MVPS Update

We are now over halfway through Term 4! 

Term 4 has started very busy with lots happening. We started the term with another successful Japanese Cultural Day organised by the wonderful Watt Sensei. The classes were lucky to have a range of different experiences immersing in Japanese culture. Sports Day was a huge success welcoming back families to experience the day with their children. We saw success, kindness and sportsmanship shown in many different ways. Thank you to Simon and Emily (and Paul our Groundsperson and Belinda Turner for the behind the scenes preparation) for their hard work organising the day and all those that volunteered on the cakes, BBQ and drinks stalls or donated items. We look forward to our end of year Twilight Concert in a few weeks and thank Anna Theodosi who has been working extremely hard with all of the classes to show off the performing arts talents of our students to you all on the night.

Class placement exercise 2023

We are currently in the midst of our class placement process for 2023. We have collated information from teachers, students and families and entered them into a program we use called Class Builder. This program uses all the information provided and creates class lists which we then look at as staff team. From here we make changes based on what we know about your child to make balanced classes across the school. As you could imagine there are many different combinations at each year level and we do our best to ensure each child is in the best place for their academic and wellbeing needs. Class placement will be communicated to families on the final Thursday in Week 9.  On this day all students go and visit their new class and teacher and then at the end of the day they take home their end of year report with the 2023 class information in it.

New students joining us in 2023

At the end of each year we always find that there is some movement with families moving their children to different schools to make sure they get the right fit for them.  We are always supportive and respectful of these decisions and wish our students the very best for their continued learning journey.  Thank you to those families that have been able to let us know their child(ren) are leaving as early as possible as this supports us to not only get our class placement right (in the past we have been told very late and it has meant that some existing students have missed out on having a good friend in their class because we were told after classes were finalised) but it also allows us to take in new children. We are excited to have already enrolled some new children and their families to join our beautiful school community in 2023.  We still have some spaces across Years 1-5 so if you know any interested families please let them know to contact Clair Pavey on 83238741 or dl.0251.admin@schools.sa.edu.au.

Our 2022 Data 

Recently our Leadership team met with our Local Education Team (our bosses) to look at a range of data sets for student learning as well as student wellbeing (and staff wellbeing) including PAT, NAPLAN and Phonics Screening. The LET commended our staff on the fantastic results and growth we have achieved with our students in 2022 and supported us to fine tune our improvement goals to continue to strengthen our action plan moving forward.  We are really proud of our staff team for their hard work in this journey this year and for their commitment to improving student learning outcomes every day.  We are also very proud of all of our students for being brave in their learning and engaging in the productive struggle in their lessons to grow their learning, thinking and skills.

Playgrounds: 

A reminder that playgrounds are out of bounds before and after school due to supervision issues, and inappropriateness of families being in toilets during OSHC session times.   We have noticed that some families have started meeting at the Visitors Centre so they can still have the after school catch up session which is great!

We are looking forward to a busy and enjoyable finish to a big year with you and your children.  

Stay safe and take care, Leanne, Matt & Cate

COVID-19 vaccination policy

The Department for Education asked employees to provide feedback on some proposed amendments to the COVID-19 vaccination policies for employees and non-employees (this includes volunteers and contractors). The consultation period on the proposed amendments to the COVID-19 vaccination policies for employees and non-employees has now concluded. After consideration of feedback received and ongoing discussion with SA Health, the department is now implementing the amended policies.

The policies will continue to ensure our working and learning environments are as safe as possible for our staff and students and align with the most recent SA Health advice.

The key elements of the vaccination policies are as follows:

Vaccination:  

• The department continues to encourage all employees to maintain up-to-date vaccination status (up to date = 3 doses) but recognises that some employees will choose not to.
• The amended policies will allow unvaccinated employees (and non-employees) to work in corporate and mainstream school and preschool settings with no additional requirements, however they will be subject to additional requirements (wearing a mask, taking a RAT etc.) when working in higher risk settings.  (Higher risk settings/situations include Aboriginal / Anangu schools, special schools, disability units and hospital schools).

Testing and isolation reminder:  

• As we experience an increase of COVID-19 cases in South Australia, please continue to follow the department’s testing and isolation arrangements (see attached picture.) 
• Symptomatic staff, students and visitors should not be attending schools, preschools or our corporate offices. If you’re unwell, even mildly, please stay home.

