16 December - Year 6 Graduation & Dinner
17 December - Year 6 Billycart Race Day 1:30pm
18 December - Last Day of term 4 - 1:30pm finish
Hello everyone,
Class of 2020 - Farewell Year 6 Students
Tonight we farewell our year six students with a graduation ceremony. It has been the trickiest of years for these students and I appreciate that there are many things that they have missed out on. I hope, despite 2020, that they can look back on their primary years fondly and wish them every success for their transition to secondary school.
New Staff
I would like to extend a warm welcome to Caroline Le Sueur and Sue Erwin who will both be joining the Macedon PS teaching team in 2020. Caroline comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and experience in engaging students in music and performance. She will lead the performing arts program here in 2021. We’re really excited about the prospects of raising the profile of music and the arts through Caroline’s program. Sue Erwin is going to be working alongside our classroom teachers to support the learning catch up and extension in classrooms as well as supporting our synthetic phonics literacy intervention program, MiniLit. Sue is a highly experienced teacher with a speciality in supporting students with additional learning needs.
Student Leadership
I would like to congratulate all of our 2021 year six leaders. The leadership selection process is an important part of the learning program as these students move into their final year here. I wish all of these students all the very best and look forward to working with them to continue to improve our school.
Farewell
With the close of the year, we say good bye to a number of families who will be moving on to new schools in the new year. It is always sad to say goodbye to these people, many who have made significant contributions to the school through volunteering and support of our activities.
Farewell to…
Charlton Cooke-Maitland, Gabrielle Cook and Ian Maitland, Archie Cook, Ashley Cook and Jo Kemp, Maddie James, Simon James and Michelle Richards, Lewis and Stanley Jefferies and Clare Eshuys, Liv, Laura and Christopher Lee, Grace, Raelene, Nancy and Vic Gill, Archie, Nellie, Danielle and Adam Grigg, Maia Manning, Samantha Zantor and Nick Manning, Jethro Mews, Rachel Weaver and Peter Mews, Minh, Tina Nguyen and Fabian Sanza, Liam, Sienna, Isabella, Alison and Greg Shah, Chloe Smitten, Zavier Smitten, Lori Tuner and Grant Smitten, Louis, Linley and Robert Wilkie, Ivy, Gemma and Marcus Wills, Max, Connor, Glen and Kathy Wyatt, Ronan Yow Yeh, Gretel Moser and Linc Yow Yeh.
Thank you for all of your contributions and trusting us to teach your children over the years. You will be missed.
Student Mental Health Supports in 2021
I have recently been in talks with a private counsellor Heidi Winchester in an effort to create a partnership between the school and a highly qualified counsellor to work in our school. The model we are exploring is one where a private counsellor will work in our school to provide mental health supports and therapy for our students in need. This would reduce the need for parents to pick-up their children to take them to a private psychologist during the day. We have been in talks with Heidi Winchester who currently works under the same arrangement in Tylden Primary School. Heidi is a qualified Child Mental Health Clinician - with an Honours Degree in Social Work and specialist training in developmental psychology and child mental health.
The proposal is that Heidi would work with families who have been referred by their GP/Paediatrician under a Mental Health Plan. There would be no cost to the school or families under this arrangement and the school would provide a private space for the therapy sessions.
We still have a few things to arrange with the process, but please email me to express your interest in this service at Matthew.Forrest@education.vic.gov.au. I will be putting this in the newsletter again in early 2021. We plan to have this up and running by late term one in 2021.
2021 Class Lists
The students have all completed a step-up session with their 2021 teacher this morning. You will receive a copy of the class lists this afternoon. The lists have the students in your child’s class and a photo of the teacher.
Reports
You will receive your child’s report today. As you will be aware, we adjusted our usual program to reflect the recent periods of remote and flexible delivery. As a direct result of the adjusted program we will be providing a simplified written report for the parents and carers of each student for Semester 2 focusing on what progress has been made and what has been achieved by each child.
Reports will include:
· a personal comment on student participation and engagement in the learning program offered;
· a description of the areas of the Victorian Curriculum we taught in English and Mathematics
· student achievement information in the form of a progression point
· progress shown from the last time these curriculum areas were reported on; this is represented by a line between the previous dot and the current dot (Foundation students will not have a dot from the previous report)
We are not reporting on all the other curriculum areas in this reporting cycle due to insufficient evidence.
Finally
Thank you for all of your support and positivity in 2020. It has been an extraordinary year that has really tested us all. I would like to acknowledge the exceptional work that our teaching team put in to maintain a program for our students under trying circumstances. It goes without saying that there was considerable pressure on families to support the learning during both of the lockdowns. You all did so well and I think we should be proud as a community about how we all worked together.
I’m really hoping that 2021 is more settled than this year, although if 2020 has taught me anything, it is to expect the unexpected.
Have a safe and happy Christmas and I look forward to seeing you all in January for the start of a fresh and exciting new school year.
Matt Forrest
Principal
