Dear MPS Families

Summer is a favourite season for many who enjoy the outdoors and with the holidays coming up there are lots of summertime activities to look forward to.

INCREASING SHADE IN THE SCHOOL

Through a community consultation process, the School Council Facilities Committee sought opinion about structures we could install to increase shade over the next twelve months. Two options were presented to the school community and both options were similar in overall cost.

Option B was the most popular. That is the high shade structure of the basketball court. There were many positive reasons provided which included:

A large area for shade and rain protection.
A place for outdoor games, assemblies, carnival activities etc lessons that is also protected from the elements and will be an additional space for PE when the hall is in use.

The concerns were regarding:

Worry about students running into the poles. (Poles need to have padding.)
What the overall aesthetics would be like (given the historical building and some feedback reflected a preference for the open space.

Option A, although less popular, certainly highlighted the need for shade over the new playground. It seems that many who voted for Option A did so because they liked the shade over the playground but not necessarily the shade between the main building and the portables.

Further feedback included:

Can we have both shade over the new playground and the basketball court?

Can we install solar panels on top of the shade over the playground?

Can we have a new hall instead?

Where to from here?

Next year, the Facilities committee will be directing further research and action toward shading the basketball court and involving the VSBA (Victoria School Building Authority). Quotes will also be obtained for installing shade over the new playground which we will go ahead with in 2025.

Regarding a new school hall, this is well and truly outside the realm of a school budget. School upgrades including full sized gymnasiums are a government decision based on the support from a member of parliament.

TRANSITION ‘STEP UP’ PROGRAM

Students have already been involved in transition classes to learn more about the activities and programs to look forward to in their 2025 school year.

The ‘Step Up’ program provides students with the opportunity to know where the new line up areas, classrooms are and play areas are. The statewide transition day on Tuesday 10 December is the day when the 2025 classes are announced. It takes an exceptional amount of time to formulate classes based on the student and the teacher's knowledge of the students. Teachers have already conducted several activities to observe the dynamics of different class groupings and made changes to student groupings accordingly. Every time a student is moved, we assess the impacts based on the range of criteria. This cross checking is what takes an exceptional amount of time so no further changes will be considered.

As soon as the 2025 classes are announced, expressions of interest for parent class representatives (generally one parent per class) will be requested and due by Friday 15th December.

INFORMATION TO PARENTS – Distributed on Transition Day (Tuesday 10 December)

Each student who is returning to MPS in 2025, will take home an envelope containing:

The name of the teacher for their 2025 class.
The ICT User Agreement – we are sending a paper copy so families can discuss the school’s expectations about the use of technology when at school. We ask families to return the signed agreement this year in readiness for 2025. Students will not be allowed to access technologies until they have read, understood and signed the agreement.
The local excursions permission form – this form provides information about what constitutes a local excursion. We would also like this form signed and returned before the end of the year in readiness for 2025 classes.

SEMESTER REPORTS AND THE COMPASS CONTINUUM

At the end of terms 2 and 4, teachers report student progress against the Victrorian Curriculum standards by providing a ‘progression point’ for the subject areas taught within the units of inquiry. In addition to the formal semester report, parents and carers also have access to the ‘Continuum’ which outlines numerous learning objectives taught across the year and highlights which skills the student has consolidated and what has yet to be learned.

The continuum will be available to parents on Transition Day (Tuesday 10 December). The semester reports will be available to parents on Tuesday 17 December.

CLASS REPS FOR 2025

The Class Representatives have done an outstanding job this year in reminding families of school events and seeking information from the class teacher when further information has been needed. For those who have enjoyed outings organised by the class reps, I’m sure you understand the important role they also play in helping build connections and a sense of belonging in our school.

When class lists are posted next week, we will be seeking expressions of interest to fill our 2025 class reps positions. Further information will be sent through Compass.

STAFFING CHANGES FOR 2025

Every year we farewell some teachers and welcome the new.

We would like to thank the teachers who are leaving us for their contributions to our school and wish them all the very best as they pursue further opportunities and experiences. We look forward to seeing some of our teachers back again in a year or so.

We say goodbye to the following teachers who will all be enjoying new life experiences:

Chelsea Quirk and Shanlan McGregor will be leaving in term one as they are both expecting babies.

Teagan Laskey is finishing at the end of this year as she is also expecting her first child.

Ali Demirtas is moving to Geelong, Candice Nassim will be enjoying a well-earned break from classroom teaching, Mitch Houston will be enjoying a trip around Australia and following her two year placement here, Natasha Williams will be returning to her base school.

Following an extensive recruitment drive, we are thrilled to welcome new teachers to our school. We look forward to the expertise they will share across our school.

Teaching Teams for 2025:

Prep- Jen Kepa, Paula Bain, Elisa Hendriks, Ella Calderone

Year 1- Jarrah Kitchen, Shelley Dagan, Thy Do

Year 2- Emily Kurts, Elijah Roberts, Brianna Newbond, Ashlee Tonkin, Aine Cunniffe

Year 3- Elle Avery, Ethan Mountney, Maisie Barry

Year 4- Maddison Grandy, Zach McMahon, Laura Bainbridge

Year 5- Phil Cook, Radhika Perera, Stephanie Protektor/ Melanie Short

Year 6- Joe Calderone, Annie Lui, Gabby McPherson

Specialist Teachers include:

STEM- Oliver Johnson

P.E. – Todd Pullar

Art- Jade Marquis

Performing Arts- Shelly Nugent

Japanese- Josie Briggs

Curriculum Support & Intervention:

Michelle Tzialis, Anna Lancia, Shanlan McGregor

Leading Teachers (responsible for curriculum, assessment, reporting, coaching and mentoring)

Angela Houghton, Andrew McKibbin

YEAR 6 EXHIBITION

I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Year 6 team (Joe Calderone, Jen Kepa, Annie Lui) and our PYP Coordinator (Angela Houghton) for the outstanding success of the Year 6 Exhibition. The students presentations piqued the interest of visitors with provocations that invoked curiosity, thinking and questions. Our students demonstrated deep knowledge of their theme of choice and competently spoke about the issues and possible solutions. Thank you to the parents and carers who showed genuine interest in not just their child’s work but also the work of others.

VOLUNTEERS - Special Afternoon Tea

Without volunteers, our school would not be able to run the many programs and services we offer. It’s our turn to say thank you. In the past, we’ve always had a morning tea, which has limited some of our volunteers from attending so this year we’ve changed our thank you to an afternoon tea instead.

There are so many activities that wouldn’t run as smoothly without the help of our volunteers and we’re grateful for such support. For example: class reps, kitchen and garden volunteers, canteen, organising second hand uniforms and stall, helping out on excursions, working bees and so on.

Our special afternoon tea is on Wednesday 11 December 3:30 – 4:30pm in the lovely garden space near the Learning Centre (where SAKG classes are). School aged children will be supervised while you enjoy your afternoon tea (toddlers are to be supervised by their parents)

RSVP

For catering purposes, we need to know if you are able to attend by registering through Try Booking. https://www.trybooking.com/CXQWO

Chellee Plumb