Mount Macedon Primary Newsletter

Care - Create - Collaborate

Mount Macedon Primary School aims to develop positive, independent, resilient and inquiring students who are ready for the future.


Principal's Report

Tuesday 30th August 2022

Hello Everyone,

I’d like to start by thanking all of the people who have offered to help the Slattery family as they support Amanda in her battle to fight AML. I have had so many offers of help for the family and it reminds me again about the strong community we have at the school. Amanda is also overwhelmed by the support and is very grateful for it. Many people missed out on putting their name down on the Menu Train App but I think that Amanda may need some more relief in the future. I have asked people who missed out on helping to look out for another opportunity to provide a meal later in the year.

Today, many of our senior students have gone to Keilor Park to compete in the District Sports against other local schools. The sports association have decided to go ahead with the competition, despite concerns about the weather. We have sent tarps for children to sit on (or under) and provided as many jackets as we had to those students who came without a jacket. Fingers crossed that they all get to compete and have a good time.

Last night the staff undertook professional development with Dr. William (Billy) Garvey, a paediatrician from the Royal Children’s Hospital. It was the next in a series of PD opportunities that he is providing for us. Last night we talked about ADHD. It was practical, informative advice about presenting behaviours and supports that can be put into place to ensure that students with ADHD have the best opportunities for learning. It was excellent.

Tomorrow night, Billy is running a parent session via WebEx – “Conversations around Mental Health”. The details are in this newsletter. Please join the session if you have time. You will find Billy engaging and very down to earth.

Please remember that production is on next week. Children are asked to be at school half an hour before each performance starts. This gives us time to get them ready. On the day of the Twilight performance, the children will not leave school at 3.30pm. They will stay in their classrooms and get ready. Could you please send along an extra snack for their afternoon tea on that day? If you are not attending performances, we estimate that they will take about an hour to hour 15 minutes, so the children will be ready for pick up at approximately 8.15 pm on performance nights and at 5.15pm for the Twilight performance. You will be able to pick them up from their classrooms.

If you have not already bought tickets, please use the information in the newsletter to log in and buy your seats. Staff and students will be at the door of the hall to help you find your seat. Everyone is very excited. This is the first production for three years and it is lovely to hear the songs, and watch the students perform.

I went to a Fete meeting last night and things are really starting to roll on. Please remember that we REALLY need the help of every family for the fete. It is a wonderful opportunity for us all to work together to achieve something great for our students. The money from the fete will help to pay for all the outdoor learning spaces that are being redeveloped in the school. This includes the new vegetable garden, the outdoor eating area (which will be redeveloped soon), the outdoor reading room and some additions to the playground area. We could not undertake these projects without fundraising. Please join in with us as we undertake this big task.

Have a lovely week.

Kind Regards,

Trish

Important Notice - Fire Rating Changes

You may have noticed in the news that the Fire Danger Rating system is changing in Victoria. We are moving from 6 levels to 4. The greatest impact that will have on our school is that the “Severe” rating has now been merged with the Extreme rating. This means that on days of Extreme rating we will be required to relocate to Romsey Primary School. The trigger point for relocation is the same as before, just the name has changed. Please see the attached documents below which explain the new system.

New Fire Rating System

Old Fire Rating System

School Production News & "Bug Boogie" Tickets

Our School Production of Bug Boogie is fast approaching. The children are all very excited and we are sure it s going to be a fun and entertaining production! 

Costumes for the school production were due yesterday. Please remember if you haven't yet organised, to bring your child's costumes to school. Please ensure your children's costumes are named, and brought to school in a LARGE, NAMED plastic bag to also accommodate their antennas and wings (which are provided by the school).

On Monday night (Opening night 5th Sept) we will be filming the production, so please arrive on time, and keep this in mind whilst viewing the performance so that we have minimal disruption and noise during filming.

Below is the link to purchase tickets for the MMPS 2022 School Production "Bug Boogie", as well as the QR code. There are still tickets available!

Please click on either to ensure you purchase your tickets to this much anticipated event!

https://www.trybooking.com/CBYLO 


Our Production Schedule is: 

Monday 5th September       -Dress Rehearsal                            12.00pm

                                                       -Evening performance                 7.00pm

Tuesday 6th September       -Twilight performance                  4.00pm

Wed 7th September              -Evening performance                  7.00pm

Thursday 8th September     -Evening performance                  7.00pm

MMPS Fete News

Hello Everyone,

As mentioned in previous newsletters, the Fete team has been working hard planning for this year's Spring Fete on Saturday 12th November.

This newsletter is how we communicate with you, our school families, but we also communicate with the wider community, showing what they have to look forward to when attending our beautiful school fete.

