From the Acting Principal
FAMILY PICNIC
The Annual School Picnic will now be held on Thursday 11 March (6:00 – 8:00pm). I apologise for the changes to the date, however this was due to the change in regulations around Coronavirus safety and the need to provide the government a week’s notice to register the event.
There will be a range of coronavirus safety precautions in place along with signage to remind people of ways to stay safe. We have set up the picnic as an event on compass but please only tick ‘consent’ if your family is coming. You are still able to make a last minute decision to attend but in that case, you will need to use your phone to scan the QR code to record your attendance.
Community hub ‘Bubbles’ – families from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to set up their picnic on the junior side of the oval (closest to the new playground) and families of year 3-6 students set up picnics on the senior side of the oval (closest to the SAKG). Families who have children across the levels, may choose where to sit.
Ormond Ice Creamery – as an added bonus, we have arranged for the ice cream truck to be at the picnic to sell ice creams and hot donuts.
PARENT TEACHER DISCUSSIONS
Parent –Teacher Discussions will be held on Tuesday 16 and/or Thursday 18 March. As most interviews are held after hours, the day/s and times vary for each teacher due to their own family commitments.
The parent teacher discussion offer parents and teachers an opportunity to share information pertinent to the student’s educational and social-emotional progress. Interviews are strictly 10 minutes long so we encourage parents to think about the information they would like to share with the teacher beforehand. Parents will book their interview time on Compass which will be open from this Thursday. We will post a reminder newsfeed to parents to let them know when bookings are ‘open’.
LEADERSHIP PRESENTATIONS
Year 6 Captains
It was an absolute pleasure to present Year 6 Leadership captains with their certificates and badges at the school assembly. This particular group of year 6 students have already displayed initiative and leadership as they’ve shared ideas for a range of actions they’d like to take to improve various areas across the school. Each Leadership team is supported by teacher mentors who provide guidance and practical support. Most teams have now met and commenced developing an action plan for their intended initiatives. Leadership teams will keeps us informed of their projects by posting articles and photos in the school newsletter.
Congratulations to the following students who were voted by their peers as Captains of the teams.
The Arts: Jeremy and Amelia B
Environment: Shambhavi and Moritz
Global Citizenship: Abygael and Sid
Media: Ana and Alyssa
Sport and Wellbeing:Gold- Lily R and Sarah K Blue: Ruby and Sam E Green: Ollie S and Gabby Red: Will B and Mia C
STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL
It was also my great pleasure to award the students who were voted by their class as members of the Student Representative Council.
There are two students from each class who are elected as SRC members. These students attend regular meetings with Miss Callanan, Miss French, Mrs Bongers and Miss Nasreddin. where they have the opportunity to discuss the learning environment of the school and their ideas for improvement.
Each month, representatives from the SRC will attend the School Council meeting to provide a report about their action.
LOCAL EXCURSIONS CONSENT FORM
In 2021, Murrumbeena Primary School teachers may take students outside school grounds to undertake educational activities in the local area. Local excursions are considered to be excursions to locations within walking distance of the school and do not involve ‘Adventure Activities’.
The students will have a paper copy of the consent form. Please return as soon as possible
TUTOR LEARNING INITIATIVE (TLI)
Our school has commenced the Tutoring program which is aimed at catching up the students, who despite their parents and teachers’ best efforts, fell behind as a result of the lengthy lockdown last year.
Our teachers constantly review students’ learning through a range of informal and formal assessments. We believe that assessment data today, identifies what we teach tomorrow. We have analysed year level cohort data sets to identify students who did not make the expected growth during that lockdown period. Those students have been identified for additional tutoring.
How Does the Tutoring Work?
The aim of the tutoring program is to identify the gaps in the students’ learning and target those areas of need in intensive bursts. Students may be in the tutoring program for as little as 6 weeks or as long as 26 weeks depending on the time it takes to ‘catch up.’
Students are identified based on a variety of data sets.
Tutors and teachers determine whether the tutoring support is best done within the classroom and within the context of the lesson or whether to withdraw a small group for targeted teaching.
The teacher develops an individual education plan (IEP) which clearly sets out the student’s learning goals to be achieved and the tutor and teacher implement strategies to target the child’s learning gaps. The IEP is reviewed by the teacher and tutor every three weeks to identify what has been learned as a result and to adjust the plan to target the next steps.
As students are selected for involvement in the TLI, we inform the parents by letter and invite conversation and involvement.