Macedon Primary School Newsletter

Dear parents,

What a relief it is for me to be inviting your children back into school as of tomorrow morning.  We will be operating under the same guidelines that were in place prior to the recent lockdown.  We will continue to be wear facemasks while we are not teaching and ask you to do the same while you are onsite and inside the front office.  We will continue with the regular cleaning and hand hygiene routines for our staff and students.  Volunteers will be allowed onsite again for programs such as our Middle Gully Reserve lessons.

School review

During the last few months, and in particular the last two days, I have been busy preparing for our four year school review.  The first day of our three day review is on Monday 22 February.  On Monday, a panel consisting of our leadership and school improvement team, my manager, an independent reviewer, our school council president and two other principals will be assessing the progress our school has made against the last school strategic plan. Once the initial analysis is complete the panel will support us to develop a new and aspirational plan moving forward.  As a part of the agenda on Monday the panel will be visiting classrooms in the morning as well as hearing from a group of our student leaders about what it is like to attend school at Macedon Primary School. 

The members of the panel are as follows

·         John Hunter – Independent Reviewer

·         Chris Eeles – Senior Education Improvement Leader

·         Matt Forrest – Macedon PS Principal

·         Nina Moncrief – Macedon PS School Council President

·         Seona Aulich – Challenge Partner and Principal - Hesket PS

·         Justine Mackey - Challenge Partner and Principal - Ivanhoe East PS

·         Karren Baker – Macedon PS Leading Teacher and Year 1/2 teacher

·         Seraphim Kyprianou – Macedon PS Learning Specialist and Year 5/6 teacher

School Council – Notice of Election

We are still seeking nominations for the vacant parent positons on school council.  We have three vacant positions that we are required to fill.  Current school councillors who have finished their two year term on council may also re-nominate.  The nomination period closes at 4pm Friday 19 February.  Pick up your nomination form from the front office by the end of the week.

School Council Election Process and Timeline 2021

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 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).

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!

It was a lovely day at Kyneton Aquatic Centre for the house swimming event. There was heaps of novelty events like corks scramble, fill the bucket and more! 

Other kids attended the swimming races such as back stroke, breast stroke, freestyle and butterfly.

Fantastic effort from all who attempted the races. We had some great performers including - Abbie, Alexa, Mali, Jayden, Henry, Flynn and more.

We would like to thank the parents and teachers who helped out.

The scores were -

4th - Bourke House,  3rd - Hume House, 2nd - Mitchell House and 1st -  Curtin House

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. 

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 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.