It’s been a wonderful year at MPPS in 2009, but now it’s time for a well-earned rest for everybody.  I’d like to send everyone in our school community my very best wishes for a relaxing and enjoyable holiday, and I look forward to another great year in 2010.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all!

Congratulations to Miss Cavedon who has just been awarded an Earthwatch TeachLive Science Scholarship.  This means that she will be part of the Climate Change in the Rainforest Earthwatch TeachLive research expedition in Cairns in April 2010.  We hope to show you some photos when she gets back!

Our school is very lucky to have a great team of parents who help to raise money for our school, and the PAFA (Parents and Friends Association) has worked very hard with all kinds of fundraisers this year.  We love the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Stalls, and the Christmas Stall because they have lots of inexpensive presents for children to buy:)

Over the years, the PAFA has raised money for carpets, fans, extra ICT, sports equipment, and even air-conditioners – which are excellent in the very hot weather we’ve had this November.

Now Miss Hill in the library is very happy because they have raised $1000 for some more new books – thanks, PAFA!

PS For more information about the PAFA, contact Mrs Abeyratne in the office.

PPS To see which books Miss Hill has bought, click here.

Prep AH had a lovely surprise today, and they’ve made Miss Hill very happy!

Last week the preps visited the building site to inspect progress on the new school building, and they made a lovely book about the cranes, scissor-lifts and all the workers who are doing such a great job.  They gave their book to S & J Rigg who are the company that’s doing the building.

S & J Rigg loved the book so much they are sending it to another school in Warragul to show them how clever our preps are, AND they have sent us a cheque as a thank-you present.

And that’s why Miss Hill in the library is so happy!  Can you guess what she’s going to spend the money on?

Of course!  She’s going to buy some some new books about builders and buildings for the library!

PS Thanks to the boys in 5/6DW for the great photo collection of the building progress.  Well done, boys!

This week at assembly we were pleased to announce more great news about the achievements of our students. 

In the annual University of New South Wales Mathematics competition, which tests problem-solving and high-order thinking skills in key aspects of Mathematics, there are over 1,7 million entries world wide.

Six students from Year 4 to Year 6 received a Credit in the competition, seven achieved a Distinction, and we are very proud to announce that Mahee in Year 3 was awarded a High Distinction.  This is a wonderful achievement and is a credit to his family and the wonderful teachers here at Mossgiel Park.  Well done, Mahee!

Photos coming soon!

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in indigenous communities but by people in all walks of life.  This year Joanna L from Year 6 entered a NAIDOC week competition which had well over 110330 entries from schools across Australia – and her entry was one of a few that were selected as this year’s 2009 NAIDOC Week winners.

Joanna’s prize (a DVD and MP3 player!) was presented to her at assembly by Cr Karen Baxter and Cr Shah Balmes from the City of Casey Council.

Click the link to read her poem: Why say sorry poem

As everybody knows, teachers at MPPS  think all subjects are important, but we think that English, Maths and Science are especially important. 

And as everybody knows, teachers here are very proud of all our wonderful, hardworking and clever students.

But today we are especially proud of the students who participated in the University of NSW annual English competition – because it’s conducted right across Australia and 12 other countries with 1.7 million entries worldwide – and 10 very clever students from Mossgiel Park PS achieved Credits, and 5 of our extremely clever students achieved Distinctions in the competition!

Photos of these wonderful students will be on this site soon!

Thanks to all the parents and teachers who supported these students, and to our Assistant Principal, Mrs Fisher for organising it all:)

Miss Lisa Hill, Director of Curriculum

PS Subscribe to this blog for news of the Maths competition results, coming soon!

PPS Here are some of our Science competition winners:)

If you’re visiting this blog, or any of the class blogs in the LHS menu, please take a minute to leave a comment.  Our young (and not-so-young) bloggers put a lot of time and effort into writing blog posts, and love it when there’s a bit of feedback from our readers.

If you can’t think of something to say, here are some ideas, adapted from Miss T’s Class blog.

First, read the post carefully and think about it.  What is the writer’s message?

Try to write something that will get a conversation going. 

Begin with a friendly comment, e.g.

• This is really interesting.
• You write really well.
• Wow, these photos are great!
• It sounds like you had a really great time.

Then ask an open, interesting question…e.g.

• How did you ….?
• Why do you think…?
• What was the best…?
• Where can I find….?
• Have you ever…?

Or, give your feelings or state your opinion about the post.  Do it nicely, and always give your reasons.  (Use the word ‘because’).

• I agree/don’t agree that…. because…
• I feel the same way because….
• I have never thought about this before but now….

Check the sense, spelling and punctuation before submitting the comment. Remember to check the MPPS blog comments policy.

Keep the size of the comment middle sized. Not too long. Not too short.

Leave your first name (no surname), email (and url if you have one).   Your email will not be published, but if you are one of our students and your comment isn’t published, teachers will be able to explain why so that you can do better next time.

Check back in day or two to see if person who wrote the post or others have replied to your comment.  Sometimes you can tick a box to be notified by email if there are any responses to your comment.

Last year we bought a nice new trolley for the library – we use it for classes to carry their library bags back to the classroom.   It came from Fry Library and School Supplies in Adelaide, so when one of the wheels kept coming off, we rang them to get a replacement.

The trolley is over twelve months old, so it wasn’t under guarantee – but when we rang Fry, Paul not only offered to send a replacement for free – he sent us two!

And they arrived the very next day.

Now that’s what we call excellent service!

 Young Writers Awards 2009

Be well read, wear red!

Literacy and Numeracy Week is when we celebrate Mossgiel Park’s most prestigous awards: the Young Writers Awards. Every year children put a great deal of time and effort into writing the best stories they can, and enter them in the competition. There are awards for each year level, encouragement awards, highly commended certificates, and two very special Young Writers Awards.

The awards are presented at a special ceremony, and everyone wears red: Be Well Read, Wear Red!  Winners of Year Level Awards and the Young Writers Awards receive a book, a certificate and a medallion, and there are certificates and book prizes for the Encouragement Awards and Highly Commended stories. 

Yes indeed, the Young Writers Awards are a BIG DEAL at Mossie Park,

and we think everyone who goes in the competition is  fantastic!

We even have a Young At Heart Writers Award, which this year was won by Mrs Abeyratne.

The judges this year were
Preps: Mrs Ordish and Miss McKenna;
Years 1 & 2: Mrs Scott and Mrs McInerney
Years 3 & 4: Mr Van Breda and Miss Spychalla
Years 5 & 6: Miss Hill.

A BIG thank you goes to Mrs  Scott, our literacy coordinator and Mrs McInerney, and her sensational Book Week Team, and to all the mums and dads who helped to make the ceremony special by coming along.  We loved seeing all the little kids in red too!

An even BIGGER thank you goes to all our wonderful teachers because it is patient, caring, highly-skilled teachers have helped our children become fantastic writers who feel confident about entering this very important competition. 

You can see our very talented winners on this video!