Thank you Parents’ and Friends’ Association

The hard working members of the Parents’ and Friends’ Association are currently organising and preparing for the forthcoming, popular Mother’s Day Stall.

Barbreck students from Prep to Year 6 traditionally anticipate the stall and the opportunity to do their own shopping for mothers and special ladies in their lives, at the annual PFA Mother’s Day Stall.

2017 will be no exception!  In advance, we thank all the adults involved in the event.

Date: Friday 5 May

Venue: Barbreck

Required: Shoppers in Barbreck to bring some money to select and hide (until Mother’s Day) gifts of choice.

Please note that the large number of shoppers means that each participant is required to limit choices to a reasonable amount. We need every shopper to be able to purchase a gift of choice.

It is recommended that students are limited to an amount up to $20. Please note that amounts larger than this are only able to be spent at the end of the stall, after all students have had the opportunity to select gifts.

Write on Wednesday

The very popular and well attended ‘Write on Wednesday’ group held after school for Years 5 and 6 participants, encourages participants in a myriad of very different, but all important range of writing activities. Skills based, the tasks range from those involving spelling, sentence and paragraph to story construction, punctuation, grammar and ideas for content and connections to topics.  Sounds serious? The teaching intentions are serious, but we have a great deal of fun every week.

Late last term, we spoke about a writer’s use of an ideas book, memories for future use and inspirational notions for future content.  The focus in the week was on ‘lists’ and their usefulness in writing activities.

We provide below just three examples of a quick writing task (five minutes), in which students were provided only a few selected samples and then their own particular key opening sentence:

Things I have been doing lately:

1. Stepping out of the bus
2. Dreading Cross Country
3. Getting my name sticker
4. Waiting, waiting and waiting
5. Going to the bathroom one last time
6. Double knotting my shoelaces
7. Lining up at the start
8. Waiting for the signal
9. “Go” I’m off
10. Looking at the girls ahead
11. Wishing I could go that fast
12. Trying to run with one piggy tail falling out
13. Failing
14. Crossing the finish line
15. It’s over for this year.

Julia Kent
Year 6

Things that make me happy

1. Sunny days
2. Cool evenings
3. Colourful fish
4. Fizzy drinks
5. Music
6. Chocolate
7. Smiling faces
8. Big backyards
9. Labour days
10. Floating balloons
11. Damp leafy greens
12. Picking up pencils
13. Poems and writing.

Tabitha Jordan-Lang
Year 6

Things that make me happy

1. When my mum hugs me and tells me she loves me
2. When I hug my mum and tell her I love her
3. When friends are nice to me
4. When I am kind to my friends
5. When my grandma cooks yummy food for me
6. When I eat all my food and it makes her happy
7. When I help someone and do good deeds
8. When someone helps me.

Jiarun (Karen) Ai
Year 6

Things I have been doing lately

1. I woke up, went back to sleep
2. I woke up, my alarm went off
3. I ate
4. Got dressed
5. Came to school
6. Ate some more food
7. Doing work
8. Eating sweets
9. Coming to ‘Write on Wednesdays’
10. Placed my pencil case down
11. Did the nine letter word
12. Writing this poem
13. Trying to think of an ending.

Catherine Karas
Year 6

Year 6 in Flinders

The discussions, chatter and shared laughter when Year 6 students were speaking about the recent Outdoor Education camp at Flinders, told much about the learning and the enjoyment throughout the experience. Here is a few pics depicting their time at camp.

Important Sports dates to remember

• District Diving
  Thursday 4 May, 9.00am-12.30pm at St Catherines
• District Cross Country
  Monday 22 May, 11.00am–1.30pm at Kooyong Park
• Cross Country Ski Give Out Day
  Thursday 1 June, 3.00pm in Barbreck
• Athletic Trial Day
  Monday 5 June at Box Hill
• House Gymnastics
  Tuesday 20 June in  Senior Hall

Punctuality

Families are asked to note that the School bell rings at 8.30am each day. Unless held up in traffic, we ask that all students are present and ready for a punctual commencement of the School day.

Importantly, the prompt start enables students to be well settled and organised in preparation for the day’s learning. In addition, it is essential that we work together to build the life skills of punctuality and organisation.

Student collection from co-curricular activities after school

A reminder to all families that if students are still waiting to be collected ten minutes after the competion of co-curricular activities, they will be placed in Out of School Hours Care and parents advised.

Staff do not leave children unsupervised and for safety reasons, those still waiting will need to join the Out of School Hours Care Program.

Staff often have other meetings or tasks to attend to and at times, are late due to a significant delay in the collection of children. Out of School Hours Care fees will apply.

Out of School Hours Care

Our Out of School Hours Care provider is Camp Australia. Their head office contact is  88551 4100 or 885 14160. If you need to contact Out of School Hours Care please note the parent contact number is 0412 510875 or 9828 3904.