Issue 27

Tuesday 13th September 2011

PRINCIPALS REPORT
PLANNING FOR 2012 The Getting Started Program is a transition program that supports kindergarten students commence school. It is an extended transition program that allows children to spend time in the new learning environment, learn to play outside with other school children and become familiar with other students that will be attending Ashby in 2012. Could parents who have children in the community that they intend to enrol at Ashby please do so as soon as possible as the information for the Getting Started Program will be sent out this week. The program will commence the third week in Term 4. Whilst planning and introducing the new Prep students to school, the staff will now commence planning for grades in 2012. If families know that they are not attending Ashby in 2012 could you please contact the office. This information allows us to make better decisions about grade sizes and the structure of grades. When we plan the grades to take into consideration the learning styles of students, and the best learning environment we can develop so any information about families moving is really important to consider when planning. PARENT OPINION SURVEYS: Thank you to the parents that have returned the PARENT OPINION SURVEYS. Could parents that still have the surveys return them to school as soon as possible. The feedback from the surveys assists in providing information to the school so that we can continue to provide for the students the best educational environment that we possibly can. JUMP ROPE FOR HEART Last Friday was JUMP ROPE FOR HEART DAY. The whole school was involved in activities that included various ways of skipping. There was a demonstration group from grade 3/4 that demonstrated the history of skipping and the different types of skipping games students have used. It was a fun, very physical day that allowed all students to participate. Thank you to Jemimah Welsh for organising the day. RERE-USE A SHOE This program will finish this week. If you have any old and no longer useful sneakers please send them to school this week. They are sent to Melbourne and reused as rubber soft fall. JENNY OMACHEN Principal, Ashby Primary School

DATES TO REMEMBER
Wednesday 14th September Finance Sub - Committee Meeting at 6.30pm in the Staff room. Wednesday 14th September School Council Meeting at 7.00pm in the Staff Room Friday 23rd September Last Day Term 3. 2.15pm Finish.

Term 4
Monday10th October to Friday 21st October Intensive Swimming Program for Preps, Years 1, 2 & 3. Getting Started Transition Program for Prep students 2012 3rd week in October Tuesday 25th October Instructional Round. Saturday 5th November School Market Day. Thursday 17th November School Concert. Thursday 8th December Bush Band in the Hall and parent invitation to attend at night.

Principal: Jenny Omachen

www.ashbyps.vic.edu.au

School email - ashby.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

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FRIENDS OF ASHBY UPDATES

Visit the FOA Blog http://friendsofashby.blogspot.com/ for more updates! Next FOA Meeting The next FOA meeting will be Friday, October 14th at 9am in the Hall. Agenda items include the Annual Art Show and Market. All are welcome! Woolworths Earn and Learn Promotion Ends September 18th! Thank you to families for all the Woolworth Earn and Learn Points! This promotion ends this Sunday, September 18th, so please be sure to bring in all your Woolworths shopping dockets (or at least the bit at the bottom with the points you earned and their code) by Friday, September 23rd! You can return your dockets to your childs teacher, the school office or place them in the collection box on the Friends of Ashby bulletin board just outside the staff room. And dont forget to ask your family and friends for their receipts and vouchers. The more points we have the more resources we can get for our school! Annual Art Show and Market Day Stall Holders Still Needed! Friends of Ashby Primary are holding a market in conjunction with our annual student art show on Saturday, November 5th from 10am-3pm. We are aiming to provide a welcoming and cheerful atmosphere in which our stallholders can showcase their talents and homemade produce and crafted goods. In the sustainable spirit of the school we are currently seeking stalls for the market which have items that:

are handmade, reuse or recycle vintage goods, have a positive environmental impact and offer good quality products.

If you are interested in having a stall you can download the stall holders packets from www.friendsofashby.blogspot.com or contact Tracy Raby via mobile 0430 0276 688 or email rabytracy@hotmail.com. Remember all proceeds from the day will support our music and arts program! Keep Collecting your Coles Sports for Schools Vouchers! We now have over 4500 Sports for Schools Vouchers and there is still one more month left in this promotion, so keep them coming in! Please return your Coles Vouchers to your childs teacher, the school office or place it in the collection box on the Friends of Ashby Bulletin Board just outside the staff room. The Coles promotion runs through October 18th.

