Principal's Report

"Every child deserves a champion—an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be." - Rita Pierson

2023 Planning

As mentioned in the last newsletter, we are well into planning for the 2023 school year. If you know that your child will not be at Marlborough next year (other than our Year 6 students) please let the office know as soon as possible. 

The timeframe for parent requests for 2023 considerations has now passed. 

Students from F-5 have completed friendship preferences for their 2023 class with staff working through the potential classes for next year. As you can appreciate, this is a long and time-consuming task with both teaching and education support staff working collaboratively to ensure that all students have at least one friend and that all classes are balanced.

2023 Transition Session - 'Step Up' Day

Our ‘Step up Day’ this year will be on Tuesday 13th December.  This will take place on 'Statewide Transition Day,' the day that our current Grade 6 students attend their secondary school for next year for orientation. We will also use this opportunity to put our students in their class groupings for 2023 with their teacher and in their class space for next year. This will take place from 9:15am until 1:30pm, which will enable students to participate in a range of wellbeing, literacy and numeracy activities, whilst building relationships with their new teacher and classmates.

We know that change can be difficult for some students, and indeed for families, where students are working with a new teacher for the following year, sometimes this is also a new teacher to our school. It is always important to reassure your child that things will be okay, they will build a relationship with their new teacher and that you are there to support them. Our teaching staff prepare detailed handover information for the following years teacher, and this always includes the most important classroom-based information about your child. 

I endeavour to let the MPS community know of the 2023 staff structures in the next newsletter; students will be informed of their 2023 class teacher on the morning of 'Step Up' day.

2023 Curriculum Days

Each year schools receive 4 student-free days (when student instruction does not occur) for professional development, school planning and administration, curriculum development and student assessment and reporting. The first day of Term 1 each year must be a student-free day in all government schools to allow for appropriate planning to take place for the arrival of students. School councils have the flexibility to schedule the remaining 3 student-free days each year to meet local school needs. From 2023, one of the 4 student-free days each year must be nominated for assessment and reporting. 

On Tuesday night's School Council meeting, the following curriculum days for 2023 were approved:

• Friday 27 January 2023 - First Day Back for Teachers
• Monday 30 January 2023 - First Aid Training and Team Building
• Friday 10 March 2023 - Strategic Planning
• Monday 6 November 2023 - Assessment and Reporting

Camp Australia will be notified and will accommodate a program on each of these days.

Professional Practice Day - School Reports

On Friday, staff had their final Professional Practice Day for the year. On this day, teams elected to use their time to moderate assessments and ensure consistency of reporting across each level. 

As you can appreciate, this time of year is extremely busy for teaching staff who spend countless hours looking over anecdotal notes and scrambling through assessment data to ensure that each student's efforts and successes are acknowledged. This task is significantly more difficult for staff who have spent less than the full year with their current class. 

I would like to acknowledge the amazing effort displayed by each staff member, their dedication, and their professionalism during this 'hectic' time of the year. The end of year reports will be made available through Compass in the last week of the year.

Life Education Visit

Life Education has been visiting our school for many years and is always a highlight of the children's year and helps to facilitate the development of the life skills in students to prevent and minimise the harm of drug misuse. Lessons are always age appropriate and the children will be covering a wide range of drug and health related topics, ranging from the human body and how it works, healthy eating and nutrition, medicines and drugs, bullying, resilience and social skills. 

Healthy Harold, the much loved Life Education giraffe mascot is always a much anticipated element of the Life Education visit. The sessions are always fun, interactive and really extend and develop the children's understanding of the topics covered.  We will be further broadening these topics in class both prior to and after the Life Education visit with the student workbook which is included in the cost of the visit. 

It is important that your child attends this session.

The topics that each year level will be learning about in their sessions are as follows (See attached document for content overview):

• Foundation - 'My Body Matters'
• Year 1/2 - 'Safety Rules'
• Year 3/4 - 'Mind Your Medicine'
• Year 5/6 - 'Decisions'

If you would like to register for a parent information session, please click the following link:

https://www.lifeedvic.org.au/for-families/parent-webinars 

Enrolments

If you have a younger sibling who will be attending Marlborough Primary next year their enrolment should be into school by now. Enrolment forms can be accessed on our website and emailed into marlborough.ps@education.vic.gov.au

As always, if you have any questions, queries or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me by phone at the school or via email at alec.baroni@education.vic.gov.au. 

Have a fantastic week!

Alec Baroni

Acting Principal