Thursday 2nd March

It has been fantastic to see how our school is able to offer many enriching learning opportunities for our students. Since the last whole school newsletter, we have enjoyed an Indigenous performance by Ash Dargon at our last assembly, held our annual House Athletics Day and had some Year 5/6 students compete in the EDEC Swimming (Erin and Edith) and Tennis carnivals (Xavier, Leo and Bryce). Congratulations to Xavier and Leo who have progressed to the Divisional Finals, a brilliant achievement.

Please remember to check Compass, especially on a Thursday, for any upcoming events that you need to be aware of for consent and/or payment.

Next Wednesday is International Women’s Day. Students can wear a splash of purple (or all purple!) and bring a gold coin donation. Our Year 5/6 students have voted to choose a charity for us to support on the day. They have chosen for the money to be donated to Feeding 1000 Poor Rural School Girls in Yemen.

Project description: This project aims to provide nutritious breakfast meals to 1000 rural schoolgirls in Sana'a, Yemen. It will increase the number of girls in primary schools. It aims to reduce the children's hunger during the school day. It'll contribute to achieving gender equality between boys and girls. Besides, it'll increase attention span, facilitate learning, and obviate the need for children to leave school to find food.

Curriculum Day – Friday 10 March – no students at school

Friday 10 March will be a student free day. Staff will be undertaking professional learning with other schools in the Dandenong Ranges network on student voice.

Values

At Menzies we have the guidelines:

Do Your Best
Help Others Succeed
Respect Your Environment

As a staff we have been identifying some values that we feel will help support our students and reinforce our school’s guidelines. Students have also been discussing the values (respect, gratitude, integrity, persistence, responsibility, connectedness and fun) and determining their meaning and how they apply at school and in life. Today we have had a student vote to narrow down the list. This will be communicated to the wider community, via School Council, later this month.

We hope this will continue to improve our students’ connectedness and further foster inclusive positive relationships by being respectful in how we treat each other both inside and outside the classrooms and in the way that we communicate with each other whether they be adults or children. Our staff have seen an improvement in how are students are using their manners, using appropriate language and having some gratitude and empathy for each other. This is always a work in progress. Our Care Groups are a wonderful chance to highlight and reinforce these expectations.

Working Bee/ Community Picnic tomorrow 3pm – 5pm

Our Term 1 Working Bee day has been set for tomorrow from 3pm to 5pm. There will be a barbeque for all attendees and our first community event for this year. Families are welcome to bring along their own food too.

We will be aiming to prune trees and bushes, weed garden beds, and have a basic tidy up of the school grounds. Please bring along any tools or wheelbarrows or shovels that could be useful.

This is a great way to meet new families and catch up with friends while helping out the school. Whether you can stay after school for an hour, or half an hour, any time and effort would be greatly appreciated.

School Uniform and being SunSmart

Students are required to be in full school uniform. This includes wearing of school hats. Please ensure these are labelled. No hat = no play outside, students will be directed to the greenspace to avoid UV

Attendance

We are noticing many students continually arriving late or having many days of unexplained absence.

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day – missing school puts them behind.

Please read the Everyday counts attached and read the tables to see what increased absence adds up to.

Planned Burns in the Dandenong Ranges this Autumn. Please see attached flyer that detail the locations of these burns, maps and associated road closures.

If you wish to know exactly when these burns are scheduled, ignited, patrolled and complete, you can sign up to Planned Burns Victoria to receive notifications via SMS or Email. If you sign up at the following link, you will receive an automated Email or SMS approximately 7-10 days before the burn, 3 days before the burn, at the time of ignition and once the burn is complete.

Sign up here: Home | Planned Burns Victoria (ffm.vic.gov.au)

School Photos – Thursday 27 April – for the calendar

We are having our school photo day in the first week back after the April school holidays. This can allow you time to plan any haircuts!

A reminder also to please be mindful when posting photos on personal social media pages that you don’t have other children in school uniform. This is a consent and privacy issue.

We do have Assembly tomorrow at 2:45pm.

Regards,

Dale McInerney

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