Our fantastic start to the school year has continued over the last fortnight and it has been wonderful seeing students across all year levels so settled and engaged in their learning.

A particular highlight was our Open Classroom event last week. It was lovely to see families back in the school ground and engaging with teachers and each other. Thank you to everyone for coming along to the afternoon event and playing your part in creating a positive school culture. If you were unable to make the Open Classroom event and would like an opportunity to touch base with your child’s teacher, please do not hesitate to reach out and make an appointment.

This week we said goodbye to our Year 4 students as they travelled to Anglesea for their camp experience. All reports tell us the students are having an amazing time surfing, canoeing, and enjoying other outdoor activities. We look forward to hearing about their adventures when they return.

Introducing Our 2022 School Leaders

We will be formally introducing our School Leaders and House Captains at assembly when we are able to, however, in the meantime, we would like to introduce you to the school leaders. Please read through the newsletter to find an introductory letter from our School Leaders and our Koorie Councillor.

School Captains

Gabriel Artigas

Hidaya Sabawi

Roisin Collins

Amy Yao

Koorie Councillor

Tristan West

House Captains

Blue - Finn Cubitt and Tim Lu

Green - Emily Adams and Cassia Treleavan

Red - Aarav Rajeev and Saiya Zhao

Yellow - Geoffrey Trevena and Izzy Ball

We look forward to working together with all these students to make sure our school can be the best it can be!

School Council Election

Ballot papers for the school council election have been distributed to families via students. Please ensure you return your ballot paper to the front office by 4.00 pm on Monday 28th February to ensure your vote counts.

School Review

This week sees the beginning of our School Review. Our review panel is made up of Reviewer - Fiona Longmuir, Senior Education Improvement Leader - Natalie Bakai, School Council President – Melinda Green, and challenge partners Ciar Foster - Principal University High School and Kay Willmott - Principal Footscray North Primary School. Our own NMPS leadership team will be joining the panel throughout the duration of the review.

The review will involve an examination of data sets, and interviews with focus groups of students, teachers and parents/carers. Following these sessions, findings and goals will determine the direction of the next school strategic plan. More information regarding parent focus groups will be shared via Compass in the upcoming weeks.

Collecting the views of Prep families on their child’s transition to school

Families of children who have started their foundation year of school in 2022 can complete a short voluntary survey (link below) to share their recent experiences of starting school. The short 5-minute survey is now open and will close on Monday 14 March 2022.

The survey will help the Department of Education and Training better understand the experience of children and their families as they transition from early childhood settings to school.

The survey is confidential. This means information about you, your child, and school will not be shared with the Department of Education and Training. Only general findings will be shared, and you will not be identified.

New Campus Update

You’ll notice our new campus building is making great progress with Albert the crane having been particularly busy lending a hand over the summer holidays. As the building structure takes shape, we’re also looking forward to the additional outdoor learning and play areas the new campus will bring for all of our students to enjoy.

Our outdoor spaces will feature sustainable design. This means the plants and trees will be water efficient and include lots of species that local birds and insects love. The trees will provide us with shade so that we can enjoy playing and learning alongside nature in beautiful outdoor spaces as well as our indoor spaces.

The site map shows where the campus building work is happening and where the ground level outdoor play space is located on the site.

A reminder to families that our school zone will be released on the Find My School website during 2022. We’ll keep you posted when that’s announced.

Traffic Safety and Management

To ensure the safety of all our students and community members, we need to work together to manage the traffic and safety of everyone around the school.

To ease traffic congestion around the school at arrival and dismissal times, we ask that where possible families walk to drop off and collect their children. If driving is the only option, we ask that families park in surrounding streets and walk the short distance to the school gates.

If you are using the ‘kiss and drop’ zones at school, please ensure you follow the below example which explains the kiss and drop procedure. Please note, there is no parking between 7:30am and 9:30am in the drop off and pick up zone along Murphy Street and Harcourt Street. This is a 2 minute drop off zone only.

Stay and play