EVERY SCHOOL DAY COUNTS Thursday Feb 16th 2023
GETTING TO KNOW YOU INTERVIEWS – THURSDAY FEBRUARY 16th 2023
BBQ in quadrangle from 4-6pm or until sold out
Sausage in bread $1 Can of soft drink $1
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Everyone has the right to be SAFE
Everyone has the right to be RESPECTED
Everyone has the right to LEARN
STAFFING: It has been a very positive start to 2023. We are fortunate to be fully staffed. We welcome several new staff to our school: Taylor Chee Prep B; Zoe Brooks 1A; Josh Bauer 3E; Rebecca Guest 3F; Barry O’Brien 3F; Charmaine Pettit 5D; Ginger Martin Performing Arts; Irena Fitzsimon Performing Arts; Chelsea Cassar tutor; Terry Velden Casual Relief Teacher; Deb Henman ES; Jenelle Innella ES; Ruth Lockhead ES.
SMILE SQUAD: Shortly your child will receive a Smile Squad dental pack. The pack includes all the tools your child needs for good oral health – toothpaste, toothbrush and some helpful hints and tips for a healthy smile.
Smile Squad is a Victorian Government program that provides free dental care to all students enrolled in government schools across Victoria.
SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS: All government schools in Victoria have a School Council. They are legally constituted bodies that are given powers to set the broad direction of the school, in accordance with Ministerial Order 1280 Constitution of Government Schools Councils, and the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. There are both parents and school employee members on School Council. A big thank you to the 2022 School Council members for your contribution to ongoing school improvement.
This year there are 2 parent vacancies. Parents wanting to nominate themselves for a position on School Council can collect a nomination form from the office, along with an information sheet explaining the role. An election may be held if there are more than 2 nominees.
Collect your nomination form from the office from Monday the 13th February. Applications must be lodged at the office by 4.00pm on Monday the 20th of February.
Kind regards
Marilyn Costigan
Principal
CENTENARY CELEBRATION UPDATE Welcome back to 2023! It is officially our 100th year and we are planning a year full of jam-packed events! Our celebrations will begin with a Launch Picnic at the end of Term 1. More details will be sent out in the upcoming weeks. We have an email dedicated to all Centenary enquiries at: 100Years@meltonsthps.vic.edu.au We look forward to celebrating our schools’ incredible milestone with you this year!
STUDENT OF THE WEEK AWARDS
| NAME | REASON FOR AWARD | NAME | REASON FOR AWARD | ||
| PA | Caseyleigh | For demonstrating the characteristics of a good friend. | 3B | Robert | For showing courage during Grade 3 Sport |
| PB | Lucy | For always trying her best and being a wonderful friend to her class mates. | 3C | Larissa C Abu T | For helping to make our classroom space an organised one for the new year! |
| PE | Samantha | For displaying kindness, care and sensitivity towards her friends. | 3D | Abdur-Rahman | For your effort and enthusiasm during Guided Reading group discussions. |
| PF | Harrison | For consistently showing whole body listening. | 3E | Aila B | For showing a growth mindset and challenging herself in all of her work. |
| 1C | Muhammad | For showing outstanding behaviour in the class and always giving things a go! Well done Muhammad. | 3F | Tyler | For making amazing choices in the classroom and challenging himself when making numbers. |
| 1D | Georgia Ruby | For including great details in her recount this week! For her fantastic work in problem solving how many ducks were black and brown | 3G | Siale | For using a growth mindset during writing. |
| 1E | Issac | for his wonderful efforts in writing a recount | 4A | Eradi | for showing kindness to his peers when problem solving |
| 2A | Mehakinder Sudhiksha | for always displaying our school values for a great effort during numeracy lessons. | 4B | Lucky | For his outstanding efforts in planning and drafting his jungle narrative in writing. |
| 2B | Samuella Flora | For settling into her new school and making new friends at Melton South Primary School. For settling into her new school and showing the Melton South School Values. | 4C | Ameeah | For always putting 100% of her effort into all tasks and being a helpful classroom member. |
| 2C | Anaya Christian | For always displaying our school values. For using a growth mindset when working on his place value task in mathematics. | 4D | Aswad | Displaying the MSPS value of Kindness by being a friend and welcoming our newest student. |
| 2D | Danielle Sadie | For always displaying our school values. For being a great friend and taking our new student under her wing. | 4E | Mason | For showing the school values by helping in the library. Having respect for the books amd helping without being asked. |
| 2E | Ali Muhammad | For always attempting the learning task to the best of his ability during Reading and Writing. | 5A | Owen | For being a positive and responsible member of 5A. Owen, you have made such a fantastic start to year 5 thankyou for always being willing to share ideas and opinions during class. |
| 2F | Areeb | For showing great understanding of calendars and completing his work to a high standard. | 5B | Tyler | For using adjectives in his writing to engage the reader. |
| 6A | Week 1 – Ben Week 2 – Zach | We appreciate your willingness to share your insightful ideas and observations during class discussions. For being a positive and responsible member of our grade and settling so well into your new school. | 5C | Hayden | For working well across all areas of learning. |
| 6B | Tristen | for sharing his narrative about a haunted house with our class | |||
| 6C | Jackson | for being a role model during independent reading and recording evidence for his reading goal. | 5D | Josh | For working hard and always trying his best. |
| 6D | Week 1: Willoh Tyler Week 2: Bodie Hamhdan | For being open minded and committed towards their learning and our team. For being open minded and committed towards their learning and our team. | 5E | Mehnaz | For consistently supporting her classmates. |
| 6E | Week 1: Ayaan Week 2: Jaiden | Working quickly and confidently to complete all set tasks. Being able to name the attributes of a shape when creating his 3D shapes. | 5F | Guni | For consistently working hard and being a role model for our class. |
| LOTE | Taylah 3D | For having a fabulous positive attitude when making her fashionista inspired by Coco Chanel. | STEAM | Nathaniel 6C | For using creative thinking to come up with innovative ideas for a robotic hand. |
NAPLAN Update for Year 3 & 5 Parents
Students in Year 3 and 5 have brought home a brochure about NAPLAN this week. Translated versions are available on the NAP website. Click on the link below to access these.
