Parkhill Primary School Newsletter

Issue 36, Friday 19 November 2021

Principal's Message

Dear parents and carers,

The recent changes announced due to the vaccination targets being met have allowed us to proceed full steam ahead with a number of events and activities planned for the remainder of the year. A big thank you to the Parents and Friends Association for their organisation of Fun, Food & Carols on Thursday 2nd December. It promises to be a great community event. Fingers crossed that the weather is kind.


Changes to COVID quarantine requirements from the Department of Education

The Victorian Government has announced important changes to the management of COVID-19 cases and close contacts in schools and other settings as we reach the 90% double dose milestone for eligible people in the coming days.

This means that students who are exposed persons (previously identified as close contacts in education settings) from an exposure at school no longer have to quarantine for between 7-14 days. They can instead return immediately to school after providing evidence of a negative result from a standard PCR test to our school.

In exceptional circumstances the Department of Health may determine that close contacts in significant school outbreaks are still required to quarantine for seven days. In this scenario, students will be notified directly of any additional quarantine arrangements.

Rapid antigen tests are strongly recommended for those students who have returned a negative PCR result and return to school.

They are a great tool for families to use to keep our school safe and ensure that positive cases are identified at the earliest possible time. You will get a pack of five tests and you should use them each day before your child attends school until you run out.

Families should also use a rapid antigen test whenever their child is visiting a high-risk location or setting during this period. This includes visiting elderly or immunocompromised relatives or friends.

While the face mask requirements have been further relaxed in most settings, primary schools will continue to need students in Y3-6 wearing masks indoors. This is due to this age group still being predominantly unvaccinated at this stage.

Thank you for supporting this important approach, which will help keep our school safe and reduce the disruption to the entire school community.


Working Bee

On Saturday 27th November, we will be having a working bee from 8am to 12pm. The purpose of this working bee is to tidy up the school grounds so that it is looking its best for Fun, Food & Carols. We will need volunteers for a range of jobs such as weeding, clearing debris and sweeping. We will also be undertaking the School Council-led project of painting the Administration/Library building. We are fortunate to have a team of volunteers led by an experienced painter and a donation of paint to complete the job. This building will be painted a white colour in keeping with the colour of the new hall and will integrate with the rest of the Parkhill buildings. A big thank you to School Council for organising this.

Any volunteer support would be greatly appreciated. You can register in advance on the following link https://forms.gle/XNZ8aHg1KDUHxHoU6



Have a lovely weekend,


David Wells

Acting Principal

Calendar of Curriculum Events

Monday 22 November - ICAS Maths (selected students) & Compass Information Session

Tuesday 23 November - Friday 26 November - Y5/6 Camp Candlebark

Wednesday 24 November - Scholastic Book Fair ends

Thursday 25 November - Foundation Transition Session 3

Saturday 27 November - Working Bee

Thursday 2 December - Fun, Food & Carols

Tuesday 7 December - Move Up Day

Friday 10 December - Y2 Sleepover (information to come)

Wednesday 15 December - Y6 Graduation

Thursday 16 December - Y6 Big Day Out

Friday 17 December - Term 4 and 2021 school year ends at 1:30pm


Please note that these events are subject to Covid-19 restrictions and are subject to change and/or cancellation.

Resumption of the Swimming Program F-Y3 - Update

Please see the attached document for a slight change to the F-Y3 swimming program.
Download

Kinder to Foundation Transition Update

We continue to welcome our new families and students to Parkhill in our ongoing transition sessions. Our transition workshops with families have been highly successful, and were sent out to all new families just in case they were unable to make it. If you’d like to access the workshop recordings, please let Michelle know on michelle.smith@education.vic.gov.au 

 

A lot of information was shared in the second workshop which will be shared with families.

 

Our weekly transition sessions with the kinder kids progress smoothly. We are learning each week about best placement of the Y5 students and continue to work towards helping the kinder kids feel comfortable and supported.

 

We have a third session next week on Thursday 25 November at 2:00pm for the kinder students. Students have been asked to bring along a soft toy or teddy as I hear they are going on a bear hunt!

 

Our final transition session will be Tuesday 7 December, where the kinder students will come to school in the morning on the statewide transition day. The session will be from 9:00 to 10:30. The F/Y1 teachers will make their way to the front of the school at 9:00 to pick up the kinder students, with their Y1 students in tow. Parents can meet at the front again at 10:30 to pick them up.

 

We look forward to sharing this special time with new Parkhill families.

Compass for Parkhill families

Our release of Compass to Parkhill families is very soon upon us!

We are excited to open up this fantastic communication channel to the community - it will help us to be able to communicate more easily for many different purposes.

On Monday 22 November, we plan to send out login details to all families, which will let you log onto the platform. We will also hold an information session online at 5:00pm to go through the Compass Parent Guide should that be of assistance to you. It will be recorded and made available at a later date if you can’t make it.