Positive COVID-19 case reporting:  Schools and preschools must continue to report COVID-19 cases. This information is critical in our decision making for outbreak management.  We need families to support us to do this by completing the COVID positive case reporting e-form on Skoolbag,

We are seeing an increasing amount of instances daily on Caffrey Street with unsafe practices with driving and parking, as well as pedestrian concerns.  Our children's safety is vital so we need our parent/caregiver community to step up and act safely to care for our children.  Please see below as reminders for acting safely:

DRIVING ON CAFFREY STREET:

• Doing u-turns, 3 point turns and reversing onto Caffrey Street from driveways anywhere near our school is an unsafe practice and we have witnessed many near misses with students that the driver has been oblivious to.  Take an extra minute to drive further up the road to do this or take an alternative route.  Our children's lives mean more than a couple of extra minutes in your daily route.
• Use the 'kiss and drop' zone properly.  DO NOT get out of your vehicle, if you have time to do this or need to do this, go and park somewhere else.  Drive up to the front of the line - DO NOT wait and leave gaps, this at times has caused near-misses as frustrated drivers have needed to drive on the other side of the road to go around cars to get into the zone ahead. 
• The Caffrey Street school car park is reserved for staff, contractors and parent/caregiver disabled access.  It does not have capacity for any other cars and is not a place to drop off students.  DO NOT drop your child(ren) off in the driveway and then reverse back onto Caffrey Street. The amount of near-misses we have seen this term alone from parents/caregivers doing this is very alarming.  

PARKING ON CAFFREY STREET:  Please obey road rules when parking on Caffrey Street.  Every day we witness many vehicles parked illegally and this has potential to cause an accident.  Some issues include:

• Cars parked on yellow lines especially to the north of the spare paddock. This blocks the view of cars trying to exit the paddock.
• Cars parked right out of the front of the JP entrance gates, cars parked to the south where it is a clear solid line and no standing.

BEING A PEDESTRIAN ON CAFFREY STREET:

The school has been campaigning to the Department for Education for some time about the poor and unsafe design of the Caffrey Street carpark which is a risk to student's safety every day, especially at drop off and pick up times.  Staff monitor this and work hard to keep students safe and educate them about being a safe pedestrian, but we need parent/caregivers help to do this.  Every day there are near misses, many of these are avoidable and need parents/caregivers to put safe practices in place to support us.  

• DO NOT walk your child through the Caffrey Street staff carpark - use the gates and walkways.  Every day we see parents/caregivers take shortcuts through the carpark with their child(ren) often not even realising that they are walking past a car about to reverse.  Parents/caregivers you are role-models to your child(ren) so they will continue unsafe practices when you are not around unless you teach them.
• DO NOT wait for your child on the driveway entrance/exit or close to it.  Find a safer space that you can meet and let them know where it is if it is not visible.  Every day, staff on Caffrey Street duty have to remind parents/caregivers to move off of the driveway.  This is hard for us to understand sometimes.  
• We love our parents/caregivers to connect with each other but please find safe spaces to do this so that children are safe or monitored closely while your focus is not solely on them.  We have seen daily instances where children are playing in the carpark, near the carpark or on the street kerb while parents are deep in conversation.

We will continue to report to SAPOL and Onkaparinga Council rangers to come out and support us to keep children safe, and give fines to those people who are not acting in the correct way to support our student's safety.  We will continue to report instances to the Department for Education to campaign for a redesign of our carpark and drop off zone to make our children safer.

We hope that you understand the need for this post and can support us to keep our lovely MVPS children, families and staff safe at our school.

If you have any feedback, concerns or questions please do not hesitate to email Leanne.Lovett932@schools.sa.edu.au

It is with great sadness that we farewell Wendy Lithgow at the end of the year as she ventures into the world of retirement! Wendy has been part of McLaren Vale Primary School over the last 6 years in a variety of roles including as a curriculum leader, science teacher and classroom teacher, most recently in Room 26 with a Year 4/5 class. We would like to thank Wendy for her contribution to our school, congratulate her on a successful career and wish her the best in her next chapter. Please see Wendy's letter below to our school community.

