Montmorency South PS Newsletter

From the Principal's Desk

Montmorency South Primary School acknowledges the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work, learn and play. We pay respect to Wurundjeri elders past, present and future and extend our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and families of Montmorency South Primary School. 

 

Dear Monty South Community,

 

New Instructional Model

We were excited to recently launch our new Montmorency South Primary School instructional model. The instructional model is a framework which guides the teaching and learning process and ensures all staff and students use and understand a shared language of ‘the perfect lesson’. This model has been designed based on evidence and a shared knowledge of best practice and discussed with staff.  An instructuoinal model working party of executive and staff within the school, decided on the main elements of the student and teacher models and from there we outsourced to a graphic artist.  Matt O’Neill designed the model and Paul Munnings printed hard copies that you will see displayed throughout the school buildings. 

Reminder re new assessment and reporting structure 

Last August, we sent out information regarding how we as a staff had undergone a review of our reporting process. Like many things, the pandemic had allowed us the opportunity to reflect on what works and what could be improved. Based on the results from our parent opinion survey, teacher input and consultation with both school council and education sub-committee, there was a sense that the varied elements of our previous reporting process did not meet the intended purpose for students, teachers and parents. An assessment working party was formed to investigate and determine a way to move forward and improve our processes. The feedback from the elected representatives on school council was that there is value in the personalised comment written in the Semester 1 and Semester 2 reports. Whilst valued, school council recognised the workload required by teachers and other school staff; teachers write them, share them with a critical friend for proofreading and feedback and they are then read by the executive team, all of which take considerable time and resources. This led us to question if the time and effort required was best utilised in other ways to assess and report. Given this, we wanted to redirect our efforts to improve our teaching and learning by providing an individualised approach to assessment and reporting as well as strengthening our sense of community. Thus, we implemented a new model using common assessment tasks. 

 

Each term, common assessment tasks (CATs) will be posted to SeeSaw covering English (reading, writing and speaking and listening) and maths (number and algebra, measurement and geometry and statistics and probability). The tasks feature a rubric displaying the developmental continuum, the work sample and comments about your child’s achievements and future learning. In addition, each semester there will be one personalised and one class SeeSaw task for each of the specialist areas (French, Visual Arts, Performing Arts and Physical Education). Please note that the social and informal updates of a more general nature will continue. We value the discussion that occurs at home because of the insight from these posts and feedback thus far, confirms this aspect. 

 

Data reporting conferences where teachers present the next steps in learning, will continue in Term 3 alongside a goal setting conference in Term 1. 

Furthermore, there will be a Term 4 semester report.   This will have the achievement of each student (dot page), a semester curriculum content comment (common to all students) from the classroom teachers and each of the specialists and a personalised social/ emotional/ TRIBES related comment. However, it will be complemented by regular Seesaw posts as outlined above.   The new process is a 12-month trial process and we will regularly monitor our effectiveness and adjust for continued improvement. We are continuing to seek feedback from students, staff and our parent community.

 

Traffic Safety

There is no doubt that at times, parking and access to our school is in high demand and thus limited. This does not excuse the behaviour we are unfortunately seeing on an ongoing basis. Nothing is more important than the safety of our students; be considerate, careful and patient, particularly at drop-off and pick-up times. Please do not park in areas that are no standing, drop off zones or anywhere it can obstruct the view of a child crossing.  I know we can do better.

 

Monty South Achievers 

Congratulations to Jack Vickers 2A who won his first ever soccer tournament with his Eltham Redbacks soccer team. Well done to you and your team Jack!

 

Congratulations

Congratulations to Lucy Skipper, husband Naish and little sister Isla who welcomed baby Oakley Coast Chapman on 11th October. Jackson and Blake Burnett also welcomed a baby sister, Ava on 14th October and Tamara Gamill welcomed baby Ruby George Gamill.  We wish your families a lifetime of love, health and happiness together. 

 

Jenny Farrelly has announced her pregnancy and will expect an addition to her family in April next year.  Congratulations; we are so happy for your growing family. 

 

School Council Update

As you will know, I have announced my retirement with my last working day being Friday 4th November. School Council, together with the DET representative are working on the engagement of a new Principal for 2023. In the meantime, Expressions of Interest for an Acting Principal are being processed. We will advise the school community of updates to this process as soon as possible. 

 

Another new shade sail

We are excited to advise that we have been successful in receiving a funding grant from the Victorian Dept. of Health for a shade sail to be installed over the “boat” playground. Since our building redevelopment, we have not had any shade sails over our playgrounds so this is very welcome news and we thank the Vic Govt. for this much needed shade. 

 

VSBA funded playground

This week we received news that the VSBA has granted additional funds to enable us to install a rubberised surface on our planned playground. This is such good news and we are very thankful to them overriding the previous decision to install timber edging and wood chip soft fall.  As previously advised, we anticipate the playground to be installed in term 2 next year, on the old oval site. 

 

2023 Class placements

As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, plans for 2023 are well underway.  Currently, our teachers are starting to construct classes for next year. It is a long and arduous process as teachers try very hard to get the right balance. 

Students are placed by staff in class groupings best suited to their learning needs. Many factors are considered to create classes that are balanced and so friendships alone are not the main factor.  These factors include:

  • a spread of mixed ability students in every class (i.e. students working at the same level academically) 
  • a range of learning styles
  • social and emotional needs 
  • friendships (hence the 3 choices and assurance of one) 
  • a good mix of students from previous classes 
  • students who require extra support to access the curriculum
  • a good mix of students from previous classes
  • other relevant individual needs. 

