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Coming Events

Oct 23-27 Children’s WeekOct 31 Foundation, Year 1 & Year 2 SwimmingNov 1 After School Chess Club 3.30 - 4.30pmNov 2 Foundation, Year 1 & Year 2 SwimmingNov 6 Student Free Day - ReportingNov 7 Melbourne Cup Public HolidayNov 8-10 Year 4 Waratah Beach CampNov 8 After School Chess Club 3.30 - 4.30pmNov 10 Year 3 and 4 Basketball TournamentNov 13-14 Year 3 Cave Hill Creek CampNov 13 Year 5 Family Life Classroom SessionsNov 15 Mobile School DentistNov 15 After School Chess Club 3.30-4.30pmNov 16 Mobile School DentistNov 20 Year 5 Family Life Classroom SessionsNov 22 After School Chess Club 3.30-4.30pmNov 24 Foundation Transition #1 & Parent Information @ 9.15am

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

CHILDREN’S WEEK We’re continuing to celebrate the 2017 Children’s Week. Our students have thoroughly enjoyed the special lunchtime activities that have been offered so far this week including:w Monday: Rainbows and Bubblesw Tuesday: Games Fairw Wednesday: School Dancew Thursday: Movie & Popcorn

A reminder that tomorrow, Friday 27th October, is our Dress Up Like a Teacher Day.

ENROL PREPS NOW FOR 2018

Excursion Payments - PLEASE NOTE NO PAYMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED

AFTER THE DUE DATE.Year 3 Cave Hill Creek Camp balance $185 due 31st October

Year 6 Graduation $28 due 31st October

Yr.3 & 4 BDSSA Basketball Tournament $10 due 2nd Nov

Essential Student Resources $350 due 8th December

School Council Meetings in 201721st November, 12th December (if required).

Finance & Fundraising; Buildings & Grounds; Eduction & Policy; Community Building & Relations Committee Meetings - 14th NovemberOSHC - 26th October

ISSUE 3326th Oct 2017

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STUDENT FREE DAYThe Department of Education and Training (DET) allows schools to conduct four Student Free Days per year. Please note that the final Student Free Day for this year will be on Monday, 6th November 2017. Students are not required to attend school on this day. WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY – Friday, 27th October 2017Tomorrow is World Teachers’ Day. UNESCO’s World Teachers’ Day was established to draw community attention to the important contribution teachers make in building a better future for the world’s children. Teachers matter every day – in the curriculum they teach and how they teach it, through the connections they make with and for their students, and by the way they encourage a love of learning. Most of us remember fondly a teacher who made a positive difference in our lives, one who believed in us and our potential, and encouraged us to always give our best efforts to all tasks. I commend the excellent work done by our teachers:Foundation Year 1Vanessa Fasulo Tracey Cooke Stephanie Bakopoulos Steven EdwardsJoanne Wharton Vicki GriffithsStacey Bilchouris Year 3Year 2 Eman NayefEmma Carlon Krystal HideSusan Wilson Daniel LeahyMaria Valente Year 5Year 4 John PirainaDean Castle Jacqui GoslingStephanie Dehghani Sonia Tancevska Kaylee Andrew Adam TavellaGeorgie Gunn Nick Kennedy Year 6 Specialist Bill Boicovitis Jason Gray Kathy Acciarito Adam Horne Renee Talintyre Jessica PirainaCihan Ozbilgin Simon Ferwerda Learning Support Saras RamasamyFiona WelshLeadership Team Lu Alessi Carol VidmarKelly Spurr I trust our students will acknowledge the support their teachers give them during tomorrow’s World Teachers’ Day.BRIAN WOOSTER MEMORIAL AWARDThe Brian Wooster Award is presented by the School Council annually to a parent of the school who has:u Demonstrated exemplary levels of voluntary

community involvement at the schoolu Demonstrated that the levels of service to the school

have been due to a commitment to education and to the local community

u Promoted Mill Park Primary within the school and wider community

u Generated a strong sense of harmony and goodwill between all sectors of the school community

On behalf of School Council I call for nominations for the 2016 Brian Wooster Memorial Award. Attached to today’s newsletter is the official nomination form which members of the school community are invited to complete and return to the school by Friday, 10th November 2017. SCHOOL UNIFORMAt Mill Park Primary School we believe a dress code strengthens our sense of belonging, unity and identity. A few students are coming to school in non-uniform clothing without a valid reason. Here is a reminder about the school’s dress code: Approved Uniform Items: Navy Windcheater with logo Plain navy skivvy worn with winter tunic Plain navy pants Navy short sleeve polo with two gold stripes on

collar and logo Navy long sleeve polo with two gold stripes on

collar and logo Navy zippered vest with logo Navy polar fleece jacket with logo Plain navy shorts Navy gold white check summer dress Winter school navy/gold woven tunic or skirt Navy legionnaires/ slouch hats/ bucket hats/ all

with logo Navy scarves with logo Navy beanie with logo Navy raincoat House colours polo tops with Logo to be worn on

PE classes days Please support our school’s Dress Code Policy by ensuring the appropriate uniform in worn every day.

