Email: chatham.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Term 4, Issue 39—12th December 2013 www.chathamps.vic.edu.au

FROM THE PRINCIPAL STAFFING NEWS Each year I am provided with a Global Budget from the Education Department which is based on our projected student enrol-ments. This Global Budget determines the number of staff I can employ. The staffing profile of these teachers and support staff then determines the class structure that I can put into place each year. With our current numbers at Chatham, we are ex-tremely lucky with our mix of staff in that our profile of teachers range from graduates through to the more experienced staff members. We are also fortunate to have a good mix of male and female staff, as well as Leading Teachers at the top of the scale, dedicated part-time staff, quality specialist programs and a full time Assistant Principal role. This mix includes the majori-ty of teachers on permanent ongoing rights and some employed on a contractual basis for short and long terms. These ar-rangements allow for some flexibility, as well as taking in future enrolment predictions and work force planning. In line with this, throughout the year, we have teachers who retire, take leave, seek promotion or move to other locations for personal or professional reasons. We are currently finalising our staffing profile for 2014 and beyond. Each year, I also like to make some changes with our staffing in moving teachers into different levels across the school, as well as attempting to maintain the exemplary specialist programs that we currently offer at Chatham. There will be some changes to our staffing profile for 2014. John Wennan will be retiring at the end of this year after 45+ years of service to government education in Victoria - 20 of which have been spent at Chatham Primary School. Over this time John has helped in educating and shaping the lives of hundreds of students. During his time at Chatham John has made a significant contribution to the life of the school. Some of his responsibilities have included time as: Sports Coordinator, Camp Coordina-tor, Recycling and Rubbish Coordinator, school security (including opening up early each morning), Disaster Plan and Fire Drill officer, coordinator and member of various curriculum committees and many, many more. John has developed a deserved reputation of being an excellent teacher, especially in the area of Mathematics and has entertained many of his students with his quirky and dry sense of humour. John is looking forward to spending more quality time with his daughters and his much loved grandchildren. On behalf of the school community I would like to acknowledge and thank John for the outstanding con-tribution he has given our school and its community over the past 20 years. He has been a wonderful staff member and we wish him all the best in his retirement and this next phase of his life.

Miranda Milaszewicz and Dianne Beardall have also announced their intentions to retire at the end of February 2014.

We would like to welcome a new teacher to our school for 2014. Daniel Hunt comes to us from Bellaire Primary School in Geelong and will be working as a class teacher next year.

Melissa Hoskings and Zelema Levy will be returning to the school from family leave next year in part-time positions.

Amanda Lenon will be returning to Chatham after having 12 months leave to travel the world.

Claire Osborne and Sue Minshull are undertaking a new initiative around the teaching and learning of Science in our school. We have recently been successful in our joint submission with Mont Albert PS and Camberwell South PS to develop a joint cluster of schools that will work together and provide staff with best practice professional development to lead the change of the teaching and learning of Science in our school. This is a 2 year program that will provide all of our staff, via our “science experts” with current best practice training, advice, knowledge and resources to embed Science and technology into our cur-riculum. Both of these teachers will be sharing a grade 0.5 and working with teachers and students in all grades across the school for 0.5 of their time. This will be a fantastic opportunity to embed science across all areas of the curriculum. We are currently interviewing for 1 more new appointment to our school. More information about this appointment should

follow in next week’s newsletter.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2…

THANKS TO JESS BOYD FOR THIS WEEKS MAST HEAD.

FROM THE PRINCIPAL PAGE 2 STUDENT END OF YEAR REPORTS Your child’s report will be sent home on Wednesday 18th December. Along with their learning journal, this plays the major part of our end of year reporting requirements where students are assessed against the Australian Curriculum and the Victori-an Essential Learning Standards (AusVELS). A reminder to everyone on exactly what the A – E ratings means

A “C” rating means that a child is at the standard expected at the time of reporting and that his or her learning is on track.

A “B” rating means that a child is above the standard expected for their year level at the time of reporting.

An “A” rating means a child is well above the standard expected for their year level at the time of reporting.

A “D” rating means a child is below the standard expected.

An “E” rating means that the child is well below the standard expected for their year level at the time of reporting.

