From the Principal's Desk

As always, the beginning of the school year seems much like a blur as we speed through Term 1 at what feels like a very rapid pace. To realise that more than half the term is already gone and we are heading into week 7 seems ridiculous, nevertheless that is where we are at presently!

Upon reflection, it has been an incredibly calm and smooth start to the school year with classroom spaces filled with students who are ready to learn and embrace the day, what more could we all want. Our new staff have settled in fabulously with strong relationships between students and staff visible as well.

Vision- 'A stimulating and engaging learning environment'

At Moriac Primary School this year, the staff are heavily focussed on student learning achievement with a lens on developing a program that provides as much opportunity for students to be engaged in their learning as possible. 

We are blessed at MPS to have a diverse group of staff from all levels of experience and expertise who really do want to provide multiple opportunities for our students to not only achieve success, but to enjoy the work as they go so that school is a fun and stimulating environment to be a part of. Student voice and agency are really at the forefront as well as differentiating work to capitalise on the strengths of our students balanced with their learning needs. 

Below is a snippet of our Annual Implementation Plan which was presented to school council a few weeks ago but visually summarises what the work for the year ahead includes-

Preps full week of school

Our Prep students have really settled into school life well with their first full week of learning completed this week with full days, I'm sure there will be some tired children this week (and possibly staff too)!

Seeing how well acclimatised our little people are in Prep to school routines and the process formal school takes, it is a testament to our wonderful Prep team, Ryan, Ash, Ally and Sue who have supported our students through the first half of this term. Well done to all our Preps on this huge milestone already!

School Council

School Council has officially met once this term with the previously nominated and elected council from 2024. As we are currently finalising the next council group, the next scheduled meeting is not pencilled in to occur until Tuesday 25th March where the roles of office bearers will take place. I will be happy to communicate who is on our council for 2025 in the next school newsletter and via compass too.

NAPLAN

It is that time of year again where students in Years 3 and 5 will participate in the national testing program known as NAPLAN. Whilst schools use the data collected from NAPLAN to help guide and shape annual implementation and strategic plans, we always firmly point out that the testing is a snapshot in time for our students and we do not place a heavy emphasis on this test alone but rather use it in combination with many other school and teacher assessments to help guide us as a school. Students will sit tests in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Mathematics over the course of the next week or so. Any students who are absent, will be offered a catch up testing session as well.

Sustainability Superheroes

Rubbish in our school yard is always an ongoing issue that we continue to address with our students. Playing in the playground is always a priority for students at lunch and recess and stopping to go visit a bin is sometimes not likely to happen so we are taking a little different focus and are encouraging students to take ownership of this whole school issue in a different way. 

Miss Rodgers from 1/2C has developed a 'Sustainability Superheroes' initiative which will include selecting 2 students from each class to take on the role as a leader for this area from P-6.

We are encouraging all students at MPS to bring 'NUDE FOOD' to school to support less rubbish in our yard and our Sustainability Superheroes will be responsible for keeping a class tally of nude food in their classroom. We will be able to announce the winning classes as part of this at our assemblies. Our superheroes from Year 1-6 will also be able to attend a special tree planting day we are part of annually and will also help coordinate rubbish collection during the term with their peers.

We are looking forward to meeting our superheroes soon! 

The Arts at MPS

The Visual and Performing Arts program at Moriac PS is a really important part of not only student learning at the student's year and class level, but also as a part of the bigger school program.  This feeds into our whole school events- the Annual School Concert held at the newly opened Geelong Arts Precinct and our Year 5/6 Production in Term 2 which is held at the Grovedale Secondary College Auditorium/Theatre space.

Within the formal curriculum we are required to teacher the following with varying exposures across P-6: Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Drama and Media Arts. Mr Jared Smith recently conducted an audit and together in consultation with staff has developed a program we hope will expose all our students to all areas in a way that supports our concert and production but also is manageable for Mr Smith to deliver and report on. Below is an outline of the program for the year-

Student Leadership Update-

Another new initiative we have launched recently is the idea of Peer Leadership within our school that is combined with a structured play approach at lunch time. 

Our Year 6 students recently participated in a PLAY program which trained them to lead safe and fun activities with peers and younger students. The program promoted confidence, relationship skills, inclusion and belonging through fun and engaging play activities and we have now timetabled house leaders as well as other aspiring leaders in the Year 6 cohort to lead and run these lunchtime activities. Students from junior year levels are then invited to join in the activities and this also supports engagement and fair play during the breaks. The follow students below have begun this role and we will rotate students to give everyone a go at leading this work-

Septic System and Back Oval Update-

We are extremely close to the temporary fencing down the back being taken down (coming weeks) now that we have had an arborist attend the site and check for safety of the trees at the back of our property. The safe-trees program we have access to did not normally include the trees down the back as this was not a student occupied area. So we are really grateful that this has now been attended to before the temporary fencing comes down and students can play. We have also given as much time to the new turf to settle and be watered and our grounds keeper Aldo has also begun mowing too. Once the fencing comes down, the make-shift watering system will go and we will be able to give our students access to much more space.

At council recently we also discussed the replacement of the football posts from the old wooden ones to a more durable option and we are getting prices for this currently. Our PnF committee may also reach out to community for support of this soon to help with installation etc. 

Please enjoy your long weekend and don't forget school photos are scheduled for Tuesday 11th March when we return!!!

Take care everyone,

Mel