Newsletter 06.06.2022

Issue 17


Dates to Remember

Monday 6th June - Lion’s club Public Speaking 6.30pm.
Wednesday 8th June - Book Club Orders Close
Friday 10th June - Year 5/6 Yack Landcare Local Excursion
Monday 13th June - Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday
Tuesday 14th June - Pupil Free Day
Wednesday 15th June -
Year 5/6 'Fantastic Mr Fox' Excursion
Friday 17th June -Regional Cross Country

Thursday 23rd June - Yr. 3/4 Planting Day at Yack Creek
Friday 24th June - Yr. 1/2 The Lion King Excursion 
Friday 24th June - Last Day Term 2
Monday 11th July - First day Term 3
Friday 15th July - Winter Sports Carnival (Years 3-6)

Tues 9th Aug – Wed 10th Aug - Year 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp
Wed10th August-Fri 12th August - Year 3/4 Melbourne Camp
Thursday 25th August - School Athletics Carnival
Monday 29th Aug-Friday 2nd Sept - Wodonga Arts Festival
Monday 29th Aug – Friday 9th Sept - School Swimming Program
Wednesday 7th September - District Athletics
Monday 12th September - Lucas Proudfoot Circular Rhythm Performance
Friday 16th September - Last Day Term 3
Monday 3rd October - First day Term 4
Friday 7th October - Division Athletics

Friday 14th October  - Regional Athletics
Tuesday 1st November - Melbourne Cup Public Holiday
Friday 18th November - Kanga 8’s
Friday 25th November - Kanga 6’s Cricket Carnival (Years 3 – 6)
Tuesday 20th December - Last Day Term 4



From the Principal

Congratulations to the students who competed in the Division Cross Country run last Friday. Students gave their best and achieved some great results. There are a number of runners who will go on to compete at the Regional Cross Country event in Benalla in the near future. Brendan will provide details on that event.

Like all industries, there is a shortage of staff in education, including early childhood, child care and senior secondary. The small pool of relief teachers are in heavy demand and often there are none available. Staff are working hard to keep school (and kinder & OSHC) as normal as possible for the children, though some disruptions are possible.

We are unable to offer Vacation Care for the upcoming school holidays due to staffing uncertainty and urge families who rely on this service to look for alternatives.

Don’t forget that next Tuesday (14th June) is a pupil free day. Due to a lack of staff we are unable to offer OSHC services on the pupil free day.  We apologise for any inconvenience.

Michael Edwards
Principal



From the Office

A big thank you to Alyce Pritchard for filling in for me while I took a few weeks Long Service Leave – I greatly appreciated all her hard work.

Absences
A reminder that if your child is away for any reason the office needs to be notified so the absence can be marked accordingly. Thank you to all the families who have been doing this.  With a lot of students being ill at the moment it makes it a lot easier to receive these notifications.  You can record an absence by either phoning the school office, sending an email to yackandandah.ps@education.vic.gov.au or via the website “Register an Absence’,

Camps, School & Excursion Fund (CSEF)
Do you have a Health Care card or a Pension card and you haven’t notified the office?  If you are a holder of a means tested card you could be eligible for the  CSEF.  Applications for this year  closes  on the 24th of June 2022.

If you have a child in Foundation and you receive the CSEF you automatically qualify for the 2022 Prep Uniform Package which includes track pants, a pair of shoes and a voucher to subsidise the cost of a school jumper.  Please call into the office for more information.  Applications for the uniforms close at the end of Term 3.

