Dear Parents and Carers,

I am very happy to be back at work after a wonderful trip to the Northern Territory and Western Australia with my husband. We visited Uluru, Alice Springs, Darwin, Katherine and Broome. We had many wonderful experiences including riding a Segway around Uluru, visiting Kakadu and Arnhem Land, seeing Katherine Gorge and flying over the Horizontal Falls in WA. Did you know Kakadu and Arnhem are not Aboriginal words? I was very surprised. Arnhem is named after a boat that landed in the Northern Territory in the 1700s which was named after a town in the Netherlands and Kakadu is the German word for cockatoo.

It was so nice to be welcomed back by students, families and staff. I’d like to thank Mrs O’Connor and Mrs Mills, who were Acting Principal in my absence, and for all staff members for their ongoing work that was able to continue in my absence.

Whilst I was away it was National Reconciliation Week, which is celebrated every year from 27th May until 3rd June. This week is a very important week for all Australians. It is a time for all Australians to learn about how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. The dates for Reconciliation Week are significant because they are anniversaries of two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey. May 27th is the anniversary of the 1967 referendum and June 3rd as the High Court Mabo decision.

May 26th is the eve of Reconciliation Week. This date is also important as it is the date in which, in 1998, the then Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, delivered an Apology to all Aboriginal people of Australia. May 26th is known as National Sorry Day. National Sorry Day is a day to remember and acknowledge the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People who were removed from their families due to the government policies of the day. These people are now referred to as ‘The Stolen Generation’. May 26th, each and every year, is now known as National Sorry Day. This is a day to recognise the strength of the survivors of the Stolen Generation and reflect on how we can all play a part in the healing process for the Stolen Generation.

Retirements: Today we had a morning tea to farewell Bernadette Stepnell, our Business Manager, and Bob Buse, our maintenance person, who are both retiring at the end of this term. I wish to thank them for their work and the contribution they made to make Melton West PS a great place to learn and grow, as well as being great work colleagues. We wish them well as they journey into the next part of their life’s journey.

Farewell: We also celebrated Sarah Ralph’s impending maternity leave, as she is about to give birth to her daughter in the next few weeks. I’d like to thank Sarah for staying on for an extra week to see out the term with her class. We wish you and your partner a wonderful start to your new life as parents. Your baby is so blessed to have such wonderful parents. Enjoy your time with the little one when she arrives. Mr Bird is also taking some leave from the end of this term. Mrs Bird is about to give birth to their first child and he will be taking term 3 to spend time together. He will re-join us in term 4 and we look forward to hearing all the wonderful stories of their life as a family.

Semester 1 Student Reports: Staff have almost finished the reports for Semester 1, just making final adjustments. Due to term 2 being such a short term (only 9 weeks) these will be sent home on the first day of term 3, with Parent Teacher Interviews held during the second week of term 3. Information about booking a time will be available shortly.

Excursions/Incursions: Over the past few weeks, many students have participated in a range of incursions (where a guest speaker/special guest come to school) or excursions (where students leave the school to visit other locations) which has been fantastic, given that over the past few years these have been limited. We aim to give all students authentic experiences over the course of the year.

National Consistent Collection of Data for Students with a Disability (NCCD): Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

year of schooling
category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.dese.gov.au/about-us/resources/department-education-skills-and-employment-complete-privacy-policy-0).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

High Levels of Learning for All

Michelle Costa

Community