Category: Community involvement

Posted in Community involvement, Garden/Kitchen, General news, Leadership

Leadership Update #24

Posted on by antheabartlett

Dear Families,

Today sees the end to a very busy, but rewarding semester. Thank you to students, families and staff for your ongoing commitment to learning at Happy Valley Primary School.

NAIDOC Week is held from 4-11 July and celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC Week is celebrated by all Australians and is a great opportunity to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

As NAIDOC Week occurs during the holidays, we have offered a competition to our students. This year’s NAIDOC Week theme is: Heal Country! And we have asked students to think about what this mean to them and to create a piece of art that represents this theme. Students registered interest and competition packs have been sent home. Entries are due by Wednesday 21 July, we look forward to seeing the finished masterpieces!

On Wednesday, our girls Rugby team joined a number of schools at West Beach Sports Park. Our team played well throughout the day, unfortunately losing by a golden point to become Runner up State Champions. Congratulations to the team, for many this was the first time to be involed in Rugby competitions.

This term’s Casual Day proceeds will go to Minton Farm Animal Rescue. Minton Farm is located at Cherry Gardens in and is a non-profit, non-government organisation run entirely on community goodwill and volunteer time. Minton Farm rescues animals in need and to date overall has rescued over 11,500 native animals. Thank you for your contributions towards this great cause!

Today we welcomed the Jam Band to our school. The Just Add Music Band is a group of passionate Adelaide musicians providing a fun, entertaining, interactive and educational children’s show. They aim to inspire students and help develop confidence and self-esteem through student engagement and interaction. Our students had a wonderful time and it was a great way to end the term.

Responding to Abuse and Neglect (RAN) Training has now been replaced by Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care (RRHAN-EC). This training course is now available and all volunteers must update their current mandatory notification certificate with this new training by 31 December 2021. More information will be available next term.

Thank you to all of our volunteers in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen program, we can’t do it without you! Thursday’s superstar team of regulars, volunteered with Claire Bosworth’s class. Thanks to Sharee, Caitlin, Peter, Lars, Nigel and Susie.

We appreciate the effort required to be a volunteer at a school site and thank those who are able to contribute their time!

On Sunday the 18 July we will be having a Working Bee between 10am and 12pm. The focus for this will be planting and signage in the wetlands. Please come on down if you can!

We wish everyone a happy and safe holidays and look forward to students returning refreshed and ready to learn in Term 3!

Kind regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in Community involvement, Leadership, Sport

Leadership Update #22

Posted on by antheabartlett

Dear Families,

Yesterday we hosted the 1st round of the School Sport SA Boys AFL. St Martin De Porre, Seaford Rise and Hallet Cove East Schools joined us. We played really well and came out with 1 win and 1 loss finishing 3rd overall. We were really impressed with the sportsmanship all of our team demonstrated on the day.

Next Monday, Happy Valley Primary School is hosting the second YEL (Youth Environment Leaders) Program session of the year. Our year 5, 6 & 7 Eco Leaders will be attending along with students from a number of other local primary schools. YELP will be hosting Kaurna artist Corey Turner to run a workshop for students in the afternoon. We look forward to showcasing our school!

Our new student use of mobile phones and personal devices at school policy will be tabled at the next Governing Council Meeting to be held on Monday 21 June. Once endorsed, the policy will be distributed to families and will be in effect from Term 3, 2021.

Today our school Pedal Prix teams are competed at Victoria Park in the Australian HPV Super Series. Here are some photos from the day. We look forward to hearing about how the teams performed next week!

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in Community involvement, Leadership, Sport

Leadership Update #20

Posted on by antheabartlett

Dear Families,

Between the 26th of May and the 3rd  of June we have celebrated Reconciliation Week at HVPS. The theme for this year is More than a Word. Reconciliation takes action.

Reconciliation is a journey for all Australians – as individuals, families, communities, organisations and importantly as a nation. At the heart of this journey are relationships between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Our partnership is about to welcome a new Aboriginal Community Education Officer who will work across a number of schools including Aberfoyle Park High School.

Thank you to the families who attended our Working Bee last Sunday. We had beautiful weather and were able to mulch, spread out the bark chip pile by the front fence, tidied up trees in the Million Trees Forest and cleared out the water way in the Junior Primary Nature Play area.

We are in the process of developing a new student use of mobile phones and personal devices at school policy. Under the department’s policy primary aged students are not permitted to access their mobile phones and personal devices during the school day. Currently students are expected to drop their mobile phones off at the front office at the commencement of the school day and then collect them after 3:15pm. Any new processes will be communicated with our students and families once we have finalised the policy.

Towards the end of this term we will be conducting the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). NCCD is an annual collection of information about Australian school students with disability. The NCCD enables schools, education authorities and governments to better understand the needs of students with disability and how they can be best supported at school. Please find attached some parent and family information regarding this collection.

