Dear families and friends of MPW

With only four weeks left this term, we are speeding along to the end of the 2024 school year. There are a large number of events planned for the remaining weeks of the term. There is a list below to help you keep on top of what is happening.

Pizza Day – Tuesday 3rd Dec
MPW Colour Fun Run- Fri 6th Dec
Whole School Orientation/Transition Day- Tues 10th Dec
Parent Helpers Morning Tea- Thurs 12th Dec 11am
Official celebration of the completion of the Capital Works- TBC
Semester 2 Reports Published- Fri 13th Dec
Graduation- Tues 17th Dec
5/6 Picnic- Thurs 19th Dec
Last Day of term Assembly 12.30pm on Tiger Turf
Last day of Term- 1.30pm Dismissal

We look forward to an exciting and busy end to the year!

Congratulations to our students who performed at the MVIMP combined concert last Thursday at the Clock Tower in Moonee Ponds. Students begun the day with rehearsals followed by their matinee performance. Students then returned to the venue at 6.30pm for their evening performance and a fully filled auditorium.

Both performances were amazing and are a testament to the efforts of the students and tutors throughout the year. The culmination of the combined band at the end of the night was a wonderful way to end the concert.

We sadly farewell Lex, the MVIMP Band tutor, who will not be returning to the program next year. Lex has been an instrumental part of the MVIMP program for many years.

I would like to acknowledge the efforts of William from Room 15 and Lachlan from Room 18 for their achievements in the 2024 National Poetry Forest competition. Out of over 5,400 entries, William was shortlisted in the Threatened Species category, and Lachlan was shortlisted and won the Lower Primary (F-3) category. This is great achievement for both boys to be recognised at a national level as shortlisted finalists. Congratulations to both William and Lachlan.

The boys shared at this week’s assembly, talking about the competition and the announcement of their efforts. Both poems were shared at assembly.

The Read Room Poetry website has published their poems, these can be accessed here:

Waiting- by Lachlan

Snapping Turtle – by William

Capital Works update

We continue to setup the new spaces in the Library building. We are working through the storage container and other storage spaces to re-establish the library, Japanese and Art Room. New furniture should be delivered over the next fortnight to support the setup of these spaces ready for 2025.

There will be some final works completed over January, including restoration works to the roofing of the Hall and Library building, and restoration of the Basketball court synthetic turf area to repair damaged areas.

There will be a period of time over the school holidays where access to the school grounds will be limited or closed to the community to allow for these works to occur. This will be communicated before the end of the school year once dates of the works are confirmed.

Camp Australia will not be running their January holiday program at MPW to avoid these works, they will promote the venue once they have confirmed this.

We hope this will be the last disruption to access in these spaces to finish the building works.

Official Celebration for the completion of the Capital Works Program

We are planning to officially commemorate the opening of the new refurbished spaces and playground areas that have been completed this year as part of the capital works program. This will hopefully be in the second week of December, depending on availability of guests. We are hoping for the Education Minister, local MP, representatives from the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA), Amity (builders) and BSPN (architects) to all be in attendance.

We will begin with a special assembly to be held in the gym to acknowledge the program and officially open the spaces. There will then be an opportunity for classes and parents to walk through the Library building to view the new spaces.

Parent Helpers Morning Tea

To show our appreciation, we will be holding our Parent Helpers Morning Tea for those parents who have helped this year, whether it be helping in the classroom, supporting an excursion or camp, volunteering at a fundraising event or assisting at sporting events. The special morning tea is on Thursday 12th December at 11am-12pm in the gym.

2025 Book Lists

You will soon receive a hard copy and a Compass notification regarding the 2025 Book List. Teams have been working to identify the essential items that students will need for next year, providing the option for some items to be purchased optionally through the portal or brought from home. Whilst items on the list are essential and required for the 2025 school year, this year, there will be an option for you to reduce quantities for items purchased through COS. The purpose of this is to allow you to manage any stationary you may already have and only require ‘topping up’ the quantities to ensure you have enough as per the requirement for the year.

The aim is to ensure students have what they need, with some items that may already be purchased to be carried over from year to year.

We ask that students have their materials ready for the first day of the 2025 school year.

Transition Day

Finally, our school wide Transition Day is on Tuesday 10th December. This is where students move up to their 2025 class for the morning session to get to know their classmates and teacher for next year. Our year 6 students head off for transition at their high school and our 2025 Foundation students join us.

Semester Reports- Mathematics

Our Semester 2 reports will be published on Compass on Friday 13th December. There is a change to the reporting of mathematics in Victorian Government schools. Information regarding this can be found in the attached letter.

Online Safety

I have included some information and links to the eSafety Commissioner’s website in the Wellbeing section of the newsletter. I have tried to provide some quick access points for parents and carers to access information, resources, places for support and free online webinars provided by the eSafety website. I encourage parents and families to have a look at this information as a support.

School Saving Bonus Update

Further to the information about the new School Saving Bonus that has been previously shared with families, you can read more about it here: https://www.vic.gov.au/receiving-school-saving-bonus

As this program is being implemented for the first time, we know families will have queries and questions. Families get to decide how best to use this $400 to suit your needs. A step-by-step user guide can be found here: https://content.sdp.education.vic.gov.au/media/school-saving-bonus-system-guide-for-parents-and-carers-2975 or there is a video here: https://vimeo.com/1032194830

You will receive an email from the Department of Education with your unique $400 School Saving Bonus code. The School Saving Bonus will help families cover the cost of uniforms, textbooks, excursions, activities and more. A School Saving Bonus email will be sent per child, so parents and carers with multiple children will get an email for each child in their family. The emails may arrive at different times.

Please make sure to check your spam/junk email folder. If the email is not in your inbox by 29 November 2024, please email school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au

We ask that you please ensure you read through the website above beforehand to assist us in helping families understand the process.

Regards,

Jarrod

Principal

Community Calendar

December

January

February