Lockdown

What a busy first month we have had a NMPS! Just as our 2021 preps were settling into school well, along with all other year levels, we are thrown back into learning from home. On Friday afternoon, teachers met in teams to put together a variety of learning activities for the three days of Remote and Flexible Learning. We hope students were able to engage in some of the activities provided by teachers over the three days and we thank parents for their flexibility and support in the home learning program. While we were able to shift quickly into Remote and Flexible Learning, we are excited that we can return to school tomorrow. We look forward to welcoming everyone back at school where students can engage in their learning with their teachers and enjoy time with their peers!

As a result of the ‘circuit breaker’ lock down, we have had to postpone our Open Classroom event that was scheduled for this afternoon and will endeavour to reschedule this as soon as we are able to. Our Friday assembly has also been postponed until further notice.

We will continue to keep families informed as new information from DET is provided and the possible impacts that has on future events for Term 1 at NMPS.

COVIDSafe Reminders

I would like to send a sincere thank you to all families for their assistance and support in ensuring NMPS remains COVIDSafe. With the ever-changing circumstances, I urge parents to continue to keep up to date with Compass notifications to ensure everyone is aware of what is required.

Currently please remember:

Face masks must be worn at all times when visiting indoor spaces at school, this includes the front office and learning spaces
Parents are asked to drop off and pick-up students promptly
Any visitors (including parents) who are on-site for more than 15 minutes must sign in via the Compass Kiosk at the front office
Please adhere to density capacity numbers, particularly at the front office

Traffic Safety and Management

To ensure the safety of all our students and community members, we need to work together to manage the traffic and safety of everyone around the school.

To ease traffic congestion around the school at arrival and dismissal times, we ask that where possible families walk to drop off and collect their children. If driving is the only option, we ask that families park in surrounding streets and walk the short distance to the school gates.

If you are using the ‘kiss and drop’ zones at school, please ensure you follow the image above which explains the kiss and drop procedure.

Tutor Program Update

Our Tutor Program is scheduled to begin this week for Years 1, 3, 5 & 6. We have identified a number of students, based on achievement data and other measures of learning, to participate in this program. The tutoring support will be provided for an eight-week cycle and small group learning sessions will occur two to three times each week. We will continue to cycle through the program so all identified students in Years 1 – 6 will be catered for throughout the year.

The small group tutoring support is being provided and coordinated by Jacquie Hogan (Literacy) and Svetlana Blagojevic (Maths). Jacquie and Svet will be working with classroom teachers to ensure the program complements the curriculum and supports lessons taking place in the classroom.

If your child has been selected to participate in the first round of tutor support, you will receive further details regarding the program shortly.

In addition to the tutor support provided through the Initiative, all our classroom teachers are working hard to provide a teaching and learning program that targets the needs of every child in the school.

2021 School Leaders and House Captains

We were hoping to formally introduce our new School Leaders and House Captains at assembly this week, however now that assembly has been postponed please take the time to read through the newsletter to see what they have been up to already.

School Leaders

Summer Hamilton

Ethan Khatri

Catherine Wang

Jack Durran

House Captains

Blue House: Alex Markham-Sanchez, Mai Nguyen

Red house: Asma Jameel Ahmed, Jenson Glenn

Green house: Taehee Kim, David Shalla

Yellow house: Leni Hunter, Ben Saville

School Council Elections

The North Melbourne Primary school council election process has now started.

Please see the information below for details. Nomination forms can be accessed via Compass.

Timeline

EVENT	DATE
Notice of election and call for nominations	Monday 15th February
Closing date for nominations	Monday 22nd February at 4.00pm
Date by which the list of candidates & nominators will be displayed	Wednesday 24th February
Date by which ballot papers will be prepared and distributed	On or before Monday 1st March
Close of ballot	Tuesday 9th March at 4.00pm
Vote count	Tuesday 9th March
Declaration of poll	Wednesday 10th March
First council meeting to elect office bearers & co-opt Community members (the principal will preside)	Thursday 18th March

The terms of office, membership categories and number of positions in each membership category open for election are as follows:

Membership category	Term of office	Number of positions
Parent member	Term of office is from the day after the date of the declaration of the poll in 2021 to and inclusive of the date of the declaration of the poll in 2023.	4
DET employee member	Term of office is from the day after the date of the declaration of the poll in 2021 to and inclusive of the date of the declaration of the poll in 2023.	1
Community member	Co-opted by School Council Term of office is from the day after the date of the declaration of the poll in 2021 to and inclusive of the date of the declaration of the poll in 2023.	1

Following the closing of nominations, a list of the nominations received will be posted via the school communications portal (Compass).

If the number of nominations is less than the number of vacancies, a notice to that effect and calling for further nominations will be posted via the school communications portal (Compass).

Building & Grounds Works

Over the next month, we will begin to see some changes to our school grounds. Late last year the school was successful in gaining funding for two projects from the Minister for Education.

We have been approved funding for ‘upgrade works to the area around the school oval’. This project will be managed by the School Council through the Building and Grounds Committee.

We have also been approved for works through the ‘Accessible Building Program’. This project will see a number of ramps put in place around the school to make NMPS more accessible for all students.

2021 School Map