The process is about creating positive learning communities across the school for everyone’s benefit.  Most teachers would have had conversations with parents throughout the course of the year and are aware of additional issues that need to be considered in placing students in classes.  We do not take requests for specific teachers. 

Next year, we will be welcoming several new families to Montmorency South Primary School, similarly farewelling some lovely families.  If you know that your children will not be returning in 2023, we request that you let the office know as soon as possible, so that we can finalise our planning for 2023.  

 

Oval use changes - Monday 24th October

Our Principal’s Advisory Leaders (PALs) have been working with Leanne to overcome concerns around safe and inclusive play on our school oval for some time.  The outcome of the meetings has been to trial selective use of the oval on Mondays and Fridays. 

 

On Monday 24th Oct, the following timetable for the oval commenced:

 

Monday

  • Lunch – use by Years 3 to 6 only
  • Recess – use by Prep to Year 2 only
  • Rings on oval courts turned for netball use 
  • Basketball can be played in the gym which will be opened for all to use 

Friday

  • Lunch and recess  – Girls only use of oval
  • Netball rings on oval turned for use. Gym available for basketball.

Our decision to trial this schedule is based on several factors around equity.  The oval can be a chaotic environment in our school of 670 students and as a result many injuries report to First Aid every lunchtime.  By offering separate times for our younger and older students to use the oval on a Monday, we hope to see fewer injuries.  We also hope to encourage those students who are less confident to play in a busy and chaotic space, the opportunity to use the oval and engage in sporting activities. 

 

On a Friday, our aim is to encourage more female participation in sport. Whilst there are many girls who do play on the oval, their numbers are disproportionate to the boys, yet we know that girls play just as much sport as our boys outside of school. Additionally, netball has a high participation rate by [mostly] girls within our school community, yet rarely are the netball hoops set up. By designating Mondays and Fridays for netball use we aim to encourage more netballers to practice but also to enable students to give netball a go and perhaps try something they may not often play. We will open the gym at lunchtimes for basketball use. 

 

Yesterday, at our first trial day, the gym was used for basketball and a soccer game at the end.  The oval was far less chaotic, and no injuries reported to first aid.  We would like to stress that it is a trial period ONLY and if it does not work or is not used in the way it is planned, we will not hesitate to change it.

 

CAMP Australia

Welcome to Jennifer Stoddart, our new Camp Australia co-ordinator.  Jennifer replaces Katharine who has been our coordinator for approx. 18 months. Please see our Community information section for Jennifer’s message to our school community. 

 

SALs 80s casual dress day – Thursday 20th October

Our Student Action Leaders held a fun 1980s themed casual dress day yesterday to support the National Breast Cancer Foundation, we raised a total of $1002.70! Thank you to everyone for supporting this event by bringing your gold coin donation and dressing up. Please check out our school Facebook page to see the many great costumes worn. What a great effort by our staff and students! 

 

Well done to Jesse MacDonald who shaved his head with the help of his Mum, staff and classmates in support of breast cancer. Jesse and MSPS raised just over $1000 for the foundation. We have been asked to provide a link for those who would like to contribute and did not get a chance: https://www.bcna.org.au/

 

World Teachers’ Day – Friday 28th October

In recognition of Australia’s teachers and the resilience you’ve demonstrated during challenging times, in order to give Australian students the best future possible, we will celebrate Australia’s World Teachers’ Day on Friday 28 October. The education community will celebrate teachers and show appreciation for the amazing work you do. The theme this year is “Hats off to teachers”. Whether you are a beginning teacher, an experienced leader or you are a part of the broader education community, we also encourage you to share your “hats off” selfie and take part in the celebration.  Share your selfie on social media using #WTD2022 @aitsl  https://worldteachersday.edu.au/ 

 

Leanne Sheean

Principal

 

Nude Food Day – Thursday 27th October

Kids for Climate Action Group have planned Nude Food Day to reduce soft plastic waste.  We ask the school community to bring in their food contained in as little soft plastic packaging as possible.  It will also reduce the amount of soft plastic litter discarded in the school yard.   The following clip demonstrates what is soft plastic, and the company that collects it from supermarket drop-off points: https://youtu.be/xTxWjq272Q8 (Port Environment Centre, 2020).  Here is REDcycle’s website where you can enter a postcode to find the nearest supermarkets that collect soft plastic: https://redcycle.net.au/where-to-redcycle/ (REDcycle, 2021).  7-13th November is National Recycling Week – there is no time better than NOW to think of reducing our soft plastic waste.  

“As little as 4 per cent of the 70 billion pieces of soft plastic used by Australians each year is recycled (Article in Herald Sun, Alexandra Middleton, 30/9/22).  

Please watch the video from the Kids for Climate Action Group: https://vimeo.com/762528731/984f3215bf

 

Thank you 😊 

Michelle Bardsley

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‘Montmorency South is an inclusive learning community where students are inspired to be respectful, creative, curious and independent learners.’ 

 

Our Belief: We believe that every person in our Montmorency South school community has the capacity to assist each student in attaining our vision. 

 

Motto - Together we learn, lead and achieve