Principal's Report 

Dear families and friends of MPW,

This is our last newsletter for the year, and hasn’t it felt like it has gone quickly! It has been a busy, fun and rewarding year in many ways. The Capital Works planning has been finalised and the builders have commenced onsite. Attached are artistic renders of some of the spaces shared on Compass last week.

I would like to thank the teaching, education support and administration staff who have continued to strive for the best learning outcomes for all students in the school. Being able to continue to rebuild towards our usual school events, including open classroom sessions, parent mornings and camps and excursions has provided positive feedback our way.  Working together, the relationships between school and home is extremely important to ensure we continue to do our very best for all.  

I would like to acknowledge the work of Amanda Elmer and Jenny Strouzas this year in supporting the Acting Assistant Principal role. We look forward to Elisha taking up this substantive role in 2024.

I would like to also acknowledge the contributions of Lauren Klymenko, who had been at MPW for 7 years and made the hard decision to move to a school closer to home this year. I would like to congratulate and thank Marg Wright, who will be retiring at the end of this year. Marg has had an extensive career in education and more recently at MPW in the intervention role. I would also like to acknowledge Liz Jackson, Jamie Harding and Alyena Mohummadally who won’t be with us for the 2024 school year.

And thank you to all of our parents who have been able to help the school throughout the year to ensure the best opportunities can be offered for our students, including our Parent Class Representatives, parent volunteers for camp/excursions/school event, classroom helpers, volunteers for fundraising and our School Council members. Without this support, many of these activities wouldn’t be achievable or to the standard that we are able to offer.

Next year we welcome Lachlan Meyer and Daniel English to the MPW team. Congratulations to Sophie Hedditch, Hayley Wedge, Jasmin Fiske, Kate Lavender, Robyn Patrick and Kellie Meehan who have all secured contracts with us again next year. We are still finalising our staffing profile with two positions yet to be filled as of today. We are hopeful that these will be filled by the end of the year. Those classes with a ‘to be confirmed’ teacher will be notified as soon as we have confirmation.

Families leaving MPW 

As the school year ends, we will be saying farewell to families who have had a long association with the school over time.  I would like to thank our departing families for their support, encouragement and contribution over the years.  

Congratulations and best of luck to our year 6 students who move on to the next stage of their education.

Class Placement for 2024

Today, we had our transition morning. Your child was able to meet their class and teacher for 2024. The morning was full of excitement. We have placed all students with at least one friend from their list. Teachers have taken significant time over many weeks to consider social and academic mix of the students and we have considered the important information provided by all to best place students for next year. The session ran smoothly this morning.

We ask that parents be mindful, as this process is extensive (with a range of information provided from many families for consideration) and at times students and parents may not be happy with their placement initially, that you support your child to focus on the positive aspects of their placement for next year. 

Semester 2 Reporting

Tomorrow the semester 2 reports will be published on Compass. 

I wanted to remind parents about the reporting review that has occurred this year with staff and parents through the Education Sub-committee. We have taken onboard the feedback provided and have made some adjustments for this Semester’s reporting, in particular the formal Semester Report is to include more specific comments about student achievement and future learning needs.

In summary, the key changes to reporting are:

A literacy and a numeracy Ongoing Reporting task in Terms 3 and 4

Specialist Ongoing reporting task in Term 3

End of Term Progress Reports (behaviour and effort) continue each term.

The formal Semester Report will now have: 2-3 dot points of specific learning achievement commentary and 1-2 dot points of next steps for learning for Reading, Writing and Number; a general comment that covers personal, social, and overall learning dispositions for the semester; an Inquiry comment covering learning and achievement for Terms 3 and 4 Inquiry units; Specialist areas will include an overview of the units covered, statement of achievement in Semester 2.

To support families in getting the most out of the report itself, we have developed some documentation that will explain the reporting elements, how to read the different components included in the report and how to access these on Compass. We are hoping that this document will provide families with a more meaningful Semester Report. 

Year 6 Graduation

Friday December 15th is our Year 6 Graduation.  We welcome parents/carers back onsite again for this significant night for students. 

The team have been communicating with parents about the arrangements for Friday. Students can be collected early from 2pm by a parent to prepare for the 4.30pm return for photos and dropping off their dinner. Graduation officially commences in the gym at 6pm.

The MPW graduation is truly a student focused and student run evening, making it more memorable for our students.

End of year and final assembly

A reminder, the last day for our students is Wednesday December 20th, dismissal is 1.30pm. 

Our final assembly will be this Wednesday 12.15pm on the Tiger Turf, weather permitting.  We will draw the Christmas raffle, have some student items and send off our leaving families, staff and year 6 students.  We hope to see you there.

First day of 2024 

The first day back for all year 1 to year 6 students in 2024 is Wednesday 31st January. The foundation/prep students will begin on Monday 5th February after they have completed their Foundation assessments. All staff will be back at school on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 January, which are both student free Curriculum Days.

I hope you have a restful and cheerful holiday period with your families and look forward to the new school year in 2024.

Regards,

Jarrod Sutton

Principal