From the Principal's Desk

Week 3

Congratulations to Olivia O on a great week representing the North West at the NSW PSSA Tennis trials. Olivia had a wonderful time showcasing her skills against the states best.

Well done to all our students who attended the Armidale PSSA Football trials on Friday. Congratulations to Beau Matthew, Nixon and Evie who have been selected to attend the Northwest trails.

Goodluck to Josh and Pippa who are heading to Newcastle next week to play hockey for the Northwest teams in the PSSA State Championships. We look forward to hearing how you go.

This week we saw our Athletics skills sessions being run by Jay Stone. This will be for all classes and will run every Tuesday until the end of the term.

Next Monday, MGPS will be moving to use the platform School Bytes for all communication and payments. This is because COMPASS is now School Bytes. This will mean that as of Monday 19 May, you will need to download the School Bytes Parent App.

Our PAX word of the fortnight is considerate. We learn in our PAX lessons how we can use You Can Do It and Zones of Regulation with PAX to be the best we can be every day. It's great to chat to your child about what our PAX words are and what they mean so we can make those school and home links. Mrs Pennington and Mrs Polson always add great parent tips and information to help.

Mother's Day Stall and Open Classrooms

On Friday 9 May, we had a wonderful day picking gifts and sharing our learning with our mums, aunties, grandmas and friends. Thank you to our P&C for all your tireless work. We really appreciate it!

Parents PAX Session and DISCO

Mrs Pennington is running a PAX Tools workshop for all parents about using simple strategies to support behaviour and maintain positive relationships at home.

The workshop will be held tonight - Wednesday 14th May from 5:30-6:30pm in the K/1 Magpies classroom.

Reminder Disco Fundraiser

We are helping to raise awareness and find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

This cause is very close to home, with Rory recently being diagnosed earlier this year.

Duchenne is the most common progressive muscle wasting disease in childhood, affecting mostly young boys. There are 1000 boys living with Duchenne across Australia.

Boys (and very rare girls) learn how to walk and run like any other child, then Duchenne takes it away.

Erin is hoping to fundraise $5000 for Save Our Sons Duchenne Foundation by running in the City to Surf, to help give those affected by Duchenne the chance to live the life they deserve.

All proceeds for the disco will go to this wonderful cause and we will be running future events throughout the year.

If you would like to make an extra donation please go to

ESafety

This week it has come to our attention that a lot of our students in years 3-6 are using Messenger Kids and have been receiving information via chain messages that are extremely disturbing and frightening for our young people. We believe the best approach to protecting our students is to educate both them and their carers. The eSafety Commission has fantastic information on this topic and I have included the link to assist parents to navigate todays ever changing social media world.

PAX Good Behaviour Game (PAX GBG)

PAX GBG is a set of proven instructional and behavioural strategies used daily by teachers and students in our classrooms – delivered as a fun, easy-to-follow game. This universal prevention approach improves classroom behaviour and academic outcomes, and has been shown to provide a lifetime of benefits for every child by improving self-regulation and co-regulation with peers.

Please watch the clip below for more information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL2I5_LXV1A

Walk Safely to School Day will be held on Friday 16 May 2025.

This day is a great opportunity for families to walk to school together and have conversations about being a safe road user.

Here are some tips to help make walking to school a regular part of your routine:

Plan your route: Take some time to plan the safest and most convenient route to walk to school. Consider pedestrian crossings, footpaths, and traffic lights.

Set a schedule: Decide on the days and times you'll walk to school each week. Consistency is key to forming a new habit. Try to stick to your schedule as much as possible.

Safety first:

ALWAYS hold your child’s hand until they are at least 8 years old. Closely supervise them until they are at least 10 years old.

ALWAYS hold your child's hand:

when on the footpath
when crossing the road or
when in a car park

Teach your child about being a safe pedestrian: This includes watching out for driveways, walking facing traffic when there are no footpaths and always Stop, Look, Listen, Think, every time you cross the road.

Avoid distractions: Set a good example by putting your phone away. Focus on your surroundings. If you need to use your phone, stop in a safe place.

Make it fun: Keep the walks enjoyable by talking about what you see and about your day. This can help make the time go quickly and make walking to school something your child looks forward to.

Join forces: Coordinate with other families in your neighbourhood to walk to school together. Not only does this make it more fun for the kids, but it also provides additional safety in numbers.

Celebrate achievements: Celebrate achievements along the way to keep motivation high. Whether it's reaching a certain number of walks or noticing improvements in fitness, acknowledging progress can help reinforce the habit.

Practise, Practise, Practise: The more supervised pedestrian experiences your child can get the better, so they will be ready to safely travel by themselves when they are older.

National Road Safety Week – 11–18 May

National Road Safety Week encourages all road-users and pedestrians to learn road safety.

I have noticed there are a lot of parents and students crossing the road of an afternoon near the bus zone. Can I please encourage you to take your children to a safer spot to cross rather than behind buses as they are pulled up or between buses. I have witnessed some very close calls over the last week.

Attendance

When school communities have high expectations of their students, they achieve greater outcomes.

High expectations are creating a place where students want to be, parents/carers are happy to send them, and teachers/staff have a desire to excel.

High expectations for attendance are: a 95% attendance rate, which is 10 days or less absences a year.

Currently our MGPS attendance rate is 93.7%. Let's keep working together to keep this great!

Enjoy your week.

Peta Deiderick