Tuesday 21st May - Education Week Open Day

Saturday 25th May - Working Bee

Saturday 25th May - Education Week Open Morning

Saturday 25th May - Dolly's Disco Bingo, 7pm. Tickets now on sale.

Wednesday 26th June - 3 Way Conferences, 11am - 7pm (variation to school hours day)

Thursday 8th August - The Resilience Project (students)

Monday 2nd September - The Resilience Project (parents)

Thursday 5th September - School Production VMTV (matinee and evening)

Friday 6th September - School Production VMTV (matinee and evening)

TERM DATES

• 2019 TERM 2: Tuesday 23rd April - Friday 28th June (2:30pm finish)
• 2019 Term 3: Monday 15th July - Friday 20th September (2:30pm finish)
• 2019 Term 4: Monday 7th October - Thursday 20th December (1:30pm finish)

CAMP DATES

• Year 3: Arrabri Lodge Camp (Mon 05Aug to Wed 07Aug)
• Year 4: Anglesea Recreation Camp (Mon 03Jun to Wed 05Jun)
• Year 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp (Tue 08Oct to Fri 11Oct)
• Year 6: Canberra Camp (Mon 27May to Fri 31May)

ELECTION DAY Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the election day activities – cake stalls, sausage sizzles and more. It was a great team effort and monies raised will head towards our next major project which is the upgrade of the school oval and its surrounds. I don’t wish to steal anyone else’s thunder, and Brooke Williams has done an outstanding job later in this newsletter thanking everyone individually for their contributions, but of course she can’t thank herself!! Thank you Brooke for your significant role in coordination of the day’s activities – greatly appreciated by us all!

GRADE 6 CAMP The Grade 6’s will head north very early on Monday morning for the annual Canberra Camp. The students will visit the Electoral Education Centre, Questacon, the Australian War Memorial, Parliament House, the High Court of Australia, National Museum, Government House and the Royal Mint as well as cruising Lake Burley Griffin. It is truly a highlight of their time at Viewbank Primary School and we hope for fine weather and lots of learning experiences.

THINKUKNOW We trust that all who attended this session last week gained valuable information and strategies to keep everyone safe online, as well as updating their own skills and knowledge. A program is planned for students later in the year. Thanks to Nat Carr for her presence in chairing the night.

BANYULE COUNCIL MEETING Viewbank Primary School presented a submission for funding for a solar power grant at Banyule Council on Monday evening. Whilst I was not in attendance, I am reliably informed (from our school community members in attendance and via emails from past parents, no less) that Amaya Cadusch, one of our Environmental Captains, delivered an inspired speech in support of our application, and I just wanted to congratulate her on behalf of the school community. It is lovely to see our students speaking with passion on a range of issues, including environmental ones, and being outstanding role models. Well done, Amaya!

CROSS COUNTRY Well done to all students who participated in the District Cross Country yesterday at Banyule Flats. We are all very proud of your efforts. Results will be published as soon as they become available.

NAPLAN RE-SIT As you know, the Grade 3 and 5 students participated in NAPLAN Online last week. Regrettably there were some connectivity issues that disrupted the testing, and in particular the Grade 5 writing test. Understandably, some students may have been distressed or impacted to an extent that may have affected their performance in the assessment.

We reported the connectivity issues to the authorities responsible for NAPLAN Online.

We have now been informed by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) that affected students in schools that experienced significant disruption will have the opportunity to re-sit the tests on Tuesday 28 May, either online or on paper. We will be re-sitting the test in PAPER format.

A communication was sent to all Grade 5 parents regarding their options for re-sitting the Writing test as per the VCAA instructions on Tuesday morning.

WORKING BEE AND OPEN MORNING These are happening this Saturday, May 25 from 9am to 12 noon. With Dolly’s Disco Bingo at 7pm that night in the school gymnasium, it will be a busy day at Viewbank PS.

That’s it from me this week.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

STUDENT ASSESSMENTS Throughout the year, teachers continually assess student learning using a range of assessment tasks such as pre and post tests, reading running records, cold writes and sight word recognition to name a few.

Twice a year we conduct whole school assessment tasks in order to collect school wide data. Teachers are currently assessing students in Literacy and Numeracy in order to collect data and write accurate mid year student reports. These assessments take different forms, some may be online assessments, others may be working one to one with the teacher or within a small group. Regardless of how the assessment is implemented all students will be assessed during this time. More than one type of assessment is completed so that teachers can collect accurate data from several different sources. Assessments are differentiated, in line with the differentiated curriculum we provide for our students, so if your child comes home and says that they did a different test to another child or read a different book, this will be why. Assessing all students thoroughly takes time and teachers cannot hear every child read in a day as well as teach the class. Your child may tell you that others got to read with the teacher but not them. Rest assured, every child will be assessed. Teachers often complete reading running record assessments based on the guided reading groups so these assessments may take up to 2 weeks to complete. Following the assessment period, teachers will be writing mid year student reports. These will be available via Compass by Friday 21st June.

