Message from Principal Sarah

Education Support (ES) Appreciation Day

On Monday 16th of May we celebrated our wonderful ES staff at NMPS. We thank our ES staff for all of the work they do in classrooms, in the office, sickbay, wellbeing, kitchen, garden, and in maintaining the school. Our school wouldn’t run as smoothly as it does without the support of each and every one of them. 

To our ES team, we say THANK-YOU.

NAPLAN

Last week our Year 3 and 5 students participated in NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) Online. We have a small number of students who are completing ‘make up’ tests this week, due to absences. We congratulate all students in Year 3 and Year 5 on their efforts and look forward to reviewing their results later in the year.

2022 Federal Election Sausage Sizzle and Bake Day Sale 

NMPS is a polling station for the 2022 Federal Election on Saturday 21st May. The North Melbourne Rotary Club will be holding a sausage sizzle on the day and our NMPS P&F Association will be running a Bake Stall. For more information about the Bake Stall please contact our Parents and Friends Association (details outlined later in this newsletter).

Education Week

Week 5 (22-28 May) is Education Week. This year’s theme is '150 years of Public Education'. Year-level teams will be organising an Open Classroom event for the week. Please keep an eye open on Compass and refer to our Important Dates page in this newsletter for information about specific year-level events. We look forward to welcoming our families into the classrooms to celebrate.

Professional Practice Day – Friday 10th June

As shared on Compass, for Term 2, 2022, the Department of Education and Training has provided schools with the option to hold each teacher’s allocated Professional Practice Day on the same day for all staff. This is to enable the most effective and efficient use of this day.

As a result, we have scheduled our professional practice day for Friday 10th June. Students will therefore not be required to attend school on this day. 

Biz-E-Kidz (BEK) will provide a service for students if required. See BEK page late in this newsletter for details.

COVIDSafe Measures – Rapid Antigen Tests

As shared via Compass last week, RATs will continue to be distributed to families as they have been throughout this school year for the remainder of this term. The ongoing supply of RATs to families in our school will ensure that parents and carers will have them should they need them if their child is a household contact or has symptoms. 

From Monday 23 May 2022, students will no longer be recommended to undertake twice-weekly RATs in mainstream schools. RATs however will continue to be required by students who are household contacts to attend school (5 negative tests over a 7-day period) or who have symptoms. Families must continue to notify the Department of Health and the school if their child returns a positive RAT result. Additionally, you should inform us if any of your children are household contacts.

If you require additional RAT kits, please contact the school. 

New Campus Construction Update

Our new North Melbourne Primary School campus is fast taking shape.

With the foundations laid for the main campus building structure and the gymnasium early this year, the pouring of concrete slab floors is moving up through the campus’s five storeys.

Specialist trades are also working their way up, installing services along with wall framing and blockwork to the campus’s internal walls.

On the outside, our builders have started installing sculptural concrete panels on the western façade facing the future laneway.

For more information about the facilities as they unfold, check out our level-by-level diagram and the drone flyover which is available on the VSBA North Melbourne Primary School new campus project page website.