NAP – For parents and carers
The NAPLAN test window starts on Wednesday 15th March and ends on Monday 27th March 2023. Tests will be prioritised to be scheduled at the beginning of the 9 day testing window to allow opportunities for catch-up sessions for students who are absent on scheduled test days.
In advance of doing NAPLAN Online, the public demonstration site provides sample tests to assist students to familiarise themselves with the type of questions and related functionalities available in the NAPLAN Online assessment. Students will be accessing this site during school time as part of our preparation.
NAP – Public demonstration site (Click on the link)
If you have further questions, would like more information, or have concerns about your child’s participation in NAPLAN, please don’t hesitate to make contact with your child’s classroom teacher.
What are the students currently learning?
Prep: Investigation Unit – Me and My Family
Students will learn… about being part of a school community as well as a member of their own Prep class. They learn about the structure and expectations of the Literacy and Numeracy workshops.
In Literacy, they will be engaged in learning about themselves as emergent readers and writers. They will discusstheir interests and preferenceswith texts. The students will learn about the importance of characters in stories. They will be encouraged to draw, label and write about themselves, and the characters in books. During Circle Time students will learn about Accountable Talk and how to be good listeners and speakers. They will be encouraged to use it in play-based activities with their peers.
Grade 1-6: Investigation Unit – Growing Learners
All students will learn…that a Growth Mindset can help them to be effective learners. They will learn that it is important to set goals and the mindset they need to achieve those goals. They will learn that effective learners have qualities that include being risk-takers who persist when challenged and show resilience with failure.
Students will learn about being part of the class community and how the Literacy and Numeracy workshops work. In Literacy, they will be engaged in learning about themselves as readers and writers. The studentswill beencouraged to read texts that interest them, and choose others that stretch them as readers. They will read texts where characters show a Growth Mindset.
In Numeracy, the students will consider the qualities and dispositions of good mathematicians. They will learn to solve problems using a range of strategies and will be encouraged to discuss the effectiveness of their preferred strategy.
Privacy Collection Notice
Information for students, parents and carers
The Department of Education (the department) values your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal and health information that schools collect.
All school staff must comply with Victorian privacy law and the Schools’ Privacy Policy. This notice explains how the department, including Victorian government schools, handles personal and health information. On occasion, specific consent will be sought for the collection and use of information, for example, for a student to receive a health service. Our schools are also required by legislation, such as the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, to collect some of this information.
Throughout this notice, ‘staff’ includes principals, teachers, student support service officers, youth workers, social workers, nurses and any other allied health practitioners, and all other employees, contractors, volunteers and service providers of the school and the department.
On enrolment, and during the ordinary course of a student’s attendance at a school, schools will collect information about students and their families for the following purposes:
• educating students
• supporting students’ social and emotional wellbeing, and health
• fulfilling legal obligations, including duty of care, anti-discrimination law and occupational health and safety law
• communicating and engaging with parents
• student administration
• school management
• supporting policy in relation to student education and wellbeing.
If this information is not collected, schools may be unable to provide optimal education or support to students or fulfil legal obligations.
For example, our schools rely on parents to provide health information about any medical condition or disability that their child has, medication their child may take while at school, any known allergies and contact details of their child’s doctor. If parents do not provide all relevant health information, this may put their child’s health at risk.
Our schools also require current, relevant information about all parents and carers so that schools can take account of safety concerns that affect their children. Parents should provide schools with copies of all current parenting plans and court orders about or that affect their children and provide updated copies when they change.
When parents enrol their child in primary school, they will be asked to provide personal and health information in several ways, including via the Enrolment Form, the School Entrance Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) and the Early Childhood Intervention Service (ECIS) Transition Form.
