It has been a,

Wednesday 27th June 2018

News from the Principal

Term 2 Ends – Friday 2:30pm Parents and carers are reminded that Term 2 will come to an end at 2:30pm this Friday 29th June. Students will be dismissed at 2:30pm ahead of the winter holidays. Term 3 will begin on Monday 16th July at 9am. Assembly – Friday 1:30pm We will hold an end of term assembly at 1:30pm in the school hall. Everyone is welcome. A Big Term for Dandenong Primary School It has been a very big term for our school in Term 2. Some of the many highlights have included:

The formation of our new Victorian Primary Schools Basketball League Dandenong Primary School basketball squad with players from Year 1 to 6 taking to the court each week

Our Year 3 and 5 efforts throughout the Australian-wide NAPLAN testing in May

Our Year 5 and 6 work with ABC Me’s Launchpad as part of the Stargazing Live experience

Our visit from Guy Sebastian and the team from Channel 7’s Sunrise

Our Year 1/2 excursion to the Werribee Open Range Zoo

Our Year 5/6 ‘STEM’ work Students, teachers and our wonderful support staff are very much deserving of a relaxed winter break ahead.

Guy Sebastian’s Surprise Visit On Monday 18th June 2018 we were paid a very special visit by one of Australia’s most successful singer-songwriters and former Australian Idol, Guy Sebastian!

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Free AFL Tickets for Sunday! We have FREE tickets to this Sunday’s AFL game between Melbourne and St Kilda at the MCG at 1:10pm. If you would like tickets for the whole family (and even some for your friends), visit the school office before the close of day on Friday. These tickets are provided by the Melbourne Football Club as part of their ‘Welcome Game’ initiative. The Welcome Game is an inclusive event that promotes a message of welcoming everyone to Australian football, to the MCG and to the Melbourne Football Club.

Guy Sebastian’s Surprise Visit On the morning before the first of his two sold out Drum Theatre shows, Guy Sebastian dropped by Dandenong Primary School. Guy arrived at the school and made a surprise visit to a couple of our Year 5/6 classes before being led to our school hall by school captains, Hamza and Rida.

In the hall, Guy happily took questions from an eager audience of children, parents and staff. Guy talked to us about the love for his family, his love of golf, The Beatles, the Adelaide Crows Football Club and sushi. When asked if he had any tips for us at Dandenong Primary School, Guy said we should remember to be kind no matter what. Guy then took to the stage and sang a handful of his hit songs. He even got the rest of us handling backing vocals on ‘Like It Like That’.

After his impromptu set, Guy hung around and signed autographs for children in the school yard.

The children of Dandenong Primary School obviously left their mark on Guy as he reportedly made mention of his visit later that night on stage at the Drum Theatre. He also took to Instagram to promote a Sunrise story on his school visit, referring to the students of Dandenong Primary School as ‘little legends’.

Guy’s visit to the school was documented by Channel 7 for the Sunrise breakfast show. This was a special added bonus for our school as Guy reportedly likes to keep surprise visits such as this one ‘low key’ and usually prefers no cameras.

Guy Sebastian was so kind and generous with the time he took to talk and perform for us at school. On behalf of our school community I would like to thank Guy, his management team, Sony Music, the folks at Flourish and Nathan Templeton from Seven Network’s Sunrise for making last week one for our community to remember for a long time to come! If you missed out on our visit from Guy Sebastian, you can find video clips from the visit as well as the coverage from Sunrise on our Facebook page at Facebook.com/DandenongPrimarySchool ‘New Work Reality’ Last week Jan Owen, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) presented to myself and an audience of school principals around the idea of preparing our children for the ‘future of work’. This presentation was only Jan’s second since the release of the latest FYA report around “The New Work Reality” which is hot off the press. According to the latest report, the transition for young people between full-time education and full-time work is “increasingly uncertain”. However, the report identifies four significant factors that can “accelerate the transition” from full-time education to full-time work.

The four significant factors include:

An education that builds enterprise skills

Being able to undertake relevant paid work experience

Finding paid employment in a sector which is ground

An optimistic mindset What might this mean for us at Dandenong Primary School? We are currently in the early stages of our current 4-year School Strategic Plan at Dandenong Primary School which has us focussing strongly on literacy and numeracy improvement. As we progress through our currentl plan, we will begin to increase our focus on our strategy to:

1. Develop students who are motivated, independent and inquiring learners with positive mindsets, and

2. Enhance student voice so that our students can act as effective partners in school improvement

These two strategies for our school can very much explicitly support two of the four significant factors that are found to accererate the transition from full-time education to full-time work, being: enterprise skills and optimistic mindsets. Jan Owen also discussed the advantage that individuals with two or more languages will have in a future Australia which is exciting news for our students for whom English is an additional language. As a community we should keep an eye on future reports from the Foundation for Young Australians and the like as a means for helping shape the future of our great school. Year 1/2 Werribee Open Range Zoo Excursion Our Year 1/2 students, staff and parent helpers had a very rich learning experience at the Werribee Open Range Zoo last week. Check out the photos later in the newsletter and check out Facebook for more!