We have 2 social media pages (Facebook page Spring Fete 2022 & Instagram) where we post regular updates about our fete. These pages are very important for advertising our fete to the wider community.

If you are on social media, can you please "Like or Follow" these pages and share them to your "Friends & Followers".

More followers = More people attending = More funds raised for our school and children.

 

Please"Like or Follow" our Fete social media pages and share them to your "Friends & Followers" :

  https://www.facebook.com/Mountmacedonschoolfete/

https://instagram.com/mountmacedonps_springfete/ 

Thanks

MaryRose Harrison

Don't Forget - Parent Information Session tomorrow night!!

Parent Information Session – Conversations around mental health 2

We have a new date for our second parent session on how best to support child emotional and social development - Wednesday 31st August at 7.30 pm. We would really like this to be guided by you, so if you are interested please let us know what areas you would like covered in the registration link below. There will be space for open Q&As in the live chat. 

Who is Dr. Billy Garvey?

Billy is a developmental paediatrician with over 18 years experience working with children in a number of settings. His clinical and research interests include child development and mental health, multidisciplinary collaboration, improving health literacy and promoting community engagement to support all families. Billy holds clinical, advocacy and research roles in government and not-for-profit organisations at a national, state and local level. He is currently undertaking a PhD piloting a model to support child emotional and behavioural development in primary schools and is a Churchill Fellow exploring how social media can be used to support parenting. He is also the co-founder of the Pop Culture Parenting podcast which aims to support child development and wellbeing using evidence in a meaningful, fun and realistic way. 

Who is Jennifer Dix?

Jennifer is a Clinical Psychologist who has worked for several years in community welfare, specialising in working with children, adolescents and adults who have experienced trauma or are caring for others with a history of trauma. Jennifer has experience in adult inpatient care and community mental health, as well as in facilitating children’s therapeutic groups and parenting workshops. She is particularly passionate about empowering adolescents and young adults to develop the tools necessary to reach their potential. 

Expression of interest link:

https://forms.gle/UpkAZFcFVsQFFAZ47

When? 

Wednesday, 31st August 2022

7:30 PM

Where?

Event address for attendees:

https://eduvic.webex.com/eduvic/onstage/g.php?MTID=ecd5529393ea1c073b7d37513272b436a

Event number:              2651 204 6927

Event password:           EjSmMUvT742

Inclusion Resources

At Mount Macedon Primary we engage with resources from The Victoria Inclusion Agency to drive best practice in teaching and learning that creates an inclusive education environment for all our students. Here are a few resources  which we use in our classrooms that can be carried across to home. 

Father's Day Surprise

Father's Day is fast approaching, and the students have been working on a special surprise present in Art. The cost for this year will be $5.00, so we would appreciate if you haven't yet paid, please pay ASAP via QKR! And remember.... Shhh it's a surprise, so don't tell Dad!

CBCA Book Week

Last Friday was Book Week Dress Up day, where students came dressed as what they would like to be or what they hope for when they grow up. All of the students looked great in their costumes, and we all had fun trying to guess what everyone wanted to be. We had a very diverse range of professions, which was nice to see - from farmers, to scientists, fashion designers, detectives, police, firefighters, doctors, librarians and so much more. We even had a visit from a friendly dinosaur, who came in and said hello to all the classes! It was a fun day, and a lovely way for our students to express their hopes and dreams for the future!  Below are some photos of our Foundation students in their costumes.

Buddies Program

Last Friday in their Buddie's session, the students decided to continue with this year's book week theme by making puppets of what the student's wanted to be when they grew up. This idea was organised by the grade 5/6 Buddie Leaders, where the Foundation students and their Buddies collaborated together to produce some very creative and interesting puppets. It was a great activity to help start some thoughts and conversations about what the students dreamed and hoped for their futures.

Digital Technology at MMPS

This week in Digital Tech, we took a deep breath, calmed our minds and called forth our inner artist by trying our hand (well, finger) at doing some digital portraiture.

This is actually trickier than it sounds and we found out that there is a reason people advanced from finger painting to paintbrushes - the trickiest part? - well, that would be sitting still for 10 minutes when our partner painted us!

You can see the results in the video below (we are going to print these and put them in the corridor to see if other classes can guess the model). 

Can you guess your young person out of the series of images?

Grade 1 Video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N4wIIOcX1PcJzZ3glGafHw-od4kF9uvm/view?usp=sharing

Thanks

Mr. Garcia

STEM Update

Last week in STEM the students were building a marble track. The challenge was to construct a track out of 5 pieces and use the help of gravity to guide a marble down from the top the track, all the way into a cup at the bottom of the track. The students eagerly got to work engineering their tracks, and from all accounts they were very successful at caching their marbles! Below are photos of some interesting and successful marble tracks.

