Principal's Message

Principal's Message

My late father used to tell me to keep looking forward, otherwise you will trip over the thing that is in front of you. 

He went on further to explain that you should learn from your previous steps, but not to get caught up in looking back for too long. What's done is done.

This lockdown is long and has some painful periods. It is sad to be away from your children and the school staff honestly miss their little faces. But, as each day passes, we must seek its lessons and remain hopeful of a future that improves. We must sell hope as all of humanity has done since the dawn of time. We are in a lucky country where medical services are available to us and, if we choose, vaccines and COVID tests available free-of-charge. Vaccines will soon become more available for those who choose that option. 

I ask that all families stick with our program. I ask that we keep the kids connected to classes and friends in any way we can. I ask that we remain positive and kind so the pathway at least has some flowers to view along the way.

Thanks to you, our wonderful families, for helping us work our way along the path - looking forwards so we don't trip over our past.

Book Week

We are celebrating Book Week online. I have a session on Monday morning at 9:30am. Here is the link to Mr. Noel's Big Read where I will read a book live to kick off our week of celebrating literature and literacy. There are other, wonderful activities coming up this week with the culmination of an online dress up on Friday at 3pm where your child can wear something simple as their favourite book character.

Stay tuned into Compass and listen to your child's classroom teacher during morning check ins and we will announce things as we go along. Please check out the Book Week page in this edition for further details.

Student Wellbeing

During the Remote period our staff has three main objectives:

1. Are the staff OK (can they perform their duties with a healthy mind and body?)
2. Are the kids OK (check on the kids so they maintain a healthy mind and body)
3. Is our Remote Learning Program OK (are we doing what we can to take care of the children's learning?)

Please check out the next page for details on Student Wellbeing as it has some wonderful suggestions. Your child's wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us all!

Reconciliation Action Plan - Invitation to Join Group

The piece below is written by our Multicultural Committee and includes an invitation to join the planning team.

I am pleased to inform you that South Melbourne Primary School has committed to developing a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Our RAP aims to support our school/early learning service community in developing an educational environment that fosters higher levels of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories cultures and contributions. Through our RAP, we will commit to strengthening relationships, respect and opportunities in the classroom, around the school/early learning service and with the community. 

Developing our RAP is a long-term commitment that will require ongoing consideration and collaborative effort. Within our community, there is unique knowledge and valuable experience that we would love to see reflected in the Actions that we commit to in our RAP. Therefore, to ensure our RAP creates meaningful and sustainable change, we would like to seek your support. This letter is a call to action for any interested parents or community members to express their interest in helping to drive our RAP development and implementation journey. We already have a few wonderful group members and we hope you will join us. RAP members can be Indigenous or non-Indigenous. We aim to have 2 meetings in Term 4.

If you would like to be involved in any way with the development and ongoing implementation of our RAP, including being part of the RAP Working Group, please send an email to megan.hartwick@southmelbourneps.vic.edu.au. 

To learn more about Reconciliation Australia’s Narragunnawali program and RAP development process, you may also like to visit: www.reconciliation.org.au/narragunnawali 

Kind regards,

The SMPS Multicultural Committee (Miss Megan, Miss Maddie, Miss Cayleigh and Miss Lin)