Mansfield Primary School

Mansfield Primary School

Apollo Street, Mansfield 3722

Telephone 5775 2325

Fax 5775 1914

Principal: Paul Volkering

Assistant Principal: Hazel Bell

Email:

mansfield.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

Website:

www.mansfieldps.vic.edu.au

Newsletter 3

5th March, 2015

IMPORTANT DATES:

6th March Integrity Day—wear

yellow

Whole school assembly

3pm Nobian Place

9th March Labour Day public

holiday (No students at

school)

10th March School photo envelopes

due

AFL clinic Year 5 & 6

1—2.30pm

11th & 12th March School Photos

12th March School Food Garden

meeting 3.30pm bottom

terrace

13th March National Young Leaders

Conference Melbourne

Convention Centre

Motivation Day - wear

red

ICAS entry fee due

(see page 6)

Book Club Issue 2 due

16th March Worlds Greatest Shave

1.30pm

School Council meeting

7pm

20th March Tolerance Day—wear

orange

Whole school assembly

3pm Nobian Place

Picnic In the Park—

Botanic Gardens 6.30pm

24th March Yr 1/2 Toys Over Time

incursion

25th March Curriculum Day - No

students to attend

27th March Respect Day - wear

purple

Last day Term 1 early

dismissal 2.30pm

Whole school assembly

2pm Nobian Place

PRINCIPALS REPORT

School Council Elections

I’m delighted to advise the school community

of the outcome of the recent school Council

elections. As most families would realise we

had a number of nominations for only four

vacancies, which meant we went to a ballot.

My sincere thanks to the broader school

community for the way in which everyone

responded by voting.

Votes were counted and checked by the

office staff with the folowing outcome.

Newly elected for 2015/16

(Parent Category)

Mr John Cottterill, Mrs Naomi Hall, Mr

Matthew Currie and Mr Lyndsey Jackman.

(DEECD Category)

Mrs Yvonne Robinson, Mrs Lyn Gardiner.

Sincere thanks to the following members of

our community who also nominated as parent

representatives.

Ms Amanda Poulson, Mr Neil Allen, Mr John

Inch, Mrs Chelsea Dean, and Mrs Clarissa

Leatham.

The next full meeting of School Council is on

March 16th at which time the outgoing

members officially retire and new members

are welcomed and office bearers are elected.

A full list of School Council Members and

office bearers will be published in the next

newsletter.

Monday is Labour Day so

no children to attend

school.

School photo envelopes

are due Tuesday 10th

March.

To all Parents

It sounds simple, but it’s true. The correlation between

school attendance and children’s achievement levels is well-

established. The more time kids spend at school, the more

likely they are to experience school success.

Conversely, according to a report from the Victorian Auditor

General, students who are regularly absent from school are

at the greatest risk of dropping out of school early, and of

experiencing long-term unemployment. When kids miss school,

not only is their academic progress impeded, forcing them to

catch up on missed work (which some never do), they often

miss important interactions with their peers which can

compound issues of social isolation and low self-esteem. Also,

most teachers will tell you, it’s often the kids who can least

afford to take time off school who are most likely to be

serial absentees.

Of course, most people know this intuitively, yet school

absenteeism is a huge problem in Australian schools—and

much of it is parent-condoned. It’s hard to get an accurate

picture across the country but it would appear that

Australian students miss an average of between 12 and 15

days per school year, with parent-condoned absenteeism

highest among young primary-aged children. That adds up to a

year’s lost schooling over the school-life of a child. In today’s

highly competitive world, this rate of absenteeism is

alarming, putting our kids at a distinct disadvantage. And as

we move into the new age of work, it will become more crucial

for all students to successfully engage in 13 years of

successful education.

That’s not a reason to be away!

It’s now commonplace for children to stay away from school

for reasons that would have been unheard of just twenty

years ago. These include staying away to celebrate their own

or a sibling’s birthday; being absent because they stayed up

too late watching television; going shopping for clothes; an

extended long weekend; and kids not wanting to take part in a

sports day or special school events. This type of absenteeism

sends a strong message to kids that parents don’t really value

learning or their children’s school experiences. Australian

kids only spend 15% of their total time at school. They spend

more time asleep than they do at school. So we need to

maximise every day to get full value. That means turning up to

school every day, on time.

Being late is not okay either

Missing a few minutes each day may not seem like a big deal

but your child may be missing more than you realise if he or

she is continually late. Current research shows that mornings

for most children are the most productive time of the day,

with 10.00am the peak period for productivity. When children

arrive late and take time to settle as they inevitably do,

valuable learning time is lost.

Some parents seem to think turning up a few minutes late

isn’t a big deal, what they sometimes fail to understand is

that when they wander in late with their child, most of the

other students are disrupted in their learning which may have

already started, therefore affecting all the students in that

class.

In all my time as a Principal, I believe that there is no one

reason for student absence. A safe secure and welcoming

school environment is vital, but equally as important is strong

support from parents in making sure that children are at

school unless genuinely sick. Taking holidays during school

time is unacceptable. Once again we rely on parents to “do

the right thing”.

