Issue 2 Tuesday 15th February 2011

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT DATES TO REMEMBER

Wednesdays:
Meet the teacher BBQ tonight at forms will be sent out for all the February 16th, 23rd
school. Parents are invited to children to participate. March 2nd, 9th, 16th.
meet the teacher and have a Prep children do not attend
discussion about their child’s Our school learning focus is to school on these days.
progress or how they have just commence the learning year with
settled into school. a strong emphasis on personal Wednesday 16th
best. The children will revisit our February
BBQ commences at 5 o’clock till 7 agreements of Attentive Listening,
o'clock. Mutual Respect, and Personal Finance Sub
Best. Our T.E.R.R.I. Behaviours of Committee 6.30 pm.
PARENTS WANTED Thinking, Enjoyment, Reflection, in the Staffroom.
Resilience and Inclusion are also School Council
re-visited and re-established.
Nominations are being called for Meeting in the
to elect parents to the Ashby staffroom
School Council.
commencing at
JENNY OMACHEN 7.00pm.
Interested parents may collect
nomination forms from the office. Principal, Ashby Primary School
Parent forms must be handed into Pako Festa Saturday
the office by Friday March 4th at
4.00pm.
BEFORE & AFTER 26th February
SCHOOL CARE Wednesday 16th February
The School Council comprises of
parents, and teachers working Interschool sports for Grade
Due to renovations throughout 5/6’s. To be held at Rollins
together to govern the school. The the school Before School Care will
council comprises 12 parent Primary School between
be held in Mrs Sawyer’s 9.00am and 11.00am.
representatives, 3 staff and the classroom.
Principal. There are a number of
places available for parents to be Wednesday 23rd February
On Mondays and Fridays After Lightning Premiership for
involved in the School Council. School Care will be held in Mrs
The School Council meets at Grade 5/6’s.
Slade’s classroom.
school every third Wednesday of
the month at 7.00. The meeting Wednesday 2nd March
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Interschool sports for Grade
generally last for two hours. Thursdays After School Care will 5/6’s.
be held in the combined Prep/1
Pako Festa is being held on classrooms.
Saturday 26th February. The
school has been involved in the Because there is no phone access
parade for a number of years, and in these classrooms, if I am
it is a great opportunity for all needed during these times please
children to be involved to ring or text me on my mobile -
represent our school. Permission 0406366844.

Principal: Jenny Omachen www.ashbyps.vic.edu.au School email - [email protected]

Ashby Primary School Page 2

FRIENDS OF ASHBY UPDATES

Visit the FOA Blog http://friendsofashby.blogspot.com/ for more updates!

Thanks to all who attended the first FOA Meeting of the year. We especially appreciate the involvement of new parents
to the school! While we are only in the second week of the year, a variety of activities are already underway, including
our participation in the Pako Festa, the resumption of Tutti Fruitti Thursday, the start-up of the Entertainment Book
fundraiser and Hot Cross Bun Fundraiser and the resumption of the classroom support team. See below for more
information on some of these activities.

Next Meeting
The Next FOA Meeting will be held Friday, March 4th in the staff room after the Annual General Meeting. All are
welcome!

FOA Annual General Meeting

On Friday, March 4th at 9:00 am in the staff room FOA will hold its Annual General Meeting to elect its 2011 officers and
set the annual membership fee. Officer positions include President, Secretary and Treasurer. Nominations for the
positions will be accepted before hand (you may place them in the FOA box at the front office) or at the meeting. In
order to vote at the Annual General Meeting you must become financial member before the start of the meeting. Current
membership fee is $1 and may be paid to any of the current officers (Cynthia Scherer, President, Tracy Raby, Secretary
or Di Gillick-Thompson, Treasurer).

Save the Date for Pako Festa, Saturday, February 26th

One of our first activities of the year will be Ashby participation in Pako Festa, the largest diversity festival in Australia,
held right here in our own neighbourhood of Geelong West. Sponsored by Diversitat, this year’s theme is ‘The Beat of
Pako.’ This year Ashby will be participating in two ways:

Parade - Participating in the parade provides Ashby students a way to show the Pako Festa community how cool our
school is! We encourage all students to participate in parade. This year in addition to wearing our student uniforms,
carrying our school banners and signs, we will also be encouraging students to walk with their decorated bikes or
scooters to show our commitment to active travel. Balloons and streamers will be provided to decorate bikes and
scooters and we will also have face paint to create face stripes in the Ashby colors. Senior students are needed to help
carry the banners, and junior students must be accompanied by their parents. Look for a separate flyer with a
permission form, parade meeting time and location. Supplies to decorate your bike/scooter will be provided at the
parade meeting time/location.

