15 August 2024

Dates to Remember

August

September

A Message from Our Principal

This week has been a busy one – as you may be aware it has been National Science Week, and whilst we teach Science throughout the whole year, Science Week provides an opportunity to really focus on Science and invite our families to come and see our Science learning in action.

Thank you to the family members and friends who came along to work with our students during our open classroom sessions.

Year 5-6 Sports Day

Yesterday our Year 5-6 students participated in the North-West Sports Day, joining with other local primary schools to play a new sport. Our students selected either basketball, hockey, soccer or king of the court to play for the day. A big thank you to North-West Primary School Sports Association for facilitating this event. Congratulations to our students who demonstrated excellent participation and sportsmanship throughout the day.

2024 Student Led Conferences

Our highly successful Student Led Conferences are back this year. We will be holding our Term 3 ‘Communicating Learning Progress with Families’ conferences during week 5 on Wednesday 21 August from 2:50pm – 4:30pm, and on Thursday 22 August from 1:30pm – 4:30pm. These conferences form part of our reporting and communicating process.

In 2023 we received amazing family feedback about how valued and insightful these conferences were. Bookings are now open; we aim to have all students participating in a Student Led Conference with a family member (or family friend).

If you are not able to book a conference, please contact the office and we can assist. 

In each timeslot, 3 (three) students will be leading a conference in each class. Please book 1 (one) ticket for your family members (parents/guardians etc) to attend in the timeslot that suits you. Any parent who does not reside with their child, or who has a shared-care parenting arrangement can make their own additional individual timeslot booking if preferred.

A ‘Student-Led Conference’ is an authentic way to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning, actions and decisions. During these conferences each child will conduct a 20-minute discussion with their family member/s. Their teacher will be an observer during the conference. At times they may join in or prompt parts of the discussion between students and adults.

Silly Socks and Beanies!

It was great to see many students adding some Silly Socks and/or Beanies to their uniforms last week. Thanks again to Helen Stonehouse for coordinating this School Association Fundraiser.

The Family Satisfaction Survey is Coming!

The Family Satisfaction Survey for 2024 will be open on 26 August to 20 September 2024.  We are hoping to beat our 2023 record of 50 responses!

The survey contains questions about the school to find out what the school is do well at and where it may improve. 

Key information: 

• This survey is online and is accessed by clicking on a URL which is unique to the school. It can be accessed via any device with an internet connection, including mobile phones. 
• The survey is carried out on a secure website and all responses are kept anonymous and confidential. 
• Staff will be able to access the results for their school. Other relevant staff of the department will also have access to summary results.

2025 NAPLAN results are in!

We have recently received our school summary of NAPLAN results, it has been pleasing to see excellent improvements and gains across all areas. In comparison to a ‘similar school’ we are above in 9 out of 10 categories! See below for a summary across our Year 3- and 5-year groups.

A reminder - if you are dropping your child/children off late or collecting them early, please come to the office. Students will then be taken to or collected from classrooms by staff. We ask that parents/carers do not wander around the school or arrive at the classroom door. This lessens the disruption to class learning time and is part of our safeguarding management plan. Thank you for your support with this matter.

Next week we are excited for Book Week, don’t forget to dress up as your favourite book character on Wednesday 21 August.

We will be holding our traditional Book Week Parade on the Early Years Basketball Court. If possible, please bring along the book the character is inspired by, or borrow it from the library!

We will even have a special guest, our Education Minister, Jo Palmer visiting our school on this day!

In partnership,
Georgia

Wellbeing for Learning – Student Survey

Hilly Kids Are Friendly Kids

Our Hilly Kid Winner for Growth Mindset in week 1 & 2 of Term 3

This term our Hilly Kids are Friendly Kids fortnightly focus links to Growth

What’s Been Happening in 3-4 Parker?

What’s Been Happening in Hands on Learning (HoL)?

The HoL crew have had a busy first half of the year, undertaking a range of different activities in the HoL hut, and out and about around the school. As a team we have been successful in winning two external grants to support HoL initiatives.

The first being $1000 from Keeping Australia Beautiful (Tasmania) to implement a recycling, composting and worm farm for the school. HoL students decided that this would be a worthwhile project and installed recycling and compost bins in each classroom, the canteen and staffrooms. They spoke with all the classes and designed posters for each of the bins. Students collect and sort the recycling and compost twice a week from classes, with compost eventually being used in our school garden, and also feeding the school worm farms.

The second grant that the team were successful in winning was an $8000 ‘Hands on Learning Infrastructure Grant’ through Save the Children. This is an amazing opportunity for students to complete a bigger and more challenging task across the second part of the year. This grant will go towards creating a primary area sandpit, located just next to the Gaga pit. Students have been responsible for designing the sandpit and are currently in the process of building the wall of the pit using earth bags with concrete render over the top. Keep an eye on this space near the Gaga pit as the HoL crew continues to build the sandpit over Term 3 and into Term 4.

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Pre-Kinder & 2025 Kinder Enrolments

Hilly Staff

All about me

Naomi Archer

My Role – Quality Teaching Coach
Worked at Hillcrest – 18 years
What do you like most about our school – the beautiful gardens, friendly faces and wonderful teachers
Pets – a border collie called Pingu
Sporting team I follow – I love watching any team that shows good sportsmanship
Hobby in my spare time – gardening
Fun fact about me – I went swimming with turtles
Favourite meal or type of food – I LOVE food! Mexican, Thai, lasagna, roast – yum!
Hidden skill/talent – I’m not aware of my talent yet

Would you rather…………….
Beach OR Pool - Beach
Tea OR Coffee – Coffee
Books OR Movies – Books
Summer OR Winter – Summer
Morning Person OR Night Owl – Morning Person
Cats OR Dogs – Dogs
Theme Park OR Museum – Theme Park

Jordan Lynd

My Role – AST/Wellbeing Teacher
Worked at Hillcrest – 12 months
What do you like most about our school – how welcoming everyone is
Sporting team I follow – North Melbourne
Hobby in my spare time – planning and booking my next holiday
Fun fact about me – I have travelled to 14 different countries
Favourite meal or type of food – Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings)
Favourite place I’ve visited – New York, and the Great Wall of China

Would you rather…………….
Beach OR Pool – Beach
Tea OR Coffee – Coffee
Books OR Movies – Movies
Summer OR Winter – Both
Morning Person OR Night Owl – Neither – I like the middle of the day
Cats OR Dogs – Dogs
Theme Park OR Museum – Theme Park

Father’s Day Stall – Donations Needed

TS Mersey Cadets – Book Fair

The Fairy Godmothers Market

Try a New Sport