Parent Helpers Wanted!

The PHPS Library needs many able hands to help cover our new library books. We also need regular helpers to join the team re-shelving and tidying or ordering the resources on shelves. To find out more please speak to Mark.

Research Project on Assessment.

A letter is being sent home with the children this week. It outlines a research project that some teachers are involved in over the next 6 months with Professor Marilyn Fleer at Monash University.

The letter outlines the project “Assessment beyond borders: Potentive assessment in Primary School”.  The project is looking at varied ways to assess children both at school and at home.

It also includes consent forms for you to fill out and return to school  as soon as possible.

We would appreciate your support in this research project.

Maths Projects

Students in both neighbourhoods are currently in the process of completing their maths projects. To assist the students with the planning and organiusation of their project, each project group is required to complete an action plan. The plan requires the students to state their obectives and the steps they will need to follow to complete their objectives successfully. Students are being conferenced to support them with the process. In addition to this the students have identified wth their teachers those areas of the projects that they will assessed on. The assessment is in the form of a rubric, which requires the students to assess along a continuum of descriptors each other's projects in terms of how well they reached the criteria outlined in the rubric. The projects will be presented to the neighbourhoods early next term.

Year 5/6 Learning Neighbourhoods

Our more streamlined approach to having the children sign in (with teacher supervision) when they arrive, get their belongings from their lockers and go directly to the learning area where they need to be, is working well. It eliminates time spent waiting for rolls to be marked. Both neighbourhoods are now available for all the children and they have expressed pleasure at having more spaces on offer to support the range of learning they need to undertake. This is in line with the school’s Strategic Plan improvement strategy - to develop consistency in student programs and organisation throughout the years of schooling.
As a result of recommendations deriving from a project undertaken last year by a group of children in collaboration with designer, Mary Featherston, the learning spaces will continue to be developed. During the holidays tiered seating will be put in the ‘viewing room’ and work booths will be also be installed.
We’re enjoying the evolution of our Year 5/6 neighbourhood and look forward to the many possibilities this offers.

FAMILY BOARDGAMES NIGHT

All families at PHPS are invited to the Family Boardgames night.

When:  Friday 7 September 2012: 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm

Where: 5/6 Neighbourhood 1 building.

 

Come whenever you can- there’s no need to stay for the whole event. Year 5/6 students as well as former PHPS students will be available to teach the games to children and adults. There is no charge for this event. No electronic games please.

 

Angela Palombo

On behalf of Community Relations Sub-Committee, PHPS School Council

5/6 Learning Neighbourhood

Throughout out Inquiry, Alice in Wonderland, the two Year 5/6 neighbourhoods combined to use the learning spaces in a way that best supported the learning. This was a positive experience in that it ensured equitable and effective use of the spaces and resources.

We will continue in this way into the future which will ensure consistency of approach across the Year 5/6 level.

To support and assist the children with getting to workshops, targeted teaching sessions or learning agreement time promptly we will move all lockers into Neighbourhood 1. This will allow the children to sign in (with teacher supervision) when they arrive, get their belongings from their lockers and go directly to the learning area where they need to be.

Children will remain in their current home groups, programs will continue as in the past and their learning will continue to be tracked as it has to date.

The combined 5/6 office will be in Neighbourhood 1 to align with the rest of the school who share a team office.

Premiers' Reading Challenge

The deadline for submitting your Premiers' Reading Challenge (PRC) list of books is Monday 3 September.

Please enter the books eligible for the PRC, which you have read, onto your login page at the PRC website. 

Then, print a list of books with your name on it and ask a parent/guardian to sign it. Give this signed printout to your Home Group Teacher (who will deliver it to Annette for verification purposes). Enjoy the Challenge!

Alice In Wonderland Information Letter

Alice In Wonderland -

Alice in Wonderland- save the date

Our inquiry into performance has begun in earnest! We now have five departments established- Costume, Marketing and Promotion, Performance, Set Design, and Documentation. Much more to follow...
But PLEASE SAVE THESE DATES

Tuesday 28th, Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th August.

Camp: What to bring letter

Happy Valley Homestead Camp -

Healthy Communities Reflections

healthy food reflection -

Race to Pompeii

For the last four weeks we have been doing a project where we have to plan a trip to Rome and Pompeii, stopping over in Naples. We have to plan accommodation, flights and accessories.
We have to stay in Italy for fifteen days with a travel buddy. Together you have a total of $20,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are looking at all the maths involved in planning a holiday to Italy. Part of the project is to collect information and present our projects to the class in a creative way. The deadline for the project is yet to be decided and draws on a range of skills such as researching, organisation, reading and writing.
Otis and Jordi