CANBERRA CAMP I am very much looking forward to travelling to Canberra next week with the Year 6 students, their teachers and several fantastic parents. This trip is a wonderful opportunity for our students and a definite highlight of their primary school years. We will be well on our way by the time many of you arrive for school on Monday but we will send regular updates and pictures as the week unfolds. When you see Phil, Narelle, Pete, Jane, Sharon and Louise and parents – Ian and Nick, please make sure you pass on your thanks. Already they have put many hours into planning the camp. They will also leave their own families for a week and be on duty twenty four hours a day to ensure our students have a memorable experience.

Have a great week.

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) - Essential Feature 4 Essential Feature 4 (EF4) looks at what procedures for teaching and practising expected behaviours we have. Our School Wide Positive Behaviour team is currently working on documenting and identifying what we do and don’t do currently.

• We need to explicitly teach behaviour expectations e.g. when a student makes an error with spelling, the correct way is demonstrated and opportunities provided for practising – we need to do this for behaviour
• We are working on deciding on a format to teach behaviour expectations e.g. Tell, Show, Practise; video / picture modelling
• As part of a broader staff discussion, we will look at our teaching schedule, develop lesson overviews and provide support to staff to teach school-wide expectations and non-classroom specific behaviours and procedures

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) As mentioned in last week’s Viewbank Voice, the Grade 5 students who participated in NAPLAN online on Tuesday 14th May experienced significant disruptions. We received advice from the VCAA regarding our next steps for our Grade 5 students, and this was communicated to Grade 5 parents via Compass.

The Resilience Project The staff participated in the staff professional development component of our 3 part The Resilience Project sessions. This was led by Martin Heppell and he will be returning on the 8th August for our student sessions, and again on the 2nd September for a parent session (time TBC). We cannot recommend this session highly enough – we think it is vital that as many parents as possible attend this evening! Please add the 2nd of September to your diary!

Please go to https://theresilienceproject.com.au/about-us/ to find out about The Resilience Project and about Martin.

The below slides (from last evening’s session) give an indication as to why we are investigating time, energy and money into this and other initiatives such as School Wide Positive Behaviour, ThinkUKnow cyber safety, a therapy dog (Ice) and sourced a Medicare funded counselling service.

Please be aware that it will be a skeleton staff in the office on Friday afternoon. If you have any queries please contact the office in the morning.

Appreciate your understanding.

Thanks

Lucy

Our meeting on the 16th May started in fine form with Caitlyn Morris (School Vice-Captain) and Livinia Armstrong presenting an initiative called Captain kindness. This will be a wonderful addition to the positive culture of the school while making sure we can have some fun at the same time!

The council also talked about NAPLAN and issues regarding the online test which have been a focus for the school of late. Parents and Friends talked about the upcoming Bingo Disco night and it sounds like being fantastic fun for those lucky enough to come along. It’s on Saturday 25th in the evening, the same day as the working bee. Other topics covered included the upcoming school camps, school electrical and phone upgrades and the plan to make our Oval a better space. We also talked about strategies to get more parents and community members involved in volunteering to help in the wide range of functions and events that occur in our school.

A big highlight discussed on the school council was related to the following Monday (that’s now last Monday 20th) when Amaya would deliver a speech on behalf of the school to a full session of the Banyule City Council. In her role as School Environmental Captain she wrote and presented a fabulous speech on the virtues of the council allocating funds towards VPS for solar panels on our gym roof. She charmed everyone in the room and added pressure to our cause with statements such as “…our gym roof is so big, it just makes sense to use it for solar energy. If you, Banyule Council, could help fund this project, it would also support your Energy Saving Plan and help Banyule Council move closer towards being carbon neutral too…”. Her speech ended with rapturous applause from the full room of councillors and citizens attending. It was a spectacular sight to see and well done Amaya! Fingers crossed that we are considered for some funding. It’s an excellent opportunity.

See you at the working bee Saturday morning everyone.

Ian Sherlock

Viewbank Primary School Council President

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How much do you know about Vietnam?

Brush up your knowledge with these interesting facts.

