From the Principal's Desk

Dear Monty South community,

The latest announcements from the Victorian Government regarding a lockdown extension are not what any of us wanted to hear. However, it is not surprising given the increasing COVID-19 case numbers. I’d like to remind everyone we all need to play our part. If you choose to come onto the school grounds after hours and on weekends, please remember to wear a mask and ensure social distancing requirements are followed. 

We have noticed after the weekends, there is an increased amount of debris and empty alcohol bottles lying around, which we know is not just from teenagers. While other schools in the area lock their gates, without a high fence we are a bit exposed. It has never been our policy to lock our community out. We want to remind everyone we are a school, not a meeting place or picnic ground. It isn’t fair for the children and staff onsite to have to clean up on Monday mornings. We would really appreciate your continued support with regards to this matter. 

Book Week parade

The Book Week parade has unfortunately been postponed until we return to school. The bonus is, it gives you more time to plan, design and create a truly fabulous costume! We look forward to being able to hold this very special Monty South event at a later date. 

Just a reminder the Premiers’ Reading Challenge ends 17 September 2021! Good luck getting to the finish line!

NAPLAN

2021 NAPLAN results for our Year 3 and 5 students have arrived and we have posted them out to families this week. NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment allowing parents to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. Pleasingly, Victoria has held top spot as the highest-performing jurisdiction on seven out of ten measures in the primary school years. Our Year 3 and Year 5 numeracy results were the highest in the country.

Year 7 students achieved the highest scores of any jurisdiction for the foundation skills of Reading and Numeracy, and our Year 9 students achieved the highest scores for Spelling.

We congratulate all our students who participated and gave it their best shot – well done.

PALS and Year 6 furniture

During this term, our Year 6 PALs (Principal Advisory Leaders) have been meeting via Microsoft Teams with Naomi, Jess and myself to discuss furniture options for the Year 6 common area and classrooms. PALs were tasked with researching furniture from differing companies and were able to present their findings, vote and agree on a design for the common area that will enable and promote collaborative learning among the students. PALs also gave their input into what furniture they believe would best promote a learning environment that meets their needs. Tables with whiteboards as the table top, standing work stations and different table and seating options that are not the standard desk and chair were all put forward. We have since met with a BFX Furniture consultant to design the classroom areas further and advise on colour schemes. We were very impressed with the leadership and research that our PALs showed- well done everyone!  We are hoping the new furniture will be delivered in Term 4. 

Kindness Week

This week we held a school-wide Kindness Week, themed ‘Kindness is free’. Thanks to Emma and Amy, our Wellbeing Captains, for their message (posted on the school Facebook page) and for encouraging us to choose kindness every day. 

Science Week

National Science Week was celebrated last week. We were originally going to celebrate this with a Family STEAM Night but instead our specialist activities on the Wednesday were all STEAM related with a 'space' theme. This week provides a fabulous opportunity for everyone to talk science, see science and do science. We loved hearing about some of the budding scientists we have at MSPS! Next week is eSmart Week. 

Path and playground update

Our path from Reichelt St to the Prep area has been completed.  This will allow pram and wheelchair access for all. 

We have also begun planning the embankment just near the Prep area. We are building an adventure-sensory play area for the younger children that will have climbing ropes and tyres as well as a slide. We will keep you informed of when work is to begin. 

YarraMe Support for children with complex needs. 

In response to current COVID19 restrictions with Melbourne metropolitan schools in remote learning mode, YarraMe School has a Parent Help Desk for parents and carers to assist in supporting children with complex needs who are learning from home. 

YarraMe's Help Desk http://www.yarrame.vic.edu.au/help-desk.html  can assist with:

•          understanding a child's behaviour 

•          providing personalised one to one telephone consultation with a special education              teacher

•          discussion of a pathway for the family to seek formal diagnosis of learning                                disabilities

•          discussion about behavioural support strategies

•          advice on setting up learning environments

•          providing targeted resources

•          referral to external services. 

