Dear Families, 

We have had a challenging start to the term with quite a number of staff and students away sick.  Hopefully, we are at the tail end of it and will have our full complement of staff for the rest of Term 2.   

Touch Points

I just have to say thank you to our teachers and families for taking the time to chat with each other about the progression children are making this year. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and it is something we want to continue to do each term. It is also wonderful that our Community Engagement Subcommittee of School Council are working to put together a communication plan that will outline the types of communication you can expect from classroom teachers and when you can expect it.  If you want to help with the development of this plan please contact the office.  

Education Week

Thank you to those families who attended one of our Education Week activities.  It is great to have families able to spend some time in school and see what the students are learning.  Special thank you to all our wonderful grandparents and special friends who visited classrooms and came for morning tea. It was the highlight of the week for me!

Prep Enrolments 

Planning for Prep 2025 is well underway.  We had information sessions, come and play and school tours last week as part of Education Week.  If you have a child starting prep next year, could you please complete an enrolment application form.  Forms are available at the office or via the MPS website.  Applications are due by Friday the 26th July.   

Balls at School 

If your child is bringing a ball to school, football, downball etc, please make sure they have their name on them.  That makes it much easier for the balls to find their way back to the kids.  Ray tries to get up to check gutters at the end of each week.  

Working Bee 

A massive thank you to the 15 families, students and staff who came to our working bee on Sunday! We got a huge amount of work done including moving 3 truckloads of mulch!!! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Works completed included weeding the north playground garden and fixing garden beds, putting new sand in sand pits, putting new mulch under playground areas and fixing the decking near canteen area.

Our plan is to have another working bee in 4th term so stay tuned for the date!   

IGA Rewards

A massive thank you to Steve and Greg from IGA for they donation of $1647 to the school.  IGA has supported the school for many years now and it means a lot to our wonderful school.  If you want to support the school through the IGA rewards program it’s as simple as filling out a form at IGA or swiping our keytag when you shop. 

Tuesday 11th June - Common Professional Practice Day - no students required

Monday 15th July - Student Free Day

Monday 4th November - Student Free Day

Absences

If your child is absent from school we ask that you contact the school by 10am on the day or as soon as practicable. Absent messages can be submitted through our school app Audiri, by phone or email. 

Audiri

In an emergency our school app Audiri will be used as our main source of communication to our families. This is a reminder to families to download Audiri.

Please note (if you have not already updated)  to update your child/s year level on Audiri. This is done by opening Audiri selecting resources, groups, & then selecting your child/s grade including whole school. 

Family Details

If your family contact details have recently changed - residential address, contact numbers & or emergency contacts please update via Audiri by selecting resources, forms & then change of details. 

MEDICATION

All medication required during the day at school must be handed to the front office. 

REMINDER

A reminder to families that the school day finishes at 3.30pm. Please ensure your child/children are collected from school in a timely manner. If you are running late please notify the front office. 

AFTER SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS 

Please ensure your child is aware of what is happening after school, where they are going, who is picking them up and they know plan B if a after school activity is cancelled. 

BUS TRAVEL 

Any changes to your afternoon bus travel arrangements are to be made by 2.30pm for the day of travel. This can be made via the Audiri App by selecting Resources, Forms, then Bus Travel or calling the front office on 5775 2325 & follow the prompts. 

If your child has started a new after school activity for the Term, football/netball/cricket training  for example, please update their regular bus travel arrangements. 

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Uniform to be ordered through Spartan School Supplies.      

We have a full range of uniform on display at the front office for you to view before making your purchases online. 

LOST PROPERTY

Please note we cannot return items that have no name. Please ensure uniform & drink bottles are clearly labelled with your child's name. 

SPARE CLOTHES

If your child has come home in spare clothes from school we ask that you please wash & return these items. Thank you. 

HEAD LICE

A reminder to families to be checking for head lice & taking the appropriate steps to treat hair if lice are found. 

The Music room has been super popular again for many students.  Lunch time musicians have been helpful and kind.

