Principal's Report 

Dear families and friends of MPW,

Congratulations to our Tee ball team for making it to division finals this term. As in all aspects of student learning at MPW, our students gave their best. Thank you to the teachers and parent helpers who supported this day.  I would like to also acknowledge all of our 5/6 students who participated in the State Cross Country event, finishing in the top 40 students in our state. What an achievement!

This Thursday, we have students participating in the District Athletics carnival. I wish our students all the best for their events and know they will be successful by giving their best.

We will be sending out information early next week regarding opportunities for the school community to participate in some parent focus groups in support of our School Review. We are engaging with an external consultant, Leslie Tulloch, who will facilitate the focus group sessions for our community stakeholders (students, staff and parents) as part of the review preparation.

In the coming weeks, we are hoping to schedule and begin to re-establish the opportunity to offer some parent information sessions coverage a range of areas, such as a Classroom Helpers course, Reading and Numeracy Sessions and Wellbeing Sessions. We are hoping to hold one or two in the second half of this term and some next term. 

A few parents have asked when our next Curriculum Day is scheduled for, it will be on Monday 31st October which is the day before the Melbourne Cup public holiday. 

3-way conferences

Our 3-way conferences began on Monday and run until Friday 29th July. These conferences give an opportunity to touch base with you on the progress of your child and their current goals and enable teachers, parents and students to come together on a collective understanding of the expectation around the learning. It is important that students be part of this meeting, as they will be called on to contribute to the discussion. It is also an important part of our relationship building between school and home.

Dress Code Policy Update

We have updated our school website to include the new Dress Code policy for the community.

The document includes the Dress Code policy and two appendices, one the list of school uniform items and the second an implementation timeline guide. There will also be a digital version of the updated designs of uniform items that have been established with JSC. We are expecting to have some samples of uniform items available soon as well. 

I would like to acknowledge and thank the work of the Education Committee, the Working Party, Junior School Council and School Council for their contribution to the review of the dress code over the past 18 months.

5/6 camp

Our year 5/6 camps are coming up soon, it is great to see so many of our students attending. Camps are a great experience for students to have an experience away from home, in this case a snow day, and spend time with their peers and teachers in a different learning environment. We will be confirming COVID safe arrangements and other details for the camps shortly.

MVIMP Music Camp

Next Tuesday the MVIMP Music Camp returns after a two year absence at Lady Northcote Camp, Bacchus Marsh.

Approximately fifteen students from each of the four participating MVIMP (Moonee Vale Instrumental Program) schools have been invited to attend this camp. The schools are: Moonee Ponds PS, Moonee Ponds West PS, Ascot Vale PS and Ascot Vale West PS.

MVIMP students attending camp receive intensive music tuition from the MVIMP tutors. Students  work towards participating in a concert, which will be held on the Thursday night at the camp.

3-6 Swimming program

As mentioned at assembly last week, our 3-6 students will be participating in a swimming program over the next couple of weeks. Our first group of 5/6s started on Monday, again it was great to see high participation for this. Swimming is an important life skill, and it is part of the Victorian Curriculum that we provide a Water Safety and Swimming program to support students to get their Water Safety Certificate before they finish primary school. Our 5/6 students participate in a one-week intensive program and our 3/4 students participate in a two-week program.

Regards,

Jarrod Sutton

Acting Principal