As we emerge out of the cold of winter, it’s great to feel the warmth of the sun again. When we roam around the playground on yard duty, the students seem to be feeling the positivity that Spring brings. It has been another busy term with lots of highlights to share with you.

On Tuesday, 8 August, Year 03 - 06 students went on an excursion to Scienceworks. This was a fabulous day for the students to learn outside the classroom and enhance their learning in their current science units. They observed some exciting experiments with liquid nitrogen and learnt about what it can do to different materials.

I think the highlight of that session was when the presenter froze a rubber duck in liquid nitrogen and proceeded to smash it to pieces. You can imagine the reaction of the students. Other highlights were the lightning show and the sports science area which enabled the students to have hands-on experiences with different sports activities. The students were talking about the excursion for many days afterwards.

The Book Week dress up day was a great success. The students and staff went to great lengths to come up with come very creative costumes. We had pirates, Buzz Lightyear, a cow, The Lorax, assorted Harry Potter characters, dinosaurs and witches just to name a few. These days are always lots of fun and make lovely memories of school days.

This week the fun continues, as Mrs Egan will be running speed dating with books, craft and voting for the Children’s Book Council Awards. We are so lucky to have a librarian who is so committed to our kids and provide such positive experiences for them to engage in books and literature.

Interschool sport for the Year 04 - 06 cohorts are coming to a close, at the end of this term. Unfortunately, it has been affected by bad weather this term with some weeks being cancelled. Our students always represent our school proudly in their respective sports, even though they are not necessarily successful every week. Our focus for them is to enjoy the games, meet new people and learn about their sport along the way.

Last Thursday on the Student Free Day, the staff were involved in a Professional Development Day presented by Berry Street staff. This was the second in a series of days learning about their trauma-informed education model. The staff are finding the content invaluable, as it is packed with great positive strategies that we have begun to use in the classroom. These strategies are beneficial to all our students, and we have begun to see some small positive changes in our students’ behaviours in the classrooms already. The great thing about this model is that it fits in beautifully with our school values and behaviour matrix.

We are looking forward to meeting with you and your children for the Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences on Tuesday 12th September. You will be able to book in for these online meetings soon, and we ask if it’s possible for your child to attend these as well. It will be a good opportunity to celebrate their successes and show them that we are all there to support their learning. You are also able to access their Progress Reports through Compass as they are now available. You might like to take the opportunity to have a chat to your child about these and ask them how they think they are going with their learning.

As term 4 approaches, we will be offering our Swimming Program at Yarra Swim School from week 2 of the term. Year 05/06 students will also be involved in the 'Let’s Talk About It' (sex education) program in week 2. There will be an online parent information session for you to attend on Tuesday 3rd October at 6:30pm. I will email the link through when I receive it. Events for both of these programs will be posted on Compass shortly.

As we roll into the last couple of weeks of Term 3, I would like to say thank you for your ongoing support of your children in their learning and for helping to make our work here at Macleod so rewarding. We hope you have a well-earned break, enjoy some warm Spring weather and return to us recharged and ready for all that Term 4 will bring.

Year 08