This means that a “C” rating does not mean achievement is “just adequate” It indicates that a child has met the state-wide standard expected of children of their age at the time of reporting and that their learning is firmly on track. These reports will clearly indicate via the graph the progress made and current areas of achievement at, above or below the expected standard against VELS and AusVELS. Not all students will make significant progress or meet all of the standards expected for their year level all of the time. It is not unusual for students to make better progress in some areas than in others or to “plateau” in their learning over some stages of their schooling. Some students may not be achieving at the standard yet but have made significant progress since the previ-ous year. Please note that these December Reports do read differently than previous versions. Because of the introduction of the new AusVELS in English and Mathmatics, Sciene and Technology as of the start of this year there are no benchmarks in these areas from last year’s December student reports. The reporting system in schools has therefore generated a graph showing your child’s achievement over the last 6 months since our June reports 2013. Reading the achievement graph can now be a little confusing in that we have blue achievement lines showing improvement over the last 6 months against AusVELS sub-jects and another part of the graph showing a 12 month progression against VELS subjects. It is important that parents re-fer to the legend in the bottom right corner of this graph page to help you better understand your child’s report.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

FROM THE PRINCIPAL PAGE 3 STUDENT REPORTS Cont…. The example of a student’s Year 1 report on the previous page shows the 12 month growth against VELS in Health and Physi-

cal Education, Interpersonal Development, the Arts and in this case Information Communications Technology which does not

show in growth as it is a new subject area for reporting for this particular year level. VELS achievement levels are shown by a

line between a white and black dot and represent the growth of that child over 12 months

The subject areas of English and Mathmatics are assessed against the new AusVELS National Curriculum which has only been

introduced this year. Hence, there is no benchmark data from December 2012 to build from. So the reporting system has

shown a 6 month development based on June 2013 reports. The AusVELS date is represented by the 2 different blue dots. On

this report this student has generally progressed the expected 6 months, except in the area of Reading where there has been

a solid 12 months progression since June. Some blue dots may also show no progression as the child may not have necessarily

moved the expected 6 month in this particular reporting area. As mentioned before, some students have fantastic “spurts” in

their learning while some may “plateau” while they consolidate their understanding, confidence and learning.

Please refer to the Ratings and Legend to help make this graph more understandable.

This situation will only be in place for 2013. As we reach 2014 all AusVELS subjects will have benchmarks from 12 months

ago to match the VELS subjects. This will make reading this graph more consistent for both assessment areas.

It is important that parents and students relate these December reports against the Student Learning Journals and remember

that learning for us all is a continuous and ongoing journey.

GRADE STRUCTURE FOR 2014

We started off the year on Census day in February with a student enrolment figure of 413. We now have 423 students with

student numbers for 2014 predicted to be slightly higher than this figure.

As reported by Bronwyn Orr in a previous newsletter the proposed grade structure for 2014 will be:

Preps – 3 x 21

Year 1 – 3 x 20

Year 2 – 3 x 20

Year 3 – 3 x 20

Year 4 – 3 x 23

Year 5 – 3 x 20

Year 6 – 2 x 27

This will give us 20 grades with a class average of around 21.3. At Chatham we endeavour to keep class sizes as small as our

staffing profile allows, always with the aim of maintaining our exemplary specialist programs and student support.

This year we are trialling a new initiative at Chatham. Because of the small cohort of girls in our current Year 4 classes we will

be having 2 mixed grades and 1 all boys’ grade for Year 5 in 2014. Please remember that the numbers for each class above are

not yet final numbers so they may change before the commencement of the new school year in 2014.

Students’ grades and new teachers will be announced via a note accompanying the student reports that are being sent home

on Wednesday next week.

A great deal of time and effort by staff has gone into the formation of these grades for next year. Please remember that your

class teacher is a professional educator who has been with your child for the last 12 months and when all the available infor-

mation is considered, we will certainly try our very best to accommodate all issues with the aim of making the best possible

decision in the best grade placement for your child.

I would ask that you support these decisions and remain positive about your child’s grade placement and new teacher for

2014.

BOOK COLLECTION The fee schedule for 2014 was sent home a few weeks ago with all returning students. Payments for these fees can be made now. There are some options for making payments: cash/cheques, payment at the bank, internet banking and the use of our EFTPOS. It is essential that after making the payment that we receive the payment option form for each child so that these payments can be allocated to each child’s account accordingly. This form and a copy of the transfer of funds notice should be handed to the business manager, Bev Gardiner, when collecting your student supplies on Tuesday 28 th January. These sup-plies can be collected from the school library between 10:00am and 2:00pm on this day. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

FROM THE PRINCIPAL PAGE 4 PARENTS’ CLUB

The Parents’ Club is a very important group in our school. This association is certainly an integral part of our school communi-

ty – co-ordinating our fundraising and social activities across the year. Each year the Parents’ Club holds its Annual General

Meeting in March to elect its new executive for the year. This year we are attempting to be a bit more proactive in seeking

Expressions of Interest for the executive positions for 2014 earlier so that we can have everything in place before next year’s

AGM. All activities for next year have already been organised with most having their coordinators already in place. This group

organises many of our social and fundraising activities across the year with the understanding that we raise at least $28,000

each year to cover the loan repayments of the School’s Cooperative. This loan only has two years to run on its 10 year lease

arrangements. This group also coordinates the Class Reps and looks after many events including Grandparent’s Morning Tea,

School Disco, welcoming new families into the school, hiring equipment, first aid room linen roster, etc.

