Dear Parents and Guardians,

Next week is the last week of a very productive, yet long, term of learning for our students. I would like to pass on my huge thanks and appreciation for all partners involved to ensure such success for our children: our teachers, our Education Support Staff, our wellbeing team, our Principal Class team, our external partner ACT, our admin staff, our families including: mums, dads, carers, aunties, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, brothers and sisters and the children themselves. Through a combined effort of us all we have many more children engaged in their learning and producing quality work. Some of the people listed above were required to fulfill a specific role for teachers or students or families, which ensured more children had access, and the confidence to engage in, the online learning environment. Our structures and processes during Remote Learning 6.0 ensured all children have had access to support for the entire learning time.

R U OK Day: Today is R U OK Day. It is a day to reach out to others who may be not travelling as well as they normally would. By asking a simple question: Are you ok?, provides an opening for a conversation they may be putting off. The website https://www.ruok.org.au/what-were-about has a lot of valuable resources to help us support our friends, families and colleagues who may be struggling at this difficult time. The recognition of this day is important, and even more during this extended lockdown. The following link explains how you can get involved or support around having a genuine conversation. https://youtu.be/r3qE6vkbGJ4 . Our teachers will be acknowledging this day today (year 2s) or tomorrow (rest of school).

Remote Learning Week 10: Next week is the last week of Term 3 and, fingers crossed, last week of Remote Learning EVER – (however we do need to wait for an announcement in the coming weeks about this!). To ensure the teachers are fully prepared for learning in term 4, either on-site or remotely, they will spend some time next week planning as a team, taking into consideration the children’s learning from this term, as well as any data they have about students. To accommodate the need for teams to have time together to plan, they will not be available on WebEx after 12.00pm each day next week. They will, however, still provide enough learning tasks for the students each day as per the guidelines. Please ensure you encourage your child to join their WebEx link for assistance prior to 12.00pm if required from Monday 13th September to Friday 17th September.

NAPLAN Results: These were sent to families of children in year 3 and year 5 last week. If you have not received it by tomorrow, please call the office and we will arrange for a copy to be available for collection. Overall, our whole school results were pleasing, especially for our Year 5 students. We use these results to compare with the judgements teachers made about children’s learning on a daily basis and look for inconsistency. Once identified we determine where the next level of learning for an individual child or a group of children is. We will also use this information to incorporate in the Tutor Learning Initiative (Intervention) as well to ensure we can support children effectively.

Tutor Learning Initiative: One of our parents, Liz Darwish, has recently be featured of the Department of Education Website in a feature article on how the TLI has supported her children. Please take a read here: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/news/Pages/stories/2021/stories_tutoring-support-gives-parent-peace-of-mind.aspx This articled followed on from her speaking about the initiative at a recent Education State Forum. Thank you, Liz, for highlighting the success of this program from a parent perspective and speaking so highly of the work of everyone at Melton West PS.

School Review: Due to the current lockdown situation our School Review has been postponed to term 4. We will keep you up to date with further information as it becomes available.

Prep Enrolments for 2022: If you have a child in preschool, or is turning 5 before 30th April 2022, we are accepting enrolments for Prep 2022. Please call the office for details and to book an appointment with a member of the Principal Class team, either by phone or by WebEx. If you have family or friends with children who should start school next year, please encourage them to contact the school for a Prep Enrolment Pack and an interview time. Unfortunately we cannot do School Tours until things settle down. Once we get the all clear we will let everyone know because we are looking forward to showing everyone our school.

High Levels of Learning for All

Michelle Costa

Principal

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