LPS eNews

17 June 2021


Principal's Message

Our cover this week features one of our proud Prep students, sharing his LFH number sequencing task.
We also share some Education Week photos, captured just before Lockdown.

We are expecting updated advice about school arrangements today. Hopefully, we can communicate the latest news, soon, via email link!

Congratulations
to everyone who helped our students during Learning from Home. We do understand the challenges of juggling LFH, work and other commitments, but we can definitely say that LPS families have done a wonderful job in the last few weeks. 

Our teachers began the return to school last Friday with a purposeful Wellbeing focus, as we've done after previous lockdowns. They found that students were generally happy to be back at school, playing with friends and sharing their LFH tasks and experiences, including those dioramas!

From a school perspective we had a smooth transition to Learning from Home. When we think back to March 2020, we have certainly learned so much in just over a year. It is a completely different prospect to roll out something that you've already done before, whereas last year, schools were starting from scratch.

Most families were familiar with our platforms, resources and content this time around. However, let's not forget those families who are new to our school - cudos to them on catching up on our LFH and Webex experience.

It was a similar story for our new staff and the colleagues who supported them. Once again, we heard from new staff about the incredible support they received from their teams and the collaborative way in which teachers worked together online throughout those two weeks of remote learning.

Although most of our LFH program was very similar to last year, we did have the advantage of additional TLI tutors in the school this year. This meant that, instead of using our specialists for Literacy Intervention, we could utilise the tutors to support some individual students on the TLI program.

In turn, this has enabled us to trial some online classes with specialists. When we sat in on those, there was high excitement from many of our children and we were delighted at the large numbers of students who enthusiastically participated.

Although we hope that we don't have anymore remote learning, we're always happy to hear any feedback you might care to share, via the school email laburnum.ps@education.vic.gov.au

We also appreciate your support for modified school arrangements this week, and at extremely short notice on Friday afternoon. Just as they had slipped back into LFH, our 708 students went resiliently with the flow, remembering 2020 and even reminding us of things that worked well with dismissal last year! Prep students eased seamlessly into these arrangements and older students picked up their siblings so responsibly. 

Thank you parents for your patience and cooperation - again - and our teachers for your care and suggestions. We were commended for our school pick up and drop off arrangements in 2020, and now have trialled a viable alternative to staggered start and finish times. This could be useful if we need to limit access to the school for non-essential visitors in the future.

Many thanks to our Parents Group who organised the very well attended bingo sessions last Tuesday and Wednesday evening for over 100 families. It was timely to offer a community event to reconnect families.

Congratulations to Tasneem (and all the parents who contributed suggestions), along with the following Organisers and Hosts: Vicky, Nadia, Wei, Georgina, Narelle, Bec, Abby, Terry, Kylie and Wei.

This is our final LPS eNews for this term.

Parents are reminded that school finishes at 2:30 pm next Friday 25 June and, as Monday 12 July is a student-free day, school resumes on Tuesday 13 July. OSHClub is again available for Vacation Care.

We hope all families and staff can rest and recharge before we return to school safely in Term 3.

Kim


Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute



School Council Update

from Michael Johnson, School Council President

Dear LPS Community,

After a relatively ‘normal’ start to the school year, Term 2 quite quickly threw out its fair share of challenges to our whole community with the ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown and new restrictions. Despite this, we have almost made it through and look forward to things hopefully returning to normal as we head into the second half of the school year.  

The experience of last year certainly proved invaluable as the whole school community was able to switch to Learning from Home in an almost seamless manner. This was only possible with an enormous amount of work behind the scenes from the teachers and staff of LPS, for which we are very grateful. It was also a challenging time for many families at home too, so thanks to everyone for making it work and providing the support to your children and their teachers over this period.

School Council has continued to meet over Term 2, even meeting face to face at the AGM and subsequent May meeting! I would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome our new parent Council members, James Goode, Matthew Hall and Nadia Hamilton. The effective governance and operation of LPS relies on parents volunteering their time and skills as members of the school council, so we thank James, Matthew and Nadia for getting involved. We also have Mandy Ryan joining and Jo Braden returning to council as DET representatives – thanks to both for giving up their time as well.

