THANK YOU

First and foremost, I would like to thank our school community for the exemplary manner in which families have responded to the five day lockdown and switched to remote learning. While we all hope never to repeat a lengthy lockdown, it seems we are moving our thinking to ready ourselves for short term restrictions.

SETTLING IN TO THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR

The first two weeks at school have been focused on building relationships within the classroom and playground, establishing classroom routines and expectations and engaging students in literacy, numeracy and wellbeing activities.

Across the school, we call this our ‘Learning to Learn’ unit; activities specifically designed to gently transition students into their new classes and for teachers to learn more about their new students.

Next week, all year levels will commence their first PYP Unit of Inquiry. Parents can find the school’s ‘Program of Inquiry’ on the school website under the ‘Teaching and Learning’ tab – IB PYP. We have just revised the schedule for when these units will be addressed and we’ll upload the schedule to the website soon.

5 DAY LOCKDOWN

Preparing lesson materials for students at such short notice for the three school days in lockdown was challenging, given that teachers are still getting to know their students’ capabilities. We focused on providing pen and paper based literacy and numeracy tasks using resources readily available at home to facilitate a swift transition to remote learning.

CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR POTENTIAL FUTURE LOCKDOWNS

We are in the process of developing a contingency plan in the event short lockdowns occur through the year. Many of the digital platforms we will be using (including during remote learning) have been introduced to the students in these first two weeks of school, however students are not able to use them independently until ICT User Agreements are understood, signed and returned to school.

While students will be engaged in cyber safety lessons, they are not able to use digital platforms independently until these ICT forms are returned. Parents, can you please ensure that you read and discuss the User Agreement with your child and return the signed form to school immediately.

PARENT FEEDBACK: REMOTE LEARNING INVITED

Following the lengthy lockdown in 2020, we conducted short surveys with staff and students to ascertain what went well and what could be changed. We would like to offer parents the opportunity to provide feedback/ suggestions so we also have your perspective.

Parents, this survey won’t take long and your opinion is important.

The survey is on google forms and will be open for parent input until 9:00am on Monday 22 Feb.

Survey link: https://forms.gle/h8uRHZnkGvAA2pfF9

PLANNED EXCURSIONS / INCURSIONS / SPORT

Excursions planned for this week have been postponed with parents informed of changes via Compass.

The swimming program has been adjusted to enable year 6C and 5A to commence lessons on Monday 1 March. Sporting events such as interschool sports and tennis will go ahead as planned until we receive advice to the contrary.

SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS

School Council members are elected for a two year term on council. At MPS we have a two year cyclical process whereby, each year, half of the members are new and are guided by the members who have completed a year on council. School council members can fall into the following categories:

Parent members (mandated)
School elected employee members (mandated)
Community members (optional) Community members are usually co-opted by decision of the council because of their special skills, interests or experiences (eg. carnival organisation)

In our last newsletter, (and advertised on Compass) we called for nominations to fill vacancies.

The School Council nomination and election process for 2021 has now closed. There were six vacancies and we received six nominations for the parent member category, and two vacancies for the school employee category. As the number of nominations equalled the number of vacancies, the below named are duly elected to school council for a term of two years.

We would like to welcome the following members to our 2021 School Council:

Jonathan Doncovio – parent category

Vidushi Sharma - parent category

Bruce MacDonald - parent category

Kimberley Payne - parent category

Elissa Blackman - parent category

Sandra Maxfield – parent category

Laura Bainbridge – school employee category

Alicia Oliver-Cook – school employee category.

The first school council meeting of the new council will be held on Monday 15 March.

THANK YOU TO OUTGOING SCHOOL COUNCIL MEMBERS

Mrs Foster and I would like to formally acknowledge the work of all school council members who have given so freely of their time and expertise to help the school’s development over the past year.

Some of our past members have decided not to apply for re-election, but I’d like to thank them for their fantastic support and leadership. Thankyou to Minh Tran (Education) and Michelle Williams (finance) who have always upheld the school values and conducted themselves with integrity.

Thank you to Srini Jambusayee who stepped into the finance committee when a vacancy suddenly arose and who transitioned quickly to chairing those meetings.

Thank you to Maria Georgeakopoulos who became a community member to support the work within the canteen and uniform subcommittee and Angelo Gigliotti, a co-opted member for the finance committee, for his active involvement and contributions.

I would also like to acknowledge the school employee members: Jeanette Baker (Canteen and Uniform) and Hannah Vesikko (Education) who have completed their two year appointments and are handing the reins over to new DET representatives. Their leadership in these areas was highly valued.

The skills of all of our 2020 school council members will be missed but I hope they will continue to be involved with school events.

SCHOOL PICNIC

All being well and good, our annual school picnic will be held on Thursday 4 March. This evening is a wonderful opportunity to meet other families and enjoy a casual dinner picnic style. Let’s keep our fingers crossed this event will go ahead as planned.

Once again, thank you for your continued support and positivity.

Chellee Plumb

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