Welcome back to Term 4 and a special welcome to the 11 new families who join us for the first time.

Thank you to those parents who attended our Classroom Helpers course on Wednesday, and to Glenda Kelly and Mandy Ryan for organising this session. Teachers will now organise Parent Helpers for their classes and look forward to this assistance in classrooms.

This term, LPS teachers will be working with Deakin University researchers to trial DET's Science Inquiry Assessment (SIA) tasks. Funded by the Victorian Department of Education, this research project aims to further understanding of students’ Science inquiry skills and ways to assess these within the planned Science curriculum. 

In all year levels, class teachers will run these tasks across the term, with the support of a researcher in the room. Some teachers and students may be filmed or photographed, with parent permission. 

We're pleased that LPS can be involved in this worthwhile research project to help 'develop scientifically literate citizens'. Parents will receive more information in the coming week via Sentral email, including an important consent form.

All government schools are reviewing school activities as a result of the 2022 Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA). The Agreement seeks to ensure teachers are only working within their prescribed hours of duty. Activities outside of these hours can now attract 'Time in Lieu'. As this concept is challenging to acquit in primary schools, and no funding has been provided for Time in Lieu, we are making necessary adjustments. For example, moving Choirs and Orchestra to times within teachers' hours of duty has achieved the VGSA requirements around those activities.

There will be further changes, as we are required to work within the VGSA industrial agreement. Our staff Consultative Committee will continue to provide advice around teacher work and conditions. Time in lieu for teachers attending camps starts in January 2023 and schools are having conversations within our networks and with DET about ways to manage this.

Over many years, teachers have generously worked additional unpaid hours for meetings, camps, events, email and phone communications, and extracurricular activities. We need to ensure that our current teachers have conditions that meet the new Agreement and, importantly, that our profession attracts people to teaching as a career.

If your child is leaving the school at the end of this year (except for Year 6 students of course), have you let us know?  If not, please call or email our office as soon as possible. We are currently finalising our 2023 staffing, which corresponds entirely with student enrolments.

Finally, we sadly farewelled one of our aides, Sarah Ervin, as she takes up a promotion this term at another school. With changes to the Tutor Learning Initiative for Term 4, we have also thanked Kate Davies for her support in Terms 1 - 3. Our updated our Staff List can be accessed here.

Kim

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute

• support mask wearing at school
• keep unwell children at home until any symptoms are resolved
• report COVID cases, as per the current guidelines.

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Hi all,

Welcome to term 4 and I hope this finds you all well after school holidays. Personally, I can’t quite believe how fast this year has gone and that we are on the downhill run to the end of the year.

As we wrapped up term 3, school council met and discussed a number of key priorities that we need to progress.

We had a visit by Baumgart Clark Architects who have been appointed to produce the master plan for our school. This plan feeds in to the major capital works program we are about to undertake. It was great to meet with them, learn some more about how they typically operate and hear about how keen they are to engage with the entire school community during the planning process.  

The second important aspect we discussed was the recent school review. As I mentioned in the newsletter update last term, this is something the school must participate in every 4 years in order to produce our School Strategic Plan (SSP). This plan gives us our “north star” - the goals and targets it defines cascade into the Annual Implementation Plan, along with informing staff Performance and Development Plans, over the next 4 years. We need to complete and endorse the SSP in term 4, and look forward to sharing the review report with you in the meantime.

Lastly, school council considered the Parent Payment arrangements for 2023.

Funding to meet the school’s budget comes from three sources:

• DET (Department of Education and Training) - Student Resource Package.
• Parent Payments - Voluntary Contributions, including the tax-deductible Building Fund and Curriculum Contributions.
• Local fundraising: including the valued contribution from our amazing Parents Group.

You will note in this year's letter, there is no amount set for the tax-deductible contribution to the Building Fund (this is due to a rule change). In last year's payment, the voluntary amount set for the Building Fund was $135 and we are suggesting the same amount for next year.

We have also had some great questions come through about the use of the Building Fund, and if this payment is necessary given the major capital works grant that the school has just received.

