Macedon Primary School Newsletter

 Dear parents,

Staff Professional Learning

This term, a number of staff are completing some important professional learning for the school.  The professional learning is a Department of Education initiative called Professional Learning Communities.  The Professional Learning Communities project upskills teachers and principals to conduct meaningful collaborative inquiry about the best teaching practices to use in our classrooms.  We will be trained in the best use of assessment data and the curriculum standards to drive improvement in student outcomes.  This initiative is grounded in the globally accepted evidence that students acquired the knowledge skills and mindset required to flourish when their teachers and principals are engaged in supportive and meaningful collaboration about improving their practice.

While this is important work and it supports our school wide vision of supporting children to reach their full potential, we are aware that it can cause some anxiety for some students.  To help support this we have provided a list of the staff who will be out of their classroom on the following dates: Friday 12 February, Friday 19 February, Friday 26 February and Friday 12 March.  The relief teachers have been hand-picked and will be following the same curriculum plan that the students would normally receive from their classroom teacher.  These classes will have the same relief teacher for each of the four sessions.

Parent Teacher Evening and Parent information Sessions

On the 16th and 17th of February we will be holding our first round of parent teacher meetings for Year 1 - Year 6 students in the afternoon and evening. Online bookings are available here: https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/kiosk?ecode=c7t4a There will be a small “get-to-know-you” form that we will distribute and encourage you to fill out and bring to your parent teacher meeting to share with your child’s teacher.   This form will support us to learn a little more about your child and family at the beginning of the year.

We will also be conducting parent information sessions on these nights to give you an overview of what to expect from the Term One program for your child - these information sessions will run for 30min and will give you an opportunity to ask questions of our teaching teams. 

Please see the hardcopy letter that will be distributed today for further details.

School Council – Notice of Election

If you have ever been interested in being on school council or have wanted to contribute to the school but haven’t found an avenue just yet I encourage you to nominate for the school council.

We are holding an election to fill the vacant positions on the school council for 2021/2022.  There are three parent positions and one DET employee position that will be vacated by the end of February.  The school council is an important opportunity for parents and staff to become involved in the governance and support for the school.  The school council oversees the financial, facilities and programs such as the before and after school care program, the Macedon PS pine plantation and the Farmers’ Market.  The school council supports the school to operate with strong governance and transparency.  There is no special prior knowledge or experience required for parents to be on school council and we encourage you to consider this option if you are interested.  The school council membership term is two years. Below is a timeline of the election process.

If you would like to nominate someone, or self-nominate, please fill in and submit your form to the front office by 4pm on Friday 19 February.  You can find the forms at the front office.

School Council Election Process and Timeline 2021

16 & 17 February - Parent / teacher meetings (Yr 1 - Yr 6 students) - https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/kiosk?ecode=c7t4a

24 February - District Swimming (selected students)

26 February - Family Fun Night BBQ & Games from 5:00pm

8 March - Labour Day Public Holiday (no school)

24 March - House Cross Country - Tony Clarke Reserve

31st & 1 April - Year 1 and 2 MGR Camp

1 April - Last Day of Term 1 - 2:30pm dismissal

Student Personal Details

All students should have  received an envelope yesterday with a mauve coloured document which lists the current personal details held by the school for that child. Please ask your child for this form or look in their bag. PLEASE take the time to check the details listed to ensure they are correct and then either:

PLEASE RETURN COMPLETED FORMS TO YOUR CHILD’S CLASS TEACHER OR BY POST.

 ** Please DISREGARD the information listed for the distance you live from school. This information is system generated and in some cases is not correct.

 NB: In times of emergency or illness, much time is saved if we have correct and current contact details for you and the emergency contacts you have nominated.

A form titled “ALTERNATIVE FAMILY DETAILS” is available which is specifically for parents of students who do not reside together. By completing this form, address and phone details for both parents are able to be listed on our database.

 If you would like a copy of this form to complete or to make further, strictly confidential enquiries, please contact the school office.

Parent payment invoices

Parent payment invoices were sent home with the eldest student in the family yesterday. Preferred payment method of these accounts is BPAY or QKR! Each family has its own BPAY code which is printed on the invoice. 

If you are experiencing financial difficulties, we encourage you to speak with Matthew Forrest or Julie Stein-Reeves to discuss alternative arrangements.

 Accounts with outstanding amounts are issued once per term.

Absence Notifications

If your child is late or absent from school without explanation from parents, an SMS will be sent to Adult A at around 10.15am. Please respond to the SMS promptly. Please note the following: 

If your child is LATE FOR SCHOOL, a parent must accompany the child to the office when you arrive, sign your child in the Early Leavers/Late Arrival book and take a “Late Pass” for your child to hand to their teacher. Rolls are marked promptly at 9am. If the music has finished and your child is not yet in class, they have probably missed the roll.

