30 October

							ARANDA NEWSLETTER
CARING STRIVING LEARNING TOGETHER Banambila Street ARANDA PO Box 763 JAMISON ACT 2614 Telephone (02) 62055977 Fax (02) 62055989
Website : www.arandaps.act.edu.au Email : info@arandaps.act.edu.au

DATES TO REMEMBER
FRIDAY 30 October

Week 3

29 October 2009

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

2 November 3 November 4 November 5 November 6 November

:World Teachers‟ Day : 9.15am Junior Assembly – Presented by 1/2AK : Yr 5/6 Hoyts Movies : Yr 5/6 National Portrait Gallery : Community Day Holiday th : 11.00am 40 Birthday Special Assembly : Yrs 3/4 to Canberra High School Musical : 9.15am Whole School Assembly – Presented by 3/4TJ & 3/4RF

NOTES HOME
EVENT DETAILS Swimming K-2 Canberra High Musical „Alison‟ YEAR GROUP K-2 Yrs 3/4 DATE DUE BACK TH FRIDAY 30 OCT ASAP

From the Principal
Aranda Logo I would like to thank all community members who have responded during the consultation period to the proposal to change the current logo. There were many responses for and against. There is however very strong support for the current logo to remain and therefore the proposal to change will not go ahead. There are a number of misconceptions that need to be addressed before we close this period of consultation.  The suggestion to investigate a proposal to change the logo came from conversations during the last School Improvement process (2004 – 2007). In accordance with Departmental guidelines due process was followed by: Presenting the proposal to the Board and P&C to seek support for further investigation Offering a consultation period for students, staff and community.  The 5 new designs that were prepared by a graphic artist, at little cost, were all inclusive and respectful of our indigenous connections. The new designs included many of the suggestions from our students eg happy students, our environment, our indigenous connections, learning is fun.  The next stage of this process was to present an opportunity to all stakeholders to select from our current logo and the two most favoured new designs, or a

combination of the best attributes of all the designs.  The decision to investigate the proposal to change the logo did not at any stage include changing the school uniform. The current school uniform and colours are very distinctive and attractive. The discussion that took place at the P&C meeting was that if the logo was to change then school uniforms with the new logo would be phased in gradually. This would take a number of years, so that it was not an enormous cost to our families. Initially the new logo would only be used on new school uniforms eg kindergarten stock and the 2010 Year 6 polo shirts. The brainstorming period with the students has been a valuable opportunity to engage in discussions about what it is that makes our school special. The ideas generated by the students will support the development of a school song, and they have been used in the creation of the artwork that the students will present to the school as a 40th birthday gift next week. This proposal was at no time intended to be disrespectful to the past or to the school. Thank you for participating in the process. 40th Birthday Celebrations Next Wednesday is a very important day for Aranda Primary School as we celebrate 40 years of outstanding education at our school. Please come along and join us for this very auspicious occasion. The assembly begins at 11am in the hall. It will include visits from past Principals, a trip down memory lane,

performances from the choir and band, the presentation of the gift to the school and a cake. This is followed by „Games of the Past‟ and a shared lunch on the oval. We would love you to join us. Art Speak Last Monday 14 artists generously gave their time to come to Aranda to present their art form to the 5/6 students. The purpose of this event named „Artspeak‟ was to broaden our students understanding of the many different and varied art forms. Each of the artists followed the following format:  Sharing of background knowledge  Description of art form  Design and creative process  Sharing of portfolio and art pieces  What is art? We would like to thank the artists below for enlightening our students and sharing their professions or passions.  Paul Barnett - Architect (Paul Barnett Design group Pty Ltd)  Bron King Artist including photography  Paul Bailey - Landscape Gardener (Abel Landscapers)  Alan Harding - Graphic Artist  Suzannah Mace - Print Media (Instant Colour Press)  Su Croft - Flower Arranging  Maria Reeves - Patchwork Artist  Karen Viggers - Author  Stephen Duke - Multimedia Artist (Designer of Kid Space at the National Museum)  Lisa Biddiscombe - Interior Designer  Anthony Arblaster - Lighting Designer  Scott Pearce - Timber Sculptor  Robyn Boric - Calligrapher Lunchtime Gardeners The lunchtime gardening group are a very excited and committed group under the guidance of Scott Pearce. They are currently working in the library courtyard designing a new garden to complement the fabulous serpent that was created in 1999. Sue Dowling is working with Mr Pearce and the students to assist in the learning process. Building Works Building works will start tomorrow in the old library area. This will not affect access to the front office, however, access to the junior corridor will be through the hall or side entrances.