Our aim at Mansfield Primary School is to have our absence

data consistently trending downward or toward lower student

absence rates, we aim to work closely with parents where

students have unacceptably high levels of absence.

Below is a snapshot of our school attendance data over

the last five years.

Calendar Year Prep Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 P - Yr 6

2010

21.56

15.39

17.77

13.31

21.06

14.57

16.06

16.84

2011

19.41

17.94

17.39

12.42

14.25

18.86

13.38

15.87

2012

13.85

16.76

17.55

13.29

12.87

17.34

17.04

15.55

2013

8.79

15.08

15.79

12.38

13.20

15.67

11.15

13.09

2014

8.83

13.23

14.28

13.90

12.96

14.10

11.20

12.44

As you can see, there has been some

significant improvement in some levels,

particularly in Prep and most Year levels

are trending in the right direction.

Paul Volkering

Principal.

NATIONAL NO BULLYING DAY

March 20th, is National No Bullying Day, coinciding with whole

school Assembly. Parents are invited along to our Assemblies.

SLEEP TIGHT

Last year I wrote about the importance of sleep in everyone’s

life, especially children. Coupled with a healthy diet, the

importance of a good night’s sleep for children is only now

becoming better understood. During sleep the body

rejuvenates and for young growing bodies, children need at

least 8 hours. The crucial thing here is that the eight hours

needs to be good quality.

The attached article from Parenting Ideas gives you further

good advice about the importance of sleep in your children’s

lives. I hope you enjoy this week’s article, and keep up the

great work you are all doing in raising such wonderful, happy

and polite children. I’m so fortunate to be able to see what

great kids we have here at MPS every single day!

Bike Safety/Traffic Safety

Parents are reminded of the dangerous conditions that

currently exist in Apollo Street and the need for extreme

caution when walking children to or from school, or when

dropping off children. Please remind your children to be

cautious and to always use the crossing.

Some children riding bikes have also been cautioned about

dangerous riding. Buses travel up Apollo Street twice daily and

present as a significant risk.

Changed traffic parking signs will be placed along the

eastern side of Apollo Street in coming weeks. Car drivers

are advised to be vigilant.

Protocols for misbehaviour by students, at school or on

buses.

Parents are reminded of the need to follow protocol if your

child reports any incident to you that may have happened at

school or while travelling home, including on buses.

Step 1.Ascertain the facts calmly and clearly. (What, where,

when, who involved.)

Step 2.Advise your child’s teacher of the facts. (As soon as

practical.)

Step 3. Advise the Principal or Assistant Principal as

necessary, but make sure you’ve advised your child’s teacher

first. (Important.)

Step 4. Do not take action yourself. (Really important.)

Step 5. Do not put your particular circumstances on social

media. (You may be subjected to legal action.)

These simple steps will lead to an immediate response and may

apply to bus travel as well. If you are in any doubt about any of

the above steps, please see the Principal.

Paul Volkering

Principal

BOOK CLUB

Scholastic Book Club Issue 2 has been sent

home with your child today. This issue is due to

be returned to school by Friday 13th March.

Please return any orders to the book club boxes

located outside the school library by this date.

If you are paying by cheque please make the payment out to

Mansfield Primary School. No late orders can be accepted.

WORLDS GREATEST SHAVE

On Monday 16th March Mr MacMunn and some Year 6

students will participate in this event raising money for the

Leukaemia Foundation. Donations can be made at the school

office or online at worldsgreatestshave.com

JUST CHECKING…...When paying by BPay

Please check your Bpay numbers to be sure your

payment goes to the correct account.

NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTION

Great news, we currently have 50% of our families receiving

their newsletter electronically either by email, on the website

or on the school app. We would love to reduce our printing

even further so if your circumstances have changed and you no

longer require a hard copy of the school newsletter we would

appreciate it if you can please complete the pink form

attached. Thanking you in anticipation.

COLOURS DAYS

6th March – Integrity YELLOW

13th March – Motivation RED

20th March – Tolerance ORANGE

27th March – Respect PURPLE

Mansfield Primary

School Food Garden Thanks to all the people who have expressed an

interest in being part of the MPS Food Garden

Group. We are going to meet on Thursday 12

March after school - 3.30pm for an hour at the

bottom terrace vege garden (near grade 1/2

classrooms) – we’d love to see you there. We

thought we could throw some ideas around

while we weed (bring gloves & tools)! Even if you

haven’t had time to get in touch with us please

feel free to come along anyway! (Your kids can

play on play equipment near the gardens). For

more information call Megan on 0439 132 911.

Thanks Megan & Clarissa.

Get the MPS App for your phone now

We have 7 copies available to

of The First 200 Words.

Priced at $20 per copy they are a

valuable resource to support your

child’s literacy program.

Congratulations to Rhythm Stix for a great

performance at the Bonnie Doon Music

Festival. This was their first paid gig and

received $100 toward new drums.

