Leadership Report
Joseph Hess - Assistant Principal &Maths Learning Specialist
On August 29th, selected students from our 5/6 and 3/4 cohorts had the exciting opportunity to participate in a special extension program focused on real-world mathematical problem solving.
Ten students from the 5/6 cohort explored the popular water-pouring puzzle, using a method based on billiards to crack this classic challenge. Students were then encouraged to apply this strategy to new variations and even create their own puzzles for peers to solve. A big thank you to Jack (5/6 teacher) for helping to facilitate this inspiring session!
Meanwhile, ten students from the 3/4 cohort tackled a series of complex counting problems, including classics like “How many squares are on a chessboard?” The session introduced advanced concepts such as binomial coefficients, partitioning techniques, and algorithmic thinking to enhance students' systematic reasoning. Thank you to Gabby (3/4 teacher) for facilitating this engaging learning experience!
The students thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and were particularly excited by the opportunity to solve problems in real-life scenarios. Many left feeling inspired to create and share their own mathematical challenges with others.
We’re incredibly proud of the enthusiasm, creativity, and deep thinking shown by all students involved.
Costa Missailidis -Wellbeing and Engagement Leader
Wear It Purple Day – Friday 29th August
Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating Wear It Purple Day on Friday 29th August. It was fantastic to see so many students and staff wearing purple to acknowledge and show support for diversity, inclusion, and the importance of creating safe, supportive environments for all young people.
The day was a wonderful opportunity to stand together as a community, recognising the value of acceptance, respect, and belonging for everyone. We are proud of our students for embracing this message and demonstrating kindness and unity.
GET READY FOR BIKETOBER!
Biketober is a fun, friendly competition to get more students, parents and staff travelling actively to school, by walking, bus, biking, or scooting. Schools and classes compete to see which can get the most students travelling actively to school.
When: 6th October - 31st October
Everyday through October students, parents and staff are encouraged to actively travel to school. Teachers will conduct a hands-up count each day to see how many students travelled actively to school.
There will be daily and weekly leaderboards to show the top schools and classrooms. Students will compete against other classes and other schools in the area.
We could win a $1,000 sports equipment voucher for our school!
So get your bikes and runners ready for a month of active travel!
Dogs Connect Reminders
As part of our Dogs Connect Program, we’d like to remind our school community of some important expectations and essential learnings to ensure that our wellbeing dog feels safe, calm, and happy at Merri-bek Primary School.
The 3 Expectations – It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!
- Say hello to the person, not the dog.
- Give lots of space when passing the dog.
Keep moving – don’t stand and stare.
Essential Learnings
- Our wellbeing dog needs safe spaces. Please leave them alone when they are on their bed, mat, or in their crate.
- Always let the dog have an exit and avoid surrounding them.
- Pay attention to body language – sometimes rolling over means comfort, but it can also mean they’re feeling unsure.
- Approach calmly from the front and allow the dog to come to you. If they move away, it means they don’t want to interact.
If the dog is sleeping, wake them gently by saying their name or tapping the ground lightly.
Thank you for helping us support the wellbeing of our school dog. By following these expectations, we can make sure our dog has the calm and positive environment needed to thrive in our school community.
Tristan Kelly - Literacy Learning Specialist
Informative Text Posters - Collaboration
You might remember seeing the Year 5/6 informative text posters in the last edition of the newsletter. The Year 1/2 students were thrilled to see some of these posters up close recently when the Year 5/6 students came to visit. The 5/6s shared their posters and provided valuable insight into the thinking that went into the research and the presentation. Our senior students were generous with their time and very accommodating as they responded to all manner of questions. This was very inspiring for our Year 1/2s. They were reflecting on facts that they learned and discussing poster layout inspiration for the rest of the week. Have a look at the Year 1/2 update to see what happened next…!
Literacy Coaching
The Year 3/4 team had their final session for the term with Narissa Leung, our school’s Literacy Coach, this week. Narissa was impressed with the team’s efforts in implementing lots of new learning. Some of the highlights included:
- teachers refining the ‘word work’ part of the literacy block where students engage in learning relating to morphology, phonics, high frequency words and grammar
- students learning to respond to each other and to explain their thinking when discussing literature and informative texts through the use of sentence stems
- supporting students to self-assess their progress within a lesson.
