Congratulations to all our students, families, and staff on the near completion of Term 1. What a busy, successful, and rewarding term it has been with camps, sports days, Open Classrooms, 3 Way Conferences, assemblies, visiting teachers and educational consultants, incursions…the list goes on!

It has been so lovely to see students back in the classroom and engaged in their learning. Our Preps and new students have settled in and are enjoying being part of the NMPS family. After such a positive start for everyone, we are very excited to see what Term 2 will bring us in our learning journey.

Student Leaders, House Captains, & Junior Student Representative Council

In the following pages of our newsletter, we acknowledge the 2021 student leaders, house captains, and junior SRC members of our school. These students all have a role to play in the school, sharing ideas and developing student voice and agency for all. Please take the time to continue scrolling to become familiar with our leaders across the school.

Lost Property

As the term draws to an end, we have a large pile of lost property, including jumpers, hats, drink bottles, and other items. If your child is missing anything, please take the time to visit the school on Thursday to view our lost property. Any unnamed items not collected by the end of the term will be donated to charity.

COVIDSafe Update

The Victorian Government has further relaxed it’s COVIDSafe settings from 6pm on Friday 26th March 2021.

Changes to the COVIDSafe settings include allowing more visitors in the home, changes to wearing masks in some settings and updates to density limits in some settings. There are limited operational changes for schools.

Visitors continue to be welcomed at our school, however face masks must be carried by individuals 12 years and over at all times and worn when physical distancing of 1.5 metres cannot be maintained.

Thank you for your understanding and support throughout this term as we continue to implement COVIDSafe practices at our school.

School Council

Following the School Council Election earlier in the term, I would like to formally introduce the 2021 School Council members.

President: Melinda Green

Vice President: Megan Cusack

Treasurer: Nick Sissions

Secretary: Gen Kelly

Parent Members: Nuary Tasci, Melinda Green, Noriko Yamazaki, Nick Sissons, Simeon Branca, Emily Miller, Joy Cassidy, Megan Cusack

School Employee Members: Sarah Nightingale, Hilary Guymer, Kristen Pepyat, Gabrielle Panozzo

Community Members: Amith Nag Dasari, Genevieve Kelly

The School Council plays a key role in enhancing the educational opportunities for all students and strengthening community bonds. All School Council are encouraged to have a number of sub-committees to assist in the work that needs to be done. Sub Committees provide advice and make recommendations to School Council.

The Sub Committees formed for North Melbourne Primary School are listed below with School Council membership.

Finance

Nick (convenor), Sarah, Megan, Amith

Biz-E-Kidz

Joy (convenor), Kristen, Melinda, Sarah

Parents & Friends

Simeon (convenor), Emily, Gen, Hilary

Education

Sarah (convenor), Gabi, Nuray, Kristen, Melinda, Amith, Nick

Building & Grounds

Noriko (convenor), Sarah, Emily, Amith, Hilary, Joy

We encourage non-school council members to join the Parents & Friends Sub Committee to continue to strengthen our community engagement. If you are interested in joining please contact the school or reach out to Simeon directly.

Once again, I would like to acknowledge the retiring School Council members for their support and work on council over their term. Thank you to Laura Lynch, Nick Oliver, Paul von Chrismar, Will Chang, and Gemma Bamforth.

Traffic Management

It was great to see so many children walking, riding, and scooting to school on our recent Ride2School day. Moving into Term 2, we will continue to encourage students and families to walk, scoot, ride or catch public transport to school as often as possible. Reducing the number of cars around the school makes it safer for everyone.

Once again, I would like to remind families of the following, if you do need to drive to school some days.

Please park away from the school and walk your children to their designated gate
Slow down!
Do not double park next to another car
Do not stop in a ‘no standing’ zone
Do not park and leave your car in a ‘no parking' zone
Please respect our teachers and leaders who are supervising students arrival and dismissal

Together with following the above rules, we can ensure NMPS is a safe place for everyone.

Holiday Building and Grounds Work

There will be a number of different contractors working on both the buildings and school grounds over the holidays. These works will see improvements to NMPS and will continue into Term 2.

Happy and Safe Holidays

There will be a whole school assembly on Thursday at 1pm to celebrate the term. If you are attending, we ask that you make sure you sign in using one of the QR codes on the gate and ensure that you maintain social distancing.

I wish everyone a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable break and look forward to welcoming all students back to school on Tuesday 20th April.

Classroom helpers