Dear Families,

Wow! Wow! and more Wow! Yesterday our school received $80,000 from the Federal Government for the Shire of Yarra Ranges to provide a staff car park. This will greatly reduce the congestion and allow so many more cars to park around the school. School Council have been well aware that with a growing school, and hence staff, we take up most of the spaces available. This new area will be AMAZING!

I would like to thank all Councillors over the last two years as well as Angus.M who have worked so hard to make this happen. However from draft plans to this announcement has only taken since February 6th, which is brilliant! Work will commence soon on the area- see current DRAFT design at the end of the newsletter.

Whilst out announcing this, the Shire also looked at doing a plan for a footpath on the school side of the road going up School Road. This would also make it much safer. All in all a wonderful day for Menzies!!!

EDEC Athletics

To top my morning off yesterday we then all headed to Cockatoo Little Athletics track and had a very exciting day enjoying the fun of competition and participation. All children performed to their best and we were so proud of their sportsmanship and behaviour. We came second, which was such a wonderful effort by everyone. Thank you Kylie for your amazing organization and hard work as well as Year 5/6 staff who supported the children beautifully.

The sun was certainly shining on Menzies Creek on Wednesday March 27th, 2019!!!

Change to GEM and Auslan

Sarah and Darren have decided to change the format of running GEM and Auslan from Term 2 onwards. They feel that by doing this the students would be better engaged and the intensity of the programs would have a greater effect on their ability to retain the information they are learning.

For the first 15 weeks of the remainder of the year Sarah will run GEM every week in Year 3-6 and Darren will run Auslan every week in F-2 classes. Following this they would change over.

We feel this solution will really benefit the students.

Easter Raffle

THANK YOU for your kind donations- we are happy to keep accepting them- the more we get the more hampers we can make! You can still get tickets from the office if you can sell more ( I know many families have sold them at their work place).

The raffle will be drawn on Friday April 5th at assembly.

Leadership Badge Presentation- Friday April 5th at 9.15 am

The Year 6 students will have their badges and certificates presented on this day. They have selected the two School Captains from 2018, Mika and Mason, to be their presenters. We look forward to welcoming them back to Menzies! All families are welcome!

Uniform

There a few students who continually wear non school jumpers. School uniform is a safety issue and also provides an even playing field for all. I understand if on the odd occasion this may happen, but you are required to send a note with your child to their teacher informing them.

Assembly- Friday March 29th

Year FT will be presenting. All families are welcome.

Year 6 Leadership City Challenge- Friday March 29th

This Friday Year 6 will be off to the city for the day completing a range of leadership challenges. They will travel by train so please keep your communication open in case of any alterations due to unforeseen circumstances.

Year 5 students will be completing a range of leadership activities with their buddies for the day.

Another super opportunity for our Menzies kids!

Final Day of Term 1

The final day of Term 1 is Friday April 5th and school will finish earlier at 2.30 pm. OSHC will run from this earlier time.

Reminders from Last week!

Hats

The official SunSmart Policy date for the wearing of hats ends on Monday April 1st. With the weather as it is, children are more than welcome to keep wearing them if it is hot.

Woodwind Instrumental Lessons - Term 2 onwards!

We are excited to offer woodwind instrumental lessons as of next term. If you are interested please come to the office for a contact to be provided.

Celebration of Learning

What a wonderful turn out of families, 98% attendance is outstanding! Thank you so much and I know your children and the staff really appreciated your support. The rooms were abuzz with budding artists, young and older. Many who showed obvious flair and others who were trying to make out what they really had produced- it was great fun!

The end product was certainly a large amount of knowledge around the artistic styles of impressionism, realism, surrealism and x-ray art! Brilliant effort kids- your are amazing inquirers! Thank you 3/4 team for your brilliant work!

PLANNING WEEK FOR TEACHERS: NEXT WEEK

Next week all of our teaching staff are participating in a full day’s planning for Term 2. This ensures that all teachers have time together in their grade level/specialist area over an extended period to plan and discuss their program for next term. Time is spent developing differentiated planners, assessment tasks and excursions. Our Specialists support these days therefore there is no specialist times next week, as well as having their own planning time. Where needed classroom teachers are replaced by relief teachers who are familiar with the way our school runs. It is a most productive time and sets everyone up for a smooth transition into the next term. Thank you for your support of this.

Monday- Year 3/4

Tuesday- Year 5/6

Wednesday- Foundation

Thursday- Year 1/2

Weekly Calendar

This information is also available on Compass!

Foundation T will be presenting at assembly this week