Milgate PS Weekly Newsletter

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Milgate Primary School would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land of the Wurundjeri People and we would like to pay our respects to the elders both past and present. Staff, students and the school community understand that we thrive, learn and live on Wurundjeri Country and we stand with all cultures united as one.

CURRICULUM DAY | No school for students

Today, teachers used the day for professional development, with a focus on wellbeing, assessment and reporting, and looking at ways in which to incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into Teaching & Learning. 

Please note we have two curriculum days left in the school year

Term 3: Monday 29th July

Term 4: Monday 4th November 

MANNINGHAM PARKING INSPECTORS

Over the past week, Manningham Council have been issuing fines to parents who are parking illegally. There are a number of NO PARKING, NO STANDING areas and drop-off zones around the school. In these zones, you cannot park and leave your car. Please read the signs carefully, as it helps with traffic flow around the school and ensures our students are safe getting in and out of cars. 

 

REDUCING RUBBISH IN THE SCHOOL YARD

We have noticed a significant increase in the amount of rubbish in the schoolyard. To reduce the amount of waste in our environment, students will not be taking any food out at recess. They will be given extra time in the morning session to eat their food. We currently have Trash Free Tuesday and would encourage families to send snacks and lunches to school without packaging to help reduce our waste consumption at Milgate every day of the week.

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE ('IB') GLOBAL CONFERENCE 

For the past 2 years, I have been fortunate enough to attend the International Baccalaureate ('IB') Global Conference. This year the conference was held in Daegu, South Korea.

 

The final speaker at last year’s conference in Adelaide, Michael McQueen, had to adjust his presentation because Chat GPT had just passed the American Bar Exam for the first time and ranked in the 90th percentile. This, in part, set the tone for this year’s IB conference.

 

The conference theme, “Inspiring learners, realising potential”, sought to spark discussions about today’s ever-changing challenges, facing students and educators, alike. Students are at the centre of the IB mission to create a better and more peaceful world through education, and educators seek to maximize the potential of every young person they teach.

 

Many of the conference sessions were framed around well-being and the impact of AI on the education sector, which links directly to our school strategic plan goals of well-being and student agency.

 

The conference had many inspiring keynote speakers and breakout sessions. Some of the highlights included - 

The first keynote presentation by Paul Kim from Stanford University. He is passionate about creating technologies to assist students in the developing world and has developed programs to ensure that children in all countries have the same opportunities as their peers. He believes that the competencies required for 21st-century learners are: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking, and he has added Compassion & Commitment. He is a strong advocate for the use of AI in education and is working currently to develop ‘a teacher assistant’. He strongly believes that we should be developing students’ ability to ask questions so that they can interact successfully in a world with AI. He concluded his presentation with:

 

“As we enter the AI era, true student success lies not just in the answers they find but in the depth and daring of the questions they pose."

 

Throughout the conference, they invite students from IB world schools to share their experiences. 

 

One of these students was Anoushka Jolly, a student from an international school in India. As part of her Year 6 PYP Exhibition, Anoushka started her first mental health startup in 2018 called the Anti Bullying Squad when she was 9 years old, where she aimed to raise awareness about bullying in schools and campuses. She went on to create an online program, collaborated with NGOs and reached out to numerous schools and created a bullying reporting mobile app called Kavach.  She has been able to impact over 2 million adolescents in 20,000+ different schools. She was the youngest entrepreneur on Shark Tank India to win funding.  She is currently 15 years old.

 

One of the breakout sessions focussed on a ‘data-rich approach to student wellbeing ‘. This session looked at using data to inform student wellbeing practices at schools.

 The Key takeaways were:

  • The IB’s approach of educating the whole child – academically and socially is key to improving mental health outcomes and this has been acknowledged in a growing body of research
  • The IB is launching its own research and funding to measure and improve student well-being through evidence-based practices

That schools need to: 

  • to give all students a voice and teach self-advocacy
  • to enable students to pause and reflect on who they are as a learner and a young person 
  • to empower students to become self-directed learners 
  • to generate and monitor credible wellbeing and learning data
  • Have early and appropriate interventions

It was validating that these practices are already in place at Milgate.