Basically, the two are quite separate and used for very different things. The Building Fund generated from Parent Payments is used to support all of the required renovations, upgrades, and maintenance of school infrastructure outside of the capital works program – of which there is still a considerable amount!

So, if you do choose to contribute to the Building Fund, we offer our sincere thanks and please be assured that your contribution goes directly towards ensuring our kids continue to enjoy a really great school environment.

I’ll close out by mentioning again the incredible fundraising that our Parents Group perform - term 4 looks like a super busy one. Lots of fun events coming up including a slime run, the mango drive (my personal favourite) along with another big election day BBQ and cake stall. So, keep an eye out for those ones along with other events and get involved if you can.

Chat soon,

Matt

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute

Requests for 2023 class placements

Many factors are taken into account when placing students in class groups for the following year. Underlying this process are our school values and, as Resilience is something we aim for all students to develop, mixing with different students each year is both desirable and carefully planned.

During Term 4, all students have an opportunity to nominate other children they would like to have in their class. We can usually guarantee that one of these requests is met. This process is undertaken with their class teacher at school and is entirely separate to any parent requests.

If parents have a particular request in addition to their child's preferences, these should be made in writing by email to laburnum.ps@education.vic.gov.au and addressed to the Principal (not your child’s teacher). They must be received by Tuesday 1 November. These are then considered along with those of other families, teachers and students.

As in previous years, please do not ask for specific teachers for 2023 as these requests will not be considered. We also respectfully request that your requests are reasonable; please limit these to one or two requests per child so they can be manageable as we try to juggle competing and often conflicting priorities.

Due to the complex process involved, late requests cannot be accepted.

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Prep students have had an exciting end to term with the completion of our swimming program. Swimming is an important part of every child’s education and includes lessons on water safety so that students know what to do in the case of an emergency in the water.

Every day, we eagerly lined up for the bus and climbed on board with excitement. Our first bus ride for primary school! Many students demonstrated the school value of respect, thanking the bus driver when we stepped off the bus each day.

Getting into the pool was so much fun! We all made sure to complete a safe water entry, gently lowering our bodies into the water. Different groups worked on a variety of skills including kicking, floating, using kickboards, torpedoes, backstroke and freestyle. The pool was filled with a lot of laughter and many smiles.

We have been building our independence and organisation skills by making sure that our own things made it home with us at the end of each session.

Here are some photos of our swimmers!

Curiosity  •   Respect  •  Integrity  •  Resilience

Due to teacher absences last term, we still have a small portion of our Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI) funds to use. This term, we will use these to prioritise some students who require additional support in English or Mathematics.

Mrs Glenda Kelly will continue to provide TLI English on three days each week. Mrs Mandy Ryan has moved back into Year 2H, and is spending 2 days per week in TLI English. Ms Kelli Simmons will undertake the Maths TLI component.

In selecting students for TLI, we review current student learning data from the diagnostic and standardised assessments that are part of our school Assessment Schedule. Based on this data, we can classify students' needs, as per our Student Wellbeing and Engagement Policy:



Of course, the great news recently announced by DET is that schools will receive TLI funding in 2023. 

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Details of our Extracurricular activities  for Term 4 are listed below. 

As teachers will organise the school-based activities and make announcements about these, there is no need for parents to register.

Events marked with an asterix* require registration. These are led by external providers and, with the exception of Digimaker, will be also supervised by teachers. There is a cost involved if you would like your child to participate in those activities. 

School Choirs

Laburnum Primary School’s Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 Choirs rehearse weekly, learning about singing skills. In the past, students have performed at concerts and public events.

Laburnum Orchestra *

Students who have been learning a string (violin, viola, cello, double bass), brass, woodwind or percussion instrument for at least 12 months can join the Laburnum Orchestra. Being a member of the orchestra allows students to interact and work with students in other year levels and be part of a team.
As the orchestra is led by an external provider there will be a cost involved. If you would like to register your child for Orchestra, please click here and you will receive a confirmation message that includes payment information.

Art Club

Art Club provides an opportunity for students to follow up individual art projects, enter competitions and work with like-minded students from other classes. The Art Captains will also attend these sessions to work with Ms Farlow.

