Greythorn Primary School – Working Together

Greythorn Primary School

Reading Avenue, Balwyn. North 3104

Tel: 9857 9762

Website: www.greythornps.vic.edu.au

18 December 2019 School Calendar

Week 11 Thu Dec 19: Prep-Yr 2 Magic Show

Thu Dec 19: Meet Your 2020 Teacher 12-1pm Fri Dec 20: End of Term 4 - dismissal 1.30pm

2020 Term 1 Thu 30 January—27 March 2020

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

2019 2019 has been another wonderful year at Greythorn PS. It has been action-packed throughout with a myriad of activities and events occurring each term. A highlight for the year was the Lion King production. A memorable event that was an opportunity for the staff, students and parents to work together to achieve an amazing outcome. The teachers have continued to work very hard to ensure that high quality teaching and learning is achieved every day of the year. They have also worked very hard to offer the wide range of extra-curricular activities that the students have the opportunity to experience in-cluding; Clubs program (chess, science, coding, games, French, art), athletics, swimming, cross-country, Year 3-6 camps, inter-school sport, snow sport camp, excursions, incursions, Harmony day, French day, Book Week, Year 6 bike camp, market day, expos, Art show, Maths Olympiad, ICAS competition, Peer Mediators program, Year 5 bike education, Junior School Council and many, many more. I thank the staff sincerely for their commitment and dedication to GPS. Parents & Friends Association Our PFA was once again very active throughout the year. They organised and coordinated many fundraising events and social activities including; bake sales, mango sales, Mothers’/Fathers’ Day breakfasts and stalls, movie day, Halloween disco and many more. I would like to thank all PFA members for their hard work and dedication to the school. The money raised each year is used to enhance the facilities and resources at the school and the subsequent positive impact for the school and students. As well, the social events provide an opportunity for the school community to enjoy time together in a variety of social settings. Unfortunately, we are losing two PFA stalwarts at the end of the year. Both Danni Brown and Kate Locke will be finishing their association with the school. Danni has been the PFA president for the past 5 years and she has done an outstanding job. She has efficiently and graciously overseen PFA meetings and events, ensuring the success of them all through her meticulous planning and attention to detail. Danni has selflessly worked hundreds of hours in her own time as president and she leaves such a positive legacy. I have had the pleasure of working closely with Danni in her capacity as president and it is always a pleasure working with her. On behalf of the Greythorn community Danni, thank you for all of your hard work and commitment to your role. You have had such a positive impact in our community that is appreciated by us all. Kate has also been a long-term PFA member and parent volunteer. Kate is at Greythorn every day of the week assisting with many things. Apart from the PFA events and activities, she also assists in the library, coordinates the school banking, assists in the canteen and oversees the second-hand uniform shop. Kate has literally spent thousands of hours at school as a volunteer and she is going to be sorely missed. On behalf of the staff, students and parents, thank you Kate for your amazing work over many, many years. You have been an inspiration to us all and your w ork has been appreciated by everyone in our community. Parent Volunteers Thank you to the many parents who volunteer time to assist throughout the school. This includes; school council, canteen, inform shop, library, canteen, camps, excursions, school banking and in classrooms. Your assistance is greatly appreciated by the staff. In particular I would like to thank and acknowledge the following parents for their work over many years at Greythorn; Cam Brown - Cam has been a school council member for the past nine years. During his time on council, Cameron has held the position of President and he has been an integral member of the Finance committee for many years. Cameron has always been a voice of reason and a strong advocate and supporter of all that the school does and I thank him sincerely for his commitment and dedication to GPS. Yelka Moloney - Yelka has been the working bee coordinator for many, many years. She has worked in conjunction with the Buildings and Grounds committee to develop and maintain the school's facilities and grounds. Yelka has worked tirelessly in this role and I thank her for willingness to volunteer so much of her time for the benefit of the school.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT CONT.

2020 Workforce Planning The following list indicates the allocation of teaching staff for 2020:

Prep – Andy Bentley, Jane Marino & Terry Price Year 1 – Lorraine Howell & Karen Woods Year 2 – Elidia Rymer, Catia Durante & Kim Adam/Brooke Walling Year 3 – Max Mays, Tali Eades & Caitlin Shipsides Year 4 – Tara Kapoor/Bec Banez, Mary Haidamous & Alex Nitsos Year 5 – Rachel Wallace, Steve Pertz, Caroline Eva/Amber Shepherd & Gabby Ginevra Year 6 – Janice Miller, Helen Karvela & Jen Gibson Phys Ed – Claire Knell Library – Nopi Kenos (.7) Music – Joy Odou & Juliette Browne Art – Bernadette Latorre French – Aude Joyce & Juliette Browne EAL – Kirstin Tuminello LAP – Juliette Browne, Nopi Kenos & Bernadette Latorre Learning Specialist Support – Amber Shepherd (.2) Additional Assistance – Beck Birch (.4)

