Mount Macedon Primary Newsletter

Tuesday 6th September 2022

Hello Everyone,

We had our first production performance last night and we were all so proud of our students. It was fantastic. I hope that if you were in the audience last night, that you could feel the excitement and happiness of the children. Being able to finally put on a production after two missed years, is another wonderful step forward for the school. It is important that we find opportunities for our students to express themselves and to showcase their talents through the Arts as well as through academics, sport, and leadership etc. We have so many talented children in in a wide variety of areas.

Rebecca Bowen, has once again, drawn together a team of staff to help get this production up and running. It takes up a lot of her “at home” time, but she is happy to give her time to achieve this wonderful result. I am always grateful for her passion in ensuring that our students get a chance to perform. Thanks to Rebecca, the staff and all of the parents who have supported their children to learn their lines and songs (have you got one stuck in your head yet??). Most of all I want to thank the students, many of whom have moved beyond their comfort zone to get up in front of an audience. Most of them will store this experience in their memory bank, as a special moment.

Could I please remind you all that you will have received a link (one per family) via email, to participate in the Parent Opinion Survey? Over 70 links were sent out but as yet, only 14 families have participated in the survey. If you cannot locate the survey email, please contact me and I will resend it.

This week we received our NAPLAN results for grades 3 and grades 5. As the Grade 5 class has less than 10 students, I won’t be publishing their results, but I can show you some of the grade 3 results. Both groups did very well in all areas.

Grade Three –

This table shows the percentage of students in the top two bands. This means, those students who are operating above or well above expectations. The second column is there to compare us to schools that are of a similar socioeconomic standing to ensure that we are achieving what we are capable of, rather than just meeting State expectations.

These are wonderful results for our school. Most of our children have the capacity to achieve very high results and I am proud that they are reaching their individual potential.

Our Meal Train is going very well. Thanks so much to everyone who has participated!

Next week, I will be taking 5 days Long Service Leave and heading off on a short holiday with my husband Robert. I will be leaving the school in the capable hands of Rebecca Bowen. As I have said in the past, this term has been the best we have had for such a long time. It feels like optimism is returning and we are travelling a less rocky path.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Kind Regards,

Trish

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.

Join us at the Mount Macedon Primary School Spring Fete on Saturday 12 November for a day of family and community fun as we fundraise for a new outdoor learning area to benefit our children and for generations to come.

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/

Get to know some friendly faces at the fete with our FETE Q&A:

Name:  MaryRose Harrison

Connection to school:

Our eldest son Jayden is in Grade 6, and Maxwell is in Grade 2. So we have been at the school for almost 7 years and will be here for 4 more.

What's your role for the Fete:

This year my husband Geoffrey and I are running the Virtual Reality Experience and the Chill Zone. I am also helping create social media content for our Facebook & Instagram pages.

Tips for first time attendees or stall holders:

For first time attendees I would say, bring lots of time. There is so much to see and do … and eat (my favourite part) !!! You can make a real day out of it and help raise funds for our school at the same time.

For first time stall holders I would say, get organised early. Do a little bit each week from here on and you won’t feel overwhelmed come fete week. Also, make sure you are ready for a huge crowd, it gets super busy !!! I will be taking the day before the fete off work to give myself a full day to do any last minute things, or just rest before the big day. 

Favourite Fete memory or moment:

Last fete 4 years ago I walked around to all the stalls to take photos. I just loved seeing all the parents of the school band together with big smiles on their faces helping out.

I also vividly remember having a long hot bath and a glass of wine that evening !!!!

Fundraising goal:

My goal is more about attendance. I can’t wait to see the lines of people queuing up at each of our stalls ready to help raise funds for our school. 

Hello!

Thank you for registering for our Parent Information Session - Conversations Around Mental Health 2.

Please click here to find the recording of this session:

https://vimeo.com/745230663

We would love to hear your feedback on this session. Please click here to fill in a short survey to help us support our collaboration with Billy and Jen. Our aim is to bring you more relevant and evidenced based strategies to support your child's emotional and social development.

https://forms.gle/aCH1piM6ZWUHycVA7

Thank you!

Olivia Desormeaux

Inclusion Leader - Macedon & Mount Macedon Primary School

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. 

Hello Everyone,

Our production has finally begun, it's filled with colour excitement and joy. It's a fun experience for the students and the Mount Macedon Primary community alike. It is such a fun and creative way to learn and experience theatre. 

For a term now we have been practising our production. We have learnt ways to express ourselves through a production story and we are all very excited to show the production to the community for the next few nights. 

Our costumes are colourful, fun and cute. Each grade has a bug we dress up as. Foundation are little bugs, Grade One's are caterpillars, Grade Two's are Christmas beetles, Grade Three's are bees, Grade four/five boys are mosquitos, Grade four/five girls are butterflies, Grade Six boys are crickets and Grade Six girls are lady bugs.

So I think the production is a fun way to be creative, learn and experience the theatre.

Eliza

Spring is here, and our Grade 3 students are using the new season for some inspiration to fine tune their writing skills. Below is a lovely poem written by Flora and Sofia who capture the atmosphere and description of Spring just beautifully.

Grade 4/5 have been learning about Technology in The Arts. This week they researched one area of the arts, then presented their project and what they learnt to the class. This activity gave the students a chance to develop their research and presentation skills, as well as learn some great information about the subject.

The Grade 4/5s have also started their maths unit on fractions. Students really wanted to use pizza for learning, but Mrs Smith came up with a healthy alternative and we created a fraction matching memory game. Have a look below for some great pics.

We had 27 children compete at the District Athletics last Tuesday and it was fantastic to see the kids competing after two years of missing out due to covid.

All of our students represented Mount Macedon Primary School with pride and did a fantastic job. 

Special congratulations go to Olive G, Caitlyn K, and Moser P who have all advanced to the division athletics being held this this week.

Olive will compete in the 100 m and 200 m sprints. Caitlyn will compete in the 200 m sprint and the 800 m also. Moser will compete in the 800 m and 1500 m races.  We wish you all good luck for the day!

Last week in Digital Tech, Grade 4/5 students were able to hear, probably for like the 100th time, me say: "Well, when I was your age, we...", and then hear me go own about how things are so much better now.

This time it was about video games (they have seen some of the games the Grade 5/6 students have been making for the Foundation students) and how artists had to work with a lot more constraints to make convincing and believable images, while only using a few colours and some pixels.

Believe it or not, they were very interested (on the making part, not my old-man stories), so we spent the session exploring, and making, traditional 2D sprites - and the results were amazing. 

If you have a young person that is into drawing, video games or animation, it is a great way to start (and an excuse for you to also say "back in my day") so check it out here:

https://www.piskelapp.com/  

Mr. Garcia

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.

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

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.

Monday 5th - 8th September - School Production

Thursday 8th September - Division Athletics

Friday 9th September - Hot Shot Tennis

Wednesday 14th September - District Basketball

Saturday 12th November - MMPS School Fete

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