31 March 2023

Newsletter Articles

Site Improvement Plan / Pupil Free Day

Staff have been busy planning improvement work during their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in both Literacy and Numeracy. Our two challenges of practice for 2023 now embed our pedagogical focus of student agency through goal setting.

Numeracy

If we deliver a common evidence-based approach (using the guidebook resource) to the teaching and assessing of multiple-step mathematical problem-solving tasks / investigations supported by a focus on student agency through goal setting, then we will increase student achievement in mathematics, particularly in the number and measurement strands.

Writing

If we prioritise the explicit teaching and assessing of writing, then we will increase student achievement in writing. Specifically, if we agree to focus on student agency through goal setting, timely feedback and formative assessment we will improve students’ capacity to independently apply language conventions to strengthen their writing across a range of genres.

As part of our partnership work this year, staff ran their first half day professional community on Monday utilizing Dr Simon Breakspear’s Agile Leadership framework. Simon is a researcher, advisor and speaker on educational leadership, policy and change.

Pupil Free Day

At the end of week 6 we held our Pupil Free Day focusing on Functional Grammar in writing with Ali Newbold our Brightpath department project officer. Staff found it to be a highly rewarding day in building their knowledge and skills in the application of this domain in writing. Functional grammar focuses on the way language is put together so that meaning is communicated for particular purposes, and looks at a language as a system of meaning, while traditional grammar is concerned with the ways words are organized within sentences and looks at a language as a set of rules.

I wish you all a happy Easter weekend and a relaxing school holiday break with your families and loved ones and we look forward to seeing you when school returns on Tuesday 2 May.

Kind regards,
Andrew Dowling
Principal

Wellbeing at EHPS

Hello and welcome to our new wellbeing page. Firstly, I would like to introduce myself, as I know there are some new families at EHPS that do not know me.

My name is Pamela Hansen and I have been at EHPS for the past 8 years in the role of providing Wellbeing support to students, staff, families and the school community of EHPS. My background, comes from a strong community development foundation. I have worked across different fields of work, which include the mental and primary health sectors as well as the disability sector. I have qualifications in counselling and art therapy.

I only work at EHPS on Wednesdays (8am to 4pm), as I also work across 3 other schools’ sites.

EHPS will commence putting up a Wellbeing page to keep you informed as to what we are noticing in the school re: trends around the issues that are reflecting our overall wellbeing. At times I will also share with you some of the wellbeing activities that your children participate in, for example the activity we did for HARMONY DAY. You would have noticed the beautiful and colourful peace doves that all students created along the oval. All students participated in the conversation about HARMONY DAY and what it meant. This gave students a greater awareness of all the students in the school and the differences each student might bring.

If you see me either at Breakfast Club or in the grounds please come up and introduce yourself as it would be lovely to meet you.

Pamela

SRC Grip

On Wednesday 15 March, Piper, Felix and Kess and I (the SRC Executives) attended the GRIP Leadership Conference, at the Entertainment Centre in Adelaide. We participated in a range of interactive activities and learned lots of important things about being a leader. We had an awesome time!

Pip

On 15 March, the SRC Executives went to a GRIP conference in the city at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. It was about leadership and how to be a leader. My biggest takeaway from that is the 4 Hs. They were happiness, help, hear and humility, the things you need to have to be a good leader. Overall, I think all the SRC Executives had a great time and learned a lot from it.

Kesserlee

On Wednesday 15 March the SRC Executives went to a G.R.I.P leadership conference. We learnt about how to be a good leader and how you can impact you school as a leader. We were told acronyms like the four Hs; Hear other’s options, Help with little things, Happiness- see the positive side of things and Humility, own your mistakes and ask when you need help/support. 3 groups of people that leaders can impact are people who look up to you, people who are left out by others and people who are like minded. I enjoyed it because it was something I have never done before and I took a lot out of it.

Felix

SRC executive went to a GRIP conference. I personally enjoyed it because it was such a fun way to learn. I found the conference quite helpful because it helped me with things that I was a little unsure about such as how to be a good leader in every situation. A part I found quite helpful was a time where we could ask questions because they answered some questions I had been meaning to ask or was too scared to ask. Overall, the conference was a great opportunity and I am very happy I got to be a part of it!