Enjoy your week,
Sandra



Assembly Helpers

Imogen Rolfe & Angus M'Crystal



Achievement Awards

Nate Maybury for following the persuasive writing procedure ‘to the letter’ and creating an excellent piece on why YPS should have three playtimes.
Kayden Street for working so hard to complete tasks and stay focused!
Sara Davison for a detailed, well-presented poster about contractions in spelling.  Well done!
Thomas Killen for his fantastic persuasive writing about why we should have three breaks.  It had a great hook and excellent reasons.
Dane Holden for including descriptive language in his Lions Club Speech about Daydream Island and delivering it confidently to the class. You did it, Dane, well done!
Katherine Somerville for working hard on her Lions Club Speech about Sydney and delivering it confidently to the class. Keep it up, Katherine!
Macklan James Hillier for impressive efforts with counting.
Mia Lockett for being an organised host at your Cinema during our shopping activities this week.
Molly Schultz for always being an enthusiastic and interested learner.
Maeve Van Duinen for always putting in 100% with all classroom activities.
Esmeralda Haslett for dedication to reading both at home and at school!
Renn Thompson for always approaching new tasks with confidence and a “Can do” attitude!
Spencer Pretty for being an outstanding word detective and finding SO many words with a short ‘e’ sound. Well done!
Savannah Lockett for working so hard in all areas of her learning and showing great improvement, especially in reading.
Miles Thornton for reflecting critically on his learning to support goal-setting and growth.
Abbie Williamson  for presenting a very well researched speech to her class as part of the Lions Club competition.
Judd Maybury for enthusiastically engaging in a variety of roles during our week of ‘shops’ for maths.
Percy Gosling for staying so focused and completing great quality work during the Writer’s Workshop session today.
Amaya Whitley for displaying excellent writing strategies during her ‘cold write’ last Thursday.



Hot Lunch News

We are making Beef & Rice Burritos this week.

Last Friday we made just over 120 bowls of Butter Chicken and rice served with flatbread, a nice warm meal to keep the cold away!

Order Payments
Order payments will be receipted this week and any families owing will be sent a reminder email.

School Compost is all a go..
Two compost bins have been set up in a garden bed behind the pizza oven, close to the kitchen.

The bottom of the bins have been lined with mouse/snake proof mesh and the area has been covered with a thick layer of mulch.

The intention is to process the organic waste we produce from the kitchen on site... plus we have access to lots of autumn leaves and shredded office paper too, winning!

Jane Murphy – Hot lunch Co-Ordinator
ypshotlunch@gmail.com
0416 051 473



Year 3/4 News

Fauna Incursion at YPS
Last Tuesday 31st May, around 60 students from years 3 and 4 took part in a second series of workshops related to this term’s science unit, “Home Among the Gum Trees”. The wild and wintery weather prevented us from heading off-site, but running the workshops at school provided other opportunities for learning. Local experts, Karen Retra, Dr Paul McInerney and Dr Jo Millar led the sessions.

Karen brought in a variety of plant samples where there was evidence of critter activity and the students played “CSI” to form an opinion of what might be happening. Under our new USB microscopes, the students were able to study, among other things, a dragonfly nest, the egg sack of a jewelled spider and cocoons.

An expert in freshwater aquatic life, Paul had the students examining water samples from Yackandandah Creek looking for any lifeforms that might be present. The students were amazed to discover that richness and diversity of life that exists in water. Who would have thought that it is not just fish and yabbies that live in our creek?! Paul’s impressive knowledge of these aquatic species opened our eyes to something we knew very little about.

Jo is well known in the community for her work with Landcare and was able to share her knowledge of some of the larger animals that are found locally. She shared photos taken by hidden cameras of wallabies, bandicoots and a resident fox. Jo explained how the nesting boxes are different for different target species and how the pole camera works to seek how these boxes are being used.

Our next excursion will focus on giving back to nature through a planting day and is booked in for the Thursday 23rd June. Let’s hope that the weather is a bit friendlier then.





















Year 5/6 News

Fantastic Mr Fox’ Excursion
On Wednesday 15th June, the Year 5/6 students will be travelling by bus to Marian College in Myrtleford to see their school performance of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’.  We will be leaving school at 10am and returning by 2.30.   Marian College is providing the bus and a mid morning snack. Students will need  to bring their own lunch.  There is no cost for this excursion.  Permission forms have been sent home tonight and need to be returned by Wednesday.

