Principal's Report 

Dear families and friends of MPW,

I hope families had a lovely extended long weekend. It was disappointing we didn’t have more sunshine over the four days.

What an amazing day we had on Friday, with our JSC Dress Up Day in support of raising awareness and support for those impacted by the recent floods. The theme was Halloween which made for a great day.  We did unfortunately have a hiccup with our icy pole component of the day, where the stock we purchased was not fully frozen.  We did manage to quickly move to a pre-order system and were able to distribute the ‘more solid’ icy poles today. We are currently counting the donations to see how much we raised, with JSC deciding to split the funds raised between The Victorian Flood Appeal, which is administered by the Bendigo bank and Community Enterprise which is supporting local communities, and the Victorian Farmers Disaster Relief Fund, supporting flood-affected farming communities. Thank you again to the members of our community who have supported those impacted by the floods. Attached is a flyer for Victorian Recovery Support and again the best place to start is at the Community Centre, 9 Randall Street, Maribyrnong between 7 am and 4 pm if you require immediate assistance.

School Review

Last week we had our first School Review Day on Wednesday, this was the Validation Day where we were able to do some classroom visits, meet with some JSC students and discussed the school’s evaluation and celebrations over the past 4 years. This was all supported by our parent, student and staff focus groups feedback from Term 3.  It was great to acknowledge and celebrate some of the school’s highlights and identify areas within the school to dig a little deeper into. There were a lot of positives to come out of the day, and some areas for consideration going forward.

Tomorrow, we have our second review day, Fieldwork Day where we will conduct more classroom visits and hold some staff, student, and parent focus groups to dive into opportunities for the next strategic plan. The third and final day will be next Wednesday where we consider the school’s highlights and areas for improvement to begin looking at goals for the next 4-year strategic plan.

NAPLAN

The 2022 NAPLAN national results were published on Monday.  Of course, NAPLAN results are not everything. They focus on two particular aspects of learning – literacy and numeracy – not the full range of knowledge, skills, and attributes that we seek to develop in our students.   While not everything, they are one important measure we can use to assess the progress of our school, and the learning of Victorian students relative to their peers across Australia.

While our key focus is on each of our individual students, you may also be interested in what the NAPLAN results show about Victorian schools overall. The Department of Education and Training has analysed the results for Victoria and found that Victorian students have achieved some of our highest results ever, maintaining our place as one of the highest performing jurisdictions, along with NSW and ACT.

For example, in 2022, Victorian Year 3 students achieved their best Reading results and were again the strongest readers in the country. Victorian students performed particularly strongly at the primary level, with Victoria ranked first or second on eight out of 10 NAPLAN assessments, including all five assessments at Year 3.

I would like to recognise these achievements and acknowledge the very hard work of not only the teachers and staff in our school but in all schools across Victoria, especially given the substantial challenges of the last two years.

That said, the department has identified areas where further work is needed. These priority areas for improvement are shared with other states and territories facing similar challenges, such as lifting numeracy results.

These comments on the overall results don’t change the fact that we as a school will continue to work together with our students, parents, and staff to do all we can to ensure every one of our students have a strong sense of belonging and connection to our school and that we continue to strive for all students to reach their full potential.

Next year in 2023, NAPLAN will move to being conducted in Term 1, between 15th and 27th March.

Pickup Zones and Double Parking at the end of the day

We have had some concerned members of the community raise the increase in double parking at the end of the day for collection of students, and students walking out between cars to cross the road to get to their parent’s cars. This is obviously a safety concern for our students.

We would like to remind you that students are expected to use the supervised crossings when crossing the road and please do not double park in the street. We do have the marked pick-up zones for pick up areas, if these are full you may need to drive around the block until a spot freezes up.

There are times where the council will come out and monitor around schools and you may be booked if parked in the wrong place.

Remembrance Day

Next Friday, 11th November is Remembrance Day. We will be holding a ceremony at 11am to help keep the legacy of those who served alive by learning about Remembrance Day, reflecting in silence, and wearing a poppy. JSC will be selling poppies for the ANZAC appeal until Thursday 10th November to support also. They will be coming around to classes to promote items in the coming days.

MVIMP Combined Concert

It has been great to see our MVIMP students begin rehearsals for their combined school concert on Thursday November 10th. We had a successful soiree last term, and we look forward to students performing again for their families next week and share their efforts towards this program.

Regards,

Jarrod Sutton

Acting Principal