Dear parents,

We warmly welcome all the students and staff back to school after the Easter break. I hope you all had a chance to enjoy some of the recent glorious weather spent some quality time with your family.

Pupil Free Day Monday 23rd of April – Student Voice

On Monday our school staff teaching, and integration support team engaged in some profession learning about increasing the amount of student voice we incorporate into our teaching and learning program.

Our definition of student voice is to give students the opportunity to:

Share thoughts & ideas in an environment underpinned by trust and respect.
Offer realistic suggestions for the good of the whole class or school.
Accept responsibility for not only what is said but also what needs to be done.

We know from extensive research in classrooms that when students have a voice, they are three times more likely to experience self-worth in school, five times more likely to experience engagement in school and five times more likely to experience purpose in school.

We are being supported by this work by the Quaglia institute with select staff attending a series of interactive workshops to support us to build our understanding.

We look forward to this work impacting our classrooms and students in a positive way.

Middle Gully

I would like to thank John Ewels for his ongoing support with the Middle Gully maintenance. There has been a few running repairs needed to the maze which John has been taking care of for us. Unfortunately, we have had some vandalism in the area prior to the easter break and again in the first week of the holidays.

Community Events

We have some exciting community events planned for parents and families this term starting this Saturday 29th of April where we have the Macedon Farmers’ Market on the oval between 9am and 1pm. For this market we have teamed up with the Macedon Ranges Shire Council to host Macedon Ranges Autumn Festival Finale

https://www.visitmacedonranges.com/events/macedon-autumn-farmers-market/

Later in the term on Friday the 26th of May, the school council is hosting a parent trivia night at Jubilee Hall. It will be a night full of trivia, games and music led by the talented Bushy as trivia master and Blake on the decks. We will provide more details on how to reserve your table or place later this week.

Finally, on Friday 16th of June, we will be hosting the annual Winter Solstice bonfire night in Middle Gully. This night includes an arts exhibition in the JCB, lantern parade, bonfire and food in Middle Gully. It a fantastic tradition and fun family night. Stay tuned for more details.

Parent support in classrooms

We are calling for parent volunteers to support with student resourcing tasks and support in the classrooms. Volunteers would be working with and guided by our friendly educational support staff. All training will be provided, and both your time and work will be highly valued the entire Macedon Primary School community.

We are also keen to receive expressions from interest from any retired / teachers on leave to support with our MiniLit, reading support program. This program reaps outstanding rewards for our students who require additional support with their reading. The MiniLit program operates daily between 9.00am and 11.00am. We would appreciate any support you might be able to provide.

Please contact us at the front office, macedon.ps@education.vic.gov.au to express your interest and we will be in touch. We anticipate the volunteer program to run on a flexible basis and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards and Sampai jumpa (until next time),

Matt

Forest School