Dear MVPS Community,

I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that after much soul searching and reflection, I have decided that it is time to draw to a close my teaching career. I love being a teacher and watching the growth of my students, but it is now time to explore life at a slower pace without bells and timetables! I am excited about the possibilities before me to have ample time to participate in some other activities that centre around the things I most enjoy outside of the teaching world.

I am taking advantage of an accumulation of LSL for next year and so won’t be able to do any relief teaching work, but I might sneak back to help in the garden or the kitchen from time to time. It will be like one big holiday at first until the reality sets in and the big “R” word will take effect in January 2024!

I am sure that it will be very strange at first – I have never really left school. I first remember seriously talking about being a teacher when I was in year 6 and I also remember playing schools with my siblings - me in the teacher role way before that!

Now, finally, after 12 years of school, 3 years of uni and 42 years as a qualified teacher which included extra part time study, I can finally graduate from school!! However, I will never stop learning and look forward to learning something new and different!

It has been a privilege to have been able to have my last years in the job here at McLaren Vale where I have felt accepted, appreciated and challenged. I have been part of the school for almost 6 years in a variety of capacities and with the last 2 being fully focussed on my classroom roles. I will take many special memories with me. There are none more special than those that include the fabulous students whom I have had the privilege to teach and the colleagues I have worked alongside in various situations. I have had the most delightful classes with which to work these last two years and I am very grateful.

I wish to thank you all for your contributions and partnerships with the school and the connections I have made with some of you through your children.

Wishing you all the best.

Wendy Lithgow

As you may already have heard from your child, each class has teamed with some McLaren Vale Business & Tourism Association businesses along the Main Road to decorate their storefronts and windows to make Main Road look special for December.  Each class has been collaborating with the business owners to decide on the finer details of their project and then excitedly creating products ready to decorate with.  Very soon we will send home a flyer to you with a map showing you all the classes and businesses involved so you can get out and about with your child/family to see all of the projects.  We are very excited about collaborating and connecting to our local community.

This year we are joining in on the McLaren Vale Business Association Xmas Parade with any interested school children.  This event will be on Sunday 11th December from 6.00-8.30pm on Main Road, McLaren Vale.

I am going to lead this from my wellbeing role and am asking families to let me know via email if they are happy for their child to participate (and can bring them on the night.)

I will work with these children in some lunch breaks to get ready for the parade.  We will use this forum to spread the message of kindness and empathy to our community.  We will make banners/posters to hold up.  I would like the children to wear bright coloured clothing or decorate some white t-shirts with messages of kindness.

We are asking for donations of lollipops and will attach kindness messages to them and the children in the parade can give them out to the crowd as they walk down Main Road.  This will be simple, inclusive and meaningful.

Please email me on Simon.Lovett516@schools.sa.edu.au if you would like your child to be involved in the Parade.  Please drop off any donations of lollipops to the Front Office if you are able to help out.

Here is an update about where we are at with the private provider instrumental lessons for 2023.

Currently we have an external provider that comes into school and provides private instrumental music lessons to students whose parents have paid and arranged for these lessons.  The school just provides a space.

For the 2023 year, Anna Theodosi our Performing Arts teacher has applied for the Department for Education’s Instrumental Music (IM) department to run a program at our school.

We have tried to get this before and have been unsuccessful but were encouraged to reapply for next year which we have done.

The DfE Instrumental Music program provide lessons for a variety of instruments at no cost to the school or families.

The idea is that if we are successful in obtaining this program, the school will put together an ensemble of some kind (hence the variety of instruments) and we would support Anna in her timetable to do this.

Unfortunately, he application process takes a while and we might not hear about the outcome until the end of this term as to whether or not we are successful.

The DfE Instrumental Music program does not supply keyboard teachers, and there is a limited supply of guitar teachers (which means we may not get any guitar teachers).

So it is likely that in 2023 the school will still allow an external provider to come in and provide private instrumental lessons (as we have been doing currently), where the parents pay the teacher direct and the school provides the space.

So, long story short... we are going to have external private instrumental lessons again next year for piano and keyboard, but we do not know how that will work yet (what days/teachers etc.) until we receive the outcome of the IM program application and have an idea on what that program will look like and what teachers they are providing to our school.   This will then determine the days and spaces that we have available to provide to external providers.

Further information on all instrumental lessons available in 2023 will be sent at the beginning of Term 1 when we have all the information available.

