Message from Principal Sarah

It’s hard to believe we are now more than halfway through Term 1 and what a busy term it has been! We have seen our new preps settle into school and begin full-time attendance, we welcomed families to our Open Classroom event, we sent our Year 4 students off to Anglesea for their camp experience, our Year 5 and 6 students participated in District Swimming, we participated in the first days of our School Review, and we finally had the opportunity to acknowledge our 2022 student leaders at our first senior assembly last week. These are just a few of the events we have participated in and run over the last five weeks however the list goes on. 

It has been lovely to be able to engage in these school activities after two disruptive school years and we hope as we progress through the year, we have plenty more opportunities for exciting events.

First Assembly

Our first senior assembly was held last Friday 4th March. Our new School Leaders took on the responsibility of running assemblies with confidence. During the assembly, we presented our school leaders and house captains with badges and introduced our Junior School Representative Council (JSRC) for Years 3, 4 and 5. We also congratulated our swimming team for their efforts at the District Swimming Sports and heard recounts of the Year 4 camp experience.

Our student leaders reminded students about the importance of enacting our school values of being responsible, inclusive, sagacious, and ethical and also reminded students to wear their broad-brimmed hats when outside.

This week we will have our first junior assembly. We will be introducing the JSRC students for Year 1 and Year 2 at assembly this week and very much look forward to welcoming our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 families on-site for this event.

School Review

Our leadership team, staff and students participated in the first days of our School Review on the 24th and 28th February. These days included data analysis, interviews with staff and students and classroom observations.

On Monday 21st March, the review panel will be joining us again and would like to engage with our wider parent community. We are seeking an expression of interest from interested parents and carers to participate in a group interview on-site with our panel from 9 am – 9.40 am. This is an opportunity for parents and carers to share what they like best about NMPS and put forward their suggestions for our future direction.

If you are interested in participating in the interview, could you please email the school on north.melbourne.ps@education.vic.gov.au

We are interested in hearing from parents and carers across the school from Prep to Year 6, however, please note numbers for the interview will be limited. In the case that there are multiple parents from one year level and additional interest, participants will be drawn from lots.

COVID-19 Update and Staff Absences

We would like to thank the school community for your care and diligence over the first 5 weeks of the 2022 school year. We are still receiving reports of families and staff who have contracted COVID during this period of time, however, this has been well managed and the impact across the school has been minimal. 

At times, due to isolation requirements, teachers have been absent for an extended period. Where possible, we have tried to staff classes with a consistent replacement teacher, however, it is important to note that this is not always possible. At NMPS, we work collaboratively and all teachers who come into the school are briefed about the learning programs we are following on a daily basis. 

We ask families to keep following important COVIDSafe measures such as mask-wearing, physical distancing, ventilation, getting vaccinated, rapid antigen testing, and isolating when a family member is positive. 

We’ll continue to provide an update to our community as soon as we receive further information from DET, regarding any changes to COVIDSafe measures.

Traffic Management

We remind you about the importance of road safety and observing road rules. Please drive safely, and exercise tolerance and patience during pick up and drop off time. If you are able to commute by walking, or parking in surrounding streets, and then walking to school, this may alleviate some of the traffic congestion at drop-off and pick-up time. 

Please also be aware and obey the parking signage around the school, noting that there are a number of no parking (this includes our Kiss and Drop Zone), no standing and disabled parking spots. 

We thank you in anticipation for working together to ensure our collective safety and wellbeing. 

School Council Election Outcome

I sincerely thank all parents, guardians, and staff who cast their votes in the 2022 School Council ballot. I wish to inform you that at the close of the ballot, the successful candidates for the vacancies in the Parent Member Category is as follows: 

• Melinda Green
• Rowan Kimber 
• Kate Lomas
• Ryan Staggard  

We welcome these members to our school council and thank all applicants who expressed interest in contributing to our school in this important way.

On Monday 7th March, a special school council meeting was held to co-opt our community members. I would like to welcome Nuray Tasci who was nominated and successfully co-opted onto our school council during this meeting. With our community members now co-opted, I would like to introduce our 2022 School Council members. 

School Council Members

Megan Cusack, Amith Nag Dasari, Ben Frater, Melinda Green, Rowan Kimber, Kate Lomas, Sarah Mountain, Sarah Nightingale, Gabrielle Panozzo, Kristen Pepyat, Zia Rachko-Knight, Nick Sissons, Ryan Staggard, Nuray Tasci, and Noriko Yamazaki. 

Retiring School Council Members 

I would also like to acknowledge the retiring School Council members for their support and work on council over their term. Thank you to Simeon Branca, Joy Cassidy, Hilary Guymer, and Genevieve Kelly.

The first School Council meeting will be held on Thursday 17th March in which the election of office-bearers will take place to finalise the election process. These details will be shared with the community in the next newsletter.

Positive Start Holiday Camps

The Victorian Government is acting to re-engage students and to boost their physical and emotional health and wellbeing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Eligible Victorian students can attend a free holiday camp with the Positive Start program. Camp providers are fully accredited and provide a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment.

To find out more about this initiative including eligibility, locations, and to make a booking, please go to https://www.vic.gov.au/positive-start-holiday-camps

New Campus Update

We are delighted to unveil our campus’s outdoor learning and play environment designs.

To ensure that all of our students have positive learning experiences, the spaces are inclusive and designed to engage students of varying ages, abilities, personality types and interests.

You’ll notice from the attached infographic, that the plants for our outdoor spaces will include a variety of local (endemic) species and bush tucker plants.

We look forward to engaging with students about the plants and trees that our landscape architects and architects have selected for the site. In particular learning more about First Nations culture and uses of plants and how species can help us to be more sustainable, and nurture natural habitats for birds and animal life.

Our school will develop guidelines around sharing suitable areas of our new outdoor and indoor amenities with community. This planning will take place early in 2023 once we have settled into our new campus.

For a detailed look at the Campus design: