As I was preparing this week’s newsletter, I was reminded of just how many wonderful opportunities our students have here at Menzies Creek. None of this would be possible without the incredible support of our dedicated staff and the wider community, who work together to make these events so successful. Thank you all for the energy, care, and commitment you bring as it’s what makes the Menzies Creek community such a vibrant and special place to be.

Parent Opinion Survey

The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey is now open, and closes Friday 19 September 2025. All families are invited to participate in the survey. The survey is conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. Please come and see me or give me a call if you would like more information. Your feedback is important to us and will play a key role in shaping the future of our school.

To complete the survey, simply:

1. Click on the link or copy and paste the text into your browser. This link will take you directly to the survey: https://research.orima.com/parent

2. Select the School and Campus name below.

School Name: Menzies Creek Primary School

Campus Name: Menzies Creek Primary School

3. Enter the School PIN: 756462

4. When complete, please click on the ‘Submit’ button at the end of the survey to submit your answers. Please note that the survey will time out after 60 minutes of inactivity.

PLEASE NOTE: Only one parent / caregiver / guardian from your household is invited to complete the survey on behalf of the student’s family. Please reach out to your child’s teacher, or the school if your child’s family lives in two separate households, so both households can have the opportunity to provide their feedback. To protect your responses, please DO NOT share the survey link and PIN with others, or on a public website, forum or similar.

Please be assured that your responses are completely confidential. The survey is conducted anonymously, and it is important to our school that you complete the survey as honestly as possible. ORIMA Research, a private research company, is conducting this survey on behalf of the Department of Education. ORIMA Research Pty Ltd has not been and will not be provided with the contact details, names or any other personal identifying information about the parents / caregivers / guardians invited to complete the survey.

The department, the survey supplier (ORIMA Research) and the school can never personally identify you, or see your responses linked with the PIN.

The department and ORIMA protect your responses in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic). ORIMA Research also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021, as well as relevant State and Territory legislation. For more information, please visit ORIMA’s Privacy Policy here: http://www.orima.com.au/home/privacy-policy and the department’s Schools' Privacy Policy here: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/schoolsprivacypolicy.aspx.

Book Week

It was fabulous to see lots of book characters arrive at school on Tuesday morning. Thank you for attending the parade and I hope you enjoyed seeing the student’s excitement in connecting with the book characters as much as I did. To add to the fun, the students were tasked with finding ‘Wally’ during their recess and lunch breaks, as there were 12 hiding around the school grounds. This is when I found out just how competitive the students can be! The race was on! It was great to see the students working together to locate even the sneaky 13th Wally, with most students submitting their answers by the end of the day. This was not a compulsory activity, with the results being announced tomorrow at assembly. Well done to all the students who had a go – I thought Kate K and I made it challenging, but your eagle eyes spotted them all! 👏👏👏👏

Menzies Creek Second-Hand Book Sale

Our book sale was a huge success, and again I would like to thank Maya from grade 5 for showing initiative, organising and running this event.

A fabulous suggestion was made to create a second-hand book shop within the school, where families can drop off books and the community can come in and purchase books at leisure. This is a great idea which we will be implementing with the upgrade to our admin area. Again – watch this space and we will let you know when this is up and running!

School Values

Our students have been deeply engaged in thoughtful discussions about our current school values, what they mean to them, which ones they feel are most important, and which might be added or adjusted, along with their reasons why. This process has been a wonderful opportunity for student voice and reflection. Our goal is to re-establish strong, shared values that guide everything we do at Menzies Creek Primary School; values that are clearly understood and embraced by our entire school community.

We’re excited to share that in our next school newsletter, we will officially announce our new school values! This is a significant and meaningful step for our school, and a chance for us all to reflect on what truly matters to us as a community.

5/6 Market and Excursion

This term, our Year 5/6 students have been working diligently to develop their ideas for the Market Stall. From designing and creating their products, to producing marketing flyers and setting up their stalls, all the preparation was driven by the students themselves. The big sale was a fantastic success, and with the sun shining, the afternoon was even more enjoyable! A huge congratulations to our students for their creativity and effort, and to the staff for their support in making the Market Stall such a memorable event.

The following day, our 5/6 students visited Parliament House as part of their Inquiry learning in Civics and Citizenship. This excursion supported their investigations into the values and features of Australia’s democratic institutions and systems, including the three levels of government and our electoral processes. They also explored the roles and responsibilities of key institutions, how legislation is created, and the importance of law enforcement. Once again, our students did us proud with their exemplary behaviour and genuine engagement throughout the excursion.

Assembly

Our next assembly will be held tomorrow, 22nd August at 3:00pm in the multi.

Plot to pot (with a bit of book week)