Stall – Due to a generous donation from Third Ecology, Ashby will again have a stall on Pakington Street. This will
provide us with an opportunity to both raise awareness of our school and money to support our activities. At the stall
families will be able to purchase face masks kits for $2. We will also have our 2009 Ashby School Cookbook for sale.
Parent volunteers are needed to help man the stall from 7:30am to 4pm (including set up and take down). It’s easy and
fun - the more people that volunteer the less everyone has to do! If you can volunteer for an hour, please complete the
form below and return it to your child’s teacher or the front office by Wednesday, February 23rd. Volunteers will be
notified on Thursday, February 24th regarding their confirmed time and will receive additional information on working at
the stall.

Ashby Pako Festa Stall Volunteer Sign-Up Form

YES, I can volunteer to help man the Ashby Stall at this year’s Pako Festa on Saturday, February 26, 2011. Best time
for me is:

7:30- 9-10am 10-11am 11am- 12-1pm 1-2pm 2-3pm 3-4pm 4-5pm

9am 12pm (take
(set (during down)
up) parade)

Name: _______________________________________ Phone number: ___________________

Email: ____________________________________________
Ashby Primary School Page 3

Hot Cross Bun Fundraiser

Help Ashby raise funds by supporting our Hot Cross Buns Fundraiser this Easter season. It’s easy, simply purchase a
Brumby’s Hot Cross Bun Voucher from the school for $6.50 (the same price you pay in store), and the school gets to
keep $2!

The vouchers can be used until Easter at any of the five Brumby store locations in Geelong:

• Pakington Strand: 95 Pakington Street, Geelong West

• Westfield: Bay city Plaza (next to Coles), Geelong CB
• Garden St: 70 Garden Street, Geelong East
• Minerva Rd: 19 Minerva Rd, Herne Hill
Belmont: Belmont Shopping Village (next to K-mart)

To order your Hot Cross Bun Vouchers complete the tear off form below, put it in an envelope with the amount due and
return to the office ASAP (the sooner you submit your order the sooner you can start using your vouchers for hot cross
buns). Ordered Vouchers will be sent home with your child the same day they are received (beginning February 23rd) in
the envelope you provide.

Ashby Primary School Hot Cross Bun Fundraiser

Yes, we would like to order Brumby’s Hot Cross Bun Vouchers to help Ashby raise money!

Student Name/Grade: ____________________________________________________

Parent Name: ________________________________ Contact: ___________________

_____________________ X $6.50 = _______________

Number of Vouchers Total Due

Can You Help?

There are many ways you can get involved at Ashby. Below are some current activities we are seeking assistance with:

• Tutti Fruitti Thursday, beginning February 17th and every Thursday thereafter in term 1, 9-10am – Tutti Fruitti
Thursday for this year will begin Thursday, February 17th. This program provides the children with fresh fruit and
vegetables once a week. Assistance is needed to prepare the fresh fruit and vegetable trays for each classroom. If you
can help, join us for about an hour at 9am in the staff room this Thursday, February 17th and every Thursday for the rest
of the term.
Digging Garden Shed Foundation, Saturday, February 26th, 7-8am – we are looking for just a couple of volunteers to
assist with helping to dig out the foundation for the garden shed in preparation for the laying of concrete the following
week. Yes, it’s the morning of Pako Festa, but any assistance would be appreciated. Please contact Cyndy Scherer or
[email protected] if you can help as we will only move forward with this activity if we have a couple of
volunteers.
• Changing the Waratah and Lawton Street School Signs – Can you help change the messages on the school
signs on Waratah and Lawton Street? We are looking for volunteers to sign up to change the signs for each month of
the school year. The street signs are generally changed once a week (about 4 times a month). It takes less than an hour
to change both signs. If you are willing to be on the school sign roster you can sign up on the FOA bulletin Board across
from the staff room or send a note through your child’s teacher or the front office.
Washing Sick Bay Linens – Can you volunteer to help out with washing the school sick bay linens? While not needed
regularly, they do need to be washed at the end of each term and as needed. If you are willing to be on the sick bay
linen roster you can sign up for a month on the FOA bulletin Board across from the staff room or send a note through
your child’s teacher or the front office.
Ashby Primary School Page 4

