15 December 2016

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

This will be our final newsletter for 2016. The last week has been a time to reflect on the year and Monday’s Year 6 Graduation assembly was certainly a time to say our farewells. To our year 6 students and their families best wishes for the next part of your educational journey, into high school and beyond.

We will also farewell some of our year 4 students Campbell Freeman, James Stevens, Sam Sherlock and Esther Schroeter who will go to the Opportunity Class (OC) at Balgowlah Heights Public School next year. You are always welcome back at Manly Vale. Others including Rose and Josh Turner, Aurora and Markus Froeiland, Tim Bell, Henare and Persayess Popata Dubois, Mia Clifford, Hudson Finn, Jasmine Kovel, Henry Morris, Lily Moon and Vishanthe Vivekana Muthanegere will leave us for other schools and destinations and we would like to wish you all the best. We will officially say farewell to you all this Friday morning at the assembly.

Farewell Mrs Learmont

Lori Learmont will more than likely retire at the end of this week after 36 years of teaching. The school did officially farewell her at the Celebration of Learning assembly last week and we would like to take this opportunity to wish Lori all the best for her impending retirement. Lori has been an advocate for public education and taught students all over Sydney and the Central Coast. She is looking forward to spending more time with her 4 children and 2 grandchildren, and enjoying a more relaxed lifestyle on the farm down the South Coast.

Thank you Mrs Learmont for your enormous contribution to Manly Vale Public School for the last 9 years as a teacher and Assistant Principal.

Farewell Ms Hall

Ms Hall will take up a fulltime permanent position at Balgowlah Heights Public School next year. Ms Hall will certainly be missed by all staff and parents but we wish her well at her new school.

Year 6 Graduation - Monday 12 December

It was wonderful way to start off our final week with a farewell assembly. Our year 6 students were able to formally thank their parents and teachers at this special assembly and say an official goodbye to the school. Mrs Cadence Abrahams (one of their Kindergarten teachers) gave a very heart-felt speech and then each year 6 students presented their parents with a flower and a personalised letter expressing their thanks. There were a few tears of emotion from students, staff and parents but there was a sense of true “community feel” during the assembly and I was certainly very proud to be a part of it. Thank you to Mr Dylan for all his work in making the year 6 Farewell assembly so memorable and to Mrs O’Grady for all her assistance.

On Monday night year 6 had their Graduation dinner. The teachers and students were treated to a lovely dinner of burritos by our Year 6 parents. The venue was decorated with a beach theme “Aloha” and all the students and teachers had a wonderful time. Thank you to the year 6 farewell committee of parents who organised the event.

Talent Quest – Thursday

This Thursday we will hold our Annual Talent Quest. Students will be auditioning in their classes in order to seek a place in the final concert this Thursday. Unfortunately we are unable to allow parents, Grandparents and ex-students entry to this event. Our hall is very small and really only fits the current students. This is just an in-school fun event. Elaborate costumes and props are not required for this event.

Year 6 vs Teacher’s Basketball match- Friday

After our assembly on Friday there will be a basketball match between year 6 students and the teachers. This will be watched by the rest of the school and hopefully the teachers can maintain their undefeated record for the past few years. The year 6 “Clap out” will be at around 2.30pm on Friday and will be the conclusion of our Year 6 farewell activities.

Building works in the holidays

Our oval will be fully renovated on the first Tuesday of the holidays. This means that it will not be able to be used at all during the Christmas period. We want to give the oval some time to rejuvenate in preparation for 2017.

Our General Assistant (GA) will be up all through the holidays to supervise other works including the oval. We are having another demountable installed and a new Kindergarten playground built.

Thank you Brendan Cliffe

A big thank you to Mr Brendan Cliffe (Serena’s Dad KD) for fixing our sound system in the hall.

Congratulations Nora Gado

Nora was successful in winning a prize for her artwork at the annual Manly Environment Centre’s Ocean Care Day. Well done Nora!

Happy Holidays!

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy holiday with your family and friends. It has been a very busy and productive year at Manly Vale Public School. Thank you to our office staff of Pam, Luise, Annabel and Ann who have had a lot of change and training to deal with, yet have kept all our programs running and supported our staff and students.

