Dear parents,

On Friday last week I addressed the students at the school assembly and asked them to have a careful focus on four things while playing in the yard and attending school. The teachers and I have been managing an increasing number of incidents of rough play, students being excluded during play and students being targeted with mean comments.

As a result of this we are being especially vigilant in the yard and we are correcting behaviour when we see play that is rough, excludes others or if we hear of students being mean on purpose to one another. Conflict and disagreements during play are common and expected at the primary school age and we are here to support the students to navigate these differences positively as they mature. We use restorative conversations to support conflict resolution and always praise and encourage positive behaviour. There are times when behaviours need a firm approach when they do not meet our expectations. These include rough or violent play, students being mean on purpose and exclusions that causes significant distress for individuals. In instances like these, we restrict students access to the yard during playtime as a consequence or reduce other school privileges. This could look like a child being asked to walk with a teacher for a short period of time or a longer duration depending on the seriousness of the behaviour. The teachers and or myself will contact parents to develop some goals for correcting the behaviour together in some cases where we feel a collaborative approach with families is important.

This is always quite complex work and there are often a variety of perspectives and all sorts of reasons that negative behaviour occurs. This as a core part of our role and want to partner with you all to support our positive and inclusive school culture. Please encourage your children to talk to their teachers if they need support or have concerns in the yard and will be following this up.

Lastly, the fourth thing I asked student to focus on was being kind. Being kind to everyone; kind to their friends, kind to people they know and kind to people they don’t know.

Uniforms

As we move into the colder months, we are seeing a larger number of students wearing jumpers to schools. Please remind your children that a school jumper is required. I have noticed a small but increasing number of non-school uniform jumpers appearing in the yard.

A uniform policy which is implemented carefully aims to create an equitable learning environment, providing cost-effective garments over a student’s schooling, and ease the psychological pressure of competitive dressing. These are all positive aspects of what we’re trying to achieve. This small but significant part of the schooling experience is one of the foundations of our efforts to build collective school pride, reduce inequity and support our student sense of belonging.

If your child has specific needs in terms of uniform, we are more than happy to discuss this and make adjustments accordingly.

Trivia Night

Later in the term on Friday the 26th of May, the school council is hosting a parent trivia night at Jubilee Hall. It will be a night full of trivia, games and music led by the talented Bushy as trivia master and Blake on the decks. Bookings open now via the link below:

https://www.trybooking.com/CHWLB

Winter Solstice

On Friday 16th of June, we will be hosting the annual Winter Solstice bonfire night in Middle Gully. This night includes an arts exhibition in the JCB, lantern parade, bonfire and food in Middle Gully. It a fantastic tradition and fun family night. Stay tuned for more details.

Parent support in classrooms

We are calling for parent volunteers to support with student resourcing tasks and support in the classrooms. Volunteers would be working with and guided by our friendly educational support staff. All training will be provided, and both your time and work will be highly valued the entire Macedon Primary School community.

We are also keen to receive expressions from interest from any retired / teachers on leave to support with our MiniLit, reading support program. This program reaps outstanding rewards for our students who require additional support with their reading. The MiniLit program operates daily between 9.00am and 11.00am. We would appreciate any support you might be able to provide.

Please contact us at the front office, macedon.ps@education.vic.gov.au to express your interest and we will be in touch. We anticipate the volunteer program to run on a flexible basis and look forward to hearing from you.

Finally, wishing all the special mums in our community a very Happy Mothers Day for Sunday, hopefully you can spend some time with those you love.

Kind regards and Sampai jumpa (until next time),

Matt

Middle Gully Update