We are saying farewell to several staff members who are either retiring, moving schools or changing career path and includes the following:

Denise Hartigan - Denise is retiring at the end of this year. Denise has been at Greythorn Primary School for more than 20 years and she has worked in a variety of roles. She has worked as the PSD (Program for Students with Disabilities) coordinator for over a decade. This is a highly specialised role that

Denise has carried out with a great deal of skill and dedication. Her knowledge and expertise in this area has enabled her to complete the myriad of requirements when applying for funding, as well as the ongoing management of students on the program and the staff who work with these students. She also works closely with the families of the PSD students, managing and assisting them in what can often be very stressful and difficult circumstances. Denise’s role has meant that she has worked far more hours per week than her part-time fraction and I thank her for her professionalism and

dedication over a long period of time. Denise has also been the LAP (Language Assistance Program) teacher for many years. She has worked with dozens of students individually or in groups to assist

them with the development of their reading and writing skills. Again, she has done an outstanding job in this role. I wish her well in retirement and congratulate Denise on an outstanding career in

education. Sue Rourke - Sue has announced that she will be taking long service leave from the beginning of Term 1

next year and then retire when her leave is completed. Sue has been a teacher at Greythorn for well over 20 years and last year we celebrated her 40th anniversary in education. Sue has been an

outstanding teacher who has dedicated her life to her students. She has worked tirelessly throughout her career to ensure that every student she teaches achieves the best learning outcomes possible. We will celebrate Sue’s career next year when she officially retires.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT CONT.

Peter Sartori – Peter has taught Year 6 this year and has done an outstanding job as a first year graduate. He has been an integral member of the Year 6 team and through his outgoing personality and cheery disposition, he has endeared himself to staff, students and parents alike. I would like to thank Peter for his outstanding contributions throughout 2019 at GPS and commend him on his dedication and professional approach to all that he does. I wish him well in his endeavours at Templestowe Heights PS next year.

Mat Vogel – Mat has taught Year 4 this year and he too has done an outstanding job as a first year graduate. Mat had previously been a CRT at Greythorn, but I congratulate him on the excellent job

he has done as a full-time staff member in 2019. Mat has been an integral member of the Year 4 team and has demonstrated his professionalism and dedication to GPS throughout the year. His work as DJ Matty V at this year’s Halloween disco will be remembered for a long time. I wish him well next year in his endeavours at Doncaster Gardens PS.

Tali Mason – Tali has taught Year 2 for the past two years. Tali has been an integral part of the Year 2

team during this time. She has supported all school events and activities and I thank her for her dedication to GPS. She has been a member of the digital technology team and her skills and

knowledge in this area have helped to develop the programs across all year levels along with the introduction of the 1:1 iPad program. She too has been an outstanding graduate teacher and I wish her well in her endeavours next year and beyond.

Claire Knight – Claire has taught physical education at Greythorn every Tuesday for the past two years.

Her commitment and dedication to Greythorn during this time has been outstanding even though she only works part-time. She has supported all physical education and whole-school activities and has continually gone above and beyond her duties to assist Claire Knell with the ongoing training of teams and assistance at all events and activities. I would like to thank Claire for her outstanding work and dedication to GPS and wish her well for next year and beyond.

Christina Kondoleon – Christina has taught Year 5 two days a week for the past two years. She has been

an integral member of the Year 5 team and worked tirelessly to create a seamless approach in the shared teaching role. Christina’s friendly and caring personality has endeared her to staff,

students and parents alike. She has supported all events and activities and I thank her for her dedication and professionalism. Christina will continue to work as a CRT at Greythorn next year. Kirstin Hall – Kirstin has worked at Greythorn for the past four years as an education support staff member. She has been an integral member of the integration aide team, working with a wide range

of students across all year levels. She has supported a large number of teachers and students in her role, ensuring that differing social, physical and education needs are met. Kirstin has also been a wonderful support with all school activities and events and I thank her for her dedication to GPS.

I wish her well in her endeavours next year and beyond as she embarks on a career as a librarian.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT CONT.

