Principal's Report
Dear families and friends of MPW,
Welcome back for the 2024 school year. It was great to see everyone return last Wednesday, and our Foundation students start on Monday, it was great to see them start this week, excited and happy for their first day of school. I would like to welcome our new families to the MPW community.
Floating around the school throughout the first couple of days, students have been settled, engaged and calm. We start the year with the ‘Learning to Learn’ focus, where classes are setting up their routines and structures, and Rights and Responsibility agreements over the first weeks of the year.
I would like to officially welcome Elisha Katsonis to the Assistant Principal position. Elisha will primarily be coordinating student wellbeing and supporting students and teachers in the Disability Inclusion reforms.
We welcome Lachlan Meyer, Kellie Meehan and Cassie McIntosh to the 3/4 team, Daniel English and Emma Hammond to the F/1 team, Hailey Nguyen in the year 2 team, Carla Goodburn in the 5/6 team and Dilek Yarici to Intervention this year.
Welcome back to Sue Phillips who has returned this year to teach our 5/6 students in Creative Arts on Mondays.
The Capital Works is well underway, with the installation of the new Big Adventure playground. Once landscaping works have been completed, this space will be handed back to us. Internal works on the heritage buildings continue as well. The Victorian Schools Building Authority (VSBA) is creating some signage for us to promote the project, these will be displayed on the fencing around the school soon.
As this is our first newsletter, below are some important reminders, clarifications and a preview of what is coming up over the next couple of weeks.
SunSmart Reminders
As we are a SunSmart school, our SunSmart policy was updated last year. Students at Moonee Ponds West Primary School are encouraged to make healthy choices and are supported to understand the benefits and risks of sun exposure. A combination of sun protection measures are in place:
- Students will be required to wear hats that protect their face, neck, and ears from mid-August to the end of April when they are outside.
- Hats must be broad-brimmed, legionnaire, or a bucket hat. Baseball caps and visors are not considered a suitable alternative.
- Sun-protective clothing such as: loose, cool, tightly woven fabric; shirts with a collar and/or high necklines; tops with elbow length or long sleeves; longer style shorts and skirts.
- Sun protective clothing is included in our school uniform.
- The use of SPF30, SPF50, or SPF50+ broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen is encouraged, with time allowed for applying sunscreen. Students will be reminded to apply sunscreen before going outdoors.
The full policy can be found on our school website:
https://www.mooneewestps.vic.edu.au/uploaded_files/media/1678339973mpw_sunsmart_policy_2022.pdf
School Uniform
This year the compulsory aspect of the school uniform is in place. The school’s policy includes:
- It is expected that a logoed school uniform top will be worn to school and on identified offsite school events.
- Uniform bottoms should be consistent with the navy-blue colour aspects of the uniform and are not required to be logoed.
- Shoes should be closed toe and fit for the day’s activities.
- Additional layers of clothing may be worn underneath the uniform for added warmth.
- Closed toe footwear must be worn at school to comply with safety regulations.
- Footwear should be appropriate for the day’s activity.
- The school also operates a lost property and second-hand uniform opportunity for parents.
- Please contact the school’s Business Manager, Sandra Monaghan to discuss support that we may be able to provide to families experiencing difficulty meeting uniform costs, including information about eligibility for uniform support through State Schools’ Relief.
- Further information about State Schools’ Relief is also available on their website: htps://www.ssr.net.au
We have had a few questions regarding clarifications around the expectations such as non-uniform items, colour of pants and shorts, sports uniform and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. I hope the dot points below help clarify these questions.
- Casual jumpers, hoodies, jackets are not part of the school uniform and should not be worn during school time. On wet days, students can wear waterproof or rain jackets to and from school but should be taken off during class-time.
- The colour scheme of shorts, pants, skirts should be consistent with the navy-blue aspects of the uniform.
- Pants and shorts do not need to be logoed and can be sourced from other providers
- Short length shorts or skirts (that are above the mid-thigh) should not be worn, as they do not meet requirements of our Sunsmart policy. Shorts and skirts should be longer in style to protect students’ legs. Denim shorts should not be worn.
- Sports uniform can be worn any day of the week, not just on sports days.
- Caps or visors should not be worn to school, as they do not meet requirements of our Sunsmart policy.
The full policy including uniform items can be found on our school website:
Lunch Orders
Darling Street Café will begin lunch orders from tomorrow, using the Spriggy Schools app. Lunch orders will continue to be offered on Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays. The cut off for ordering lunch orders is 9:15am the day of the order.
Parent Information Sessions
Next week we will be offering parent information sessions for each Professional Learning Team to provide you with an overview of what to expect in your child’s year level in 2024. These will be held directly after the school day, from 3.45pm – 4.45pm, over three nights to provide opportunity to get to any sibling sessions you may want to attend also.
F/1 and Year 2 will be on Tuesday 13th
3/4s will be on Wednesday 14th
5/6s will be on Thursday 15th
Specialists will be providing information about their programs as well; this will be sent out electronically for your information.
Teachers will send out more information about location for your child’s class by the end of the week.
Basket Tea
This year’s Basket Tea is scheduled for Friday 23rd February, commencing at 5:00pm and concluding at 8:00pm. The Basket Tea is our first social opportunity for parents to meet other families in your class and year level grouping for the start the year. I hope that you and your family can attend.
The night is held on the Tiger Turf area and is BYO everything, so bring a picnic rug and keep an eye on the weather, last year it was a warm night.
A reminder that the Big Adventure area will continue to be out of bounds until landscaping is finalised throughout the term.
The Basket Tea will be set up to allow the Soccer Pitch to be accessible for students to play.
Access to the school’s toilets will be available between 5.00-6.30pm. After this time the buildings will be locked and alarmed.
Annual privacy reminder for our school community
Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice.
Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy, describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn. We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use [Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education] safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using [Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education], please contact the school.
For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:
* Amharic
* Arabic
* Dari
* Gujarati
* Mandarin
* Somali
* Sudanese
* Turkish
* Urdu
* Vietnamese
Parent Teacher Meetings in Week 4
Parent-Teacher Meet and Greet meetings are also scheduled for Week 4, 20th to 22nd Feb. These sessions are our first Parent Teacher Interview opportunity, to provide time to meet your child’s teacher and share valuable information for a successful year for your child.
We are working on the schedule for bookings at the moment, we will send a Compass notification when these are setup on Compass for you to book.
It has been great to see families in the mornings and the afternoons. We are looking forward to a great year!
Regards,
Jarrod Sutton
Principal