3 December 2020

Newsletter Articles

The End of the 2020 School Year

We come to the end of what has certainly been a unique year for our school community, however, one that has presented us with opportunities to demonstrate our creativity and collaborative skills to problem solve the many challenges faced.

When reflecting on 2020, we are exceptionally proud of how, as a community, we were able to advance our learning through the myriad of changes and circumstances. Pleasingly we continued to hold many of our traditional events, albeit in modified ways including our Virtual Assemblies, Remembrance Day, School Concert, Sports Day and a new initiative in our Reconciliation Day as part of NAIDOC week. I’d also like to thank our Governing Council and generous volunteers for their valuable contributions to our school over the year. Eden Hills Primary is lucky to have such a wonderful community of committed people giving their time to support our students’ development.

In regards to our Site Improvement Plan trajectory, while we didn’t have the normal measures of NAPLAN in place, our internal measures show that we are continuing to improve. Our continued focus on improving writing has shown wonderful growth across all years in our Brightpath data, complemented by our Seven Steps to Writing Success journey. Numeracy problem solving improvement was reflected through our Progress Achievement Testing, again showing growth across each year level and Student Agency continues to develop, focusing on the capacity of our students to positively guide their learning journeys. Additionally, we just received our Year 1 Phonics data and saw an improvement of 20% from the previous year, a wonderful recognition of the hard work of our Early Years teachers.

I hope that you and your families have an opportunity to spend quality time over the Christmas break and we look forward to seeing our families back in 2021 when school returns on Wednesday 27 January. To those families leaving at the end of the year, we thank you for your time and contributions to Eden Hills Primary and wish you all the best for the next stage of your child’s/children’s learning.

Take care.

Andrew Dowling
Principal

Staff farewells

We say thank you and farewell to Stew Nancarrow who is leaving us to take on a leadership role at Blackwood High School and to Sam Kavanagh who has won an Assistant Principal role at Westbourne Park Primary. Both Stew and Sam are highly valued educators at Eden Hills Primary and will be missed. We wish them all the best in the next stage of their careers.

Result of poll for 2021 Materials and Services Fees

A new initiative from The Department this year was to run an online voting system to capture parent votes on the proposed fees for the following year. Earlier this term all of our families were emailed a link to vote on making the 2021 Materials & Services Charge legally recoverable. Thank you to the families who submitted their votes. The result was 89% in favour of making our 2021 Materials & Services charge of $370 fully legally recoverable.

Invoices for 2021 will be sent home early next year.

Remembrance Day

A big thank you to our wonderful SRC Executives who organised and hosted our Remembrance Day ceremony to remember those armed forces that fought and those that gave their lives in the line of duty. A special thank you to Joel Walker for his wonderful contribution with the Last Post and Rouse and to Flight Lieutenant Caitlin Hull from the Department of Defence who spoke to our students on the significance of the day.

Academic Achievement

Congratulations to Alexia and Eliana who received the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award for French, in their year levels at the School of Languages.

Reports and Classes

The end of year reports and notification of next year’s classes will be sent home on Thursday 10 December. We will have a transition visit to the new classes during that day where the students will get to know their classmates and hopefully their new teacher. We still have a number of classes where a teacher is yet to be placed and that may not be known until the students return in 2021.

ThankED

Every day, people working in public education shape futures by inspiring children and young people to reach their full potential. ThankED gives everyone the chance to celebrate the positive difference that we strive to make.

To say thanks to a teacher or education staff member who has made a difference to you please visit education.sa.gov.au/ThankED

#ThankED

Christmas Giving Tree

Thank you to everyone who donated to the Christmas Giving Tree.

The local Lions Club have collected our donations and

will distribute the goods to families in need in our local community.

Thank You from the Rotary Club of Blackwood

Above are photos taken recently when the Club delivered all the groceries collected from Eden Hills, Bellevue Heights & Coromandel Valley Primary Schools.

We would like to say thank you to all the students and their parents.

I know Beacon were very grateful.

When we delivered the goods Beacon volunteers told us that they had, only the day before, fed a homeless man who has been sleeping by Woolworths and also given a food parcel to a mother & her 2 children, victims of domestic violence.

Next week they will be preparing Christmas hampers to be delivered to needy families in our area.

Many thanks

Robyn Venus
President, Rotary Club of Blackwood

Lunch Orders

Early Dismissal

Resource Centre

By the time you read this we will have reached the deadline for the return of all books and readers to the Resource Centre. If anyone in your family has outstanding items please return them urgently as we have started stock-take. (Students with outstanding items have been given a list today so please check those bags!)

Sports Uniforms

Reminder to all students to please return their sport tops to the office. If we do not receive their tops back, families will be charged for them. (I know that sometimes the players get attached to their number and want to keep their top for next year but please discourage this).

If coaches haven’t already done so, please return all black folders with registration forms, attendance records and uniform allocations to the office via students, so that all the information can be archived.

Rebecca Stevens
Sports Coordinator

2021 School Sports Registration

Registrations are now open for ALL sports in 2021

Basketball, Cricket, Netball, Pedal Prix, Soccer, T-Ball and Volleyball

Come’N’Try Basketball and Come’N’Try Cricket

Age restrictions apply

To register:

or for more information about sport availability

Sports Committee

Fundraising

People’s Choice Community Lottery

This year, we’re taking part in the People’s Choice Community Lottery to help reach our fundraising goals for 2020. All funds will be going toward our Nature Play area that we are planning to establish.

What’s the Community Lottery?

Every year, the People’s Choice Community Lottery gives local sporting clubs, schools, charities, volunteer groups and other not-for-profit community groups around Australia the opportunity to raise funds and achieve fundraising goals.

If you’d like to help us raise money this year, please buy tickets and help us reach our goal so we can keep supporting our local community.

Tickets are only $2 each and by buying from us, not only do you support us, you also go into the draw to win one of 70 prizes worth a total of over $300,000.

How do I buy tickets?

To buy tickets, head to communitylottery.com.au, click buy tickets tab, select the Schools and Education tile, then locate the Eden Hills Primary School tile and follow the prompts. Or follow the link below:

Each ticket is another entry to win! The Community Lottery closes Friday 19 February 2021.

Thank you for your support.

For full Terms & conditions go to communitylottery.com.au 700,000 tickets to be sold. Chances of winning a prize are 1:10,000. Lottery to be drawn on 26 February 2021. Promoter is People’s Choice Community Foundation Limited. SA Lottery Licence No. M13910. Vic Raffle Permit No. 10306/20. Declared Organisation No. 58545. ACT Permit No. ACT R 20/00148. NSW Art Union Authority no. GOCAU/2338.

Entertainment Book

Having difficulties finding the right gift for someone who has everything? Why not support our fundraising efforts and purchase an entertainment book. Please click on the link to purchase.

School 2021

School Uniform Orders 2021

School uniform can be ordered on the QKR app at any time and will be ready for collection on Tuesday 19 January 2021. Alternatively you can come in and purchase uniform in person on this date.

Reminder that during Terms 1, 2 & 4 it is compulsory to wear hats outside, so you might need to add a hat to your uniform order.

Community Notices