“Edenhope College is a child safe school.”

Friday 24 August 2018 Newsletter of Edenhope College 40 – 48 Lake Street / Locked Bag 1, Edenhope 3318 www.edenhope.vic.edu.au

Telephone: (03) 5585 1277 Fax: (03) 5585 1656 E-mail: edenhope.co@edumail.vic.gov.au

Principal – Jon Neall Assistant Principal: Trevor McClure, Business Manager: Michelle Lowe

Student Support and Engagement Leader: Rachel Tiddy Teaching and Learning Leader: Emma Wallace

2019 Foundation Information Evening Wednesday 29 August

Formation of Parents Club Meeting

Wednesday 29 August 3:30pm

Late/Overnight Stay Foundation - Year 2 Thursday 6 September

Kowree Sports Day at Edenhope College Foundation - Year 6 Thursday 30 August

Emma Toms feeding Goodboy.

Amelia Nelson, Declan Joubert and Bailey Hartas in the Apsley CFA truck.

Layla Linto and Jack Nelson leaving the pottery shed (simulated smoke situation).

Rural Safety Day

Ariana Smith-Ralph assisting Bailey O’Brien and Chloe Smith with the correct posture when sitting.

Edwina Hare with Isabella the dog, talking to students about the safely handling of dogs.

More on page 3

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Meeting for the Formation of Parents Club - 29 August 2018

I have received a request from a group of parents that we form an Edenhope College Parents (or Parents and Friends) Club. My role upon such a request is to convene a meeting, open to all parents and carers, for the setting up of an Interim Committee. This committee will be involved in creating a Constitution for the Club, which will then regulate the appointment of office bearers. All are welcome to this meeting, to be held at 3:30 pm, Wednesday 29 August in the Centre (at the College). Crèche facilities will be provided. Please attend if you are keen to be involved. A vibrant and committed parents club will no doubt be

a positive feature of the College as we continue to move forward on our improvement journey.

Jon Neall

This week was Book Week at the College, and once again our primary students (and their parents) have gone full blast in creating and presenting some of the best costumes we have seen. It seems that the Book Week dress ups get better each year, with more students joining in each time (including a few secondaries). There were some really great characters and costumes to admire, and staff too, were in on the act. While the dressing up is fun, Book Week is, at its heart, a celebration of literature - of great stories. One of our key elements of our Annual Implementation Plan is to look at ways to improve our results in reading. Central to this, though, is a simple love of reading for enjoyment and pleasure, not only for information and/or persuasion. Reading should be fun, as often as possible. I’ve always believed that the most important skill I have (that many of us have, to be honest) is to be able to read. The second is the ability to write. Reading opens up the world to us, and enables us to ‘live’ beyond our own experiences. Writing enables us to share our experiences and knowledge with others. Language helps us express our feeling and beliefs, and, as Melina Marchetta (the Australian author of Looking for Alibrandi) has said, ‘without our language, we have lost ourselves…who are we without our words?’. Language is the most important part of being part of a distinct ‘culture’ and is clearly the basis of learning. Our words give us the ability to play any role we wish. If we go further, we can see that the ability to write has also led to much of the progress we have made as a race of humans. Professor Brian Cox speaks about the importance of writing: ‘With writing, came Literature, Science, Mathematics and Engineering. And as time passed so the information held in the written word grew and evolved. Writing is such an important innovation because it freed the acquisition of knowledge from the limits of the human memory. Once we could write things down, an almost unlimited amount of information could be passed not only from generation to generation but from city to city, from country to country, across oceans, across the world. Knowledge became widespread, accessible and permanent. Never lost and always added to’. When we read, and then do something with that information, we are building on the work of others, never having to ‘start at the beginning’. Maybe I’m overthinking this a bit. Reading can be, as I said earlier, simply for pleasure. But as I looked at a number of our young students celebrating literature this week, I couldn’t help remembering what I said to a few of our Foundation students a couple of years ago about reading. I told them that it was like having a magical power – whatever you wanted to know, you could find out, simply by reading. The ‘ohs’ and ahs’ the class gave me that day may have been a bit contrived, but the power is real. Aside from love, care and compassion in others, reading and writing are the greatest gifts we can give our children.

Jon Neall

Non spikey Succulents

In STEAM we are making a sustainable garden using succulents. If you have any succulent cuttings that you would be willing to donate for our garden, could you please leave the cuttings at the front office with the name Dash on it.

Thank you from Dashel.

