Thursday 27th February

Principal Report

It is fantastic to see how our school is able to offer many enriching learning opportunities for our students. It has been really pleasing to see how well our students have settled into the term and coming to school ready to learn and enjoy time with their peers. As a staff we are really impressed and are looking forward to a great year.

School/community involvement

As you know we are always wanting to attract new enrolments and welcome new families to the MCPS community. Today we started a free Messy Playgroup for children aged 1 - 5 years (all children are welcome, but activities will focus on this age group). It is an opportunity for families to come and enjoy a chat, while the messy activities are taken care of by Kate W and Jacinta.

This Playgroup will run every Thursday of the school term, from 9:30 - 10:30. We will meet in the hall. Please note an adult is required to supervise your child during the session.

Tomorrow we will be having a Working Bee/ Community BBQ/Picnic – Friday 28 February 3pm – 5pm. This will be our first community event for all - students, staff and families.

There will be a barbeque for all attendees but feel free to bring yourselves some food and drink (non-alcoholic of course). We will be aiming to prune trees and bushes, weed garden beds, some whipper snipping and have a basic tidy up of the school grounds. This is a great way to meet new families and catch up with old friends while helping out the school. Any time and effort would be greatly appreciated. Please bring any tools/ garden equipment that you would like to use and thanks in advance.

Next Tuesday (4 March) we will have an open morning, from 9:30 - 10:30 where we will invite hopefully new and existing families to come along and see the school in action. You may have seen this advertised in the local paper and through Facebook.

School Council Open discussion

Our scheduled School Council AGM last week ended up being an open discussion with representatives from the Department of Education invited to attend. Clayton Sturzaker, our Area Executive Director, and Kerrie Anderson, our Senior Education Improvement Leader, spoke with those present. It was great to see many families join this discussion either in person or face to face. This meeting was organised to have a constructive open discussion around the current lack of Foundation students for 2025, the flow on effect from this and how we can improve the situation for 2026.

It was acknowledged that the passion everyone has for Menzies Creek Primary School is amazing, it was also acknowledged that it has been hard to witness the decline in children and families from MCPS.

The meeting was focused on how we can create certainty within our school community moving into 2025 and the future.

Key ideas were:

Look to have a straight foundation class in 2026, aim for at least 10 children and start to target families now. Start transition sessions now.
Advertising – flood the market with who we are and what we do. Word of mouth from families, local papers, Facebook. Promote everything we do – we do it well. Promote the staff, students and families. Show the passion we have as a team and a school.
Investigate the possibly of a Preschool onsite. Although recent data suggests it won’t be viable Clayton is going to go back to his team and check numbers again for 2026.
Improve communication with families and the community.

Clayton assured members that his team was passionate about MCPS and its future. He commented on how amazing it was to see such a passionate group of parents in a school.

We have moved the AGM to next Wednesday, 5 March from 6pm

Year 6 Leaders

We presented our Year 6 students with their 2025 jackets at last week’s assembly. We then presented their leadership badges on Tuesday. They have been wearing these proudly and we look forward to having them step up and enjoy some extra responsibility this year.

EDEC swimming

Today we have had Ava, Ayla, Eilidh and Maya represent MCPS at the EDEC swimming carnival at the Lilydale Pool.

Attendance

We are focusing on having our students attending every day.

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day – missing school puts them behind.

These tables illustrate what increased absence adds up to.

Upcoming Events

Please remember to check Compass, especially on a Thursday, for any upcoming events that you need to be aware of for consent and/or payment.

Tomorrow Working Bee/ Community BBQ/Picnic 3pm – 5pm.

Wednesday 5 March - House Athletics (Year 3 – 6)

Monday 10 March – Labour Day public holiday

Wednesday 12 March – Family Maths Afternoon (3:45 – 5:30)

NAPLAN for Years 3 and 5

Wednesday 12 March – Writing

Thursday 13 March - Reading

Friday 14 March – Conventions of Language

Monday 17 March – Numeracy

Thursday 20 March – Science Incursion

Thursday 27 March – EDEC Athletics for selected students

Thursday 3 April - School Photos This can allow you time to plan any haircuts!

A reminder also to please be mindful when posting photos on personal social media pages that you don’t have other children in school uniform. This is a consent and privacy issue.

Regards,

Dale McInerney

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