Thank you to our volunteers and to our teachers and support staff for allowing Manly Vale to accommodate a variety of programs. I know everyone is looking forward to a holiday (especially our Kindergarten students). Merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing you all back on Monday 30 January. Kindergarten 2017 Best Start begins the following day, Tuesday 31 January.

Remember to order your stationery packs from Humphreys these holidays in preparation for next year. Holiday care is available from our before and after school provider, Primaryoschcare. Call David on 0430 369 288 if you would like to make a booking.

Tina Lee – Principal

HOT – Higher Order Thinking Gifted & Talented Program

This year the Gifted and Talented program at the school has supported various enrichment and extension programs for K-6 students identified with the abilities to work on extensive, higher order thinking (HOT) tasks across all key learning areas. The photos above are from a workshop offered allowing students to engage in open-ended problem solving tasks in preparation to select our very first Tournament of Minds team. There are also pictures of students working with Mrs Kemp in specialised creative thinking, writing and extension numeracy groups.

Throughout the year we have showcased the many talents of coordinating teachers and the students involved in the school’s dance, drama, debating, choir, band, chess and sporting groups. Our students have been provided many opportunities to perform and engage in public speaking. A highlight of the year was to be partnered with the University of Sydney and the CSIRO to be given a science mentor. We were very fortunate to have Peter McInnes spend many volunteer hours working with our students and teachers in science lessons and specialised talks. The students were particularly inspired by Peter and his knowledge as an author, botanist and scientist.

Our two librarians, Mrs Poole and Mrs Murphy-Haste have taught our stage 2 & 3 students to independently research and develop study skills relating to their history and geography HSIE units. 5F and 2E were involved in an in-depth study of literature through their work in the school drama program in partnership with the Sydney Theatre Company. All stage 1 classes have been learning to code using the Lego We-do equipment. We had outstanding success with many sporting achievements, our drama group selected to perform at the State festival, our dancers performing at the Sydney North Dance Festival and Elijah Goh and Tom Gay presenting their speeches at the Bear Pit competition at Parliament House, where Tom won the stage 2 ‘speak-off’!

At Manly Vale the teachers program using higher order thinking strategies and organise activities that promote divergent thinking, problem solving and creativity. Thank you to the staff involved in leading Gifted and Talented programs and to our ‘HOT’ committee led by Mrs Kemp & Miss Phillips.

SRC Handover and Celebration of Learning

On Friday 2 December the 2016 School Leaders handed the SRC over to our new 2017 School Leaders. The SRC has been very active in bringing about change for our students throughout the year and we would like to acknowledge and thank Logan Sengchanh and Katia Bjorkmann our School Captains, Tom Freeman and Olivia Inkster our Vice Captains, Elliot Rowe, Jade Nelson, Sam Davies and Indigo Kelly our Prefects for their leadership and service to the school. They have been excellent role models and have worked hard to ensure the SRC ran smoothly, that suggestions were followed up and that assemblies ran smoothly. We wish the leaders every success in their high school years and beyond.

Thank you to the many families who attended our Celebration of Learning assemblies on Thursday 8 December. We acknowledged and awarded the academic, creative and sporting achievements of many students and congratulated each class for their hard work this year. Our 2017 School Leaders’ positions were announced and we would like to congratulate the following students for their new leadership roles:

Sonny Harper and Sienna Kelly – School Captains
Ben Crowe and Grace Nairne – School Vice Captains
Julianne Tolentino and Spike Hancock – Prefects
Ella McAvoy and Jude Pincus – Prefects

We look forward to working with these students in 2017.

Lisa Phillips

2017 Stationery

Each year we partner with Humphreys Office Supplies to order all stationery products and Humphreys repays a percentage of our total purchasing to provide funds raised for the school. Each year the teachers put together a pack of items they would like students to have for the following year. Please order your child’s stationery pack for 2017 by following the steps below. Any enquiries you have can be directed to Richard at Humphreys: stockcontrol@humphreys.com.au

Game Training Workshop

As part of our technology program at Manly Vale Public School, 30 Stage 2 students were selected to participate in a Game Training workshop last week. It offered an opportunity for the students to learn to write code and create their own commercial quality video games at school.

