NEWSLETTER N0.15
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
UPDATE ON OUR REFURBISHMENT PROJECT Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who has helped with the relocation process for our administration area last week and over the weekend. It was quite a job, but we completed just about everything in time for Monday morning. From the feedback I have received from parents, students and staff, the temporary arrangements we have in place, while inconvenient in a number of ways, are workable. Please let us know of any issues with our relocation that are concerning you and we will do our best to improve the situation. On Monday we met with Genem Architects, our Project Managers to discuss the tender outcome and are satisfied with their selection process and choice of builder for the refurbishment. There are is still
some paperwork that needs to be completed before the DEECD gives us the go-ahead for work to commence. The latest indication from the DEECD is that the builders will be able to commence work on site in about 3 weeks – that takes us to the Queen’s Birthday weekend. We had hoped to have the builders on site by next week, but that is now not possible. I guess this gives us the opportunity to become fully familiar with our temporary arrangements before site works start. This latest delay ensures that our project will not be completed until the beginning of term 4. Let’s hope the weather is fine by then! WINTER CLOTHING FOR CHILDREN We have noticed a number of children wearing shorts and t-shirts to school lately. I do think it is a bit cold for that. More importantly, these same children complain about being cold in the classrooms -
24TH MAY 2012
requesting that teachers put the heaters on and on a high setting. I actually have a bit of a problem with very warm classrooms – they do not make for the sharpest of learning environments. In short, if the rooms are too warm, everyone in them becomes drowsy and that’s not what we want. Please rug up kids. CHILDREN JUMPING OVER FRONT SCHOOL ENTRY GATE AND FENCE I have noticed that since our relocation of offices, a number of children are taking are short cut when leaving school by jumping over the front entry gate or boundary fence. It’s not on. Please stop before I have to growl at you. Importantly it is not safe and we would hate for anyone to get hurt. Actually we have also noticed a few parents doing likewise! CONTINUED…...
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT COMTINUED…... CHANGES TO THE EDUCATION MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE (EMA) You may have read of changes to the EMA Allowance in the recent Victorian State Budget papers. The news is not good for our school (or most Victorian Government schools for that matter). The Victorian government has made very important changes to the school allocation for the EMA which in our case means that in 2013 our school will receive nothing at all. That is a cut in real funds to our school of $20,315. The reason for this is that under the new formula, that despite our school having 27% of students whose families receive EMA benefits, our school families overall socio-economic profile disqualifies us from receiving any school EMA funds. This will have the added impact on EMA families for whom we can no longer discount school compulsory fees and charges against the EMA allocation we receive. In future, all families will be required to pay all fees and charges that schools can legitimately set, irrespective of their financial status. This is bad news for us all. Our local government schools Network (Casey North Network) principals, led on this issue by Sue Peddleson, Principal, Gleneagles Secondary College and Vicki Walters, Principal, Fountain Gate Secondary College are coordinating a campaign in protest at the changes to EMA funding. They are making contact with school council presidents of our Network schools to see what can be done. STAFF ON LONG SERVICE LEAVE (LSL) Traceye Rapinett will be commencing LSL on Friday of this week and I will be commencing LSL at the end of next week. Both of us will be on leave for the remainder of term 2, though of course our holiday paths will be very different. Lynne Brenner will be our Acting Principal for the duration of my leave, with Paul Whitehead taking on the duties of Acting Assistant Principal in that time. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q. What is being done about very loud external speakers around the school? A. This problem is more difficult to fix than at first we thought. Believe me, we have been trying. Our PA system, which is now quite old, and will be upgraded with our refurbishment project, has an extremely sensitive control panel and we cannot vary the volume between individual speakers from our office control panel. We are attempting to manually change the volume on the speakers outside several classrooms. Hopefully we will be successful with this by early next week. QUOTABLE QUOTE ‘A day spent cannot be bought back’