School Production Rehearsals

We are now in the final week of practise for the MMPS School Production of Bug Boogie, and the excitement in the school is contagious. Nearly every day the school halls are filled with the sounds of students singing, dancing and practising their lines and songs. Props and costumes are being finalised and we have had several rehearsals in the school hall to ensure each class performance comes together smoothly for a seamless production. Below is a sneak peek of some of our talented students rehearsing. We are looking forward to the final performances next week, we are sure they will be fabulous!

Helping to Protect Wild Gorillas

One of our Grade 2 students Liam, is calling upon our help to recycle our old mobile phones to help protect wild Gorillas. As part of the Grade 2 Sharing the Planet inquiry, Liam is instigating action and calling on our community for help. Please read Liam's message below. Liam has set up a collection box for your old and used mobile phones at the school office. What a fantastic project and a great way to raise awareness and interest in this important world issue.

Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge

From the office

Red Door Lunch Orders - Price Update

Red Door Café has had a price increase on some items. 

A copy of the price list has been sent home with the eldest in the family last week.  You can also find the price list below, with hard copies available at reception. 

Red Door has raised the issue of stapling the paper bags.  We understand this is often done to stop money falling out the of bags, however, the bags then rip and café staff have trouble using them to hold the students lunch.

An alternate and environmentally friendly option is to purchase reusable lunch wallet.  Stickybeaks lunch wallets have a zip to safely hold coins. See below for an in image.  Here is a link to their website:  https://www.stickybeaks.com.au/

Enrolments 2023

We are currently taking enrolments for Foundation 2023. Please ensure that you hand in your enrolment forms before the end of Term 3.

For all other year levels, please remember if there is any change to student enrolments, (ie changing school / or family address) for 2023 can you please let the school know so that we can update our records.

RAT KITS 

If you are requiring any more RAT Kits please let us know at the office and we will send some home with the students.

Amy Crosbie

Business Manager

Lost Property

Below are some of the items we have in lost property that are not named. Please have a look below, and if you recognise any of the items, please collect them from the school office, thank you.

New School Beanie

Winter is well and truly upon us, and it is especially cold here in the Maecdon Ranges! To help keep our students as warm and comfortable as possible, we now have a new MMPS School Beanie that is available from Beleza School Uniforms in Gisborne. Please pop into store if you would like to purchase.

COMMUNITY NEWS

Dromkeen Story Time

We are reaching out to schools regarding our book event this coming Saturday, September 3rd, from 1.00-3.00pm at Dromkeen, the original home of Australian Children’s Literature in Riddells Creek. Award winning author Corinne Fenton (who wrote Little Dog and the Christmas Wish- featured in the Myer Christmas window) will be launching a brand new picture-storybook ‘Votes for Women’ for fabulous author/ illustrator Mark Wilson at 1.00pm.  

Then at 2.00pm Corinne will be reading her beautiful picture book ‘Subbie and His Mate’, about SubZero the Melbourne Cup winner and his owner Graham Salisbury. Mark Wilson will then teach everyone how to draw horses and other animals. This year marks the 30 year anniversary of SubZero winning the Melbourne Cup, so it will be a very special event.  

We would love as many of our local families, teachers, lovers of children’s literature etc to have the opportunity to attend the event. 

Kyneton Agricultural Show Leggo Competition

Cartoon Workshops

Gisborne Secondary College Tours

MRSC Detox Your Home

Macedon Women's Cricket

Macedon Cricket Club Sponsorship

Calling for any friends or families of the school that might be interested in sponsoring the cricket club. Please see attached Sponsorship Presentation, and more information. Please contact the Macedon Cricket Club at macedoncc@hotmail.com if you are interested. Thank you.
Download

The Mount Players

Help Wanted!  Ever been interested in joining the Theatre but didn't know where to start? Come and help us Front of House! Meet new people, get a feel for the theatre and be a part of an amazing show without having to jump on stage! We're looking for helpers for all shows to help usher and do tea and coffee service at interval. Please contact Shelly on 0417 514 797 or shellyjandrews@gmail.com, Or find me at school pickup! I'm the one trying to hold Bruno the Brown Lab 😊 

Thanks!!

Young Warblers

Tennis Term 3

Futsal

Bushfire Resilience Information

Important Dates

Wednesday 31st August - Parent Information Session 7.30 pm 'Conversations around mental health 2'

Sunday 4th September - Father's Day

Monday 5th - 8th September - School Production

Thursday 8th Sept - Division Athletics

Saturday 12th November - MMPS School Fete

2022 Term Dates

Term 1 - Monday 31st January to Friday 8th April

Term 2 - Tuesday 26th April to Friday 24th June

Term 3 - Monday 11th July to Friday 16th September

Term 4 - Monday 3rd October to Tuesday 20th December