Message from Principal Sarah

Welcome back to Term 4! 

We hope everyone had an opportunity to enjoy a well-earned holiday after a busy term 3 and have managed to recharge ready for an action-packed Term 4. 

Term 4 is always our busiest term with many school events occurring from the start of term right through to the end of term. Our School Fete on Friday evening of the 4 November and our 2023 Prep Transition Program are the first big events coming up within the next month. This will be followed by the Year 3 Camp to Forest Edge and our 2022 Swimming Program. Please keep an eye open in this newsletter and upcoming newsletters for further information about all our Term 4 events. A full archive of newsletters can be found on our website: Errol Street News

2023 Grade Placements

As we begin the planning process for the 2023 school year and organising classes, we would appreciate it if parents could notify the school if their child/ren will not be returning to NMPS in 2023, as soon as possible. 

We also wanted to share some information with families about our process for student grade allocations. 

NMPS is a large school and as such we are not in a position to accommodate parent requests for grade placements.  Classes are randomly generated and then teaching teams review these grades considering the needs of all students from a social, academic and behavioural perspective. Teachers look for compatible learning partners, consider current friendship groups, and encourage the development of new friendships. 

A range of factors are considered based on some simple principles:

• Classes need to have a gender balance
• Classes need an academically compatible balance
• Classes need a ‘social behaviour’ balance
• Children need to be placed with familiar faces while at the same time acknowledging that some children work better with certain students than others irrespective of friendships 

At NMPS, we strongly believe it is essential for children to have the opportunity to make new friends as this experience often leads to wonderful new friendships and stronger social skills.

As we have shared in previous communications, in 2023 our Prep – 2 students will be learning at our Molesworth Street Campus and our Years 3 - 6 students will be learning at our Errol Street Campus.

Traffic Safety and Management

As we enter Term 4, we felt it was timely to remind the school community about working together to manage the traffic and safety of everyone around the school. 

To ease traffic congestion around the school at arrival and dismissal times, we ask that where possible families walk to drop off and collect their children. If driving is the only option, we ask that families park in surrounding streets and walk the short distance to the school gates. Notably, there is free and available parking on Haines Street regularly which is only a short walk to school.

Kiss and Go Zone

If you are using the ‘Kiss and Go’ zones at school, please ensure you follow the ‘Kiss and Go’ procedure. 

We also ask that parents and carers obey the road traffic signs around the school and use the crossings in place. It’s important to understand that dropping off children outside of the designated areas could endanger your own children, as well as the wider school community. 

We urge families to use the designated ‘Kiss and Go’ zone or available parking spaces to ensure everyone’s safety. 

We would also like to take the opportunity to remind you that disembarking from vehicles and opening car doors in bicycle lanes could endanger the safety of bicycle users and is a traffic offence that attracts significant fines.

Covid Update

We anticipate that we will be provided with further RATs for families within the next few weeks. These will be sent home with students when available.  

As you would have heard, there are changes to the isolation requirements which will come into effect as of this evening.

Information about these changes has been shared with families via Compass.