I leave you with a quote from John F. Kennedy, ‘Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future’.

Lu AlessiPrincipal

NEWS FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPALWe are all used to having a lot of fun at MPPS - but boy did we set the bar high celebrating Children’s Week this week! Every lunch time, a different activity was held for our students- it was so lovely to see our teachers and students interact in all those fun activities! The smiles on everyones faces was so infectious and the giggles of delight filled the air! I’m not sure who enjoyed it more- the students or the teachers!

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Tomorrow is the last day for Children’s Week celebrations and there is a special surprise for our students that you will all have to wait to see! Students are encouraged to dress up as their teachers to help celebrate World Teacher’s Day. Hopefully the weather will be nice for a whole school assembly outdoors!

PFA News

Mango Drive

I am happy to announce that the mango drive will go ahead as we reached are minimum order! The Mangos are due early December with the exact date being announced as soon as the producers let us know. I certainly can’t wait, mangos are my favourite summer time fruit!

Curriculum News

Sharing ideas about textTalk to your child about how you select books for your own reading. After your child has read a book, encourage them to share their thoughts and understandings, how did it make you feel?

Here are some ideas that might interest your child:

l Read more about an author or illustrator at their website.

l Search and find more stories from a favourite author.

l Follow instructions to create something. It could be a recipe, origami or a model.

l Read a number of articles on a similar topic to get different views. Discuss the different points of view.

l View a movie that has been based on a book and make the comparisons. Which was better?

l Read a book then draw or paint characters or scenes from the story.

l Match music to a text to create a different feel. How does the music make you feel?

Every Day Counts- Primary School AttendanceIn primary school, some students miss on average 3 weeks of school per year. That’s half a year of school by the end of year 6.

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every single day – missing school puts them behind not only academically but socially too.

Why it’s important to be at school every day?l We all want our children to get a great education,

and the building blocks for a great education begin with children coming to school each and every day.

l If children miss school regularly, they miss out on learning the fundamental skills that will set them up for success in the later years of school.

l There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a child misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes.

l Each missed day is associated with progressively lower achievement in numeracy, writing and reading.

l To help our children achieve their fullest potential ensure that they attend school regularly and if there are any issues please let your classroom teacher know.

l Let’s see if this term we can improve our overall attendance and increase the number of ‘All Here All Week’ awards given out at assembly. Fingers crossed, hopefully we can do it this term

With tomorrow being World Teacher’s Day, let’s all take a moment to thank the wonderful staff here at MPPS who work hard every day to make each child’s learning experience the best possible!

I hope you all had a wonderful week, until next week stay safe and enjoy the sunshine!

Carol Vidmar

Assistant Principal

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NEWS FROM MRS SPURRWe have had so much fun this week celebrating Children’s Week with all the students at Mill Park Primary School, starting with bubbles and chalk drawings on Monday. I look forward to seeing the students dress up as teachers tomorrow!

Breakfast Club

Just a reminder that Breakfast Club is on every Tuesday morning from 8.30am in the Eucalypt building. Come along and enjoy some yummy breakfast with the Student Councillors, Miss Hide and Miss Valente.

Parenting Ideas – Parenting for Resilience – By Michael GroseI thoroughly enjoyed reading this article about resilience and having the ability to bounce back, regulate emotions and deal with stress.

Here are five principles/ideas that you can easily adapt to develop a strong sense of resilience in your child.

Develop your child’s self-sufficiencySelf-esteem is an essential element for resilience. It teflon coats children against rejection and self-doubt. The foundation for self-esteem is self-sufficiency. It’s the simple things such as feeding yourself as a toddler, making your own snacks in primary school and making your own lunch in secondary school that build self-esteem. Mastery over your own life provides a strong sense of self, which is an important piece of the resilience puzzle.

Allow kids to resolve their own problems Resilience is developed when children own and resolve their own problems, whether those problems are learning, relational or organisational challenges. A lunch left at home is a child’s problem to solve – either he borrows or goes without. A teenager who sleeps in on a school day needs to be allowed to manage the inconvenience of the situation, experience the stress that comes with being late and find a solution to avoid a repeat. Look for ways to coach your kids through social, physical and learning challenges but resist the urge to interfere or rescue kids unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Encourage play (and mucking around) at every age Encourage your child to play and be playful. As a community we seem to hold little store in the value of free, child-initiated, or even teenager-initiated, play. It’s almost as if play time is a waste of valuable learning time.

