Coronavirus Update

Today is the last day of Term 1 for students and holidays start from tomorrow. Students will return to school on Wednesday 15th April. I want to thank everyone for their generosity and kindness with messages of support to staff and treats too. I know this time has been a very stressful and challenging time for our families and the whole community.

Care and supervision program

During this week, we have a responsibility to provide care and supervision programs for primary school students who are the children (or under the care) of essential services workers, where those families choose to send their children to school. Examples of essential services may include health, police, corrections and emergency services workers.

There is no obligation for students who are children of essential workers to attend school this week. However, we do have an obligation to ensure we provide a care and supervision program for these students. If it is needed please send an email to the school email address to notify us of your intention to send your children m mt.pleasant.road.ps@eduamil.vic.gov.au.

OSHClub are also providing a program - please contact them for details.

Our MPRPS&K Learning @ Home Website is up and running and has ideas, links and learning tasks for all Learning Centres from Kindergarten to Year 6. We hope that you find it valuable to access over the coming few days to support children's learning. I would also recommend families take time for holidays - what ever they will look like.

https://sites.google.com/education.vic.gov.au/mprps4808

Staff will be in attendance for the rest of the week planning and preparing for remote and online learning, which may need to happen from Wednesday 15th April with the Tuesday 14th April a Pupil Free Day.

Students will return to school on Wednesday 15th April.

Uber Assembly

The School Captains and SRC Presidents decided if the students can't come to assembly, we will take assembly to them. We even had a cake raffle thanks to the Clancy and Yang families' very generous donations of goodies which you can see on our Instagram page that we even set up as a live feed for the classes (which 40 of our families followed too.)

New Cricket Pitch

Student's tested out the new cricket pitch today and were very impressed by the new surface. We have a number of keen cricketers and we know it will be put to good use. The Twenty20 wickets were also a welcome addition.

NAPLAN 2020 Cancelled

This year's NAPLAN tests have been cancelled, education ministers decided on Friday, citing the potential for lower participation, problems with marking tests and an unnecessary administrative burden on already-stressed schools.

The tests – sat annually by children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 – will resume next year.

School Council

School Council met last Thursday evening following the recent elections. We welcomed Sarah Codling to her first term on Council as well as Lena Rogan and Cameron Walker as returning Council members. School Council thanks retiring member Elizabeth Waycott for her service on School Council over the past two years, including as Treasurer in 2019.

Elections were held and the following School Council offices were filled:

President Rebecca Smith

Vice President Jacqueline Leou

Treasurer David Griffiths

School Council thanks Luke Watters for his work as Vice President in 2019. Luke provided consistent support to the Principal and President and engaged with the community and Members of Parliament as an enthusiastic advocate for MPRPS.

The MPRPS teachers have established a dedicated website to support online learning for MPRPS students. This work was completed in addition to their regular teaching load and reflects their dedication and commitment to our school community amidst the recent uncertainty. As we head off on term break, I encourage families to stay connected to the school community through our Facebook page and look for ways to support each other in these challenging times.

Rebecca Smith

School Council President

Portfolios

Unfortunately student portfolios will not be available this term. They will be ready early Term 2.

Mount Pleasant Road Primary School & Kindergarten

Term 1 Week 9 · 23 Mar 2020

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