Dear Parents, Guardians, Students and Other Parishioners
September 3 ~ 9th is National Child Protection Week in Australia. Child protection is everyone’s work! So we are shining a spotlight on what we do at our school to keep children safe. I have written about the Child Safe Standards that came in effect in Victoria recently and you know we take the Standards very seriously at St Elizabeth’s. However, you would be wrong to think that schools were not worried about child safety before the recent Ministerial Order. We have always been concerned about the safety of children.
I am not sure how many of you are aware that teachers are mandated to inform the Department of Human Services Child Protection Unit if they form a reasonable belief that a child is being harmed. Children can be harmed in many ways, but if a teacher is told or sees evidence that creates a reasonable belief in their mind that the child is suffering from harm, they must make a report. Teachers can be fined hefty sums of money and have their careers ruined, if they do not report whenever they become aware that a child has been physically hurt, neglected, sexually abused or suffering from emotional or psychological harm.
This has been the case since the changes to Child Protection came about in Victoria in 1989. Some of you may remember the tragic case of Daniel Valerio who was killed by his step-father after being physically abused. This tragedy made us very aware that everyone needed to work together to protect children and our support services, including the Police and the Teachers and other professionals, were required by law to make reports to one organisation. Sadly, in Daniel’s case several organisations were aware of some of his story but there was not a unified response. Not only do we make sure our staff know how to keep children safe but we also make sure that our environment is as safe as it can be. We regularly do audits to check the trees are healthy, the grounds are in good condition and security is effective. We have gradually been adding security features to our grounds so that visitors are directed through the office area and we have a registration process for visitors and contractors.
In the near future, we have 2 new projects coming up that will keep children safe and secure at St Elizabeth’s. We have money saved to repair the asphalt to the playground near the PAC and to lay a special polyflex softfall surface under the new shade structure behind the Prep room. This will help prevent trips and falls!
The other project that needs to be done is to restructure the front office area so that we have greater security over the central corridor of the school. If staff are attending to children in the First Aid room or using the photocopier in the workroom, we have no way of seeing and stopping strangers wandering down the centre of the school and accessing the children’s toilets and classrooms. We need to reconfigure the front office so the corridor is secure.
Both these projects will be expensive but will make sure that our children are safe and secure. We have been saving for these projects and hopefully the playground can be done by the beginning of next year and the administration area in 2018.
To celebrate all we do to keep children safe and secure, we will have a Safety Walk following a special assembly on Monday September 4th. All parents and Guardians are invited to come and look at the safety features we have in place at our school.
Christine Ash
Principal
Religious Education News
Hail Mary, full of grace, the LORD is with thee,
blessed are you among all women and blessed
is the fruit of your womb, Jesus, Holy Mary,
mother of God, pray for us sinners now
and in the hour of our death.
Upcoming School Liturgy.
Friday 8th September: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 & Year 4 Buddy Mass at 9:15am
Everyone welcome.
Reminder the Confirmation Activity packs that were given out last term need to be completed and returned by Monday 26th October.
Our Coin Trail Fundraiser for our friendship school “Matutinao Elementary” begins the morning of Tuesday 29th August. We are hoping to see a giant line of spare change, be that, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, $1.00 or $2.00 coins.
Small change to us makes a big change in other’s lives.
Pancake Breakfast is on Thursday 31st August, so Dads, Granddads, and significant men in the lives of our children, come along and enjoy breakie with us.
Maria Popowycz
Religious Education Leader
Deputy Principal News
School Improvement Surveys
Last week, some families were randomly selected to complete School Improvement Surveys from Insight SRC. You had the choice of competing these online or on paper. Thank you to those parents/guardians who have already done so.
These surveys are an important way for us as a school to gain feedback in a number of areas and to also plan for the year ahead.
Our Year Five and Six children will complete the surveys during school time and all staff will also complete them. By all stakeholders giving us feedback, we can gain a clear insight into how our school operates from everyone’s point of view.
The surveys close on Friday 8th September. If you have any questions or difficulties with the survey, please see me.
NAPLAN
Last week we were able to view our 2017 NAPLAN results. As a school, we have begun to analyse them and determine our learning and teaching plan for the future. We can already see that we have improved our results in all areas and the greatest growth is in Literacy. If you haven’t already done so, please make contact with your child’s teacher to pick up the NAPLAN results.
