29 August 2024

Dates to Remember

September

A Message from Our Principal

What a fabulous fortnight we have had at Hillcrest! Book Week is one of my personal favourite weeks of the school year, the range of activities and our annual dress up day was a huge success. Thank you to families who supporting their child/children to dress up as a character and thank you to the family members who joined us to squash into our school hall for the parade. It was certainly hard to choose a favourite character with so many colourful and creative costumes. Reading is MAGIC!

We were fortunate to have The Honourable Jo Palmer, Minister for Education and the Honourable Roger Jaensch, Minister for Children and Youth, visit our school to see the completed improvement works that have occurred over the past 18 months. It was fantastic to showcase our beautiful school environment and share our excitement for the future. Heath and Maddison did an outstanding job as tour guides, providing student voice and thoughts to our visitors.

Our Student Led Conferences were very well attended, and it has been lovely to hear such positive feedback and connections to student learning. Our Student Led Conferences form part of our Communicating Learning Progress with Families and this style of conference gives our students an opportunity to take the lead, with support and preparation from staff. We are very grateful for you making time to come and see your child’s learning, if you were unable to make it during the times last week, please contact your class teacher to make a time that suits.

School Satisfaction Survey

Every year the Department for Education, Children and Young People conducts a School Satisfaction Survey to find out what your child(ren)'s school does well and where it may improve.

We would be grateful if you completed our online survey about Hillcrest Primary School. Your feedback is very important to help us inform our school planning and decision making.

It helps us to:

• inform decisions about how our school partners with families to help support your child’s learning.
• Find out how you think our school and families work together to boost your child’s learning?
• Find out what you think we can do to help our school improve the way we work together to support learners and families.

Have your say! It’s voluntary, confidential, quick and easy.

Our school is committed to working in partnership with families to support learners; let us know how we are going.

The survey is open from Monday 26 August 2024 until Friday 20 September 2024 and should take about 5 minutes to complete. Each family should nominate one person to fill in this survey for their child(ren).

Take the online survey by clicking this Link, or pasting it in your browser: https://nam.dcv.ms/6reN2QrKJb The survey is carried out on a secure website and all responses are anonymous and confidential.

New School Communication Platform

In the coming weeks we will be moving our newsletter over to a new platform, called Microsoft Sway. Sway is very compatible with iPhones and tablets and can be viewed with or without the Microsoft App.
Over the next two terms we will also be setting up School Stream as a ‘one stop shop’ for all school communication, letters, dates, forms and information. School Stream is used by many primary schools locally and across Australia and has very positive feedback. We will be providing our school community with more information in coming weeks.

Attendance

Attendance continues to be a priority for us. Thank you to families who have made great efforts to improve their child’s attendance this term.

We have seen a slight increase in our students who may be ‘at risk’ (below 85%) for low attendance. It is important that if your child is well, they attend school every day. A reminder that if you are running late or sleep in, please come in to school during the morning, part of the day is better than no time at all. Keep up the great work!

If you have anything you wish to discuss in relation to your child’s wellbeing, I invite you to please feel free to make contact. Whether that is to speak in person, call the school office to speak over the phone, or make an appointment to see your child’s class teacher (in the first instance), a member of the leadership team or myself at a time that suits.

In partnership,
Georgia

Our School Carpark

A reminder that ALL LEVELS of the school carpark are allocated for staff only. If you have a disability permit, you can park in one of the two designated Disabled Parking spots in the top section of the carpark.

We have had feedback that permit holders have been unable to access these carpark spaces on multiple occasions as they are occupied by vehicles not displaying a permit. Please note that this is NOT a standing or pick up and drop off space.

Hilly Kids Are Friendly Kids

Our Hilly Kid Winner for Goal Setting in week 3 & 4 of Term 3

Negotiation is our current fortnightly focus

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

What’s Been Happening in 1-2 Sims?

In 1-2 Sims we have been learning about Australian states and territories as part of our HASS unit. In our groups we have become experts about some key landmarks in each state and territory. Some of these landmarks are natural landmarks such as Uluru, Wave Rock, Cradle Mountain, The Great Barrier Reef, The Twelve Apostles, The Blue Mountains and Lake Eyre. We also researched some constructed landmarks such as Sydney Harbour Bridge, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Busselton Jetty and Australia Zoo. Not only did we make posters about our states and territories, but we also wrote our own persuasive texts about a state or territory.

This term we have also participated in a Potato Olympics where each of our potato “athletes” represented a different state or territory. The day started with the national anthem before moving off to participate in different activities. In each activity we had a chance to apply some of our learning from throughout the year, such as measuring with informal units, adding numbers together, using dictionaries and spelling.

Online Safety Tips

Mele Maat Primary - Vanuatu

Hillcrest Primary School recently donated some school furniture to Mele Maat Primary School in Vanuatu. A big thank you to our groundsman Mr Woods who was instrumental in helping to facilitate the donation, along with the project co-ordinators Neil and Ian.

The children were very excited to receive our donation and wished to thank the school community!

Hilly Staff

All about me

Justin Woods

My Role – Education Facility Attendant (Groundsman)
Worked at Hillcrest – 11 years
What do you like most about our school – the grounds and the school community
Pets – a dog
Sporting team I follow – Essendon
Hobby in my spare time – fossicking, being outdoors, camping, riding my Harley
Fun fact about me – I can sew
Favourite meal or type of food – spaghetti bolognese with parmesan cheese
Hidden skill/talent – I used to be a square dancer
Favourite place I’ve visited – Bruny Island

Would you rather…………….

Beach OR Pool – Beach
Tea OR Coffee – Coffee
Books OR Movies – Movies
Summer OR Winter – Summer
Morning Person OR Night Owl – Night Owl
Cats OR Dogs – Dogs
Theme Park OR Museum – Museum

Phoebe Hortle

My Role – Grade 5-6 Teacher
Worked at Hillcrest – 14 months (2024 first year teaching)
What do you like most about our school – the welcoming environment for students and staff
Pets – Joni the dog (Kelpie) and George the cat
Sporting team I follow – Richmond Tigers
Hobby in my spare time – playing guitar, attending concerts, swimming at the beach
Fun fact about me – I was a student at Hillcrest Primary School 16 years ago
Favourite meal or type of food – Mexican, Thai, Italian
Hidden skill/talent – Leaving uni assignments to the last minute
Favourite place I’ve visited – Avalon, NSW

Would you rather…………….

Beach OR Pool – Beach
Tea OR Coffee – Coffee
Books OR Movies – Movies
Summer OR Winter – Summer
Morning Person OR Night Owl – Neither at the moment
Cats OR Dogs – Both
Theme Park OR Museum – Art Gallery

Little Athletics

School Holiday Day Camp

For the Girls - Weekend Camp

Tulip Festival Fun