Dear Students, Parents, Carers and Families,

We are a HUMAN LITERACY Community

On Monday this week, a special video was sent out as part of our weekly Human Literacy learning. The video was put together to share with our school community just how much the staff at Maramba miss the face-to-face contact with our students and community but also the amazing job we think you are all doing. And to let you know that we are here to help and support you all in any way we can!

If you happened to miss it, here it is:

A massive thank you to our wonderful Mrs Helen Wells and Mrs Erminia Foley who created the video to share with our community!

Father’s Day

It is almost that time again for the second greatest day in the world (Mother’s Day is of course the greatest day), Father’s Day!

During these challenging times, when we are relying on everyone in the family unit more than ever it is important that we make the most of these special occasions to recognise and celebrate our dads and our special male role models, this Father’s Day to make it even more special.

While we can’t let dad go to a café, Bunnings, fishing or to the footy so we will have to be creative this year to make it extra special and I am sure even more appreciated by our dads.

Here are a few suggestions, you could do:

Make your very own Father’s Day card and make sure you write something inside that is special to you and your dad.
Let dad have a sleep in or even just relax in bed without having to try to pretend he is sleeping.
Make dad his favourite brunch (possibly on the BBQ) as he might be sleeping in a bit later.
Plan a special family activity together.
Schedule times during the day to let dad have full control of the TV remote.
Kids – bring dad whatever he wants from the fridge while he is watching TV.
Give dad a day off the renovations or let dad do a full day of tinkering uninterrupted.

Whatever you do as a family to make this Father’s Day special, I am sure he will love it. It is times like these that the thought makes a big difference!

Happy Father’s Day for Sunday 6th September!

Indigenous Literacy Day - Wednesday 2nd September

Yesterday was Indigenous Literacy Day so we hope that everyone was able to participate in the national, virtual Youtube Live Premiere event. There were some powerful messages and a great celebration of Indigenous stories and culture. I especially loved the stories that were read and shared. Jessica Mauboy’s ‘My Island Home’ performance was also fantastic!

It was also great see many of the Indigenous literacy activities that our students and families had created too as part of the celebrations.

Thank you very much to the many families who were able to make a contribution towards the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. We had set up our very own Everyday Hero fundraiser https://give.everydayhero.com/au/maramba-primary-school with an ambitious target of $500, and I am very happy to say that our community has raised a spectacular $506.60

Well done everyone and it is great to know that we are able to support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation to put a book into the hands of every child in remote Australia.

Cyber Safety

Staying connected online has never been more important, now that many of us are physically isolated from family members, friends, colleagues and support networks. The internet is a great way to socialise, learn, work, play and be entertained. But there are also risks.

Every year our students learn about Cyber safety, in an effort to become safe and responsible users of technology. Computers are becoming an ever more important tool for communication and a wonderful tool for many people: however, it does need to be used carefully and responsibly.

Each social media platform has its own age restrictions, and we ask that you help your child to adhere to them. This graphic clearly shows that the majority of popular social media platforms have an age restriction of at least 13 years old.

If you allow your children to use one of these social media platforms, against the company guidelines, we strongly encourage that you closely monitor their use.

From time to time inappropriate use of social media are brought to our attention, including cyberbully-ing and access to inappropriate content, and if it is school related, we will follow this up. However, we can only do so much and I encourage any parent or carer to discuss appropriate use of technology with their child. If your child is experiencing cyberbullying, we encourage you to seek further advice from the following websites, or in some cases, you may wish to contact police.

More information can be found:

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/parentcyber.aspx

https://www.esafety.gov.au/iparent

Take care and stay safe!

Kind regards,

Darren Wallace

Principal

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the students who will celebrate their birthdays this week.