 

In another breakout session, the Busan International School discussed how they had approached the implementation of AI. They worked together with their parent community so that everyone felt confident in its implementation at the school. They had updated their school policies to reflect this ever-emerging technology.

 

The school allowed their teachers time to experiment with a variety of AI tools that are designed for education. They have concluded that they have empowered their learning community as responsible AI users and are using resources and tools that can cater for the individual learning needs and preferences of their students.

They consider the strengths of their approach to be:

  • Greater differentiation in learning tasks
  • Enhanced instructional delivery 
  •  Students can engage with a broader educational community 
  • Increased student engagement 

The use of AI at Milgate is an area for future staff professional development.

 

Overall, the conference was highly rewarding, it reaffirmed the practices that we have in place for the wellbeing of our students and provided areas for future development of curriculum delivery using AI.

 

Sarah Brown 

IB PYP Coordinator

WEAR IT YELLOW DAY

National Reconciliation Week

On Thursday the 30th of May, Milgate Primary School will be participating in Wear it Yellow day. We encourage the school community to wear yellow and bring a gold coin donation to school as we support Children’s Ground in their work to “celebrate and uplift First Nations knowledge, creating equity and access to high quality education, health and economy in community for the next generation of children.”

 

Milgate is celebrating Wear it Yellow day during National Reconciliation Week - a time when we highlight the work that has been done and that we continue to do as we endeavour to achieve reconciliation. This year the theme is ‘Now More Than Ever’ which serves as a reminder for all to take action and use our voices - something the students of Milgate Primary School take pride in doing so well.

 

Please see Children’s Ground and Reconciliation Australia for more information.

We look forward to a sea of yellow on Thursday 30th of May!

BOOK FAIR 

Thank you to Stacey in our library for another very successful book fair.  Stacey raised several thousand dollars that can now be put towards new library resources for all students to enjoy.  Thanks to all the families who visited the book fair, we hope everyone is enjoying their new books.

UPCOMING PARENT SESSION | MATT GLOVER

Over the past four years, Matt Glover has collaborated with Milgate, lending his expertise to support our writing curriculum and enhance student literacy. On the 12th of June, we are thrilled to announce another exciting parent and carer information night as Matt returns to Australia.

 

We encourage all parents and carers to attend. Even if you were present last year, this year's focus will delve deeper into the power of conferring, explicit teaching, and differentiation in the classroom. 

 

Parents are invited to complete this Google Form to indicate their attendance and pose any questions they may have for Matt. The feedback from last year was very positive, with many parents expressing that they left the meeting with a clear understanding of how their children learn at school, as well as an understanding of the 'why' behind our pedagogical and instructional approaches.

 

This presents an exciting opportunity for our community to connect and celebrate all of our students' creativity, achievements. Your participation is greatly appreciated as we strive to further enrich our school community. Thank you for your involvement.

 

Google form link: https://forms.gle/3oQ9sYy6euhUzp1YA

 

Where: 

Milgate Primary School 

96-112 Landscape Drive

East Doncaster, 3019

 

When: 12th June 

Time: 6:00pm - 7:00pm 

ATTENDANCE NOTES IN COMPASS

When entering an attendance note for your child in Compass, please make sure you enter it from 8.50am as this is when our school sessions start.  If you enter an attendance note from 9am, you will have 10 minutes of unexplained absence still on your child’s profile that you will be unable to explain.  

 

If you leave the attendance note default times from 8am-5pm or change it to 8.50am-3.30pm you will cover all absences. Your child will only be marked absent until they are signed in at the office, or for the portion of the day after an early departure entered by the office.

