Principal's Message

Foundation Information Evening 2023

It was amazing to have our Information Evening in person last Thursday evening. We were blown away by how many families joined us to hear from our Foundation teachers and visit their child’s classroom. Next week students will get to spend the final orientation session with their teacher and in their 2023 classroom.

Our teachers for Foundation in 2023 will be Brooke Henwood FH, Tegan Kitteringham FK and Cassie Brisbane FB. Ella Gasowski will be taking leave to travel for 12 months and Jessica Tossell will be joining a different Learning Centre in 2023. 

Even so it was a sign of the true collegiality that we have at MPRPS&K that all teachers presented and supported each other on our Information Evening. Huge acknowledgement to Amy Millar who spoke about tricks for starting school. We are fortunate to have such an amazing parent community with both Flip McKinnon P&F and Bec Smith School Council President speaking at our Foundation Orientation sessions parents really value hearing from other parents.

Changes Coming for 2023

As presented at School Council, next year will see MPRPS introduce Science/STEM as our fifth Specialist class, this will allow us to meet the new Victorian Government Schools Agreement which introduced a reduction in face to face time for teachers, allowing more time for planning, collaboration and assessment. 

To facilitate this we will move to 50 minute sessions across our day with two sessions in the morning followed by lunch then two sessions followed by recess and then finish with two sessions. 

At this stage whole school assembly will be on a Monday afternoon 2.45 - 3.30. in 2023 with our Newsletter and student awards published the Friday before.

Public Speaking Competition

It was wonderful to see the talent that was on display during last week’s public speaking competition (Junior students presented last Wednesday and Senior students last Friday). The lead up to both of these days involved students writing, editing and practising their speeches before presenting their pieces in front of their class. Teachers then scored each speaker with one student from each class presenting before a larger audience. Lots of key features of what makes an engaging speech were evident, including an engaging start, middle and conclusion,  eye contact and scanning, gestures to emphasise key points, varied tone and pace as well as a projected voice. 

The following topics and first place getters for each learning centre were:

Foundation: ‘The best thing about being me’’

- Sanvitha Y

Year 1/2: 'If I could have a super power' 

- Jarrod L

Year 3/4: ‘If I ruled the world’ - Charlie W

Year 5/6: ‘How I see my future’ - Chris Y

We place a strong emphasis on speaking and listening at Mount Pleasant Road Primary and our public speaking program is just one way in which students are given the opportunity to deliver a prepared speech in front of an audience. This is indeed a life-long skill and one that students can continue to improve on, building their confidence as additional opportunities are provided for them into the future. It is always rewarding to see students persevere and try again across the years of our competitions. 

Year One Late Stay

Huge shout out to the Year 1 and 2 teachers for running a highly successful Late Stay from 5.00pm - 7.30pm. Students were involved in a range of activities, including parachute games, lego engineering, board games and obstacle courses. Of course a highlight is eating dinner together and the icy pole treat.

We look forward to the Year 2 Sleepover this Friday night. These two programs are the beginning of our Camping/Outdoor Education program.