Greythorn Primary School No. 4694 Reading Avenue, North Balwyn. 3104 Telephone: 9857 9762 Fax: 9857 8175 Website: http://www.greythornps.vic.edu.au Email: greythorn.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au OSHCLUB 0411 392 707

Principal: Geoff Agnew

Edition 15, 28th

May 2014

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Our Senior Choir gave a superb performance in the finals of the Boroondara Eisteddfod held last Sunday at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. They received extremely positive and favourable comments from the adjudicator and warm appreciative applause from the audience. The final results saw Greythorn Senior Choir placed in second position. Those who attended Monday’s assembly were treated to an equally delightful repeat performance. Sincere thanks to Joy Odou for once again training and moulding a large number of voices and producing such a brilliant sound. Congratulations to you all on a first class result! Thanks also to the many parents who have supported the choir over the past week at their performances. Two staff members have been recently acknowledged for their skill and expertise in the area of Information and Communication Technology. Year One teachers – Kim Adam and Sarah Tirtilas were invited to present at a Na-tional Conference held in Sydney last weekend. The Conference – ‘ABC Splash Expert Teacher Workshop’, was attended by educators from all around Australia. Delegates were invited to attend and share their experiences with technology and the use of the ABC Splash website. Kim and Sarah’s presentation included an evaluation of how ABC Splash is used in classrooms and they were able to show examples of how our students use technology to support their learning. They also displayed examples of our students’ work and how they can record and demonstrate their learning on their iPads. Well done to Kim and Sarah for their strong leadership in this field – on a National level. At Monday’s assembly Ayana D (6J) spoke about a very special activity that she, along with our Junior School Council, will be organising. Details of a ‘Coat Drive and Clothing Collection’ supporting the ‘St Kilda Mums’ are in this newsletter. Well done to Ayana for her initiative and thoughtfulness. I would like to thank all those parents (and former parents) who attended the ‘Bogan Bingo’ evening on Saturday night. Many thanks to our Parents and Friends Association members who contributed to organising a most enjoy-able evening and a significant fundraiser for our school. Congratulations to:

Keira X (4HE) who played a delightful piano solo – ‘Spanish Donkey Driver’ at assembly on Monday.

Kim Bride, Fiona Limoli and I will be attending the Boroondara Principals’ Network Conference over the next cou-ple of days. During this time Leading Teachers, Liz Miller and Ken Darby will take on Principal class responsibili-ties.

Thursday 29 May Garden Club Prep to Year 6 1.00pm - 1.25pm

Friday 30 May Interschool sport GPS v St Bedes (away)

Monday 2 June Year 2 Swimming begins (concludes 13th June)

Wednesday 4 June ICAS Science Competition for Year 5 & 6

Wednesday 4 June Prep excursion to RSPCA PW & PR 9.00am - 12.20pm and PV & PZ 12.20– 3.15pm

Wednesday 4 June 3MG to visit Minifie Park ECC 11.00am - 12.00pm

Wednesday 4 June 3R to visit Balwyn East Kinder 2.15pm - 3.15pm

Wednesday 4 June Year 6 visiting Balwyn High School

Thursday 5 June Garden Club Prep to Year 6 1.00pm - 1.25pm

Monday 9 June Queen’s Birthday Holiday - School closed

Wednesday 11 June PFA Meeting at 9.15am in the Staffroom. Please note variation in time for this meeting

Wednesday 11 June Alliance Française Competition Year 4-6

Wednesday 11 June 3W to visit Friend Street Kinder 11.10am - 12.10pm

Wednesday 11 June Chess Club at 1.00pm

Wednesday 11 June Meeting to launch Noumea Tour 2015 at 7.00pm

Wednesday 11 June Education Committee Meeting 5.00pm - 6.00pm

Thursday 12 June Prep - Responsible Pet Ownership 9.00am-12.00pm

Thursday 12 June Garden Club Prep to Year 6 1.00pm - 1.25pm

Tuesday 17 June French Club at 1.00pm

Tuesday 17 June School Council Meeting at 7.30pm in the staffroom

Wednesday 18 June Chess Club at 1.00pm

Friday 20 June 3W to visit Balwyn East Kinder 9.00am - 10.00am

Saturday 22 June Working Bee

Wednesday 25 June All Nations Day - please bring a gold coin donation

Thursday 26 June Curriculum Day - Reporting to Parents

Friday 27 June Term 2 finishes - Students dismissed at 2.30pm

Monday 14 July Term 3 commences at 8.55am

Monday 14 July Year 3 & 4 swimming begins (concludes 25 July)

Coming Up! Recorder and Percussion Ensemble

will be performing at Assembly next Monday 2nd June

Students need to be on stage by 8.30am for a warm up beforehand

Boroondara Eisteddfod

Last Monday the Senior Choir gathered excitedly at the Hawthorn Arts Centre for the Boroondara Eisteddfod. We sang very well and were delighted to be selected to compete in the Finals. The Finals were held on Sunday 25th May and we gave another fabulous performance. The adjudicator made some very positive comments in her re-port about our pure tone, superb dynamics and wonderful part singing. It was a particularly great performance as not all of our singers were able to be there due to other commitments. We were very pleased to be awarded Sec-ond Place out of a total of ten choirs that competed in the Section.