I am letting all interested external instrumental providers who want to provide lessons at our school know this information.  I understand that this may be inconvenient for setting up the 2023 year and does not guarantee employment and that some may choose to find alternative employment in the meantime.  That is totally understandable and we will look for teachers when we have all of the information.

I know this is inconvenient but I feel that this is in the best interests of the school currently as it could provide an amazing opportunity for our school and families.

As instrumental music lessons are an extra private opportunity for students, if it is inconvenient to families to have to wait until next year or have a gap in their lessons, they can look for alternative lessons outside of school.

If you have any feedback, questions etc about this please do not hesitate to email me on Leanne.Lovett932@schools.sa.edu.au

Kind regards, Leanne

World Teacher's Day coincided with Sports Day this year, so we celebrated throughout the day.  Teachers received a special treat in their pigeon holes, our Student Leaders gave them a special mention at the opening of Sports Day and a 'hats off to teachers' stand was set up where messages of thanks, as well as fun photos with hats were taken as a lasting memory of a special day.  Some of the messages from students and parents/caregivers included "You're the best teacher" "I have learnt so much from being in your class." "You have a big brain." When you first entered the class I swear I saw the whole room light up!" "Thank you for all of the sacrifices that cannot be put into words." Thank you for helping me." "You're my favourite teacher." "Thank you for your hard work and kindness."  Wonderful messages that were very much appreciated by our teachers.  Please see some of the photos below.

Book returns:  Please return all borrowed Library Books by the end of Week 7, 1st December so that library staff can sort, collate, stocktake and encourage overdue books to be returned. We appreciate your support in this matter.

Cutest Pet Competition:  Our Year 6 student leaders had a tough decision voting for our Cutest Pet Competition.  Our winners are:  1st PRIZE:  Laicy Rm 19 with Teddy   2nd PRIZE:  Jed Rm 17 with Miley  3rd PRIZE: Harry T Rm 3 with Carlo

Thank you to all participants.  Regards, Marie Groen

We are very excited to be holding our twilight End of Year Concert on the school oval again this year with all families invited to attend.

Thursday December 1st 5.00-8.00pm

• 5:00-6:00 picnic/dinner
• 6:00-8:00 concert
  

Detailed information will come home this week about the night's itinerary, bbq pre ordering (Lions Club cooking this for us) and information about what food and drink is available on the night. On the night there will also be a silent auction for a framed signed 2022 Port Power guernsey with authentication certificate.

We can't wait to share this night with you and celebrate our wonderful students.

Each year we ask our Years 3-6 students to complete a Student Wellbeing and Engagement survey.  This gives information about how our students are tracking in their emotional wellbeing, engagement with school, learning readiness and health and wellbeing out of school.

We use this data, along with the information from the AEDC (Australian Early Development Census, which gives us a snapshot of how early years children are developing in our community in the areas of physical, health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge.

When looking at the data we were pleased to see that some of the wellbeing initiatives that we have been working on have led to some upward trends / positive growth in:

• children's emotional regulation
• school climate
• school belonging
• nutrition (external to school)

However, found it concerning that the data also showed us some downward trends/negative growth in the following areas:

• sadness
• important adult at school
• emotional engagement with teachers
• perseverance
• connectedness to school
• organised activities (external to school)
• sports (external to school)
• overall health

On our last Student Free Day and over the last few weeks, our staff team have spent much time exploring many programs and initiatives to support the development of our student's wellbeing.  The staff, with the approval of the MVPS Governing Council Committee have signed up our school to become part of The Resilience Project's School Partnership Program.

The Resilience Project is a program by teachers for teachers, the School Partnership Program aims to INSPIRE and ENGAGE the whole school community – students, staff, parents & caregivers – through the evidence-based GEM (Gratitude, Empathy & Mindfulness) principles. We embed GEM through a combination of accessible resources, engaging lesson plans and inspiring digital presentations.  The program builds Emotional Literacy which is the ability to label our emotions, which helps us to soften negative emotions and find positive emotions. 

This is a $13000 commitment for our school which we have considered very carefully, and believe it is a vital investment in our student's wellbeing.  More information will come home about this program early next year but if you would like to find out more now you can visit https://theresilienceproject.com.au/

Simon Lovett and Matt Millar

Lost Property

We have a large amount of unnamed jumpers and tops in our Lost Property box in our atrium. Please come and have a look if anything belongs to your child/children.

