Principal’s Report

Dear Merri-bek Primary School Community,

We hope this newsletter finds you well as we approach the end of another successful year at Merri-bek Primary School. It’s hard to believe there are only 5 weeks left until the end of term.

Important Information on Class Placements for 2025:

As we approach the end of another school year, we want to inform you about the upcoming process of regrouping and placing students into new grades for 2025. This is a rigorous process that involves careful consideration of various factors to ensure a positive and balanced learning environment for all students.

Considerations in the class placement process include:

Balanced Number of Students: Ensuring an equitable distribution of students in each grade.
Gender Balance: Striving for an even distribution of boys and girls (dependent on enrolment).
Diverse Academic, Social, and Emotional Needs: Considering the varied learning and social needs of all students.
Role Models and Leaders: Creating a mix of students who can serve as positive role models and leaders.
Placement of Students with Additional Needs: Ensuring appropriate placement and support for students with additional needs.
Friendship Groups: Allowing students to provide input on friends they would like to be with, with efforts made to accommodate these preferences.

Every child has had the opportunity to list the names of friends they would like to be in the same class with. We make every attempt to ensure they have at least one of those friends in their class.

Our dedicated teaching staff will invest considerable time and effort into this placement process. Following the initial placements, transition sessions will be conducted with the children to make any necessary adjustments and refinements.

At Merri-bek Primary School, our commitment to providing a high-quality education is unwavering. All our teachers are caring and committed educators who strive to create an environment conducive to learning and growth.

While we understand that you may have preferences for a specific teacher, we generally cannot accommodate these requests. Please trust that our Principal Class team has a deep understanding of each teacher's strengths and will always strive to place students with teachers best suited to meet their individual needs.

Your understanding and cooperation are greatly appreciated as we work together to ensure the best educational experience for all students.

If your child will not be attending Merri-bek Primary School in 2025, please inform the office as soon as possible. Your prompt response will assist us in our planning for the upcoming year.

Hats during Term 4:

A friendly reminder that all students are required to wear hats while outdoors. Ensure your child has a SunSmart hat, available for purchase at PSW in Craigieburn.

Tutor Learning Initiative:

We are delighted to continue our Tutor Learning Initiative into 2025, providing targeted support for our students. Details about participating students will be communicated to parents early next year.

Making Appointments:

Parents and carers, kindly schedule appointments for your children after school hours whenever possible. This helps minimise disruptions to their learning. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

End of Term Finishing Times:

As we approach the end of Term 4, please note that on Friday, December 20th, students will be dismissed at 1:30 pm. An assembly will be held at 1:00 pm.

Thank you for your ongoing support in making Merri-bek Primary School a nurturing environment for our students. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact the school office.

I’ve included some information below to support families and students transitioning from primary to secondary school in 2025. The transition to secondary school can be difficult for students. There are things you can do before and during your child’s transfer to a new school to help them feel comfortable and get used to their new environment.

Going to Secondary school:

What to expect?

Children often have mixed feelings about starting secondary school. They might be:

excited about new friends, subjects and teachers
nervous about learning new routines, making new friends or wearing a new uniform
worried about handling the workload or not fitting in.

You might also worry about these issues, and about whether your child will have the confidence and skills to handle them. These worries are all normal. Secondary school also means a move from the familiar to the unknown, and a whole new way of doing things.

Relationships

Your child will need to meet new peers and make new friends, and establish or re-establish their position within a peer group.

Schoolwork

Your child will need to adapt to new teaching and assessment styles, cope with a wide range of subjects, adjust to having different teachers in different classrooms, become more responsible for his/her own learning, manage a heavier and more complicated study and homework load and learn a new and more complex timetable.

Getting around

Your child will have to adjust to a new school campus, find their way around, get to class on time with the right books and materials, and possibly cope with new transport arrangements.

When children are making the move to secondary school, you have the biggest influence on how smooth the transition is. Your child’s friends do influence how your child feels about the move, but your support has stronger and longer-lasting effects.

Practical issues

Here are some ideas for dealing with practical issues:

Make sure your child goes to all the secondary school transition and orientation programs in the last term of primary school.
Involve your child in decision-making where possible. For example, you could try talking together about transport options to and from school, and the new opportunities/activities that they could become involved in.

Feelings

Here are some ideas to deal with mixed feelings and worries:

Talk with your child about what they are really looking forward to and what they may be concerned/worried about. Really listen when your child shares their feelings and worries about secondary school. Reassure them that it’s normal to worry about going to secondary school.
Encourage your child to look at the positive side of the move to secondary school.
Talk with your child about friendships. For example, you could ask what your child’s friends are saying about secondary school. You could also talk about how your child might keep in touch with old friends and make new friends at secondary school

Maria Giordano

Principal

School Council Meeting

School council met on Monday 28th October. The key agenda items covered were:

Music program for 2025 - intention to seek submissions from potential providers to re-establish the program in time for start of Term 1
TheirCare (before & after school care) - intention to extend the use of this provider in 2025
School Camps - endorsement of camp location & costs to enable bookings to be secured for 2026, noting that 2025 camp bookings are already secured)
School Budget - endorsed the draft budget for 2025. Final budget approval occurs in early 2025 following the confirmation of enrolments.
School fees for 2025 - endorsed. The school will communicate the 2025 fees to parents separately.
Curriculum days for 2025 - endorsed. These will be communicated separately by the school.
Engagement with the school community - recognising that this is an area for improvement, council affirmed intent to work on ways to improve the two-way engagement with parents to both inform and take feedback.
Feedback from recent consultation on Buildings & Grounds - a preliminary discussion was held with a more in-depth review to be held at the next meeting to prioritise action items for 2025.

There is one more meeting scheduled this year, on 25th November.

Merri-bek Mail

Issue 8 · 15 Nov 2024

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