AXEDALE PRIMARY SCHOOL

“Excellence Through Endeavour”

High Street, Axedale 3551

Ph. (03) 5439 7232 Fax. (03) 5439 7575

Principal – Lex Johnstone

Email: axedale.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

NEWSLETTER No. 42 December 19th 2018

Important dates:

Dec 21st Staff 2019 Planning Day –

Student Free Day

2019 Jan 25th Book Pack Collection Day

9.30am-2pm

29th Teachers resume

30th School starts for all P-6 students

SCHOOL VALUES AWARDS

Lauren – For being a kind student who is always

willing to share with others.

Henry – For working hard to always show his

personal best, resilience, respect and co-operation

in and out of the classroom.

Hagan – For being an excellent friend by helping

other students in completing work and playing in

the yard.

All of Grade 3 – for showing the school values in

the classroom and the school yard.

Alla – For always starting learning tasks quickly

and doing her personal best on her term 4 digital

portfolio.

All of Gr. 5/6 – For being respectful and showing

excellent listening skills during the class Passion

Project presentations.

CLASSROOM ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Emily – for being an active and interested listener.

Emily always listens very carefully and retains eye

contact when someone is speaking.

Liam P – For constantly striving to achieve his best

work.

All Gr. 2/3 –For finishing the term on a positive

note by continuing to work hard to achieve their

personal best, develop their skills and get along with

each other.

Sam C – For working hard to increase his ability to

read more challenging books.

Killeen – For a 5-star project presentation on Sea

Turtles that contained excellent, detailed

information.

Gr. 5/6 – For challenging themselves and learning new skills when developing their

Passion Projects. They presented amazing WOW factors, going above and beyond. Their

confidence and public speaking skills when presenting in front of the class demonstrated

their knowledge of the chosen topic.

Please note in 2019 teachers resume Tuesday 29th January and all students start school on

Wednesday 30th January.

HOUSE TROPHY Our House Point Trophy this week went to Campaspe.

GOLDEN BRUSH

Well done to our Grade 1 for their tidy efforts last week.

READING AWARDS

Well done to our students who have earnt their 25 and

50 nights Reading Certificates, and also our P/1/2/3 students who have achieved

another level of word recognition this week. Great work!

Also congratulations to the Prep Grade for excellent work in Term 4 with their reading.

MUSICIANS OF THE MONTH

Well done to Amelia and Sadie who have been chosen as Musicians of the Month.

PREP SUPPLIES

Can we ask Prep parents to make sure you keep the Word and Sound folders which have come home and

bring them back to school next year. Thanks for your assistance.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

GRADE 6 GRADUATES

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our current Grade 6 students – Piper, Jack, Anthony, Zane, Izzy, Luke, Nadia,

Cameron, Jaeyln, Tahlia, Bella, Liam, Angus, Katya, Alex and Thomas. Amongst this group we have not only

been lucky enough to have high level leadership skills, academic skills, physical skills, performing skills and

ICT skills, but some wonderful young people who care about others, their community and their global

environment.

We will certainly miss them next year but eagerly await our next crop of leaders coming through.

We wish our Grade 6’s all the best for Year 7 next year and look forward to them visiting us at some stage.

At our end of term Assembly tomorrow, we will farewell our Grade 6’s with a look through power point that

was presented at their Graduation last night showing some of their favourite times at Axedale.

With Zane, Luke, Nadia, Liam and Katya finishing Grade 6, we sadly say goodbye to their families and

thank them very much for their support and friendship over the years their children have been at Axedale.

We look forward to seeing you out of school and maintaining our friendships.

GRADUATION DINNER

Congratulations to our Grade 6’s and Ms. Bingham for a magnificent Graduation Dinner last night. The

students led the night very well and I know all of their parents were extremely proud of them. They were able

to enjoy a lovely meal together as well as watching each other on the big screen as we flicked back through

photos from the last seven years.

A big thank to Mel Bingham and husband Alex for the countless hours of time in preparing the music, power

points and presentation items for the students. Thanks to Kate, Lara and Carolyn for their work as committee

members in planning the night.

It was a magical evening.

