Message from Principal Sarah

COVIDSafe Measures Continue

Thank you to all our NMPS community for demonstrating incredible collaboration throughout the first eight weeks of term and for the measures in place to curb the COVID-19 spread. 

Masks required indoors for Years 3 – 6 students and all adults

Being back in our classrooms with extra health and safety measures has been a big transition for both students and teachers. As we still uphold these changes, including required mask wearing for 3-6 students, and mask-wearing for all adults indoors as per the DET guidelines, we are very grateful to our community members for their understanding, cooperation and support. We remind parents and carers to continue to ensure they are wearing facemasks when visiting the front office to ensure we keep everyone safe, healthy, and well.

Rapid Antigen Testing

As you are aware we are continuing with voluntary precautionary RA Testing until the end of this term.  Please collect the next instalment of RA tests from the front office from 8:45am – 9:15am and 3:30pm – 3:45pm this week if you haven’t already. Families and our staff are being asked to do the RATs at home twice a week. 

Thank you to all our families for their continued support, understanding, and management at the home of this important routine. The majority of our COVID positive cases are being picked up with this testing.

School Council Office Bearers

Last Thursday 17th March, we held our first School Council meeting of the 2022 Council. During this meeting, office bearers were selected as outlined below:

President: Melinda Green

Vice President: Megan Cusack

Treasurer: Nick Sissons

Secretary: Kristen Pepyat

The School Council plays a key role in enhancing the educational opportunities for all students and strengthening community bonds. All School Council are encouraged to have a number of sub-committees to assist in the work that needs to be done. Sub Committees provide advice and make recommendations to School Council. 

The Sub Committees formed for North Melbourne Primary School are listed below.

• Finance
• Biz-E-Kidz
• Education
• Building and Grounds
• Community and Engagement

NMPS also has an active Parents and Friends Association, which is accountable to the school council.

We encourage community members to join the Parents & Friends Association to continue to strengthen our community engagement. If you are interested in joining, please refer to the information outlined later in this newsletter.

Ride2School Day and Traffic Management

This week we have our Ride2School Day on Friday 25th March. Our theme is "Be bright, be seen walking and riding to school" so wear one bright colour or lots of colours on Ride2School Day! Please refer to the Compass post shared last week for further information on Ride2School Day.

We encourage all families to walk, scoot, ride or catch public transport to school as often as possible every day. Reducing the number of cars around our school makes it safer for everyone. 

We understand that you may need to drive to school some days. If so, please park away from the school and walk your children to their designated gate. This can be quicker and safer for everyone. 

If you do need to drive to school, please ensure the following:

• Slow down
• Do not double park next to another car
• Do not stop in a ‘no standing’ zone
• Do not park and leave your car in a ‘no parking zone' (this includes our ‘kiss and drop’ zones on Harcourt Street and Murphy Street)
• Do not park in the limited disabled parking spaces around the school unless you have a permit for these spaces

Together with following the above rules, we can ensure NMPS is a safe place for everyone.

New Campus Update

 We hope you enjoyed the outdoor learning and play space information that we shared in our last newsletter. You can also view or download the plans on the Victorian School Building Authority website page

We’re excited to see our campus building continue to take shape. You may have noticed the recent arrival of the hoarding signage along the Molesworth Street side of the campus site.

We will be engaging with our students to learn more about landscape design and sustainable plants as inspiration for an artwork that will be displayed on the signage in Term 2. More news about that, after the holidays.

If you have any questions about the campus or project please find contact details below.

Further information about this project 

Operational queries (program, zone, organisation design) NMPS Principal Sarah Nightingale

Website Victorian School Building Authority www.schoolbuildings.vic.gov.au

Subscribe to our project update newsletter on the North Melbourne Primary School web page

Follow project news on LinkedIn and Facebook

Email vsba@education.vic.gov.au

Telephone 1800 896 950 

Building site related inquiries during construction: Contact Peter Free, Hansen Yunken site manager Email: Melbourne@hansenyuncken.com.au Telephone: 9831 6500