From the Principal

I’d like to begin this fortnight’s newsletter by acknowledging our wonderfully positive, supportive, and inclusive parent and carer community. The incredible turnout at recent unit shares shows just how much our school community values education. Many of you have shared how much you enjoy seeing your child’s work, hearing them speak with excitement about their learning, and noticing their progress. Thank you for being part of these moments — our students love sharing their achievements with you.

Engagement in Learning

At Murrumbeena Primary, our mission is brought to life through three guiding pillars: we want the learning to be visible, engaging, and personalised. These words shape our teaching, curriculum design, and improvement planning each year. Our balance of wellbeing and academic excellence reflects our commitment to achieving our school mission (see below) and one of the best International Baccalaureate World Schools.

In the past fortnight, visiting educators from an IB school in Korea, an educational consultant, and prospective parents have all commented on our calm classrooms, positive atmosphere, and high student engagement. Parents attending unit shares have seen this first-hand — confident, happy students thriving in their learning. While we haven’t fully achieved our mission yet, we are well on our way.

Here's our mission statement with the bolded words guiding our actions: 

Murrumbeena Primary School aims to provide exemplary teaching, with rich, engaging learning experiences; to foster an environment where students’ curiosity flourishes. The school aims to provide opportunities for students to be challenged and become life-long learners in a global society and for students to learn in partnership with the school to develop self-belief and ownership of their learning. 

Road Safety Update

This term, crossing supervisors at Neerim Road and Railway Parade have helped make journeys to and from school safer for many families. This week, I met with a Traffic and Road Safety Engineer: a consultant engaged by Glen Eira City Council to review traffic conditions and share community concerns. I’d like to thank Councillors Luca Ragni and Simone Zmood for prioritising the safety of our students and taking action on our behalf.

Parent/Carer/ Guardian Opinion Survey

The annual Education Department survey is now open from Monday 18 August to Friday 19 September 2025. It helps us understand families’ views on school climate, student behaviour, and engagement, and guides our planning and improvement.

All families are encouraged to participate — a generic PIN code has been sent via Compass to access the survey for our school. It’s online, takes about 20 minutes to complete, and your feedback is greatly valued.

Child Safety

Recent media reports of abuse in child care centres are a timely reminder for all schools to continually review their risk mitigation strategies. At our school, we are dedicated to embedding a culture of child safety in line with the Child Safe Standards, with the wellbeing of students as our highest priority.

Each day, staff take a number of proactive actions to ensure our school remains a safe environment, including keeping classroom windows uncovered so activities are always visible, patrolling less-visible areas such as toilets and behind buildings, and monitoring the music room via CCTV during instrumental lessons. In addition, our risk management plan is regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff, who are encouraged to act and report anything that doesn’t “feel right.” Through these constant reminders, practices, and open discussions about child safety and reporting procedures, we take a strong and proactive stance to ensure our school is always a safe place for every child. 

We ask that parents also make a report when they feel something isn’t quite right, as statistics show that abuse often begins with small behaviours or warning signs that must not be ignored.

Thank you again MPS Community for your ongoing support.

Book Week Parade

Our Book Week Parade will be held this Friday, starting at 9:15am. We are looking forward to seeing our students dress up as their favourite book characters and celebrate this year’s theme, “Adventure.” It’s a perfect theme for our active inquirers, who embrace curiosity, creativity, and the joy of stories.

Canteen Helpers Needed

Our canteen orders are growing, and Sue, our wonderful canteen manager, is finding it challenging to keep up with the daily baking alongside preparing orders. A few extra helping hands for even an hour a day would make a big difference. With volunteer support, Sue can continue to provide fresh, homemade treats for our students—otherwise, we may need to switch to store-bought options.

If you can spare an hour on any morning, please pop into the canteen or phone the school to see what help is needed that day.

Chellee Plumb