Graduation Ceremony Last night’s graduation ceremony was a wonderful celebration of the students’ primary school education and a fitting way to farewell our Year 6 students. The students all looked very grown up in their graduation outfits and carried themselves maturely throughout the night. The celebrations commenced in the Hall with the dinner. The delicious food was a selection of salads, pizzas, sushi and gyros, which was enjoyed by everyone. A variety of desserts concluded the meal including cupcakes and lolly jars. Thank you to the Kenos family for cooking and donating the beautiful gyros meat. Each year the Graduation committee do an amazing job decorating the space with a theme, with this year being no exception. The theme was, Winter Wonderland and the Hall looked absolutely incredible with the stunning decorations and set-up. The snow making machine completed the scene. Sincere thanks to Kate Locke, Danni Brown, Katherine Kronish, Megan Hoffman, Melinda Millar, Clarissa Koukounas and Lydia Winstanley for the hundreds of hours of work that they put into this. The ceremony in the stadium was enjoyed by everyone with the students doing a wonderful job with their songs and speeches. Thank you to Janice Miller, Helen Karvela, Jen Gibson and Peter Sartori for all of their work in preparing the students so thoroughly for the evening. A memorable night for everyone. Year 6 Bike Camp The recent bike camp was extremely successful and was a wonderful experience for all of the students involved. With sixty-six participants this year, the camp was staged over three days with Group 1 riding Wednesday/Thursday and Group 2 riding Thursday/Friday. The mild weather made for very pleasant riding conditions during the three days. With a total riding distance of approximately 88km, it was a credit to all of the students (and parents) to complete the challenge in such a positive manner. I participated with Group 2 and it was gratifying to witness the students encourage each other and work together to ensure that everyone completed the ride and had fun along the way. All credit to Jen Gibson for her outstanding organisation regarding all aspects of the camp. Jen spent many, many hours preparing everything, which was evident in how all aspects were organised down to the last detail, ensuring that the camp ran like clockwork. She was ably assisted by Jane Marino and Claire Knell who both worked tirelessly over the three days. Thank you also to Peter Sartori, Duncan Exton, Janice Miller and Helen Karvela who all attended to assist with their respective groups. Thank you also to the many parents who attended to make this camp possible including; Paul Dubois, Koula Alexandropoulos, Yelka Moloney, Heidi Pilipasidis, Alsitair McMillan, Anahita Lobo, Keith Ing, Ian Smith, Deb Henson, Michael Chong, Dave Axup, Cam Brown, Stella Axup, Rebekah Brown, Jonathan Creek, and Peter Winstanley. It would not have be possible to have such a camp without their assistance and it is very much appreciated by us all. Student Reports The end of year reports will be accessible via Compass today. Please take the time to access and read your child’s/children’s reports as the staff have put many, many hours of work into writing them. 2020 Commencement Students return to school next year on Thursday, January 30. The teachers commence on Tuesday, January 28 with two student free days. Merry Christmas I wish you all a merry Christmas and a relaxing and enjoyable time with family and friends during the festive season. I look forward to working with you all in the new year. Best wishes to all families who are finishing their association with GPS. I thank you for your contributions to the Greythorn community and wish you all the best for 2020 and beyond.

Andrew Searle Principal

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

STEM 2020 The GPS focus throughout 2020 will be in the area of maths. Our intention is to build staff knowledge around problem solving and in particular the idea of rich task design. Rich task design is the ability to create or use stimulating tasks that meet the needs of all students within the class and provide struggle (learning) for every student. The skill in providing rich tasks is providing the scaffolds for enabling students to complete the task and extension for students to push themselves further within the task. The guru of problem solving maths in Australia, Peter Sullivan, will be providing all staff with professional learning in this area in July next year. Much of the current research in Maths/numeracy learning supports the idea of problem solving and the idea of each task providing an element of struggle for all students. The learning is not about being fast, it is about the thinking involved and being able to articulate your understanding.

We are looking to consolidate and extend our gains in technology education from 2019 during 2020. The 1:1 device program enjoyed widespread support from the parent community in 2019 with over 95% of students bringing their own device to school throughout the year. The new Year 3s begin their 1:1 device program in 2020 whilst the program will extend to Year 5 in 2020 and Year 6 in 2021. Our focus will remain the same, that devices are used in direct relation to the learning taking place in the classroom. It is not an add on. It is not technology for technology’s sake. The devices are used in order to support classroom learning across all curriculum areas, to make it easier to receive content from teachers and to promote a broader repertoire of presentation options. We now have a group of teachers who are experts in the use of Google Classroom and the Google suite of apps, so that has expanded our ability as a school to build the capacity of the rest of the staff. The capacity building of GPS staff will allow further development and innovation in this area throughout 2020 and continue to build the skills of students in relation to managing a cloud based environment. Duncan Exton Assistant Principal

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT CONT.