• The official name of Vietnam is the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
• Vietnam shares a land border with China to the north, Cambodia and Laos to the west.
• There are over 95 million people living in Vietnam.
• The capital city of Vietnam is Hanoi, it is the second largest city in Vietnam.
• The largest city is Ho Chi Minh City
• The currency of Vietnam is called the dong.
• Traditional culture of Vietnam involves focusing on humanity (nhân nghia) and harmony (hòa), with family and the community valued highly.
• Vietnam is the largest exporter of cashew nuts and black pepper in the world with one-third of the global production. The country is also the second largest exporter of rice behind Thailand.
• Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Vietnam, other sports of interest include table tennis, volleyball, badminton, tennis, and martial arts.
• The Vietnamese flag consists of a golden star with five points to represent farmers, workers, intellectuals, youth, and soldiers. The red background pays tribute to the bloodshed during the wars.
• There are over 45 million motorbikes registered in Vietnam!

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Foundation — Jude, Lucas, Millanna, Isla & Samuel

Year 1 — Mackenzie, Ava, Jeremy & Shawn

Year 2 — Kimali, Katie, Eknoor & Tom

Year 3 & 4 — Isla, Rhys, Mitchell, Moranne & Whole Class 3B

Year 5 & 6 — Disara, Claudia, Joel, Eliza, Hamish, Phonix & Zara

SECOND HAND UNIFORM SALE (Every second Friday), next to the music room. Jumpers with the school logo, long and short sleeve school polo tops and school dresses will be $5.00 and all other items $2.00. We are currently asking for donations of any unwanted reusable school uniform items to sell at our stall.

ELECTION DAY SAUSAGE SIZZLE, BAKE & SECOND HAND BOOK SALE What a success our Election Day BBQ, Bake & Book Stall was. We could not have done it without the help and support of our school community; staff, parents and students. There are so many people to thank. Those who helped receiving, sorting, pricing, people who rostered themselves on for an hour, 2 or even the day to help cook and/or serve at the BBQ or bake or book stall, donated onions, donated of second hand books, lending of marquees and all the families that baked amazing cakes, biscuits and slices to sell at the bake stall. We received many boxes of books, 5 trestles worth of baked goods from 35 bakers and extremely happy to have sold every single baked good as well of 100’s of books!

Well done families of Viewbank Primary. We raised a total amount of $3100 for the day. The bake stall raised around $1300, book stall around $200 and BBQ raised around $1600! What an Incredible result, which will go towards the oval project.

The people I would like to thank that helped out before and/or during the day are: Adam, Kaylee & Parker Selwood, Kate & Zoey Ryan, Andrea Ditaro, Kate, Eliza & Michael Coleman, Louise, Liam & Chloe Ricardo, Linda Lattanzio, Liz Ford, Louise Farragher, Fiona Mitsinikos, Grace Peterson, Amy Mckellar, Emma & Zoe Smith, Elena Grimshaw, Julie Iredale, Luke Ryan, Kerri Thomas, Glenn Bastian, Jodie Burns, Parkan & Corey Behayeddin, Jodi Cook, Kylie Gualano, Jacqui Grant, Tony Tilbury, Scott Carpenter, Jane O’Reilly, Sarina Sherlock, Carol Seneca, Susanne Rowland, Trace & Simon Gandolfo.

Thank you to the following people who spent time baking and then bringing the goods up to school. We could not have raised as much money as we did without your generosity and skills in the kitchen!

Thank you to Kaylee & Parker Selwood, Jo Lewis, Fabiola Miranda, Jess Martin, Annie La Rosa, Elena Grimshaw, Emma Ludlow, Marika Quinonero, Rebekah Garland, Andrea Ditoro, Amy Mckellar, Catherine Carpenter Nihill, Michelle Pires, Katie Berryman, Linda Lattanzio, Belinda Abbott, Fiona Mitsi, Jodi Cook, Joanne, Julie Iredale, Lyndal Vasic, Emily Jenkins, Grace Peterson, Sarina Sherlock, Agatha, Carol Seneca, Julie Iredale, Janene Parrent, Yuki Kato, Lou Farragher, Mel, Kate Coleman, Nicole Stephens, Susanne Rowland & Kelly Walker.

I am very sorry if I have missed anyone. Again, well done to everyone.

Thank you, Brooke Williams.

Purchase your Entertainment Membership NOW to help Viewbank Primary School raise much needed funds!

Viewbank Primary School are again fundraising with the very popular Entertainment Book or Digital Membership. You'll receive hundreds of valuable offers for everything you love to do, and help our fundraising at the same time. Hurry, Entertainment Memberships sell out quickly.

