Newsletter 12 ~ Wednesday 9th August 2017

Truganina College

55 Clearwood Drive

Truganina VIC 3029

03 9368 9800

www.truganinap9.vic.edu.au

Truganina Times

It is fabulous to see so many of our students reading every night, making great reading growth and really enjoying all of the opportunities that the College presents and actively encourages. Our College Purpose Statement speaks about Our school community as one with high expectations - we work hard to achieve and expect outstanding student achievement. We value a growth mindset and we carefully track each student’s progress so that we see this growth. Over the last few weeks I have started the day at 8.35am in Ms Luckman’s Year 6 class. Over the coming weeks I will hear each student read and write a comment in their Student Planner. Recently I have heard both Tyler and Ajok read. Tyler is moving through the reading levels and has a solid reading goal to use text clues to work out unfamiliar words whilst also summarising what he has read. His Student planner is completed and he is pleased with his progress. It is fabulous to see Tyler at school on time so that we can make the most of the whole College reading period from 8.35am-8.50am. I would also like to mention Ajok, at school on time, reading well, tracking her progress in her Student Planner and making solid progress against her identified goals. I look forward to hearing all students in this class read over coming weeks. As students mature we promote and observe this type of self-regulated learning taking place. The students know where they are up to with their learning and what comes next. It is fabulous to see students in Year 6 at school on time ready for learning. Year 7 & 8 Assembly It was a real thrill to be invited to the recent Year 7 and Year 8 Assembly. Sincere congratulations to the staff and students very capably led by Mrs Helene Refeurzo on a wonderful community event.

The structure and organisation of the event was precise and showcased the exceptional values of our students. Respect for each other around their achievements and the adults who work with the students to achieve strong growth in both learning and wellbeing.

It was wonderful to see; 16 students receive Academic awards, 11 receive Endeavour awards and 6 receive Citizenship awards.

Thank you to the families that attended, to support our students and to hear about their wonderful achievements and progress.

The music performance by the Year 7 students was outstanding. To think that for many of these students this is their first experience on stage playing an instrument. They were both enthusiastic and professional in this performance. The lead singer Vas Aretas, lead the group with confidence and pride.

Soundgarage music teacher Ms Jacque Wong is to be commended on this performance. According to Ms Wong, the students have been required to learn to play two musical

instruments. We are indeed very fortunate to have such wonderful opportunities at the College.

It’s so important to read every night...

2017 Truganina College Events Calendar

Date Event

Monday 21st August Curriculum Day - Professional

Learning for staff No school for students

Monday 21st August School Council Meeting

5.00pm

Thursday 24th August City of Wyndham Spelling Bee

6.30pm

Monday 28th August Year 3 Aardman – Wallace and Gromit Exhibition Excursion

Friday 8th September Truganina College Sports Colours Day

Friday 22nd September End of term 3 2.30pm finish

Monday 9th October Start of term 4 8.35am start

Monday 16th October School Council Meeting

5.00pm

Wednesday 18th October Year 7 Immunisations

Tuesday 7th November Melbourne Cup Day Public Holiday

No School

Monday 20th November School Council Meeting

5.00pm

Friday 22nd December End of term 4 1.30pm finish

Annual Parent Opinion Survey- If you get a letter – please complete This week the Department of Education and Training’s (DET) annual parent survey letter went home to a random sample of families. It is important that as many families as possible complete the survey. This will allow us to consider the feedback and build on the work already started as a result of our previous community consultation. Our intent is to actively create an educational partnership. Genuine family/college partnerships based on trust, mutual respect and support for the College Purpose Statement and Values has the greatest impact when they are focused on student learning and wellbeing and underpinned by student voice and action. The feedback from families will be very useful as we further build on this work.

To make the survey results viable we aim for a 70% completion rate. The results will be reported back to the community once the results are returned from the Department. If you receive a survey letter and have any questions please contact Helen Salmond in the Administration Office. Many thanks in advance for completing this survey.

Jenny Crowle Principal

School Council Report - July A very full and extensive agenda was discussed on Monday 24th July 2017.

Gareth McLean, responsible for PE and Sports, presented the plan for the Years 4 – 8 Athletics Day, complete with a detailed risk assessment. This included the venue, transport, staff, volunteers, invitations to take part, First Aid and a contingency plan in case of wet weather.

Carla Evans, responsible for SWPBS, presented data collected through consultation with staff, students and the community regarding the School Wide Positive Behaviour program. Most votes received for the identified values so far have been for RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, RESILIENCE, with Learn, Safe, Inclusion, still in contention. The data collected so far will be returned to the staff and students, giving them the opportunity for more discussion and input. Carla presented the reward charts, which had been discussed with the students and were age/stage appropriate and used to display the tracking of tokens.