Parent Requests It is that time of the year again when the staff are considering class placements for next year. If you have a request for your child/ren for 2010 please put it in writing and hand into the Front Office. Students Currently many of our students are visiting places of interest around Canberra to complement their Inquiry Units based on The Arts. Personnel from each of the venues have congratulated the students on their behaviour, interest and knowledge. Congratulations Aranda students on being such great ambassadors for our school. Thank you to the teachers for the extra effort and time you give to make learning so exciting for the students.

Cherie Lutton
News from 1/2PW Milky Ways
This term is an extremely busy one and we are looking forward to a variety of wonderful activities. You will have received your child‟s magnificent calendar/cards on Tuesday. Thank you for your support of this important school fundraising activity. We have been extremely lucky to have help from Sue Smith, who is working with the 1/2 teachers to develop the children‟s fundamental movement skills. She has shared 4 important tips which have made a noticeable difference to the children‟s running technique. Please ask your child to explain these to you. The 1/2 classes were very lucky to share Karen Vigger‟s fascinating demonstration of painting tools. This complemented our fantastic visit to the National Portrait Gallery this week. The children‟s comments reflect their awareness and interest. Here are some comments from our visit – The portrait I liked best was Captain James Cook because his ship is on the New Zealand 50 cents. – Emily Yr1 I liked the portrait of Captain Cook standing on a stone like a brave sailor. I liked it best because it was brave and adventurous. – Juliet Yr1 I liked the Martin Sharp picture because he’s at Luna Park and I like Luna Park. – Noa Yr2 The portrait I liked best was Ned Kelly’s death mask because it is very interesting. – Darby Yr2 The portrait I liked best was of Dr John Yu because he cares about children and so do I. – James Yr1

The portrait I liked the most was of Casey Stoner because I like motor bike racing. – Chester Yr2 My favourite painting is Johnny O’Keefe because I liked the drawing and the picture. – Duot Yr1 I liked the portrait of Princess Mary because the dress she wore was a beautiful dark blue. – Alissa Yr1 My favourite portrait was the person that rides motorbikes because it is made with plastic, stickers and wood. – Zhuo Zhuo Yr1 My favourite portrait was the cricket player because when you blurred your eyes his skin looked like real skin. – Amy Yr2 My favourite sculpture was Ned Kelly because it was an interesting death mask. Jack Yr2 The portrait I liked best was the Ned Kelly one because he was very interesting but scary. – Claire Yr2 PENNY WHITFORD and the MILKY WAYS

Ancient Athens system was of living and voting was not fair. See you soon, your best time travel Agent; Emily Dear Heather Hill This is Rebecca Smith reporting from Ancient Athens. Ancient Athens is a very hot place and it has lovely fresh, clear water. The people who rule this place are the citizens who are freeborn men who have parents from Athens. Their system of power in Ancient Athens is called Direct Democracy which means that the citizens get to have a direct say on how Ancient Athens is run. But before the citizens get to vote the council makes up the laws and then the citizens get to vote for what they think is best. The people of Ancient Athens are the citizens, the metics, the women and the slaves. The citizens were the people who had a say on how Ancient Athens was run. There were metics who were freeborn men, but their parents were not from Athens but they could work and get paid but still can't be citizens. The women who had no rights were not allowed to be citizens because they were not a male. Even if their parents were from Athens they were still not allowed to be a citizen. The slaves had no legal rights and could never be a citizen if they were allowed to be freed. Ancient Athens is a very different place to Australia and they have a very different system of power to Australia. Kind regards Rebecca

News from 3/4HH Endeavour
One of the final tasks in our unit on Discovering Democracy was to act as a Time Traveller and visit Ancient Athens. The mission – to gather information and report back to 2009. Information needed to be factual and relevant to Discovering Democracy. Here are some examples of the reports received.
Dear Mrs Hill I am in Ancient Athens it is very hot here and the sky is so blue. The laws are decided by the council which is a group of 500 citizens who were chosen by getting their names pulled out of a container. When the council has made up a law they take it to the citizens. The citizens are free born men who were born in Ancient Athens and their parents were born in Athens too. The citizens have a direct say in voting for the laws the councils come up with. Their way of voting is called Direct Democracy which means all the citizens get their say and one vote. The women can’t get jobs and they can’t make money and they have to do whatever their husbands say for them to do. The metics are people who are free but they can’t vote. They can make money and they can get jobs. The slaves have no legal rights. Some masters pay their slaves money so they can buy their freedom, but a freed slave can never be a citizen. A slave’s duties are to obey their master. In the time of war the citizens had to fight and if there weren’t enough citizens, Athens could lose and sometimes the metics had to fight. In conclusion,