The Enrolment Form is used to collect information that is essential for the purposes listed above, and requests information such as:
• Emergency contacts – Individuals parents nominate for a school to contact during an emergency. Parents should ensure that their nominated emergency contact agrees to their contact details being provided to the school and that they understand their details may be disclosed by the department if lawful, e.g. in the case of emergency communications relating to bush fires or floods.
• Student background information – Information about country of birth, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, language spoken at home and parent occupation. This information enables the department to allocate appropriate resources to schools. The department also uses this information to plan for future educational needs in Victoria and shares some information with the Commonwealth government to monitor, plan and allocate resources.
• Immunisation status – This assists schools to manage health risks and legal obligations. The department may also provide this information to the Department of Health and Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to assess immunisation rates in Victoria, but not in a way which identifies students.
• Visa status – This is required to process a student’s enrolment.
All schools may use departmental systems and online tools such as apps and other software to effectively collect and manage information about students and families for the purposes listed above.
When schools use these online tools, they take steps to ensure that student information is secure. If parents or carers have any concerns about the use of these online tools, please contact the school.
School staff will only share student and family information with other school staff who need to know to enable them to educate or support the student as described above. Information will only be shared outside the school (and outside the department) as required or authorised by law, including where sharing is required to meet duty of care, anti-discrimination, occupational health and safety, and child wellbeing and safety obligations. The information collected will not be disclosed beyond the school and department without parent consent unless such disclosure is lawful.
When a student transfers to another school (including Catholic, independent and interstate), personal and/or health information about that student may be transferred to the next school. Transferring this information is in the best interests of the student and assists the next school to provide the best possible education and support to the student. For further detail about how and what level of information is provided to the next school, refer to the: Enrolment: Student transfers between schools
Schools only provide school reports and ordinary school communications to students, parents, carers or others who have a legal right to that information. Requests for access to other student information or by others must be made by lodging a Freedom of Information (FOI) application.
To update student or family information, parents should contact their school.
For more information about how schools and the department collect and manage personal and health information, or how to access personal and health information held by a school about you or your child, refer to the: Schools’ Privacy Policy
COMPASS
Parents and Guardians, please check you have access to Compass Education and have logged into the service. The school is increasing its use of Compass to communicate with you and to allow more online services such as the ability to log your student absence online so you do not have to call the school. The invitation to join Compass is an email invitation. Please make sure the school has your current email address. If you have forgotten your password the Compass Education phone number is 9005 5217 their email address is support@compass.education. If you have been unable to log in and you have contacted Compass please let the school know and we will see if we can support you to login.
100 YEARS – PAVING THE CENTENARY GARDEN PROJECT
Melton South Primary school is excited to be celebrating its centenary this year and we invite you to be part of a special centenary garden project at the front of the school.
How to be part of this project?
Simply purchase a brick paver to be engraved with a name of your choice (up to 3 lines) for a total cost of $25. All pavers will be installed at the front of the school forming a centenary path in recognition of the school’s 100 years. This is a significant way for families to commemorate their connection to the school for generations to come. How many lines of text and characters are allowed on a paver? 230×115 pavers allow 3 lines of text with 17 capital characters per line (including spaces and punctuations.) Complete the order form attached below and also available from classrooms and the Office and return it to the school with your payment of $25 for each paver purchased. The first round of orders closes on March 28th, 2023.
Make payment at the Office by cash or card during Office hours 8.30-3.30.
SCHOOL CENTENARY PICNIC & DRESS UP PARADE
On Friday, 31st March, our school will be holding a Picnic Morning Tea and Centenary dress-up parades.
Families are encouraged to BYO their own picnic food & blanket/folding chairs to celebrate our schools’ momentous celebration.
Parents, families, staff, and students are also invited to dress up in period costume to represent the decades throughout our school history (1923-2023).
Further details will be made available closer to the event.
We look forward to seeing you on Friday 31st March!
FRENCH
Bonjour tout le monde.
What a fantastic start MSPS students have made in French this year! We have enjoyed getting to know each other and making new friends. In class we have been practising our conversational French; we have been learning how to greet our teachers and others at different times of day such as bonjour, salut, bonsoir and bon nuit. We have a whole class song that would be great if students practiced at home.
We have also enjoyed celebrating French fashion and have been inspired by Coco Chanel’s life, legacy and innovations to create our fashion outfits. Coco started her life in an orphanage and by dreaming big and keeping a positive attitude she became one of the most influential designers that ever lived, changing the way women dress.
This year our French team is scouting for students who want to perform on the French day. There will be mime act, play script, group dancing and singing performances. C’est magnifique! C’est chic! Merci! We hope to have a bigger performance this year.
Our French club for students, will resume from week 4 onwards at lunchtime on Fridays. We hope to see all of our French enthusiasts there! Bon weekend a tous.