PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

The Moorabbin Primary School Community touch the land and think of the Bunurong People and surrounding Clans of the Kulin Nation 

who cared for the land before us.

We share our gratitude to their Elders past, present and emerging.  As we touch this land, we promise to treasure it, taking care of all its people, animals, plants and waterways. We at Moorabbin Primary School appreciate this land. 

Thank you.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Term 2. I hope everyone has had a relaxing break, after the holidays and long weekend, and is ready for a big term ahead.

ANZAC Day Commemorations

To commemorate the National Day of Remembrance we held a whole school assembly conducted by our student leaders on Thursday 24th April.  Please see the links to a couple of videos:

Links:

Tribute to ANZAC Day poem

https://vimeo.com/1080704436?share=copy#t=0

The Ode

https://vimeo.com/1080703674?share=copy#t=0

Election Day – MPS P&F Event: 

'Democracy sausages' and 'Constitution Cakes' will be on sale all this Saturday as the school becomes an Australian Electoral Commission polling place for the federal election. Thank you to our families that have offered to help on this day. If you are able to vote at our school on the Saturday and also support our P&F Fundraiser, it would be greatly appreciated. 

A few important and staffing updates

I am messaging today with a few important staffing and program updates. Firsly, welcome to term 2 and we know that summer and the warm weather is now well and truly behind us with the first heating being turned on at school, a definite sign that the weather is cooling!

1L and Mr Leeden- Stephen continues to recover from his broken foot and is currently receiving rehabilitation to gain strength and mobility as he is navigating a “moon boot” and slowly bearing weight to his foot. Ms Lib Norton and Mr Gilles will continue to support the class until the end of week 3. Stephen will have more clarity from his medical team when he is provided with clearance to return back to work duties possibly in week 4. We are missing Mr Leeden and are hoping that his recovery continues to go well.

1M and Mrs Mckenna- over the holiday period Mrs McKenna was successful in a recruitment process and has started the new school term at a new school as a learning enhancement English teacher at a secondary college. We are all extremely sad and miss her dearly but know that after being at MPS for more than 15 years in many teaching and leadership roles, that it was time to take on board a new and exciting opportunity. This means that we have two new teachers for 1M- Mrs Alice Crossley and Mrs Natalie Lescesen will share the teaching role for the remainder of the year. I know that you will welcome them and take the opportunity to say hi!

Goodbye to one our aides Eva Capasso- Eva came to MPS last year to fill in a gap in supporting our funded and non-funded students and with a background in mental health with youth we knew that she was only going to be with us on “borrowed” time. She was successful in applying for a position in her field and has started off the new term in a mental health clinic supporting vulnerable youth. We wish her all the very best. 

What does this mean? I have not been able to replace Eva’s position due to the financial position of the school in ensuring that we are able to continue to run as many different programs as possible and support all our classes. Eva was mainly working with non-funded students, and I have also needed to reduce the amount of tutoring MSL (LE) time, including the reduction of one day a week of speech therapy that the school was FULLY funding with NO SUPPORT FROM DET. With only 60% of family’s contributions to our school fees I have had no choice but to make a few amendments to some of our programs.

Speech therapy and Robyn Newfield- due to changes above there will be some children that will no longer be able to be supported by the speech therapy school funded program. Robyn will still be available to support families, but the costing will now need to directly come from families and not the school. Robyn, Mr Corrigan, Zoe and I are working through Robyn’s list of students and will let you know who has been affected.

Learning enhancement program- due to the loss of Eva, Jane K who was employed as an aide originally has now been redirected back to support funded and non-funded students in the classes. This means that the groups that she was tutoring will now be supported in their classrooms by their teachers and other support staff who are all MSL trained and will be able to monitor and support the children with their learning needs. Zoe remains the schools main learning enhancement teacher and will be supporting students who are between 12-18 months academically behind. The program is not meant for students to remain and stay on long term, as it should be a fluid and working program to support as many students that are identified to receive the support needed. Some families have already received an exit letter from Zoe, this is a “GOOD” outcome as that means your child has made great progress and has been working hard to be able to be moved from one tier of support back to full classroom capacity.

Maternity news reminder and Ms Romi Katz (3K) finishing up at the end of term 2

A reminder that Ms Amy Howden will be taking maternity leave at the end of August to have her second child, and we are in the process of recruiting for a music teacher and have already complete 2 rounds with no suitable or successful candidate. This may also mean a change of how we ultimately may run music beyond Ms Howdens maternity absence. However, we are still recruiting and hoping to have a positive outcome soon!

Ms Romi Katz will be heading overseas for a trip of a lifetime and will be finishing up at the end of term 2. I am now recruiting for a replacement teacher for 3K and as soon as I have a suitable replacement will inform our community.

As you can see many changes and lots of personal life events that our staff and school is going through at the moment.

Staff absences

We have started the term off with many absences due to flus/ colds/COVID and some really nasty viruses. Mr Corrigan as always is trying hard to seek replacements, but it seems as though a lot of schools are also affected by illnesses and the “pool of relief teachers” is also being stretched. 

It is unfortunately unavoidable, but we will be needing to split some classes on some days.

Sensory playground finally being built

We appreciate the further disruption to our grounds, and it was rather annoying that the scheduled works did not happen over the holiday period as anticipated. However better later than never!

The works will be in place for about two weeks, and it will be fantastic when the area in front of the new building is completed, and the children will have a great space to ply and interact with soon!!

Noxia Angelides

Principal