You can access the Compass Parent Guide here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a5YaA6Q2OhJQK59aR1EK5nL18qf7WaiE/view?usp=sharing 

 

The information session will be at:

To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/fqk-zjif-two 

Otherwise, to join by phone, dial +1 570-658-9308 and enter this PIN: 495 947 802#

Any questions, please ask Michelle on michelle.smith@education.vic.gov.au 

Library News

Dear Parkhill Families,

Thank you to those families who have placed orders. Every Book Club order earns Scholastic Rewards for the school to purchase additional resources.

A quick reminder that orders for Issue 7 is due shortly.

Kindly note the revised cut off date for Issue 7 - being a bumper issue, orders are encouraged to be placed earlier.

You can place your order at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

The Book Fair kicked off today and it has been wonderful to have our Y4-6 students come through in their classes. There was much excitement and buzz, with many of them perusing through the book collection. The Foundation to Y3 classes will have their sessions on Monday.

If you would like to come to the Fair, parent/carer sessions are available next Monday to Wednesday at the following times:

  • 8:30 - 8:45

  • 3:30 - 3:45

  • 3:45 - 4:00

Limit of 10 per session


Please do get in touch if you need a hand or have any queries 
angelita.williams@education.vic.gov.au.


Stay safe and well,

Angelita Williams

Librarian

PFA News - November 19

Executive Committee:

President: Rossanne Clay                  

Vice President: Kylie Brown

Temp Treasurer: TBA

Temp Secretary/Communications: Trish King

Temp Council Liaison: Elle Delmee

General Members: Vanessa Cowley, Marinda Tanner, Jo Argaet, Sumi Sundram, Kylie Touloupis

SOCK FUNDRAISER

Our sock fundraiser is coming to an end soon! Orders close on Sunday 21st November!

Parkhill will receive $1 from every pair sold and we receive a bonus if we sell over 100 pairs - that’s a lot of feet wearing very stylish socks! It’s a great gift idea with fun designs available for every size foot. Socks are $9.95 per pair with free shipping.

Make sure you order at this link for our school to benefit: https://sockable.com.au/collections/parkhill-primary-school


FUN, FOOD & CAROLS

On Thursday 2nd December, Parkhill Primary School will be hosting the annual Fun, Food & Carols night for the school community. It’s a celebration where we come together to eat, laugh and sing before the holidays.

We will hold a sausage sizzle, ice-cream stall, bake stall, plus other food and gift stands. Our choir will lead us in singing carols, there will be STEAM activities for the kids and a free petting zoo. For a gold coin donation you can do face painting, dunk-a-teacher, or jump on the bouncy castle. We’ll also have a special visit from Santa!

BAKE SALE

Dust off your wooden spoons and crack a few eggs because we need you to whip up some delicious baked treats for the Fun, Food & Carols Bake Sale stall!

Please let us know if you can help! Items are to be delivered to school on the day of the event in a disposable or named container. PFA and Bake Sale helpers will transfer your delicious treats into fancy packaging for sale and you’ll be able to collect your container from the stall. All items will need to be accompanied by a list of ingredients and allergens. Please email parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com with details of what you can provide.

HELP OUR PARKHILL COMMUNITY 

We have missed our school connection but now we have a golden opportunity to rebuild, recharge and reconnect. You can help us make this event fun for our young ones and build a stronger community in the process! Spread the word! Invite friends and family! You can also help by:

Lending items on the day. Please notify us if you are able to lend these to us for the night:

  • Large eskies/coolers

  • Any size marquee

Donating items for the raffle prizes or bric-a-brac sale. These can be dropped to the office or contact us to arrange a pick-up.

Volunteering for:

  • Setup crew

  • Packdown crew

  • Face painting

  • Baking for the bake stall

  • BBQ cook/seller

  • Food seller

  • Dunking machine/jumping castle monitor

We currently have 45 slots yet to be filled… Can you help us out for a one hour slot or more?

Becoming a stall holder - here are some details:

The market will run from 5.00pm – 7.30pm. If you are interested in being a stall holder, or know of someone who would like to hold a stall, please make contact with Rossanne Clay at parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com or 0480 171 847.

 

Cost of Stalls:

• Stalls selling non food & drink related items - $20

• Stalls selling food & drinks - $30

• Student stalls - $10

JOIN OUR PARKHILL PFA

Some of our PFA members have family matters they are taking care of during this time. It’s unlikely they will be able to fill their roles through to the end of the year. So we are looking for new members to help us fill roles temporarily til the end of the year and permanently for next year.

We need a temporary treasurer who has a money handling police check to help with Fun, Food & Carols.

And we need permanent roles for the following for next year:

  • Treasurer who does the purchases and cash handling for us
  • PFA Representative on school council who attends both PFA meetings and School Council meetings
  • Secretary who does our newsletter for us each week
  • PR who takes care of our Facebook page and gathers photos to create updates about our events

 

If you would like to try the Treasurer role til the end of the year our growing team would be very grateful - and if you would like to consider a permanent role for next year, we would welcome you with open arms!

 

Please contact Rossanne on 0480 171 847 or parents.friends.secretary@gmail.com

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