Do you have any spare ties?

We are seeking donations of any ties that you might have to help make our Boomerang Bags for you to use!

If you have any spare ties could you please drop them off at the Edenhope College front office.

Your help is much appreciated. Thank you.

Year 8 STEAM Class.

Rural Safety Day

How much water is flowing into Lake Wallace?

The VCAL Numeracy class took the opportunity provided by the recent wet weather to investigate inflows to Lake Wallace, and the lake’s corresponding increase in volume. Measurements were taken to estimate the flow-rate of water running into the back swamp from the drain under the Harrow Road; with this value extrapolated to estimate an inflow rate of close to 700 litres per second to the main lake. Using the surface area of the lake as shown on signs (180 ha) and the increase in depth seen on the indicator on the jetty (close to 15cm), the students came up with a volume increase of around 270 ML in one week, allowing the class to consider the accuracy of their estimations. To complete the task rainfall statistics & other information sources available online were referenced to report on the recent (post 2000) history & current condition of the lake. Mr Steve Doyle & VCAL Numeracy

Adelle Joubert, Ivy Linto, Matthew Briglia and Jayce Schapel rehearsing what to do when coming across an unconscious patient.

A group of students learning about hazards in the home.

Bridie Hartas working at the correct posture when lifting weights.

Congratulations to the VCE Unit 2, Health and Human Development students who assisted with the running of a very successful Rural Safety Day on Friday 17 August.

The day was organised to educate Primary students about the dangers in and around rural settings, resulting in the prevention of injuries and deaths of the young.

Unit 2 students: Billy Finnigan, Charlie Campbell, Cooper Ellis, Angus Caldow, Ariana Smith-Ralph, Georgia Thomspon, Hayley Toms-Regli.

Thank you to the guest presenters Posture and lifting Jo Murdoch St Johns Matthew Briglia CFA Jenny McGinneskin, Shannon Arnott, Andrew Rainsford (Apsley fire truck) Animal safety Edwina Hare Machinery safety Hayley McIntyre Water Safety Kate Farlow Hazards in home Simone Mueller

Thank you to Mrs Annabel Hawkins who prepared the luncheon on the day for the students and adults.

Primary students comments: Liked patting and feeding the animals. Fun in the smoke filled room. Get down low and go, go, go. Climbing in and out the fire truck was fun. It was like a transition day meeting the Apsley Primary students. Small batteries are very dangerous.

Ring 000 for ambulance. Mrs Robyne Rainsford VCE HHD Teacher

Book Week Celebration Day

On Tuesday the 21st of August students and staff dressed up as their favourite book character or Pirate. Students in primary classes were put into groups and participated in activities around Book Week and this year’s theme “Find Your Treasure’. The activities included:

Making Pirate Hats and Eye Patches Pirate Art Cooking Treasure Hunt in the library

At lunchtime the students were able to enjoy the food that they had helped to prepare. A big thank you to Mrs Hawkins and her helpers for their assistance in the Food Centre. A Parade of Book Characters was held at the end of the day and prizes were awarded. Prize winners were: Jai Underwood (Overall Best Dressed Book Character), Elouise Smith-Ralph (Overall Best Dressed Pirate, Layla Linto (Most Original Book Character), Adelle Joubert (Best from Foundation), Sean Neall (Best from Year 1), Jack Smith (Best from Year 2), Grace Neall (Best from Year 3), Lolah Joubert (Best from Year 4), Madison Munn (Best from Year 5), Emma Toms (Best from Year 6), Teneisha Phillips (Overall Winner), Sarah Kennedy (Best Dressed Secondary), Dash Adams (Secondary), Kirra Hessey (Secondary). Thank you to Parents, Grandparents and Friends of the College who attended the Parade.

Foundation Students Visit The Kindergarten

Foundation students enjoyed their visit to the Edenhope Kindergarten where they interacted with the kindy children. We read the big book Elmer by David McKee which is a celebration of individuality and laughter and the Foundations helped the kindergarten children make their own Elmer. Elmer is an elephant who has a colourful body. One day he decides he wants to be like the other elephants and paints himself grey. He realises his friends prefer his multi-coloured and fun loving personality. The elephants reassure Elmer that they love him because of his differences, and they celebrate by painting themselves in multi-coloured paint, in recognition of Elmer's unique appearance and personality. The message from the Foundation students was, “It’s ok to be different”. We make sure that we support each other in the learning environment and around the school.