Spanish Club  

At Spanish Club students have an opportunity to learn vocabulary through music, craft, books, games and role plays. It’s a great way to extend learning beyond the classroom and develop friendships! The Spanish Captains will attend these sessions to work with Mrs Richards.

Joggers Club

Students of all ages can run, walk or jog laps of the athletics track. The program is organised by our House Captains.

Chess Club *

The Chess Club at Laburnum P.S. is run by “Chess Ideas”.  There is always a free trial session at the beginning of each term. The children are instructed in two small groups, where a new skill or strategy is introduced, followed by a game and is supervised at all times by a teacher from the school. Please see the LPS eNews Contibute page, or contact the office for further information.

Green Team

Green Team members work together to promote sustainability at Laburnum Primary School. The students love to get their hands dirty and get involved in cleaning up the kitchen garden, re-soiling, pulling out weeds, planting new seeds and watching and taking care of our produce. There is also the opportunity to sell our freshly grown produce to the school community.

Library

Our Library is open each morning from 8.45 and on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes for borrowing, reading, sharing of books and quiet activities.

Coding Club 

Coding Club will offer levelled coding activities for students. The STEM Captains will also attend these sessions to work with Mr Appleby.

• Prep - Year 2 Students will begin to explore the features of block coding
• Year 3 and 4 students will learn to create games using block coding on Scratch
• Year 5 and 6 students will finish coding the space challenge missions using Mindstorms EV3 Robots

Junior School Council

The Junior School Council provides an avenue for student voice and the opportunity to contribute positively to the school community. Through active involvement, the Junior School Council encourages student participation within the decision making processes for fundraising, presentations, school events, charity focuses and school recommendations. 

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The Year 5 camp offers great timing and leadership development opportunities in the lead up to our 2022 - 23 Student Leadership Program.

All Year 5 students participate in the 'Young Leaders' program. This is the segway to applying for Year 6 leadership positions for 2023. 

The LPS Student Leadership Policy can be found on our website here. As the policy notes, our school provides 'a student leadership process in Year 5 for Year 6 that is for students, about students and encourages input from students'. Due to this process, the roles each year may differ from previous years.

There are usually a high number of nominations for these roles, so it is inevitable that there will be some happy and some disheartened children. Learning to be successful with humility, or accept disappointment, is part of becoming a resilient young person. We urge parents to have conversations with their Year 5 child about ways to handle both these options.

Year 6 Leaders for 2023 are announced at the end of this term.

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This week, we headed to Safety Beach for our Year 5 camp. We participated in a range of fun activities including sea kayaking, bike riding, totem pole painting with Emma and Gabby (Don Bosco staff), beach games and a night time beach walk.
             

             

We spent time with a local indigenous man, Shaun, who pointed out edible plants in the local area and their use and significance in medicine, bush tucker and indigenous culture.
             

During the afternoon, we went down to a beach near our campsite for some beach activities. It was cold, but the students enjoyed beachcombing and making sandcastles.
  

Due to extreme weather conditions we were unable to attend the Enchanted Adventure Garden. Our extremely resilient students made the most of some extra time to play Gaga Ball and enjoy the facilities at Don Bosco camp.

Overall, camp was super fun, memorable and helped us form closer relationships across the entire cohort.

Year 6 students have been learning to perform Maths investigations so that we can relate them to real life problems. Read about the various investigations we took part in during the last weeks of term 3.

• Did you know that string games were used by Elders in different Aboriginal communities for storytelling and to pass on cultural knowledge? During this investigation we developed our fluency when choosing appropriate methods to classify and measure shapes and angles of our string figure creations.
  
  
• Who from your team would you choose to take the set shot to win the premiership? We investigated goal kicking reliability and designed our own chance experiments to solve this question. During the problem-solving stage, we analysed the angle, distance and even choice of foot to seek a solution.
  
  
• Many people don’t associate Maths with beauty and creativity, but many mathematicians do! Maths and beauty are evident in number and geometric patterns, so we investigated them through tessellations. We explored semiregular tessellations that are made up of two or more titles, each of which is a regular polygon.
  