The name of the workshop was Game Development and Code Writing. Here are some of our student responses after they completed the 2 hour workshop:

This Was Downright One Of The Best Parts Of This Year By Far. I Loved Flying Jets And Driving Cars Around My World. I also Changed The Look Of The Textures! - Xavier Brown

The workshop was awesome! - Sakura Baker

Thanks for teaching us code on unity. It was really fun and interesting and I learnt lots. I would like to do this again. - Tobias Twidale

I thought the game training workshop was...... AWESOME!!!!!! I look forward to getting my username and password so I can use Unity at home. - Trisha Khapung

I loved the road show session so much! It was awesome! I will make games now thanks to you! - Samuel Romeo

I really enjoyed it and I hope everyone else will as well! - Finn Smith

Melinda Ward

Library News

We finish the year in Manly Vale Public School library with a big thank you to all the families who have so kindly and generously donated wonderful books and puzzles for everyone to share. A special thank you to the Schroeter family, who are leaving the school this year, for the three beautiful information books which will take pride of place on our New Books shelf situated at the entrance to the library. Our fiction and non-fiction sections have some glittering new titles for the children to enjoy in 2017.

Remember your local library is always a great place to visit in the holidays for fun activities, and a great choice of books, dvds, cds and other wonderful resources to borrow.

Happy Holidays and Happy Reading

Glynis Poole and Annette Murphy-Haste – Teacher Librarians

Dates for Your Diary

Canteen Volunteers Roster Term 1, 2017

Canteen News

The Canteen Committee would like to say a HUGE thank you to all our wonderful volunteers who have helped in the canteen this year, we have had a great year and the canteen could not run without you. Special thanks also to Sarah Langley for all her hard work. We wish you all a safe and healthy Christmas break and we look forward to seeing you all again next year.

We need some new volunteers next year as we are losing a few amazing volunteers who are leaving our school so if you wold like to volunteer next year please see Sarah in the canteen or email manlyvalepscanteen@gmail.com

Happy holidays!

Canteen Committee

(Please note: NO HOT FOOD to be served in the canteen on the last day of term Friday 16 December 2016).

Café Owl

Friday 16 December will be the last Café Owl for 2016. As a number of volunteers are moving on, we are in need of help for 2017. You can be a regular or occasional helper. Please speak to the Café Owl staff if you think you can help out.

Community Notices

Lions Club of Manly – Outlets for Lions Christmas Cakes & Puddings

Christmas Cake 1kg $12
Christmas Cake 1.5kg $16
Pudding 900g $12

Helping Local Groups & the Needs of the Community

MANLY – Bank of Queensland, Malouf’s Pharmacy, National Australia Bank; BROOKVALE – Westpac, National Australia Bank; MANLY VALE – Manly Vale Pharmacy, Chiropractic Osteopathy; FRESHWATER – Bendigo Bank; WARRINGAH MALL – Westpac, National Australia Bank; DEE WHY – Northern Beaches Credit Union, Westpac, St George Bank, Bendigo Bank. For bulk orders please contact Lion Nigel Jeny 0411 016 675 or email manly@lionsclubssydney.org.au

Kids in the Park

School holiday programs at Sydney Olympic Park – there are 60+ fun-filled activities to keep kids active, outdoors and entertained. A range of activities are free or under $25 – Archery, Gymnastics, Circus Skills & Flying Trapeze, Futsal, Science & writing workshops, Sport & adventure camps & lots more.

Tempo Red Academy of Performing Arts

FREE Open Day Sunday 18 December 2016, 10.30am-2.30pm, Unit 12 122-126 Old Pittwater Rd, Brookvale. Enquiries 0438 273 571.

Go4Fun Healthy. Active. Happy. Kids

Allambie Jets Junior Rugby Club

REGISTRATIONS OPEN – 1/1/2017 for players U6-U10. Register online at the link below or visit our Open Day at Allambie Oval, Friday 10 February from 3.30pm, come along, have fun & get involved. BBQ afterwards. Information session at Allambie Height’s shops, 10.00am to 1.00pm, Saturday 4 & 11 February 2017.

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