McCAIN Veggie Patch program Ends September 30 Ashby Primary School has registered again for the McCAIN Veggie Patch program to support work in our school garden. Through the program, McCAIN is giving away over $500,000 worth of veggie patch equipment to primary schools during 2011. To support our school simply collect barcodes from your McCAIN vegetable packs between now and September 30, 2011. You can give your barcodes to your childs teacher or place them collection box at the school office. As this promotion ends during the school holidays, please be sure to bring any barcodes in by Friday, October 14th. And dont forget to ask your family and friends for their McCain vegetable packs barcodes! Every barcode earns McCAIN Veggie Patch points for our school which can then be redeemed for gardening tools and seeds.

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FRIENDS OF ASHBY UPDATES CONTD

Can You Help? There are many ways you can get involved at Ashby. Below are some current activities we are seeking assistance with:

Fresh Fruit Friday, every Friday 9am - Assistance is needed every Friday after drop off (9amish) to help prepare fruits and veggie platters for the classrooms. If you can help, please join us in the classroom kitchen. Trestle Tables needed - if you have a trestle table (the ones that are about 6 feet long) or two we are seeking some for use at the Art Show and Market Day event on Saturday, November 5th. These tables will be used to display art and for some of the stalls planned. If you have a trestle table we can borrow, please contact Cyndy Scherer at friendsofashby@gmail.com or 0438-172-949.

LOST PROPERTY
End of Term is looming, only two weeks to go, so please come and look through the lost property box beneath the Friends of Ashby noticeboard opposite the staffroom. Items not collected will be sorted appropriately. Junior Cricket Geelong West Rams Cricket Club invites ALL kids interested in playing junior cricket (U11, U13, U15) or Milo In2cricket to a free Coaching Clinic THIS Sunday (Sept 11) 12 - 1pm at Action Indoor Sports Centre, Furner Ave, North Geelong. Our Registration Day is Sunday 12pm, Sept 25th 11am - 12pm at West Oval, Oval Church St, West Geelong with a BBQ Lunch afterwards. Come along and join the GCA Div 1 Premiers and be part of a great family club. Any enquiries, feel free to call Michele Craven on 0438 761 379

NETBALL
After the holidays netball will restart at Geelong West on Thursday nights. I have entered 3 teams. If you are interested in your child playing, please fill in the slip and return to the office. -----------------

WANTED FOR AFTER SCHOOL CARE

If anyone has G-rated Xbox games they no longer need After School Care would be most grateful if you wished to donate them. Denise kindly donated an Xbox to After School Care and the kids love it. Thanks heaps Denise. We are still wanting old socks donated for future activities. Thank you to all parents who pay their account each week. It would be great if all parents could paid their outstanding accounts by the end of Term next Friday 23rd September.

I would like my child ____________________________ Age _______ to play netball on Thursday nights next Term.

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WALKING SCHOOL BUS NEWS

VicHealth and the Geelong City Council have put together an information pack entitled The Journey to School. A pack will be sent home for each family by the end of Term 3. In the meantime, you can practice walking safely to school by joining the Walking School Bus at 8.30am at the top end of Waratah Street or you can join in at any point along the way. Thanks, Katrina 0403910063

Invitation to stallholders! This year, on Saturday November 5th our school will be showcasing our children's work in our annual art show! Adding to the fun of the day, Friends of Ashby Primary will be holding a market to support our music and arts program. In the sustainable spirit of the school we are currently seeking stalls for the market which have items that are handmade, reuse or recycle vintage goods, have a positive environmental impact and offer good quality products.

Quiz Worx
coming to town

is

If you are interested in having a stall or have talented friends or family members who would like to be involved please let us know! More information and a contact number for queries are in the registration pack available this week from the school office. It can also be downloaded from the Friends of Ashby Blog.(www.friendsofashby.blogspot.com) We hope you will consider joining us on Nov 5th to help raise much needed funds to support the music and arts program, build the school and community and just have some fun!

Acclaimed Sydney team, Quiz Worx, is coming to Geelong. They will share the good news of Jesus with kids in fun, exciting and creative ways. Join the fun with puppetry, music, chalk talks, animations, story telling, drama, quick draw, comics and more October 5th-7th (Wednesday to Friday, second week of the school holidays) Scots Presbyterian church hall Church on Pako Cnr Pakington and Waratah Streets, Geelong West 9:30am -12:30pm Free Entry A fun holiday program for all primary aged children More info: www.churchonpako.org.au or call Dave 041866470

