Education News
FREE ACTIVITY DAY (F.A.D.) for Grades 5/6 on Thursday, 27th of October, 2022
We are looking forward to holding a Free Activity Day (F.A.D.) for our grade 5/6 students this year. This is one of our favourite days of the school year – a day where our older students select from a range of great activities and create themselves a timetable for a fantastic day of learning and fun. It’s been a long time since we could hold one!
F.A.D. requires students to develop skills in timetabling, making choices, trying new experiences and becoming independent learners. Sometimes students challenge themselves to take on a leadership role by running a task themselves.
Grade 5/6 students, teachers, parents, uncles, aunties, grandparents and friends of M.P.W. are invited to plan and run an interactive activity for small groups of students, who get to choose what they do on the day, creating their own timetable. All that’s required is some enthusiasm and a willingness to have a go (as well as a current Working with Children certificate, if you are an adult)!
What needs to happen for F.A.D. to work?
We need volunteers to come in and run something fun for the kids! Here are just some ideas for activities from previous successful F.A.D.s: sporting clinics (footy, hockey, netball etc.), cooking, tie-dyeing, drama games, trivia, drawing, karaoke, dance, organ dissection, soccer match/skills games, table tennis tournament, calligraphy, woodwork, crafts, card making, sushi/ pizza/ pasta making, construction, knitting or crotchet, basketball match/drills, puppetry, science experiments, aerobics, cartooning, jewellery making, hip hop, cartooning, learning a new board or card game, stop motion, sewing, making bookmarks…. you get the idea!
How do I get involved?
If you’re interested in running an activity on the day, please ask your child for a form and return it to Fiona in Room 8 by Friday 7th October.
MPW Show Day
Well done to our students for their efforts organising and running Show Day, it was a fantastic day and showcases the students’ creativity and sense of communal responsibility and community spirit. Again, it was great to see our families coming in to join in on the fun and learning experience this offers.
Thank you again to Nicola for putting together a Show Day video to celebrate the efforts of the day. We were able to watch this on the last day of term at assembly and it really highlighted the joy and learning the experience brings.
Jump Rope for Heart
What a great morning and afternoon it was for the Moonee Ponds West Jump Rope for Heart Day last term. The day was filled with many fun and challenging skipping activities. It was amazing to see students having so much fun and enjoying the different skipping activities as well as enjoying and dancing along to the music. It was also great to have the whole school together where classes skipped with their buddies and had a Healthy Eating Lunch Picnic on the Tiger Turf. On the day Moonee Ponds West had raised an amazing $7352.00 for the Heart Foundation. We thank the families for supporting students with this. Everyone who has raised money will receive a certificate for their amazing efforts of skipping and fundraising for such a great charity. Also all students who have participated in the Jump Rope for Heart Day and Program received a certificate for their participation. Thank you so much to the parent helpers who came and ran the activities on the day as well as preparing the awesome fruit skewers. Whole school events like these would not be possible without your support and help. Also a big thank you to those students in 5/6 for helping setup and pack up on the day. They helped me tremendously prepare for the day as well as run different activities.
Miranda
Cyber Safety
Next week is Stay smart online week and to acknowledge this with families here is some important information relating to cyber safety at MPW and in general at home.
With increasing access and use of technology, young people are facing more opportunities to engage in social media, online gaming and instant messaging (or online chat). Many of these have an age restriction of 13+ but are being used by our students. Unfortunately, school aged children do not fully understand the impact their comments or interactions online can have on their peers or themselves.
At Moonee Ponds West we educate and promote the safe and appropriate use of technology both in and outside of school. Part of this is the discussion and signing of the Digital Agreement document at the beginning of each year, and is constantly referred back to with students. Focus on cyber safety is generally incorporated with the hope of educating students in preventing online issues.
In order to continue highlighting the importance of safe and appropriate use of technology in our community, please find attached some information fact sheets and tip sheets that are well worth reading to remain informed.
Transition Day
The state-wide transition day is on Tuesday 13th December, this is when our students will move into their 2023 classes. Our year 6 students transition to their secondary school for year 7 orientation.