From the Principal's desk...

Congratulations to all our students at MPS on a fantastic year! You have worked hard all year to the best of their ability and put in a huge effort in all areas of your schooling! We have seen so many accomplishments both in the sporting, performing and academic fields and we are proud of all the students across our school. 

To our families, many thanks to you all for your continued support of our school and the important role you play in the lives of your children. We hope that you have an opportunity over the summer break to reflect on the progress your children have made at school, the many achievements they have made and celebrate that together. Time flies by so very fast and treasuring the moments in Primary School is so very important.

Concert Spectacular-

Wow what an amazing evening we had at Geelong Arts Centre on Tuesday 10th December! The students were absolutely fantastic performing amazing dances and singing to the many tunes through the decades. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane listening to some songs from my youth and seeing the children connected to these was just so great. I especially loved the 1/2s singing to Africa by Toto mixed in with some Backstreet Boys with the 3/4s! 

In addition, the new venue was a great experience for the children as they navigated back stage, lighting, waiting in the wings quietly for their turn to perform and then moving offstage after. Credit to Mr Smith for teaching them so many different routines, the smiles on their faces waving excitedly to their families is just what this is all about.

Thank you to all our families for your support here, finding costumes, purchasing tickets and organising busy lives at this time of year to enable all this to happen.

A special congratulations to Clancy Langtip winning the Performing Arts Scholarship award from the Bendigo Community Bank!!

COLOUR RUN-

We are very excited to continue with another MPS tradition- the annual Colour Run Fundraiser.

This year we will again be participating in the colour run on the final day of term. As it is an early finish 1:30pm to complete the academic year, we have tweaked the timeline for the day to also incorporate a final assembly on the last day just prior to this so that families may join us- see below.

This is particularly a special final assembly for our Year 6 students as they finish up at our school. For some families, their time at Moriac PS has completely come to an end and therefore even more special to them.

A white t-shirt is required for the run so that the students can get the most out of the experience with a colourful day on the horizon. Please see the compass post for further details about this event.

Final Day Timeline-

Friday 20th December

9-9:50am- Sessions 1 & 2

9:50-11:10am- RECESS

11:10- 12noon- Session 3

12-12:30pm- LUNCH

12:30-12:40pm- Students final pack up in class/ bags outside classrooms

12:40-1pm- FINAL ASSEMBLY 2024 (Amphi-theatre)

1-1:30pm- COLOUR RUN (oval)

1:30pm- Student Dismissal from oval

REPORTS-

Next Wednesday you will be notified on Compass when your child's report becomes available to read. Our staff have spent a great deal of time assessing and moderating the achievements of all the children before making their teacher judgements and writing their teacher comments.

End of year reports are really a wonderful way to capture not only the second semester of progress and learning but an overall way to celebrate the success of the year as opposed to mid-year reports which are designed to inform families of the next steps and goals in their learning. If you have any concerns with your child's progress, please reach out to their teacher or myself for clarification.

SCHOOL CAPTAINS 2025-

The last few weeks we have completed the process to select our school and house captains for 2025. After the very successful and demographic approach we took last year implementing a combined effort, we have decided to continue with this style approach. Students had the opportunity for self nomination, followed by some public speaking which was then followed by a process to allow both staff and students the opportunity to select the captains. As I mentioned to all the students, the quality and level of presentation this time around was exceptionally difficult to select only a handful of students to represent the school and ALL students who ran for a captain role should be very proud.

Please see below our successful captains for 2025.

School Captains- for 2025 are:

Meg Rogers

Lola Fearby

Lachie Cieciura

Georgia Menzies

House Captains- for 2025 are:

Mackie McPhee – Farrer House Captain

Hayley Timberlake – Farrer House Captain

Olivia Maugeri – Kidman House Captain

Archie Didomenico – Kidman House Captain

Goldie Menzies – MacArthur House Captain

Lennox Giles – MacArthur House Captain

Congratulations to you all!

EXITING STAFF 2024-

As always at the end of every school year it is time to bid farewell to some staff that have made a big impact in a short space of time at our school. As mentioned in a previous edition of our iNewsletter, Mr Aaron Randall is heading off to Clifton Springs PS for 12 months in a new role. 