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ART ROOM
It's hard to believe we are nearing the end of another term. We have been very busy in the art room and are really looking forward to showing off some of the children's art work at our shows! Firstly we have the Geelong Show on the weekend of October the 15th. The children's work is exhibited in the education pavilion along with other schools from the region. It's always with a sense of pride that the children have their work displayed and are often excited to see it exhibited alongside their peers. Ashby children's work has done very well in the past, with us winning first prize last year. Our own art show is on Saturday November 5th and this is also a fabulous opportunity for the children to have their work displayed, not only for families to come and view, but for a wider community with the hosting of the Market Day at Ashby. The children will also have their own stall where we will be selling clay garden creations made by the students of this school. Help is needed to get all these things done. If you can help with the Geelong show, either by helping set up the display on Monday October 10th or by doing a turn of duty and sitting in the education pavilion for an hour on the Saturday, that would be great. Or it would be wonderful if we could have some helpers to mount the art work, or to help thread the wind-chimes for our own Ashby show in November. If you can help at all could you please see me in the art room on a Monday or a Wednesday or contact the office and they can pass your details onto me. A lot of the work can be done from home if it's easier. Also we will be starting getting ready to decorate the Christmas tree in Pakington Street and always love donations of recycled items, anything really, but preferably water proof eg. old cutlery, plastic bottles (we'll need lots of those this year), beads, plastic cups, containers, lids etc. Best regards,

Kathy Hyland.

Ashby Primary School Art Show and Market Day Trestle Tables Needed We are seeking trestle tables (the ones that are about 6 feet/2m long) for use at the Art Show and Market day that will be held on Saturday, November 5th. All tables need to be at the school no later than Friday, November 4th. Please make sure to mark you table with your name on it. If you have a table we can borrow, please contact Cyndy Scherer via email at friendsofashby@gmail.com, mobile 0438-172-949 or fill out and turn in the form below to your childs teacher or the office. Art Show and Market Day Trestle Table Form Name: ________________________________________________________________________ Contact Info (phone or email): ____________________________________________________ I have ___________ (number of tables) that can be used for the Art Show and Market Day event)

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PRESIDENTS REPORT - AUGUST 2011

In order to improve communication between the School Council and the larger school community the School Council will be sharing a summary of its meetings each month. This information will be shared via the weekly school newsletter and the new school council blog (www.ashbycouncil.blogspot.com). Below is the summary from the Councils August meeting (Wednesday, August 17th): School Review All initial information has been collected and our critical friend is working on a draft report using this information and other data available on the school (e.g. surveys, NAPLAN scores). A school review day will be held on August 31st to explore information gathered, the draft report and get further feedback. Community Usage of School Facilities Policy With the completion of the BER there have been some queries about use of our renovated school facilities by community. We currently dont have a policy in place related to this kind of usage. We are researching similar policies from other schools with the intention to create our own policy. Principals Report The staff who joined us in term 3 including Gavin Dowling (music) and Stephanie Pritchard (Grade 5/6B) are settling in well. The BER has effectively been completed. A small amount of money was included in the BER for new furniture and technology. New furniture has been ordered for the library/resource centre and one of the grade 5/6 classrooms. New computers have been ordered for the resource centre. We have gotten quotes on lights and sound equipment for the hall and new stage. There is also a plan to hold an official event (a bush dance) to celebrate the completion of the BER in October (Term 4) Friends of Ashby Report The Annual Art Show will be held on Saturday November 5th from 10am-3pm. The event will also include a market day to engage the outside community as well. Stall holders for the market are currently being sought. FOA has decided to not use lets get growing as a fundraiser this year. While it was successful last year raising about $1500, the feeling is that it can be overkill to do this kind of fundraiser every year. The Coles and Woolworths promotions are both going well, with Woolworths promotion ending September 18th and the Coles promotion ending October 18th. Garden/Chook Shed this structure has been effectively completed thanks to the efforts of volunteer parents. All gardening items have now been moved into the structure. The chicken coop component does still require chicken wire. Quotes are being sought on needed supplies. No trespassing signs The school will be getting no trespassing signs to put up on the school grounds. Classroom Kitchen/Garden Program Sub-committee With the completion of the new classroom kitchen to ensure its use and the development of needed policies related to it the Council is discussing a proposal to create an ad hoc sub-committee of council members, parents, staff and community members to help with developing such a plan and policies.

If you have questions or wish to raise any issues or concerns with the School Council please contact ashbycouncil@gmail.com. Our next School Council meeting is Wednesday, September 14th at 7pm in the staff room. All are welcome!

Cynthia Scherer President, Ashby School Council