Book Club #8 is here. 

Book club offers students a wide range of titles in each issue, from popular and award-winning fiction books, charming picture books and fascinating non-fictions books. It is easy to make an order.

The Book Club LOOP platform for parents allows you to pay by credit card.Your child’s order is submitted directly to school and the books will be delivered to class.You can place your child’s order at scholastic.com.au/loop or by using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

Alternatively, you can send money with your paper order form to Student Services.  

Orders for Issue #8 are due Monday 28th November 2022.  

Each order helps earn free books and teaching materials for our school, however there is never any obligation to order.  

Some important dates for the remainder of Term 4 include:

• Tuesday 22nd November - end of year raffle books coming home
• Friday 25th November - Volunteer Morning Tea 
• Friday 25th November - instrumental music program students filming with Karen Plisko
• Wednesday 30th November - The Fathering Project Dad's night 
• Thursday 1st December - End of Year Concert (twilight) 5:00-8:00 (5.00-6.00 picnic/dinner    6:00-8:00 concert)
• Friday 2nd December - School Closure
• Monday 5th December - Reception zoo excursion            

                                               - Year 2 history walk

• Tuesday 6th December - Year 1 excursion

                                  - Senior classes excursion (Rooms 26, 16, 17, 20, 21)

• Thursday 8th December - Payinthi College transition day
• Friday 9th December - Year 6 students transition visit to Willunga High School
• Sunday 11th December - Main Road Xmas Parade from 6.00pm
• Monday 12th December - Year 6 graduation
• Wednesday 14th December - Year 2 excursion

                                                        - End of Year raffle drawn

• Thursday 15th December - New class visits / end of year reports go home
• Friday 16th December - Last day of school for 2022

                              -Whole school assembly on oval 9.00am (all welcome)               -Casual clothes day    -Early dismissal 2.05pm

Just a reminder that we have a School Closure on Friday December 2nd.  This day precedes the Thursday night's End of Year twilight concert on our school oval.

A reminder that our wonderful MVPS OSHC (Out of School Hours Care) program is open for any families needing care for their child.  If you would like to book your child into OSHC please email dl.0251.oshc@schools.sa.edu.au or call 83239217.  Please note that OSHC will be closing a little earlier on this day, 6.00pm.

Reception Team (Room 6, 7 and 8)

The Reception students  have been participating in an inquiry unit about Australian animals this term. In this unit they have researched using non fiction texts, completed an information report and made some of the animals during visual arts lessons. As a celebration for their hard work we are visiting the Adelaide Zoo later in the term to look at different animals’ habitats (see pictures below).

Year 1 Team (Room 10, 11 and 12)

The Year One classes have been spending some time with Burda, our ATSI Teacher for Design and Technology. Burda spoke to each class about how Kaurna plants are used for food and shelter. Students discussed some examples of how animals are used for clothing. They learnt some Kaurna language and discussed; Karkala (pig face), Muntrie berries, Parraitya (seaweed) and Parnapi (mushrooms). Burda also discussed with the students the different uses of a Coolamon and how the Kaurna people used a Wardli for shelter. The students then collected some sticks from around the school and made their own Wardli from clay and natural resources!

Year 2 Team (Room 1, 2 and 3)

This term the Year 2 classes have been engaged in a cross curricular project, exploring how the design of buildings and structures is dependent upon environmental factors, human ingenuity and available materials. 

Students have engineered structures to meet specific design criteria. These include creating structures to withstand extreme weather events such a floods and hurricanes, while taking into consideration the impact buildings and structures have on the environment.  

Students have also used the Chrome books and Google Earth to explore structures around the world, looking closely at which materials are used to build homes in different countries and how the needs of structures change due to the needs of the local community. 

Students have then had the opportunity to apply what they have learnt and contribute to our Cubby Building Project. During each class's Investigation lessons students have been able to use the Maker Space to add to and modify a collaboratively built cubby house. Students have demonstrated resilience, teamwork and persistence, all while having a great time and applying what they have learnt about structures.  

Unfortunately due to extreme weather we had to cancel our cubby building excursion to Kuipto Forest but everyone had a chance to apply the skills and knowledge they had learnt about structures to build cubby houses from sheets, tables and chairs in our classrooms. 

