50 Main Rd GEMBROOK 3783 Ph: 03 5968 1313 Fax: 03 5968 1548 email: gembrook.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au www.gembrookps.vic.edu.au

Gembrook Primary School

Mission Statement

A view to the future

Diary Dates

Gembrook Primary School is a welcoming and

respectful community that provides modern,

flexible

learning spaces that support a personalised,

engaging and challenging learning program so

that students will achieve the social,

emotional, academic and physical growth to

succeed in a global society.

11 August 2016

Vision: To provide every student with every opportunity to be the best they can be. Value: Respect.

13 August PFA Trivia Night $10 PER HEAD

18 August Coach Approach (cost: $8)

19 August Mini Olympics after assembly (gold coin donation)

22-26 Aug GemBOOK Week

25 August Grade 5 visit to Kinder

25 Aug-1 Sept BOOK FAIR

26 August Special Friends Day

29 August Produce Market

30 Aug-1 Sept Fathers Day Stall

3 Sept Working Bee 9-11am

6 Sept Dance Concert @ EPAC

7 Sept EDEC Girls Footy 5-6

10 Sept PFA Shopping Tour

15 Sept Footy Day & PFA Hot Dog fundraiser

15 Sept Kinder Students Visit

16 Sept END OF TERM EARLY FINISH 2:30PM

Notes that have gone home

School swimming (JLC & MLC)

Coach Approach (whole school) All notices can be accessed from the school website: www.gembrookps.vic.edu.au

Don’t forget to book your table

for the PFA Trivia Night this

Saturday 13 August

Tables are going fast.

Contact the school office!

Café 91 is under new ownership with new name

#Bettys Check out the delicious $1 specials

for Friday Canteen on page 3

William, Sam, Zac & Mitchell cooking up a storm at the OSHC After School Care program.

Contact the school office for OSHC enrolment information.. Casual bookings available.

A VIEW TO THE FUTURE

Bren’s Banter

Brendan (Principal)

Dear families & friends Last Thursday members of our school council attended the an-nual Emerald District Education Community (EDEC) School Council Dinner held at Emerald Secondary College where we enjoyed a superb meal prepared and served by ESC Food Tech-nology students. The guest speaker was Hugh Van Cuylenburg from the ‘The Resilience Project’. Hugh has been working in education for over 12 years. Starting out as a primary school teacher, he then moved into a position with Cricket Victoria as a development facilitator working with dis-engaged adolescents. The highlight of his teaching career, how-ever, was the year he spent in the far north of India volunteering and working at an underprivileged school in the Himalayas. It was here that he discovered true happiness and resilience in its purest form. Inspired by this experience (and subsequent trips to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) Hugh returned to Melbourne and commenced working on his own programs for schools. ‘The Resilience Project’ was born. Off the back of his post graduate studies into mental health, Hugh’s presenta-tion emphasised the values of gratitude, empathy and mindful-ness. Of note, Hugh has developed and facilitated programs for over 220 schools Australia wide. In 2015, the National Rugby League asked Hugh to design and implement a program for every single club in the competition to ensure the entire NRL community were emotionally engaged on the challenges of mental health. Hugh has also worked closely with Collingwood, Gold Coast Suns, Geelong, Essendon and Hawthorn in the AFL. He has also served as CEO of Step Back Think.

Hugh’s presentation at the EDEC Dinner was outstanding! He spoke for over an hour mainly around the importance of grati-tude. Practical suggestions included keeping a personal grati-tude diary and recording the best 3 things that happened throughout the day. This practice really does get you focusing on the positives in life and increases gratitude for what we ac-tually ‘have’ rather than focusing on what we think we ‘want’.

Hugh also spoke about the benefit of kids asking other kids questions: ‘how was your weekend’?, ‘did you enjoy your game of basketball’? etc. Hugh stated that we feel more valued when people ask us genuine and caring questions. It really was a fantastic evening and I came away wishing that EVERYONE could hear Hugh speak.

Gembrook Olympics Day Friday 19th August I hope you have all enjoyed watching the Olympic Games from Rio. There is no doubt that it is inspiring to watch the absolute world elite athletes compete in any sport. On that note, we are excited to announce our very own Gembrook Primary School Olympics Day to take place on Friday 19th August at 9:30am. Thank you to all our senior school students who have worked hard to organise countries, events and design advertising posters for the day. All students will march in their allocated ‘country’ up to the oval immediately follow-ing assembly as part of our opening ceremony, and then com-pete in teams in a number of Olympic sporting activities. All students are encouraged to come dressed in the colour of their allocated country. The day will conclude at lunchtime with medal presentations and a closing picnic! It would be lovely if mums, dads, carers and grandparents could come along and cheer on our Gembrook Olympians!

2017 Prep Information ‘Step Into School’ Evening During this term I have loved showing many prospective par-ents and students around our beautiful school and already our prep enrolments for next year are on the rise! We had a bril-liant ‘Step Into School’ night on Wednesday with many parents and children attending and gaining information about preps for next year. A special thank you to our wonderful prep teachers Mrs. Bigwood and Mrs. Liston who organised and ran a fantas-tic information evening and to all our teachers who came along to support the prep transition program.

Our new Bandicoot Hide – Thanks Arthur! Thanks to Arthur, our friendly Crossing Supervisor and his friends at the Cockatoo Men’s Shed, we now have a bandicoot hide! When our school participated in a Greening Australia Biodiversity Audit, it was suggested that we provide shelter and protection for these cute indigenous marsupials seen in our area. Thanks to Callum, Konner, Jack and Samuel for helping move the hide to a suitable area at the back of the school. GemBOOK Week! Our ever popular GemBOOK Week is approaching with lots of great activities planned to promote and develop a love of read-ing. For example, the Book Fair will run from Friday 26th to Wednesday 31st August, whilst Grandparents and Special friends Day will take place on Friday 26th August. Cardinia Library will also be visiting our school on Thursday 18th August so GemBOOK Week is shaping up to be a literacy highlight!