  
• There is still a lot of mystery surrounding the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Today, historians, scientist and mathematicians grapple to make sense of eyewitness accounts that are thousands of years old. We interpreted mathematical information to make reasonable estimates of missing information during this investigation to create plans of prisms, pyramids and cylinders to make a scale model.
  
  
• Ever tried to shoot for a goal in netball? What happened? Did you miss or get the goal? We investigated the several factors that contribute to getting a goal in netball by looking at the biomechanics of netball and looking at the shooting angle. 

Curiosity  •   Respect  •  Integrity  •  Resilience

REMINDER: register by tomorrow!

Year 5 and 6 Sex Education: Interrelate Parent Information Session

Are you wondering how to have conversations about Sex Education with your child?

Prior to the Interrelate sessions for Years 5 and 6, we strongly encourage those parents and guardians to attend an information session which outlines the content of this important program. This session provides parents with guidance on supporting their child, not only for the duration of the program, but also as their child moves through puberty.

This is for Year 5/6 adults (parents and carers) only (so please have your headphones handy) and will be held on Tuesday 25 October at 5pm via Webex. There will be an opportunity for questions during this session.

We ask Year 5/6 parents to register for the parent session no later than Friday 21 October.  Webex information will be forwarded to all parents/guardians attending closer to the date.

To register, please click here.

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Welcome to Term 4 in the Art Room.

This final term Prep students will be looking at the works of John Coburn, for collage inspiration and making a variety of puppets, to correlate with their design and technology learning in class.

Year 1 will be experimenting with a variety of practices inspired by themes from “The Sea”. Year 2 will focus on standing constructions, with cardboard cutting and folding techniques, and Year 3 will be exploring positive and negative space, using stencils and screen-printing methods. Year 4 will be looking at the works of contemporary indigenous artists as inspiration for a painting unit and Year 5 will be considering the art of money, making their own currency and exploring the design and security elements of Australian banknotes. Year 6 will be very busy this term completing skateboards and finalising the detail for a Graduation Artwork to present to the school.

Thursdays from 11 to 11.30, Art Club will be open again to all year levels across the school. Students can use this time to follow up on competition entries advertised on the Art Notice Board, or join activities lead by our art captains Tony and Annalisa.

Selected works from the 2022 Archibald Prize are still on exhibition at Bunjil Place along with a special children’s workshop attached to the exhibition, until 15 October. Blak Douglas is an artist that LPS Year 5 students became familiar with in their landscape unit last term. One distinct element within his paintings is the 'flat bottomed cloud', featured in his Archibald Prize winning portrait of Karla Dickens. In this workshop Blak instructs on how to create a cloud in his unique style.

If you haven’t yet visited the NGV Kids Gallery, next weekend is the last chance you will have to explore intriguing art making experiences attached to the Picasso exhibition. These activities are engaging for all age levels.

We had great success with the LPS Exhibition of Student Artworks from Home, which is still on display outside the Art Room. Entries are closed now and Art Captains will be counting votes to announce the first 3 People’s Choice recipients.

Thank you for craft donations and for providing a labelled smock or old shirt to cover your student’s uniform when painting. This term, donations of wool and ribbon are greatly appreciated.

Curiosity  •   Respect  •  Integrity  •  Resilience

          
   

Parents Group News

Term 4 is looking to be a busy and fun term, with plenty of events and activities to look forward to.

Mango Fundraiser 

As in previous years, Laburnum Parents Group are organising trays of delicious juicy mangoes to be delivered in early December. Each tray will contain 14-23 mangoes and cost $26. Click on the link below (or use the QR code) for more details and to place your order. Orders must be submitted by Friday 21^st of October.

https://www.trybooking.com/CDEOB

Gingerbread House Fundraiser – coming soon

For the first time Parents Group are arranging a gingerbread house fundraiser to be delivered just in time for Christmas. More details coming soon!

Slime Fun Run – Friday November 18th

Laburnum Primary School’s Slime Fun Run will be taking place on Friday the 18^th of November during school hours. Sponsorship booklets will be provided to each student next week, so keep an eye out for these in your child’s school bag.