Both teachers were thanked for their clear and concise presentations that were much appreciated by the School Council.

Other agenda items discussed were:

The City of Wyndham Spelling Bee, The 91 Storey Treehouse Writing Competition and the Australian Mathematics Competition

Excursions to enhance the learning experience of the College

Assemblies organised by teams to celebrate the learning happening in each of their Teaching and Learning Teams

Anaphylaxis and Epipen Training

Parent/Teacher Interviews and Progress Reports

Pedagogy Coaches; Justine Ryan, Vanitha Sujith and Sadia Toqeer coaching various staff across the College

Literacy Consultant; Terri Campbell, working with staff to develop their skills in delivering rich vocabulary and Literacy

learning experiences

Extracurricular Activities – Soundgarage, Fit Kicks, and recess opportunities including; Art, Dance, Homework, Coding,

Robotics, Student Voice, all supported by staff

Robotics Competition – moderated by Nicholas Stebbing

Recruitment of 8 new teachers in Primary and Secondary, and a Speech Pathologist who will support staff at each level

where appropriate

The Facilities Manager, Mr Salmond, wrote a report regarding our school playground. He has researched a wide variety of options, presenting the final 3 quotations for the playground and 2 other quotations for the rubber surface under the playground for discussion. Staff and student input into the design and requirements have been taken into consideration, and the attached photo is an artist’s representation of how it might look. This is a huge undertaking by the school, and once again, the School Council, staff and students are very grateful to all those who have contributed and donated money towards this endeavour. It would have taken much longer to reach this stage in planning and discussion without your support. We await one more quote for the rubber surface before making a final decision.

Marilyn Jefferies School Council President

Physical Education in Year 2

Students in Year 2 have been learning how to hold 6 shapes with their body. They are; Tuck Sit, Rocket, Star, Motorbike, Happy Cat, and Angry Cat.

They have been also learning a log, egg and forward roll, as well as jumping and landing from the mini trampoline.

By Erin Taylor Health and Physical Education Teacher

Secondary College update What a wonderful start to Term 3! It was fantastic to see our secondary students settle back into learning after a restful two weeks holidays. We have been very impressed to see most of our students wearing full uniform and coming to school on time for reading in the morning.

This term, it has been pleasing to see a number of our students put their hand up for leadership opportunities within the Student Representative Council. Some students have put in applications for these positions, and the current School Leaders have been working with the Truganina College students to ensure the student voice is being heard and used in the school’s decision-making process.

At the Athletics Carnival, it was amazing to see the students participating in a range of events, and wearing their house colours with pride. The students were very supportive of their peers and encouraged each other to try their best in their chosen events. The students were very mindful of leaving the venue clean and ensuring that any lunch rubbish was disposed of appropriately.

Thank you to all the families who attended our Secondary Celebration Assembly in Week 3, this was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the students’ academic success, growth in their learning and celebrate collaboration and inclusiveness with a number of Citizenship Awards.

We are very much looking forward to continuing the learning journey in Term 3 and seeing our students grow.

Adam Miller Teaching and Learning Team 7/8 Leader

Learning Intention: We are learning to perform gymnastics movements.

Success Criteria - I will be successful when I can:

Hold my body in different shapes.

Perform a forward roll.

Jump and land safely from the mini tramp.

Year 4-8 Athletics Carnival Students in Years 4-8 went to Newport Athletics Track on Thursday 27th July to participate in the school’s first Athletics Carnival.

Students participated in a range of running, throwing and jumping events in their house colours. The 100m running event is yet to have taken place and the scores will be revealed once all results are in and finalised.

The P.E. team would like to say a big thank you to all staff, students and family members who attended and helped make the event such a success.

By Erin Taylor Health and Physical Education Teacher

Student book summaries of Children’s Book Council Award books

Within These Walls by Robyn Bavati

Summary written by Mohammed Mustakim from 5B

This book is about a young, Jewish girl named Miri. She had a magnificent life until the malevolent and wicked Germans came and stole her heart. The Jews had to live in this revolting place called a ghetto. One by one, her family members were taken away from her. They died from dreadful diseases like typhus and they were shot because they were weak, they were taken to torture places because they were old and crippled. If you didn’t die from torture you’d die from malnutrition or starvation. You were not even allowed to keep a sewing machine.

