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

Leadership Update #24

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Responding to Abuse and Neglect (RAN) Training has now been replaced by Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care (RRHAN-EC).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 General news, Leadership, Sport

Leadership Update #23

Dear Families,

We had a beautful, sunny day on Monday when we welcomed students from Seacliff, Woodend, Craigburn, O’Sullivans Beach, Southern Montessori and McCauley Community School for the second YELP session of 2021. Our students led the day with the Kaurna Acknowledgement, Dakota, Jack and Emma shared this role with Emma speaking her part in the Kaurna language. Housekeeping was conducted by Lilli and Eden managed the Audio and ran the ice-breaker game.

Our Eco Leaders from years 5, 6 and 7 took 3 tours around the school, sharing the different Sustainability Programs we have at Happy Valley. These included the rainwater tanks, worms, greenhouse, compost, wetlands, chooks, frog pond, Pipe/Reconciliation Garden and our kitchen.

After recess each school worked on their own projects. Our focus at Happy Valley is rubbish and recycling. Sophie, one of the Greening Adelaide Educators, spent some time with one of our groups and they talked about how we can educate our school students and the community.

Before lunch the students were put into mixed school groups and had to build a tower made from marshmallows & spaghetti. Della & Jess were in the winning group that made a tower that was over 500mm.

After lunch Cory Turner talked to the students about Kaurna Art. This was a great way to end the day.

At Monday night’s Governing Council meetin

g, the Grounds Committee presented a plan for replacing the blue boundary fence around the whole school. This will be completed with the funds provided by the State Government as part of the Priority Maintenance Project. The school will need to contribute some funds towards this and is in consultation with the Fundraising Committee. Recently a tree audit has identified some trees of concern, these along with some growth on the boundary line will be removed and trimmed over coming weeks. The school’s priority is to keep the environmental impact to a minimum with a view to revegitate several areas over the coming months.

On Friday our two Pedal Prix teams competed at Victoria Park in the Australian HPV Super Series. It was a wet and muddy day with intermittent showers. Our students performed well over the six hours and came in at 13th and 17th overall. Thank you to the families who supported the teams on the day.

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 information 23_NCCD_letter_for_parents_guardians_carers.

The Department has released another Year 7 to High School update, which can be found below.

23_7tohs-parent-update-week9-term2-2021.a4

On Tuesday HVPS hosted the School Sport SA Year 6, Round 1 Netball Knockout competitions. Clapham and Seaford Rise Primary School’s attended. We played Clapham in the first game, and were defeated 29-25. The second game, Seaford Rise defeated Clapham 21-19. Happy Valley then defeated Seaford Rise 23-8. Congratulations girls, we look forward to Round 2 at Tatachilla next term!

Kind regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in General news, Leadership, Sport

Leadership Update #18

Dear Families,

Congratulations to our Year 3, 5 and 7 students for completing NAPLAN Online this year. Overall the online process went well with minimum technical issues. We will find out results later in Term 3 and will use the information to inform teacher planning, school direction and student goal setting.

On Monday and Tuesday of next week our school welcomes Katherine Holman and Rebecca Read who will facilitate our External School Review process. They will be speaking with staff, students and parents & Governing Council members.

On Monday we had our school photos. MSP Photographers will be coming back on Friday the 28 May at 9:00am to take any absent or missed photos.

Today Happy Valley hosted the Southern Valley District Regional Rugby Competition. Our teams were very successful with our boy’s team coming third and our girls winning their overall competition. The girls will go on to the state finals later in the term. Congratulations! It was a very long day and we know there will be some tired students tonight!

Today is the due date for families to submit their online applications for our Year 6 and 7 students for High School.

 

Kind regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in General news, Leadership

Leadership Update 17

Dear Families,

This week our Years 3, 5 & 7 students have begun NAPLAN. Students completed their Writing and Reading tests, with Conventions of Language and Numeracy scheduled for next week. We are very proud of our students and their efforts.

Please remember that Photo Day is next Monday 17 May. Classes have specific times and family photos will be in the afternoon. Please send your child with their individual photo envelope on the day, these will be collected by the photographer. All payments are made directly to the Photographers, the school does not process any money.

Further to our communication last week about the Uniform Policy, please find the policy attached. Please take a look at it to ensure your child is dressed accordingly. The policy is in place to ensure student safety and equity.

Next Friday, 21 May is the due date for families to submit their online applications for our Year 6 and 7 students for High School. Please find attached the latest update for Year 7 to HS. It is directed mainly at regional schools, but may be of interest to some. If you have any further questions, please contact the front office.

Next weekend our Pedal Prix teams will be riding in races at Tailem Bend. The team have been practising at lunch times and after school in preparation. Today at Assembly the cars were on show and the team shared what they’ve been up to. We wish them all the best and thank their families for supporting them.

On Wednesday Leadership met with our Education Director and the Reviewing Officer who will be conducting the school’s External Review. This meeting was about the process that will be implemented on Monday and Tuesday of Week 5.

We wish you all a warm and cozy weekend.

Kind regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in General news, Leadership

Leadership Update 7

Dear Families,

It has been fantastic to see our Senior students sporting their senior tops this week. We would like to thank Trudy McCard for her hard work in getting the art work and orders processed and then distributing the uniforms to students. This year marks our final year of having Year 7 students at Happy Valley and seeing our first cohort of Year 6s leave at the end of the year. We look forward to seeing our seniors lead our school this year.

This week the Junior Primary children have attended Water Safety Week at Noarlunga Swimming Centre. The focus of their lessons has been on being safe in the water and what to do if they get into trouble. The children have had a fantastic and very tiring week! Thank you to all of the fabulous volunteers who have attended this week – we couldn’t do it without you!

