Principal's Message

GRIP Leadership Conference

Last Thursday our school leaders and representatives from each Year 6 Leadership Team attended the GRIP Leadership Conference. The GRIP Student Leadership Conference is unique in that it concentrates specifically on training student leaders for their role as school leaders. The style, topics, and content of this conference all focus on what the students can do RIGHT NOW.

The students had a fabulous day collaborating with other school leaders, developing a vision for their team, and brainstorming how to lead positive change within the school. They learnt about 'stepping up' and strategies to raise the standard of teamwork, all whilst showing integrity as a leader. The representatives who attended will each share their learning with their teams as a part of Year 6 Leadership Hour in Week 11.  

Ms Bennetts and Mr Burrill were proud of the students, who modelled respect and excellence at all times while representing our school. 

Year 1-6 Three Way Conferences

Students have been very proud to attend the Three Way Conferences this week and celebrate their achievements and discuss their next steps. A highlight has been having these in person and seeing families in classrooms with teachers. Thank you to everyone for following our COVID safe procedures and for all the preparations from staff and students.

Buddies Are Back

On Thursday 24th we had our first Buddies session for 2022! Our Year 1 and Year 6 students were excited to reconnect after spending time getting to know each other last year. The Foundation students were eager to meet their Year 5 buddy and find out their name and more about them such as their age. Our outdoor picnic was organised by our Year 6 Wellbeing Leaders who did a fantastic job of communicating with relevant teachers to share how they would like the session to run. What a great success Thursday was! We look forward to more school wide Buddy sessions in Term 2! Does your child remember their Buddy’s name?

Thank you to Brooke Henwood for working with our Year 6 Wellbeing Team in getting our amazing program back up and running.

Harmony Day & Close the Gap

Last week we celebrated Harmony Week and on Friday we combined that with Close the Gap day.

Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It is about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.​ Harmony Week is celebrated during the week that ​includes 21 March, which is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Mount Pleasant Road Primary School is united by cultures and backgrounds from all over the world. At our school the Year 6 Leaders surveyed classes and used our school data to find out that we have students and parents that come from 40 different countries from around the world. In the hall, there is a great big map of the world with lines of string connecting our home here at Mount Pleasant Road to the 40 countries we have all come from. 

Upcoming Events

We are excited to be looking forward to the last part of the term with 

Week 10:

• 5/6 Camp  Mar 29 - Apr 1st

Week 11

• Guided Inquiry Showcase - Wed Apr 6
• Colour Fun Run - Thursday Apr 7
• Family Breakfast, Easter Raffle, Easter Hat Parade - Friday Apr 8

Let's Talk Mentor Training

On Friday afternoon for the last hour of the day, Year 5/6  students who are a part of the Let’s TALK program had the opportunity to partake in additional training. During this session, students were able to work with the creator of the program Jetha to develop new strategies to support their peers in times of need. Some of the key strategies included identifying others who may not be okay, and how to begin a conversation with someone who is in need. The Lets TALK buddies can be found in the yard wearing a bright pink vest and are always up for a chat. Members of the program have been busy making announcements at assemblies and making presentations, for more information about the program you might like to ask your child or contact the school. 

Thank you to Mr Dix for supporting this initiative.

COVID 19 Update

At MPRPS &K we have been fortunate in being able to manage staffing and student attendance with minimal impact across the school. I have spoken to students to acknowledge their flexibility as we manage staffing, for both ES and teaching staff absence whether from illness, isolation as household contacts and/or positive cases. Replacing staff is increasingly challenging as our normal agency and bank of CRT's (casual relief teacher) are under pressure and occasionally cannot meet our daily requirements. Options, which we use, when needed are moving our support teaching staff into classrooms, with a huge shout out to Tania Hosken and Kaine Jenkins, our Learning Specialists Erin Bennetts and Andrew Shaw, Tegan Kitteringham (Pre Service teacher in her last year of training) we are very mindful of interrupting their programs, so the final option would be to spread a class across other classes in the Learning Centre. At this stage we have not had to do this.

Colour Fun Run

The big day is coming! So far we have raised $4943 to go towards a Gaga Pit for our playground which was decided by our SRC. There is still time to register and raise money for our school by visiting plantadifference.com.au. For every $20 raised for MPPRS, students can choose to plant a tree or coral in either the Great Barrier Reef or Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor. We are also looking for parent/carers to help on the day. Please scan the QR code if you are able to help.

Investigate, Create, Express

We are looking for volunteers from our school community to run creative and explorative groups for our Senior School Investigate, Create and Express Program this year. 

Please take the time to sit down with your child to complete the Google Form together and express areas of interest.

Any questions please contact the school office, Emily Richardson, Megan Campbell or Emma Honan.

Parent Phonogram Program

We are excited to run our Parent Phonogram Program in person this year. The three sessions will help you to understand our whole school Reading and Writing program and learn more about the way we teach your child to read and write. 

These sessions are particularly valuable for Foundation parents and we also highly recommend kinder and school families new to the school to attend the program. A notification was sent out to Foundation families last week. If there are other families interested in attending please contact Reception. We ask that those attending commit to attending all three sessions as each session leads into the next. Unfortunately, the course is designed for adults and is therefore not suitable for students or younger siblings to attend.

When: Thursday 5th May, Thursday 12th May and Thursday 19th May 2022

Where: Mount Pleasant Road Primary School Hall

Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm