From the Principal's Desk

Dear Monty South Community,

What a busy and fun filled few weeks we have had! The school has been abuzz with excitement as students and teachers have planned for and attended excursions, incursions and camps. Our Year 2 students enjoyed a day at Healesville Sanctuary to make connections with their learning of lifecycles and habitats, while our Year 4s headed off to Scienceworks as part of their inquiry unit, ‘Up, Up and Away’ to build their knowledge about the Earth - How our seasons occur and why, and how big is the Earth in comparison to the sun and moon. Some Year 5s were able to participate in a hip hop dance session as part of the Intra-school sports program. On Wednesday, our Year 6 cohort boarded buses to Ballarat for an adventure and learning experience of living life in the gold rush era of the 1850s. I spent the day with them yesterday and was so proud and impressed by the behaviour and attitude of all.

Reminder Pupil Free Day – Monday 23rd May

Just a reminder that this coming Monday will be a pupil free day. As previously advised, a Chess Club make-up session will be held on Friday 27th May and Camp Australia is offering a day program for those families requiring their service. Bookings can be made with them directly.

ES day

Every day, education support staff work to keep our schools running, support our students to learn and our teachers to teach. In May each year, we celebrate our hardworking Education Support (ES) staff and let them know how much they are appreciated, highlighting the value of their work. Monty South teachers and students have been secretly working on things to surprise our ES staff with, which will culminate next week as we thank and celebrate them for their contributions to our school with a special staff afternoon tea.

Students leaving the grounds before school

We have been made aware that we have some students arriving at school of a morning only to depart and leave the school grounds to attend the Monty General Store. We would really appreciate if you could please assist us to address this behaviour and ensure that children are aware they are required to stay on school grounds once they arrive.

MSPS Achievers

Cross Country Achievers

This week 60 of our students ran in the District Cross Country at Bundoora Park. 23 of our competitors (with a further 3 as emergencies) made it through to the Division Cross Country and together they won the District Shield. It was a great day and an amazing effort by all our runners. Well done to you all. Division Cross Country will be held on 1st June. Going through to Division are: James Buswell, Jed Panou, Oliver Lee, Oakley Byrne, Oliver Dale, Arlo Mark Meldrum, Matlida Mitchell, Chloe Head, Lacey Hume, Kiera Williams, Mischa Whitmore, Marisa Bonacci, Jaiden Loza, Darcy Geerling, Tom Fleming, Harry Brown, Jessica Blair, Erin Kellow, Hope Christian, Chloe Peters, Annabelle Lowe, Zahra Andrews, Maddie Carter, Benji Boyarovsky, Oscar Whitmore and Lennon Mihailovic.

Enrolments & School Open Day – Wednesday 25th May, 9.30 to 11.15am

Interested parents are welcome to come along to our Open Day next Wednesday.

For parents of current students enrolling children for Prep 2023, please complete and forward your forms asap. Enrolment applications for Prep 2023 should be submitted by the end of May and acceptance notification will be announced by 30 June.

Premiers Reading Challenge

The Premiers’ Reading Challenge began in 2005 and has inspired more than 3.5 million students to read more than 54 million books. That is just amazing! The Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open to all Victorian students from Prep to Year 10 and will close on Friday the 2nd of September, 2022. All students at MSPS will be participating in the 2022 Premiers’ Reading Challenge. The challenge goals will be reached at school for students in Prep to Year 2 with their teacher, however you can also add books at home yourself. Your child’s teacher has been given your child’s login details and will also send them home this week for you to access the Challenge. From Prep to Year 2, to complete the challenge your child must read or be read 30 books, 20 or books or more from the challenge list and 10 choice books. In Years 3 to 6, the students will be responsible to reach the challenge goals themselves and record the books they have read independently at school or at home. To successfully complete the challenge the Year 3 to 6 students must read a total of 15 books, 10 or more books must be from the challenge list and the others can be choice books. All students will receive a certificate if the challenge is successfully completed, signed by the Premier of Victoria, the right Honourable Mr. Daniel Andrews.

This year we will be selecting one child from Prep, Year One and Year Two and three children each from Years Three, Four, Five and Six who will be awarded with a Champion Premiers’ Reading Challenge badge. These badges will be presented at school by our local member Ms Vicki Ward, to those chosen students who show a great love of reading and dedication to improve their literacy skills.

Parents’ and Friends’ Activities

A Sausage Sizzle and Cake Stall will be held at MSPS on Election Day, Saturday May 21st – Volunteers are still needed. Please sign up via to help https://signup.com/go/nxkZGzG

Baked goods and treats for the cake stall can be delivered to the school on Friday or to the stall directly on Saturday.

Instructions for baking and labelling food items were provided in your Compass newsfeed sent to out this week.

Second hand uniform donations

We are no longer accepting donations of the old style school polo shirt. The old polos still circulating are now too old for resale. We will now only accept the new style with the blue insert.

Old uniform and clothing can be placed in the Mondo recycling bin at the front of the school. The school receives payment for every kg of donated items.

Donations of uniform can be donated to the school office at any time. Please ensure clothing is in a good, clean condition for resale. Second hand sales will be held 2-3 times a year. Keep an eye on the Parents and Friends Facebook page for details.

Parent helpers - Vaccination requirements The third dose vaccination requirements apply to any visitors or volunteers performing work on school sites.

We are excited to welcome back parent helpers to support classroom literacy and numeracy programs. Our process for volunteers working in classrooms is as follows;

Complete the Parent Helper Course (see Compass for details)
Read, sign and return the MSPS Volunteer Policy to your classroom teacher or the office
Contact your child’s classroom teacher to express interest in helping in the classroom
Sign in at the office before reporting to the classroom (you will be required to present your third dose vaccination certificate)

Our process for volunteers working in our kitchen and garden programs is as follows;

Read, sign and return the MSPS Volunteer Policy to your classroom teacher or the office
Contact Cathryn to express interest in helping in the kitchen on Cathryn.Hulme@education.vic.gov.au
Contact Jenny to express interest in helping in the garden on Jenny.Farrelly@education.vic.gov.au
Sign in at the office before reporting to the classroom (you will be required to present your third dose vaccination certificate)

MSPS Volunteers Policy.pdf

We appreciate your understanding in adhering to these requirements.

Update student medications/management plans

Victoria Hall, School Nurse is currently sending out reminders for parents/carers to update their child’s medication and management plan. Please provide these asap. If you have any questions, please email victoria.hall2@education.vic.gov.au.

We have heard from Leanne, who is currently enjoying some well-deserved long service leave. She is making the most of her time by reading, swimming and spending time with friends and family. She was even able to catch up with Laura Johnstone!

We can’t wait to hear all about it when she returns at the beginning of June!

Naomi Ivers

(acting) Principal

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Montmorency South Primary School acknowledges traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to elders both past, present and future.

‘Montmorency South is an inclusive learning community where students are inspired to be respectful, creative, curious and independent learners.’

Our Belief:

We believe that every person in our Montmorency South school community has the capacity to assist each student in attaining our vision.

Motto - Together we learn, lead and achieve