Next Friday, 5 March, is our school’s Pupil Free Day. The focus of this day will be on literacy and our school’s Site Improvement Plan. We look forward to sharing with the community about our day.

Please mark in your diaries Tuesday 6 April. Our school will be hosting  two Kidz Biz Family Evening Sessions. The two sessions, “Where did we come from?” (suitable for Year 2-4 students) and “What’s happening to us?” (suitable for Year 5-7 students) will be held in the Resources Centre. Session 1 will commence at 6.40pm and Session 2 at 7.40pm. Details on how to book places will be sent out shortly.

Remember to place all Special Lunch Orders by Friday 12 March for our upcoming Sports Day on Friday 19 March. We look forward to seeing families attend this year!

Last reminder for our school’s first Working Bee, this Sunday 28 February between 10am and 12pm. Many hands make light work! We hope to see you there!

Regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in assembly, General news, Japanese

House Points at Happy Valley

Amanda Sensei, our previous Japanese teacher, established a house point system and introduced our students to the House Cup. In 2020, some of our classes participated in a competition in Japanese lessons to design a mascot to represent the school.

The winner of this competition was Cooper L, who submitted Mag the Magpie.

Mag the Magpie is now the mascot for our new Assembly Awards and the House Points nomination slips.

Each assembly, teachers have the opportunity to nominate students for a learning achievement or if they have demonstrated our school values of respect, responsibility and integrity.

All teachers and specialists are also able to award House Points to students for demonstrating school values. These points will be collected by our Houses; Nicolle, Mason, Chandler and Shepherd. At the end of the year we will announce the winners of the House Cup! We are looking forward to assigning points throughout the year and will provide our community with regular updates.

Posted in General news

Leadership Update 1

Dear Families,

Welcome to the start of the 2021 school year! I trust that you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday and are looking forward to the new school year! Just in case you were wondering the Taylor family had lots of time with extended family and friends prior to the New Year, with a few days of fishing snuck in at Kingston as well.

We have an exciting year ahead with a Quality Site Improvement Plan (QSIP) that will guide our direction, professional learning and resourcing for 2021. There will be lots of opportunities for learning with a focus on Literacy and Numeracy which will build on the work we have been doing over the past couple of years (particularly in Literacy).

I congratulate Anthea for taking on the role of Deputy Principal for Term 1, she and I are really looking forward to working with you all again this year, hopefully with a lot less interruptions and challenges. I would also like to congratulate Hazel on her appointment at Echunga Primary School, Echunga is lucky to have a very supportive leader.

We welcome our new teaching staff Vanessa Chaptini, Amy Lawson, Adele Taylor, Jackie Wood and Jack Beaton. Lauren Rawling (previously Williams) returns from maternity leave to work alongside Liz Loveday along with our teachers returning in 2021; Lesia Phillips, Dean Carter, Katharine Pooley, Merri James, Angela Kay, Claire Bosworth, Cameron Wright, Wendy Lane and Kathy Liscombe.

Our Student Support Officers include Jo Aylmore, Jo Hines, Cheryl Huxtable, Wendy Nicolle, Robyn Overduin, Courtney Nicolle, Chrissy Thomas, Miriam Edwards, Trudy McCard and Sam Matthews. This year we welcome Carlee Hay to our classroom SSO team and Sam Slattery to the Front Office.

Sheena-Margot Lavelle will return as our Kitchen Specialist and Caragh Larsen in her role as our Pastoral Care Worker.

This term’s activities begin with Acquaintance Night on Tuesday 9 February with a slightly different format to previous years. We are still working out the logistics around COVID 19 protocols and will send out the information as soon as we can.

Our Governing Council AGM will be held on Monday 15 February at 7.00pm in the Library at which the Annual Report will be presented outlining the school’s achievement and progress in 2020. Happy Valley PS has an active and committed governing council. We meet regularly, twice a term to talk about the direction for the school. If you are interested in joining our Governing Council, forms are available from the front office to register your interest.

COVID will continue to be a talking point with the continual on and off border restrictions. We will have to take it week by week to see how the start of the year pans out. Below latest advice around the COVID 19 restrictions.

Term 1 2021

The following activities can resume/continue providing government health advice and physical distancing requirements are strictly followed:

  • parents, volunteers, departmental support and other service providers may enter school and preschool grounds
  • school assemblies, graduations and concerts
  • all intrastate camps and excursions (SA Health approval is not currently required)
  • all school sport competitions, sports days and carnivals, including inter-school competitions
  • inter-school choirs, bands and other performing art activities
  • school formals, socials and discos
  • playgroups and occasional care
  • professional learning activities.

Please ensure you are familiar with current SA Health advice on gathering sizes and catering, particularly for offsite events.

For example, a gathering limit of 200 people with a maximum density of 1 person per 2 square metres is currently required for private functions at licensed venues. For events held both on and off site, please note food and beverages must not have shared utensils.

Our Front Office staff are preparing student information packs that will be distributed during Week 1. These will include a Materials & Services invoice, medical consent forms, permissions slips and other administrative documentation which is to be returned to class teachers by 12 February 2021.

We look forward to seeing everyone back to school on Wednesday 27 January ready for learning. I know that our staff are very much looking forward to working in partnership with you throughout the year.

Regards,

Paul and Anthea

Posted in General news, Room 17

Mrs Loveday and Mr Carter’s class presented at the assembly their posters about Kindness. They shared their special words and encourage everyone to always choose Kindness.
They have made copies of their posters and will have them displayed around the school reminding everyone, in any situation, to always choose Kindness.