Trivia Night Aug 13th at 6:30pm Our much anticipated Trivia Night takes place THIS SATURDAY and promises to be a fun filled night so please secure your tick-ets at the front office. The night kicks off in the Performing Arts Room at 6:30pm and includes trivia, silent auction and games. Tickets are only $10.00 with BYO drinks and nibbles.

Working Bee Saturday 3rd September 9:00am – 11:00am We are holding a ‘Spring Cleaning’ working bee at school on Saturday 3rd September from 9:00am to 11:00am. There are several jobs that we would like to complete including com-mencing the construction of a chook run, pruning, weeding, sweeping, pressure cleaning and a general tidy up of school grounds. A light morning tea will be provided at 11:00am. As the old saying goes: ‘Many hands make light work’, so please sign up for a job at the front office and come along and join in the fun!

Please check out the ‘Diary Dates’ at the front of the newsletter for the many excellent events and activities that are coming up at Gembrook Primary School.

Have a great week and all the best!

Change of Friday Canteen Provider

The school has received short notice that Café 91 has changed hands and is now called #Betty’s. The new owners took over on Monday 1/8/16 The current menu and prices will remain while a new menu is developed over the coming month.

To celebrate their new business and demonstrate the quality of their food #Betty’s would like to offer a special

of $1 lunch orders for their first month.

Lunch Order Special

for Friday 12th August:

Home made Pizza Slice $1

Ham, cheese and tomato or

Ham, cheese & pineapple

Lunch Order Special for Friday 19th August: Chicken sausage in a roll with cheese $1

Lunch Order Special for Friday 26th August: Either Spaghetti Bolognaise $1 or Home Made Pizza Slice $1

Outlets visited will include:

Men’s, women's & children's clothing and sleepwear.

Women’s footwear. Gifts.

Cosmetics and beauty. Kitchenware. Handbags & luggage. Manchester & more…….

G

Star of the week

Name Reason Grade Teacher

Lily O Your work in Maths is FANTASTIC! You are an adding STAR! Keep it up! F/1L Mrs. Liston

Lacie- Joy Thank you for sharing your thinking in Science this week! You helped everyone to learn! F/1L Mrs Liston

Sienna What a fluent and expressive reader you are. Well done Sienna. You are star. F/1B Mrs Bigwood

Bailey You are trying hard to use the sounds you know in reading and writing. Well done! F/1B Mrs. Bigwood

Harrison You used great language to describe the likeliness of events in maths this week. Awesome work! 1/2H Mr. Hevern

Isabelle You showed great leadership during eSmart week. Keep up the great effort! 2C Miss Cornell

Brayden A Keep working your way up the ladder! 3/4A Ms Irvin

Harvey For your great work with fractions this week! You are a star! 5/6H Miss Hutcheson

Arlo 3/4A You have made a great start on your research of energy sources. Keep up the great effort! Enviro. Mrs Everett

Chel-c F/1L You remembered all the steps needed to make a butterfly and explained them clearly. Well done. ART Mrs Everett

August

13 Annabella R

Paris K

14 Sarena C

17 Hunter R

Wanted

For the Art Room

Milk container lids of all sizes

(washed please)

Thanks

School Chaplain The Chaplaincy Service at Gembrook Primary School aims

to support the emotional wellbeing of students by

providing pastoral care services and strategies that

support the emotional wellbeing of the broader school

community.

Pastoral care means looking after the personal needs of

students, not just their

academic needs, by providing general spiritual and

personal support.

If you would like me to support

your child / children through any

issues they may be experiencing,

please fill out a permission form

at the school office.

Kind Regards,

John Chambers

Chaplain

Special Friends Day is Coming

Friday 26 August 2016

Don’t forget to invite your special friends

Donations of cakes / slices etc on the day before would be

happily received

More info and schedule of activities will be in next week’s

newsletter

Hey Kids, We're now into the final week of my weekly riddles to help promote this Saturday nights TRIVIVA NIGHT.

It has been truly great to have many kids finding me to tell me their answers.

However there are still 2 riddles remaining.

Q. What gets wetter as it dries?

Now here is the final riddle.

Q. Which letter of the alphabet has the most water?

So be the 1st person to come to me with the right

answer & you get a half hour play time of your choice with me & a friend.

And remember whilst your answering my riddles get your parents to sign up for this years Trivia night

hosted by me. Happening this Saturday night!

John Chambers

Chaplain Gembrook Primary School

A special visitor to the staffroom. –the joys of

a country school

OSHC Activities for Term 3 Come and have fun with us and learn new skills in our Outside School Hours Care Program

(OSHC). All students are welcome—come along and enjoy the activities and spend time

making new friends. Before school care begins at 7.30 (earlier start available on

request). After school care ends at 6pm. Collect an OSHC enrolment pack from the

school office or download an enrolment form from the school website:

www.gembrookps.vic.gov.au

Register with Centrelink for a 50% child-care rebate. You can

do this by logging into your Centrelink online account through the myGov site. Select the Approved child care service to reduce your fees option and it will be set up for you. For more details on Child Care Benefit and

Child Care Rebate call the Department of Human Services on 13 61 50.

Fencing / Retaining Walls / Decks / Handyman