Dear Students, Parents, Carers and Families,

We are a HUMAN LITERACY school.

… knowledge to empower our learning and our lives!

We are proud partners with the University of Melbourne.

Welcome back to a very different Term 2, as we are now living, learning and working from home during these unprecedented and challenging times.

This is also our inaugural iNewsletter issue. This was something we had planned to do pre-covid so we hope you like the new format!

As it always has been, schools are hubs for the community they serve, not only providing an education for its students and providing support for families in a myriad of ways but also connecting its community. This continues to be the case today but during this pandemic even more so.

As a Human Literacy school we are continually exploring different ways to support families and school staff to be self and family aware, to plan necessary changes to their working and living circumstances, and make important choices to sustain a healthy mental and physical state that empowers all of us to work and learn at our best.

Let’s take a few moments to reflect on where we were only a few weeks ago and are now as a school community.

Including today, it has been only 13 school days in total from the end of Term 1 that we had to move toward preparing to take our school online.
It was on April 14th (second week of holidays) that it was actually confirmed that Victorian schools would definitely be learning remotely online at home.
We have only had 7 days of learning online at home.
We are only into our fourth day of what is our regular weekly schooling timetable.

Wow simply amazing!! The learning curve and growth for all of us has been and continues to be immense and in general significantly positive.

Congratulations and thank you to all of our students, parents, carers and families for your involvement in ensuring you are supporting each other to engage and learn together. Mums and Dads, we know this is not easy and you probably never envisaged having to put on your teacher’s hat, so thank you for giving it your all – we know it is not an easy job! We appreciate your patience and support as we strive to find the best balance for all of our families and give the support needed.

Of course, everything we have created has only been possible because of the exceptional and collaborative efforts of all of our amazing Maramba staff. They have worked tirelessly and continuously to make all of this possible and continue to work on refining what we do in the best interests of all of our 206 families – our community! It is in these times, we often see the true greatness in people and our staff have certainly shown that in spades with their commitment and dedication to our community. They are our superheros! Thank you!

On a final note, school may be a very different place but ensuring our students and your children continue to learn from home is vital to their continued progress and education. We cannot wind back the clock when school resumes, we will need to continue to move forward, which makes this window of learning at home so significantly important. Every day of learning is important and makes a difference in ensuring our children have the opportunity to choose their path in future.

We are looking forward to a great Term ahead and whatever challenges we face, we face together and together we will prevail.

Welcome back everyone!

A Very Special ANZAC Day

While public ANZAC Day services are cancelled, we can still join in solidarity in recognising all armed services personnel, by standing in our driveways for a combined dawn service.

Some radio stations like Triple M 105.1FM, will be broadcasting a service from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra between 5:30am – 6:00am.

The ANZAC spirt helps us in times of crisis. It gives us courage, endurance, ingenuity, resilience and mateship. All attributes, which are particularly applicable for Australians amid this pandemic.

As a school, we are encouraging families to join other families across our nation in commemorating our diggers and fallen heroes in one or more of the ways below:

Listening to the live broadcast and stand in your driveway, balcony, veranda, front steps or doorway.
Lighting a candle or put on front the porch or veranda light, or use the torch on your phone.
Placing the wreath or poppies you make this week from our school activities near your mailbox.
In your family’s own way.

Whatever way you would like to or can, please feel free to share a photograph with your class through Class Dojo or Teams. We will share some of these next week in our school newsletter.

Please join with myself, my family and other families across Australia this year for a very different ANZAC Day in remembering the efforts of the ANZAC’s and the lasting legacy they have left for the whole of Australia and our way of life.

Our Maramba School Values

Our school values are an integral part of who we are as a people and as a community. They are the things that we believe are important. Values have a major influence on a person's behavior and attitude. Every day and every moment they serve as broad guidelines in all situations in guiding us in the choices we make and the actions we take.

In Term 2, we will be focusing on our second school value of Respect.

Respect: We are understanding and considerate of everyone’s rights.

How we treat and consider other people, the environment and ourselves is an important life value. You can give and model respect by: listening actively to what they say;

Some of our values are about how we treat other people and what consideration we give them. Respect is not usually a one-off event or action. It is at the heart of all behaviour, the underlying principle.

You can give and show respect by:

taking pride in yourself in all that you do;
being honest;
being well-mannered
modelling moral integrity;
allowing others to express opinions;
appreciating and taking into account other people’s preferences;
taking an active stance against bullying and discrimination;
listening thoughtfully to all opinions, even when controversial;
caring for our environment;
taking pride in our school community;

and including everyone, at the earliest stage possible, in the decision-making process.

Kind regards,

Darren Wallace

Principal

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the students and staff who will be celebrating their birthdays this week or celebrated over the holidays.