What a wonderful welcome and surprise! After a trip to the 3/4 camp, I came back to school to find a wonderful luncheon organized by staff and parents.
![photo[6]](https://principalhelen.edublogs.org/files/2014/05/photo6-1hjkg46.jpg)
Thank you to the SAHPS community!
Welcome Helen
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Monthly Archives: May 2014
Visualising texts
Year 3/4s were visualising texts today in class. They created mental images from the text and then represented these through digital illustrations on their laptops.
Which step have you reached today?
Every day is a new day and with more things to learn and more things to try. As a principal I do not know everything and sometimes I wonder if I can actually do the work I need to do! Sometimes I might start the day thinking I can’t but mostly I think I can 🙂
Students experience a range of these thoughts throughout the day. As educators we encourage our students to do the best they can and to give things a go. We teach them not to give up and to think about new ways of doing things if they get stuck.
The graphic above is a great reminder of the steps we can make to reach our goals.
Rainbow Salad Wrap
On Friday 16th May, SAHPS joined in the Food Revolution Day. Mr Pody, our 1/2 teacher organized the event through our local Safeway store.
It is an initiative from Jamie Oliver, a renowned chef, that highlights the impact of good food on the health and wellbeing of our children.
Safeway delivered crates and crates of food to our school in the morning, and by lunchtime all our of students were involved in the excitement of making Rainbow-salad-wraps.
You can see some wonderful photos of our kids and teachers enjoying the day, on the school website.
We thanked Safeway and displayed the student work that represented their learning on the day.
Classroom Agreement for Play and Say
One of the things that has really impressed me in the school is that each class has established a Classroom Agreement to play, learn and be safe. I spotted this beautiful one in the Play and Say room that was created by one of the Year 1/2 classes.
Having each student co-contribute to the agreement is a great way to have buy in and ownership. I especially like the drawings that have helped to illustrate the statement.
Our students are predominantly from English as Additional Language (EAL) backgrounds and benefit from having a range of hands on experiences that build vocabulary and trigger further investigation.
Our Foundation to Year 2s visit the Play and Say room weekly.
SAHPS Biggest Morning Tea
These beautiful cup cakes were made especially for Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea by one of our lovely mums. She led a cake decorating workshop for some of other parents and I was invited to join in. This event was part of the Community Hub at the school that is led by Julie.
The cup cakes were sold at the school’s Biggest Morning Tea to raise funds for the Cancer Council. We raised $135.50 today 🙂
New beginnings at SAHPS
As the new principal of St Albans Heights Primary School, I am excited to announce the beginning of a new blog that will share my journey and the wonderful happenings in the school.
I have been in education since 1985, and yes that makes me old! I have always worked in the Western Metropolitan Region including Essendon Nth PS (teacher), Parkwwod Green PS (Leading Teacher), Manor Lakes P-12 College (Assistant Principal), Debney Meadows PS (Principal) and as an Ultranet Coach across the region.
I love working in schools and love developing passionate learners, both children and adults alike.
In my first four weeks at SAHPS I have already learnt a lot about the school, staff and students. By all accounts it is a wonderful school that is highly regarded in the community. Many of the students have told me that they really enjoy coming to school and that it keeps them happy.
There are many names for me to learn in the school and luckily the students are very kind and don’t mind if I have to ask a few times.
My name is Helen Otway and all students and staff can call me Helen.