Principal's Message

Working Bee and helping hands
Thank you to those staff members, parents and children who assisted with the recent twilight working bee last Thursday, 5 March. The weather cooperated and after a morning rain shower, the grounds were soft and easy to work. I'd like to acknowledge the following families: Tisch/Menheere, Millar, Cunningham, White, Schneider, Driscoll/Fehring, McIntosh, Browning and teachers, Elms, Murphy, Scott and any others who I may have missed crediting. Your efforts and contributions are greatly appreciated.

Garden Club
The next Garden Club meeting takes place on Thursday, 19 March at 4:15 pm in Room 1. All interested parents and teachers are welcome to attend. The Children's Garden Club starts up this week and all students are welcome to participate. Thank you to Natalie Tisch for her ongoing dedication to running this club and for working on the school gardens with Paul during many weekends. To the Driscoll/Fehring family, thank you for your weekend assistance in the gardens too!

Prep, Year 2 and Year 6 Transition Surveys
Parents in these year levels who received a survey are encouraged to continue to return surveys to the school. Thank you to everyone who has already done so and the results will be provided in term two. Remember, if you return the survey and include your name and contact details, you will be entered into a lucky draw for one of three prizes!

Attitudes to School Survey
This survey is distributed annually by the Department of Education to all Year 5 and 6 students. This year the survey period is from 27 April to 8 May. This valuable data helps the school to address areas of concern as identified by the students as well as celebrating those areas where students believe the school is doing a good job. The school encourages all year 5 and 6 students to complete this survey.

Student Safety and Parking on Ruskin Avenue
Parents are reminded that there is a designated drop-off zone on the school side of Ruskin Avenue to provide a safe place for parents to drop off their children in the mornings. No cars are to stop or park near the school crossing or between the signs for the drop-off zone during the designated times. It is the responsibility of each parent to abide by the street signs and the City of Maroondah does patrol this zone from time to time. Individuals may be fined if they are found to be violating the city traffic laws.

The school staff parking lot and driveway are strictly ‘out-of-bounds' to parents during morning and after school drop off and pick up times. For the safety of all children and people using the street and footpaths, kindly cooperate and show due consideration to others. Thank you to all those parents and children who help to make the streets safer for everyone.

E-news and hard copies
Please drop a note to the office if your family does not wish to receive a hard copy of the school newsletter. Any supplementary notices will still be sent home with the eldest child in each family. Should you wish to subscribe to the eNews version please use the following link: http://mailouts.austnews.com.au/subscription/R/ruskin-park-ps-signup.html

Safety House Rep Needed!
This is an urgent call for one or two parents who would be willing to coordinate this year's Safety House program. As a designated Safety House School, the program depends on parents living in the local community to ensure that there are properly accredited safety houses where children can go if they need help. Without a coordinator, the program will not run.

Interested parents are asked to contact Elle May Laikve on 9723 3886. The efforts of the school and parent community make the difference in how safe the streets and local community are for every child. Your assistance and willingness to make the Ruskin Park Primary School surrounding streets safe for every child is the difference!

Hot Cross Buns
This is a reminder that orders for hot cross buns are due to the school by Friday, 20 March. Delivery of the buns will be on Thursday, 2 April after 11:00 am

Free Dress Day
On Tuesday, 17 March (St. Patrick's Day) students are invited to bring a gold coin to participate in an ‘out-of uniform' day. The money raised on this day will go towards the eventual purchase of new outdoor playground equipment.

Elle May Laikve
Principal

Assistant Principal's Report

It's Not OK to Be Away
You play an important role in supporting your child. It is important to ensure your child attends school on ALL school days and is on time every day. Even if a child attends school every day but is consistently late it can interrupt their learning. If your child misses the basic skills in primary school they can experience difficulties with their learning. At school children also develop important social skills, such as friendship building, teamwork and communication skills.

If your child is away, if is important that you provide the school with an explanation. Try to arrange doctor and dentist appointments out of school hours if possible. Do not allow your child to stay at home for minor reasons. The Department of Education & Early Childhood Development has an attendance policy and teachers and schools are required to follow up student absences. A Student Absentee Letter will be sent home at the end of each month notifying parents of absence dates and requesting an explanation for each unexplained absence. Please complete the form and return it to the classroom teacher.

