Dear Families and Friends of MPS

My goodness how time flies. We’re already into the month of May and with term 2 being only 9 weeks long, there is a lot of learning and extra curricular activities to enjoy. Teachers always comment on how much academic growth occurs over this part of the year but this will be challenging for some given the continued absences due to illness and covid. Even though we’re now still living with coronavirus, life is quickly getting back to the busy normal.

Speaking of COVID -19, we all understand that the guidelines continue to change in response to public health but it can be difficult for parents to find the information you need when the time comes. To help our families with this, instead of scrolling through past newsfeeds on Compass, we now have a section on our school website where you’ll find answers to the common covid questions. For example, what to do if your child tests positive. We hope this will be a time saver for you.

OUR NEW SCHOOL WEBSITE

We decided to change our old website for two main reasons; we wanted a website that was easier to view on a smart phone and one that was easier for our staff to use.

I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to our Acting Assistant principal, Fiona Sewell, for not only leading the way in the development of the website but she also does a brilliant job in keeping our school community up to date on all of our communication platforms.

Take a look at our new website and explore the different features and new content as its developed.

WELCOME MR PULLAR

We’d like to give a warm welcome to Mr Todd Pullar who is now our P.E. teacher for three days a week (job sharing with Miss Nelson). When you get to meet Mr Pullar, you’ll quickly realise just how passionate about sport and team spirit he is. Mr Pullar will also be teaching in year 6D for two days a week while Mr Damiano is released from classroom duties to work with our staff and students in extending our numeracy curriculum through teaching and learning.

Welcome Mr Pullar. We know you’ll love our MPS school community as much as we all do.

ANZAC DAY ASSEMBLY

On Monday this week, our Global Citizenship team did an outstanding job leading a special assembly to acknowledge ANZAC Day. The team spoke confidently and knowledgeably providing the school with a brief history of how the Anzacs came about, their contributions to our country’s history and how important it is to acknowledge the achievements and sacrifices of those who have served in all wars.

Thank you to the Global Citizenship team: Darcy, Xavier, Christian, Josh, Tadhg, Mitchell, Jesse and Oliver for your preparation and excellent public speaking.

MOTHER’S DAY STALL- Thursday 5 May

Once again, our School Council Social and Fundraising team have organised a Mother’s Day stall which will be held tomorrow, 5 May. Each class will take turns to go to the hall to do their shopping.

It will be helpful for each student to bring a plastic or paper bag to keep their purchases together and protected in their bag, not to mention hiding their goodies from mum until the special day.

To all the mums who will be heading off to Levi for a special Mother’s Day breakfast, we have no doubt you’ll enjoy the vibe and each others company. To all of our Beena Mums, you deserve to be spoiled on your special day.

WORKING BEE- Saturday 14 May (9:30am – 1:30pm)

For the past couple of years, we haven’t been able to hold a working bee so it’s definitely time to give our gardens and grounds a little bit of extra attention.

A working bee is when parents (and their children) come to school and do general clean up and garden maintenance. A list of jobs is posted on the wall and when parents arrive they choose what they’d like to do. The jobs are simple and don’t require skill, but your help makes a huge difference. Working Bee tasks include:

Weeding garden beds and trimming plants
Spreading softfall tanbark around the playgrounds
Sweeping
Painting (the outdoor timber seats)
Removing debris from the gutters and drains
Sorting and cleaning out the tech shed.

Even if you only have one hour to spare on the Saturday, many hands make light work.

We hope to see you there.

(BYO garden gloves).

NAPLAN

Next week, our year 3 and 5 students will be participating in the NAPLAN tests. These are nationwide assessments with parents receiving a report about their child’s literacy and numeracy achievements. The schedule is as follows:

Tuesday 10 May – writing (Year 3 students handwrite their pieces while year 5 students use laptops)

AND

language conventions (spelling, punctuation and grammar)

Wednesday 11 May – reading

Thursday 12 May – maths

It is important to remember that NAPLAN is only one form of assessment and while it demonstrates what the child was able to do on the day, it does not reflect all the student is capable of.

Students at our school are involved in continuous dialogue with teachers reflecting on and analysing their work together. Teachers and students use work samples and a range of classroom based assessments to identify the learning achieved and to set personalised learning goals to guide future learning directions. Learning is a continuous journey and it is vital students are active participants.

FUNDRAISING (The Easter Raffle)

Thank you to our wonderful families for the donation of Easter goodies and selling raffle tickets. As a result of your generosity and participation, we raised $4897.78

Our fundraising efforts this year are concentrated on replacing the old drinking troughs and we’re hoping the carnival will raise enough funds to install air conditioning units to all classes in the main building.

LIBRARY UPGRADE

Each year, parents are invited to make tax deductible voluntary contributions to the Library Fund and to the Building Fund. Over the years, the fund has grown which allows the school to upgrade facilities in line with our long term plan. As a result of the accumulated funds for the library, we are giving the space a whole new make over. During the holidays, the library was painted and new carpet installed. We are now waiting for the new furniture to fit out the space. The library will become an inviting area for relaxation, research, reading and collaborating. We can’t wait to invite families to view the new library and other improvements in the school.

FUNDRAISING – where is the money going?

At the moment, we are full steam ahead with our fundraising efforts. It’s timely that parents have a clearer idea about why the school is fundraising and where the money is going. I’ll be posting an article on compass later this week with the intention of providing information which will give parents a better understanding.

FRIDGE CALENDAR

A paper copy of the Term 2 calendar was sent home this week so you can pop it on your fridge to quickly see important whole school events. Don’t forget to write down the working bee date on this calendar😊 (Sat 14th May).

Chellee Plumb

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