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 23rd August 2022

Hello everyone,

This will be a short message this week, as I am teaching today – still my favourite thing to do! Today I have the Grades 3, 4 and 5 classes, and they are such a good group of students. They are independent, capable workers. The reason I am teaching today is that three of our staff are attending professional development on a variety of topics. It has only been lately that face to face professional development sessions have commenced again and it is a great opportunity to not only upskill the staff but also to get them out talking to and learning from other teachers. Consistently improving our practice by attending PD is a key to further improving our school.

Tickets are now available to purchase for our school production “Bug Boogie”. Please don’t forget to go to Trybooking to book seats. The information for this is below this report.

“Bug Boogie” is coming together well. The students have been practising at home and at school. I am sure that you have probably heard a bit about it or listened to the songs.  Do you have a song stuck in your head? Every year, we hear the songs so often that I find that I am constantly singing one of them. This year it is “Ladybug Blues”.

This week I emailed Parent A (designated parent/guardian emergency contact for each student) with instructions about the annual Parent Opinion Survey which is conducted by the Department of Education and Training (DET). I am asked to select one third of the school parents for the survey, but I prefer to offer the opportunity for all families to comment on the school. The opinions you provide are then collated and returned to me. The survey is anonymous. If you have some time, could you please complete this survey?

Our Wellbeing program is being developed and enhanced almost weekly to ensure that we are tracking and supporting our student’s mental health and wellbeing. Last week we introduced a new program to the senior students called Skoedel. This is an app that allows our students to check in and let us know privately if they have any worries, anxiety, or concerns. The app gets them to identify how they are feeling and offers them support from myself or a teacher. The student can select who they want to talk to if they want to talk to someone. This is another tool in our kitbag, and we are looking forward to rolling this out across the school. A simple version will be available to our junior students in term 4.

Please remember that Friday is Book Week dress up day. The theme is “Come as what you would like to be or hope for when you grow up”. You are all welcome to come to assembly on Friday at 3pm to see our dress up parade.

As we race towards the end of the term and the end of winter, have a lovely week.

Kind Regards,

Trish

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! 

Please remember that ALL COSTUMES are due by Monday 29th August. 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.

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

Parent Information Session - New Date

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

MMPS Wellbeing and Inclusion Education Newsletter

Please click on the download below for our Wellbeing and Inclusion Education newsletter, where you will find some valuable information about how we are supporting our students, as well as some valuable resources for parents.
Download

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 will be working on a special surprise present in Art this coming Monday. The cost for this year will be $5.00, so we would appreciate if you could all please pay by Monday 29th August via QKR! And remember.... Shhh it's a surprise, so don't tell Dad!

CBCA Book Week

Each year since 1945 the Children's Book Council of Australia has brought children and books together across Australia through CBCA Book Week. During this time schools and public libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators. Classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians create colourful displays, develop activities, run competitions and tell stories relating to a theme to highlight the importance of reading.

This year, MMPS will be holding Book Week Dress Up day on Friday 26th August, where students can come dressed as what they would like to be or what they hope for when they grow up! A parade of costumes will be hosted at 3pm that afternoon, please feel welcome to come along!

MMPS Update by School Reporter Eliza

Hello everyone.

We have been practising the school's annual production, a fun way to express yourself with an exciting form of creativity. We are performing ‘bug boogie’, being the first play written for the school many years ago, by a past teacher and parent. Seven plays were written, and we perform a different one each year for the seven years that we are at primary school.

 We are all very excited to get into colourful costumes to express our characters and have some fun singing and dancing, to show the community. There are four nights of our production, Monday being the filming night.

We have been practising since the start of the term, and it's coming up in a couple of weeks, which we are all very pumped up for.

It's a great way to express ourselves, and we have had a lot of fun learning about theatre and how to use volume, gestures and expressions.

Eliza

Digital Technology at MMPS

Grade 5/6 students are hard at work on turning the game designs the Foundation students did a few weeks back into full, working games (you can see some of them below)

It was super impressive seeing the 5/6 students really sticking to the brief put down by the Foundation students (stick figures and rocket powered unicorns included!)

This week will be the last week they have to put on the finishing touches and then we will share some of them here (after being play-tested by the Foundation students first of course!)

Oh, and speaking of Foundation students, last session we were talking about how computers encode and decode data, and what better way to learn about that than to write our own secret messages?

We started by learning about and using Morse Code and then students started making up their own encoders and decoders to write secret messages to their friends. 

Apologies in advance if you got a bunch of secret letters from your young people asking to stay up late or for extra lollies!

See if you can figure out the names of the students in the picture below using the Morse Code they have learnt (and their own coded language).

Mr Garcia.

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

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

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!!

Woodend Possum Guides

Woodend Possum Guides are looking for girls to join our unit. We are holding a fundraiser later this month. See below for more details.

Young Warblers

Tennis Term 3

Futsal

Bushfire Resilience Information

Important Dates

Friday 26th August - Book Week Dress Up Day & Parade at 3pm

Tuesday 30th August - District Athletics

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