I’d like to highlight a few recent agenda items from the Council that may be of interest to the community:

  • Priority Projects – Despite the challenges of having contractors coming on to school grounds, Council has approved an upgrade to the Audio Visual equipment in the hall. This will hopefully be installed in the next few months (subject to the restrictions).
    Council also endorsed the appointment of a Landscape Designer to assist with a master plan for the school grounds. This plan will be critical in forming the direction of the Buildings and Grounds Committee over the period ahead, as well as ensuring we are maintaining and improving our outdoor spaces appropriately.
  • Student Wellbeing and Engagement Policy – Council endorsed this updated policy, which had been thoroughly reviewed by the Engagement and Wellbeing Sub-Committee and is now found with other policies on the school website.
  • Parents Group Update – Council discussed the long list of activities planned for the remainder of 2021. These look fantastic with many planned for later in the year fortunately. It has been a tough job to be on Parents Group during COVID given so much disruptions and the efforts of our volunteers continues to be recognised and greatly appreciated.

I continue to encourage any parents keen to being more engaged in the LPS community to consider joining Parents Group, Finance, Buildings and Grounds or the Engagement and Wellbeing Committee. You do not need any special skills for any of these, just a willingness to contribute to the LPS community and some time to attend monthly meetings and any other activities along the way. If you have any questions about these opportunities please don’t hesitate to contact the office, Kim, Jo, Kathy or any of the current school council (listed below).

Engagement & Wellbeing Committee:
Georgina Raudon, Michael Mottershead, Jo Braden, Mandy Ryan,

Nadia Hamilton, Kim Dray

Finance Committee:
Jonathan Teow, Tom Harper, Michael Johnson, James Goode, Kim Dray, Kathy Verbi, Jo Braden

Buildings and Grounds Committee:
Phil Grainger-Smith, Matthew Hall, Kathy Verbi, Kim Dray

Office Bearers:
President: Michael Johnson
Vice President: Phil Grainger-Smith
Finance Convenor: James Goode
Executive Officer: Kim Dray

Lastly, as we approach the school holidays I wish everyone a safe and relaxing break. See you in Term 3!

Michael Johnson
School Council President

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute



What's Happening?

from the Assistant Principals, Kathy and Jo

We were pleased last Friday to welcome back onsite again our students and staff.  

We thank you for your cooperation with the arrangements in place during 'drop off' and 'pickup'. Please also remember to maintain social distancing and avoid congregating at or near the gates during these times to ensure that we continue to be a COVIDSafe community. 

Unfortunately, DET restrictions have impacted our current extracurricular programs, including coding, chess and 3D printing clubs. We hope these can be resumed next term.

Our Music tutors are continuing their lessons at this stage, and we will keep you updated as, or if, further updates are received.

Those with children attending our OSHClub, please scan the QR code located at the gate or OSHC room door when dropping off or picking up. This ensures that we are maintaining the requirements for contact tracing and following our COVIDSafe plan. 

Student reports will be available on Sentral next Thursday or Friday.

Parent - Teacher Meetings Tuesday 27 July & Thursday 29 July


In Week 3 next term, we are offering appointments via Webex for parents/carers to meet with their child’s teacher individually. The appointment is an opportunity for you to discuss the next steps in your child’s learning.

These appointments will run for 10 minutes, as usual, and parents should wait in the online 'Webex lobby' for teachers to admit them to the meeting. Change-over time between meetings will allow the teacher to be ready for their next Webex meeting. Specialist teachers will have limited appointments available and request that you only book to meet with teachers your child has, if you need to. Specialist bookings are one per family, not per student.

If you need more time with a particular teacher for any reason beyond this, you are welcome to arrange a separate meeting or phone call outside of these dates and times.

If you require an interpreter, please notify the office via email by 4 p.m. on Tuesday 13 July. Meetings with our Chinese interpreter will be held during the day on Friday 30 July and Hui Lin will email those parents with details. 

