From the Principal's desk...

Where did the term go?

It went like a flash, that's where it went but what a great term from all accounts. The photo above was taken this week and includes our Prep teachers Ryan and Ashlee, joined by two pre-service teachers from Deakin who are in their 4th year of training, Nick and Puck and have returned to us for their final round from the beginning of the year. We often take many pre-service teachers at our school and really enjoy helping to shape the next generation of teachers coming through our system. 

R U OK? day was celebrated at MPS yesterday with many activities in classrooms and lots of yellow around the school. There were a great many positive affirmations floating around between students and staff and the feeling at the school was so positive and happy, I think I might wear more yellow more often!

Book Week-

Another wonderful display of the love for literacy and books at our school with all students across all year levels joining into the celebrations. Our connection with the local pre-school was also strengthened inviting them again to join us as part of an initial transition into school activity. Our staff too joined in the fun and dressed up in character.

As far as community events go, this one is the one event all year that has the greatest involvement from families and the atmosphere it creates is wonderful. Some discussion was had at school council this week with the potential for our new PnF group to run a cake stall or other fundraising activity at this time too- stay tuned!

PnF Group

It has been really wonderful to see and hear from our newly formed Parents and Friends committee over the course of this term. We have really planned some basic structures at school for this group to support their success like a fundraising policy which will be placed on our school website next term, as well as a structure of communication that will support them and link them to our School Council as well as give them the avenue to plan for events with our admin team.

The PnF group meet regularly here at school and have come up with a cracking list of fundraising events as well as social events which will just continue to build the connection between community and school. I know we are hopefully going to lock in a Mango Drive next term- stay tuned for further details about this.

Another discussion that was had at council this week that came through the PnF group was how parents can become more involved in the school in general. So I thought it was appropriate to mention the how we can get this happening-

• At the beginning of each school year, normally term 1, I send out a Compass post asking for any parents or carers who wish to be involved in a variety of things in and around the school for the year to either email the Moriac PS email address or call the office.
• The tasks we need support in are- sport, excursions, parent helper in classrooms, events, fundraisers etc.
• I undertake one large induction, this year I sent via email the documentation, which includes things like Child Safe Standards, Protect information, OHS safety and hazards information and checks that you have a working with children card.
• As we are currently undergoing an OHS audit (in November) I will need to moving forward induct in person. This will be done in Term 1, 2025. 

It is impossible for me to continue to induct as the year goes by so being a part of that initial group is important so that you can easily be called on to support and be part of the school. All school council members do this and now our PnF group will also need to do this so please keep an eye out early next year.

If you are keen to join the PnF group, please see Julia Menzies or Portia Taylor or contact the admin office. 

Thank you to the helpers that supported our Father's Day stall this year:

Jen Wojtowicz

Rebecca Hunter

Ailie Arnall

Emma Campbell

Linda O’Donnell

The stall was a great success and the students love the ability to buy their special person a gift on these special days! So thank you immensely. 

SWPB Matrix-

We as a staff have spent the last 12 months reviewing our Sschool Wide Positive Behaviour matrix. This document guides explicit teaching of expectations both in class, outside of class and whilst using technology. We have gone for a far more explicit direction to give students modelled examples of what positive behaviours can and should look like. 

Below is a snip of the latest draft which is in the final stages of implementation. We have looked at many different schools versions and adapted to what we think would suit our school the most and focused on the behaviours that we find challenging or we need to remind our students about. I am always open to feedback from families regarding this and when we have finalised the matrix, we will send a copy home to families as well.

Moriac House Spelling Bee-

This year our House Spelling Bee didn’t attract as big a crowd as last year, however the process remained the same with classes taking on their spelling bee challenge at that level before sending the finalists to the whole school event. Feedback to us was if we could send a text from Compass if your child makes it into the final which we will take on board and do in 2025. The concentration from the students during the competition is to be applauded, such a great event for students to showcase skills at a whole school level aside from sport and performing arts! Well done to Jared Smith for organising.

IEPs- what are they and how do they benefit our students?

Individual education plans are a universal approach that Government Schools implement to support students who may need extra assistance for a number of reasons. Independent or Private schools may refer to these as ILPs or ILIPs, essentially they are the same- plans tailored specifically for students with goals that are measurable and directly linked to core learning and wellbeing. Here at MPS, we are mandated to create IEPs for students who are funded, students who are in out of home care, all students who identify as First Nations and students who have a diagnosed disability. In addition this semester we have asked our staff to also look at creating ‘Best Practice’ IEPs which are specifically written for any students who have reported at 12 months or more below in a core learning are- Maths or English. These documents were finalised this week and some families received notification of these plans via Compass. If you need some support with these or would like extra information with what these are about, please contact the admin team who will pass on the message to teachers. 

CATs- Common Assessment Tasks

Keep an eye out this week on Friday when our CATs go live to families. These are termly assessments that help keep parents informed how their children are going in English, Maths and now our Specialist programs too. Our CATs take a lot of work to complete, especially the grading/marking side, the uploading onto compass and attaching it to your child’s profile. Of late we have not had much feedback regarding these which is why we attach them to our semester reports too, but they are a great way to check how your kids are going and something High Schools do regularly as well.

On your child’s Compass Dashboard- head to Learning Tasks and you can view them there.

Dale Evans will send out a Compass message with instructions on how to access your child's CAT today. 

Sad News- Brendan Beattie

If you are on Facebook please take a look at our school's page which shared a post about Brendan Beattie who passed away recently. The post was originally from Portarlington PS who added a great deal of detail about Brendan and the contribution he made in our school. We have received lots of messages from families who were really touched by Brendan and interacted with him during the time their children attended our school. We appreciate all your messages of support.

Brendan's funeral will be held on Saturday October 5th at 2pm at Crawfords Funerals, 1 Coppards Road, Newcomb for those people who enquired about this.

Reminders to families-

Calls to office-

A gentle reminder to families please to where possible limit calls to the office with messages to be passed onto students in the afternoon or during learning time. I have put this message out on compass in the past and received phone calls to clarify what I mean. Obviously where things that are unexpected crop up or are of an urgent nature, we completely understand that you will need to contact your child with new instructions for the end of the day. We are however yet again finding ourselves in a situation where Jess is inundated with phone calls in the office with multiple instructions for students and on many days she is on her own during the last part of the day. I do really want to limit the interruptions to the learning during school sessions and would love parent support with this where possible. Please make sure your children are aware of the end of day pick up points or instructions in the morning to support Jess in the office. 

Bus shelter end of day-

As you may be aware, we have a system where students are marked on and off a bus roll list by a teacher in the morning and in the afternoon. The morning sessions run quite smoothly as the buses come at slightly different times. In the afternoon it is really frantic and quite busy at the bus shelter with many families entering the gate with toddlers and prams as well as the students running to the shelter eager to get on their bus.

The staff need to make sure the correct students get on the correct bus and tick them off and have mentioned to me that at times the congestion and confusion makes their job really difficult. If parents wouldn't mind in the afternoon please walking around that shelter rather than directly through this would potentially help the teachers complete there duty much quicker and easier. We appreciate your support of this as the safety of the students is a priority.

Please take special note of the key dates page, there is a lot going on in Term 4, but an exciting term with plenty of fun events coming up. All events with accurate information will come through Compass as usual and all costs for events have been approved through school council this week. If you are concerned about events or costs and would like to go on a payment plan as it is an expensive time of year, please give Jess a call in the office and she can support you with this.

Have a wonderful final week of term and enjoy your holidays with your special young people home with you. If you are travelling, stay safe and enjoy your holidays!!

See you next term,

Mel