Notices to Parents

 Dear Parents,

 Welcome Kerry Robertson!

As you would have read in the previous newsletter Kerry Robertson, from Mullum Primary School, will be our Acting Principal next term. Kerry is currently the Acting Principal at Mullum Primary School in the Ringwood area. She comes with a great deal of experience in Primary Education, notably, recently representing teachers as key member of a State Leadership Group on Curriculum in Government Schools to provide advice to the Minister on:

·          a government school curriculum that guarantees the community excellence in curriculum design and learning opportunities

·          the distinctive value that learning in government schools has to offer

·          more flexible teaching programs to support student learning

·          strategies to increase effective communication with parents regarding their children’s progress in school and their involvement in their children’s learning

·          the level and type of support needed from the Department to achieve these aims.

I know she will skillfully and confidently lead Monash Primary School..

 Industrial Action – Wednesday September 17

The Australian Education Union has called a stopwork for next Wednesday 17^th September. I have been informed that all our teachers will be taking stopwork action and will thus be absent from school for the entire day on the 17^th September. If you choose to send your child to school alternative arrangements will be made for the day. Obviously this is a difficult time for schools and their students, and I do appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

 Monash Principal’s Conference

The children wouldn’t have seen me around the school earlier this week as I attended the Monash Principals’ Conference. The Keynote Address was presented by Rev Tim Costello. I have often seen him on the news he is a valued member of significant groups ensuring social justice issues are put on the local and national agenda. To the Monash Principals Group he spoke of “Leadership perspectives for a better society”. He talked about the importance of significant child and adult relationships at school, for family and school rituals to give children a strong sense of where they belong and the need to build “Social Capital” a mix of knowledge, skills and relationships that help children learn and be happy in life. As he unwrapped images of family life that represented different backgrounds I started to see some strong links between his powerful message and what we see as everyday life here at Monash Primary School.

 Literacy and Numeracy Week Activities

During Literacy and Numeracy Week activities we have shared stories and poems over lunch, invited parents and friends to join us in classrooms and enjoyed a workshop by Richard Galbraith who entertained and taught children some cartooning skills. I can already see children using his ideas in their drawings. If you want to find out more about Richard he has a website at  http://www.richardgalbraith.com.au/home_ie.htm. Family Literacy and Numeracy activities can be found at  http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/parents/index.htm. Thank you to Sue Bowden for organising all the events this week.

 Fathers’ Day

I hope all the fathers in our community enjoyed Fathers’ Day last week particularly the thoughtfully chosen gifts from our Fathers’ Day stall. I know my husband still cherishes the gifts carefully wrapped in finger-painted paper with hand drawn cards, which are brought out most years much to the amusement of our now young adult children. The ‘ritual’ is an important part of our family life.

 A lot of organisation goes into putting on the Fathers Day Stall. I would like to thank the hard working parents who organised and manned the stall for our children.

 Congratulations! The Fathers Day Raffle winners were:

1^st prize Rebecca

2^nd prize – Hai

3^rd Prize – Stephen

 Visit to Monash Children’s Centre

A group of Level 4 students walked to the Monash Children’s Centre to perform pieces of their Walking Together unit of work for the young children. Their attitude to the work they performed and the kindness they showed towards the young children was a credit to our school.  Well done to all the performers!

 Changes to Traffic Speed Limits in Our Neighbourhood

The State Government’s traffic strategy Arrive Alive! includes a School Speed Reduction program. This will reduce speed limits outside every primary and secondary school in the state. The program is being rolled out on a region basis, which will see our school area have the limits installed within the next few months.

 Principal’s Awards

The following children will be presented with Principal’s Awards at assembly on Monday morning.

Elise and Briannon for Demonstrating the School Value of Participation by being a reliable monitor and showing initiative in the school ground.

Finally, I am proud to have been part of this community and thank the children, staff, volunteers and parents for their support and hard work over the last 2 terms.

 Kindest regards

Acting Principal 

Strategic Directions for Monash Primary School

School Council is being proactive in seeking positive opportunities for Monash Primary School for 2004 and beyond as recommended by the community in 2002 through the strategic planning process, and in line DE&T guidelines.

Recently, Helen Fotheringham (Eastern Metropolitan Region Senior Education Officer) spoke to school council on a number of issues. She presented figures from research done by DE&T showing that we are in a belt, which has significant decline in the population of school-aged children. Projections indicate a loss of 30% of high school aged students in the next 10 years. It has become, and will continue to be, increasingly difficult for schools in the area to provide the variety of programs that parents expect.

This information impacts directly on any strategic planning School Council is undertaking. As a result School Council made a decision to form a Reference Group. We are currently in the early stages of investigating a number of options for moving forward. Be assured that any forthcoming proposals from School Council will involve parent consultation. We will keep you updated through the newsletter and special notices as necessary.

Lee Ann, Staff and the members of School Council are working towards a positive start for all our children for 2004, thank you for your support as always.

Ronnie Flanagan

Newsletter Email

If you would like to receive the school newsletter via email just contact us using the following details and it will be sent to you as a word document. Our list of subscribers grows every issue!

Human Development Information Evening Reminder

The school nurse will be taking human development lessons with our grade 5 & 6 students in October. She has offered to run an information evening for parents before the classroom program begins. The information evening will be held on October 14 at 7.00 in the library.

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Human Development Information Evening R.S.V.P.

Please complete and return to school by Friday 10^th October 

I / we will be attending the Human Development Information Evening on Tuesday 14^th October 2003.

Number Attending:______________

ATHLETIC SPORTS

The school athletic sports proved to be a most successful day when they were held on Tuesday 26^th  August. The sports were organised on a standardized format so that all students competed in every event for their age group and gained points for their house.

The final results were:

Some older students who performed well went on to represent Monash P.S. at the Oakleigh District Sports. All the children performed most creditably and encouraged their teammates. Special congratulations are due to John who qualified for the Zone Championships in the 100-metre sprint. I would like to thank Clare who accompanied the team to the sports and helped out all day.

Very special thanks are also due to the following people who assisted at the school sports at Monash University: Lisa , Chris , Jenny , Clare and Joe , Jenny , Narelle , Andrew , Jackie , Margaret , Mark , Sue , Ronnie , Haiying , Frank and Vicky . The teachers and student teachers also worked particularly hard on the day to ensure that every thing ran smoothly.