One of Miri’s sisters died from a disease. Miri took her baby sister Hinda who would pass as a Polish baby to Mrs Kowalski, one of Miri’s father’s loyal customers. Mrs Kowlaski said that she’d take good care of her. Miri’s mother and brother died for smuggling essential food, so they could survive.

Miri’s life was wrecked and she had to hide in places when the Germans came to shove people out of their shelters. If the Jews didn’t go instantly they were in trouble. Of the hundreds of millions of Jews who died, more were crammed into a ghetto.

Miri eventually found her cousins Dov and Sol, she also found their friend Sima. Miri found out about underground bunkers where Dov, Sima, Sol and many other Jews hid. They were part of a classified and clandestine army of Jews which were planning to overthrow the Germans.

Regrettably the Jews were crushed, conquered. The whole ghetto was sick while flames soared and leapt and poisonous gases were released. Luckily Miri escaped and was taken care of by Polish couple. Although Miri got a bucket of water and a potato every day, she barely survived.

Eventually a loyal ally came. It was the Russians! They came and drove the Germans out of the land. Though Britain and France had been allies, the French had surrendered and the British failed to protect Europe. Miri was found by a Russian soldier called Vladimir. Vlad directed Miri to a Russian camp, and from there all neat and tidy, she went to an orphanage.

Cousin Sol and friend Sima found Miri in that orphanage. The only person missing was Dov. Sima explained with poignant tears that he didn’t make it. But now they had to find Hinda so from there another quest starts, but this time with a spark o f hope…

Justine Ryan & Vanitha Sujith Pedagogy Coaches

Pedagogy Coach Report

College Attendance Data

Our college continues to focus on improving student attendance data for 2017. For students to learn, they must be at school and arriving on time. We appreciate the support of families when it comes to

student attendance.

What to do if your child is absent

If your child is absent you must provide an explanation or inform the school in advance of upcoming absences.

Courtney Hodgson Data Manager

Data Manager Report

As at end of Term 2, 2017

As at end of Term 3, Week 3 2017

Average days absent per student F-8

6.46 7.62

Foundation 7.46 8.83

Year 1 7.47 8.50

Year 2 5.65 6.92

Year 3 6.01 7.34

Year 4 6.80 8.24

Year 5 5.31 6.27

Year 6 4.91 5.81

Year 7 4.93 5.73

Year 8 6.00 6.84

Primary F-6 6.63 7.86

Secondary 7-8 5.45 6.26

Congratulations to Homegroup 7C.

You currently hold the best attendance rates across the College.

Making a call to the office.

Speaking directly to your child’s

teacher.

Writing a note in your child’s

Student Planner.

Sending an email to:

truganina.p9.co@edumail.vic.gov.au

Critical and Creative Thinking - Part of 21st Century Learning Skills The new Victorian Curriculum is being fully implemented across all Victorian schools this year and one of the areas that have been included in the capabilities for students to focus on is Critical and Creative Thinking.

Critical and Creative thinking are strongly linked. Students need to be able to critically evaluate information to determine what will be valuable to them when solving problems and researching answers to questions. Once they have determined their main ideas, they need to be able to use the information creatively to apply it to the problem solving situation. Students may need to manipulate their ideas, test whether they are able to solve the problems being faced and then evaluate the effectiveness of their thinking.

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority website states that: ‘Responding effectively to environmental, social and economic challenges requires young people to be creative, innovative, enterprising and adaptable, with the motivation, confidence and skills to use critical and creative thinking purposefully.’

At Truganina College we are working with students to develop their 21st Century Thinking Skills and encouraging students to ask questions and look for creative ways to come up with solutions to problems. This helps our students to become effective learners who are beginning to take responsibility for their own learning.

Leanne McNaughton & Kirstin Molloy 21st Century Learning Leaders

21st Century Learning

Staff Profiles Get to know Ann Le - Year 6 Teacher in Portable 6

What is your favourite colour? My favourite colour is turquoise, because it is the colour of my birthstone.

What is your favourite number and why? My favourite number is 8. If you rotate the number horizontally, it forms an infinity sign!

What is your favourite book and why? Each book I’ve read has its own reasons to be added to the ‘favourite’ list. The most memorable book would be the Emily Eyefinger series by Duncan Ball. How cool would it be to have an extra eye, on your finger! It was the first ‘class novel’ my teacher read during primary school.

What is your favourite food? I enjoy eating all types of food, always trying something new. However, being Vietnamese, my favourite Vietnamese dish would have to be a bowl of Bun Bo Hue, or even the Vietnamese crispy pancakes (Banh Xeo).

What do you like most about teaching and learning? One of the many reasons why I enjoy teaching and learning, I love seeing students happy, safe and having a smile on their face. In particular, the confidence when they achieve their learning goals and continue to challenge themselves every day amazes me.

