Principal's Report
Dear families and friends of MPW
What a turn out we had yesterday for our Book Week Dress Up day! It was great to see everyone getting into the spirit and coming to school as their favourite book characters. There was a great range of characters represented across the students and staff. Some even worked together to theme with their friends, even the 5/6 teachers came together as characters from Charlotte’s Web.
Book week is the focus this week, and love of reading. Literature is a highlight of this week’s reading and library sessions. Winners of the Book of the Year for 2024 can be found on the Children’s Book Council website: https://cbca.org.au/winners-2024/
On a personal note, I was asked many times why I was dressed early for Christmas, and I did have to remind some students that ‘How the Grinch stole Christmas!’ was a book first and a movie second. My daughter, Lucia, themed with me this year by going as Max, the Grinch’s dog companion, to her dress up day.
NAPLAN
The national and state NAPLAN data has now been released and comparisons are available for the school to evaluate our performance.
I am pleased to share that MPW has achieved results above the state in all areas of NAPLAN for both years 3 and 5. We received strong results of student performance in the Exceeding and Strong proficiency levels for Year 3 Writing and Numeracy and for Year 5 Reading, Writing and Numeracy.
We also performed relatively the same as similar schools and generally higher than network schools.
There was also an increase in the number of students who scored in the Exceeding proficiency in Year 3 Reading and Numeracy and in Year 5 Reading, Writing and Numeracy.
We are continuing to celebrate the achievements and look for areas of future focus based on this current year’s data and trends over the past couple of years.
Parent Opinion Survey
Just a friendly reminder that the Parent Opinion Survey is open for all families this year. You will have received an invite a couple of weeks ago. We encourage you to take 15 minutes to complete the survey. It helps the school gauge the perspectives of families regarding areas of student engagement and wellbeing. The survey closes next Friday, 30th August. Please contact the office if you need support accessing the survey.
Father’s Day Open Morning
Father’s Day is coming up and to acknowledge, we will be opening classrooms for our dads, grand dads or special person next Friday morning, 30th August, to engage in some activities, shared experience with their child(ren) from between 8:50am and around 9:30am. We will also be drawing a special Father’s Day raffle at assembly on Monday morning after Father’s Day. All students will be entered into the draw.
SEDA Basketball Clinics
It was great to see students from SEDA College come out to the school again this year (last Friday and this Friday) to run basketball clinics with students. Students are having a fun time outside developing their basketball skills. Thanks to Bree for her organisation of this opportunity for our students as part of our Physical Education program.
School Planning for 2025
It is that time of the year where we are beginning to plan for the 2025 school year, offers to our future foundation families have been distributed and acceptances are coming in, many very excited to be joining the MPW school community.
We do ask that if you are planning on your child(ren) not being at Moonee Ponds West in 2025 that you please complete the form below and return to the office or email to: moonee.ponds.west.ps@education.vic.gov.au
SunSmart- Hats are back for Spring
Finally, as we move out of the winter months and move back into (hopefully) some warmer days, from the beginning of September we ask that students again bring their hats to school. As part of our SunSmart policy, students are required to wear their hats outside. We will begin reminding students at assembly. All hats should be worn from Monday 2nd September.
Regards,
Jarrod Sutton
Principal