I would ask that you consider supporting and joining this very important group and even consider nominating for one of the

executive positions that will be coming vacant next year.

2014 Executive Positions for Chatham Parents’ Club

Following last week’s article regarding Executive Committee roles on Parents’ Club, I am pleased to inform you some of the

current holders are wishing to continue in 2014. Consequently, whilst we encourage people to consider any position on the

Executive Committee, the roles we are specifically seeking Expressions of Interest for are: Vice President and Secretary.

It is hoped the Vice President role will be filled or job-shared, by at least one person willing to carry on in 2015 for continuity

in the Parents’ Club activities.

If you are interested in nominating for one of these, or any other role, I encourage you to review the job descriptions on the

website or speak to the current role holders about their experience to gain an understanding of what is involved.

I encourage you to support this very important group in our school. Anyone wishing to nominate can do so via the Parents’

Club Executive Committee Nomination Form available on the website and submit it directly to me. Even if you do not want to

be a part of the Parents’ Club Executive please support this very important group in our school and make a time to come

along to their morning and/or night meetings next year. Thank you to everyone form Parents’ Club who have worked tireless-

ly to organise the many wonderful social and fundraising events in 2013.

LAST WORKING BEE - 2013

The next working bee is scheduled for Year 1 families this Saturday 14th December. Please make some time during the morn-

ing to come along and help us complete some of the many tasks that we have planned for the big clean-up day before the

holidays.

YEAR 6 AWARDS

Each year as part of the Year 6 Graduation Ceremony we present some special awards to selected students. The teachers have

input into the nominations for these awards and Mr Grummet and Mr Thornton usually attend the evening to present these

awards to the students personally. We will announce these awards to the school community at our last assembly next week.

The Grummet Award is presented by Mr Grummet who is an ex-student of Chatham having graduated as dux of the school in

1938. Over the past 18 years he and his sister have kindly presented the Grummet Award at our Year 6 Graduations in

memory of their mother and father. This award is presented to a boy and girl in Year 6 who have shown outstanding academic

achievements in all areas of the curriculum.

The Thornton Award is presented by Mr Keith Thornton, another of our valued ex-students who was dux of the school in

1937. He places some of the responsibility for his wonderful successes in business and life to the opportunities given to him by

the Chatham School Community over 70 years ago. Over the last few years he has been a very generous supporter of our

school and has established this award for students who have displayed talent in certain areas of the curriculum, determina-

tion to succeed, resilience and a keen spirit for school.

The Principal’s Award is presented by me. The students selected for this award have demonstrated overall excellence in all

areas of school life, especially in the areas of citizenship, achievement and caring for others. The recipients of this award have

consistently demonstrated the values of the school of Learning, Respect, Resilience, Partnership, Honesty and Responsibility

and have been outstanding role models to all students.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

FROM THE PRINCIPAL PAGE 5 MORNING TEA CELEBRATION The partnership between the school and home is a very strong feature at Chatham and we would like to celebrate a great year and say thank you to all parents who have helped out at the school. Many of the school’s programs and activities could not operate without the fantastic support of our parents. Whether it be helping in the classroom, canteen, BookClub, sick bay, attending excursions, covering books, working bees, on committees, etc, etc, etc. Your work is much appreciated by all the staff so we would like to thank you and celebrate the year with a special morning tea. This will take place on Monday 16th De-cember in the school hall from 10:45 to 11:30.

SCHOOL DISCO The Parents’ Club has organised the School Disco for tomorrow, Friday 13th December. This is a great way for all students to celebrate the end of the year and promises to be an enjoyable night for all. This year’s disco has a Summer theme and kicks off with the:

Preps from 2:30 – 3:30

Years 1 & 2 - 4:15 – 5:30

Years 3 & 4 - 5:45 – 7:15

Year 5 – 7:30 – 9:30

Year 6 – 8:00 – 10:00 A reminder to all students that they should dress appropriately and sensibly in their gear for dancing and that this event is only organised for current Chatham school students. For security reasons it is important that all children are signed in at arri-val and signed out again at the end of their session. I hope that everyone has a great night. Thank you to all the parents for organising this event and for helping out on the food stalls, decorations, clean up and security.

YEAR 6 WORKING BEE The first working bee for the 2014 year takes place on Wednesday 29th January. This working bee is for all of next year’s Year 6 families and helps to prepare the school in readiness for the students’ arrival on the following day, Thursday 30 th January. This is a twilight session with work due to commence at 5:00. Please put this in your diary for next year.

RETURNS A reminder that all library books and take-home readers should have been returned to the library or classroom. If the stu-dents have any still at home can they please be returned as soon as possible. All sports uniforms, including all basketball singlets and the Year 6 sports tops should also be returned as soon as possible please to Miss Price.