This term the Primary year classes have started looking at sustainability, and have begun to focus more closely on resources on earth. Rooms 18 and 19 have looked at palm oil and where it comes from. They have made some interesting discoveries about how palm oil impacts on the orangutang. Rooms 14, 15 and 27 have started to look at environmental issues and ways in which we can solve them. Students have already seen some positive things that people have come up with to help our planet and, hopefully we are becoming inspired to make change in our own small way! Students even wrote persuasive letters to the Onceler from ‘the Lorax’, persuading them to stop chopping down trees!

Senior Team (Room 16, 17, 20, 21 and 26)

Last term we showcased our annual and popular learning project 'The Wax Museum'. Our 5 Senior classes worked hard on their inquiry projects about a person of historical significance. Part of the project was to develop an open question that required deep thinking and research about their chosen persons impact on their field. Students then dressed up as this chosen person and posed like a wax museum statue. Families came along and were able to walk through and see the hard work on display. We were incredibly proud of the final products and families commented on the high standard of learning. This link has a video of some of this amazing work.

Students in Room 20 and 21 completed some amazing artwork in honour of Remembrance Day. Check them out here

Year 6 Graduation is coming up and notes have been sent out. Please return these as soon as possible, particularly so we can look at allocating extra tickets to families. We have a great night planned to send the kids off in style!

Notes for Year 6 Senior Jumpers for 2023 have also been sent out to our Year 5s. These are due Thursday the 1st of December. The sizing kit is in the office until next Thursday the 24th of November for those families wanting to check sizing.

Each year since the start of 2021 our Year 3 students have the opportunity to purchase a subsidised Chromebook through the school which they can use at home and school. Notes went out last term for  2023 1 to 1 Chromebooks and this coming week current Year 2 families that have not yet indicated whether they are participating next year will receive an email this week asking whether they will be opting in for 2023 so we can plan our order. Families will be able to begin organising payment for their Chromebook, please keep an eye out for an email with details. If you wish to organise a payment plan you can do so with our Finance Office Amanda Marcel. If you have any questions in regards to this please contact Matt Millar.

We have recently heard of and followed up a few incidents of misuse of mobile phones and personal devices during school time. The Department for Education (DfE) has a very clear Mobile Phone and Personal Device Policy for all Primary Schools in South Australia and our school policy for this reflects points mandated by this.

Mobile phones and personal devices include, but are not limited to, smartwatches, tablets or laptops that are not part of a separate Bring Your Own Device arrangement. This applies while students are at school or attending a school activity such as an excursion. DfE and McLaren Vale Primary School's position is that students cannot use their mobile phones and personal devices (this includes smart watches) at school during school hours.

We understand there are legitimate reasons for students to bring these devices to school such as to ensure their safety while travelling to and from school and so parents can contact them outside of school hours. During the school day students may not access their mobile phones and personal devices. These must be switched off and handed to the teacher for safe storage at the start of the school day. Failure to comply with this policy can result in the device being confiscated, stored in the front office and handed back at the end of the day. There may also be further consequences for misuse as decided by Leadership.

There are some cases where students need to use them for medical monitoring during the day but this must be negotiated with the Leadership Team prior to use at school.

You can see our full ‘Primary student use of mobile phones and personal devices policy’ here.

Thank you for your support of this policy.

Remembrance Day 2022

On Friday the 11th of November, our Year 6 School Leaders went with Simon down to the McLaren Vale Memorial Park to represent the school at the Remembrance Day Service.  The students had the great honour of talking with many local community members that had served in the Australin Defence Force over many years. Our leaders laid a wreath and acknowledged the sacrifices of the fallen.  

Student Forum

We were lucky enough to send 2 students from our Leadership and Events Action Team to the Student Forum on Tuesday the 8th of November. The event run by the Department for Education was an opportunity for students from Year 5-10 from around the state to inform our Chief Executive Martin Westwell about ways to improve our Education system. It was a great day with lots of discussion and imagining was to make education better for children in South Australia.

Finally, the clouds cleared and the sun was shining for the 2022 McLaren Vale Primary School Sports Day. The children all looked amazing in their team colours and embraced the new team logos. It was great to see parents and caregivers back at school for a normal Sports Day experience, the first time since the beginning of the pandemic and the staff and children really appreciated the help and support throughout the day. 