Race to Pompeii -

Interschool Sport: Football

Interschool Sports Report- Football -

Inquiry Peer Assessment

Last week we did a peer assessment for our projects on healthy communities
We developed a rubric during a workshop, where we made decisions as to what would be assessed (guiding questions, guiding activities, organisation and documentation) and the criteria we would use to assess it. Each project group was assessed on a scale of one to three; for example, if all of your guiding questions link to the topic then you will get top marks but if only few did you would get fewer marks. Each project group was assigned to another project group to assess how well they reached the criteria.
Otis and Jordi


Healthy Communities Inquiry Rubric -

Interschool Sports Starts this Week

This week and for the next five weeks, the 5/6’s will be taking part in interschool sports. There will be soccer, football, t-ball and net ball. All teams except for netball travel to Princes Park to play while the netballers travel to the State Netball and Hockey Centre. We hope all the teams will be good spirited and have fun. We wish all the teams the best of luck. Each week we will post the results on the blog.
Jack P

Literature Group PMI

In the final week of literature groups students were required to evaluate the books they were reading.  Working in their groups, students completed a PMI: the plus, minus and intersting aspects of their book.  To help the neighbourhood with the selection of their next literature book, the PMIs were presented to the class. 

Audio Conference

http://www.box.com/s/e023b3bd6377ec88de71

Parent Information Night: Inquiry

An inquiry approach helps foster and develop our students’ natural curiosity for the social, biological and physical worlds in which they live. When planning units of inquiry, we need to consider in depth ‘What are the concepts we want to develop in our students about these worlds. How are these worlds organised? How do they change? How do they interrelate? How do we communicate about, within and across these worlds? From the big concepts we move to an essential question that gives our inquiry a specific direction. For example, we are looking at the big idea of healthly communities. Our essential question focuses on choices relating to our health and its impact on the overall health of our community. Engaging the students in the inquiry is an essential part of the process, provoking their thinking and ascertaining prior knowledge and values they bring to the inquiry. The essential question gives rise to a problem or challenge that needs to be solved. Students generate guiding questions that they will need answered in order for them to complete their challenge. Through the process both the students and teachers work together as collaborators and co-constructors of knowledge. Students in this process have a voice in their learning journey, negotiating possible pathways for their learning.

The integrated and seamless nature of learning is embedded through the process. Students are given explicit opportunities to use language, mathematics, the arts and technology to inquire about, analyse and communicate their understandings. Simultaneously, students are learning about and mastering the processes and conventions for each particular discipline area and seeing the relationship of learning across each area.

Premiers Active Family Challenge

The Premiers Active Families Challenge is on again -

Parent info meeting

Thanks to all the parents who were able to attend our parent information session last week. As a courtesy to parents who were unable to attend the session, we will be uploading a text version of what we spoke about on the night. Please watch for additions to the blog.

Mathematics in 5/6:

Numeracy is a whole school focus for 2012 and is central to all learning.

‘Numeracy is an individual’s capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world, to make well-founded judgements and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen.’ (OECD 2004)

‘To be truly numerate, involves more than the acquisition of mathematical routines and algorithms, no matter how well they are learned. Students need to learn mathematics in ways that enable them to recognise when mathematics might help to interpret information or solve practical problems, apply their knowledge appropriately in contexts where they will have to use mathematical reasoning processes and choose mathematics that makes sense in the circumstances.’  (National Numeracy Review, 2008)

We work within the meaningful context of inquiry wherever possible. Alongside this is a diagnosis and intervention program delivered through targeted sessions which are differentiated depending on need.  These targeted sessions combine the balance of deep understanding and the development of efficient methods.

Running alongside this targeted approach is a maths investigation which supports our inquiry.

One example of this was our inquiry into identity where students were asked to get into groups of 4-5 and calculate their “average group member” based on a number of open-ended criteria. (For example hair colour, length of arm, hand-span). The students then created life-size images of their average group member which helped us come to a better understanding of a shared identity.

Another example of embedded mathematics stemmed from a targeted session on ratio. As a result of some thorough maths investigation, a group of students found some misleading advertising in a Woolworths brochure. We decided action needed to be taken and sent a letter to the ACCC, Woolworths and Yakult, asking for an explanation. Sadly, we did not receive a reply from Woolworths, but the ACCC and Yakult did reply in writing. 

Yakult offered a group of students the opportunity of a tour of their factory (at no charge), which related strongly to our unit on technology and mass production.

Premier’s Active Families Challenge 19th March-30th April

The Premier’s Active Families Challenge is a key component of the Victorian Government’s commitment to get more people more active more often.

·        The Challenge provides a great opportunity for all Victorian families to spend time together and enjoy the benefits of an active lifestyle.

·        Families participating in the Challenge are asked to do 30 minutes of physical activity a day for 30 days between 19 March and 30 April 2012.

·        Each family that registers will receive 20 free YMCA passes, discounts at Rebel Sport, one free child pass to the Melbourne Aquarium and one free child pass to the National Sports Museum, and opportunities to win prizes including iPads and Rebel Sport vouchers.

