Thursday 31st October - Hot Lunch Day

Tuesday 5th November - Melbourne Cup Day (Public Holiday)

Friday 8th November - Fundraising Tea Towel Orders Due - ORDER NOW

Monday 11th November - Remembrance Day Assembly, 10:45am

Friday 22nd November - Year 1 Late Night Experience

Thursday 28th November - Hot Lunch Day (Dumplings & Rice)

Friday 6th December - Carols By Candlelight

PUPIL FREE DAYS

• Monday December 16, 2019
• Tuesday January 28th, 2020
• Wednesday January 29th, 2020
• Two extra days yet to be confirmed in 2020

TERM DATES

• 2019 TERM 4: Monday 7th October - Friday 20th December (1:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 1: Tuesday 28th January - Teachers start (All students start Thursday 30th January) - Friday 27th March (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 2: Tuesday 14th April - Friday 26th June (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 3: Monday 13th July - Friday 18th September (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 4: Monday 5th October - Friday 18th December (1:30pm finish)

CAMP DATES

• Year 6: Canberra Camp (Mon 25May to Fri 29May 2020)
• Year 4: Anglesea Recreation Camp (Wed 27May to Wed 29May 2020)
• Year 3: Arrabri Lodge Camp (Mon 27July to Wed 29July 2020)
• Year 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp (Tue 06Oct to Fri 09Oct 2020)

NEWS FROM THE CHESS DEPARTMENT!! Big news... Viewbank Primary won the Chess State Semifinal on Tuesday and are now through to the Superfinal!! The Superfinal will be held on Monday 11th November, 9:30am - 3:00pm (approx) at St Bridget's Primary School, 36 Sweyn St, Balwyn North. Out of the top 6 players in the whole tournament, four were from Viewbank... and the top four scores were used to calculate the team's score! Viewbank won by a margin of 5 clear points over the next closest team. Medal winners were:

• Tedric Li (who came 2nd with 6 points. Tedric won the Gold medal in the Grade 3/4 division, ahead of every other Grade 5 and 6 player bar one(the boy who came first). Well done, Tedric!
• Le le Gao (Grade 2!!, who came 3rd, also with 6 points!! Lele won the Gold medal for highest scoring Prep - Grade 2 player ahead of every other player bar two (Tedric and the boy who came first). This is a mighty achievement for one so young. Well done, Le le!
• Huy Ho, who came 5th with 5.5. Huy won the Silver medal in the Grade 3/4 division. Well done, Huy!
• Luke Whitby who came 6th with 5.5 points! Luke won the Silver medal in the Grade 5/6 division. Well done, Luke!
• Topaz Tong, who came 27th with 4.5 points! Topaz won the Bronze medal in the Prep - Grade 2 division. Well done, Topaz!
• Claire Li - who came 60th with 3 points! Claire won a Bronze medal in the Girls division. Well done, Claire!

Congratulations to not just the medal winners, but all Viewbank Chess Club children who gave their best effort yesterday!

At this tournament, there were 91 of the best players from the state representing 23 different primary schools.

STATE ATHLETICS Last week, three of our students competed with distinction at the State Athletics Championships. Congratulations to Zoey Ryan (3rd in shot put and 10th in discus), Charlie Ndongo (6th in triple jump) and Athanasia Patroungas (8th in long jump). Truly outstanding performances. You and your families should be very proud of you as we are.

SCHOOL COUNCIL The November meeting of School Council is scheduled for 7pm next Thursday, November 7, in the staffroom.

BUILDING UPDATES I am very hopeful I will be able to share the initial design plans for our new classrooms in next week’s newsletter. There will be eight classrooms in total in the new space with plenty of withdrawal rooms and break out spaces and a new ‘orientation’ for the building. It also appears that it may be starting earlier than anticipated with demolition of the current classrooms expected to start in April next year. More in next week’s newsletter.

SCHOOL OPERATION – CUP EVE Just a reminder that school will be operating as normal on Cup Eve – Monday of next week. The final pupil free day of the school year is scheduled for Monday, December 16.

