Mount Macedon Primary Newsletter

Tuesday 1st March 2022

Hello Everyone,

It has been a difficult week at school this week, with the loss of Adam Damen. In a small community, the death of a parent ripples across many areas and impacts people in different ways. For those of you who knew Adam, there can be a profound sense of loss for the person we knew and loved – intelligent, innovative, funny, and tenacious in making sure that our community was safe. For others who didn’t know Adam, there is a sense of your own mortality – to see someone so young (and close to your own ages) leave us, reminds us that life changing events can be just around the corner. Some children will have empathy for Lucy and Eleanor whilst others (and this is very normal) worry about their own life and whether their parents will also die. You may need to have those conversations. For most children there will possibly be no reaction at all.

I know that the community have rallied around the Damen family, supporting them in so many ways. I’m also grateful for the support the school has received. I love our community and what it means to live in it. Thank you.

We have been lucky enough to be the recipients of a $25,000 grant to build an outdoor learning area. This area will go in the triangular space at the side of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Music) room. It’s lovely to add new areas to the school, but we need to ensure that we maintain “running room” for the children, and so the new area will be tucked in a quiet corner. The new area will have a vertical garden enclosing one end and planter boxes around the edge to create a calm, restful space. I’ll show you the plans as soon as I have met with the builder. Watch this space!!

You will have, hopefully, been into the school grounds and seen the work done in the old vegetable garden over the school holidays. The old gardens have been removed and a new garden area will be constructed on the site. This will include a seating area (gabion).

New sand for the sandpits is being delivered this week. The old sand needs to be removed before we add the new sand. If you have some spare time to come and help barrow the sand up the hill, at any time of the day, I would be very grateful. I try to do a few barrow loads every lunch time but the children are keen to have new sand, so the faster we get in, the happier they will be.

Lego Club finally started today, and we had 13 enthusiastic participants. Next week we will begin a small Lego Masters competition where the children will be asked to build a car in the time that they are there. We will alternate weeks between free play and “challenges”.

It has been a little hard over the last few weeks, replacing teachers who have had to isolate as either positive cases or as household contacts. Currently I cannot allow anyone who is not triple vaccinated to work with the children and this has limited the supply of relief teachers. I have done quite a bit of teaching myself (my favourite thing to do) but there are times when I must split classes if I cannot cover them. I have never had to do this before and it has only happened twice this year, but I want you to know that the teachers always leave a plan for their daily work, which is followed, no matter which class they are in. We are all working hard to ensure that there is no more disruption to learning.

We are hoping to have our Athletics day carnival at Dixon Field in Gisborne this Friday. Like the swimming sports, it is a fun day, and you are all welcome to attend. If you can help as well, that would be wonderful. Children are asked to wear yellow or green according to their house. Let’s hope that the rain holds off for us.

Have a lovely weekend everybody.

Kind regards

Trish

Hello everyone.

The school year is already going ahead, with everyone settling into the new year. Most things have gotten underway and ready for this year. Nearly every grade 6 leadership role has started, and the grade 6 students are having fun doing them.

Foundation-2 had their swimming carnival and had a heap of fun splashing around with their friends. The athletics day is coming up. For grades 3-6 there will be things like: sprints (long and short distance,) long jump, shot put, and many more. For grades Foundation-2 there will be: some fun little races for them to run around and enjoy and lots of sport skill based activities. A couple of weeks later there will be a Cross Country for grade 3-6, where there will be longer distance jogs.

The foundation students are enjoying spending time with the friends they have made, and their grade six buddies. They have an hour every Friday where they do creative activities, and have a ton of fun!

We are in week 5 already! And everyone is getting used to the new year.

Eliza

In French this week, many students have been working on making displays for around the school. The Year 1 class have made posters describing the weather, in response to the question ‘Quel temps fait-il?’ They seem rather interested in extreme weather events such as tornados, floods and thunderstorms. The Year 2’s have made numbers to display in their class, while the Year 3’s have designed pictures to show different emotions to answer ‘Comment ça-va?’ (How’s it going?). See below for some lovely work.

As the newest members of our school, it is important for our Foundation students to learn all about school crossing safety. Last week, our crossing supervisor Alan and Foundation teacher Mrs Bowen gave the students a lesson on how to approach and navigate a school crossing safely. They all had a few practice runs, and did very well to take in all the important information about how to stay safe, alert and cross the road with care. Well done everyone.

Do you hold a valid, means-tested concession card? The Victorian Government will provide CSEF to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities. If you hold a valid means-tested concession card or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF.  A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. The allowance is paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child. Please see the below attached for more information and an application form. Please contact the School Office if you have any further enquiries.

The New Gisborne Playgroup invites all to attend its annual Teddy Bears' Picnic Open Day on Sunday 27th March, 10am to 12pm (252 Station Road, New Gisborne). Come and see what the playgroup has to offer pre-school aged children, from arts and crafts to an extensive range of indoor and outdoor toys and play equipment. And for tired parents, there will be a coffee van to provide your caffeine fix.

So bring along the family, a favourite teddy bear, and a picnic basket - there will be lots of fun and entertainment for your little ones!

For more information see www.newgisborneplaygroup.com

Bike Education Grade 4 - Wednesday 2nd March

Athletics Carnival - Friday 4th March

Division Swimming - Wednesday 10th March

Labour Day Holiday - Monday 14th March

Cross Country - Friday 18th March (Grades 3-6)

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