Hi Mrs Heather Hill Ancient Athens is a very hot place and has crystal clear water. There are citizens (who had to be freeborn men, whose parents were Athenian citizens and had to fight in war), metics (who also were freeborn men whose parents were Athenian citizens but they themselves weren't born in Athens), women and slaves (people brought over from other countries after war). The system of power in Athens was Direct Democracy. Direct Democracy means that each citizen had a direct say in what happened. Athens had a council of 5000. Athens was split into 10 electorates and from each electorate 500 councillors were chosen. They chose 500 people from each electorate. To choose these people they put all the citizens’ names into a container and drew 500 out. The head councillor thought of rules, and then all the citizens came to vote on the rule.

Hope you are well, Ben - 3/4HH Reporter

To Mrs Hill, I have been in Athens for the past few weeks and have learnt a lot about the direct democracy system of power. In this rough, sunny and fertile place there are four groups of society; The citizens who got to vote for the rules once the council made them up, the metics who were free born but were not allowed to vote, although they had the rights to work, earn money and pay taxes just like the citizens, the women who had to work for their husbands but had the right to boss their slaves around, then finally the slaves who had no rights at all. They just worked and worked and worked! The citizens had a very powerful and very important role to play. They voted, fought in war and did a lot of other important jobs. Citizens had to be males, have Athenian parents and be born in Athens, so there were around 6000 or more citizens in a community. The council of an area was made up of 500 citizens who were chosen by putting their names into a container, then pulling 500 out. So that it was pot luck who got chosen. The council then got to decide on the rules and then citizens would vote to make compulsory to follow. So, in conclusion I hope you know a little bit more about the direct democracy system in Ancient Athens. Sally - Time Traveller

Helping Arrernte Children At Christmas
The Arrertne (Aranda) people of Central Australia is the Aboriginal language group for which our suburb has been named. Many of the children there are living in difficult conditions with little or no prospect of being able to celebrate Christmas in any way that would resemble the type of Christmas our families will enjoy. To date our clothing pool has supported the Arrernte community by sending them long term unclaimed lost property so that the children will have suitable clothes to wear to school. Our SRC voted to support this community at Christmas by adapting the Operation Christmas Child idea and creating Christmas boxes to send to these children. The idea is that families could fill a shoe box or shoe box sized Christmas box with some small gifts for these children. The focus would be for the children of your families to help choose the small gifts to go into the boxes and guidelines can be found on the information sheet accompanying this newsletter. Please help support the SRC in helping Australian children have a little joy at Christmas time. MARIA REEVES

Dear Mrs Hill, Hi I’m Michelle. Right now I am in Ancient Athens. I want to tell you all about it. This was about 2,500 years ago! First I want to tell you about the people who ruled and lived in Ancient Athens. Firstly, there are citizens. Citizens are people, who are Athenian, have Athenian parents, whose parents are citizens and they have to be a free born man. Citizens rule the place and have the most power, and they make all the decisions for people. They also have councillors. The councillors get voted in by lot. The councillors then make the laws and pass them on to the citizens to vote on. Then the citizens get all the say to vote on whichever law they want. The citizens have a direct say. This is called direct democracy. There are also people called metics. Metics are free born men, born outside Athens and whose parents are not citizens of Athens. Metics almost have as much power as citizens. Metics are men, they are allowed to work and earn money but had no political rights and could not vote. There are also women. Women had to obey all their husbands’ orders, and had no right to vote. And there were also slaves. Slaves had to work hard and obey their bosses. Some owners gave their slaves some money to buy their freedom but slaves could never become a citizen.

Read-a-Thon News
WOW ! What a fantastic effort, after three weeks, Aranda students have almost tripled the challenge target for the 40 th Anniversary Read-a-Thon. The enthusiasm of the students, teachers and parents has been wonderful. Thanks to Brian for updating the notice board. Just a reminder that reading for the read-a-thon finishes on Saturday 31st October (but no need to stop the good reading habits developed!). Please help your children to tally up their totals and collect sponsorship. Forms and money should be returned to class teachers in a labelled envelope ASAP. We are hoping to have a final school tally (pages and $) on 13 th November. Thank you for supporting this activity. SUE WITCHALLS, CECILIA JONES and LYNDIE COOKSON

