Mount Macedon Primary Newsletter

Tuesday 17th May 2022

Hello everyone,

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend. You will know that we have some COVID in the school at the moment. We are ensuring that children are maintaining good hygiene standards but ask that you keep your children at home if they are feeling unwell. I have been told on several occasions that it sometimes takes a couple of days for a RAT to show a positive result, even though the child is clearly unwell. We have plenty of RAT kits at school if you need any more.

In about three weeks our senior students will be going on camp in the centre of the city. Could I please remind parents to return the form and to set up a payment plan if you are concerned about the cost. We only charge exactly what the camp costs.

The Gisborne Aquatic Centre has told us that they will be refunding $13 per child because the group sizes were larger than we paid for. We will credit that money to your account. The children did an amazing job at swimming, and we were proud of they way they managed their lessons. An intensive swimming program shows improvement quickly, so I hope that the next time you swim, you will see the progress that your child has made.

NAPLAN testing finished yesterday. The last test was numeracy. Once again, I was really proud of the way our students managed the range of tests, particularly because it was their first time doing it online. The results will not be available until term three. We only had 7 Grade Five students sit the tests (due to a range of reasons). This means that I will not be allowed to publish any school results as students can be more easily identified, and test data can be skewed by such a small number of students. Any student who has been away due to COVID has until Friday to sit the tests. Please don’t worry if your child has missed this. All students in Victoria are tested in Years 3. 5. 7 and 9, so they will be able to try again in a couple of years.

This Saturday our school site is being used as a polling place for the Federal Election. A dedicated crew of parents will man the Election Sausage Sizzle during the day, to raise money for the school. If you have an hour or two spare, I’m sure that they would welcome your help.

I’d like to say a big thank you to the parents who have been listening to our junior children read every day. We have missed having this program in the school, and we know what a difference it makes to reading ability if you are reading to someone every day. Thanks so much!!

Our fete committee are meeting regularly to plan for November 12th this year. I hope that you enjoyed the lovely video that they put together to encourage you to get involved. We REALLY need your help on this one. In the next few weeks you will be hearing more news about how you can help.

Today I’m at Quarry Hill in Bendigo doing a review of their school. I will be back here tomorrow.

Have a lovely week.

Kind regards

Trish

Hello everyone.

Term Two has started and it’s been very busy so far. We are already in week 4 and we have finished our intensive swimming program, some grade 5 and 6 students have played some AFL with Macedon Primary and school photos were also taken last week.

District AFL was on last week and our school and Macedon Primary collaborated and fielded a team. They played three games all up, and at the end watched the grand final between Gisborne and New Gisborne Primary. It was a close game but in the end Gisborne won. It was nice to hear how hard they tried, and the chatter and laughter about the games they played.         

We have also finished our intensive two week swimming program. The two weeks passed pretty quickly and we are back to the normal timetable of the school days. It was fun but also tiring. On the last day of swimming we played games in one of the pools for half the lesson and the other half we had fun racing fellow students on the huge inflatable course. 

School photos were a week ago. We all tried to look our best. There were individual photos, sibling photos and class photos. The Grade Sixes also had a special photo taken as a token of their last year. 

It has been a busy but fun term so far. And I hope everyone has enjoyed it.

Eliza

This writing piece was written during independent self directed writing sessions in the Grade 5/6 classroom. As part of student voice agency and ownership of their learning, students analyse their own writing and in conjunction with the teacher select a writing goal to develop and work on. Emily chose a focus on word choice for her independent writing goal, and poetry as a means to extend and focus her writing in this area. Below is Emily's beautifully written poem, we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did. Well done Emily.

A student's first year in Primary School can sometimes be a little daunting, with lots of new learning and experiences forming. To make it all a little less overwhelming, we partner the Foundation students with our older Grade 6 students in a program called Buddies. With the swimming program being new to the Foundation students, we made sure that our youngest students felt supported and comfortable being outside of the school environment, by spending some time with their Grade 6 Buddies both before the swimming lessons and at the pool. Before the swimming lessons, the Grade 6 Buddy Leaders chose a different activity each day to do together with their Foundation Buddies, playing games such as duck duck goose, fruit salad and tiggy, picking a playground to play at or even going for a walk in the Gisborne Botanical Gardens. At the pool, the Grade 6 Buddies looked after their Foundation Buddies to make sure they had a fun and positive swimming experience. See below for some lovely pics of our Buddies interacting and playing.

Our Guitar students were having fun jamming away this week with a free choice of song. The senior students chose to learn the song "Choir" by Guy Sebastian to practise their strumming technique and chords. The junior students have been incorporating a bit of fun and adventure into their guitar lessons with Super Hero Songs such as "Batman" and "Iron Man" to learn the three finger playing technique. See below for some great guitar work in action.

The Ranges Music Network team is looking forward to getting back to music in Term 2!  Your young musicians can choose from Keyboard, Violin, Harp, Voice, Brass & Woodwinds, Percussion & Drums plus our fun and exciting Rhythm Warriors jam band program.  All in small groups with low ratios.  Plus we have an all new instrument rental program from Guitars and Keyboards to Saxophones & Drum Kits!

Email shaun@rangesmusic.net to get started!  

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.

Friday 27th May - District Soccer

Friday 27th May - Neon Disco

Monday 13th June - Queens Birthday Public Holiday

Tuesday 14th June - District Netball

Saturday 18th June - Parent Event

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