SCHOOL NEWSLETTER 14th December, 2011 Issue 40

Pleasant Street, Ballarat, Victoria, 3350 Telephone: (03) 5332 2598 Email: [email protected]

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Christmas Fest Results!!! Whilst it is still too early to give a final fundraising figure, we estimate that this years Christmas Fest will have made more than $15,000 for our school! This is a staggering increase on the just under $10,000 that was generated last year. We will give the school community a full balance early in the New Year, once all the accounts have been settled. The funds raised will go directly to the School Council Grounds Subcommittee and we look forward to seeing all the grounds improvements that they have planned. Congratulations again to the whole Christmas Fest team for such a successful event! Reports and 2012 Classes On Monday, students will receive their end of year reports and their class list for 2012. During the day, students will have the opportunity to meet in their new class group and get to know their teacher for 2012. Composite Classes Next year, we will be trialling composite (multi-age) classes for all Year 3 and Year 4 students. For some parents this may create some angst; feeling that their child may be disadvantaged in some way, either by being held back if they are in the higher level, or finding it hard to keep up if they are in the lower year level. In reality, every class is a composite class as each childs development, whether it is physical, social, emotional or cognitive, occurs in stages and children move through these stages at varying rates. Put 25 Year 3 students in a room and you will have 25 individuals with needs that reflect these variations in development as well as individual strengths, challenges and interests. One of our strengths at Pleasant Street Primary is our use of a range of contemporary teaching strategies, which aim to accommodate the individual needs of students whether they are in a straight class or a composite class. Teachers operate with a predominately student-centred approach to their classes, balancing whole-class activities with flexible group activities to address a range of abilities and interests. The range of abilities in a straight year class can be wider than a composite class depending on the students! Victorian schools work to a set of guidelines, the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS), which outline what is crucial for all students to learn from Prep to Year 10. We use the standards to plan our teaching and learning programs, including assessment and reporting of student progress. Years 3 and 4 are actually the same VELS level (Level 3) according to the standards. More schools are forming composite classes, not because they have to, but because they want to! Research continues to confirm that composite classes do not disadvantage students academically and may benefit them socially and emotionally.

Diary
Thursday 15th December JSC Breakfast Friday 16th December Senior Unit Eureka Pool Exc. Junior Unit Movies Exc. Tuesday 20th December Gr. 6 Graduation Middle Unit Movies Exc. Wednesday 21st December Middle Unit Lake/YMCA Thursday 22nd December End of Term 4. School finishes at 1.30 p.m.
Of course, two of the most important factors in regards to student achievement at school are the supportive relationship between the school and families, and of course the quality of the teacher. At Pleasant Street Primary School, we will continue to focus on improving these areas regardless of how we organise our grades. For further information, please refer to these references: http:// www.education.vic.gov.au/ aboutschool/learning/ curriculum.htm http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/ media/downloads/schoolsweb/ studentsupport/programs/ classsize/multiage/multi_age.pdf More over.

Back to School Pack Forms are due back now!!!

FROM THE PRINCIPAL - Continued ...

Staff Farewells It is quickly coming to the end of the year, and unfortunately we have some staff farewells to acknowledge Linda Ogier is taking a year of leave, stepping out of the world of education to pursue another interest. We wish her all the best! Sarah Louden is leaving our school; expecting the birth of her second child early in the New Year. Best wishes, Sarah! Graeme Shea, our school technician, is leaving after working at our school for approximately 6 years. Graeme is continuing as a technician for the Department of Education, but unfortunately our school is no longer part of his allocation. Graeme has been an important part of ensuring our school ICT infrastructure is modern and fully functioning no small task! Thanks, Graeme, for all of your outstanding (and creative) work, we will miss your calm support, and we wish you all the best for the future. Final Assembly Our final school assembly will be held on Monday morning. We will be celebrating the appointment of our new school leaders, acknowledging some special contributions to our school, listening to our choir, and saying good-bye to our current Year 6 students and departing staff. Everyone is welcome to attend! Yr 2 Big Day Out Congratulations to all of our Year 2 students! There were outstanding during their Big Day Out to the Melbourne Zoo. Thank you to Belinda Burgoyne, Rhonda Cameron, and the many parents who supported the excursion last week; the children had a fabulous learning experience. Yr 4 Bike Education What a fabulous lake ride the Year 4 team experienced on Friday; I was so impressed with our student riders!!! Thank you to the many parents who attended the ride and to Lachlan Day who ran our Bike Education program for the Year 4s. Yr 6 Graduation Dont forget we will be celebrating our Year 6 Graduation, in the Multipurpose Room at school on Tuesday the 20th at 7.30pm. We wish our 2011 graduands all the best for their Secondary schooling congratulations! End of Year Arrangements The school year finishes on Thursday the 22nd at

1.30pm.