As any adult who experienced the joys of ‘mucking around’ as a child or young person will know, free play has huge benefits. These include helping children manage fear, providing opportunities to negotiate risk, and learning how to work flexibly with others. Importantly, free play and mucking around help children experience and tame stress, which is essential for resilience.

Focus on face-to-face friendships Healthy peer relationships are important protective factors against anxiety and depression for children and young people. From a resilience perspective, peer relationships are most potent when connections are face-to-face rather than through a digital medium. Studies are now showing how simple face-to-face social engagement has a massive positive impact on wellbeing. Positive face-to-face engagement – a smile, a wink or a nod – releases oxytocin, which increases trust and reduces cortisol (stress hormone). These simple face-to-face interactions also release dopamine, which makes us feel better. For the sake of your child’s resilience, encourage more face-to-face interactions, model healthy socialisation and help them balance their time between the online and real worlds.

Tell stories of resilience Storytelling is a powerful way of shaping children’s understanding of how the world works. According to a recent study, children who hear stories about family members overcoming obstacles are more resilient and display more grit in the face of challenges. The most helpful stories are those that are realistic, reflecting life’s ups and downs. It’s often stories of difficulty rather than success that teach and inspire children to persist. Similarly, it helps to remind children of times you worked hard in the past to overcome obstacles. These might include how you learned to ride a bike, how you adjusted to moving schools or how you to got along with a seemingly challenging teacher, boss or work colleague. Perhaps the easiest way to bring resilience into your parenting is to develop a mindset for resilience. It helps to remember the struggles and difficulties you may have experienced and be willing to keep kids’ chins up when difficulties and challenges get them down. It’s also helpful to remind kids that things will get better. They always do, which is a fabulous resilience lesson to learn

The full article is attached to the back of this week’s newsletter.

Electronic Use System Over the next 3 weeks the teaching staff at Mill Park Primary School will be participating in an online survey of electronic usage of copyright materials. Each year the Department randomly chooses schools in Australia to partake in this survey to ensure licence fees of copyright collections are distributed back to the copyright owners of the materials appropriately.

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Until next week,

Kelly Spurr

Welfare Coordinator/Leading Teacher

2018 ESSENTIAL STUDENT LEARNING RESOURCESThe 2018 Essential Student Learning Resources payment forms were sent out last week to all students.

Payment is due by Thursday 8th December 2017. While payment is not required until the start of the 2018 school year we would greatly appreciate payment by the due date. A school stationery pack will be received upon payment on pack pick up day Thursday 14th December 2017.As an added incentive in 2018, parents who pay the total amount of $350.00 per child by 8th December 2017 will be eligible to enter a lucky draw. A family name will be drawn and will receive 2 Gold Class movie vouchers.

Mill Park Primary School is very proud of the quality programs that we have on offer to cater for the needs and interests of our students. On an annual basis School Council prepares a budget to provide resources for educational programs, administration, facilities development and maintenance.

Essential Educational Items and Curriculum requisites are those used in the course of instruction in curriculum programs – classrooms and specialists. These items include stationery, school diary, text books, consumable materials and a range of equipment for learning and teaching programs including specialist programs and full Mathletics and Literacy Planet Licence Fees per student.

Information Technology Voluntary Contributions – Although these are voluntary, it is extremely important that Technology is maintained at a high level to enable Mill Park Primary School to continue to provide your child with provision of updated software, computers, access to online resources, iPads and applications, Nintendo Wii’s, Nintendo DS, Digital Cameras, Digital Video Recorders, Interactive Whiteboards, Projectors, Media and Music resources, Editing software, Ongoing Upgrade Leasing Plan.

Ground Maintenance and Beautification Voluntary Contribution (per family) – again this is voluntary, however, it is used to employ a facilities and maintenance person to ensure our grounds and playground equipment are maintained and presented in a safe and immaculate condition.

In addition to the above funding sources, we are extremely fortunate to have outstanding support from the school community in fundraising ventures. These funds also enable us to enhance the school resources and facilities.

Although these are voluntary, it is extremely important that these are maintained at a high level to enable Mill Park Primary to continue providing facilities and resources including Musical Instruments, P.E Equipment, Computer Equipment, Art Supplies, Library Books, Science and Technology Equipment, Mathematics Resources, Audio-visual Equipment and many other resources.

Excursion Prepayment - For families who would like the option of paying upfront for the year, this will cover the cost for your child to attend all excursions and incursions excluding Camps, Swimming, Interschool Sports or progression activities such as Divisional Athletics and Year 6 Graduation.

Please note that to participate in the payment of the excursion prepayment is optional for families. Please indicate your participation on the following Payment Slip. If you do not wish to take up this option we will forward payment requirements for excursions as they arise.

Angela Falso

Business Manager

POPPY APPEALRemembrance Day is on Saturday, 11th November 2017. I have poppies for sale at the office ranging from $1 to $10.