Mrs Kirsty Rixon is hanging up her boots here after many, many years at Moriac PS. She has had a significant impact on many students across the years and in particular our senior students in more recent years. Many families would know Kirsty well as she has taught for a long time at MPS.

In addition, we wish all the very best to Ms Ellen Cook who has taught at our school for 6 months first filling in as Performing Arts in Term 3 and then as class teacher for 1/2C during Term 4. We thank you for your adaptability as your role changed  in our schoo

Miss Jessica Jones who has been teaching in 1/2A for this year as well after previously teaching as an emergency teacher for us in 2023, it has been wonderful to see you grow as a teacher in your own class. We wish you all the best for your next steps.

All the above teachers have had a huge impact on our school and have supported many students across the years and we hope that whatever the next chapter brings, it is a positive and successful step for you all.

STAFFING PLAN 2025-

Next year at MPS, we are fortunate enough again to have a middle leadership team at our school in addition to our newly appointed Assistant Principal Erin Gleeson. Erin will continue to undertake a wellbeing role as this is aligned with her work as AP and is still very accessible by students who may need extra support and assistance. Erin no longer balances this work with a teaching load, enabling her to undertake her AP role plus Wellbeing.

Our Middle Leadership role is what we refer in schools as a Learning Specialist, who at Moriac PS is Dale Evans. Dale will have a small teaching load in Year 5/6 two days a week, and then supports the school with curriculum development, planning, assessments and coaching for the other days. 

In addition next year, we will be implementing team leaders for all teams across the school to further support our teachers, especially new additions to be inducted into the processes at MPS.

Please see below what 2025 will look like across our school and also where our education support staff are based. I am hoping that our staffing profile will remain as is, however in schools there are often last minute changes that are unforeseen and if that occurs, I will keep families updated as much as possible.

 Moriac PS Staff 2025

Welcome new Education Support Staff-

Indy Parish-

Hello everyone!

My name is Indy, a proud past student of Moriac Primary!  I’m currently studying a Bachelor of Education, excited about progressing my career within the education sector. I love all things sport, and am currently playing footy for Winchelsea. I am super excited to join such a fantastic community!

Leila Owens-

Hi, I’m Leila!

I’m so excited to be part of the Moriac Primary School community as an ES. I love supporting students and helping them with their learning and creating a positive environment. It’s great to see students grow and develop whilst learning at the same time. 

Outside of school, I live on the Surf Coast. I play footy and netball. I love spending time at the beach, hanging out with my friends and family, and I’m an animal lover who owns two kelpies.

 I’m really looking forward to an amazing year in 2025 and can’t wait to get to know all the wonderful students and families at Moriac Primary School!

RSPCA Pawsome Stories Competition

This year the Year 5/6 teachers supported our students to enter into a writing competitiong that was organised by Deakin University and the RSPCA called Pawsome Stories Comp.

Clancy Langtip and Hayley Timberlake were listed as finalists across Victoria for their writing efforts and were invited to attend along with their families, the Award Ceremony at the Deakin Burwood Campus last month. 

Excitingly, Clancy came runner up and Hayley was awarded the winner. Below is Hayley's winning story which I'm sure will agree is an amazing story with complex language that showcases her writing talent-

Farewell to the following families-

For some families, Moriac PS has been a big part of their lives across a long period of time as they have seen their children through the Primary School journey from Prep to Year 6. Many families with siblings before them meaning their time at our school was even longer. The following families are finishing up at MPS as their children venture off into the Secondary School setting and we wish them all the best as they move into this new era. 

Thank you for your support and contributions to our school, you will be missed-

Doyle  family

Dunbabin family

Fields family

Langtip family

Long family

McAdam family

Moro family

Taylor-Cole family

Merry Christmas to all our Moriac families! We hope that you have a safe and magical time, that Santa brings you something you've been hoping for, that your time with your families is relaxing and well spent and that you switch off from the craziness that this time of year brings. 

We look forward to seeing you all in the new school year!!