23 September 2021

Newsletter Articles

Another Term Over

After an unprecedented start we come to the end of another busy term and can reflect on a significant number of events and learning opportunities our students were a part of including:

• Book Week
• Festival of Music
• Water Safety program
• Graduate Camp to Mylor
• SAPSASA Athletics
• Class incursions and excursions
• PAT testing
• Music Assembly
• Lunchtime student run clubs
• Colour Fun Run
• Further development of our Nature Play

Thank you to our school community for your ongoing support and understanding. I hope you have a safe and rewarding break with your families and we look forward to seeing you back for Term 4.

Netball Court

The resurfacing of our Netball court will commence the first weekend of the school holidays. To allow for complete curing, this area will be inaccessible for the entire two weeks. We are excited to add another significant improvement to the resources in our school.

NAPLAN

Overall, we had some excellent gains in our 2021 NAPLAN assessments. Teachers have been taking the opportunity to examine the results before the assessments are sent home Thursday this week. Please make contact by phone or email with the class teacher if you have any questions in regards to this year’s NAPLAN assessment.

External School Review

After the lockdown at the beginning of the term, our External School Review was postponed until further notice.

The purpose of external school reviews is to support us to raise achievement, sustain high performance and provide quality assurance to build public confidence in government schools.

All government schools are externally reviewed every 3 years.

The focus of the external school review is to evaluate our school’s performance. The review panel includes a review officer and a trained review principal. Our school’s review will occur on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 October.

The review panel will identify aspects of our school’s improvement that have been verified through the review processes, as well as the improvements that we need to make in the future.

During the external school review, some students, parents, governing council members and staff will be asked to provide information to the review panel in a number of ways. These include:

• individual interviews
• group discussions (with students or staff or parents)
• meetings (governing council, staff meeting)
• visits into classrooms.

We appreciate everyone’s support and time in helping us with this external school review process.

Kind regards,
Andrew Dowling
Principal

Book Week

What fun we had celebrating all things ‘book’– amazing dress-ups, Book Week assembly (thank you Room 3), competitions, activities and ridding our school of those pesky aliens!

Huge thanks and congratulations to the Year 6/7 Resource Centre team who turned the Resource Centre into a wonderland of New Worlds, Old Worlds and Other Worlds and then ran activities for all students during the week. They completely nailed our school values of respect, responsibility, creativity and resilience. Take a well-earned bow Acacia, Bea, Scarlett, Cleo, Kate, Eve, Zoe, Alyssa, Matisse, Maya, Maya, Ella, Anika, Ivy, Chelsea, Jess and Evie.

Jo

Geocaching with Nature Play SA

This year our Book Week celebrations included a visit from Nature Play SA to run a geocaching activity with all classes. Students worked in small teams to use a GPS unit to locate up to 15 hidden treasures (geocaches) on the school grounds. Each geocache held a fun activity or challenge related to one of the CBCA shortlisted books.

Needless to say, everyone loved this outdoor learning experience, developed and run by Cameron and Dane from Nature Play SA. Geocaching is a fun activity that anyone can do whilst exploring local areas. You just need to search geocaching online, or download a geocaching app. Many geocaches are already hidden around our local area, so head out and enjoy!

Festival of Music News

What a night it was, ‘Stars in the Arena’, celebrating 130 years of the Primary Schools Music Festival at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Last Wednesday 8 September 2021, eleven of our students performed. Our school was also represented by Evelyn, who led the sopranos through some complicated ‘choreography’, and by Jessica who performed as part of the spectacular troupe. Singing in a festival concert is the culmination of many hours of preparation, learning the words and parts of many new songs, with some being quite challenging.

The Primary Schools Festival of Music is the custodian of an iconic South Australian tradition, we engage our students in artistic excellence, cultural diversity and social inclusion through performance in Music and the Arts.

The commissioned work was entitled ‘Water is Life’, which was a series of songs composed by local musician, Glyn Lehman. Glyn sang in the festival himself nearly 50 years ago.

The concert ended with a spectacular sea of colour.

During the concerts there were a number of Guest Artists from public primary and secondary schools, other choir items that presented different musical genre, and two pieces that specifically showcased the talents of the orchestra.

A spectacular event that our students enjoyed being a part of.

