Tuesday 18th July 2023
Hello Everyone,
Today our students participated in a Japanese puppetry incursion. It was entertaining and informative, and the children were a great audience. This term, the whole school focus is on the Arts, and incursions are a great way to introduce the children to a wide range of experiences, without the exorbitant cost to take a bus into Melbourne regularly. We have another couple of incursions planned for later this term.
Yesterday, the 2023 NAPLAN results were published to principals. These results will be sent home to individual families shortly. This year, an entirely new marking and ranking system has been introduced which means that we cannot compare our school results with previous results. This will be the same for parents who have children who have done the NAPLAN testing in the past – you will not be able to compare your children’s results. A letter will be sent home with your child’s NAPLAN results to explain this.
Given that it is a new system, it appears to me that our students have done exceptionally well, with many assessed as “Exceeding” required expectations. I will need to wait for our comparisons with other “similar schools” (schools with a similar socio-economic profile and size) to be able to clearly understand our results. This may take a while to come though, but I will keep you all informed. I went to all of our NAPLAN students yesterday and congratulated them on their commitment and hard work – they are fantastic!!!
Our solar panels are now up and running. They were connected into the grid yesterday and what fantastic weather we had to start off.
I’d like to congratulate Moser Pretorius who represented the school at the State Cross Country last week, in Glen Iris. It is rare that we get a student through to this high level of competition and we are all proud of his achievement. He came 16th overall in his age group. I was telling the assembly on Friday, that there are almost 380,000 primary school students in our state and so Moser’s achievement to be in the top 20 students in his competition is amazing.
Another congratulations to Xanthe Berger and Wil Jacobson who have been given roles in the upcoming Mount Players production of Peter Pan. I believe that two of our past grade 6 students, Amelie Berger and Molly Hindson also have roles, with Amelie having the lead as Peter Pan. It’s wonderful to see our students so successful in pursuing their dreams.
Production preparations have begun in the school – no doubt many of you are hearing about the different birds and songs that are already being practised. Auditions have been held for the senior students and roles will be announced shortly. There may be some disappointment if your child doesn’t get the part they wanted, but we will support them to understand this.
I am currently working on an Inclusive Schools grant application to further develop our playground areas and to add a sensory loop to the school (an area that provides a range of sensory experiences such as sound, smell, touch). This is a large task, involving quite a lot of work, and I am grateful for the support of Olivia, our wellbeing coordinator, and Amy, our Business Manager. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we are successful – but it is only a limited bucket of money, so fingers crossed.
I am also looking at applying for a grant to support our OSHC program, as we are currently not covering costs for this. One idea is that I add in a vacation program to be run from the school. I would be really interested to hear from any parents who think that they would access a program such as this – whole day activities, five days per week of the holidays – even part time.
Enjoy this slightly warmer winter weather, and have a great week.
Trish