Yack Landcare Local Excursion
On Friday 10th June, the Year 5/6 students will be going for a walk to the sports park and the Bells Flat Rd estate to conduct tests on water samples collected from the 2 different locations. They will be guided to administer some basic tests, like temperature, pH, turbidity, and possibly Oxygen. This has come about through Yackandandah Landcare Group wanting to engage with senior primary school students on the importance of wetlands and to introduce to them the science that measures their health. Chris Tracy is a volunteer with Yackandandah Landcare and will be facilitating this great opportunity. We welcome parents to join us for this walk, if this interests you, please email Lauren for exact times. As this is a local excursion, permission forms are not required. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Brendan & Lauren



Sports News

Upper Hume Division Cross-Country
Last Friday, 33 students represented the school at the Upper Hume Division Cross-Country event in Wodonga. In many of the races, our kids were up against more than 100 other runners. In what has to be a record for Yackandandah Primary, 14 students have now qualified for the ‘Regionals’ at the Benalla showgrounds on Friday, June 17. Congratulations to all of the students who participated and best of luck to the following qualifiers: Spencer Dowsley, Oscar Dickson, Tarn Charles-Jones, Jim Kelley, Gabby Garguilo, Lucy Matheson-Jones, Lola Mahoney, Saoirse Beatty, Claire Walsh, Aiden Dent, Zac Davis, Harvey Gosling, James Thornton, and Max Edwardes.

Parents and carers, please note that the school will not be taking a bus to this event and that it will be up to families to organise transport. If you are having any problems with this, please let Brendan know.






Winter Sports Carnival
The Winter Sports Carnival (the first since 2019) will be taking place in Wodonga on the first Friday of Term 3 (July 15). We are entering teams in football, netball, soccer, tee-ball, and for the first time, rugby league tag.

We will begin our training this Thursday after recess (and every Thursday until the carnival), with a number of students (those playing  soccer, tee-ball, and rugby tag) walking down to the sports park (weather permitting). Those practising for netball and footy will remain at school. Because the training is a local excursion, no further permission form is needed. For the purposes of practise, especially for footy and soccer, students are able to bring suitable footwear or other protection gear to school.  

 A permission form for the actual carnival, however, is required and has been sent home today and needs to be returned to school by Friday 17th June.. Cost for the Winter Sports Carnival is $10.

Brendan

 



OSHC News

Pupil Free Day - Tuesday 14th June
Due to a lack of staff we are unable to offer OSHC services on the pupil free day.  We apologise for any inconvenience.

Vacation Care 
We are unable to offer Vacation Care for the upcoming school holidays due to staffing uncertainty and urge families who rely on this service to look for alternatives.  We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause families.

This week in OSHC!
This week in OSHC, the children unfortunately were not able to get outside as much. In saying that, it gave the children and educators the week to look at what resources we have in our shelves. The children were able to pick and choose what they wanted to do with their time in the OSHC space.

This week the educators implented a jobs chart. Each day the children will get a job, this give the children a chance to show pride and care within our OSHC space. The children will all get together and complete their jobs. When they have finished their jobs, the educators have noticed that the children will go and help their friends in need. This is fantastic to see!

A message from Felicity
Hi everyone, my time in Yackandandah Primary School is coming to an end this week! My last day is on the 9th of June. I will be saying goodbye to everyone throughout this week. If I miss saying goodbye to you, please know that I am very grateful to have met everyone and to have bonded with so many families and their lovely children. From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank, every family that is involved with the OSHC space, the children for making me love my job and smile everyday. I would also love to give a massive thank you to the staff of the OSHC, you ladies have worked very hard this year. I want to give the biggest thank you to Michael and Sandra for helping out so much behind the scenes, Michael and Sandra have supported myself and the staff throughout the year.

I hope to see you all in the future. Until then keep growing and keep positive!

Thanks, OSHC Team



Birthdays

9th June – Milla Stagg

9th June – Ruby Hewitt

9th June – Aliya McCormack