Thank you to our accompanist Sergei Suetin, to our parent helpers, to Mrs Odou for conducting, and to all the parents who supported us at our performances.

Angus C and Ingrida D Music Captains

Music Notes

French News

French Study Tour/s to Noumea 2015 Thank you to the many parents who have shown an interest in the proposed French Study Tour/s to Noumea in 2015. For those who haven't yet done so, please return the slip for the meeting in the Hall on Wednesday 11th June, by next Wednesday 4th June either directly to me or via your child's Class teacher to the Office.

With thanks,

Sally Holt (Tour Organiser)

Congratulations!

Prep 2015 Enrolments

Canteen Bites

Please find below the Roster for Canteen duty for Thursday 29th May to Wednesday 11th June 2014.

Help desperately needed in the Canteen this Friday 30th May. Please contact Lynne on the details below if you are able to assist.

If you are able to assist at all, please contact Lynne on 9898 3649 (After hours) or email lynnescraft@hotmail.com. Thank you.

Thursday 29 May Natalie Kane

Friday 30 May HELP NEEDED - URGENT

Monday 2 June HELP NEEDED

Tuesday 3 June Shilpa Prajapati

Wednesday 4 June Wilson Shum

Thursday 5 June Carolyn De Jong

Friday 6 June Monica Creedon / HELP NEEDED PLEASE

Monday 9 June HELP NEEDED

Tuesday 10 June HELP NEEDED

Wednesday 11 June Elizabeth O’Hanlon

School Banking

School Banking - Every Friday except the last week of term. Congratulations to 1W who won the School Banking Trophy last Friday - what great savers you are! Congratula-tions must also go to PR, 1A, IT and 3W who came in a close second. Remind your classmates to bank this Fri-day and your class could win. Don’t forget to bank three or more times at School in Term 2 and you could win a family underwater adventure holiday - see the attached competition flyer.

Kirrily Turnbull School Banking Co-ordinator (johnkirrily@yahoo.co.uk)

Reading Happenings at Greythorn

This week is the last in our series of articles on Independent Reading.

An introduction to Independent Reading

What other curriculum areas does independent reading support? The skills built upon through independent reading link strongly to a broad range of different learning areas, includ-ing reciprocal teaching, writing, inquiry units, mathematics, the development of research abilities and more. Read-ing is such a critical component of life – whether it’s the ability to understand a worded mathematical problem, the ability to attain the perfect research to support a project, or the skill to create texts of your own using the strategies you’ve learned through reading the texts of others. No matter our strengths, be they in numeracy, literacy or somewhere else – reading is often a vital key to our success, and independent reading aims at bridging those cur-riculum gaps.

Simon Judkins

All enrolments for Prep 2015 need to be lodged now. Could parents of siblings of existing Greythorn PS students please see the office for an enrolment form or contact the office on 9857 9762. Thank you.

PFA News

Bogan Bingo has come and gone.

And what a night. Over a hundred people attended, everyone had a “grouse time” (whatever that means), and we raised a substantial amount of money for the school.

The hall was magnificently decorated – it was like Australia Day at Lorne in there – and there were lots of excel-lent donations for prizes and the silent auction.

We were exposed to the wonders of bogan fashion and culture, at levels way beyond EPA recommendations. It’s a little disconcerting to find how naturally it came to some of us.

We even had a few teachers showing their bogan colours, and they must be especially talented bogans, as they dominated the bogan games.

Thanks to all the bogans who attended.

Many thanks to all those who took the time and effort to find donations for us, and to our team of volunteers for making it happen in the first place.

Regards Andrew Mack PFA President

St Kilda Mums are an organisation run by volunteers in St Kilda. They collect new and pre-loved items for chil-dren, and take pride in the fact that all the items passed on are clean and in excellent condition. These items are then passed on to families in need right across Melbourne.

St Kilda Mums are currently running a drive called ‘Coats for Kids’. We will be collecting all types of children’s clothing (particularly coats), bedding and rain coats. All items must be in excellent condition. The collection will take place from now until the end of Term 2.

Collection points will be in the 5P classroom and in the Year 6 area. For more information, see Mrs Sime (6S) or Ayana Dobie (6D). Keep an eye out for posters around the school with more information.

All donations are greatly appreciated and go to a very worthy cause.

http://www.stkildamums.org or https://www.facebook.com/StKildaMums

Ayana Dobie & Mrs Sime

St Kilda Mums Coat Drive and Clothing Collection

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