This year saw the introduction of the MVPS Spirit Cup, which recognises sportsmanship and fair play during the day. The cheering was loud and the positive attitude of all students was a highlight.

There were many great performances from children, parents/caregivers and teachers, but in the end there could only be one winner, The champion house for 2022 was the Aldersey Lions. It had been 17 years since their last victory, making their triumph so rewarding. Aldersey also collected the Spirit Cup, becoming the inaugural winners of the trophy. 

A big thanks to everyone who was involved in this wonderful event and congratulations to all the children for their efforts.   Simon Lovett

The Colour Run this year was again a success and it was great to be able to have our families back joining us for a whole school event. There were so many smiling faces and plenty of colour filling our oval and another way of promoting being active. Our student leaders did a fantastic job supporting Mr Millar getting the powder bottles ready, squirting runners and supporting our younger students on their run. A big thank you to; our parent volunteers, those who donated towards the event, our Admin staff for their work processing all the donations and of course Paul our Groundsperson, Simon and Emily our PE teachers for setting up the course  As a school we raised approximately $2300 which will continue to go towards our grounds projects as requested by our students.  What a great way to finish PE Week!

At MVPS we value and appreciate our volunteers and want to say a HUGE thank you to you all for taking the time to support our students and staff, you really do make a difference.  We also want to say thank you for your time in completing the very time-consuming paperwork to become a volunteer at our school, we know that it is a lot of work, but it is necessary as it ensures the safety of our students.  Please come along this Friday for some morning tea and a chat. RSVP dl.0251.admin@schools.sa.edu,au for catering please.

Juno is now 6 months old and is progressing very well with her training.  She is continuing to learn her manners, although she is still a bit cheeky sometimes (see photo of her making herself comfortable on the library couch during a staff meeting!)  She is getting very used to being in lots of different environments and situations at school and staying calm.  She loves her structured interactions with the children who have been doing a wonderful job of following the rules of "saying hello to Juno."  Juno has planned visits when she visits learning spaces with children and the dog handler and classroom teacher always makes sure that children feel safe.  We are impressed with the benefits that we have seen already from Juno when supporting students to regulate their emotions, turn sadness around, engage students in learning and support students with anxiety.  (We have also found Juno has supported staff as well which is a huge bonus!)

Please remember that if you see Juno around the school, we need you to ignore her.  If you would like to interact with her, you must look directly at the dog handler and ask "Can I please say hello to Juno?" When stroking her do so behind her collar.  We are all working very hard to help her to be successful in passing her test at 18 months old.

Our Fathering Project Dad's group has had such a positive first year and we look forward to working with more dads and father figures in our community. If you are interesting in more information please contact Matt or Simon.

• Our dads only night Monday 24th October, was facilitated by Richard Welch (one of our MVPS dads) from "The Next Step Australia"  sharing about Men's Mental Health and ways to support wellbeing and maintain a sound mental wellbeing. It was a great opportunity to talk openly and learn strategies to keep ourselves in check. We are looking to work in partnership further with Richard and The Next Step Australia in future events.
• Wednesday the 16th we held our Dads and Kids night which was, as always a fun filled night with lots of competitive activities. We held a mini Olympics with Tug of War, Egg and Spoon races, Rob the Nest, Vortex throw and finished with a game of soccer and penalty shootouts. It was great to see lots of laughs, smiles and the competitive side coming out (mostly from the dads). We look forward to seeing everyone out again in 2023 and hopefully some new faces!
• Dads catch up at the McLaren Vale Hotel for a bite to eat, drink and a chat Wednesday 30th November at 6pm - Please RSVP!

Please contact Matt Millar with any questions.

Term 4:

Another busy term already with plenty of opportunities for sports and staying active!