 

Examples:

Late Arrival

  • Parent enters a note from 8:00am to 5:00pm
  • Child arrives at the office at 9.45am
  • Child is marked Absent (Explained) on Compass from 8.50am - 9.45am
  • Child is marked Present on Compass from 9.45am to 3.30pm 

Early Departure

  • Parent enters a note from 8:00am to 5:00pm
  • Parent signs out child at the office at 2.30pm
  • Child is marked Present on Compass from 8.50am - 2.30pm 
  • Child is marked Absent (Explained) on Compass from 2.30pm - 3.30pm 

Appointment during the day

  • Parent enters a note from 8:00am to 5:00pm
  • Parent signs out child at the office at 11.15am
  • Child arrives back at the office at 1.00pm
  • Child is marked Present on Compass from 8.50am - 11.15am 
  • Child is marked Absent (Explained) on Compass from 11.15am - 1.00pm
  • Child is marked Present on Compass from 1.00pm - 3.30pm 

YEAR 4 EXCURSION

Visual Art Excursion - NGV International / The Lume 

On Tuesday, the Year 4 students went on a Visual Arts excursion in the city. The first stop was NGV International, followed by the Leonardo Da Vinci multi-sensory experience at The Lume. 

 

The excursion was a fabulous opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of their classroom and Visual Arts units of inquiry this term, which share the same central idea: “Technology is continually changing our world and how we interact”. They explored the connection between technology and art, focusing on how art materials and techniques have evolved over time, how art can serve a function, and how advances in technology have impacted the way art is created and interacted with. 

 

At NGV, students viewed sculptures, paintings, textiles and furniture ranging from various cultures and time periods. We discussed the different types of technology and materials that might have been used to create the pieces, and whether the pieces could be used for something other than viewing, for example, a beautiful carved chair can also be used to sit on. At The Lume, students thoroughly enjoyed viewing the artworks of Leonardo Da Vinci and other artists which were animated and projected onto the walls and floor, as well as operating replicas of Da Vinci’s inventions. 

YEAR 3 EXCURSION

HWEO City Walk Excursion

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Year 3 students had an exciting educational outing. They walked through the city, observing various designs and architectural elements around them. The students enthusiastically noted the intricate details and different styles they encountered, using iPads to capture the environment around them.

 

The students began their journey at the Carlton Gardens and ended at the International National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), where they witnessed the stained glass ceiling in the Great Hall. This experience sparked their curiosity and appreciation for design and architecture.

 

The trip was a wonderful success, providing our Year 3 students with an enriching experience that enhanced their learning with their real-world observations.

MANDARIN/ART ROOM SIGN COMPETITION

We are extending our competition till the end of next week (Friday the 31st of May) and announcing the winner in the Week 8 Newsletter. If interested please include the following on A4 paper:

 

Mandarin and Art Room as the title

Name and Class

Pictures of something Arty and to do with learning Mandarin

 

An example is: A dragon painting a picture of the Great Wall of China

 

We would love to see more entries so please give them to Penny (Mrs Camiot) or Mrs Yu (Wendy) by next Friday.

CYBER SAFETY PROJECT

Trent Ray, Co-founder of Cyber Safety Project has written a great article that we wanted to share with our school community about mindful screen time for children. In the article, he discusses the benefits of ‘unplugging’ and being mindful of the ways in which we use technology. Some great strategies he recommends are:

  • Establish Tech-Free Zones: Create spaces in the home where technology is not allowed, like the dinner table or bedrooms. This encourages family interaction and uninterrupted sleep.
  • Set Screen Time Limits: Define clear rules about the length of time children (and adults) can use their devices and stick to these expectations. This teaches balance, discipline and self-control.
  • Creation Over Consumption: Explore the different uses of technology. When creating with technology, cognitive function is higher than when mindlessly scrolling. Emphasise time limits on digital consumption and encourage creative, educational, productive apps and activities.
  • Encourage Offline Interests: Help children discover hobbies and activities that don’t involve screens, such as sports, music, or reading.
  • Be a Role Model: Children imitate adult behaviour. Show them how you balance digital device use with offline activities in your own life.

 You can read the full article here: Nurturing Mindful Screen Time for Children