Mount Macedon Primary Newsletter

Tuesday 2nd August 2022

Hello everyone,

After consultation with Macedon Ranges Shire, the Kiss and Drop Zone at the front of the school will be removed and replaced with permanent parking. The issues with the K&D Zone have been raised at school council over a period of several months. There has been concern about student safety (including students falling down the steep grass verge onto the road), students exiting cars onto the roadside into oncoming traffic, and cars entering and exiting the zone in an unsafe manner. School Council asked me to pursue the removal of the zone through the shire and this has been done. In the next couple of days, a permanent parking zone will be re-established, as it was before COVID changed our way of operating. School Council has also requested that staff park their cars in this area to ensure that there is no movement of cars at the front of the school during drop off and pick up time. I understand that many of you will not be pleased about this, but the safety of students remains a priority.

Parents are asked to park in the school carpark and then supervise their children through the car park and across the school crossing. The other option for parking is along the Mount Macedon roadside to the north of the school crossing.

On Friday night we had the Neon Disco. I think that the children really enjoyed themselves. It was lovely to watch them dancing around and having fun. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered their time to make sure that it was a success - from food preparation, decorations, lighting, set up and pack up, you all gave the children a night to remember. A special thanks to DJ Dan Berger who provides a terrific range of groovy music on the night.

School fete is rapidly racing towards us. The stalls have been designated to people to manage and I know that they will now be looking for others to give a couple of hours of their time on the day. Please give us your support to make sure that we have a wonderful day, celebrating our school and our community.

Tomorrow, we have the Meerkats Theatre production group coming in to do a performance of “Stellarphant” for the students. This is an interactive theatre experience, and we hope that it will give everyone inspiration for our own school production which will be held in the week commencing 5th September. We hope to have ticketing details out for you soon. Unfortunately, Amy, our Business Manager will be away this week so we will try to get details out to you as soon as possible.

Please don’t forget that there is another "Open Afternoon” next Wednesday 10th August from 2.30-3.30pm. We would love you to come in and look at the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) work that the students are currently doing. This inquiry approach allows students to follow their interests and to extend their learning beyond curriculum expectations. Yesterday I visited the Grade 3 class who were doing presentations on “Animal Adaptations”. Their knowledge of their chosen animal and understanding of the topic requirements was excellent.

I have received preliminary raw data results from this year’s NAPLAN testing. All of our students achieved at expected level or higher. We had no students below level in reading or mathematics. Writing data is not yet available. I will share our final results when I receive them.

Last Friday the school hosted principals from schools in the Castlemaine area. They came to our school to see our mathematics program as we have been designated a “school of influence” in both reading and mathematics. It was lovely to share with them the work that both our students and teachers are doing. They have asked if they can bring all of their teachers to the school in term 4 to share what we are doing with them. I’m very proud of the work that our students and teachers are doing, and it is lovely for them to get such recognition.

We have a significant number of classroom teachers absent this week for a variety of reasons and so half of the teaching staff are Casual Relief Teachers (CRT's). They do not have access to the SeeSaw program, so if you have any messages or concerns, please contact me directly or call the school and they will put you through to me. Please remember that I am always here to listen to you and support you.

Have a lovely week.

Kind Regards,

Trish

Hi everyone,

Our school Fete is taking shape!  As mentioned last week, we are publishing our stallholders and their contact details below.  Most of these generous people will need your support.  If there is a stall you are interested in helping with, or you can offer any skills or resources, we encourage you to contact the stallholders directly. 

Just a reminder we are looking for an Amusements and Rides coordinator.  We have a great team of stallholders who can provide support and expertise if needed. Reach out if you would like to join us.  

With the generosity and support of our wonderful school and wider community we are confident this Fete will be our biggest and best yet - bringing our community together and raising important funds for our children.  

Cheers, 

Jen (0434 638868) and Nat (0408 003019)

Fete Team

MMPS FOS Committee

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

Hello everyone.

The Neon Disco was last Friday. It was a very fun experience dancing, hanging out with friends and having a good time. The disco started at 6pm and ended at 8pm. There was music and a DJ there all night. The tunes were beating while we were all dancing, making our hearts pump. 

The disco was an event we had been waiting for, for quite a while. We had to move the Neon Disco to later in the year, due to Covid, so the build up to this event was very exciting.  

We have also been practising for the school production later in the term. We have been singing every Friday, as well as singing in music classes. We have all also been practising the dances in PE. We are really excited to get into colourful costumes and happily sing the production songs. 

This year's school production will be the first production for the Foundation, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students. We are all hoping it will go ahead, and be enjoyed by the whole school community.

Eliza

In Grade 3 we have recently been looking at patterns, cycles and adaptations in nature as part of inquiry. Students have researched an animal and looked at how it has adapted to it's environment. During art the Grade 3s finished creating their models of animal adaptations this week. They put so much effort in and they all looked fantastic! Everyone was able to explain their animal adaptations and what caused this adaptation to occur. Have a look at some of their amazing work below.

This week in Digital Tech, Grade 2 students have been trying their hands at some stop motion animation.

Seeing them work creatively in teams, delegating the acting, producing, directing and sound production was great.

To see a video of the Grade 2 movies, tap the link below.

Trust me, these are far more interesting than the latest Marvel movie, you will laugh, you will cry.... you may also be slightly confused.

Video Link (Get the popcorn ready):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oK9KsPStwyeQ50FogVsQIdGVvErREgKt/view?usp=sharing

Mr. Garcia

Last week our Foundation students celebrated the tradition of 100 days of Prep. This is a wonderful milestone for our youngest students, who have come such a long way from their very first day of school to becoming fully immersed within the new routine of school and learning. They have all settled very well and have been enjoying their first year, making new friends, pairing up with their Grade 5/6 buddies, gaining some independence and learning about so many different new things. In a fun way to mark this milestone, our Foundation students created images of what they would look like when they turned 100 years old. Have a look below for some very glamourous looking 100 year old students.

Over the last few weeks in Guitar lessons, the students have been learning how to play some new chords such as 'D' and 'E'. To help them practise, they were learning some pretty cool songs such as "I gotta feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, a song called Baby Shark, as well as a classic 90's tune by Nirvana. Below are some pics of our guitar students fine tuning their skills.

This week, the students have been learning about invert printing using the theme of bugs. To create some really lovely inverted prints, the students first had to draw a bug, then trace the bug on to a piece of foam and etch the foam with the bug outline. They then rolled a block of colour on to  the foam, and when the foam picture was placed face down on to a piece of paper - Viola - the inverted image of the bug appeared! Below is a picture of the foam with an etched bug image, and the end result of a cool piece of art.

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!!

Wednesday 3rd August - Meerkat Incursion

Wednesday 10th August - MMPS Open Afternoon 2.30pm to 3.30pm

Monday 15th - Wednesday 17th August - IB PYP Evaluation

Friday 19th August - District Athletics

Monday 5th - Thursday 8th September - School Production

Thursday 8th Sept - Division Athletics

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