Principal's Report
Dear families
I wanted to congratulate those students who opted in to the Maths Competition and PM Spelling Bee this year, for their effort and participation. These opportunities give students a chance to challenge themselves in a formal test condition. Thank you to Felicity, Lachlan and Hailey for their coordination of these events.
A big thank you to JSC for their sharing at assembly to highlight both Bullying No Way Week and Science Week. Their acknowledgments, explanations, supports and suggestions were all great reminders of how we can look after each other, seek help when we need it and enjoy aspects of learning in different areas.
I have been in and out of the swimming sessions this week with our 3-6 students at Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre. The students are having a great time at their lessons. Thank you to Bree for her organisation of these sessions and to the parent helpers who have been attending to help with supervision ratios.
Grade 2 Sleepover and Show Day
The Grade 2 Sleepover is fast approaching on Friday 11th September. This is a great opportunity for your year 2's to have a night away from home. We have a magician, dinner and a game outside to entertain the kids before bed. We sleep in the Hall space and adjacent classrooms. It has been a great experience the past few years and we hope for another fun night again this year.
We also have Show Day coming up toward the end of term, we have tentatively set Thursday 10th September as the date this year, generally it runs between 12pm and 2pm. Show Day allows students to design and run some stalls and games for the school community. Students take turns running their class stall and also enjoying everyone else’s stalls. This is a Community Event, and families are encouraged to attend to see the amazing work the students do for this day. It is another great day to celebrate and have some fun.
School Planning for 2027
It is that time of the year where we will begin to plan for the 2026 school year, offers to our future foundation families have been distributed and acceptances will begin coming in over the next couple of weeks. We have many families excited to be joining the MPW school community and many siblings from our existing families beginning school next year.
To help with planning for 2027, we do ask that if you are planning on your child(ren) not being at Moonee Ponds West next year, that you please complete the form below and return to the office or email to: moonee.ponds.west.ps@education.vic.gov.au
Book Week Dress Up Day Monday 24th August
Our Book Week Dress Up Day will be on Monday. We encourage all students to participate and dress up to join in the fun day of celebrating books and literature. I have my costume ready to go and it will hopefully be fun for the kids.
There will be a special parade held at Assembly where classes will get a chance to come on the stage to share their costumes.
Book Week continues the school’s highlighting of rich literature and love of reading. Students will be able to connect with their favourite book, read it again and recommend it to others. We look forward to students and staff dressing up as their favourite book characters on Monday.
For more information about Book Week, please visit the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s website here: https://cbca.org.au/
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 continued to achieved results above the state for both Year 3 and 5 in Reading, Writing and Numeracy. We received strong results of student performance in the Exceeding and Strong proficiency levels for Year 3 in Writing 90% and Year 5 in Writing 86%. We also performed similar to schools like us and generally slightly higher than schools in our network.
We are continuing to celebrate these achievements and look for areas of future focus based on this current year’s data and trends over the past couple of years.
Parent/Carer Opinion Survey
Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey offered by the Department of Education and is open to all families. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. The survey is optional, but we encourage and appreciate your participation.
Our school will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies.
The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey will be open online from Monday 17 August to Friday 18 September. All families are invited to participate in this year’s survey and will receive a link to the survey and a personalised PIN this week.
Father’s Day Stall and Open Morning
Father’s Day is coming up soon and to acknowledge, we will again be opening classrooms for our dads, grandads or special person for our students in the morning on Friday 4th September, to engage in some activities, shared experience with their child(ren) from between 8:50am and around 9:30am. On Wednesday 2nd September we will be holding the Father’s Day Stall at school, a note will be coming home tomorrow with further details for the stall.
SunSmart- Hats are back for Spring
Finally, as we move out of the winter months and move back into (hopefully) some more 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 1st September, which is a Tuesday.
Regards,
Jarrod
Principal