A wonderful start to the school year! The grades with the best attendance rates for February:

1st Prep A
Equal 2nd Prep T and Prep E
Equal 3rd 4R and 3B

Mary Kelly
Assistant Principal

School Clean Up Day - 6th March

Thank you to all the students, teachers and parents who helped out on thisday. We collected over
40 kg of rubbish!

 

Thank you to all students, parents and teachers who participated.

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PE News

SWIMMING
A reminder that our swimming program commences this Monday March 16th for our Year 1/2 children. Please have all clothing and towels named. The children will also require thongs or sandals to wear to and from the pool. The program will continue for the next 10 school days, concluding on Friday March 27th.

INTER SCHOOL SWIMMING
Well done to Amy and Ashley (Grade 5) and Michael (Grade 4) who represented our school in the inter school swimming championships at Nunawading last Friday.

Thank you,
Brendan Murphy 

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Working Bee

Thank you to the following families.....

Who attended the twilight working bee last Thursday.

Many important jobs were completed including the clearing and mulching of the native garden near Room 3, the cleaning out of drains, removal of a large Gum Tree branch from the oval and tidying up of the adventure playground and the children's vegetable garden areas.

A special thanks to Marty Dankwort who brought along his bobcat and made our work much easier. We look forward to seeing more of our Ruskin Parents to the next working bee in Term2.

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Out of School Hours Childcare (OSHC)

Scrap Booking
Scrap Booking is a very popular activity with many of the grades 3 to 6 children at present. Scrapbooks and various materials have been supplied for the children's use. A number of children have used the Oshc camera to take photos of their friends, to use in their scrapbooks and others have brought photos from home. As materials for this activity are in constant demand we would really appreciate donations of old wrapping paper, ribbons, stickers and other bits and pieces suitable for scrap booking.

Holiday Programs
A list of services that provide school holiday programs is available on the sign in/out table.

Notification of Cancellations
Families are required to notify the program of any changes to booking arrangements. All cancellations are to be notified by a parent/guardian or authorised person by 8am for Before School Care and 12 noon for After School Care. Verbal cancellations by children cannot be accepted.

Programs
These programs are planned in consultation with the children and highlight "Special "activities based around the children's interests and requests. We aim to repeat these activities during each week to ensure all interested children have an opportunity to participate. Other activities available every day include: Dramatic Play, Construction, Music/DVDs, Game boys and Computers, Drawing, Junk Construction, Puzzles and Board Games, Quiet Area for Reading and Homework, Sports Equipment and Outdoor Games.

What's on at Before School Care

Monday 16th - Friday 20th March Cooking: - Hummus Dip (Wednesday) Craft: - Marble Painting Games: - Jigsaw Challenge Outdoor Fun: - Monkey Bar Fun

Monday 23rd - Friday 27th March Cooking: - Easter Painting Craft: - Coconut Drops (Monday) Games: - Crab Soccer Outdoor Fun: - Pop Ball Fun

What's on at After School Care

Thank you,

Sharyn, Benita and Merrilyn
Out of School Hours Child Care (OSHC)

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Ruskin Park Choir

Our school choir has resumed rehearsals on Mondays in the GP room for the first half hour of lunch. It is wonderful to see so many new faces and to have a number of students returning to the choir. The Preps have joined us over the past two weeks and they are enthusiastically learning three new songs in preparation for our ANZAC day school ceremony.

We are pleased to announce our school will conduct our annual ANZAC Day Service on Friday the 24th April. This year we are delighted to inform you the Minister for Education Ms. Bronwyn Pike and the Honorable Member of Parliament Mr. Tony Smith will be participating in our school service. Once again twelve members from the Croydon RSL Sub branch will also be attending the service. The school service will commence at 2:30pm and parents are welcome to attend.

If your child would like to join our choir please complete the form below and return it to the office. We are planning to perform in a number of venues this year, so it is imperative that students attend rehearsals. This will enable them to learn a range of new songs and sound their best at our formal performances.

Students are required to wear our choir uniform at all formal performances and parents will be notified on these occasions.

If at anytime your child no longer wishes to be part of the Choir, we ask they return a note signed by their guardian, otherwise they will be expected to attend choir rehearsals. This policy develops your child's understanding that they are making a commitment to be part of the Choir. We are looking forward to many wonderful performances this year.