Except for EAL interpreter meetings, all other families should book online:
Visit the Sentral Parent Portal and click on the Parent-Teacher meetings tab.

Opening and Closing Dates

Bookings will open Friday 16 July at 5.00 pm.
Bookings will close Friday 23 July at 5.00 pm.

Teachers will distribute Webex meeting invitations to parents who have registered, after the bookings close.

Excursions

Once we are informed what is happening with Excursions and Swimming for Term 3, as per DET Operations Guide, we will pass this information onto you.

Families who paid for excursions and Year 5 Swimming that were affected by the lockdown will be informed whether excursions are being rescheduled or a credit is applied to family accounts.

Thank you for your patience.

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute 



Student Leaders

What's happening around the school with some of our student leaders...

House Captains

Our fantastic House Captains have been organising and supporting a range of school activities, such as:

  • Joggers Club: Open for all students each lunchtime. A  great way to promote fitness and build passion for running!

  • House Colours Day: It was great to see so many bright colours around the school on Friday 14 May. Thankyou everyone for supporting Roberts, McCubbin, Streeton and Conder by wearing your house colours.

  • House Points: It has been amazing to see so many house points being awarded this term. A true indication of how well our students demonstrate the school values.

  • Table Tennis: House Captains have been setting up Table Tennis tables at lunchtimes. A fantastic initiative!

Thank you House Captains for continuing to be such a big part of our school and helping wherever needed!

                    

Spanish Captains

¿Qué pasa? (What's going on?)                     

 “¡Hola!” from Spanish Club

           

Kanishk and Michael have demonstrated a sense of vision and purpose while taking on responsibilities each week during Spanish Club…..

It all began with recognising the need to build membership and problem solve how to best do this. Through discussion and teamwork, the ideas of voting and readvertising came about; most importantly, the importance of everyone having an equal say.

Voting took place to change the day of the club (competition with ‘Icy Pole’ days) and the updating of posters around the school began.

FYI-Spanish Club is now on Fridays at lunch time-Join us!

Kanishk and Michael used leadership skills to direct fellow club members to carry out a project through to a successful conclusion- La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar).

This was created after listening to the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (bilingual English/Spanish) to learn days of the week, numbers and foods. See below....

                   

Take a bow Michael and Kanishk and Friday Spanish Club Members!

 

And finally, some great ideas for school holidays  from our Wellbeing Captains, Lucas and Brad ...

Wellbeing Captains

Lucas and Brad have come up with some screen-free ideas on how to keep busy during the school holidays.

- Play some games with your family. Card games are great, especially UNO. Some board games to try include Yahtzee and Connect 4.

- Spend some time practising Mindfulness. You could read a favourite book, do some creative writing, draw or take a nap!

- Set up an obstacle course. You could even do this inside if it is a rainy day!

- Visit a park. Kalang Park is close to LPS and has lots of space to run around or kick a ball.

- Do some arts and crafts. You can reuse items from home like shoe boxes and newspaper.

Most importantly, school holidays should be about recharging so we are refreshed and ready for Term 3!

        

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute 



Thrive

from Narelle Sime, Leading Teacher - Wellbeing

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships ('4 Rs')

At Laburnum Primary School, all levels teach the 4Rs program, as part of our Wellbeing program every week. The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships learning materials have been designed for primary and secondary schools to develop students’ social, emotional and positive relationship skills.

All year levels have been covering the unit Problem Solving, during term 2. During the two weeks of Remote Learning, we continued this relevant focus and, on Friday's return to school, classes resumed face to face Problem Solving tasks.

Problem solving helps your child to develop their critical and creative thinking skills. Developing a range of strategies to solve problems will help your child to make responsible decisions and understand the consequences of their actions. The complexity of problems your child can solve will develop as they grow.

We had lovely feedback last year about the conversations at home where there were siblings learning the same 4R's skill areas. It's great to hear about this, as our consistent school-wide approach is quite deliberate.