If your child will be ABSENT FROM SCHOOL, we ask that you either:

• Log onto Skoolbag and record the absence

• Phone the school on 5426 1518 and leave a message on the absence voicemail; or
• Send an email to the school’s email address; macedon.ps@education.vic.gov.au

If you need to take your child EARLY FROM SCHOOL we ask that you:

• Call or email the office to advise what time you will be collecting your child so we can have them ready at the office.

• come to the office to sign your child out.

Working With Children Checks

All parents, carers and other visitors to Macedon Primary require a current Working With Children’s Check to volunteer at the school. To apply for a volunteer WWCC you simply log on to

https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/ (its free!)

If you have a current WWCC or VIT and have not advised the office, please bring your card into the office to have it photocopied or simply take a photo of the card and email it to the office at macedon.ps@education.vic.gov.au

If parents do not have a current working with children check, they cannot attend camps/excursions.

Insurance

A reminder for parents/guardians and staff that the Department of Education does not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools and it has no capacity to pay for any loss or damage to such property.

Parents or guardians of students, who do not have student accident insurance, are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including the cost of ambulance attendance or transport as well as any other transport costs. Parents/guardians can purchase insurance policies from commercial insurers.

Camps, Sports, Excursion Fund (CSEF)

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund helps ensure that no student will miss out on the opportunity to join their classmates for important, educational and fun activities. School camps provide children with inspiring experiences in the great outdoors, excursions encourage a deeper understanding of how the world works and sports teach teamwork, discipline and leadership. All are part of a healthy curriculum. CSEF will be provided by the Victorian Government 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. The annual CSEF amount per student is $125 for primary school students. Contact the school office to obtain a CSEF application form. If you received CSEF last year, please note that you must complete a new CSEF Form for 2021 and return to the office by the end of February. 

Conveyance Allowance

Parents have primary responsibility for transporting their children to and from school. The Department of Education (DET) provides financial assistance in the form of a conveyance allowance to help families in rural and regional Victoria with the cost of transporting their children to their closest appropriate school. The conveyance allowance is a contribution towards transport costs and is not intended to cover the full cost of transporting children to and from school. The allowance is an acknowledgement of the often limited government-provided transport infrastructure available outside metropolitan Melbourne. A conveyance allowance is provided to a student on the basis of individual eligibility.

To receive a conveyance allowance individual students must meet all of the following criteria:

1.      Attend a school/campus located outside the Melbourne Urban Growth Boundary.

2.      Attend the closest appropriate school/campus. For students attending government schools, this will be the closest school appropriate to the age and gender of the student (e.g. primary, secondary, single sex).

3.      Reside 4.8km or more from the school (shortest practicable route calculated by school at time of application from the student’s home to the school attended).

4.      Be of school age (between five and 18-years-old at the time of application), and a resident of Victoria.

5.      Be enrolled and travelling to school three or more days per week.

Students’ circumstances can change during their school years (e.g. moving residence or changing schools). Change of circumstances affects eligibility and a new application must be submitted with each change of circumstance. If you are unsure if you are eligible for Conveyance Allowance please contact the office.

If you received Conveyance Allowance last year, please note that you must complete a new Conveyance Allowance Application Form for 2021 and return to the office ASAP.

Conveyance Allowance applications must be lodged in early March, therefore the Conveyance Allowance Application Forms must be received at the office no later than Friday 5th March 2021.

(No late applications can be accepted).

Contact with teachers

During class time (bell times listed below) teachers are busy teaching. If you need to make contact with a teacher by phone, please do so outside of class time.  Alternatively, you can email them. Parents are reminded that staff are not required to reply outside of school hours or over the weekend.  All staff emails are available on the school's website under 'staff'.

Bell Times

8:50 am         Bell signals as a prompt for the commencement of the school day. 

8:57 am         Music commences as a prompt for students to assemble outside of their classrooms.

9:00 am         Bell signals the start of the school day.

11:00 am       Commencement of morning recess

11:27am        Music commences as a prompt for students to assemble outside of their classrooms.

11:30 am       Bell signals the end of morning recess

1:00 pm         Bell signals lunch, students eat lunch inside

1:10 pm         Bell signals students can go outside for lunch break

1:50 pm         Bell signals 10 minutes until the end of lunch break

1:57 pm         Music commences as a prompt for students to move to their classroom ready for the afternoon session.

2:00 pm         Bell signals the commencement of the afternoon session.