Karen Biggelaar Principal

Please cut and place in prominent place : Back to School Packs can be picked up from the school library on :

Tuesday 31st January

between 9.30 am and 3.30 pm (N.B. If you elected to pay for the Packs in January please go to the office to pay and receive your Receipt to enable pick-up)

School commences on :

Thursday 2nd February, 2012

rincipals
All of Grade 6! For their contribution in making it a wonderful year. The warm, friendly encouragement, the big laughs, the deep conversations and demonstrated passion for life, has created an awesome place to learn and grow. You all have so much to offer and should be very proud of this years achievements. We congratulate you on your great year and wish you all the best in your onward journey. You will be sorely missed by your very proud teachers. For helping to keep our classroom environment vibrant by entertaining us regularly with her quirky sense of humour. For her expressive reading as the old storyteller in Seconds of Fame. She is always doing her best and she is very creative. For being a super dooper, really ripper, fantabulous, extraordinary speller in 2011! Charlie Stepnell

ward
For the most amazing book report ever seen! Eleven pages of character information, plot happenings and reasons why Kate and the Horse Camp is such a special book. For writing a brilliant report and creating a wonderful 3D native Australian habitat. For writing an excellent narrative about what it would be like living in Ballarat during the 1850s. For being such wonderful ambassadors for Pleasant St Primary School at the Zoo. The bus driver, other visitors to the Zoo, our helping parents all said how polite, respectful, helpful and friendly you all were. Im so very pleased and proud of you, you are all definitely ready for Grade 3! For being a super hard worker, great class helper, enthusiastic, loves to learn, enjoys a challenge and continues to always do his best with a huge smile! For always listening beautifully to her peers and for persisting to solve some tricky addition and subtraction maths problems. For writing a fabulous recount about the Christmas Fest. Im glad you had so much fun! For her wonderful singing voice during the Junior Unit Christmas Sing-a-long! For being a happy and enthusiastic Treasure, with a big smile on your face every day for the whole year.

Lily Fraser

Max Spencer

Maya Troon & Jed Oro Rhondas Rangers

Jasmine Fitzpatrick

Tayte Fraser

Megan Skrokov

All the students in For doing a tremendous job during Bike Education Week and for also 4LD! being enthusiastic, persistent and safe riders! Thenul Munasinghe For his magnificent book report about the Jungle Hunters. It contained great information about all the characters and the plot. For his amazing power point presentation about the Australian Salt Water Crocodiles. Excellent layout and detail, terrific information and wonderful pictures. For writing a great sentence about the Christmas Fest.

Finlay Knight

Madison Crellin Phoebe Butler

Alex Burns

Emily Stevens

Lachlan Kroussoratis

Our School Choir

Dont forget :
Our next performance will be at the school assembly on Monday the 19th December.

Last Thursday we had the JSC Seconds of Fame for 2011. What fun! There were 34 acts ranging from solo instrument performances to group dance ensembles! Kerry had spent a lot of time collating the acts and typing up a running sheet. Thank you so much. Many thanks to the JSC reps that helped organise the event and special thanks to our guest judges : Jedd Parrott, Amelia Faull and Owen Davidson. The judges were very impressed with all the acts but they mentioned and awarded some prizes to: Boot Scootin' Babies Dance Group: Genevieve Pittard, Danielle Clark and Fairlie Peters. Smoke on the Water Band: Liam Ray and Colby Veal. Jetti Dance Group: Madi Veal, Abbey Cutler, Ella McCahon, Sophie Gluyas, Issy Conheady, Lily Spencer and Ailish Murphy-McKay. A special prize went to Mr J for his Opera and Ballet item!! Seconds of Fame is in its 5th year and seems as popular as ever!

Mr J!

Icy Pole Sales

Tomorrow will be the last day of Icy Poles sales for this year. Thank you, and we hoped you enjoyed them!

BPay Payments
Dear Parents,
Tennis Ballarat Summer Holiday Program From Monday the 23rd to Wednesday 25th January, Tennis Ballarat will be conducting its Summer Junior Holiday Clinic. Available to kids of all ages from 5 to 15, our holiday clinics are a great way to learn or improve your tennis whilst having a lot of fun. Book now on 53362500
8-40 Grant Street Sebastopol, Victoria 3356 Phone: (03) 5336 2500 Fax: (03) 5336 2677 www.tennisballarat.com.au

When you select to pay for excursions, etc. via the BPay System it can take several days to process through the banking system. Can you please ensure that you process your BPay payment a few days before the payment is actually due, so we can process it and your child can attend the excursion. Thank you.