LAST DAY ASSEMBLY DETAILS We have changed the assembly times for this Friday to tomorrow morning at 9:00am due to the School Disco preparations. I would like to congratulate all our Year 6 students on the wonderful job they have done each week in running our assemblies throughout the year. They have all been fantastic presenters. Our last assembly for the year will be held on Friday next week starting at 12:30. On this day we make a number of presenta-tions to staff and students and say goodbye to this year’s Year 6’s. The following is the proposed timetable for the assembly:

Welcome

Musical items

Farewell to staff and students who are leaving Chatham

Year 6 Graduation Awards

Musical item

Prep to Year 6 Power point

Roll call of Year 6 students

Year 6 “Silly Song”

Song of Farewell

Ringing of the school bell and walk through the guard of honour

It is the tradition each year that our Year 6 students ring the school bell from the S.S. Edina, which is located near the office. I would ask that parents not block this area. It is important that this area remains clear so that the students can walk freely through the hallway, out the front door and through the student guard of honour. Parents and students are quite welcome to return to the bell at the end of the day to ring it again whilst photos are taken without the crush from others. This year we are also going to reserve the front row of seats for Year 6 parents. This last assembly is always a crowded affair so please consider others when finding a space to be a part of this important event. We are hoping for good weather so that we can finish off the year with a happy send off for our wonderful Year 6 students. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

DATES FOR THE DIARY Thursday 12th December Year 6 City Excursion Last Day for Salvation Army baskets Friday 13th December 9am assembly today School disco— see flyer Saturday 14th December Year 1 Working Bee Monday 16th December Parent Thank you Morning tea 10.45 to 11.30am and School Council 7pm Tuesday 17th December Year 6—big day out MSAC Class Parties Wednesday 18th December Visits to 2014 classes Thursday 19th December Year 6 Graduation Friday 20th December Farewell Assembly in hall—12.30pm to 1.30pm, Last day of School—1.30pm finish Tuesday 28th January 2014 Book Collection 10am to 2pm Thursday 30th January First Day back at school—Year 1 to 6 Friday 31st January 2014 Preps commence—Tears and Cheers Monday 2nd February Year 6 Camp commences

FROM THE PRINCIPAL PAGE 6 END OF YEAR EVENTS We certainly have a busy 6 days to go until the end of the year. Please note the following happenings: Friday 13th Dec School Disco Monday 16th Dec Thank you morning tea – 10:45 – 11:30 – Library Tuesday 17th Dec Class Parties Year 6 “Big Day Out” Wednesday 18th Dec Students meet their 2014 teachers & visit their new classrooms

Student Reports & Learning Journals sent home

Thursday 19th Dec Class moving day Year 6 Graduation

Friday 20th Dec Last Assembly 12:30 – 1:30 dismissal A reminder that the last day of school is next Friday the 20th December when students will be dismissed at 1:30pm The first day of school for Year 1 to 6 students is Thursday 30th of January with new Preps starting on Friday the 31st of Janu-ary

STEPHEN ROTHWELL—PRINCIPAL

HOMESTAY ACCOMMODATION FOR KEIKO

Chatham has been most fortunate to have our wonderful Japanese assistant, Keiko Kawasaki, join Chat-ham this year. She has been a firm favourite with staff and students. Keiko is involved in the ATJ program is available to students from select Japanese Universities and is an initiative of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, International Education Division. Keiko shares her time between Chatham and Canterbury Girls Secondary College and assists the teaching staff with all aspects of the Japanese program. Homestay accommodation for assistants is provided by the school communi-ties and is to be made available to the assistant at no cost. We are looking for a family who would be willing to host Keiko for 4 - 6 weeks. She will need accommo-dation from 23rd January 2014. If you are interested, or if you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Arigatou!! Cathie Bradford

WALK TO SCHOOL NOVEMBER Last month Chatham took part in Walk to School November. Walk to School’s aim was to encourage more kids to walk or ride to school rather than drive. Angus Scott, Angus Hume and Matthew Deayton tallied up the percentages and walks for each class every week of November. Then Miss Orr sent them into the Boroondara Council. Many other primary schools in Boroondara took part in Walk to School November and sent their per-centages to Boroondara Council. Chatham did an outstanding job to win the ultimate prize of a ‘Bike ‘n’ Blend’ where every student in the school was treated to a fruit smooth-ie, powered by pedal power. Chatham had the highest percentage of walks in Boroondara.

GREAT WALKING CHATHAM!

By Matthew Deayton and Angus Scott

Mark this in your diary – Friday 31st January 2014

9.30am – 12.00noon

At the home of Rebecca and Simon Nunan 5 Wharton St Surrey Hills

Everyone is welcome! A great way to catch up with friends after the holidays and to welcome

new families to the school.