The purpose of this service is to provide parents and carers with the opportunity to discuss your child's behaviours, which may be impeding their ability to learn at home.

The Help Desk can also help parents and carers to successfully navigate potential intervention pathways for their child.

Outdoor activities

This is a repost from Tweddle that may be a helpful resource, sent to us by Shannon Jimeno from Banyule City Council.  Thank you Shannon. 😊

25 outdoor activities

1. Let your kids plant a mini-garden.  If they are in charge of it, then they will have to go outside to water, weed and watch over it.

2. Help your kids build a fort outside with a rope and an old sheet.  Suggest other items that might be fun for them to use on their fort.

3. Go for regular walks, bike rides or runs as a family.  Many urban communities have trails and bike paths through parks, riverways or lakefronts

4. Create an outdoor scavenger hunt where your kids collect items from nature.

5. Make a bucket list of different parks you want to try and visit.

6. Go on a bug hunt Give your kids a container and have them collect different kinds of bugs.

7. Turn your yard into an obstacle course. Use cones, sticks, a hula hoop, and other items from your garage or backyard to create fun obstacles.

8. Blow gigantic bubbles. Fill up a sheet pan with a bubble mixture and dip an over-sized wand to see who can blow the biggest bubble.

9. Play with water. Kids will jump at the chance to go outside and splash in water. There are lots of creative ways to do it: wash the car, water the garden, run through sprinklers, go down slip-n-slide, jump in blow up pool, or build a water table.

10. Try a new sport. Sometimes a friendly game of dodge ball, whiffle ball, or soccer is a great way to get kids to enjoy playing outside.

11. Make footpath art. Give your kids a big bucket of chalk and let them go to town. Give them some ideas with printed photos, or even stencils to color with.

12. Eat dinner on your porch, deck or in your backyard.

13. Use an outdoor toy rotation strategy. Kids are lot more excited to play with toys they haven’t seen in a while or can’t access. Divide your outdoor toys into 3 bins, and have one big bucket of toys out at a time. 

14. Make an outdoor activity jar. This helps with kids who have a hard time thinking of things to do, or making decisions. Write different activities on popsicle sticks. Let your kids choose an activity and then head outside. Make the activities easy to act on – go to the park for 15 minutes, water the plants, set up a water shooting range, pick a dandelion bouquet, draw something with chalk.

15. Do your normal everyday activities outside. Do homework, eat meals, craft, read books, draw or play games all outside.

16. Outside art projects. If you are tired of your kids projects making a mess in your house, then bring them outside. A few fun ideas: a playdough picnic, where you let your kids make pretend food out of playdough. Nature art – collect leaves, flower, sticks, seeds, and pine cones to make natural artwork. Outdoor painting – bring an easel and paint out to your backyard so your kids can enjoy painting nature scenes.

17. Star gaze, or look for shapes in clouds. Set up a blanket, binoculars or a telescope and enjoy the sky.

18. Clean up Litter. Kids can be surprisingly passionate about caring for mother nature. (and proud of their efforts!) You can also make it a game: a mission to save the planet.

19. Ride scooters, bikes or tricycles. Set up a mini race and compete on wheels.

20. Have your kids pull weeds. You can use rewards and it definitely gets them outside in the yard.

21. Play bug or leaf bingo. Find 10 different bugs or leaves and identify them.

22. Photograph nature. Let our kids borrow your phone camera and see how many different types of wildlife they can find and photograph.

23. Make a sensory play tub with sand, dinosaurs and rocks.

24. Get some paint brushes and paint masterpieces with water.

25. Make some puppets and put on a puppet show, or create shadow puppets.

Open Play - Whatever you are doing outdoors with your toddler, don’t fill in time so tightly that you create stress. Toddlers have new-found ideas and physical abilities to explore. They are driven to explore. Sometimes just going outside together and looking around is enough to spark a deep need in a toddler to explore.

Warmest regards and stay connected,

Leanne Sheean

Principal.