Mount Macedon Primary Newsletter

Tuesday 8th March 2022

Hello Everyone,

Last Friday we held our Athletics Day at Dixon Reserve in Gisborne. Thanks to everyone who attended. You will know that we just can’t run days such as this without your help and I’d like to thank all of the parents who were able to come along and lend a hand. It was a fun, lovely day and it was wonderful to be able to hold an event such as this, once again. Congratulations to the students who showed such resilience and support for each other on the day. We have included lots of pictures for you in this newsletter.

This year, all the students in the school will be undertaking the Kimochis program. This is a social emotional program that helps children to identify their emotions and then gives them strategies to manage that emotion. A core component of this program are the Keys to Communication which will be taught to all students. I have included a Kimochis section in the newsletter and I will explain the Keys there, so that you know what we are asking of our students.

Mount Macedon Primary School is part of a pilot program called Disability Inclusion Profile. In the past, only students who had significant learning issues such as intellectual disability, hearing impairment etc, received extra funding to support their learning. Students who were considered Tier 2, (e.g. have learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyscalculia or are just struggling with their learning etc) have not in the past received this extra support funding and have been managed within the normal confines of the school budget. This pilot program has now given us funding to support Tier 2 students. This is an exciting change to the system, and we are lucky to be included in the trial. I have appointed an Inclusion Coordinator – Olivia Desormeaux to deliver this program. Teachers have identified students who fit within this Tier 2 designation and Olivia is organising Student Support Group meetings and updated Individual Learning Plans for these students. Olivia also delivers professional development to the staff after school has finished in the afternoon.

The Tutor Learning Initiative Program has also been funded again this year. This program supports students who missed learning due to COVID lockdowns and the remote learning programs that were delivered. Our tutor is Helen Burgess, and she works in the school two days per week. Students in TLI have specific “catch-up’ lessons in literacy and numeracy. They work in small groups.

Supporting this program is our Little Learners Love Literacy program which is delivered by Vicki Bryant. LLLL is a synthetic phonics program which focuses on decoding words. Students who are having difficulty with their reading or spelling, meet daily with Vicki to help them develop better skills in this area.

Our school profile means that our school also receives a small amount of Equity Funding to support students who are socio-economically disadvantaged.

This funding is now helping us to ensure that we are providing programs to cover the needs of all students.

Thank you so much to the parents who nominated for the School Council. The number of nominations equalled the number of positions available so we will not need to hold an election this year. Congratulations and thanks to Brad Ellul, Phil Krajewski and Michael Woods for your commitment and role on the MMPS School Council. The Annual General Meeting of the School Council will be held on Tuesday 15th March in the school library.

Friends of the School is now up and running for 2022 and we would love you to join the team. They currently have a Bulb Fundraiser which will run until Friday 9th April. A flyer will be coming home about this. There is a Dad’s Golf evening and get together next Friday 18th March at the Mount Macedon Golf Club followed by dinner at the Mount Hotel. A Pop-Up Café is also scheduled for the afternoon of Friday 18th March at the school. This happens directly after school and there will be goodies and drinks for sale. These occasions are very casual and are a lovely time to stop and catch up with others.

Have a lovely week.

Kind regards

Trish

This week in Foundation, through the IB Primary Years Program, the students have been exploring the Central Idea that a healthy lifestyle is important, and that healthy food is part of a healthy lifestyle. So as a link to this IB unit in art, the students created some healthy edible art from food, and got to eat their creations at recess! Have a look below at some yummy works of art! 

As part of our Inclusion and Wellbeing focus this year, we have implemented a new Lunchtime Activity program for the students. For the last few weeks some of our students have been involved in lunchtime Lego Masters and have been having lots of fun building all sorts of wonderful creations. This week we held the Lego Masters Challenge of building a vehicle. There were quite a lot of entries, and all the students had so much fun building their best vehicles.... but there could only be one winner! Congratulations to Vittoria who took out first prize for her awesome Tour Bus that she built. It was a standout for it's well thought out detail, function and originality. Well done to all entrants, as you can see from below, all of the students creations were amazing. Looks like it was a very fun lunchtime!

In French last week, the Year 2’s made numbers to display in their class, while the Year 3’s designed pictures to show different emotions to answer ‘Comment ça-va?’ (How’s it going?). See below for some more great pictorial representations of Numbers and Emotions in French.

Eleanor and Amelia have been diligently watering the veggie gardens this term and waiting patiently for the tomatoes to ripen! We have our first yellow tomatoes ready to be picked. Although unusually late in the season this year, we're sure they will still be very tasty!

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

Labour Day Holiday Monday 14th March

School Council Annual General Meeting Tuesday 15th March

Division Swimming  Wednesday 17th March

FOS Pop Up Cafe Friday 18th March

Dad's Golf Evening Friday 18th 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