HENRY GROSSEK DIARY DATES Friday 25th May Tuesday 29th May ` Friday 1st June Wednesday 6th June Monday 18th -Wednesday 20thJune Wednesday 20th - Friday 22nd June Thursday 2nd August
5/6 Interschool Winter Sport (away) Sprinter & Friends 2nd Hand Uniform Shop 3.00-4.00pm 5/6 Interschool Winter Sport (away) Power of One 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp 5C, 6P, & 6W 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp 5D, 5T, 6K, & 6N Australian Mathematics Competition
NOTICES DUE BACK Thursday 24th May Tuesday 29th May Wednesday 30th May Friday 1st June Wednesday 6th June Thursday 7th June
Sprinter & Friends 5/6 Interschool Winter Sport Power of One Prep - 2 Swimming 5/6 Camp Balance Somers Camp
ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS’ REPORT THANK YOU We would like to thank Andrew Drake and his family who last week replaced the signage around the school to indicate the location of our temporary office and the access to different areas of the school. The signs look fantastic and clearly explain to our visitors where our facilities are located. Many thanks to Andrew who donated his time and services to our school. REPORT WRITING DAY As advertised in our school calendar, Friday 8th June is our designated Report Writing Day for Semester 1. Staff will be utilising this day to work on their Student Reports. Families are reminded that this is a pupil free day and therefore students are not required at school. Camp Australia is seeking expressions of interest from families who may wish to utilise their program on this day. Minimum numbers are required for Camp Australia to operate and therefore families are encouraged to respond in a timely manner so that the decision can be made and families informed as soon as possible.
phone 1300 135 796.’ We hope that this information will be of some value to you.
remind all families of the need for students to wear appropriate clothing to school. Although the children may be warm in the comforts of their home, car and classroom they need to be rugged up when going outside to play. A warm, cosy jumper or jacket and named, weather proof coat are strongly recommended at this time of the year. There is currently an overabundance of lost property and this raises two concerns. Firstly, as most of the clothing items are not clearly named, they cannot be returned promptly to their rightful owners. We understand clothing is expensive and it is difficult to distinguish individual ownership of similar items and so we are asking you to please ensure all clothing is clearly named. Secondly, we are concerned with the large number of lost items that are not being collected and ask for your assistance in checking whether your children are missing items of clothing. Lost property is located inside the corridor leading from the courtyard into the main building and is accessible during school hours.
‘STEP INTO PREP’ This week families will be receiving a flyer about our Step Into Prep evening that we are running on Wednesday 13th June for families of students commencing school in 2013. This evening will incorporate a guest speaker, Dot Deviny, who will address the issue of how parents can best support their child’s transition into primary school. The prep classrooms will be open so that families can see the classroom environment and our Prep Staff will also be present to talk about the early days of school and answer parent queries. The evening will commence at 7:00pm and is an excellent opportunity for families who have not yet made their final decision regarding school enrolment to seek information about Berwick Lodge. Existing families with preschool children enrolling for 2013 are also welcome to attend. So that we can accommodate all interested families we request that bookings are made by calling the school on 9707 1766. INTEGRATION AIDE TRAINING PARENTING PROGRAMS We have recently been provided We have received some information with information from Monash from Windermere Child and Family University regarding some of the Services about their popular 1-2-3 courses they are offering over the Magic and Emotion Coaching next few months. One particular parenting program to be run in our course is the Certificate of local area next month. This Education Support – Integration parenting course is a three week Aide/Teacher Aide. This course is program to assist parents to manage held on four consecutive Fridays and difficult behaviour in their children. Saturdays beginning 1st June and the A flyer regarding these sessions, one course is being conducted at their held at Narre Warren on Berwick Campus. If you would like Wednesday evenings and one held further information please contact at Cranbourne on Thursday Debbie Cusack. mornings, is included in today’s newsletter.