Sports Day

Sports Day this year was a great success. All students gave their best efforts and showed great support for each other. Shepherd - red came out on top, with Watiparinga - blue in second place and Karinya - yellow only 1 point behind in third place. It was great to have family members join us this year supporting the students. The team captains and vice captains showed great leadership on the day, as well as during the lead up to the day. I would like to acknowledge an error printed in the program; Lucia Fagan, one of our graduates, was listed as vice-captain for blue however she was the captain. Apologies to Lucia.

Well done everyone!

Thanks,
Emily.

Colour Fun Run

Tomorrow is our C r a zy C o l o u r F u n R u n D a y ! We look forward to seeing students get involved. The class that raised the highest amount will get to spray Andrew as he runs the course.

Please remember to keep collecting donations, all donations will go towards our Nature Play Area.

SAPSASA Hockey

Congratulations to Evelyn who was selected for the Year 6 girls SAPSASA district of Southern Heights to play in the Hockey carnival.

Vacation Care December 2021 / January 2022

The Governing Council and Eden Hills OSHC/Vac Care service wish to highlight to families that the 2021/2022 summer holidays will be longer than usual. Term 4 finishes slightly earlier on Friday 10 December 2021 and Term 1 begins on Monday 31 January 2022.

Governing Council are seeking feedback from families who use the Vacation Care service to understand need and manage vacation care opening dates during the extended break.

Please email any feedback to the secretary of the Governing Council at Katie.Schubert911@schools.sa.edu.au by Wednesday 20 October. Thank you.

Lost Property

Lost property is collected and every effort is made to return items to their owners. It is really helpful when items are clearly named. Don’t forget to name clothing which may be removed (e.g. track tops track pants, hats) as well as drink bottles and lunch boxes.

We have a mountain of unnamed items. A big thank you to Martine for all her help with sorting and stacking our lost items. This week, there is a table outside the Office for you to check through the unnamed collection. All items remaining at the end of term will be donated or disposed of.

Sports Uniform

Now is the time to return any sports uniforms that you have hired during the netball and soccer season, or if you no longer play basketball. Please return your uniforms to the Office.

If you have misplaced or have significant damage to your sports uniforms you will be invoiced for their replacement.

SCHOOL LUNCH DELIVERY SERVICE

Are you willing to help with this simple task?

Each term the lunch order system goes ahead if we have enough volunteers. Typically, helpers are rostered just once per term. Doing the lunch orders is an easy way to get to know others in the school community, especially if you and your children are new to the school.

What’s involved?

All orders are now generated on-line via Qkr which is easy to join so there is only a single trip to Blackwood High School. The bags need to picked up from the Eden Hills School office at 9am ready to exchange for the filled bags at 12.20pm to deliver back to the front office at Eden Hills. Full directions and a map are included with the roster.

This is such a convenient way to provide lunch for your children on these days and it is a big treat for the kids.

If you can help, please email Sally O’Neil with the below information by Friday 1 October 2021.

Name:
Phone:
Name of child:
Class Teacher:
I can help on either day
I can help Tuesday only
I can help Wednesday only
I can help in term 4

Contact person: Sally O’Neil
email: sallyoneil78@gmail.com
Coordinator

Last Day Term 3

First Day Term 4

Vacation Care Program

Australian Federal Police Warning

Please find below a link to an article from the Australian Federal Police regarding a growing online child abuse trend.

Kind Regards,
Southern District Community Engagement Section (12)
South Australia Police

Enrolments 2022

We are currently looking at class structure for 2022. If you know of anyone who is planning on enrolling in Eden Hills Primary for 2022 and has not filled in an enrolment form, please encourage them to do so ASAP. Alternatively, if you know you will not be returning to Eden Hills Primary School next year, can you also let the Office know ASAP.

Thank you for helping us to plan and prepare for our 2022 school community.

2021 Term 4 Sports Registration

Registrations are now open for sports in Term 4, 2021

Cricket, T-Ball, Basketball, Netball and Volleyball

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

Age restrictions apply

To register click the link below:

We are always looking for parent volunteers to help run our after school sports programs. With our year 6 &7 families leaving, now is a good time to gain some knowledge and experience from our current Coaches and Coordinators ready for 2022!

Sports Committee

Rotary Supporting Our Community

There will be a donation bin set up outside the Office where people in our school community can leave donations of shelf stable food items which Rotary can then pass on to organisations such as Beacon Emergency Support and Foodbank. The bin will be at the school for first 3 weeks of Term 4 and the donations will be collected each week. Please give if you can and support our local charity organisations.

Community Notices