Principal's Message

Congratulations Year 6 Leaders!

Well done to our School Captains, Sophie and Ryan and our Student Representative Council Presidents, Chris and Lachlan on presenting at their first Assembly. It turned out to be a whole school one outside on the oval in beautiful sunshine! It was amazing to be able to gather together and welcome our amazing parents who had no trouble checking in and showing vaccination certificates. 

Congratulations to the Year 6 Leader teams:

Leadership teams meet with Amanda Nelson and myself during Leadership Hour on a rotation to support hem to work on their Action Plans and have their say on what happens at MPRPS.

Bullyzero Parent Information Session

We had a great turn out to our online session presented by Bully Zero. As part of our commitment to eSmart and educating students, staff and parents about how to stay safe online, we organised for Bullyzero to visit and support our eSmart program. The online parent session was attended by just over 70 parents across the school. We hope that parents were able to take something from the presentation.

Morning Teas: Foundation and P&F

Thank you to all of the Foundation parents for joining us in the courtyard on Tuesday morning. It was great to hear from Flip, P&F President and Bec, School Council President. It was very pleasing to hear that the Parent Reps have been proactive and had a catch up already, before school even started. 

On Friday it was also nice to catch up with parents after the Year 6 badge presentations. We are looking for Parent Reps again this year and are hopeful we will have a Parent Rep for each class for 2022. Please see Flip's messages in the P&F section for more details on how you can be connected to our wonderful school.

Permission Notes and Information

Last week information regarding Consent Forms was published on Sentral. Please read carefully and then sign the consent form through Sentral by Friday 11th February at the latest so that we can provide the best care and your child is able to participate in all school activities fully. You can find more information regarding Parent Payments on the 'Important Information' page. 

Lunch Time Clubs and Extra Curricular Activities

In this term we are grateful to staff for running additional clubs and activities to support students. This term Music Online and WiseOnes will again be back providing their programs through the school. If your child wants to learn an instrument please see added advertisements in this newsletter and brochures. Below is our Clubs Timetable and this is also displayed in classrooms.

Please encourage  your child to attend the Clubs they may be interested in, as will teachers.

Murphy MPRPS Therapy Dog

Introducing Murphy, our Therapy Dog. Mrs Naismith who supports students in the classroom as an Education Support Staff member is now fully qualified with Murphy as a Therapy Dog. We are so lucky that Mrs Naismith and Murphy work at our school and provide lots of support to everyone. 

Murphy will visit classes and spend time (sometimes just snoozing) but often being company for students... and staff. There are a few rules when working with Murphy and now that he is fully trained we are looking forward to him being in classrooms. Here he is visiting FH.

Pleasant Snacks 

Year 5 students are invited to apply to run and manage Pleasant Snacks. They need to submit their application by Wednesday 9th February to Mrs Streitberger. Please see the menu in Important Information. The students shop will run most Fridays at Lunch with Foundation having their own time then, 1/2 students and then the Senior School. I thank Aidan O'Connor and the Engagement and Wellbeing staff team for organising Pleasant Snacks.

Reporting and Managing Positive COVID Cases at School

Where a positive result is recorded by a student on a rapid antigen test, their parent/carer or student must report that result to the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form  or call centre on  1800 675 398.

The parent/carer  must also report the result directly to the school by email and using the new RA Test Portal. The school must enter that information into the DET VicEd COVID Tool. 

Where a positive result is recorded by a staff member, that result must be reported to the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form  or call centre on  1800 675 398.

Staff must also report a positive result through EduPay. 

The student or staff member who has tested positive must isolate for 7 days.

Schools are no longer required to individually identify the close contacts of a positive case. Instead, schools need to inform the school community or cohorts as applicable, at the earliest opportunity, that:

• there was a positive case onsite
• all members of the school community should monitor closely for symptoms
• staff and students should continue with twice-a-week or 5-times-a-week rapid antigen testing (depending on whether they are attending or employed at a mainstream or specialist school, respectively).

It is important the privacy of all positive cases is protected and informing the community of cases will be done to parents/carers via email/news feed through Sentral.

At this stage 5/6C and 5/6 EB were informed last Monday evening that a staff member had tested positive, and two students the following morning from 5/6C.  From today the whole school community will be informed of our cases, if they have attended school. We have many families who have not started back at school and are absent for a mixture of reasons including testing positive, in isolation or unable to return to Victoria from holidays.

I thank all our families for their continued support as we navigate a very complex set of arrangements. If you are ever unsure please contact the school via phone (during school hours) or email.

Year 3- 6 Information Night

Senior Information Night will be held on zoom from 7pm-8pm, Wednesday 9th of February. Please use the attached link or QR code if you have any questions after reading through the Information Book coming home this week. Questions need to be in by Tuesday evening. We look forward to seeing you online.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/97739345247?pwd=REtZTzFPbUMxWGx6RGtWQUJJcjdpQT09Meeting ID: 977 3934 5247

Passcode: 941D1p

Parent Teacher Interviews/Three Way Conferences

Foundation ‘Get to Know You’ Parent Teacher Interviews are in Week 4, starting 14th February. These interviews will be face to face in your child's classroom. It's important that adults maintain 1.5 m social distancing which can be accommodated in classrooms and with parents/carers attending and leaving as close to their booked times as possible. Checking in via our QR code and being double vaccinated will be required. Bookings for the interviews will open 7th February and close Wednesday 9th February on Sentral 

Year 1 to Year 6 Three Way Conferences are in Week 9, starting 21st March. We are aiming for these to be face to face in classrooms.