FAMILIES MOVING SCHOOLS IN 2020 If there are any families who are moving schools in 2020 for whatever reason, could you please advise the office, or Bill Kersing personally, as soon as possible please? This will ensure that your children are not included in grade placements for 2020, and it gives us a greater degree of certainty when planning grade structures, determining whether or not we need to select new teachers and a range of other organizational matters.

PARENTAL REQUESTS FOR STUDENT GRADE PLACEMENTS (FINAL NOTICE) This is a final request for input from our families with regards to the placement of students into classes for 2020 (if that is necessary). At this stage, we have not assigned teachers to grade levels for next year, and in fact still need to select a few teachers to fill those roles next year. There are no guarantees that teachers currently teaching at certain grade levels will be teaching there next year, as leadership needs to take into consideration a range of factors including the development of our teaching staff and teacher preferences before this allocation is completed. Having said that, if there are special circumstances that we need to know about, you are welcome to let us know of these.

Such special circumstances might include but are not limited to health, emotional or learning matters, peer or sibling relationships or changes in the home situation. Selecting a particular teacher does not fit within the realm of special circumstances, and if your request includes that information it will be denied. Information requiring our consideration needs to be addressed to ‘The Principal’ and handed to the office by Friday, November 1. Please note that letters received after this date will NOT be accepted.

You are welcome to contact your child’s classroom teacher for advice before submitting your WRITTEN request. This especially pertains to peer relationships and learning matters that they will have significant and specific knowledge about. You may find that you have no need to submit the request having spoken to your child’s teacher.

There may be a composite class or two at Grade 3 and 4 and/or Grade 5 and 6 in 2020 with numbers determining this in upcoming weeks. Whilst we could elaborate at length on the relative benefits of composite classes, if you have a STRONG objection to the placement of your child in a composite class, please also advise us.

All letters will be dealt with in the strictest confidence. Whilst each request will be given consideration, no guarantees can be given as there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration whilst grade lists are being compiled, with gender balance, diversity of learning styles, abilities and friendship groupings being some of the major ones. Finally, if you consider you have special circumstances, please make the request in writing EVEN if it has been made before – as much as we would like to think so, we can’t remember everything from years gone by!! We do appreciate your trust in our professionalism in these regards.

OVAL PROJECT You will have heard mention of ‘the oval project’ in many forums, when mentioned as a fundraising target, for example. The oval project has a number of elements. There are the natural climbing and play structures on the western side of the oval on the banks adjacent to the oval fence on Nevin Parade – referred to as the ‘Adventure Play Space’ in the concept drawings that have been on display for some time on the noticeboard just outside the general office. There are the rectification works on the centre wicket run ups (the concrete) and then the tiger turf replacement on the centre wicket and establishment in the cricket nets. Part of these works will be funded by a Cricket Victoria Grant we were successful in obtaining earlier this year. And then there is the oval ‘refurbishment’, including irrigation upgrade/repairs and levelling, sowing, verti draining and reinvigorating the oval itself. The whole project will cost in the vicinity of $150,000- $200,000 and is something to be completed in phases over the next 18 months to two years.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy Cup Day.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

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STATE ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS COMPETITOR REPORTS

ZOEY RYAN - Hi my name is Zoey. On Thursday, 24th October, I competed at the State Athletics at Lakeside Stadium. I competed in the shot put and discus. In discus, I threw a distance of 18.30 meters and came 10th. In shotput, my distance was 8.51 metres and I came third. I got the bronze medal for shotput. I threw a personal best in both events. I was very happy with myself.

CHARLIE NDONGO - It was very nerve wracking at the State Athletics but when I got there and did my first jump I was fine. My event was the triple jump. My first jump was my biggest jump. I jumped 9.23 metres. The competitors were really good and the winning jump was a huge 10.04m. It was a really exciting day and I really enjoyed it.

