40th Anniversary Planning Committee Meeting
We are currently organising our 40th Anniversary celebrations for the second half of the year. We have a few events in the planning and we hope to inform the school community of what is to come in the next couple of weeks.
We will need volunteers from the school community to make everything happen. Basically, we need your help!
Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday, 14th June at 6:00pm in the staffroom. If you are interested in having some fun and organising a great community event, please come along to the meeting and join the committee.
Please email me at [email protected] to let me know if you are able to help out.
Enrichment and Lunchtime Clubs
Over the next couple of weeks a full range of enrichment activities are taking place across the school. Our Foundation, Grades 1, 3 and 5 students are all now in thick of their Maths Talent Quest investigations. I was in the Grade 5 classrooms this week and the students have certainly devised some very challenging projects.
Our Science Talent Search winners will be presenting their projects to a panel of experts in the Science Victoria STS. Good luck to our talented young scientists!
The Debaters Association of Victoria will be hosting a workshop with our highly able public speakers in Grades 5&6 next Monday. Our school debating team will then be selected from this group.
For the first time our school Futsal Team competed today. All reports indicate they had a great time!
Lunchtime clubs this term include the Library Club, Arts and Craft Club, Junior Coding Club and on Fridays Mr Kitney and Mr Mathew have launched the Grade 4-6 Soccer Tournament. The soccer pitch on the back oval was a hive of excitement last Friday when the first round of matches took place. All teams need to have a mixture of boys and girls and every student in Grades 4-6 has the opportunity to join in.
A very big thank you goes to all the teachers that give up their lunch breaks to host these clubs. We certainly appreciate their efforts and it provides excellent opportunities for our students.
Education Week & Open Days
Thank you to all students, families and staff who helped make Education Week a successful celebration of learning at Templestowe Park PS. Our Open Saturday morning was very well attended by over forty prospective families and some of our own community members. I would like to thank our Grade 6 leaders who did a magnificent job of taking school tours and to our staff, PFA and School Councillors who attended the morning to discuss what Templestowe Park has to offer.
Mr Mathew hosted a very interesting and informative Coffee & Chat about Character Strengths on the first day of Education Week. In particular, there was a great discussion around how we can highlight character strengths in our children every day to build self-efficacy and to encourage positive relationships. A very big thank you to Mr Mathew for hosting the chat and to all parents who attended.
Open Night was a great success with hundreds of students, parents and friends learning about how we keep a healthy mind and body at Templestowe Park. As you are all aware, our focus for the evening was about our PERMAH model and Positive Education. A great time was had by all and it highlighted the importance of having a balanced life to be the very best we can be.
It was exciting to have so many parents looking at their children’s classrooms and all the different areas around the school. To produce the best student outcomes it is imperative that families and the school work together and our Education Week celebrations were a great example of this.
Legacy Project
Last Wednesday the 2017 Grade 6 Legacy Project was unveiled. The three-piece mural is in the Grade 6 play area and it is a wonderful addition to the space. You will be able to see the painting in this week’s Manningham Leader as they have written a short article about the great work of our Grade 6 students.
A very big thank you goes to Ms Sumner for her tireless work towards the project. The legacy projects are an inspiring tradition in our school and Ms Sumner does a magnificent job every year.
Click here to link to the Manningham Leader website and read the article on page 5, for the issue released on Monday, 29th May.
Designing Student Inquiries for Term 3
Yesterday, our teachers worked with world-renowned inquiry learning expert, Kath Murdoch, to design the Term 3 student inquiries. Kath worked with our teachers to design engaging inquiries that will challenge and excite our students. In Term 3, our students will be inquiring into where our food comes from, computer coding, physics & design and Australian history. It was a very successful day and I thank Ms Sunderland for leading this highly important element of student learning.
School Improvement
Last week a brand new projector and screen were installed in the school hall and they are an excellent addition to this space. We have installed the large screen for student presentations, teaching purposes and for whole school functions. We have given it a few test runs and the picture and sound are first class. It will certainly lift the experience of the Grade 1 movie night!
Our soccer goals have been erected and our budding soccer players are enjoying having their brand new goals on the back oval.
We have also brightened up our playground with educational spaces and games painted on our concrete area in front of the Foundation and main buildings. It certainly has revitalised the asphalt areas and will provide our students with an improved learning and play space.
Principals’ Award
Last week Eva P from 1/2E received the Principals’ Award at assembly. Eva gives her very best in everything she does; she loves keeping active, uses her creativity and is kind to everyone. We love to see this kind of balance from our students at Templestowe Park! We are very proud of you, Eva.1000 Books before School
I thought I would let families know about a great new program run by the State Library Victoria. The 1000 Books Before School program is designed to help parents and carers make reading a regular part of their routine, supporting them to reach the milestone of reading 1000 books with their child before school. The program is a great way to track a child's reading progress and work towards building important literacy skills.
Parents and carers can register at participating local libraries (Whitehorse Manningham Library and Yarra Plenty Regional Library are listed as participants), or the State Library of Victoria.
For more information, see: 1000 Books before School https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/live-learn/1000-books-school
Character Strengths – Strength Spotting
As you are all aware, our Positive Education focus for Term 2 is Character Strengths. During our RRIPO sessions this week, all students brought in their completed character strengths spotting activity on someone close to them. Students chose their siblings, parents, grandparents or special friends. It was great to hear the students from Foundation – Grade 6 explain the strengths of someone close to them and how it makes them achieve their best. Humour, Zest, Love and Spirituality all featured highly.
Each week we have been profiling the character strengths of a different staff member. This week I will profile our Foundation teacher and Inquiry Leader, Kate Sunderland. Her top five character strengths are:
Happy blogging!