3:30 pm         Bell signals for dismissal for the end of the day.

The dismissal time for the  last day of terms 1, 2 and 3 is 2:30 pm and 1:30 pm at the end of term 4. 

School Crossing

I have received a message from our friendly crossing guards about some unsafe crossing use.  Please make sure you are not parking over the crossing, or doing u-turns in front of the crossing.  Our ultimate goal is to keep our most precious little people safe.  Please do your bit by using the dedicated crossing and waiting for the guards to stop traffic and blow their whistle.  

Staff Carpark

The car park bays on Smith Street are reserved for staff carparking. Can parents please refrain from parking in these carparks during school pick up and drop off.

Book Club 

Welcome to the Scholastic Book Club for 2021! All book orders should be made through the Scholastic LOOP ordering system which can be found at www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP.  Please note that Macedon Primary School does not accept cash or cheque orders at the school.  The first catalogue was sent out this week and orders need to be completed by Friday 19th February.

Julie  and Emma

We have a limited amount of brand new school uniform available via QKR! This was uniform left over from when we used to sell it at school, it is in perfect condition, but at a reduced amount as we want to empty our cupborards!  Please logon to the QKR! App to see what is available. Also, we have some reusable lunch order bags for sale, get in quick because once they are gone, there will be no more ordered. 

QKR – this is the preferred payment method at MPS and is a free app for your smartphone or the QKR program can be downloaded on your computer. Basically it allows you to pay for all school activities. No more coin searches!

Getting started is easy……. Go to your app store on your phone and look for the following icon. If you are still having trouble, call the school office for assistance.

Please see below instructions on how to register QKR!

F/1TT - Mabel P - For being a great learner and role model in our classroom.

F/1MS - Asher M - For her positive attitude towards learning.

1KH - Kyle W - For great focus and participation during maths.

1/2KB - Ida S - For working hard on her reading goal during reading conferences.

2RG - Holly M - For fantastic reading!

3VW - Harry N - For sharing his new puppy with the class.

3VW - Darcy J - For fantastic work in his reading group.

4CS - Pheonix W - For having a go at every class task and a fabulous start to grade 4.

4CS - Lola B - For giving swimming her best effort with a big smile. Fantastic swimming!

4/5BT - Mia P - For an excellent start to her new school.

4/5BT - Lucas B - For trying really hard during handwriting.

Middle Gully has survived another summer break with the friendly support of a number of parents and students who regularly tended to the gardens  over the break.  Thanks to all of the families who came in and watered / weeded and tended to the gardens.

We are happy to be able to welcome parent helpers back to our Middle Gully program. The sessions run from 2:00pm to 3:30pm on Thursdays. Our first session is this Thursday the 11th of February.

Please make sure that you have a valid Working With Children Check and that this has been shown to the office. 

The dates are as follows:

February 11 – 4CS

February 18 – 3/4MS

February 25 – 6AB

March 4 – 4/5BT

March 11 – 5/6SK

 March 18 – 3VW

Grade 1 and 2 camp will have their Middle Gully session on either 31st March or 1st April.

Our rates are: $15.00 for Before School Care (7:00am - 8:45am) and $22.00 for After School Care (3:30pm - 6:30pm). All you need to do is call the school 5426 1518 or email oshp@macedonps.vic.edu.au to book.  If the unexpected happens and a casual booking is required within 24 hours, please contact the school via phone, we cannot accept walk-ins after school.  Please note that enrolment forms need to be completed at least one business day before the first session of care.

Please pay through the school via Direct Deposit, using the following details (not BPay):

Account name: Macedon Primary School

BSB: 063-840

Account: 1003 4330

Vicki, Helen, Karen & Marie.

The Ranges Music Network is excited to bring our music education programs back to Macedon Primary this year!  Group and individual lessons are now underway for Harp, Voice, Woodwinds & Brass, Doods & Toots, Guitar, Bass, Percussion, Violin and Keyboard & Piano.

 We also have a Drop In Jam before school on Thursdays and a Drop In Sing before school Fridays.

After School is Band and ensemble time with 'Big Sing' (Musical Theatre & Pop) on Tuesdays, 'Big Gig' (Macedon Primary's own Rock Band) on Wednesdays and 'Big Bang' (an all new Percussion group for all levels) on Thursdays.  After school bands run from 3:35 to 4:35.

A drop in Parent's jam band is also in the works.  Let us know if you're keen!

Programs are sessional so you can start any time (2 weeks minimum).  Visit https://rangesmusic.net/mps for details and contact our Program Director, Shaun Evans at shaun@rangesmusic.net when you're ready to start.