• This week is PE week and we had a variety of fun and active things throughout the week planned by Emily. This included:
• Mindfulness Monday - Students will participated in various mindfulness activities such as yoga and mindful breathing activities throughout the day
• Tuesday "Games around the world" - Students played games which originated from different countries around the world, including Greece, India, China and Ireland. 
• Walk to school Wednesday - Students were encouraged to walk (or ride) to school. A great way to get the steps in! 
• Thursday "Staff vs Students Soccer game" - The staff won 4 to 0. Mr Cleggett scoring 2 goals and Miss Henderson showing off some fancy footwork!
• Emily ran a PE week assembly where she shared a video of a number of our students and their sporting talent which was awesome to see! Emily gave out 2 MVP awards per class for kids who have given extra effort in PE lessons followed but a whole school dance to get us moving. Classes have been totaling their active minutes across the week with the most active class being Room 16 with a whopping 1550 minutes of Physical Activity this week!
• The MVPS Tennis Team showed great determination and skill when they went up against Blackwood Primary. The day resulted in our team defeating Blackwood, taking us into round 2. Not only did our students show great skills but they also demonstrated incredible sportsmanship and should be proud of how they represented MVPS. They are now getting fired up ready for round 2 against Trinity Gardens.
• The MVPS Volleyball Team went up against six other schools in the School Sport SA Volleyball Tournament at Lights Sport Centre. Considering most of the students had never played volleyball before, they did an outstanding job. Each game was close, and we managed to secure a win in the last game of the day. The teamwork and encouragement shown by the players was great to see and they should all be proud of their efforts. 
• Congratulations to Joel Taylor for his fantastic efforts in Judo! Joel and his sister Loren (2021 student) qualified and made it into the SA state team for Judo and in the recent school holidays represented South Australia and competed in the Judo Nationals competition.  Joel came away winning a Bronze medal in the under 10's category and Loren winning a Gold in the under 13's. Well done to Joel and Loren!
• Our Boys Basketball Team last term won their District Day at Morphett Vale Stadium and advanced to the State Final Day at 'The Lights Recreation Centre'. The top 10 large metro schools competed for the State Championship. The boys played against some very strong competition coming away with 1 win in their pool matches and finished 8th in the state in the 7th and 8th playoff games. The boys played hard and gave it their all and represented McLaren Vale Primary School proudly. Great effort boys!

Kind regards, Simon and Emily

Recently the Aboriginal students participated in a cultural excursion to the ochre cliffs at Port Willunga and the Washpool at Sellicks Beach. Both of these sites are very significant to the Kaurna people. The students learned how to grind ochre to create paint and painted on the rocks. They also learned about the uses of the Washpool in traditional times."

Burda Sanders (Aboriginal Education Teacher) & Rebecca Roberts (Aboriginal Community Education Officer)

What a great year we have had with fundraising already this year.  We have already raised $14048.80 for our school and we still have a few more exciting fundraising events scheduled for Term 4.

This term fundraising events include:

• 1st December:  End of year concert - bbq, drinks, auctioning signed 2022 Port Power guernsey)
• End of year raffle with lots of wonderful prizes up for grabs - tickets will come home this week.

Coming shortly we will list all of our AMAZING supporters who have donated prizes for our fundraising efforts this year.

The students have a very long list of all of the things that they would like to see in their play areas and facilities and all of the money we raise goes straight back to these initiatives.

KInd regards, Fundraising Team:  Leanne, Shylie, Anne-Maree, Brooke, Alyse, Angela, Maddy, Chantelle, Sarah and Susie 

You may have noticed lots of new and improved things popping up around our beautiful school.

• Jeff Farnden from Just Right Services has installed our new gaga ball pit.  We are looking into getting a better surface for this asap to reduce the dust!  Some wonderful Year 4 students from Room 27 have been helping with the implementation of this new game at our school.  The rules are up on the pit if anyone wants to come and try it out after hours with their family and friends!  

• Betterland Landscaping has begun installation of our swings near the Groundsperson shed this term, there is fencing and seating blocks as well. This is nearly ready to go and we can't wait!

• We are still waiting on contractors to get the area near the back of Library concreted to make space for more handball courts.

• We are waiting on contractors for Mrs Sternberg’s garden but hope to have this underway very soon.  

  The student Grounds Action team will take some photos at our next meeting to share with you all to give you an update of what we have achieved so far.

The Governing Council Committee now have an email address so you can contact us directly:  Governing.Council799@schools.sa.edu.au

We are always happy to hear from our families with any feedback or support needed.  Please see below photo to see who we are.

• The City of Onkaparinga have 2 fliers about upcoming events for eSports. Flier 1, Flier 

• You are invited to a Parent Forum for parents and carers of children and young people with disability. The forum will include a Keynote by Helen Connolly, Commissioner for Children and Young People. The forum is on November 25th from 9:30am. Please see this flier for further information.