Principal's Report

Welcome Back!

We are excited to welcome all our families back for the final term of the year! It’s been a positive and settled start, with students returning ready to learn and engage. This term is packed with exciting events, including the 5/6 camp, F-2 Fun Day, our Colour Run, and the always anticipated Carols celebration, plus so much more. We’re looking forward to a fantastic term ahead, our staff have and will continue to work hard to provide engaging and enriching learning and wellbeing experiences for all our students.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new website! 

I think the fresh design of the new website captures who we are as a school and our aspirations of what we aim to provide for our students. 

Our new website is a central hub for essential resources, including updates, event calendars, policies, and school documents. It also highlights our programs, helping to attract prospective families to Marlborough School. With links to Compass, OSHC, Canteen, our Wellbeing Hub, and more, the site is designed to simplify access to information and improve communication within our school community.

Please note, we are in the process of bringing all of the policies across to the new website. If you need to view any of  our policies before they are uploaded, please visit the office. 

We were lucky enough to have the website redeveloped as a donation. To be completely transparent, it was developed by my wife, Bec, who runs a digital agency. She insisted on this being a ‘love job’ for the school, although I can assure you that it has cost me a few extra nights of cooking dinner and folding laundry.

Community Quotes 

I would love to hear from you if you would like to share any of your thoughts about the school. I am hoping to publish some of these on our new website to strengthen our position in our local community. If you would like to send a quote, could you please email marlborough.ps@education.vic.gov.au and include COMMUNITY QUOTES in the subject. 

Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to write one.

Variety Grant Success!

We are thrilled to announce that Marlborough School has been successful in securing a grant through Variety – the Children’s Charity. This generous grant has enabled us to purchase 10 C-pens, a valuable resource that will make a significant difference for many of our students.

For those unfamiliar with C-pens, they are portable devices designed to assist students with reading difficulties. The pen scans and reads text aloud, allowing students to access written material independently. This is especially helpful for students with dyslexia, language processing challenges, or those who struggle with traditional reading. By improving their ability to engage with reading materials, C-pens not only support academic success but also help to build confidence and independence in learning.

These C-pens will be a great benefit to students who require additional literacy support and for any student who is attempting to read a text that might be beyond their independent reading ability, e.g. students who might read non-fiction texts that have topic specific vocabulary, like if they were to read a information report on scientific topic. 

We are excited to see the positive impact they will have on student learning and are grateful to Variety for their support in helping us provide the best possible resources for our school community.

Attendance Recording

For those taking students to medical appointments during school hours, we kindly ask, where appropriate, that you provide specific details about the type of appointment attended. This helps us accurately record the reason for a student’s absence. For example, a general doctor’s visit for a health concern is recorded differently from appointments with an occupational therapist, psychologist, paediatrician, etc.

There are two key reasons this information is important:

1. We are required to record student absence data accurately. Medical appointments that directly support student learning are not counted in absence data, but to ensure this, we need to know the exact type of appointment the student attended.
2. If the type of appointment isn’t recorded, you may receive a follow-up call from Natalie, who will be clarifying the absence details. While it’s always nice to chat with Natalie, accurately recording the information in the first instance will help avoid the need for a follow-up.

Here's to a productive and enjoyable term. I look forward to seeing you around the school. 

Warmly,

Tim Mulhall

Principal