Principal's Message

Three-Way Conferences

Bookings open next week for conferences for Year 1-6 that  are happening from Tuesday 12th -Friday 15th in Week 7. Bookings will open for families on Sentral early next week. 

Information Night for Foundation will be held the same week as the Conferences.

Year 5/6 Families Sexual Health Victoria Parent Information Session

To support the student education program we encourage Year 5/6 parents/carers to attend the information session - parents and carers from other year levels are welcome to join also, if they wish. The session will run via Zoom on Wednesday 6th March at 6:30pm, before the student sessions begin on 13 March. 

• Meeting ID: 332 966 6810
• Passcode: v8scNb

Colour Slime Fun Run

The Colour Fun Run is back for 2024!! The anticipation is building for this Colour slime-tacular event and we can’t wait to see the colour, the paint, the slime, the fun and the run all happening. This year’s event will be on in Term 2,  Friday 19th April in the afternoon with further details about times to come. Like with every fun run, the Colour Fun Run is a great opportunity for families to help raise important funds for our school, current thinking is that money raised will go towards an outdoor classroom for the Student Garden (last Colour fun run raised money for the Gaga Pits - which have been an excellent addition to our playgrounds). This year our fundraising goal is $20,000 and we will begin fundraising on 08/03/2024. In order to understand how to fundraise please click this link:  https://australianfundraising.com.au/flipbook/2024funrunform/

Further information on the Colour Fun Run is to come. 

Swimming Sports

What an amazing day it was last Friday at Oakleigh Recreation Centre. Thank you to our incredible families, staff and students that participated in either the competitive or Splash and Dash races or helped volunteer their time to make the day run smoothly. 

It was great to see all levels of abilities having the opportunity to experience our aquatics program and I hope there was plenty of joy (and perhaps some tiredness) that students came home with on Friday afternoon, having had a great day out at the pool. 

Well done to those who progressed through to District - these students competed at Aquarena Doncaster on Wednesday and represented MPRPS with great enthusiasm and endeavour and we congratulate Arav C, Stella K, Lewis T, and Nicha C for making it through to Division. We wish them all the best in their events on Wednesday at Ringwood!

Twilight Sports

Congratulations students and families on such great participation in last night's Twilight Sports, one of our favourite community events. With sprint, novelty and long distance races on the run sheet Kinder started us off with a great cheer completing their 70 metre dash. 

This was followed by sprints from all school year levels with a past student and parents race also involved. 

In our novelty races, our students balanced, skipped, slid, threw, jumped, tagged all with various different novelty equipment and it was wonderful to see the house pride on show! Wendy and Oscar welcomed everyone to the night with our Acknowledgement of Country and James, with the help of the other sports captains started all the races. 

Congratulations to Hamish on a very successful night, his first Twilight Sports was very successful.

A night such as this doesn’t happen without a lot of work behind the scenes. Thank-you to staff for their help setting up and running parts of the night and also to staff who were starters, scorers, organisers, novelty event hosts, finish line marshals and even runners. 

Thank you to P&F and Leonie Semmens for organising the BBQ and to Jane for running the second hand uniform shop. Also thank you to George, Tegan, Wayne, Lachie, Andy, Teresa, Mais, Shireen, Sarah, Mary, Farzad, Heidi, Ash and Claire for volunteering and helping also. I hope everyone had a wonderful night!

Principal Conference

On Wednesday, Erin, Mr Shaw, and I spent the day at the Manningham Civic Centre for the Inner East Principals’ Forum. Alongside 240 other Principals from the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, we learnt about the Victorian Curriculum 2.0, which is beginning to come into place over the next 12 months. The changes include updates to the English and Mathematics curricula as well as some other exciting developments. We also learnt more about finances and school governance, including School Council management and how to engage families in school life. Although we missed everyone at school, it was great to spend the day together practising life-long learning as a leadership team. 

School Council Election 2024

Three parents nominated for election to the Mount Pleasant Road Primary School Council. The nominees are: 

Jonathan Dimbleby (self-nominated)

Jonathan Prescott (self-nominated)

George Ma (self-nominated)

The number of nominations equals the number of vacancies so there will be no need to go to a ballot.

One nomination was received for the School Employee category and so there is no need for a ballot.

A Community Member has been co-opted for the Kindergarten.

And a Casual Vacancy has been filed by the co-opted process. The co-opted member serves the unexpired portion of the vacating member’s term of office.

School Council members for 2024 are:

Parents/carers: Jonathan Dimbleby, Jonathan Prescott, George Ma, David Griffiths, Jennifer Teoh, Luke Neilson, Georgie Hill

School Employees: Andrew Shaw, Emily Glen and Nicholas Dix

Kinder Representatives: Al Milsted and Sandhya Menon

The first School Council meeting to elect office bearers will be Thursday 21st March 2023.

Building Update

We meet with all the stakeholders involved in the new building on a regular basis. These include:

• Building Company - Johnstaff/Struxture, 
• Victorian Schools Building Authority, (VSBA) 
• Architects, Kneeler Design Architects (DET) And of course school representatives, Mr Andrew Shaw and myself. We meet every two weeks. 

This is an opportunity to review the progress, any holdups, any challenges including from the school perspective. 

We understand that the path connecting the cafe studio and the portables can be difficult to navigate. The builders have measured and designed a new path to be constructed over the upcoming school holidays providing ramp access to improve accessibility. In the mean time an additional temporary upgrade upgrade to the path will be put in place next week. The builders have also adjusted parts of the barrier fencing to help with navigation. 

ICE and Junior Rotations

Students have been eagerly awaiting to find out their ICE group allocation. Thank you to 3-6 students and families for submitting your preferences. This week we have been finalising groups and will be sharing this via Sentral. Next Friday 8th of March will be our first session!

SRC NEWS 

Thursday 14th March the SRC have organised a free dress day to raise money for HoMie. 

HoMie is a Melbourne-based streetwear label and social enterprise.100% of HoMie’s profits go towards achieving its mission: to support young people affected by homelessness or hardship.

The SRC will also be selling Zooper Doopers for 50cents at recess on this day. (Students cannot buy for friends due to allergies and dietary requirements.) The dress-up theme will be "Wear your favourite colour!"

SSG Meetings

Student Support Group (SSG) meetings will be held this week.  An SSG is a partnership between schools, parents/carers, the student and relevant agencies and/or support workers. The group works together to plan and support the educational, health, social, cultural and emotional wellbeing of students with diverse learning needs. This includes students supported by the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD) or Disability Inclusion. An  SSG is responsible for developing and implementing an Individual Education Plan (IEP) which outlines clear educational goals for the student and encourages student voice to facilitate a student’s engagement in their own learning. 

End of an Era

Our Pleasant Snacks Van heads off for a second life as a food truck for a football club. The van was purchased with a $10000 grant in 2013. We were able to sell the van for $4000.00 which will go towards the new set up for Pleasant Snacks in the Creative Hub, once the new building is finished.

Welcome Natalie Palmer our new Performing Arts Teacher

Greetings!  My name is Natalie Palmer and I am thrilled to be joining the MPRPS&K community this term. I am an experienced teacher who has taught all across Australia. I am a passionate singer, creative spirit, and inspirer of things beautiful and hope-fueled. My family life is super hectic with four daughters at home including one in university!  Yes indeed life is busy for our big family, but there is no other place I would rather be four days a week than here with your children, as part of this vibrant, supportive and friendly school community. I'll leave you with this quote as something to come talk to me about when you meet me around the school.  See you soon! 

"Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul. " PLATO