Principal's Report 

We, at Miners Rest Primary School, would like to acknowledge the Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation.

We pay our respects and thank the Wadawurrung people.

May we share your land. We promise to look after it, as well as the animals and people too.

Bikes

Students and their bike use:

• Please ensure students always utilise school crossings where appropriate and students dismount to do so;
• No bikes, scooters etc on school grounds - as per signs at entry points; and
• Please be careful on the gravel paths whilst in transit to school - we've had approximately four students arrive at school this week and last, with grazed knees, elbows etc.  Please take care!

Leadership

This Monday 20th February will be my final day at Miners Rest K-6.  I thank you all for your support and dedication to your child/ren attending our amazing school.  I will be composing a more in depth letter, prior to my departure, which will be sent via Sentral.

For clarity, I offer the following information as the most up to date I am able to provide. There will be a transition phase for our school community until the next substantive principal is appointed.

1 - Kylie Nissen will be our Acting Principal until Friday 3rd March

2 - Sarah Bigmore will be our Acting Assistant Principal until Friday 3rd March

3 - DE (Department of Education) will appoint an advertised Acting Principal from Monday 6th March through until 9th July (caretaker mode)

4 - DE along with a panel, will appoint a substantive principal to commence from the beginning of term 3, on 10th July

School Council elections

Nominations for our 2023 School Council are being called.

Self-nomination forms are available from our office and are open from today through until Friday 3rd March.

Should there be more nominations than vacancies, a ballot will then commence over the course of the following fortnight to establish the final membership.

Please consider nominating and joining a vibrant and active group of volunteers, who provide wonderful governance for our school community.

Clarification of arrival time

This week I was asked a question in relation to the arrival time for students.  We ask families to drop students to the school or have them arrive on bikes or on foot between 8:45-9:00 am.  This is primarily due to supervision and safety of our students.

Under our Australian Education Union agreement, staff are not able to be on duty prior to the 8:45 am timeslot, therefore our students are unsupervised if they arrive beforehand.

We know this is challenging for many families, and as such this is essentially a soft rule, however we encourage this to be adhered to wherever practical and possible.

In addition, our licensing of the Kindergarten and OSHC service, only permits us to operate between the hours of 7 am - 6 pm daily.

Works Update

It's very exciting to see our new Year 1/2 playground works underway, adjacent to the Foundation playground.  Unfortunately day one of the planned five day project didn't go to plan.  We have hit a rock shelf and are now awaiting a rock drill early in March.  Unfortunately, our patient students will have to wait a little longer - we are extremely sorry! :-(