From the Principal

Term 2, Week 3

Dear Monty South Community,

I hope you all had a wonderful two weeks with your children. It was certainly a welcome break for me as not only did I shift across from WA at the end of last year, but since buying a house and shifting in, I needed some time to unpack.

It is always a pleasure for me to come together with the community in acknowledging and thanking past and present service men and women who have given so much in order for us to enjoy what we have. This was no different this year, as I took pleasure in representing our school at the Montmorency Eltham RSL ANZAC Community Service with Astri and Thomas, two of our student captains. On behalf of the school, Astri and Thomas laid a wreath at the Service.

Congratulations to Tara for organising such a wonderful Country and Culture Day last week. Thank you also to all our staff for supporting the day through various activities during the day and behind the scenes. Our students had a wonderful time being immersed in different cultural activities during the day.

At Monty South, we are currently undergoing some changes as we move to a new organisational design model of responsibility and accountability. This means that I have advertised some internal positions to cover these areas. These positions close this coming Friday, so I will be able to announce in the near future who will take on these responsibilities. We have a wealth of experience, knowledge, skills and understandings that we will be able to tap into in progressing our school’s Strategic Plan 2021-2024 as well as our Annual Implementation Plan.

Long Service Leave is an entitlement of all staff after ten years of full-time service to the Department. For a full time teacher this equates to 3 months of leave after the first ten years and the same for each completed five years thereafter. All staff who are taking LSL this year had to submit approximate dates last year; however, some of these dates have had to be tweaked in order to meet school needs. I have asked all staff who are taking LSL this year to make this known to their classes via Compass once their leave has been confirmed. However, replacement of staff is not always known straight away but we will endeavour to advise you as soon as we can. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Montmorency South Primary School has been selected to take part in the National Assessment Program (NAP) – Science Literacy. The assessment is overseen by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and is managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). In May, samples of Year 6 and Year 10 students across Australia will participate. ACER has randomly selected 20 Year 6 students from Monty South to be involved on Tuesday 23rd May. The assessment will last for approximately 2 hours and will be administered on student iPads using the NAP Locked down browser. If you have any questions relating to this, please contact our Assistant Principal, Maree Magnabosco.

Working with parents and families to support student wellbeing is essential in making a difference to student mental health, wellbeing and learning. As you know, I have come from a different system where things were done slightly different. Over the last twelve weeks I have found that often we are caught on the back foot because we were not aware of a student diagnosis or condition. Often when an allied service assessment is made, there are recommendations that are applicable to the school which, if known to us, we would be able to implement at school to better support your child. Please know that we are held to the highest level of confidentiality at school, so to best support our students, I am asking parents to share student information with us. You are welcome to send it directly to me, Keyla.jeffers@education.vic.gov.au

Just a reminder that, as the weather gets colder here in Melbourne, please make sure that students arrive no earlier than 8:30 am to school, as there are no staff on duty prior to this time. Additionally, could I please remind you that to maximise the impact of teaching on student learning, could you please try and make appointments for students outside of school time.

Just a reminder that if you are taking your child/children out of school during the term for holidays, please send me a request on my email address as per above.

Finally, thank you to all the staff and parents that helped put together last year’s annual report. It has now been attested by School Council and approved by the Department and may now be released to the community. Please find a copy via the link to our website.

Thank you again for your support.

Keyla Jeffers