Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 9, our 3rd last week of school for 2022. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive, but hopeful, that we would not go back into lockdown due to Covid when we started the year. I am pleased with the outcome and the way managing Covid has evolved, ensuring minimal time is missed from school. Let’s hope we can continue this in 2023 and beyond. Thank-you for your continued support and confidence in the way we have managed and will continue to manage the situation.

I can’t believe we are nearly at the end of the year, with only 2 full weeks left. The final day of school will be Tuesday 20th December. We have so much to do and so much planned over the next few weeks including grade 6 graduation and fun day at Adventure Park, Step Up Day, Meet the Teacher and much more. We look forward to ending the year on a positive note.

50th Celebration: If you were able to join us at the 50th Celebration on Friday 18th November I hope you had a great time. I know I did. It was wonderful to see so many of our current families here as well as many past students and their families. I met some people who were here as students in the 70s as well as some who left us in 1998. I gave them a tour and they enjoyed seeing their old Prep Classroom as well as their Year 6 classroom. They were impressed with the changes and enjoyed the afternoon. If you came, thank-you for taking the time to make it such a wonderful event.

Swimming: I had the pleasure of accompanying the grade 4S to swimming today. It was great to see them have so much fun learning new skills along the way. It is very unfortunate that some children who were very keen to go missed out due to limited capacity at the pool. We have booked for next year with preps to year 2 attending the week beginning the 6th March 2023 and our years 3-6 attending week beginning October 23rd 2023. We aim to have as many children attend that are interested next year however due to the amount of time, we have available at the pool limit may still need to be limited. Although we sincerely hope to be able to cater for everyone who is interested ion 2023. Please look out for these notes next year and remember it will also need to be on a first come basis.

Reports: Teachers are currently finalising the reports for students for this semester. These are due to be sent home on Wednesday 14th December. If you have any questions about anything in the report, please contact your teacher – either via Class Dojo or by leaving a message at the office for them to call you.

Step Up Day: On Tuesday 13th December most of our year 6 students will be attending the secondary school they will go to next year. We take the opportunity to place the rest of the classes in the groups they will be in next year on this day every year. They will spend most of the day with this group of children. Teachers will take note of the interactions of the group and make changes if necessary. The teacher they have on Step Up Day will not necessarily be their teacher for 2023. They will find out who their teacher is on Monday 19th December.

Staffing: As you may be aware the state is experiencing a teacher shortage. It is affecting Melton West PS with many of our vacancies remaining unfilled. We are in constant contact with the Department about our dilemma and are confident that we will be fully staffed before the beginning of the year. In the mean-time we have Plan B which involves our leaders and Inquiry teachers taking a class until a replacement can be found.

COVID/RATs: Please remember we have a large number of RATs available for families to test for Covid if you or anyone in your family has symptoms. Please come to the school to collect a pack or 2 or call and we can send them home with your child.

Last day of Term: This year school finishes on Tuesday 20th December at 1:30pm.

There will be an assembly commencing at 1:10pm.

High Levels of Learning for All

Michelle Costa

Principal

Community