Mark
We are currently organising our 40th Anniversary celebrations for the second half of the year. We have a few events in the planning and we hope to inform the school community of what is to come in the next couple of weeks.
We will need volunteers from the school community to make everything happen. Basically, we need your help!
Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday, 14th June at 6:00pm in the staffroom. If you are interested in having some fun and organising a great community event, please come along to the meeting and join the committee.
Please email me at [email protected] to let me know if you are able to help out.
Enrichment and Lunchtime Clubs
Over the next couple of weeks a full range of enrichment activities are taking place across the school. Our Foundation, Grades 1, 3 and 5 students are all now in thick of their Maths Talent Quest investigations. I was in the Grade 5 classrooms this week and the students have certainly devised some very challenging projects.
Our Science Talent Search winners will be presenting their projects to a panel of experts in the Science Victoria STS. Good luck to our talented young scientists!
The Debaters Association of Victoria will be hosting a workshop with our highly able public speakers in Grades 5&6 next Monday. Our school debating team will then be selected from this group.
For the first time our school Futsal Team competed today. All reports indicate they had a great time!
Lunchtime clubs this term include the Library Club, Arts and Craft Club, Junior Coding Club and on Fridays Mr Kitney and Mr Mathew have launched the Grade 4-6 Soccer Tournament. The soccer pitch on the back oval was a hive of excitement last Friday when the first round of matches took place. All teams need to have a mixture of boys and girls and every student in Grades 4-6 has the opportunity to join in.
A very big thank you goes to all the teachers that give up their lunch breaks to host these clubs. We certainly appreciate their efforts and it provides excellent opportunities for our students.
Education Week & Open Days
Thank you to all students, families and staff who helped make Education Week a successful celebration of learning at Templestowe Park PS. Our Open Saturday morning was very well attended by over forty prospective families and some of our own community members. I would like to thank our Grade 6 leaders who did a magnificent job of taking school tours and to our staff, PFA and School Councillors who attended the morning to discuss what Templestowe Park has to offer.
Mr Mathew hosted a very interesting and informative Coffee & Chat about Character Strengths on the first day of Education Week. In particular, there was a great discussion around how we can highlight character strengths in our children every day to build self-efficacy and to encourage positive relationships. A very big thank you to Mr Mathew for hosting the chat and to all parents who attended.
Open Night was a great success with hundreds of students, parents and friends learning about how we keep a healthy mind and body at Templestowe Park. As you are all aware, our focus for the evening was about our PERMAH model and Positive Education. A great time was had by all and it highlighted the importance of having a balanced life to be the very best we can be.
It was exciting to have so many parents looking at their children’s classrooms and all the different areas around the school. To produce the best student outcomes it is imperative that families and the school work together and our Education Week celebrations were a great example of this.
Legacy Project
Last Wednesday the 2017 Grade 6 Legacy Project was unveiled. The three-piece mural is in the Grade 6 play area and it is a wonderful addition to the space. You will be able to see the painting in this week’s Manningham Leader as they have written a short article about the great work of our Grade 6 students.
A very big thank you goes to Ms Sumner for her tireless work towards the project. The legacy projects are an inspiring tradition in our school and Ms Sumner does a magnificent job every year.
Click here to link to the Manningham Leader website and read the article on page 5, for the issue released on Monday, 29th May.
Designing Student Inquiries for Term 3
Yesterday, our teachers worked with world-renowned inquiry learning expert, Kath Murdoch, to design the Term 3 student inquiries. Kath worked with our teachers to design engaging inquiries that will challenge and excite our students. In Term 3, our students will be inquiring into where our food comes from, computer coding, physics & design and Australian history. It was a very successful day and I thank Ms Sunderland for leading this highly important element of student learning.
School Improvement
Last week a brand new projector and screen were installed in the school hall and they are an excellent addition to this space. We have installed the large screen for student presentations, teaching purposes and for whole school functions. We have given it a few test runs and the picture and sound are first class. It will certainly lift the experience of the Grade 1 movie night!
Our soccer goals have been erected and our budding soccer players are enjoying having their brand new goals on the back oval.
We have also brightened up our playground with educational spaces and games painted on our concrete area in front of the Foundation and main buildings. It certainly has revitalised the asphalt areas and will provide our students with an improved learning and play space.
Principals’ Award
Last week Eva P from 1/2E received the Principals’ Award at assembly. Eva gives her very best in everything she does; she loves keeping active, uses her creativity and is kind to everyone. We love to see this kind of balance from our students at Templestowe Park! We are very proud of you, Eva.1000 Books before School
I thought I would let families know about a great new program run by the State Library Victoria. The 1000 Books Before School program is designed to help parents and carers make reading a regular part of their routine, supporting them to reach the milestone of reading 1000 books with their child before school. The program is a great way to track a child's reading progress and work towards building important literacy skills.
Parents and carers can register at participating local libraries (Whitehorse Manningham Library and Yarra Plenty Regional Library are listed as participants), or the State Library of Victoria.
For more information, see: 1000 Books before School https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/live-learn/1000-books-school
Character Strengths – Strength Spotting
As you are all aware, our Positive Education focus for Term 2 is Character Strengths. During our RRIPO sessions this week, all students brought in their completed character strengths spotting activity on someone close to them. Students chose their siblings, parents, grandparents or special friends. It was great to hear the students from Foundation – Grade 6 explain the strengths of someone close to them and how it makes them achieve their best. Humour, Zest, Love and Spirituality all featured highly.
Each week we have been profiling the character strengths of a different staff member. This week I will profile our Foundation teacher and Inquiry Leader, Kate Sunderland. Her top five character strengths are:
- Love
- Curiosity
- Kindness
- Humour
- Zest
Happy blogging!
Mark