Disco Bingo Come join us for a fun night of Disco Bingo & help raise money for our major Oval upgrade.

Instead of numbers, Dolly will play well known tunes from all the era’s for you to mark off on your bingo sheet. There will be great songs from the 70’s, 80’s, pub rock, morning melodies & Top 40 that will have you dancing and singing the night away as you socialise with Viewbank families.

Come dressed in your coolest 80’s gear, or just come dressed as you are…………the night is about having fun, meeting new & old school parents & letting your hair down (kid free!)

There are whole tables of 10 available or just grab a friend or 2 & book together via trybooking & we’ll allocate you seating with your friends & other Parents from the same year level.

We have an amazing selection of Auction items too so Grab your tickets via the Trybooking link ASAP so you don’t miss out.

We have some amazing products up for grabs at our Auction on May 25th at Disco Bingo……….you may even pick yourself up a bargain!!

https://www.trybooking.com/BBXFE

ICY POLE FRIDAY Students are able to buy icy poles over the counter at lunchtime. All icy poles cost $1.00 each. We are asking for parent helpers to assist with the sale of these icy poles on Fridays from 1pm to 1:30pm.

BRIGHT STAR KIDS PERSONALISED NAME PRODUCTS We've teamed up with Bright Star Kids to help us raise funds and to decrease the amount of lost property. When you buy anything from their range of personalised name labels and school supplies (or anything else in their store) 20% of it will come back to our group.

Please remember to link up our group "VIEWBANK PRIMARY SCHOOL" in the Nominate a Fundraiser checkout section. Thanks for your support!

Visit their website: https://www.brightstarkids.com.au where you can buy directly from them and get it sent directly to your home.

STRINGS, DRUM KIT, GUITAR, UKULELE, FLUTE, SINGING, KEYBOARD AND PIANO

Information and “Expression of Interest” forms are available at the general office. Alternatively, you may contact Gabriella on 0413 676 733 or gabriella@the.inter.net.au

HATS ON From 1st September until 30th April school hats must be worn outside during all outside activities.

SCHOOL BANKING Don’t forget to hand your bankbooks into your class teacher every Tuesday for banking.

RUNNING GROUP Every Thursday from 8:15am on the oval, for any students in years 4-6. All abilities welcome. Pack a spare pair of socks/shoes in case the oval is damp. Hope to see you there!

SCHOOL CHOIR Every Wednesdays, 8.30, in the Music room. Everyone from Year 2 to 6 are welcome!

CSEF (Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund) is a government assisted fund which provides payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports and excursions ($125 per child). Applications for the Governments ‘CSEF Fund’ can be accessed by filling in the attached form and return to the office with a current Health Care card. To be eligible for this funding, you need to hold a current Centrelink Health Care Card or Pension Concession Card or Veteran Affairs Card. Please note: as this funding is means tested, the Parent/Guardian MUST be the card holder, no Medical Health Care Cards in the student’s name will be accepted as it will be rejected by the CSEF system. Funds are paid to the school and will be automatically allocated to the Term Expenses unless otherwise stated by the parent at the start of the year.

Facility Hire Viewbank Primary School provides a venue for hire with kitchen facilities. Please submit a written application to the office, outlining the details of intended use via email at viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Please note that conditions do apply. At the discretion of the school, venue costs may also be waived in some instances. All applications will be considered on a case by case basis

Community Discussion and Information Session – North East Link Project A meeting for people interested in understanding the proposed impacts of the North East Link.

If you or your child travel via Lower Plenty Road or Greensborough Highway you can expect to be impacted significantly during the 8 year construction period. We will need to adjust to traffic increases during works as traffic management during construction will see road and lane closures, and up to 1500 construction trucks per day moving in the area. Your route of travel may also change once the North East Link is complete.

• When: 7pm on Tuesday 28 May 2019
• Where: Viewbank Primary School, Stephanie Alexander Room

People who are impacted are encouraged by NELP to lodge a submission regarding the project, including concerns, questions and requests to improve the proposal and outcomes for community by 5pm on 7 June 2019.

Come along to the meeting so you can ask questions about what this project means for you and your family to make an informed submission.

We will have speakers from a North East Link Project (NELP) representative and the independent Community Liaison Group (CLG) for the area.

Banyule Council has commissioned an alternative design that is available to view here.

The independent CLG also has a Community Design based on community feedback. Fred Buono Architects developed the design and will have it available for discussion.

If you would like to know more about how this project may impact your family, come to the meeting so you can be fully informed.

RSVP ASAP

Katie George (Parent), 0409397798, katie.s.grg@gmail.com