Two of our students, Neive and Jasmine have been representing HVPS in the School Sport SA, Southern Valley District Netball team. They have had games all week and we look forward to hearing about how the team performed.

Today we have Alex and Melinda, our Onkaparinga Waste & Recycle Support Officers along with Jeremy Gramp our Greening Adelaide Education Officer at school conducting a waste audit. Eco Leaders have collected our school’s waste since Wednesday and are spending the day sorting through our rubbish under the COLA. Once the sorting has been concluded, Alex and Melinda will provide the school with a report which will give us some recommendations of where to next with our school’s waste reduction.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in Community involvement, Leadership

Leadership Update #16

Posted on by antheabartlett

This week we have been preparing for NAPLAN. Our Year 3, 5 & 7 students will be sitting these tests over the next two weeks. Classrooms have been learning how to navigate the online system. Timetables have been created and sent to all classes.

We would like to welcome our new Groundsman, Len Gatenby to our community. He has already made a start with familiarising himself with the job specifications and getting to know the school in general. A big thank you to all of our wonderful community members for helping out. Nigel Cock has been mowing, poisoning weeds, line marking for the oval and much more. It has been greatly appreciated and really got us out of a pickle, superb job.

Another big thank you to Paul and Helen Morgan. Paul managed to fix our ride on lawn mower and has ‘tag and tested’ the electrical equipment in the sports canteen. Helen worked her magic on our broken dishwasher in the staffroom. We definitely have some talented parents in our community and the fact that they donated their time to care for our school is commendable.

Learning Conversations have concluded this week and thank you to all those families who were able to attend a meeting with their child and classroom teacher. These conversations are valuable in establishing a strong relationship between home and school.

With registrations of interest now open for families to apply for their year 6 or 7 child to start High School in 2022, you may have some questions. The Department has released some new online resources for families which can be found via this link: www.education.sa.gov.au/7toHS

On Monday of Week 4, 17 May, our students will be having their school photos. Order forms were sent home early in the week, please bring these on the day.

Just a reminder that the staff carpark is not an area to drop off or pick up students due to the high volume of traffic coming in and out of that area and please follow relevant signage in the ‘Kiss and Drop’ Zone. The council periodically patrols the area and fines may be issued for unattended vehicles.

It has been noticed that a number of our students have not been adhering to the Uniform Policy and have been wearing sports shorts. Please remind your children to wear appropriate clothing that meets the school uniform policy.

Thank you to our Fundraising Committee and volunteers for their efforts in organising our Mother’s Day Stall. It’s a fantastic opportunity for children to purchase a special gift to show their appreciation.

We wish all the Mothers and Significant Carers a relaxing and spoilt day on Sunday, have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in Canteen, Community involvement

Kookaburra Canteen – Special Lunch!

Posted on by antheabartlett

Today the canteen was able to serve our Italian Special Lunch which was placed earlier in the term. Thank you to Marilyn, who when surrounded by meatballs, was able to adapt on short notice when the school went into hard lockdown! Marilyn and canteen volunteers, Arianne and Nikki, served 464 meatballs today – what an effort!

This Friday was also Marilyn’s last day as Canteen Manager. We thank her for her hard work during this very difficult year and wish her all the best for the future.

The Governing Council are pleased to announce that we have secured a new Canteen Manager, Chantel Merrett.

Due to Term 1 beginning on a Wednesday next year, the canteen will officially open in Week 2, beginning trading on Wednesday the 3rd of February.

Thank you to the community for your continued support of the canteen. We are always keen for volunteers to help out whenever they can!

Marilyn, Arianne & Nikki

Posted in Community involvement

A message from our Student Representatives

Posted on by antheabartlett

Our school is lucky to have so many committed volunteers. Many of our programs, sport events and excursions cannot operate without the assistance of our community. We understand that it can be difficult for many families to volunteer due to work commitments, but are grateful for all those people who can and are always keen for more people to support us!

Our Student Representatives have created a video to encourage people to sign up as a volunteer. Please take a look!

Posted in Community involvement, General news, student wellbeing

Future vision for our school

Posted on by hazelrobertson

Education today is not the same as education looked like, say, 30 years ago. We need to educate our students now to ensure that the knowledge, skills and attitudes of our young people sets them up for success within their future lives. We would love to hear your thoughts and views about what the future of learning should look like at Happy Valley Primary. Please complete the following short survey to have your say:

Future Vision for HVPS parent survey

The Department for Education plan to make South Australia’s public education world-class by 2028. Here is a short video outlining their strategies:

The OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 project has observed some innovative features of education systems that are just emerging but that may become the “new normal” in tomorrow’s education systems. Here is a short video that may be of some interest for you:

Hazel Robertson would love to hear from anyone that is interested in having more input regarding the future vision of our school. Please feel free to phone or email (hazel.robertson500@schools.sa.edu.au) her for a chat and take the time to fill in this parent survey:

Future Vision for HVPS parent survey