Artspeak
On Monday 14 artists came in to talk about their profession. They were all different types of artists, such as architects, landscape garner and flower arranging. The 5/6‟s split up into 14 groups, and each group spoke to 4 artists. My group saw Paul Bailey, the landscape gardener, Mrs Reeves, who does patchwork, Stephen Duke, the multimedia artist and Paul Barnett, the architect. They explained what kind of work they did and the process of their work. We asked them what they thought art was, and they all had different ideas, but similar in a way. They taught me about the different processes and ways to do their art.‟ I think the teachers wanted us to learn that art isn‟t just painting, sculpture etc, it can be a variety of things. I also think they wanted us to learn about the uncommon types of art. I learnt that art isn‟t just the stereotyped painting and drawing, it can be lots of different types of interesting things, like lighting design and print media. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed artspeak, and it was a fantastic opportunity to be able to meet so many artists and learn about their profession. ALEXIS 5/6TB

How Parents and Carers Can Help Children Manage Feelings
1. Notice Feelings Before we can learn to control our feelings we first have to notice them. You can help your children notice feelings by noticing them yourself and giving them labels: happy, sad, excited, frustrated, angry, embarrassed, surprised, etc. Giving feelings names helps to make them more manageable. 2. Talk about everyday feelings Talking to children about what it‟s like when you are sad, angry, nervous or excited helps them to find ways to express their feelings without having to act them out through negative behaviours. Children learn these skills best when they hear adults and peers using words to express feelings and when they are encouraged to use words like this too. 3. Create Space for Talking about Difficult feelings Help children to separate a feeling from a difficult reaction by helping them name it. Being able to say or think “I am feeling angry” means that children don‟t have to act really angry before anyone takes notice. It allows them to choose how they will respond. The same idea words with other difficult feelings like nervousness or fear.
Taken from KidsMatter, information for parents and carers on social and emotional learning.

G Force
Last Friday the G Force had the opportunity to visit the Science, Forensic and Engineering Centre laboratories at the CIT‟s Bruce campus. Parent and Education Manager Douglas Lang gave us a tour of the facility. He taught us about different types of energy, and how they can be converted. We experimented with solar and hydro electricity, and took recordings of how much power they produce. We learned about the inefficiency of some of the energy sources we use today. Douglas then demonstrated the powers of air and water compression. We would like to thank Douglas for the time he gave us, and for the way he challenged us to think about how we use energy. ALEX LA SALLE and CALLUM SCARVEL G Force

KidsMatter – Deborah Bultitude

Clothing Pool
Back Packs: The very popular “kindy” backpacks have arrived. Due to limited storage space I have ordered a limited amount of these and will gauge demand and re-order accordingly. There are also 6 larger size “Ergo-Primary” back packs available for sale. If you would like a backpack and have difficulty accessing the clothing pool on a Friday (8:30am - 9.30am) please contact me by phone or email on 6251 9930 or allymike@tpg.com.au Prices are - Kindy $35.00 & Primary $45.00. These prices are cheaper than the current RRP. These bags are exceptional quality and popular for their longevity, ergonomic and lightweight design, and practicality. The

clothing pool aims to keep prices as low as possible; any profit goes to P&C fundraising. Please keep in mind that the clothing pool can only accept payment by cash or cheque. Cheers ALLISON MCGURGAN

Aranda Primary School 40th Anniversary Cook Book
As part of the Aranda Primary School 40th anniversary celebration we are producing a community recipe book WHAT ARE WE UP TO? We have 69 fabulous recipes! AM I TOO LATE? If you haven't submitted a recipe yet but would like to be included THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE 
 Contributions close Wednesday 4th November 2009. Check out the cookbook website for more information, list of recipes and to submit a recipe
http://www.netspeed.com.au/nomad/aranda/

Music Program
Vacancies Guitar Monday and Thursday - Contact Leanne: 0428 515 189 / leanne@ausdance.org.au Flute or recorder Tuesday and Friday - Contact Polly: 6251 0337 / polly.logmans@health.gov.au Clarinet Tuesday - Contact Beth: 6161 7240 / 0413 049 733 Piano Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 5.15 Contact Raffy: 6251 6557 or 0400 626 557 Singing Tuesday - Contact Kate: 6253 3143; 0421 616 596 Concert dates Tuesday 8 th and Wednesday 9 th December commencing 6.15pm in the hall. LEANNE CRAIG - Convenor 0428 515 189 / 6251 5851

-------------------------------------We are working towards having the cookbook ready to purchase by the end of term (in time for Christmas). Thank you to those who have submitted a recipe so far. Bon appétit! Aranda School P&C