Principal's Report 

Dear Parents, 

As you will read further into this edition of the newsletter, it has been a very busy period at Mackellar over the past few weeks, and with lots of exciting things planned, that doesn’t look like changing anytime soon. 

Of course last week, the students in grades 3 and 5 sat their NAPLAN assessments along with all Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students across the country.  Teachers had been preparing the students for these assessments incrementally over the preceding weeks, and by all accounts the students felt comfortable sitting the assessments.  The results themselves won’t come out for some time and should be read in conjunction with your child’s June report and taken alongside the discussion held with your child’s classroom teacher in the upcoming parent-teacher interviews. NAPLAN is an important piece of data for students and schools alike, however it is only one piece of evidence teachers and schools as a whole use to determine student progress and school success. 

Speaking of parent-teacher interviews, after consultation with the staff parent-teacher interviews will be held in week two of term three this year to allow parents time to fully digest the content of the report over the holiday period prior to discussing the progress of their child very early in term three. The staff were in agreement that the additional time would be a positive step and allow plans made at interviews to be enacted quickly between parents, students and staff.  Post these interviews, we will be interested to hear your views on the slight change of times. 

At school council this week, council formalised the alterations that we mentioned to parents earlier this term in relation to allied health providers.  As of the commencement of term three, external allied health providers wanting to see students at school can do so after 1:30pm with prior written approval.  A select few may be able to see students in the classroom if their therapy complements the lesson being undertaken by the teacher, again with prior notice and agreement. Thank you to those families who have already started moving their child’s allied health sessions to after school hours. With the advanced notice at the start of this term, and now confirmed notice with seven more weeks until the start of term three, we trust this will be sufficient time for those families yet to alter the times for their children.

Also at school council this week we discussed our camping program at the school in light of COVID and prior levels of attendance and cost. The Education sub-committee of council will be seeking your thoughts on the matter in the coming weeks. If you do see the survey, please be sure to add your thoughts so we have a good understanding of what our community thinks in relation to this subject.  These thoughts will be taken into account by the sub-committee along with factors such as costs, staffing, camp availability and student numbers prior to making a suggestion to council for further discussion. 

Finally, school council updated and ratified the school’s seven Child Safety Standards which are located on our school’s website.  These standards detail the measures taken by the school to ensure the students here are safe from harm by adults, and are a requirement of all Victorian schools.  If you have any queries in relation to the standards, please contact Tanya Lindsay-Clark in her role as Education sub-committee chair, or Anthony Michielin in his role as Assistant Principal and Child Safety Officer at the school.

Regards, 

Simon McGlade

Principal