primary School, aim to give our students

authentic, exciting, and colourful learning experiences. We will assist our students

to become Visible Learners in all Specialist areas, in 2017. We recognise and value

the uniqueness of each student, and will do our best to enhance their development.

Welcome Back Games . . .

Photos by Jess Watts

MON TUE WED THU FRI

School Banking is

processed on Tuesdays

Students must wear a hat in

Term 1.

We are a SunSmart school

2nd

Breakfast Club

Positive Behaviours

Games Afternoon

3rd LUNCH ORDERS

Clean Up Australia Day

6th

No assembly -

announcements only

7th

Breakfast Club

8th

3 - 4 Community Games

9th

Breakfast Club

Gr 5/6 First Aid

Program

10th LUNCH ORDERS

Gr 5/6 First Aid

Program

13th

LABOUR DAY

HOLIDAY

14th

Breakfast Club

3-Way Conferences

Gr 3-6

15th

3-Way Conferences

Prep - Gr 2

Football Clinic

School Council

16th

Breakfast Club

17th LUNCH ORDERS

20th Assembly 21st

Breakfast Club

HARMONY DAY

22nd 23rd

Breakfast Club

24th LUNCH ORDERS

February 26th J.W. Van Straaten

28th Isobel Leggett

William Leggett

Ethan Fenn

Charlotte Ramsay

March 1st Cayden Fisher

5th Bamboozle @ Willaura

18th NICA in Melbourne

3 Way Conferences . . .

Our 3 Way Conferences are being held on Tuesday, March

14th for Grade 3 to 6 students, and Wednesday, March

15th for Prep to Grade 2 students . You need to book

your interview online, and you can do so at:

www.schoolinterviews.com.au

Enter School code: m6k2d

Bookings close Monday March 13th, 2017