To enrich this learning, parents may like to try the following Problem Solving activities at home:

                     Prep:                                                            Years 1 & 2

                      

                  Years 3 & 4                                                          Years 5 & 6

                        

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute



Prep

Prep students were very busy in the week before LFH! We would like to thank all of the parents who took time out of their busy schedules to read and complete an activity with us during Education Week. It was lovely to share some of the learning we have been doing at school.

We were also fortunate to have the local firefighters visit and teach us about fire safety. They discussed good and bad fires, crawling low when there is smoke and if there is an emergency you need to call 000. The firefighters told us that we need to discuss with our families where our 'safe meeting place' will be, in case of a fire at our house. They are looking forward to hearing where these places are on their next visit to school.

In Maths we have been learning about 2-dimensional shapes. Students have sorted and made patterns out of common 2D shapes. We even enjoyed exploring the school looking for shapes in our environment.

We have also enjoyed learning all about the letter M. We read the book, The Magic Hat. Students made their very own magic hats and enjoyed telling each other how their hats were magic.

We hope Prep students enjoyed playing the games and activities teachers provided while learning from home.


Curiosity  •   Respect  
•  Integrity  •  Resilience



Senior School - Years 5 & 6

Year 5 Reading

Summarising what we read is an important skill to master. The Year 5 students have been using helpful sentence stems to assist in orally summarising fiction and non-fiction texts. Try using these at home to help summarise a text that you read and see if they help you retain the important parts.

 

Year 5 Writing

Year 5 students have been working on writing a great narrative. Students looked in their Just Right Books to see how authors used ‘sizzling starts’ to engage the reader. These were some of the different ways they found.

  

We looked forward to working through the narrative writing process – planning, drafting, editing, revising and publishing over the next few weeks (including during the unexpected LFH). Our finished pieces will go home to hook in a family member.

Here are some ‘sizzling starts’ written by 5S.

Buddies

Year 6 have been thoroughly enjoying a chance to work with their Prep Buddies. It is a great program that allows the students to develop their leadership skills and make connections with a younger age group.  We have been getting to know them by reading stories, playing games, making chatterboxes and chatting. The Year 6 students have been reminiscing about the buddies they had when they were ‘little Preppies’.

Swimming

It was great to see so many of our Year 6 students participating in the Swimming Program, developing both their stroke technique and water safety skills. Their enthusiasm, flexibility, and persistence resulted in a positive experience for all involved.

Curiosity  •   Respect  •  Integrity  •  Resilience



Specialists

from Sarah Lienert and April Farlow

Choir News

Thank you to all who attended our chilly open morning for our Year 3 and 4 choir during Education Week. It was wonderful having so many voices joining in with some of our choir’s favourite warmups, and for our students to demonstrate their singing skills to you. Being able to perform to an audience was also a valuable experience for the choir, which is sure to help them in future performances.

                   

Art News

Art Competitions are back up and running this year and students are invited to investigate the Art Notice Board for details about how to enter the following competitions. Entries can be created at home or during Art Club from 11am on Thursdays.

  • The Laburnum Primary School Art Competition was founded by our Art Captains Zoe and Mieke in 2019. Our current captains Aditya and Jim have taken the reigns and are advertising the competition at year level assemblies. Please see the Art Notice Board for details about categories, prizes and entry criteria.

  • This year’s Lions Club Peace Poster Competition is also open for entries. The theme this year is We are all Connected. Previous finalists and winners can be viewed here.

  • Students are also invited to consider starting works for entry into The Young Archies portrait prize. Submission are due early next year, but can be presented at school this year, for entry. Winners and finalists from 2019 can be viewed here.

  • The Zart National Student Art Prize is also open for entry from 14 June to 19 July - click here for details.

Thank you to those parents who are sending in clean, non-food related recycling for Year 5 sculptures.

There are still students who require a smock or old shirt to cover their uniform in Art lessons. It would be appreciated if they could have these by their next Art lesson.