BENDIGO CAROLS

A great big well done to our School Choir for their efforts on Sunday night in front of an estimated crowd of

5,000 people. Joining with the Bendigo Youth Choir and the Bendigo Brass Band, the choir performed a

couple of their favourite songs for the gathered crowd. It is certainly a privilege to be the only school group

involved in the night.

With no sign of nerves, they sang beautifully and should be commended on their confidence, teamwork and

presentation. A big thanks to Mrs. Caldwell for her dedication throughout the year and for providing such a

wonderful opportunity to so many of our rural school students. Thanks also to parents for assisting through

the year with transport, uniform washing and moral support.

CONGRATULATIONS

We received some very exciting news this morning. Congratulations to Michelle and Caleb Caldwell on the

birth of their first son Jasper Austin, born 18/12 and was 8lbs. 5 oz. We believe all are doing very well and

we look forward to their first visit.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

A reminder that our Christmas Concert is on tonight from 6.45pm at the Axedale Hall. We expect the

Christmas Concert to run no longer than one hour. School Uniform is not required, but if students have a

Christmas shirt and a Christmas hat that would be great.

Students will be seated at the front of the audience to allow easy access for students to get up on stage. Our

preference is for pre-schoolers to remain with parents.

ATTENDANCE AWARDS

At Assembly tomorrow, Attendance Medals will be handed out to acknowledge those students with an

absent rate of 8 days or less for the year. In our Annual Implementation Plan, we have a stated target of an

average of 12 days or less per student per year to maximise student success. Research is clear that high

attendance rates improve the chances of academic success for students.

EMBROIDERY

The school will again provide the option for families to have uniform items

embroidered for $2.50/item. Please bag up your items with a clearly written surname

attached to one of the items and drop at school tomorrow. Embroidered items will be

available for pick up at school on the book pack pick up day, Friday January 25th.

PARENTS, VOLUNTEERS AND FRIENDS

Thank you all the families that have contributed items for our Christmas Raffle, we have had a great

response. Thanks to PVF for bundling up all the goodies.

The raffle will be drawn at the Christmas Concert tonight.

TERM DATES 2019

Term 1: 25th Book Pack pick up day

29th January (Teachers resume)

30th January (Students) to 5th April

Term 2: 23rd April (Tuesday) to 28th June

Term 3: 15th July to 20th September

Term 4: 7th October to 20th December

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I would like to wish all families a safe and happy Christmas. The year has been another busy and exciting

one. 2018 has been an exciting year with lots of great student achievements in the classrooms and lots of

great performances from our School Choir, Rock Band, vocalists and instrumentalists.

My thanks go out to all those in our community who

have contributed to school in some way this year. We are

so fortunate to have a community that is so willing to

give their time and effort. I hope you’re able to share

some great family time over the holidays.

I would also like to thank staff for their untiring efforts in

the classroom as well as their continued and wide

ranging contribution to extra curricula activities

throughout the year. Our school is very fortunate to have

staff that are continuously focussed on what is best for

the students.

As this is my last Newsletter, I would like to take this chance to thank the Teaching and Education Support

Staff for their support and enthusiasm over the last eight years. The Axedale staff have always been a great

team to work with.

Thanks to the many students that have been at Axedale over the last eight years. We have shared many

highlights as the school has grown. School Camps, Excursions, Bike Hikes, happy days in the yard at recess

and lunchtimes, teaching Prep/1 Maths, listening to Passion Projects and just watching and listening to kids

learn will be some of my fondest memories.

Thank you to the many parents who have been a part of the school community and contributed so much to the

learning of the students, participation in special events and excursions, and to the many that have helped at

Working Bees over the last eight years to completely change the look of the school and the grounds. It is a

very different looking school now than it was in 2011.

I will look forward to catching up with people in the coming months whenever we might happen to cross

paths.

I hope you all enjoy some lovely time with friends and loved ones over Christmas and take in what is really

the most important thing in all our lives – family.

I will miss you all.

Mr. J

FORMS TO BE RETURNED OR ORGANISED AT SCHOOL

ENGRAVED BRICK ORDER FORM – Return order form ASAP

COMMUNITY NEWS

KINDER ENROLMENT FORMS

We have enrolment forms for 2019 Kinder and Pre-Kinder available at the school office.