Piper

SPORT

SAPSASA Swimming Carnival

On Wednesday 1 March, 4 of our students represented our school at the District Swimming Carnival. Despite the cooler weather, it was a great morning with some fabulous results. It was the first time competing for Steph and Angus, and second time for Evie. They all gave it their best and finished their races with big smiles!

Jess placed 3rd for Freestyle, 1st for Backstroke and 1st for Breaststroke. She has also been selected in the District Team to compete at the State Carnival.

Thank you very much to Leanne C who acted as our Team Manager for the day and to all the parents who took their children along to participate.

Athletics Team

On Thursday 30 March, 32 students were selected to attend the School Sport SA (SAPSASA) District Track and Field Day at SANTOS Stadium, Mile End. These students participated in trials at school and have been selected to represent Eden Hills Primary School. Photos to follow in the next newsletter.

Congratulations to:

Year 6s - Halle, Felix, Hannah, Leon, Mika, Carter, Pippa, Kess, Stefanos, Isaac & Cisco
Year 5s - Stella, Ella, George, Savannah, Owen, Ellie, Adam, Chelsea, Alice & Hugh
Year 4s - Maya, Menzie, Jessica, Ben, Steph, Heath, Sienna, Jarrah, Henry, Henry & Lucy

Sports Captains

Over the past few weeks, year 5s and 6s have been writing applications, delivering speeches and voting for our House Captains for 2023.

Congratulations to the following successful people

Ninja National Championships

Just before school started this year Steph L travelled to Brisbane to represent South Australia in the Australian Ninja National Championships. With 350 competitors of all ages from across the country it was a large and tough environment. Steph handled the pressure really well and had a fantastic run, narrowly missing out on a spot in the finals.

Great Work Steph!

Calendar dates

Mountain Biking: Thursday 11 May 2023, (teams of 2, 3 or 4 depending on experience) Craigburn Farm/Sturt Gorge
Cross Country: Tuesday 16 May 2023, Belair National Park
Knockout Netball Carnival: Monday 8 May 2023, Netball SA Stadium

Belair Family Day

Reminder next Friday (last day of Term 1) is our

Belair Family Day!

Students need to arrive at school normal time to board the bus at 9:15am

And will need to bring a school hat, drink bottle, recess and lunch – own sunblock (optional).

At the conclusion of our day, children can be collected at 12:55pm from the Gold Escort Park, Belair National Park

All other students will take the bus back to school for a 2:10pm end of term dismissal.

Early Dismissal

Lost Property

A BIG THANK YOU to Neil who designed and built the new lost property rack which is accessible outside the office daily. All efforts are made to return named property to students, we strongly encourage you to label all clothing to make this job easier.

Please come and check the rack before the end of term. If there are any unnamed items left, we will donate them to charity.

Governing Council

As a way of welcoming new families to EHPS, the Governing Council would like to invite you to an Easter hunt and picnic at Belair National Park.

Time: 10am, Easter Monday (April 10)

Location: near the Main Oval Pavilion, Belair National Park

We have arranged a nature scavenger hunt with some plain chocolate eggs to share at the end.

Please bring collecting baskets, snacks and a picnic rug. Parking is available near the former Belair Country Club & Escapegoat. If you enter from that carpark we will be located just to the left, near the pavilion. Hope to see you there!

SAPOL- Southern Community Engagement

SA Police have noticed an increase in antisocial behaviour in the vicinity of the
Belair mountain biking trails,
surrounding streets, and on trains and train platforms.
There have been incidents of objects being thrown at cars on Belair Road and Old Belair Road.
Throwing objects on roads and at cars can cause serious injury and even death.
Police have also received reports about dangerous bike riding on the roads leading to the trails around the Mitcham and Lower Mitcham areas.
With Easter and School Holidays approaching SA Police support young people being involved in healthy, physical activities including mountain bike riding, however we need to consider the safety of the whole community.

Vacation Care

Pupil Free Day

Starting Secondary School in 2024

Community Notices