Alaine Beare, Ann Craig & Elyce Birch
Choir Coordinators

Please download the form for Choir here: in Pdf   in MS Word

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Level 4 Rock Band

Dear Parents and Friends,

The Level 4 School Rock band is up and running at Ruskin Park P.S. and the students will be working hard in the coming weeks to learn some songs, with the ultimate goal of performing for the school.

One thing we really need however, is a Bass Guitar! If anyone has an old Bass guitar lying around at home that the school could either have, or borrow long term, it would help the band out immensely.

If you are able to help please contact Brendan Alexander via the school office (9723 3886).

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Wise Ones

Coming up term 2, 2009 ...

Around the World in 8 Weeks!
Discover peoples and places you didn't know existed
Plan and budget for your trip making varied destination choices
Recognise famous landmarks and cultural icons
Explore maps from around the globe
Use higher order thinking skills
Test your memory

WiseOnes is a program for fast learners* from Grades 1-6. It operates during school hours, in small groups. It provides students with an opportunity to mix with other creative thinkers, be challenged and have fun. There is a levy of $190 for the term - 8 one hour sessions in a very small group - as this is a differentiated curriculum for special needs. Children qualify for the program thru' school results or testing. WiseOnes has a choice of 2 short tests, for which there is no cost:: details below.

* Children with high potential for learning may show the following characteristics:

• Requires less sleep than other children
• High energy levels
• Quirky sense of humour
• Advanced ethical and moral concerns
• Flexible, creative thinker
• Understands abstract concepts well ahead of others the same age
• Highly perceptive of own and others feelings, needs.
• Perseveres for long periods of time in special interest areas
• Gets on better with older children and adults
• An inquiring mind, highly curious
• Sets high standards for self, perfectionist tendencies
• Excellent vocabulary for age
• Able to solve problems quickly and often creatively
• Believe that school is for learning             Ref: Professor Joyce Van Tassel-Baska.

For students already qualified: A separate individual notice will be sent home.

For new students: The free Problem-solving try-out, which is quick to do, suits students with maths and science type abilities. The free Reading test suits those with high ability in language.
The following information will be needed:

• Child's Name, Date of Birth, School year level.
• Parents' Name(s) & contact information.

To try-out for WiseOnes, please contact Christine Ryan, Ph: 03 8320 3340 chrisray@netspace.net.au

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Can You Help the Preps?

The Prep classes are currently undertaking an inquiry unit focusing on the concept of ‘Living and Non Living'. We would like to breed stick insects but need to obtain an old fish tank to house them in.

The tank needs to be oblong and three times the length of the stick insects so they are free to move around. We require an oblong fish tank between 60cm to 100cm in length.

If you have an old tank lying around at home that we could borrow please let the Prep teachers know and we will arrange to pick it up.

In anticipation,
Alaine Beare, Elyce Birch & Katrina Tozer

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Families and Friends

Now that the school year is under way and everyone is back into their routines we would like to take this opportunity to remind every one that Family and Friends Club meets once a month on a Tuesday evening from 7.30pm to 8.30pm at the school to discuss extra curricular activities for the children and to plan minor fund raising events. All are welcome to attend, the more the merrier.

If you would like further information please leave your contact details with Gwen at the school office and I will contact you as soon as possible to advise of the next meeting. This is an excellent opportunity to do that something "special" for the children.

I would like to thank all the families which attended the Pancake Night. All money raised has gone to the bush fire relief projects. A Special thank you to Belinda Tyack and Natalie Tisch for their services on the night and a huge thank you to all the teachers who helped us out on the night.

A gentle reminder that orders for the Hot Cross Buns need to be submitted ASAP for ordering purposes with delivery on the last day of Term 1.

In the next week Family and Friends will be commencing a competition which every child can enter for only $1 to design an emblem for our Club. There will be a winner from each year level with these winners going into a final selection process which will be decided by the Schools' "Leaders Group". Entry forms will be sent home next week with all entries to be submitted to the office by the last day of term 1. Winners will be notified early in term 2.

Samantha Unsworth
Family and Friends President

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The Ruskin Park Primary School Vision

Every student at Ruskin Park Primary School can develop their natural curiosity and imagination through new and engaging approaches to teaching and learning.

The encouragement of a positive attitude within a friendly community of learners will promote success today, tomorrow and into the future.