Thank you to parents that helped on the

day. Mauz.

Newsletter Week 6 Team 6LW – Week 6 Update I have been in the job for 6 weeks now and I feel like I am slowly finding my feet as a teacher. The Staff, students and my Grade 6 class have been extremely welcoming and have made my transition to full time teaching a breeze. I am looking forward to the rest of the year here at MPS and all that I will learn and encounter along the way. Below are comments from my students about how they think I am settling into to teaching and what they think of me as a teacher so far… Miss Westwood is awesome to be around. – Jack. B Miss Westwood is very approachable, caring and is an epic teacher. – Darcy. C Miss Westwood is a great teacher and will have a great career. – Rory Miss Westwood is a great new teacher to have and has taught me a lot of things to get ready for High

School next year. – Harry I think the start of the year has gone terrifically and I have already learnt a lot this year. – Lulu I think Miss Westwood is great at teaching us new things. She has already taught us how to do

expanded notation with exponents. - Tim Miss Westwood is a awesome teacher. She is really nice and cool. – Lilly Miss Westwood is a really good teacher but needs to do less sheet work. – Jesse Miss Westwood is a good teacher and she is nice to students. – Jacob. S Miss Westwood is an awesome teacher she loves cats and chocolate which is a great thing. – Talahni Miss Westwood always tries hard at making learning fun, even though it is sometimes. - Molly Miss Westwood is fun and actually makes learning good fun. – Matilda Grade 2 & 6 Buddy Day Wrap At 9am we collected our buddies and got on the bus to go to Lake Nillahcootie. Once we got there we were sorted into 4 groups: Wombats, Cockatoos, Wallabies and Platypus’. Soon after that we were sent to our first of four activities:

Movie Making with iPads Learning about pollution in our waterways and how we

can help stop it. Local wildlife and holding a Blue Tongue Looking at bugs and insects life in our waterways.

Overall it was a great day and everyone enjoyed spending time with and getting to know our buddies. Max Les and Kaitlyn Mason Division Swimming On Wednesday the 25th of February, students from Grade 3-6 went to Seymour to compete in the Divisional Swimming competition. Everyone who went did a great job. People who came first in their event go through to the Regional Swimming and compete at Shepparton. The students who are competing are: Ellie Herbert, Dylan Konig, Kody Appleton, Matisse Gardiner, Amelie Walker, James Reid, Ben Les, Seth Dean, Jed Murray and Ashton Dean. Good luck to all the swimmers!

2015 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS AND ASSESSMENTS FOR SCHOOLS (ICAS) ICAS tests primary and secondary school students in the core curriculum subjects each year nationally and internationally. For over 20 years ICAS has taken place each year in schools throughout Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, the Pacific region and South Africa. Your child is invited to participate in 2013. ICAS provides an opportunity for all Years 3 – 12 students to gain a measure of their own achievement in an external testing situation. It provides teachers, parents and students with comprehensive reporting of results in the areas of Computer Skills, English, Mathematics, Science, Spelling and Writing. All students receive a certificate and an individual student report indicating which questions they answered correctly and their score compared with the rest of the students tested. The tests are an excellent preparation for National tests and the student report is useful for highlighting your child’s strengths and weaknesses. High quality UNSW certificates are awarded for each year level as follows: High Distinction to the top 1% of entrants Distinction to the next 10% of entrants Credit to the next 25% of entrants Participation to all other participating students. If you would like your child/children to participate in the 2015 ICAS tests, please fill out the tear off slip below and return it to school with the appropriate entry fee by Friday 13 March. Please Note: If fewer than 3 entries are requested the entry fee will be the equivalent to 3 entries. For further information, please contact Hazel Bell. ............................................................................................................................. ................................. I would like my child/children.............................................................. of Grade/s .......................................... to enter the following competitions. Please tick the competitions for your child/children.

Digital Technologies Tuesday 19 May ($8.80 GST inclusive)

Science Wednesday 3 June ($8.80 GST inclusive)

Writing Monday 15 June ($18.70 GST inclusive)

Spelling Tuesday 16 June ($12.10 GST inclusive)

English Tuesday 28 July ($8.80 GST inclusive)

Mathematics Tuesday 11 August ($8.80 GST inclusive) I have enclosed $ ........................... for the entry fee/s for my child ………………………………………. Year ……………… Grade ………………

Parent’s Name ................................................. Signature................................................

Positive Parenting

Telephone Service

This Program is offered to parents,

grandparents & carers of children aged 2 – 10

years

Our ten week program aims to assist you to:

*Develop a stronger and more positive relationship

with your child/children

*Manage everyday behaviour problems

*Set rules & limits

*Teach new skills

*Developing behaviour strategies

Through our service you will receive a workbook

and weekly phone calls with a parent educator. All of this

can be done from the comfort of your own home at a

time that suits you.

Interested?

For more information or to enroll phone

FREECALL 1800 880 660

ENROLMENTS TAKEN ALL YEAR ROUND

Start now and make a positive start last a lifetime