Mount Macedon Primary Newsletter

Tuesday 19th July 2022

Hello everyone,

Most of you will know by now that we are back to mask wearing in the school. DET has said that it is an expectation that masks will be worn indoors by students 8 years and up, and by staff. For those students who have had an exemption in the past, that will remain in place. Teachers will not wear masks while they are explicitly teaching, to ensure that their communication is clear for the students, but they will wear a mask at other times whilst indoors.

I have asked teachers to ensure that the students get a short break outside every hour, to allow them to remove the mask for a while.

As I said in the last newsletter, the trajectory for the latest COVID spike is not looking good over the next few weeks. We have decided to continue with our plans for production, neon disco and incursions etc but will once again, need to be flexible around what is happening in the school at the time.

I have spoken to all of our classes about this. Please be vigilant about keeping your children home if they are unwell. If you need any more RAT kits, just let us know.

Neon Disco is scheduled for Friday 29th July, and I know that the children are very excited about it. I am currently seeking advice on the expectation of mask wearing at school events. We are going to try VERY hard to go on with this event.

This term, our French teacher Madam Anders has taken long service leave. I was not able to secure another French teacher, so there will be no French for the next 4 weeks. I have reintroduced Science as a specialist subject for the rest of the year. The children are very happy, and it was lovely to see Mr Flynn in his white lab coat doing experiments with them last week.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for parent teacher interviews via Webex this week. I thought that on these dark Winter nights, that a remote meeting might work best for the families. The teachers were also happy to do face to face meetings if you preferred.

I just wanted to take a moment to say a quick “Thanks” to all of the wonderful reading parents who are coming in each day to listen to our junior students read. It has always been a really important part of our program and it is great to see it happening again; not only for the children but it also reminds us all that educating children is a team effort.

I am currently doing school tours for prospective parents 2023. If you know of anyone who would like to attend the school, please let them know that tours are available.

Have a lovely week, and stay warm and well.

Kind Regards,

Trish

FOS are thrilled by the fantastic response we have had from our volunteer stallholders and helpers for this year's MMPS school fete.  We now have coordinators for all stalls with the exception of the amusements and rides.  Amusements and rides includes the jumping castle, big slide, combat course, hoop shoot and football target (plus any other activities you think of!).  If this is something you would be interested in running, please reach out to Jen or Nat and let us know asap (details below).   

We will publish a list of stallholders in next week's newsletter.  We encourage you to reach out to them and offer your time if you can, as they will all need to roster helpers across the day.  

Just a reminder to our stallholders that our first meeting is this Thursday at 7pm.   Due to changes with covid restrictions we have decided to run this as a zoom session.  We will email you with the zoom link - please check your email from mmpsfos@gmail.com.   We look forward to catching up with you on Thursday. 

Thank you to everyone who has offered their time.   

Cheers,

Jen (0434 638868) and Nat (0408 003019)

Fete Team

MMPS FOS Committee

Holidays are a great opportunity to recharge.

Sometimes people, and kids, need a recharge, just like a battery. The holidays can provide the fuel to refresh ourselves, and get ready and energised for what is to come. 

One way to recharge is to spend time with friends and family. This will help spark your battery, making it more energetic and working more efficiently. When we spend time with our friends and family it makes us appreciate the relationships we have at school. It also makes us excited to get back after holidays, and see our friends. 

Another way to recharge our batteries is by going away somewhere. When we are away we learn new things, have new experiences and spark our curiosity about the world. It creates new ideas and curiosity in our minds, that we can take back to school.

Finally, another way to recharge our battery is sports. Sport and exercise  can pump energy into our battery, enhancing its power and strength. It also helps us to  have a reason not to sleep in, to get up in the morning, and be ready for some important physical activity. This helps us get back into energising events like, sports, production and PE once we are back at school.

Holidays help us charge up, fueling our power and energy,  ready for the term and year ahead.

Eliza.

Little Visitors

Last week Grade 4/5 had a visit from Shiela and Chainsaw. They are Mrs. Smith’s Silkie Chickens. Silkies are small fluffy chickens. Sheila and Chainsaw enjoyed being read to. From the cute pics below, it looks like they had a great day being cuddled, kept warm and entertained whilst helping the students with their reading skills!

Bridge Building

Grade 4/5 also partook in a challenge to build a bridge using icy pole sticks that needed to bridge a gap of 60cms and support a weight of 500g. They worked in groups and came up with different strategies. They found the most successful bridges had additional supports at the base (where they joined the tables) and had the icy pole sticks doubled or tripled. See below some photos of their bridge building in action.

A new term means new shiny things, we were super lucky to get our new set of iPads, so, I'm afraid I may have gotten a little carried away on our first Digital Tech class of the term. 

Here is what we got up to:

• Foundation students learnt about coding and created some 'block code' programs. 
• Grade 1 students did some 3D modelling which we will print on the 3D printer. 
• Grade 2 students learnt about stop motion animation (and started pre-production on their little, epic movies)
• Grade 4/5 students explored Melbourne and the metro tunnel in Minecraft Education, and then recreated a local landmark in it. 
• Grade 5/6 students learnt about AR (Augmented Reality) and created augmented 'scenes' around the school for you to check out (more info on that one coming soon)

I'm really looking forward to seeing what we can all get up to now we have such powerful little devices at our fingertips, and of course, being able to get outside and create (in the freezing cold) in our lovely little spot on the mountain. Thanks again Mrs. Hyland for our new toys. 

Mr. Garcia

Last week in STEM the students were making mini rockets. They were looking at the physics and forces of how rockets are propelled into the air. First they had to build their rockets, position them on straws for launching, then make them airborne by blowing the bottom of the straws. Looks like we achieved Lift-off for most! Well done guys.

This week in Art the students have been very busy preparing some props for the upcoming school production. Everyone has been excited to start working on the props to accompany their performances and help make the stage look lively and fun. Below you will see some of our grade 1's and grade 3's busy creating some very colourful flowers, trees, fruits and mushrooms. Lovely work!

There were some items left over from the Parents Mexican Fiesta Night that have not yet been claimed. Please see below, if these items are yours or you know who they belong to, please collect from the school office. Thank you.

1 x Sombrero

1 x Cooking Pot

Monday 18th & Tuesday 19th July - Parent Teacher Interviews

Friday 29th July - Neon Disco 

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

Friday 19th August - District Athletics

Monday 5th - Thursday 8th September - School Production

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