1. education
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TORRENS TIMES
TORRENS PRIMARY SCHOOL
AN ACT GOVERNMENT SCHOOL
Ritchie Street TORRENS ACT 2607
6205.7411
fax 6205.7413
Office Hours
TORRENS TIMES
Week 3 Term 04
Thurs 30 Oct 2014
SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR
Debbie Burkevics
0422146765
8.30am-3.30pm
P & C President
Melissa Campbell
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.torrensps.act.edu.au
Principal: Sue Mueller
0417 282 331
Dates to remember:

Mon 27 Oct - Fri 7 Nov - Royal Life Saving
Swimming Lessons

Thurs 6 Nov, 20 Nov, 4 Dec - Yr 6 Transition to
Melrose

Fri 7 Nov - School Disco

Wed 12 Nov - Kindergarten 2015 Parent
Information Morning 9.30am-10.45am

Thurs 13 Nov - Piano Concert 7pm

Thurs 13 Nov - Scarecrow competition
entries close

Tues 18 Nov - Torrens Preschool
Information evening 7.30pm
LEAVING TORRENS??
Planning for 2015 has commenced. Could you
please advise the Front Office if your child will
not be returning to Torrens Primary School in
2015 (excluding Year 6 students).
From the Principal
Permission notes and payments due:

Fri 31 Oct - Yr 5 Combined Band note

Wed 5 Nov - Governor-General’s Sports Fun
Day note
School Satisfaction Surveys
Thank you to all those who completed the surveys. They assist us to
improve our practice and performance across a range of areas.
Overall results are indicated below:
Parents
Item
Torrens 2014
All schools P-6, 2014
The achievements of students are celebrated at my child’s school
94%
91%
Overall I am satisfied with my child’s education at this school
89%
87%
I am satisfied this school has high expectations in all that it does
87%
83%
Item
Torrens 2014
All schools P-6, 2014
This school celebrates the achievements of students
87%
80%
Overall I am satisfied I am getting a good education at this school
82%
83%
Overall I am satisfied tis school has high expectations in all that it
does
76%
78%
Item
Torrens 2014
All schools P-6, 2014
Overall I am satisfied with my work at this school
100%
94%
Overall I am satisfied with this school
96%
89%
I am satisfied this school has high expectations in all that it does
100%
92%
Students
Staff
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NAPLAN
Torrens students in Year 3 and 5 achieved excellent results across all areas this year. Results are included below:
Year 3
School mean
ACT mean
Reading
472.6
438.8
Grammar and punctuation
488.7
439.9
Spelling
432.4
411.8
Writing
424.3
403.3
Numeracy
443.1
413.9
School mean
ACT mean
Reading
562.4
521.6
Grammar and punctuation
561.5
518.4
Spelling
531.4
501.8
Writing
502.8
472.6
Numeracy
525.3
497.0
Year 5
Sept NAPLAN figures
ATTENTION!
SCARECROW COMPETITION
Due date extension
Entries are now due in by Thursday 13 November
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Mandarin News
Torrens Mandarin Award Assembly
The last school assembly of Term 3 was called the “Mandarin Award Assembly”. To celebrate the 5th
anniversary of the Mandarin Program at Torrens, 42 students received awards to commemorate their efforts.
Our students received their award certificates on the last day of Term 3 and their reward on the second day
of Term 4. A special thank you to our front office ladies who helped me acquire the rewards.
The assembly started with photos of our Mandarin learners engaged in many activities, including Mandarin
Club Kids who made a Year of the Horse Mosaic. Our four Year 3 students who hosted the assembly spoke
in both Mandarin and English to introduce themselves and a song sung by the Year 3 called “My family”. The
Year 4 hosts also spoke in both languages and introduced a Chinese play called “Students Wushu and
Gymnastic”. Year 5 students performed a role-play they learnt last term called “Where do you come from?”
The last student speaker was Tim Chatfield from 6M who presented PowerPoint slides to show how he
completed his three parts Mandarin Project. The 3rd part of his Mandarin Project won the top prize of the
ACT Panda Competition 2014.
The last part of the assembly was the award presentation. Our parents and grandparents enjoyed the photos
and music as much as our students. The community song was the Mandarin version of “It is a small world”.
More than 240 Torrens Mandarin learners sang together to mark the end of our assembly. Congratulations
to all the award winners and I wish you all the best for the rest of your Mandarin learning.
Cissy Lu
Mandarin Teacher
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TPS Mandarin Award Winners
Excellence Award
Paige Little (3G)
Abby Higgins (4R)
Hayley Lilley (5KH)
Kia Dixon (Mitchell) (6M)
1st Prize
Margot Franklin (3G), Tahlia Holmes (3G)’ Jenny Hill (3R)
Brooke Lanza (3T)
Janez Zagar (4T), Hamish Bray (4PR)
Alana Barnsley (5L), Hana Franklin(5L)’ Sam Harding (5KH),
Nina Illingworth (6G), Tommy Lu (6G), Nathan Rogan (6G)
2nd Prize
Sam Gray (3T), Katie Polette (3T)
Charlotte Bray (4R) Olivia Rogan (4T), Airlie Veal (4T)
Lily Campbell (4PR), Noah Stuart (4PR)
Madison Beven (5L), Angus Gill (5L), Caleb Condick (5KH),
Abby Polette (5KH), Clement Trinh (5KH), Lauren Williams (5KH)
Timothy Chatfield (6M), Sophie Latch (6M),
Ranusha Nanayakkara (6M)
3rd Prize
Ben Gray (3R)
Jasmine Misner (4T), Izac Sefo (4T), Bryce Van Ewyk (4T),
Erica McGlashan (4PR)
Caitlin Allen(5L), Riya Shelar (5L), Harper Stanier (5L)
Jacob Campbell(6M), Emma Woodford (6M)
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Last week five lucky students in 3T got the opportunity to read the weather on