Get to know Kim Luckman - Year 6 Teacher in Portable 5 What is your favourite colour? My favourite colour is emerald green. What is your favourite number and why? If I really had to pick a favourite number I would choose 15. I primarily like it because it is a cool number word to say and write (i.e. fifteen). It is also a triangular number and I do quite like the pattern it makes. What is your favourite book and why? How cruel to ask a bibliophile such as myself to name just one favourite book. Oh well, one that I do REALLY love is The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. I adore its fabulous, slightly over the top, vocabulary; as well as its highly spirited characters and whimsical English countryside setting. What is your favourite food? I don’t think I really have a favourite food, but I do love trying foods from different cultures. I enjoy learning about how oth-er people live through the variety of foods they eat, the spices and flavours they use, and the ways in which they prepare their dishes. What do you like most about teaching and learning? I love witnessing the growth of learners, as they accumulate new skills and knowledge. I also value the opportunity to get to know students as individuals. Their humour, creativity and curiosity enriches my working day.

National Science Week: 12th August to 20th August

National Science Week is kicking off this week and next week. The theme this year is “Future Earth”. Students from schools across the country will be challenged to envisage how we see our planet in the next 20 years and beyond. We will be asking ourselves what the challenges are for creating a sustainable future and inspiring students to think creatively to solve problems that are putting our planet’s future at risk.

2017 Truganina Science Competition:

Students are asked to design a poster to promote waste reduction and recycling. The winning posters will be displayed in the Science and Technology Building.

Foundation to Year 2: Produce a poster to promote the three R’s; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Year 3 to Year 8: Produce a poster to promote the 6 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Refuse, Rethink.

Lunchtime Science:

On Monday and Tuesday at lunchtime, the Science and Technology Building will be open to students. The first 20 students that arrive at the Science Laboratory (Room 24) will be invited to observe some exciting science demonstrations.

2017 is our first celebration of National Science Week. We hope that all students participate in the week’s activities.

A call for materials for the Science and Technology Programs:

The Science and Technology Building needs materials that students can upcycle for STEM programs throughout the school. In many households materials can build up and start to clutter the household. Many of these unwanted objects are essential to run Science experiments. Any donations of the following materials are welcomed.

National Science Week

By Angela Schneider Science Teacher

Truganina College Working Bee Join us in the Library space on Friday 18th August at 1.30pm to prepare books for our students.

Please look out for a note in your child’s planner and let your child’s teacher know if you will be coming.

Surface Structure Fastener

Foil Straws String (cotton/plastic)

Newspaper Cardboard tubing (from lunch wrap etc.)

Wool

Card Paddle pop sticks Pipe cleaners

Balloons Skewers Wire

Cupcake patty Cotton buds Paper clips

Fabric scraps Pipe cleaners Rubber bands

Cling wrap Balloons Tape

Baking/wax paper Pen/pencil Twist ties

Plastic bags Ruler Staples

Postcard Paint brushes Bulldog Clips

Disposable cups Aluminium cans Bread tags

Meet our Speech Pathologist Hi Truganina College community, my name is Molly White and I am the Speech Pathologist at Truganina College.

My role as a Speech Pathologist at Truganina College is to contribute to the education and wellbeing of students in a variety of ways. This includes, but not limited to, assessing and treating speech problems, language problems, stuttering and literacy difficulties. At Truganina I will support and enhance the literacy instruction across the college with a particular focus at the Foundation level and across the Middle School.

Being able to read and write effectively and efficiently means that a person can understand and follow written instructions, find out information online or in books and write letters and emails. It also enables students to participate fully in their education and support their learning.

Speech Pathologists can contribute to improving reading outcomes in a number of ways including:

Supporting oral language skills which are vital for literacy development,

Use specialist knowledge of sounds to assist children with letter-sound relationships,

Support teachers in their literacy instruction,

Provide strategies for children to help them understand what they read, and

Providing strategies to families to encourage literacy in the home.

I will be working closely with teachers to enhance literacy instruction in the classroom and provide specialist intervention to students to support the classroom literacy instruction.

Literacy is a passion of mine and I am looking forward to working in the College to assist the students in achieving their best. If you see me around feel free to introduce yourself and have a chat about literacy or ask any questions you may have.

I believe that being able to read and write is such an important skill that will hold students in good stead for the rest of their lives. I am excited to support students in their literacy journey and as Dr Seuss says:

The more that you read,

The more things you will know,

The more that you learn,

the more places you’ll go.