·        There will be regular tips and ideas on ways to keep active throughout the Challenge.

Get more active more often, spend quality time together and have fun. It’s free, it’s easy, and there are plenty of chances to win prizes for yourself or your school

Register online at www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/challenge or call 1800 463 684, and remember to include our school’s name when you register.

Ride to School Day

 Princes Hill Primary School will be celebrating National Ride2School day on Friday 23^rd of March, along with thousands of other schools around the country. We would like to encourage students and their families to leave their car at home on this day and get a taste of the benefits, ease and fun involved in choosing to walk and wheel to school.

 Ride2School Team Manager, Kelly Pearson said the success of the Ride2School program and its positive impact on students’ health is evident in the numbers. Over 140,000 students participate in this event.

“Schools that are registered in the Ride2School program more than double the national average riding rate. These students increase the time they devote to physical activity which helps reduce the risk of obesity and associated health problems,” she said.

Montana and Holly, students in Grade5/6FM are organising this event for the school and will be gathering data on the day and taking photos.                                 

                                    Holly & Montana (Ride2School organisers)

Students have been inquiring into goal setting.  Our questions for our inquiry were: <i><i>What is a goal? What makes a good goal? Why are goals important? Where do we see goals in our lives</ There were 3 main criteria that we agreed to be an essential ingredient of a good goal: It must be specific; it must be measurable; and it must be achievable. Each student was asked to write 10 goals related to their learning at school, such as skills related to a specific cuuriculum area, organisation or working together. Students brought these goals back to the following week's workshop and a conferenced each other's goals based on the criteria we identified in the previous week. Four goals were chosen as goals they agreed to work on this term. 

My Goal_example -

Parent Info Meeting

Parent Information Session
There will
be a Parent Information Session on Wednesday 7th March 4:00 – 5:00pm.
You will be able to find out about the
learning within our neighbourhoods and answers to any particular questions
regarding Year 5/6. We hope to see you there!
We will be starting our presentation in the gymnasium.

Spelling: Word Study

During word study sessions, students will be inquiring into the relationship between sounds and their letter patterns. In the word study students collect words with a particular sound, sort the words into groups that will make sense, analyse the data for patterns that will help them with their spelling,and learn how to apply this knowledge when attempting to spell unknown words. Students are also learning about the inquiry process as well as building their understanding of the graphophonic system. Segmenting words into their sound parts will also be a strong focus during spelling investigations.

Workshops Tuesday 20 February

Each Tuesday skills workshops are held for students from both 5/6 neighbourhood classrooms. The following are reports on the four sessions held this week.

Maths Workshop
"In this class we had to create a record of our timetable of all our activity over a period of five days (120 hours). Our table had to consist of time spent on physical activity, sleep, movement, sedentary activity, TV/electronic games, and reading. This task was very enjoyable and a little bit hard". Emily.
Michael notes: a consolidated table showing many student's activity was created from the numerous Excel spreadsheets used by students to record their information. This will be used for a follow-up activity that forms part of next week's learning agreement.

Teamwork Skills Workshop
"On Tuesday one of the rotations that all of the 5/6s did was with Mike. Mike was teaching us about teamwork. He showed us a few games that help us improve our team work skills. One game was called helum stick; in this game you had to ower a metre ruler to the ground. But the catch is that the whole group had to be touching the stick the wholetime, and there were also other rules that it harder. It was a great workshop and we learned a lot". Maggie

Personal Learning Skills Workshop
"In Meredith's class we went on the Ultranet and added our neighbourhood blog to our home page. Then we joined the group called 'Healthly & Alive' and added an answer to the question "what do you like to do to keep fit?" After that we made two folders with the headings 'Learning Goals' and 'Learning Reflection'. We can add something in each of these folders once a week". Olivia

Working in Groups Workshop
We discussed what we need to do to work effecgively in a group. we need to:
- combine ideas together - taking turns
- use positive body language - speak clearly
- listen to each other
- make sure everone has a role
- encourage all group members
- make sure everyone understands the task
- participate
- cooperate.
Simon

Parent Reps

We are looking for 2-4 parents from each neighbourhood to volunteer as a parent rep for 2012. The role of parent reps is to encourage and co-ordinate parent involvement in the educational and social activities of the school in collaboration with the neighbourhood teachers.

If you are interested, please speak to the teachers in your child's neighbourhood by Thursday 1 March.

Angela Palombo, on behalf of the Community Relations Sub-Committee

Maths scavenger hunt

Here are some photos of our neighbourhood enjoying a lesson where we had to locate a lot of items around the school from a list of things such as something with a perimeter of 20cms or something that holds more than a litre.

Independent schools' scholarship exam

There will be two exam preparation sessions for students intending to sit scholarship exams for independant schools.

8:30 am

Wednesday 15th & Friday 17th February

in the library.

Please note this is for students intending to sit scholarships only.