Vivian Gulia

Administration

READING MATTERS BOOK FAIR

Book Fair opened yesterday with an amzing crowd. Lots of books, posters, erasers, sharpeners etc. Prices start at $1, so pop in and have a look.

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A great way to talk to your children about books and what they like to read, pick up the next book in a series or even start your Christmas shopping

OVERDUE BOOKSThank you to the students and parents who returned their overdue books this week. Overdue lists went home yesterday. PLEASE, if yours is highlighted then these books have been missing for quite a long time so I need you to have and extra good look over the weekend and see if you can find them. The library is open from 8.30am – 3.45pm. Students may return and borrow during that time. So there is no excuse for an overdue book.

Happy Holidays

Sharon Turner

Library

PARENTS & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION NEWSFUNDRAISING CALENDAR – Term 4

Mango Drive

Second Hand Uniform stall

Christmas RaffleThe PFA are seeking donations for our annual Christmas raffle. Families that can assist by making donations or that know of any businesses that could help, are welcome to email us at millparkprimarypfa@gmail.comAlternatively you can leave your details at the office and a PFA member will contact you.

The Parents and Friends Association meet on the second Tuesday of each month in the Community Room.

These meetings are open to all parents and guardians, grandparents and interested members of the School Community.

Our next meeting will take place on Tuesday 14th November in the Community Room.

We hope to see you there!

Christine Gale

PFA Secretary

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Term 4 Week 3

FOUNDATIONWaratah 1: Phillip

Demonstrating the value of Excellence.

Waratah 2: Ella

For demonstrating the value of Integrity.

Waratah 3: Jasper

For demonstrating the value of Integrity.

Waratah 4: Lily

Demonstrating the value of Excellence.

Year 1Waratah 5: Munirah

Demonstrating the value of Excellence.

Waratah 6: Shakira

For demonstrating the value of Integrity.

Waratah 8: Hadi

For showing the value of Excellence.

Year 2Waratah 7: Brooklyn

For demonstrating the value of Compassion.

Waratah 9: Lizzie

For demonstrating the value of Compassion.

Waratah 10: Grace

For demonstrating the value of Respect.

Year 3Eucalypt 2: Dejvi

For showing the value of Compassion.

Eucalypt 3: Olivia

For showing the value of Respect.

Eucalypt 4: Esra

For demonstrating the value of Compassion.

Year 4Eucalypt 5: James

For demonstrating the value of Excellence.

Eucalypt 6: Fouad

For demonstrating the value of Respect.

Eucalypt 7: Haleemah

For demonstrating the value of Respect.

Eucalypt 8: Tala

For demonstrating the value of Respect.

Year 5Hibiscus 1: Sarah

For demonstrating the value of Excellence.

Hibiscus 2: Keira

For demonstrating the value of Integrity.

Hibiscus 3: Nicholas

For demonstrating the value of Integrity.

Hibiscus 7: Harrison

For demonstrating the value of Compassion.

Year 6Hibiscus 4: Charli

For demonstrating the value of Integrity.

Hibiscus 5: Jesse

For demonstrating the value of Integrity.

Hibiscus 6: Altrina

For demonstrating the value of Respect.

Citizenship Awards

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Term 4 Week 3

FoundationWaratah 1: Cassius

For his super reading!

Waratah 2: Georgy

For being able to answer questions about books that he has read.

Waratah 3: Oscar

For trying his best to solve subtraction questions.

Waratah 4: Anna

For beautiful handwriting.

Year 1Waratah 5: Brandon

For excellent problem solving.

Waratah 6: Angelina

For great work in Writing.

Waratah 8: Alistair

For fantastic reading.

Year 2Waratah 7: Mohamed

For excellent addition and subtraction worded problems.

Waratah 9: Ashley

For excellent Persuasive Writing.

Waratah 10: Leena

For her increasingly fluent and expressive Reading.

Year 3Eucalypt 2: Shilah

For great improvement in her Information Report writing skills.

Eucalypt 3: Pine

For writing excellent opening sentences.

Eucalypt 4: Joshua

For his excellent work during reading and comprehension activities.

Year 4Eucalypt 5: Ivy

For great work in Science.

Eucalypt 6: Armani

For her enthusiasm towards all learning tasks.

Eucalypt 7: Kabeer

For writing amazing sentences with correct punctuation.

Eucalypt 8: Elissa

For excellent effort and determination in Mathematics.

Year 5Hibiscus 1: Levi

For great persistence in Maths.

Hibiscus 2: Taylor

For a fantastic birthday bash cold write

Hibiscus 3: Kiara

For her incredible performance at athletics.

Hibiscus 7: Bailey

For an outstanding piece of work about the local government.

Year 6Hibiscus 4: Riley

For excellent work with his writing. Well done!

Hibiscus 5: Holly

For an excellent attitude towards her learning.

Hibiscus 6: Natalie

For her excellent work in English.

Learning Awards