Curiosity  •   Respect  •  Integrity  •  Resilience



Contribute: Parents Group & Community News

Parents Group News:


Family Bingo Nights
Thank you to all LPS families for coming out for the Bingo Nights last week. It was fantastic to see so many smiling, happy faces! Congratulations to all the winners, prizes will be handed out soon. A big thank you to the organisers: Vicky, Nadia, Wei, Georgina, Tasneem and parent helpers hosting the Bingo Nights: Bec, Abby, Kylie, Wei, Terry and all class reps for helping us make it a success.


List of LPS family businesses

We are still collating our list of businesses owned by LPS families so we can share with the school community, as well as possibly reaching out if there are any social or fundraising events that might be able to utilise these businesses. If you own a business and would like to be included, please fill out this survey https://forms.gle/RL6kR7dwz949eAxn7.  


Umbrellas
Don’t be caught out without an umbrella! For anyone that wants to purchase a school umbrella they are $25 and can be purchased at the office.


Entertainment Book
Raise money for the school by purchasing the digital Entertainment Book! 20% of every Entertainment Membership sold goes to the school. With thousands of incredible offers of dining, activities, travel & shopping and loads of 50% off and 2 for 1 deals in Melbourne and across Australia. The membership is instantly available and valid all year. Sign up using the link www.entbook.com.au/185r982.


Joining Parents Group
Do you want to be more involved in the school community? Then come and join Parents’ Group! We are a friendly and supportive group that focus on fundraising and community events that in the past have included the Colour Run, Mother’s Day stall, Father’s Day breakfast, the Fete & Barefoot Bowls (just to name a few!). Past fundraising efforts have helped provide great facilities such as the Laburnum Lab.

We'd love new members to join and there is no expectation as to how much time you spend assisting with activities. Join a fantastic group of parents committed to ensuring Laburnum is not just a school, but a community. For more information please email parentsgroup.lps@gmail.com



Click on these links for Community News or information:

                     


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 on the link here for information on Digimaker.
                       
                                        

 

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute 



Parenting Ideas: On time, every day


During the current COVID-19 pandemic parents are rightfully urged to take a cautious approach and keep children and young people at home if they show symptoms of the virus.

It’s a balancing act if you’re a parent, as one the most important things you can do to ensure your child has a bright future is to make sure he or she goes to school every day - and gets there on time. It sounds simple, but it’s true. The correlation between school attendance and children’s achievement levels is well established. The more time kids spend at school, the more likely they are to experience school success. Of course, most people know this intuitively, yet school absenteeism is a huge problem in Australian schools.

According to a report by the Australian Curriculum and Assessment authority nearly 13 per cent of Australian students are missing at least one year of schooling by the time they reach year 10. In today’s highly competitive world, this rate of absenteeism is alarming, putting our kids at a distinct disadvantage.

Current research shows that mornings for most children are the most productive time of the day, with 10.00am the peak period for productivity. When children arrive late and take time to settle as they inevitably do, valuable learning time is lost.

It’s reassuring to know that you can maximise their chances of future success just by making sure they turn up to school every day. And, of course, regular school attendance also helps kids prepare for the workforce, where it will be expected that they turn up each day work-ready. The real world is unforgiving of those who stay away with no excuse.

As a parent:

  • Commit to sending kids to school every day
  • Make sure kids arrive at school and class on time
  • Inform the school when they are away, sending medical certificates and other evidence of genuine absence
  • Follow current COVID-19 health guidelines and recommendations
  • Consider catching-up on missed work
  • Make kids who are away stay in their bedroom, which is where unwell kids should be

Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas, is one of Australia’s leading parenting educators. He’s an award-winning speaker and the author of 12 books for parents including Spoonfed Generation, and the bestselling Why First Borns Rule the World and Last Borns Want to Change It . Michael is a former teacher with 15 years experience, and has 30 years experience in parenting education. He also holds a Master of Educational Studies from Monash University specialising in parenting education.

Our Vision:    Learn   •   Thrive  •   Contribute