Principal's Report

Dear families and friends of MPW,

Well, we are already at the end of November. The end of the year is quickly approaching!

I was fortunate enough last week to attend the 3/4 excursion to the Botanical Gardens with Room 14. Luckily it was a nice morning, and we had great time walking around the beautiful gardens learning about how nature can support our wellbeing. We had a great day out!

MVIMP Combined Concert

Congratulations to our students who performed at the MVIMP combined concert 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.

Farewells for 2025

It is with sadness, I announce that Elisha will be vacating the Assistant Principal position at the end of the year. Elisha and her family have decided on a sea change down the coast. Elisha has supported and continued the development of our Disability Inclusion and Wellbeing frameworks and led the process for developing the updates to our school values. I thank her for her achievements and support of MPW the past two years.

We have just finalised the appointment of Elisha’s replacement, and I am pleased to announce that Anna Gbikpi-Benissan will begin in the Assistant Principal role at the beginning of 2026. Elisha will be conducting some handover days before the end of the year to support her transition into the role. Anna is extremely excited to join the MPW community.

We also say farewell to Ally Swift, who has taken up a career opportunity to support establishing an Allied Health Hub at one of her other schools, this means she won’t have the capacity to continue with us. I thank Ally for her work over the past few years, working with staff to support our students.

Grade 6 Graduation

Our year 6 graduation has been set for Tuesday 16th December. It will again be held in the gym this year. The 5/6 team has been working with students on the running of the night, organising the Year 6 writing piece and their performances for the night. Information about graduation has been sent out from the team to our year 6 families outlining the running of the night.

Susan McLean Cyber Safety Student Sessions

Susan McLean will be back out to work with our year 3 to 6 students about their understandings of all thing’s cyber safety and online behaviours. During the session students will be tasked with taking notes and bringing home the information to discuss with their families. For parents the key message is to know what your child is doing online and ensure they come to you if they experience any problems.

I hope your child finds this session valuable and share their learning and take aways from the session with you.

Susan will then be running the Parent Information session in the evening, 7pm in the gym. It is not too late to grab your tickets from Eventbrite.

We haven’t reached capacity, so we will be extending an invitation to the wider community at Moonee Ponds Primary School to share the opportunity to learn from Susan.

Parent Helpers Afternoon Tea

To show our appreciation, we will be holding our Parent Helpers Afternoon 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 afternoon tea is on Thursday 12th December at 2.00pm in the Performance Space, invitations will be sent out next week.

Changes to School’s Digital Device Usage

From 2027, the Victorian Government is introducing changes to the use of digital devices for students from Prep to Grade 6. Under the new guidelines, schools:

will no longer invite families to purchase or bring their own digital devices to use at school for Prep to Grade 6
will follow new recommended digital device times, including minimal device time for Prep to Grade 2; and a maximum of 90 minutes per day for grades 3 to 6.
students with disability who use a digital device as a reasonable adjustment are exempt from these changes.

These changes are intended to support families by reducing cost-of-living pressures. They will also support students by reducing screen-time which can reduce the risk of eye strain, sedentary behaviour, and reduced peer interaction. These reforms compliment Victoria’s nation-leading mobile phone restrictions, ensuring an integrated approach to addressing digital distraction and the inappropriate use of technology.

As you would be aware, at MPW we already provide school-leased digital devices for student learning, so there is no impact on our school’s offering as we do not have a BYOD program.

We are already considerate of student’s use of technology throughout the school day, so other implications on screen time will require minimal changes as well.

You can read more about the changes on the department’s website: Digital Learning: Policy

What’s coming up for the end of year

With only four weeks left this term, there are a 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.

Community Summer Picnic- Friday 28th November
Race Around Melbourne (5/6s) - Tuesday 2nd December
Pizza Day – Monday 8th December
MPW Fun Run - Friday 12th December (local event)
Whole School Orientation/Transition Day- Tuesday 9th December
Parent Helpers Afternoon Tea- Thursday 11th December 2.30pm
Semester 2 Reports Published- Friday 12th December
Graduation- Tuesday 16th December
5/6 Picnic- Thursday 18th December
Friday 19th December - Last Day of term Assembly 12.30pm, dismissal at 1.30pm

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

Regards,

Jarrod Sutton

Principal