Principal's Message

Curriculum Days

Thursday

During the morning, teachers visited Canterbury, Knox Gardens, Rangeview and Kerrimuir Primary Schools for a variety of professional development sessions. Our staff participated in observational learning walks and professional discussions on a range of priority topics including Student Voice and Agency, Numeracy, Stimulated Learning, and Student Leadership. Upon return, our Learning Specialists led staff to work in teams to identify areas of focus and next steps for our school. 

After a short break, our Assistant Principal Amanda Nelson led an exciting project launch on Stimulated Learning through Guided Inquiry. Teachers were guided to explore ‘Provocation Stations’ that included science experiments, authentic and engaging fiction and non-fiction texts, STEM activities and more. Based on their engagement with these hands-on experiences, teachers planned ‘key inquiry questions’ and a range of learning activities for students to explore next term. Teachers will gather feedback from students and incorporate this into their term planning.  

Friday

Staff spent the day on assessment and reporting as we made preparations for the first Semester reports to be published via Sentral next week. Also Professional Development discussions were held between staff and myself across the day. Staff outlined how the PLC inquiry process supports them to improve their practice by looking at student achievement data and investigating how we can support student's growth.

Spotlight on Murphy -

our Therapy Dog

On Thursday afternoon of the curriculum day Roz and Linda from ‘Living with Zest’ presented a Therapy Dog session for all staff (alongside her therapy dogs Rafa and Flash). The benefits of Therapy Dogs as ‘psychological assets’ was reinforced by Roz. This included that having therapy/wellbeing dogs: soothes stress/anxiety, decreases heart rate, decreases cortisol and increases dopamine and oxytocin levels.

Staff were able to ask questions and receive further guidance around using Murphy effectively to assist and support students in and out of the classroom. (Prior to Roz’s presentation she visited MPRPS on Wednesday and saw Murphy in action sitting alongside students in Year 1/2 as they read).

Roz outlined that the rewards of a whole school approach are:

Wellbeing Outcomes – PERMAH

Positive Emotion: e.g. calmer classrooms

Engagement: strengths for lifelong learning

Relationships: intrapersonal & interpersonal

Meaning: motivation to learn & volunteer

Achievement: academic/Indonesian/PA/PE

Health: physical and mental

Roz’s presentation has sparked further discussion on how we can continue to strengthen our whole school approach and other ways in which Murphy can be used effectively across the school from Foundation to Year 6.

We thank Roz for sharing her expertise and making it a valuable and engaging time for all staff. 

2021 MPRPS Annual Report

There will be an annual reporting meeting on Thursday 16th June prior to the regular School Council Meeting beginning at 7pm. The Annual Report of 2021 outlines our achievements and areas we continue to focus on from the School Strategic Plan, student achievement both academically and in wellbeing. The report has passed DET quality assurance and has been published on the School website and was endorsed by School Council last term.

Child Safe Standards

From July 1 2022, the new Child Safe Standards will commence which aims to further strengthen child safe environments and protect children from abuse.

The new Child Safe Standards build on the current Standards with changes and new requirements for organisations, including schools to: 

• involve families and communities in efforts to keep children and young people safe 

• have a greater focus on cultural safety for Aboriginal children and young people 

• better manage the risk of child abuse in online environments 

The new standards also provide greater clarity for organisations (including schools) on the minimum actions required to meet each standard.

Staff are working on updating policies and documenting the actions we are taking to address each of the 11 Standards. We will be sharing our actions for each standard in the newsletter and will be looking for feedback. Policies will be taken to School Council and communicated via Sentral and our school website. 

Semester One Reports

Student reports will be published via Sentral next Wednesday 23rd June. As this will be the first full report since Semester One 2020 many progression points for subjects will not show the true 12 month progress due to the fact that many subjects apart from English/EAL and Mathematics were not allocated an A-E progression point across the pandemic. It is vital parents/carers access and download the report and read this alongside the Portfolio of your child’s work published on Seesaw.

Three-Way Conferences will take place in Week 3 of Term 3 and is an opportunity to discuss with your child and class teacher their goals and achievements.