NAYSHA PATROUNGAS - Hi my name is Athanasia (Naysha) Patroungas. On the 24th of October, I had a date booked in at Lakeside Stadium, which was where the 2019 State Athletics Championships were held. I made it in the 11 year girls’ long jump. I jumped 4.05metres on the day. Overall, I came 8th out of fifteen competitors. As this was my second year making it to State, this year was the best. I am looking forward to next year.

YEAR 2 SLEEPOVER

Congratulations to all the staff and Year 2 students for a fantastic sleepover experience last Friday evening. The students were very excited to return to school at 5:00pm with their sleeping bags and transform the Year 6 classrooms into camp dormitories. After an energetic disco and pizza dinner I wasn’t sure how much sleeping was going to happen but thankfully a movie and nightfall had a calming effect. Most students managed a good night’s sleep and were awake bright and early. 5.30am isn’t my preferred wake up time on a Saturday morning but it is a lovely time of the day. Thank you to all the parents who arrived so promptly to collect the children. I’m not sure who missed who the most!

ASSISTING YOUR CHILD’S LEARNING - NUMERACY: BIRTH TO YEAR 2

Hunting for numbers - Number hunts are a fun and engaging activity for your child. Ask your child to find numbers around you. Look at and say the numbers on car number plates, signs, calendars, newspapers, shopping catalogues, speed signs, and houses.

Using playing cards - Playing with cards is always a fun activity, particularly on a rainy day or on holidays.

You can:

• Play matching number games like ‘Snap’ with playing cards.
• Order the numbers on the cards from smallest to largest, or largest to smallest.

Playing shop Playing shop helps ground your child’s maths learning in the real world while also developing their social skills. One way to play shop is to create a mini-shop at home. Here are a few tips and activities:

• Collect food and grocery items and label them with prices written on sticky notes, or prices cut out of shopping catalogues.
• Talk about how we pay for items using coins, notes and cards.
• Make paper money or use play money to buy and sell goods from the mini-shop.
• Collect old receipts or price tags and use them in the mini- shop.
• Notice the features of different coins, including their shapes and the animals and people shown. Discuss the differences. Create coin rubbings with pencils and paper.
• Encourage your child to order food items by height (tallest to the shortest) or by cost (least expensive to most expensive).
• Introduce kitchen scales to the mini-shop to weigh foods, such as a box of tea bags or a bag of rice, and order items by weight.

Playing games - Making maths fun and interactive by playing games will help engage your child.

Here are some ideas:

• Play ‘I Spy’ or other games to help your child identify shapes, numbers and patterns.
• Board games are a fun way to involve the whole family with maths. Help your child when rolling dice to count, move, and stop after moving the number shown on the dice.
• When using dice your child may count all the dots on the die face to determine the total number. Over time they will begin to recognise automatically the value on the die face without counting.
• The Victorian Maths Challenge is a fun and engaging way for families to engage in real life mathematics and explore problems together: Victorian Maths Challenge
• Play number games online with your child. Here is a short list of good websites to help begin your online search for resources:

1. Home Page - FUSE - Department of Education & Training (select Early Childhood or Primary Students tabs)
2. Resources for Primary and Secondary Students - ABC Education
3. ICT Games Educational games for Infant and Junior school children

NUMERACY: YEAR 3 – YEAR 6

Sharing recipes - Discussing maths when cooking can provide a daily maths lesson involving measurement, time, and cost. Here are some activities you could try at home:

• Collect and read recipes and discuss the use of fractions, millilitres and grams. Encourage your child to make accurate measurements using measuring cups and spoons.
• Discuss how you would double or halve a recipe. Encourage your child to record new measurements for the recipe. Discuss why and when you might need to do this.
• Identify the temperature and cooking time on the recipe.
• Discuss why different recipes have different temperatures and cooking times.
• Estimate the cost to buy all the ingredients to make the recipe. Compare this with the actual cost of items. Ask your child if they think it was cheaper to buy the ingredients and make dinner or get takeaway.
• Make a list of the abbreviations used in the recipe and then write them in full – for example, L for litre, ml for millilitre, tsp. for teaspoon, tbsp. for tablespoon.
• Investigate the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables available in the supermarkets compared with market vendors.

