Acting Principal's Report 

I acknowledge the First Peoples of our nation and the traditional custodians of the land on which our beautiful school stands, The Wathaurong people. I pay my respects to the Wathaurong people and acknowledge their contribution and care of the land and waters on which our school community works and lives. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge and thank all First Nations people within the Miners Rest School Community.

End of Year Celebrations

It is wonderful to see our staff & students, across all year levels, enjoying many extra-curricular activities at this time of the year.  It has been such a busy and rewarding year with great focus on student learning achievements from Kindergarten to Year Six - we have truly maximised our learning opportunities with our first complete year of learning onsite since 2019.  It’s time for staff and students, as well as our families, to reflect and enjoy special events together to see out the school year of 2022.

  • Congratulations to our Year Six students in our graduating class of 2022!  The students will celebrate together with a formal ceremony at school, next Monday 12th December.  We will share the scholarship winners at our Presentation Night, Wednesday 14th December, as well as hear their very special Graduation Song.
  • Our Presentation Evening is Wednesday 14th December.  At 5:30pm we warmly invite families onto the Medwell Oval to enjoy a family picnic (weather permitting), followed by the formal part of the evening, including class carols, from 6:00pm.

2022/23 Curriculum Contributions

We are sincerely grateful to families who are financial for the 2022 school year.  As you are all aware, it is the parent contributions that make a good school great, and further support students to undertake schooling in an improved setting and with the resources they deserve.

You can't get a cheaper education!  Relative to pre-schools, kindergartens, secondary & tertiary settings, primary schools offer extremely affordable educational environments for your child's most important and formative years.

Our school council have set our curriculum contribution for 2023 at $250.00 ($62.50 per term).  It is critical these contributions are paid early in the school year, for students to maximise the benefit to their learning and school experiences throughout the year.

The approved Curriculum Contributions policy, is attached below and will be sent out early next year also. 

2023 Specialists

We are extremely excited to be offering 4 specialist areas within our curriculum for 2023. STEM, PE and Visual Arts will be continuing on a weekly basis in 2023, with the addition of Performing Arts for all children F-6 on a fortnightly basis. Performing Arts is returning as fortnightly sessions, rather than weekly for 2023, to ensure Miners Rest Primary School is aligned with the Victorian Government School Agreement. We are so very fortunate to welcome Mrs Megan Polson back to Performing Arts in 2023!

Our Kitchen Garden Program remains a vision in our long-term plan. Due to budget constraints, this highly valued program will not be part of our offered 2023 curriculum. We will however, continue working toward a planned return for this very engaging program in the future.

2023 Key Events / Dates

In the coming weeks, you will notice on our front digital school signage some key dates of note, for 2023.  Our Curriculum Days and School Camps dates have been set and are shared below, I hope this assists with your own planning of family vacations and work requirements:

2023 Curriculum Days

  1. Friday 27 January: First day of school year (staff only)
  2. Curriculum Focus: Data Literacy (Friday March 10)
  3. Curriculum Focus: Inclusion & Engagement (Monday April 24)
  4. Curriculum Focus: Literacy (Monday May 22)
  5. Curriculum Focus: Assessment & Reporting (Monday November 6)
  6. Wednesday 20 December: Final day of school year (staff only) – student file transfer & 2024 readiness 

2023 Camp Dates

A big thank you to families who attended the Camp Forum on Wednesday November 23rd. The Camping Program is important to our school community, and we have considered every option to maintain this experience, while also adhering to the 2022 Victorian Government School Agreement.  Following endorsement from School Council, the Miners Rest Primary School Camping Program will continue in its current form for 2023.  Funding from the school will be sourced to provide a subsidy to the camp costs across Years 2-6, with the aim to make all camp experiences manageable for all families.  Approximate costings for the 2023 camps will be made available next week.

Year level

Camp

Dates

2

School Sleepover

TBC

3

Cave Hill Creek

23-25 August

4

Wyuna, Queenscliff

17-19 May

5

Norval, Grampians

16-20 October

6

Canberra

9-13 October

Year Book

It's wonderful to see our school community purchasing Year Books.  Thanks to Mrs Bleicher for her coordination and all the wonderful input from staff and students in making it such a valuable memory and keep-sake.