We intend to extend our making and engineering focus so that each year builds on itself and the students are provided with some fundamentals in coding through Lego robotics. The program starts with Preps and continues through to Year 5s with Lego WeDo 2.0. The focus is on problem solving and critical thinking through engineering, making and coding. We will continue to focus on design and 3D printing throughout the school. Each year level starting at Year 3 will be conducting a design process at least once a year in order to build their skills when conceptualising, designing and printing in 3D.

Professional Learning 2020 Our professional learning will focus on Maths. We are working through creating a new Maths vision for GPS and a set of Maths norms that set the agenda for classroom maths culture, that support the idea of problem solving, articulating your understanding, creating connections to the world and mistake making as a learning tool. We will provide professional learning for staff around this methodology and providing rich problem solving tasks for students. As mentioned earlier, Peter Sullivan (Maths professor) from Monash University, will also provide staff with professional learning. We will continue to work on literacy with Janice Miller as our literacy specialist, promoting best practice through book clubs, writing conferencing and writing workshops. We will send two members of GPS staff to the Bastow Leadership Institute to complete the Leading Literacy course. We will continue our focus in wellbeing, led by Jane Marino and Terry Price. There will be continued focus in Restorative Practices learning to build on last year’s whole school curriculum day. We will also continue our focus on the 4Rs Wellbeing Program, that is Rights, Responsibilities and Respectful Relationships.

MUSIC NEWS Year 6 Senior Choir Uniforms Thank you to those Year 6 students who have returned their choir uniform. If you have not already done so, please place the uniform in a named bag and bring to the Hall by Thursday 19th December. Choir members in Year 5 can retain their uniform for next year. The Gypsies Our school orchestra, The Gypsies, has a new conductor! Holly Moore joined us this term as conductor and she has been doing a wonderful job. Holly took over from Loren Brealey this term. We would like to thank Loren for her work with the Gypsies over the last year, and we say welcome to Holly. If you play an orchestral instrument and would like to join the Gypsies in 2020 please obtain an enrolment form from myself or the office. This form is both for new and returning Gypsies members. Have a very happy musical Christmas everyone! Joy Odou Music Teacher

Bakers Delight Balwyn 377 Whitehorse Road

Balwyn Vic 3103

Just a reminder in the lead up to Christmas, Greythorn Primary School belongs to the Dough Raiser Program at Bakers Delight Balwyn. 5% of all sales attributed to the school is

received at year end.

So please if ordering bread or mince tarts etc., just mention Greythorn Primary before completing your transaction for the school to receive the benefit of your purchases.

We again thank Bakers Delight for offering this program to Greythorn Primary.

Greythorn Primary PFA

2019 was another busy year for the PFA at Greythorn. We have enjoyed many social and fundraising events, including: Welcome BBQ Year Level Dinners for parents Golf Day for parents Easter Raffle Bake Sales Election Day Cake Stall and BBQ Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day Breakfasts Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day Stalls Movie afternoon at Balwyn Cinema World Teachers’ Day Morning Tea Mango Fundraiser Halloween Stall at Greythorn Shops Festival Halloween Disco Year 6 Graduation PFA members have also supported the School Banking program, the Recycle Uniform Shop, the Fun Run, Grandparents’ Day, the Canteen, Working Bees, the Art Show and more. We must send big thanks to our wonderful Class Reps, who have assisted the PFA throughout the year. They have been so helpful in passing on messages to classes, organising birthday celebrations for teachers, and arranging other events. We will be looking for at least one class representative from each class at the beginning of 2020. Please consider volunteering for this role - the PFA will provide as much support as needed. Don’t miss out on being included on your class email list in 2019 - return the slip that you will receive next year to make sure you keep up to date on the news. You can also check out the Greythorn PFA Facebook page for information about events. The PFA are always interested to hear your feedback - you can email us at greythornpfa@gmail.com. Enormous thanks to everyone who has volunteered at events this year. Special thanks go to these super hard working PFA members - Kate Locke, Carolyn Camm, Liddell Dawes, Kathryn D'Alessandro, Patricia Ingram, Tracey Lam, Linda Muir, Melinda Millar, Darla Trejo, and Nopi Kenos. We also thank our amazing Mothers’/Fathers’ Day Stalls organiser Anna Toth for providing her fantastic stalls year after year as a volunteer. Final thanks go to Mr Searle, Mr Exton and the office staff for all their support over the year. Sadly, this is my last year at GPS, and it is time for both Kate Locke and me to move on. We have both loved our years at Greythorn, experienced so many fun moments, and made many wonderful friendships. We will miss the school community, but know that it will continue to grow and flourish in the future. Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2020! Danielle Brown on behalf of the GPS PFA 2019