State Election Day BBQ and Cake Stall – Saturday November 26th

It’s not often we get the chance to fundraise at two elections in one year, but later in the term we will once again be asking the Laburnum PS community to bake for our election day cake stall. More details coming soon.

Get involved!

New parents are always welcome to get involved in Parents Group. We will be looking for more parents to get on board in 2023, so if you’re interested, please email Vicky: parentsgroup.lps@gmail.com. 

LABURNUM PRIMARY SCHOOL SECOND-HAND UNIFORM SHOP

Click on these links  below for Community News or information:

Click on the OSHClub logo (left) to read this week's OSHClub news.  OSHClub - please register your child - it's free to register and you'll always have that option for childcare, even in unexpected circumstances.

Please click here to view information for upcoming parent seminars.

Please click here to view information for tennis coaching

Please click on image for Chess Club registration

Please click here to view information and registration for Digimaker.

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute 

Judgement and criticism are the stock in trade for many people in todayʼs fast-paced world. In our playgrounds and parks, children often act cruelly – or are simply uninterested in how other people feel. Little kids, big kids, and even adults can respond reactively and unthinkingly, or sometimes intentionally, with unkindness.

Although being unkind is nothing new (itʼs happened from the beginning of humanity), technology is enabling cruelty in faster, easier, anonymous ways. Technology is also making it hard for our kids to develop skills to delay gratification. Exercising impulse control – self regulation – is trickier because waiting isnʼt needed. These things combine to make it increasingly hard to be a compassionate and kind person, someone who considers the needs of others rather than acting out of self-interest. It demands intention and commitment.

The helperʼs high
Our brains release “feelgood” chemicals (like oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins) which fight stress and make us feel happy when we engage in, or even witness, acts of kindness. Itʼs called the “helperʼs high” and itʼs our brainsʼ way of rewarding us for doing good, making us want to repeat the behaviour to get the same good feeling again. Not only does being kind feel good, but it generally keeps us safe because it makes us more likely to be accepted by social groups. It builds social capital when we are considerate of the needs of others.

Create opportunities for kindness
Even though they are hardwired for kindness we still need to create opportunities for our kids to engage in acts of kindness. We also need them to know what it feels like to have someone treat them kindly (so they know what behaviours to copy, and why kindness is important). So how can you help them?

Model kindness
Show your children how you treat others kindly. Hold open doors for people, put trolleys back that are in the middle of the car park, drop a meal to a sick family member, donate old towels to an animal shelter, let someone in when traffic is heavy.

They donʼt have to be grand gestures, just small and gentle ways of considering the needs of others.

Use kind language
Consider how you speak to your child and what you say when you speak. Ask how you speak about others (and yourself). Our kids use our behaviour as templates for how they should act. So let them see your compassion shine through for those around you. Be kind as you listen. Be kind as you talk. Say kind things.

Encourage helping
Is one child great at Maths and their younger sibling isnʼt? Invite them to teach them or guide them through their homework. Ask them to show you how to play their favourite video game. If they are great at cooking, ask them to help you prepare dinner. Having them involved in prosocial ways gives them a helperʼs high.

Build their emotional intelligence
Kids who struggle to regulate and manage their emotions will find it harder to treat others with compassion. An essential part of teaching kids to be kind centres on teaching them to manage challenging emotions, and giving them coping strategies to navigate their way through.

• Teach them the words for feelings. Without the right words to share how they feel it can leave kids confused, fearful and frustrated…which only serves to make their big feelings more intense. When you see them experiencing a feeling, name it for them: “I can see that made you so mad”, “I wonder if you felt sad when your friend left you out”.
• Help them identify when they are escalating, but donʼt try and reason with them when they are in the “red zone” – we cannot reason with them at this stage as they are in the emotional part of the brain (mid brain) not the part that lets them be logical (pre-frontal cortex). Discuss strategies and practice when they feel calm. Get them doing things like squeezing play dough, talking about how they feel, going for a run, switching on music that makes them feel good, drawing or writing stuff down.

Rachel Tomlinson

Curiosity  •   Respect  •  Integrity  •  Resilience