Winton Primary School

Excellence in Education

Phone: 57664233

Email: winton.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

Teachers: Alanna Bell, Kellie Holmes,

Alison Press

Term 4 Week 4 – Monday 27th October 2014

Important Dates for Term 4

TERM 4

27th October Grade 3-6 CFA Van – Glenrowan

28th October Swimming 2pm-3pm

29th October Grade 2 – 15 Mile Creek camp

30th October Grade 1/2 – 15 Mile Creek Camp

31st October Grade F/1/2 – 15 Mile Creek Camp

3rd November Pupil Free Day

4th November Melbourne Cup Holiday

5th November Swimming 2pm-3pm

6th November School Photos – 9am

7th November Swimming 2pm-3pm

11th November Cooking

13th November Prep Transition

18th November Cooinda Visit

19th November Prep Transition

20th November SRC Special Persons

Morning 9am-10am

25th November Cooking

26th November Prep Transition

28th November SRC Casual Day - Chance

Student of the Week

Junior room: To Kaidan. It is great to see Kaidan

back at school. He is going about his work

enthusiastically and putting in his best effort.

Keep this up Kaidan. Well done.

Senior Room: To Brendan for showing great

persistence in literacy. Brendan works very hard

on his reading, writing and spelling skills and is

showing excellent progress in these areas

because of his persistence and hard work. Well

done Brendan.

CFA Mobile Education Unit Today the grade 3-6 children travelled to Glenrowan for the CFA Mobile Education Unit visit. The children went into the unit in different sessions and learnt about fire safety, bushfire risks and fire management. These sessions were very timely for this time of year. Please ensure your family has a bush fire plan this fire season.

Winton Primary School

Excellence in Education

Phone: 57664233

Email: winton.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

Teachers: Alanna Bell, Kellie Holmes,

Alison Press

15 MILE CREEK CAMP

The Grade F/1/2 are away at Camp this week, how exciting. Grade 2 children will need to be at Glenrowan before 9.00am on Wednesday and will stay at camp for 3 days and 2 nights. Grade 1 children will make their own way to camp on Thursday to be there at 9.30am and stay for 2 days and 1 night. Then on Friday the Foundation students will need to be at Glenrowan before 9.00am to go to camp for the day.

Resilience Information Night Last Monday staff attended a resilience professional development presentation. The same night parents were invited to attend a parent session. Hugh’s presentation was highly engaging with a balance of life experiences, research-based evidence, humour and advice. Much of his discussion was based around building our capacity to improve Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness. Hugh spoke of “resilience” as not only the ability to “bounce back” but also to move forward, that is, to bounce back stronger. Post traumatic growth is evident when we learn/grow from the negative experience. A major focus of the evening was identifying positives. In western society we are quick to identify and focus on the negative events in our day. We rarely notice the good things that happen around us. We need to slow our brain down and appreciate the wonderful things in our day. Upon hearing this information I wrote in my notes “stop and smell the roses” which helped to highlight this point to me. Some of the strategies relating to this point included: ask the children “What went well/ what are the good things that happened today?” By phrasing the question this way we are inviting a positive response we are seeking “positive self reflection.” A second helpful strategy that I plan to employ my-self is to write down three things that you are grateful for everyday –3 things that went well for you today. Hugh labelled this approach as “moments of gratitude.” Research has shown that by doing this

for 21 days in a row rewires your brain to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for negative but for positive first. After 42 consecutive days of this practice, re-search indicated that levels of distress/depression decreased and levels of happiness increased. I found the presentation informative, engaging and inspiring. I hope the parents from our school and from across the cluster also found the same to be true. Colin Following the professional development session we have begun to implement the use of the Smiling Mind App within our classrooms. This app is a simple yet effective meditation app designed for children and adults. Hugh spoke about the importance of Mindfulness in our children for healthy minds and mental states. The kids are thoroughly enjoying the meditation time to relax and be present in the moment.

Winton Primary School

Excellence in Education

Phone: 57664233

Email: winton.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

Teachers: Alanna Bell, Kellie Holmes,

Alison Press

You Can Do It Well done to Liam, Euan and Brandi for achieving

10 Confidence stickers and to Max for achieving

10 Organisation stickers.

Congratulations to Max and Euan who also have

achieved their wrist bands for getting 10 stickers

in all 5 You Can Do It keys!! There was a lot of

persistence shown to achieve this. Well done

boys!

School Photos

A reminder that school photos are on November

6th. Please find attached the photo envelopes.

These need to be returned by November 5th.

Icy Poles

The SRC are organising icy poles to replace the

hot chocolates they were selling in terms 2 & 3.

Icy poles will be available at lunchtime and will be

50c each.

Pupil Free Day Monday 3rd November (day before Melbourne Cup Day) is a Pupil Free Day. Teachers will be using this day to continue assessment analysis and report writing.

Free Information Sessions