Browsing catalogues - Discussing catalogues can be a great way to improve your child’s maths knowledge of money and percentages. Here are some questions you could ask:

• How would you spend $40 from a catalogue? How many products can you buy for $40?
• Select five products from the catalogue, then calculate what the cost would be if there was a 50% sale. Does it make a difference if you add up the items, and then deduct 50%, or if each item is reduced by 50% then totalled?
• What is the best value sale item in the catalogue? Can you explain your reasoning?
• Compare the cost of a product across different stores using different catalogues. What did you find?

Have a great week,

Gill Nicholls

Daniel Morcombe Day Thank you to everyone who participated in Daniel Morcombe Day last Friday. We raised $686 which will be forwarded to the Daniel Morcombe Foundation in due course.

Learning from Mistakes: Why We Need to Let Children Fail

This week’s article (5 minute read) comes from ‘Bright Horizons’ www.brighthorizons.com

From the moment newborns are placed in our arms, we love them unconditionally and as they grow, we support them as they learn to sit, crawl, and walk; we guide them as they make friends; we teach them how to write their names; and provide comfort after every bump and bruise. Our list is full of ways to nurture, support, teach, and provide for our children. But, although it may feel uncomfortable to some, we also need to provide opportunities for learning that come from making mistakes. In fact, letting children learn from their mistakes helps build resilience and is essential to raising a confident, capable, happy, and successful adult.

When children are given the opportunity to struggle and sometimes fail, you allow them to develop important social and emotional skills…

Continue reading the article here: https://www.brighthorizons.com/family-resources/the-importance-of-mistakes-helping-children-learn-from-failure.

Topics covered include:

• Opportunities For Learning From Mistakes
• When your child asks for help
• When your child asks for an answer
• When something goes wrong
• When your child doesn't do as well as you expected
• When you struggle with letting your child fail

Have a great weekend everyone

Patrick

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OSHClub (Before/After School and Vacation Care provider) is open all day on the pupil free day Monday 16th December.

SCHOOL BANKING School Banking has been temporarily suspended until it has been discussed at the next school council meeting on Thursday 7th November.

TERM EXPENSES Just a reminder that term 4 expenses are now overdue, please make payment and provide consent via Compass.

Thank you

Foundation — Nadia, Sebastian, Patrick & Josie

Year 1 & 2 — Audrey, Vivienne, Nhi, Luke, Jack, Taya & Whole 2C Class

Year 3 & 4 — Aden, Ivy, Naysan, Meghan, Ashlie, Luke, Kayla, Diego & Mitchell

Year 5 & 6 — Linda, Gabriel, Jordan, Seb & Eva

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SECOND HAND UNIFORM SALE - Every 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.

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.

LIBRARY NEWS Do you have this book at home? If you do, Mrs Buissink would like to borrow it from you for about an hour. The book in our Library is missing some important pieces and she would like to replace them so the book can be borrowed again. Thank you

Psychology service for students at Viewbank Primary School This is just a reminder about our new psychology service that may be of use to you - DBT in Schools.

Areas that DBT in Schools can help with (from http://dbtinschools.com.au/individual-therapy/):

• emotional stress such as depression and anxiety
• grief and sadness
• bullying
• sexuality issues
• substance abuse issues
• trauma
• family breakdown or parent problems, or
• friendship and relationship issues

If you would like any more information and may like to access this service, please contact the school (9459 1512) or send an email to viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

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

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!

Spring has definitely hit and our vegetable garden is overloaded with produce. This Monday, we will selling produce after assembly in the vegetable garden. All money raised will go back into our Stephanie Alexander program.

We have broad beans, radishes, asparagus and lots more!

The program is scheduled on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Of course, volunteers are essential to the success of the program, so we are always looking for anybody willing to work with a small group, in the kitchen or garden. You do not need to be a ‘masterchef’ or have a green thumb! Enthusiasm is the only requirement.