Student Reports & Parent/Teacher Interviews Parents and carers should have received their child’s report for June 2018 this week. Our reports provide a snapshot in time of how each child is progressing against expected standards and suggest next steps in each child’s learning progress. It is important for students, parents and staff to work together to continue to maximise each child’s progress into Term 3 and 4. If you have not been able to arrange a time to meet with your child’s teacher at this week’s Parent/Teacher Interviews, it’s important that you make arrangements to meet early in Term 3. Swimming Program - Term 3 Our swimming program this year will take place every Wednesday from Week 1 next term. Payment for swimming participation is due today. Our swimming program is an important part of the overall school curriculum. It focuses on:

Water safety

Stroke development

Fun and fitness If you need an extension on your swimming payment deadline, please get in contact with me by THIS Friday afternoon. It is my aim to maximise participation in this important part of the school curriculum. An Exciting Term 3 Awaits… Next term is looking very exciting with the following to look forward to:

Weekly swimming program Writer in Residence Program for

Madame De Baize’s class of Year 3/4 students

The commencement of our 2018 – 2019 ‘Objects of Longing’ Year 3/4 project with contemporary artist Kym Maxwell and the Monash University Museum of Art

Year 5 Malmsbury Camp Year 6 Melbourne City Camp

Objects of Longing Project

During 2018-2019 contemporary artist Kym Maxwell will undertake a residency at Dandenong Primary School to develop a multidisciplinary art project titled Objects of Longing. Students and staff at the school will participate in the project through an extended investigation focussed on ideas related to play, collecting and cultural production. Objects of Longing includes class excursions to Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) where students will have the opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at the museum to learn about what museums collect and why. Following, a weekly series of workshops will be held at the school with Kym and other artists to develop a theatrical work. Throughout the students will engage in research, script writing, sound, prop, set design and construction.

Objects of Longing culminates in a suite of live performances/exhibitions at multiple venues including Dandenong Primary School, Harmony Square and MUMA. This project is funded by Creative Victoria through their Creative Learning Partnerships: School Residency Program in association with MUMA and Dandenong Primary School.

Basketball News Our basketballers have been going from strength to strength in terms of their confidence, team work and basketball skills since taking to the court at the beginning of Term 2. Our Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 boys teams have been very competitive all term and our Year 1/2 mixed team and Year 5/6 girls are beginning to gel, both putting on their best games yet last Friday evening. This is all made possible with the wonderful support of parents Athena, Maria, Malia, Knowles, Peter (pictured above right with our Year 1/2 mixed team), Mrs Carpenter, Ms Rayson and Ms Smith.

If your child is interested in joining for Term 3, please see Mrs Carpenter or myself. Cost is kept to a minimal $70 per term (or $7 per week, per player).

Winter Reading Raffle We’re holding another holiday reading raffle. To enter, students simply need to read every day over the holiday break and complete the winter reading log. At the first assembly back in Term 3, we’ll hold a prize draw and a hardy working lucky winner will collect a prize!

Mathematics Association of Victoria (MAV) Conference at the University of Melbourne The ink had barely dried on our June 2018 student reports as a handful of our many highly dedicated teachers set off for the University of Melbourne, giving up their weekend to attend to the latest MAV ‘Critical and Creative Thinking in the Mathematics Classroom’. Pictured below is Mr Krol, Mrs Truscott, Ms Fernandez, Ms Rayson, Mrs Van Emmerik and Mr Mersin.

Crossing Supervisor’s Bike Stolen Last week one of our crossing supervisors who assists children and families to cross Foster Street between the school at the Dandenong Plaza car park had his bike stolen from near the Dandenong Plaza street sign.

If you have any information that might assist in getting the bike back, please let me know. NEW Dandenong Primary School Step Into Kinder Kindergarten Program! If you or someone you know has a 3 year old you’d like to make a head start with on:

Developing fine and gross motor skills

Build on language skills, and

Become more confident through structured play

Then come along to the Dandenong Primary School Step Into Kinder program. It’s on every Thursday morning from 9 – 11am and it’s FREE! For more details, get in touch with Alison in our Community Hub. We’d love to see you there! School Building Refurbishment This morning I met with the architect and builders who will work on repairs to our main administration building and Year 3/4 classrooms. The repair will work include:

New carpets throughout the building including Year 3/4 classrooms and office areas

New flooring through the corridor areas New staffroom area flooring A new deck built with bi-fold doors to the

old courtyard near to the staffroom Some window repairs

This work will mean that:

Our staffroom will be moved temporarily for the early part of Term 3

Mrs Jarvis’s Year 3/4 class will make their way through Mrs Pereira’s office to access their classroom

The area near to the courtyard (the entrance to the staffroom from the school office area) and the walkway through to the Year 3/4 classrooms will be blocked off for the first few weeks of Term 3.

Work will take place in two stages: 1. Repairs to the staffroom flooring and construction of renewed courtyard area (the first few weeks of Term 3) 2. Recarpeting and some minor repairs to the 3/4 classrooms (likely in the Spring holidays)

I will provide an update early next term with how the work is unfolding. Police Investigating Hoax Threat Yesterday afternoon I met with detectives from the Victoria Police for an update into their investigations around the threatening telephone call from late May. Police have managed to determine which telephone made the call and from where the call was made. I am unable to share the exact details at this point because Police are continuing to do their work leading up to the arrest of the offender however we can be somewhat reassured that the incident is being treated as a hoax threat made by someone a great distance from Dandenong Primary School. Have a very chilled winter break! See you all bright eyed and bushy tailed for Term 3!

Daniel Riley Principal

News from the School Office

Spare Pants Needed! At certain times of the year the office is called upon to provide children with school pants due to their own being ripped, wet and so on. We are desperately short of pants especially the smaller sizes. If you have any spare navy blue pants at home or even black it would be appreciated if you could donate them to the school. Thank you, Donna, Denece & Carol

Year 1/2 Excursion Check out Facebook for more!