Montmorency Primary School Newsletter

Leadership @ MPS

Thank you to everyone for such a warm welcome back! I had a fabulous time away, with a lovely balance between spending time at home with the family and travelling to some amazing, far away places. I am so very appreciative of the hard work that continued during my absence and thank Ross, Paul, Lucinda, Matt and all staff for their diligence whilst I was away.  It is great to be home again, despite this ridiculous weather!

 

Term 4  (already!) 

The build is getting closer to being completed and it is expected that we may have hand over by the start of December. The building site will be very busy over the next few weeks with the installation of flooring, electrical works and connections, exterior asphalting, joinery, painting, fire services, audio visual equipment, reconstruction of the front entrance - just to name a few of the works in progress! Once we do have handover, we will have one week to 'bump' in, before the builders will commence of the renovation of the current hall and admin area. They are hoping that most of this work will be completed over the school holidays so that our staff can enjoy their new staff room and work space as soon as possible!  Below is a snippet from the latest plans for this renovation which includes a new Staff Room/Resource Centre and a Business Manager's office. 

 

 

Fortnightly Q&A

With the aim of building greater transparency and striving to facilitate stronger partnerships with our parent community, we will include a Q&A section in each fortnightly newsletter. These will be based on 'hot topics' of conversation that we are aware of. 

 

What's happening with school camps?

This has been a topic that has been discussed widely, both in the media and among school communities across the land, since the latest EBA for Victorian Government Schools came into effect in late 2022. 

 

The biggest talking point from the agreement has been the addition of unfunded Time in Lieu (TIL) for teaching staff. The inclusion of this proviso, although widely accepted as a positive step to rewarding teaching staff for the hard work that they do above and beyond the expected, has put a major stress on the continued running of traditional school camps.

 

Although there have been ongoing negotiations between the Australian Education Union and the government on the finer points, below is a general guideline on how this is now impacting our school camps program.

 

For a standard two-night/three-day camp any teaching staff who attend will accrue roughly two days' worth of TIL. Prior to the latest agreement, a school of our size would have sent somewhere between 4 and 6 teaching staff to a camp of this length. If we were to continue with the same model for camps moving forward, that means that the school would need to repay between 8 and 12 days leave, with zero reimbursement from the Department of Education. With the daily rate of Casual Relief Teachers continuing to skyrocket, this is a massive financial burden that many schools are simply avoiding by not running school camps.

 

Montmorency Primary is committed to continuing to run school camps as we know how much they are loved by our staff, students and families. Leadership have been working very hard behind the scenes to find the balance between giving the TIL that our staff rightly earn while also minimising the costs, as much as possible, to our school and families. Below are the camps that have been booked in for 2023:

  • Grade 4 Camp: Monday, 30th of October - Wednesday, 1st of November. Oasis Camp in Mount Evelyn
  • Grade 3 Day Camp: Friday, 10th of November. Camp Toolangi in Toolangi
  • Grade 5 Day Camp: Friday, 10th of November. UPCC in Upper Plenty
  • Grade 6 Camp: Wednesday, 29th of November - Friday, 1st of December. Coastal Forest Lodge in Anglesea.

Respectful Relationships -  UPDATE 

Developing students’ personal and social capabilities via social and emotional learning.

As well as teaching academic skills, it is part of the core business of schools to promote student resilience, wellbeing and positive social attitudes. One way that schools can achieve this is through the teaching of evidence-based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs. SEL is the process through which children and young people build and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to:

• Understand and manage emotions

• Set and achieve positive goals

• Feel and express empathy

• Establish and maintain positive relationships

• Make responsible decisions

• Develop resilience to deal with change

• Create positive gender norms

• Contribute to social cohesion.

 

Respectful Relationships Education

In 2016, The Respectful Relationships program became a mandated SEL learning initiative in all Victorian government primary and secondary schools. This initiative was formed in response to the Royal Commission into Family Violence. The evidence supporting Respectful Relationships is overwhelming and comes from respected institutions such as the World Health Organisation. Helping children develop an understanding of healthy relationships and respect is key to preventing family violence in the future.

 

The Respectful Relationships program supports schools and early childhood settings to promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours. It teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence by engaging them in lessons around the content areas of:

• Emotional Literacy

• Personal Strengths

• Positive Coping

• Problem Solving

• Stress Management

• Help Seeking

• Gender and Identity

• Positive Gender Relationships.

 

This term our students will be participating in Topics 7 & 8 which include Gender & Identity and Positive Gender Relationships.

 

TOPIC 7: GENDER AND IDENTITY

Learning activities within this topic assist students to challenge stereotypes and critique the influence of gender norms on attitudes and behaviour. They learn about key issues relating to human rights and gender identity, and focus on the importance of respect within relationships. The activities promote respect for diversity and difference.

 

TOPIC 8: POSITIVE GENDER RELATIONS

Learning activities within this topic focus on building an understanding of the effects of gender-based violence and focus on the standards associated with respectful relationships. Students develop the skills needed to solve problems, set boundaries within relationships, and play an active role within the prevention of gender-based violence. They develop peer support and help-seeking skills that can be applied in response to situations involving gender-based violence in family, peer, community or on-line relationships.

 

More information about Respectful Relationships, including Frequently Asked Questions and Myth Busting can be found at the following link.

https://www.vic.gov.au/respectful-relationships

 

 

Lunch Orders

A Compass News Feed was sent out earlier in the week asking for feedback on student lunch orders this year. You may be aware that for 2023 we have engaged a new supplier, JAYcee's Catering, after moving away from our previous partner, Classroom Cuisine. 

 

One of the main drivers for this change was the fact that Classroom Cuisine couldn't offer any hot food options, where JAYcee's are able to. We have, informally, received feedback from a number of families in relation to lunch orders this year and wanted to formalise this process.

 

With the majority of primary schools moving away from school-based lunch order programs, for a myriad of reasons, including but not limited to:

  • OH&S requirements
  • Council regulations
  • Regular community support
  • Facilities
  • Financial costs

If you feel strongly about this and haven't yet had a chance to fill out the feedback survey, it can be accessed here. The form will close at 4pm on Monday, 9th of October so be sure to complete it by then.

 

Road Safety

We have seen and had great reports of the way in which students and families are using and adhering to the new pedestrian crossing on Alban Street, well done to all! A reminder that when students are using the crossing, as well as walking on footpaths in general, they need to be aware and alert.  Please have a discussion with your child regarding road safety and revisit general road safety rules. 

 

Take care, everyone,

The Leadership Team