They’ve supported each other to try and learn new skills and we’ve all celebrated when new skills are achieved.  It’s noisy fun!

In lessons across the school, we’ve been working on layers and rhythms. We’ve played instruments, sung songs, composed own music and played music with others in groups. We have musicals that are being written and rehearsed. We’ve tried STOMP music, new songs on ukulele, guitar and voice. And we’ve had fun exploring digital music making as well.

During in Education Week, we also held a lunch time Open Stage for students to share some skills to an audience. It was so popular we ran it both lunchtimes.  Well done to all performers on stage and at assembly this month! Bravo!!

Monica Sketcher

MPS Performing Arts teacher

On Monday 25th March, Year Five students started the journey of an Anglesea Adventure. We boarded the bus to Southern Cross Station, then went to Geelong via train, and for the final piece of the journey - a bus. We arrived at the campground and set up our tents, had dinner followed by a night walk.

Waking up in the morning we had brekkie and headed off into our groups for three different sessions including an environmental session, stand up paddleboarding and kayaking. The instructors were really nice, and we had a great time. We had a delicious lunch then had free time on the jumping pillow and playground. Dinner was delicious! Thanks to the caterers. We had a talent show filled with entertaining acts. Then we went to sleep.

 We woke up with a smile on our faces having known that it was surf day! So, we got up, had breakfast, and went for a walk to a playground. We had a wonderful time with all the groups. We then split up again and each group had different activities. Surfing, and free time in two different areas. We ended up having free time first and we went down to the beach to build structures out of sand. Then we had our surfing lesson, it took us a while but eventually we squirmed into the tight wetsuits. The surf instructors led us down to the beach and they taught us about rips and how to stand up and even do some tricks! We grabbed our boards and ran into the water paddling out to the waves. Even though it was tough for most people we still had a momentous day at the beach! With smiles on our faces, we left happily back to camp for free time, dinner, and trivia. With full bellies we went back to the tents for the night.

The shining sun woke us up shimmering through the tents, we had breakfast and started the pack up, as this was the last day of our adventure at Anglesea. We packed up our tents and other belongings then hopped into separate buses and set off to the city of Melbourne for a visit to the VIC market. We had to navigate our way throughout the city with a map to get to the market. After a little bit of a wild goose chase, we finally arrived at the VIC market, and we were given ten dollars each to spend on unusual foods. I bought some delicious Irish cheddar cheese, raspberries and blueberries. Following everyone's purchases we had a massive communal feed at the park filled with, salamis, cheeses, fruit, sweets and other foods. Now with all that energy we played on the playground for a bit before making our way back to Southern Cross Station for the final part of our journey. A bus trip home to be greeted by our parents back at MPS.

By Roy M

Grade 2 students participated in exploration activities with knowledgeable facilitators from EG Incursions. The Life Long Ago incursion brought students back millions of years to discover the wonder of the dinosaurs. In large sandboxes, the children located and identified fossils from some of the most iconic dinosaurs of the past - Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops as well as a few other surprises.

Dear Families,

Students here at MPS have a 1hr Wellbeing session each week. This wellbeing hour is focused around our two main Wellbeing programs. The RRRR (Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships Program) and The Resilience Project. On top of this Wellbeing hour, we also use Ripple check in’s each morning to help staff keep track on how our student’s health and wellbeing are going.

These programs are to help teach and guide our students to have positive mental health, looking at personal, social and emotional development.

The key areas for our RRRR program are:

*Emotional Literacy *Personal Strengths *Positive Coping *Problem Solving *Stress Management *Help Seeking *Gender and Identity & *Positive Gender Relationships.

The key areas in The Resilience Program are:

*Emotional Literacy *Empathy *Mindfulness & *Gratitude.

Hopefully your children are coming home telling you of some of these activities they are doing each week. If not, please ask them to start the conversation at home. Because let’s be honest, you ask how their day was and you get either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Not much detail in-between 😊. So here is an activity you can do at home with your children to get the ball rolling.