the radio station, 106.3FM. These students were: Chloe Harrigan, Sam Gray,
Katie Polette, Brooke Lanza and Isaac Churchill.
We all felt nervous but the whole thing was really fun. They asked us questions
like “What we did on our weekend, and our afternoon activities”.
We hope you were entertained by us on the radio. We would like to thank our
awesome teacher, Mrs Tibballs, for encouraging us to do so well.
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Stay & Play is back!
Each fine Wednesday in Term 4
Do you have a child at Chifley, Pearce or Torrens Preschool? Do you have a child enrolled
at preschool for 2015? Do you have a child enrolled at Torrens Primary School and have
younger siblings at home? Then Stay & Play is for you!!
Stay & Play is aimed at families with younger siblings to students at Torrens Primary School.
Come together, encourage your children to get to know others they will go to preschool or school
with, practice sharing and taking turns and connect with other parents.
Each Wednesday morning, drop your kids at preschool or school and bring your younger children
to the junior artificial turf. We will set out a range of activities for babies to 5yr olds to engage in,
such as books, cars, Duplo, dolls houses etc. Use the playground equipment. Let them play in the
sandpit. Meet other parents and chat as your younger children play. Make sure you supervise
your children as you are responsible for their behaviour, health and safety. We’ll wrap up the
session at 10.30am with some songs and stories. See you there!
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The Disco is on again!
Date: Week 4 Friday 7th November
Where: TPS School Hall
Time: Juniors 6.30 to 7.30pm; Seniors 7.45 to 9pm
Theme: ‘Halloween’
Cost: $5 per student, includes sausage sandwich, popper juice and entry. There will be the
option to prepay in the next few weeks.
Parent Helpers: if you are able to help out with either or both disco's, please send an email
to [email protected], or phone 62864507.
Thank you!
Special Lunch:
Please return order forms and payment to the Canteen. If paying online, please
make your payment at www.ouronlinecanteen.com.au Special Lunch is found
under "Extras". For online payments, please return your paper order form to the canteen.
For Year 5 and 6 only: Week 4 Wednesday 5th November. Orders and payment due
Thursday 30th November
For Kindy to Year 4 only: Week 5 Wednesday 12th November. Orders and payment due
Thursday 6th November
ANKING
B
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Winners o
KAY
LILY MAC
FISHER
JESSICA
lations!
Congratu
Book Club reminder:
Book Club due Friday 31 October
Parents’
Corner
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Torrens Primary P&C
Every parent and carer is part of the P&C!
P&C Meeting report – how do you rate homework?
Key dates
 Second hand uniform shop:
Fri 14 Nov 8.45am-9.15am
What a wonderful turnout for our meeting Tuesday night! We had about 20 parents come to
 P & C Survey closes Sun 16 Nov
hear what’s happening with the review of the school’s homework policy. We participated in
 General P & C meeting
some activities to gauge parents’ views on what homework is, how effective it is or isn’t and
Tuesday 25 Nov 7pm
some of the recommendations from the recent Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Homework.
Interestingly, about half those present rated homework at the high end of the scale, with the
remainder split evenly between middle and low. Parents at Torrens Primary seem to have quite
different views to the findings of the Victorian report and consensus seemed to be that there is a place for homework which can also work
as a link between families and the school. Issues raised include age appropriateness for different grades, frequency of allocation,
different allocation level within grades dependent on views of individual teachers and help for disadvantaged families. The teachers even
set “homework” for parents in the form of a survey to be completed at the meeting. The responses will be compiled with those completed
by staff and used to draft the new homework policy to be submitted to the next School Board meeting on 25 November. It is anticipated
that the policy will be in place for the beginning of the 2015 school year, however it was stressed that it won’t be set in concrete and will
be subject to review throughout the year.
A big thank you to teachers Isabelle Ludovici, Louise Morton and Emma Thomas for being our guest speakers and putting us through our
paces, and to Rachel Matthews for preparing the activities.
P&C Survey responses due 16 November
Survey responses are starting to trickle through. Please spread the word and encourage others to complete this survey. The results will
form a key part of the P&C’s planning process to align with the school’s 4 year plan. The P&C is a link between families and the school
and the homework hot topic at Tuesday’s meeting is a great example of how we can help in this area.
The survey is available at https://surveymonkey.com/s/J3HFLDX until Sunday 16 November.
Dance classes resume for Term 4
Dance classes are on again this term on Friday mornings 8.30am in the New Hall until Week 9. New starters are welcome. Please
contact Renee White for more information and enrolment forms [email protected]
Contact us : [email protected] | http://www.facebook.com/TorrensPrimarySchoolPandC
Disclaimer: Torrens Primary School is not responsible for any content held on the P&C Facebook site.
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