WONDERFUL WORKERS: Children who work well in class are often awarded stickers with these words printed boldly on them, which they accept with pride.

If we had any adult sized similar stickers everyone at last Sunday’s working bee would be wearing one too!

What a fabulous roll-up we had, and everyone was equally enthusiastic about getting the jobs completed.

Thank you to everyone in attendance for an outstanding effort. A special thanks also for the use of your equipment – backhoe, truck, utes, chainsaws, etc, all of which made the tasks easier and quicker to achieve.

Without any stickers for you I hope you’ll accept my sincere thanks for a job well done, and your own personal satisfaction gained from knowing that you’ve contributed to the improvement of our school for your children’s sake.

But what we do have is a certificate for all of the children in attendance who, as usual, managed to combine some work with their play to give us a hand.

BUSY WEEK AHEAD: Next week is a “short week” with Easter commencing on Good Friday, but it won’t be small in terms of “happenings at Hampden”! Take a look:

J Monday – cross country at Hampden

J Tuesday – R.E. “Easter Story” featuring the Year 7’s

J Wednesday – Easter Hat Parade (Prep-3) followed by a shared morning tea, and the drawing of the Easter Hamper Raffle.

J Thursday – Whole school excursion to Mackay

Further information on all of these activities is to be found in this newsletter, or will be forwarded directly to parents by means of a separate “Notice to Parents”, however you’re invited to come along to any or all of these activities.

BRONWYN’S L.S.L.: The start of Easter next week will also see the start of two weeks of long service leave for Bronwyn Wiseman.

Bronwyn and Jim are travelling to Wagga Wagga to provide support for son Newton as he competes in the National Clay Target shooting competition.

Best wishes Bron, and good luck and straight shooting, Newton!

Howard Frost

Principal.

TAPPET COVER RACERS: Yesterday we held our school “race-offs” to determine which one of the six competitors would be Hampden’s representative at the Cars for Kids Motor Show on Sunday.

The eventual winner was Kody Erixon’s “Silver Bullet”, however all 5 of the challengers were very competitive and displayed a great range of design uniqueness and decorative flair.

And as for the drivers and their mechanics and pit crews, this was as close to Indy as you could get without actually being there!!

Accordingly, the organisers have asked us to bring in all 6 racers on Sunday for them to select the best competitor. Teams should be there by 10.00am.

Good luck on Sunday, Team Hampden!

EASTER HAMPER RAFFLE: Thank you to those who have already made donations towards the prizes and/or returned ticket butts.

Drawing date is Wednesday 19^th, straight after the Easter Hat Parade.

ANZAC DAY: Yes, its only 6 weeks until Anzac Day, 2008! Those of you who are familiar with Anzac Day at Hampden will know what a special community day it is.

Please spread the word, and the catering sheets in these newsletters!

FINAL ELECTIONS: The last of our year 6/7 elections were held this week when voting for the year 6 “Shadow Executive” was completed.

These children will “shadow” their year 7 counterparts to assist them and learn from them. Results were very close, and twice “run-off” elections had to be conducted. The eventual successful candidates were:

Shadow President – Tiffaney Wales

Shadow Vice President – Tim Patchett

Shadow Secretary - Andrea Perna

Shadow Treasurer - Kimberley Wales

CONGRATULATIONS TAMLYN: Former Hampden student Tamlyn Crozier was announced winner of the Lions Youth of the Year Quest last week. She will now go onto compete at the next level.

Best wishes for continued success, Tamlyn.

DISCO THANKS: The year 7’s ran a very successful disco last Friday, ably assisted by “Al” the DJ and many of our staff and parents who helped supervise, helped cleanup, and helped with the sausage sizzle.

COMMUNITY COACH TRAINING COURSE: Active After-School Co-ordinator Tracey Belbin is planning to run one of these courses on Sunday 30^th March, or on some other more suitable time.

Completion of the course qualifies people to deliver skills programs for the A.A.S. Program.

Please contact Howard for more details or to express an interest in participating.

EEC NEWS

Hello Everyone,

We have a Fruit and Vegetable shop in the Prep/Year One this week. Mrs Medway found some ‘pretend’ fruits and vegetables and the Prep children sorted them into boxes and labelled them. There was only one pineapple and ten people wanted to buy one – so we made some more.

Lots of our ‘customers’ have been writing lists. We thought about what MUM does when she writes a list. “It’s long.” “The words go underneath each other.” “It’s ‘funny’ writing.” “She sits at a table.” “She sometimes crosses things out.” “Sometimes she forgets things when she gets to the shop.” “I have to check the cupboard and the fridge for her.” “The words go underneath each other.”

We then had to make some money to buy things at the shop. We noticed that the notes had numbers and people on them so we made our money like that.

The people working at the grocery store are busy answering the phone, weighing the fruits and vegetables and putting money in the cash register. Someone did a stock take of the fruits and vegetables carefully drawing the number of fruit in each box.

We know we’ve been having fun in our shop because – “It’s even more fun than the sandpit!”

Our clever Year Ones have written some innovations around a favourite story of theirs – “When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears”. We had to change the WHO, the WHERE and the WHAT of the story.

Here are the responses they made with a partner:

When Frosty the Snowman went to the Snow Castle, oh what did his blue charcoal eyes see? A snow table that was big, a snow table that was small, a snow table that was tiny but that’s not all. He sat at them 1, 2, 3. By Jake and Rowan.

When Joel went to the school of the elves, oh what did his red eyes see? An elf that was big, an elf that was small, an elf that was tiny but that’s not all. He ran away from elf school 1, 2, 3. By Ashlyn and Joel.

When Mrs. Medway went to the mice hole of mice, oh what did her green eyes see? A cheese that was big, a cheese that small, a cheese that was tiny but that’s not all. She ate from them 1, 2, 3. By Alicia and Jack.

P&C NEWS

REMINDER: Our monthly P&C Meeting will be held this Monday 17^th at 7.30pm in the Community Room.

All welcome.

GROUNDSCARE NEWS: Thank you to our new family, the Wiggetts, for volunteering to be part of our Mowing Roster. I’ve added you to the roster for September.

Thank you also to another family new to our roster, the Edmonds, for doing a fabulous job making our school grounds so tidy.

Kathy Frost

Co-ordinator

TUCKSHOP NEWS: There will be NO tuckshop next week due to the Good Friday public holiday.

FOOTY BARS: Plans have changed for the first week of the Cutters bars. They have planned a Charity Flood Appeal day and we will be servicing the corporate boxes as per the Cowboy’s game. Please see insert and return it to school ASAP if you are able to help at any stage.

PLAYGROUP: Play group are joining our Prep to Year 3 children for an Easter Bonnet Parade this year. We’ll make our bonnets on Monday 17^th March during our regular Playgroup time (11.15-1pm). Materials will be supplied. We’ll parade our hats on Wednesday 19^th March from 9.15am.

Barb and Annette.

Issue no.7, 13 March 2008