Molly White Speech Pathologist

Cadbury Fundraiser update We have held our annual Cadbury Chocolate fundraiser again with all money raised going towards building a playground for our students.

The eldest child in each family received a Cadbury Chocolate Fundraiser box with chocolates at $1.00 each and a total of 50 chocolates inside each box.

Thank you to the families that have sold their chocolates and returned their raised funds of $50 to the office. A number of unsold boxes have unfortunately also been returned. If any families are interested in helping out and selling more boxes, please contact the Administration Office on 9368 9800.

Those families who are yet to submit their raised funds are asked to please submit their $50 to the office as soon as possible as this is now overdue.

Please make sure that your child’s name and class is clearly written on the envelope when submitting it to the office.

Year 8 Basketball On Tuesday 1st of August, our Year 8 boys basketball team played schools in the local area at Eagle Stadium. The boys played extremely well, winning their first two pool games against Tarneit P-9 College (64 to 25) and Baden Powell College (47 to 30). Unfortunately, they lost in the semi final against Manor Lakes.

Manav Patel, Hayden Jobson, Gary Smith, Anwar Saney, Anas Saney, Lual Deng, Braxton Santos and Ayden Lee Sang.

By Stewart Wilson Health and Physical Education Teacher

2018 Enrolments - siblings must enrol

Enrolments for 2018 opened earlier this year and will continue to be accepted for the rest of the year.

If you have a child that is due to start school next year, please visit the Administration Office at your earliest convenience to collect an enrolment pack. Please return this pack promptly so that we can recruit the very best staff to work with your children.

School Banking - Community Helper required

We are seeking a Community Helper to regularly assist with the processing of our School Banking for the students. School Banking takes place every Tuesday morning and usually takes about an hour.

If you are interested in offering your assistance, please contact the Administration Office on 9368 9800.

Father’s Day Stall - Volunteers required

Truganina College is looking at holding a Father's Day Stall on Thursday 31st August and Friday 1st September. All funds raised from the stall will go towards fundraising for another playground and providing the best resources and facilities for our students.

In order for this stall to take place, a number of Community Helpers and volunteers are required on both days to run the stall. Without the help of members of the community, the stall won't be able to take place.

If you are interested in helping out on Thursday 31st August and Friday 1st September, please contact the Administration Office on 9368 9800.

Truganina College is seeking designs from students for the cover of the 2018 Primary Student Planner. The competition opens next Monday 14th August and closes on Tuesday 22nd August.

Students will be given a template to create their design on and need to include the following in their design:

A spot for the Truganina College Logo

The College Motto – ‘Inspiring Excellence in Learning to Believe, Achieve and Succeed.’

The heading or title – ‘2018 Primary Student Planner’

Your full name on the line next to the words ‘Illustration by’

The winning design for the cover of the 2017 Primary Student Planner is shown below as a guide for the kind of work we are expecting.

Front cover Back cover

Illustration by Ayak Deng – Year 7, 2017 Illustration by Apoorva Budehal – Year 4, 2017

We look forward to receiving as many creative designs as possible from our students.

2018 Primary Student Planner Cover Competition

Congratulations Word Challenge winners!

Congratulations to the following students who were the prize winners for the last newsletter’s Word Challenge and made an impressive amount of words with ‘wh’ in

them:

Aanya Shah from Mr Robertson’s Year 1 class

Neesha Ofamooni from Mrs Kennedy’s Year 3 class

Lara Eads from Ms Luckman’s Year 6 class

Well done to all of our winners!

Let’s celebrate Book Week!

Come to school with your favourite book and dressed as a character from that book on Thursday 25th August.

Families and carers are invited to join us at 8.35am to read with their child in their classroom.

Book Character Parades will take place in the open green area (weather permitting) as per the following schedule;

8.50am - Foundation

9.30am - Year 1

9.50am - Year 2-3-4

10.30am - Year 5-8

Which book character will you dress up as?! See some ideas below.

Cat in the Hat Hungry Caterpillar

Spot Harry Potter

Tintin Winnie the Pooh

Hush Matilda

Angelina Ballerina

Newsletter 12 ~ Wednesday 9th August 2017

I have read my newsletter

Student Name _________________________

Teacher Name _________________________

Parent Name ___________________________

CHALLENGE!!

How many words can you make that have ‘aw’ in

them?

3 WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED THIS ROUND!

PRIZES! PRIZES! PRIZES!

Return your slip to your teacher with as many words

written, with ‘aw’ in them for your chance to win a

prize!

Slips must be returned by Thursday 17th August.

Winners announced on Friday 18th August.

Go For It!

a w