BEDWETTING Childhood bedwetting is a common dilemma faced by families. We have recently received some information from the Bedwetting Institute of Australia that we felt may be of some use to families struggling with this problem. ‘A new DVD based program, Bedwetting Cured, has been developed by Dr Mark Condon and Physiotherapist, Margaret O’Donovan. It outlines a successful program for parents to implement at home with their children For information and a free Bedwetting Fact Sheet please visit WINTER CLOTHING the website: With the onset of the cooler www.bedwettinginstitute.com.au or weather we thought it timely to
LYNNE BRENNER & DEBBIE CUSACK
Junior School Council Fundrasier A Day In the Life of Oshdi
Oshdi is Berwick Lodge Primary School’s sponsor child. She lives in Sri Lanka and is currently 11 years old. To raise money for Oshdi, the Junior School Council team are going to run games and activities over five lunchtimes. Each level has been allocated a day where the students can pay $2 and for that lunch time they can join in with the games and activities and do each one as many times as they like. They will need to give their money to the classroom teacher on the morning of their session and just before lunch time, the class teacher will give the children that have brought money, a stamp on their hand so the JSC children can identify who has and hasn’t paid. The level that raised the most money on their day will get another day of activities, free of charge. Some of the games and activities that will be running are: Origami Balancing a basket on your head Carrying water from one place to another Cricket Seven tiles Photo trail A hockey obstacle course Soccer Target Stone toss in a bucket Tuesday 29th May Wednesday 30th May Tuesday 5th June Wednesday 6th June
Preps Grade 1 and 2 Grade 3 and 4 Grade 5 and 6
The level that raises the most money will have a day of free lunch time games on Thursday 7th June 2012!
LODGIE AWARDS Dimitra 4Y Aleece 4R
SCHOOL AWARDS
Congratulations to the following students who received awards over the last week: Sebastian PM Seth PM
Rahni 4R
Joshua PS Rose PK
Thea 4Y
Chelsi PS
Tarquinn 4M
Max 4Y
Max PK
HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR ADDRESS OR PHONE NUMBER? Please ensure you let the school office know if you have changed address or updated mobile phones with new numbers. This information alleviates stressful situations on students when they are ill and we cannot contact parents
Science WOW Day
The Grade 3/4 Team have been focussing on Science and Technology this term and started the unit off with an ‘EXPLOSION’ of science activities for our Science WOW Day. The Grade 3/4 students worked in the BER Building to complete 7 Science Rotations in one day. These activities included making Goop, Zappy Zoomers, Cordial Testing Experiments, Observing Chemical Reactions using Popcorn and designing and making paper planes. After this WOW day teachers and students have been conducting experiments and reporting on their findings in the four areas of science – Chemical, Physical, Biological and Earth and Space Sciences. We invite parents to come into our classrooms and see some of our other great experiments such as Melting chocolate, Fossils, Ocean in a bottle, Ink Splots and Bouncing Eggs.
Thank you to the 5/6 parents who have been paying for the Sovereign Hill Camp.
The final camp payment is due by Wednesday 6th June 2012. Thank you Jackie Pope Event Coordinator
Education Week – Prep Blogs For Education Week the Prep team are launching our Blogs. Find our link via the school web site http://www.berwicklodgeps.vic.edu.au/
Rewards Program Our exciting Rewards Program makes it even more fun for your students to participate in the School Banking Program and also encourages them to save more regularly. Each time a child makes a deposit they receive a cool silver coloured Dollarmites token which they can redeem for exclusive Dollarmites reward items. Every year we have an exciting range of rewards to choose from – Dollarmites moneyboxes, wallets and handballs for example. The rewards vary and will be communicated at the start of each school year. These fun and enjoyable rewards are a great way to keep your students motivated and to demonstrate the value of saving. As the purpose of the Rewards Program is to recognise individual savings behaviour, we have a ‘no pooling tokens’ rule (i.e. students receiving tokens from other students so they can collect tokens faster).
Ways to Praise your Child for being Organised:
‘You are really good at being on time.’ ‘Getting on the bus is easier in the morning when you have everything ready in your bag.’ ‘I see you are organised. You put all your toys away.’ ‘Good for you. I can see you are trying your best.’ ‘You are really good keeping your room clean by putting things away.’ ‘Doesn’t it feel good to be organised?’ ‘You are really keeping your bag clean and neat.’
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