From the Principal

Term 2, Week 6

Dear Monty South Community,

On my arrival at Monty South there were several tasks that I had to prioritise, I shared these with School Council and started progressing these priorities, which I have shared with them over the last two meetings. Following the School Council elections early in Term 1, I continued our work on progressing the development of long-term plans in workforce planning and financial management.

The workforce plan required the development of a new Organisation Design (OD); this was developed to focus our whole school in the delivery of the two outcomes central to the Framework for Improving Student Outcomes 2.0 (FISO 2.0): Learning and Wellbeing. I have provided a small snapshot of our new OD; however, you will find a larger version on the link (link)

The OD has been divided into two streams: Learning (Blue) and Wellbeing (Teal). Over the last 16 weeks I have been working with my staff on the purpose, development and appointments that are reflected within the design. This design will provide an insight and pathways for how we target teaching, learning and student wellbeing, to achieve positive outcomes in education for all our students. This organisational design will be instigated as of day 1 term 3. Over the next three weeks, The School Improvement Team will be working through all the roles and responsibilities of each of the positions and a summary will be provided to the community. I want to thank all my staff for the positive way that they have engaged in the development and in managing through all the changes.

The second priority of financial management has centred around developing a budget which is reflective of the school goals from our Strategic Plan and our Annual Implementation Plan. This has meant that the alignment of our workforce plan to our finances has streamlined salaries and the cash available to the school. We will complete this process by the end of the term, which will hopefully give us a bit of flexibility in targeting funds towards our facilities and make every environment a teaching and learning space within the school. The Facilities and Environment Committee (FEC) will be refining the facilities plan at their next meeting which will then be taken to School Council. Congratulations to the FEC for their acquisition of a $25,000 Grant from the Federal Government allocated to the east embankment.

Review to Inform a Better and Fairer Education System - the Federal Government is currently providing an opportunity for teachers, parent and students to Complete the Parent/Guardian and student survey and Complete the Teacher survey which “will make recommendations to the Education Ministers to inform the next agreement to improve student outcomes in Australia and meet the current and future need of students.” In 2019 and for over two years, I was part of the project management board that was charged with progressing two initiatives from the 2018 national agreement: Online Formative Assessment Initiative. This experience gave me a very good insight into how the Federal government progresses their agenda with consultation from those who are affected by these policies. If you have time, I highly recommend that you provide feedback.

Finally, we have almost come to the end of our Prep Information Tours for our new enrolments for 2024. As a culmination of our tours, we will be holding a final Prep Information session at school on Wednesday 21 June, starting at 6:00pm. (Book your place here) This will be an hour session where we will be able to consolidate all the information that we have provided. You will also hear from our Prep team, and we will present details for our Bridges Program for 2023.  

If you are unable to make the session, we will post the presentation via Compass. However, a reminder that if you are already part of our school community and you have a child coming into Prep at Monty South for 2024, you need to complete an Application for Enrolment by the 28 July 2023.

Good luck to the selected year 5 and 6 students who head off next week on Somers Camp, I hope they have a wonderful time.

I hope you have a wonderful week and an even better long weekend next week.

Keyla