PARENT MANAGED HEADLICE PROGAM

Welcome back to all Ashby year because head lice love warm contact with your child who has
families and a special warm weather! So if you would like been affected so they can institute
welcome to the new families and your children to be part of the their own checks and start
children who have joined Ashby program please return your treatment sooner rather than
in 2011. We hope that everyone’s consent form as soon as possible. later; and also the school because
refreshed and ready for the year Head lice is a fact that we can’t the parent managed head lice
ahead. It looks certain to be good avoid. They have been around for program may perform extra
one! thousands of years and are highly checks at these times to help if
adapted. The parent managed possible.
Here at Ashby, like any head lice program aims to assist
community we are faced with our families but it won’t be Most of us would have a story to
managing the reality that our foolproof! It remains the tell about getting head lice in the
children and ourselves may get responsibility of parents and family. It can be extremely
head lice at some time. At Ashby carers to check their children’s frustrating and we can literately
we have a parent managed head hair and be proactive. You have be scratching our heads feeling
lice program to assist teachers, the capacity to check for lice and like we’re on our own, thinking
staff, students and their families eggs using white conditioner surely what else could possibly be
in managing this community which is a lot more effective done to get rid of these things.
problem. method of checking. Lice detect The reality is that there is
vibration very easily so during information and support available
The volunteer parents (and we our checks, they may be literately with the hope being, that as a
would welcome new volunteers if running and hiding. community, if we work together
anybody is interested*) donate a we can manage it with a degree of
few hours of their time each term If you were to detect lice it will be confidence.
to do dry head checks on the important to talk to your
children. For children to be pharmacist and discuss what *Volunteer parents have a
checked by volunteer parents, a options are available to you. It is working with children check and
consent form must be signed and recommended that you are asked to sign a confidentiality
returned to the school. On the day commence treatment and then agreement. If you have a few
of checks, a note is sent home again after 7 days (or as directed) hours to spare each term and
with every child indicating if but also use the combing method think you could help please
there was evidence of head lice or with white conditioner every contact Louise: mobile
not. If live lice are detected then second day for ten days, to 0430118674 or [email protected]
parents or carers will be notified compliment the treatment. Further info www.
and the child needs to have Weekly checking thereafter with health.vic.gov.au/headlice
treatment commenced before white conditioner may help in
returning to school. early detection in the future.
It would be also useful to let
Checks will commence in the next family friends know if their
week- a nice early start to the children have possibly come into

The Independent, Tuesday December 21, 2010

buckets & bouquets

BOUQUETS to enthusiastic gardening volunteer Trish and dedicated Timehelp volunteers Maggie, Margaret
and Simon. Your commitment and hard work at Ashby Primary School are really appreciated by students,
parents and staff. You have made a difference.
Ashby Admirers, Geelong West
Ashby Primary School Page 5

ACTIVE TRAVEL NEWS

Welcome back to 2011 Term 1. welcome. Barker’s Oval gives us Active travel means walking,
the perfect opportunity for “Part scooting or riding your bike to
The weather has been great this Way is OK”. There is plenty of school as often as you can. There
week so we all need to take safe parking available and then is a secure bike shed to store your
advantage of this and be out the walk to school is pleasant and bike in through the day; please
walking - to school, to the shop, hassle free. enter through the Second Street
around the block, to the park, just entrance off Lawton Avenue.
be active! Please read the attached
information sheet on the Walking We have pedestrian crossings
The Walking School Bus program School Bus, and return it to the with the traffic lights on the
continues this year. We have school office. Pakington / Waratah Street
changed our route so we now intersection, and a manned
meet at Baker’s Oval, in the car Feel free to approach Katrina pedestrian crossing on Lawton
park on the Waratah Street side. Eadie (mother of Wolfe in Grade Avenue, please use these crossings
We then walk straight down 4 and Arlo in Prep) or Di to ensure the safety of all.
Waratah Street to school. Thompson (mother of Jessica in
Grade 6) with any questions Katrina and Di.
New passengers are always about our program.

SEASONS FOR GROWTH GRIEF PROGRAM

LEARNING TO LIVE WITH CHANGE AND LOSS
Change and loss are issues that affect all of us at some stage in our lives. At Ashby Primary School we
recognise that when changes occur in families through death, separation, divorce or related circumstances,
young people may benefit from learning how to manage these changes effectively. We are therefore
offering a very successful education program called Seasons for Growth which will commence during Term
2. This program is facilitated in small groups and is based on research which highlights the importance of
social support and the need to practise new skills to cope effectively with change and loss. The program
focuses on issues such as self-esteem, managing feelings, problem-solving, decision-making, effective
communication and support networks.
If you think your son or daughter would benefit from Seasons for Growth we would encourage you to talk
to him - her about participating in the program.
Ashby Primary School is please to be able to offer this important program and we are confident that it will
be a valuable learning experience for those who request to be involved. If you require further information
please contact Denise Turner.
Please complete and return to school by Friday 25th February. A confirmation letter will be sent to parents
before the end of Term.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------
I ____________________________________________ (PRINT NAME) am interested in my child / children
attending the Seasons for Growth Program in 2011.

________________________________________
Parent / Guardian Signature
Ashby Primary School Page 6