Book Week
Reading is one of the most fundamental skills children must master to succeed. Almost everything we do involves some type of reading. It is undoubtedly one of the best practices to stimulate intellectual development. You can be transported to places you have never been before and reading to and with your child is one of the most bonding of times.
Every year we celebrate books and reading in a very special way- we call this ‘Book Week.’
In the next newsletter you will see how the children engaged with book characters by dressing up as them. The activities are run by our senior children which is also a great way to share the love of reading.
Child Safety
The National Child Protection Week (3–9 September 2017) is closely approaching and is a key opportunity for our school to reflect on and spotlight significant child safety efforts, and to share this journey with the school community.
A noticeboard display is in the office for your reference because safer communities ensures safer children.
In classrooms, students will have opportunities to express perspectives through discussion, artwork, a poster or bookmark, multimedia, written work or oral presentations/performances in response to questions such as: –
What makes you feel safe and happy at school and/or in our community?
Who/where would you go to for support if you were not feeling safe?
What actions could school community members take to further support children and young people, to help keep them safe?
What does a ‘safe community’ look like to you?
What does ‘being unsafe’ look and feel like at home, in the community, online and/or at school?
What are respectful relationships and/or appropriate behaviours?
The issue of Safety is an important discussion to have with your child.
Lorraine Walker
Deputy Principal
Numeracy
Back in 1961, Bobby Darin sang
‘Multiplication that’s the name of the game
And each generation they play the same’,
But is this still the case?
Do we need our children to learn how to multiply the way we were taught?
The answer is ‘No’!
Even though it’s still important for children to learn their ‘multiplication facts’, (not times tables), it is vital they have a strong, clear understanding of what multiplication means (i.e. groups of) and what this looks like. For example, the array below can be read as 2 X 6 or 2 rows of 6; or if looked at from another side it would be seen as 6 X 2 or 6 rows of 2.
One way we can teach children to solve a problem such as ’14 X 12’ is by using the ‘Area Method’. The photo below shows that by dividing the large array (14 rows of 12) into smaller arrays, such as 10 X 10; 4 X 10; 4 X 2 and 10 X 2 it is easier to answer the smaller arrays and then add the amount together.
By using this method, children get to manipulate numbers by creating arrays (areas) they are comfortable with and visualising what they look like.
Lyn Dennett
Numeracy Intervention
Sports News
Hi all,
Our District and Division Interschool winter sports finals have now all been completed.
Our T-ball and girls Rugby Tag teams won their district premierships and our football team came runners-up. The t-ball then went on to the Division play-off and lost to a school from Dandenong. Our Girl's Rugby Tag team go straight through to a Regional tournament next week hosted by Melbourne Storm (the Camp family are avid supporters and are very excited by this!).
The Noble Park District Athletics will be held onThursday 7th September. In the photo are our top 4 place-getters in the boys and girls 800m from our school athletics’ day.
Well done to Simon, Jacob, Robert, Vimal, Holly, Mikaylah, Nyamaal and Aseneta.
We wish the best for all 49 students who will be representing our school at the next level.
Yours in Sport
Dean Andrew
Sports Coordinator
St. Elizabeth’s Community
Next Thursday is a very big day!
8:45am is our “Special Men in the lives of our children Pancake Breakfast”. So dads, granddads etc, come along and enjoy breakie.
Followed by our Fathers Day Stall, where classes will be rostered to attend.
Social Justice Activities Day for our Year 5 and 6 children
Rugby Tag Gala.
Coming up events include:~
Buddy Lunches (1/9 and 15/9), Foundation 2018 children Orientation session (6/9), Years Foundation/1 and 2 Cross Arts (19/9), Footy Day (20/9) Years 3 and 4 excursion (21/9), End of Term 22/9.
Trixie Martin
News from The Nook.
The Victorian Premier Reading Challenge is coming to a close soon, please enter your child’s books online. Any problems, please come and see me.
Trixie Martin
Student News Captains
Out Of School Hours Care
There will be a program offered by our Out of School Hours Care Program on this day from 7am to 6pm.
Please contact Elarine on 0422 803 709 if you wish to book in your child/ren.
Sporting Clubs
The Noble Park Cricket Club is your community cricket club.
The club offers an opportunity for everyone to be involved from juniors to seniors.
As a part of the 8 affiliated sports clubs of Club Noble our aim is to increase our communities’ involvement in sport