Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people, the traditional owners of the land Mickleham Primary School is on, and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging and to any Koorie people joining us today.

We would like to acknowledge the children of the past, present and future who have grown up, learnt and played with friends on this land.

We would like to acknowledge our country and nature, including: trees, grasses, flowers, birds and insects. Our Bluestone building represents our community’s past and we are the future.

Acknowledgement of Diversity

We acknowledge and respect the differences between us. We understand we all come from different cultures, and we have different opinions and needs. We are all equals and cooperate as we play a role in our school community.

The above statements were written by our children and staff through our Koorie Action Group and Diversity Leaders.

Welcome to our Week 7 Newsletter. Thank you to everyone for supporting the illustrator visit today. The children are totally engaged in Ben Wood’s presentation and participating in the activities he is introducing to them. Ben is very experienced in working with children – he has them hooked on ways to improve their writing so their readers want to keep reading.

Student Led Parent Teacher Conferences:

Next Wednesday, September 3^rd, our children will be presenting their work to you with the support of their classroom teacher. The children across the school have been preparing to speak with you about the work they are proud of, the goals they have set themselves and how they have progressed towards achieving them, and also about what they have found challenging. They will also share with you about their behaviour and effort at school. Already, the benefits of this process are apparent as the children have been reflecting on what they might do better in the future but we hope the impact will be even greater after they hear your feedback at the interview.

As mentioned in the note we sent home recently, the children do not come to school on that day UNTIL their interview time. Every child needs to have an interview with their teacher and parent.

Please look at the questions we sent home so you are prepared to ask the children questions. At the end of the interview, we will ask you to complete a very quick survey about the experience so we can continue to improve our reporting processes.

We are excited to see you all engage with your child/ren in the interview process next week.

Fundraiser – Monty Colour Run:

Thank you so much to the many children and families who have embraced this fundraising event. It is our major event for the year; we hope to be able to replace our existing soccer goals and purchase a couple more sets. Each set of goals is approximately $3,000.00! We will also use the money to purchase resources for the children to use on the wet/windy/hot days that cause them to stay inside at break times.

The children are getting excited about the prizes they are earning and the possibility of being one of three children to slime three teachers.

At the moment, less than half of our children have profiles and only half of these children have raised money. Our total is over $10,000.00 so far!!!!!!!!!!!! This is awesome. We want to encourage everyone to ask their family members, friends, work colleagues and neighbours to help our school out with this fundraiser.

Any parent who wishes to make the donation in cash at the Office, please come in and speak with the ladies and we will explain how we can help you so the children still get the prizes.

$10,000.00 is amazing – we have 21 days to see how high we can get our total…

Father’s Day Stall:

Next Thursday the children can shop for a gift for their father/grandfather/carer at our annual Father’s Day Stall. Each class will rotate through the stall and get to select from our range of gifts. Please send money along in an envelope with your child’s name on it so we don’t have any money dropped before they get to spend it.

We would love to hear from parents who are able to help with pricing, setting up and selling on the day please. As always, the crew of helpers make this kind of event possible, and we greatly appreciate it. Please fill in the volunteer request form and our Community & Fundraising Team will be in touch.

Surveys:

Last week we sent out an invitation for parents to complete the Parent Opinion Survey. We would appreciate it if you took a few minutes to complete this. If you need to use a computer, we can arrange for you to do the survey here at school. Please call or pop in and let us know how we can help.

Our Grade 4 – 6 children completed the Attitude to School Survey recently; the results are outstanding. In the next Newsletter I will break down the data and share the feedback we received from our children. It is pleasing to see that they have a positive and committed attitude to their schoolwork and are very happy in their learning environment.

Road Safety:

I am sure this will be a topic I will discuss in every Newsletter. I do not apologise for continuing to mention the need for you to make good choices as you are your child’s most important role model. Please consider the following important safety measures: do not walk your children across the road anywhere other than the crossing, do not drop off or pick up your children in the middle of the road, do not make u-turns in the middle of the drop-off/pick-up space or on the crossings, do not drive too fast around the school, or park across driveways or too close to the end of the road. As I reread this list, they are common sense things but when we are in a hurry, we just forget good practice. The long-term impact of one bad decision is too horrible to think about – a child’s life is worth more than the few minutes longer you would need to take to be safe.

Our engagement team has been working hard to identify students who are regularly absent from school. Together with families, we create Individual Attendance Plans and set goals for student attendance.

A sticker chart is then used in the classroom to track weekly attendance and monitor student progress towards achieving their goals, also providing daily opportunities for students to share a positive experience about their day. At the end of the plan, we review the student’s attendance and how they went towards achieving their goal. 

Students need to attend school regularly in order to participate fully and gain maximum benefit from their schooling. Regular attendance enables students to access a full education, allowing them to reach their full potential. We believe that student success is dependent upon good attendance at school. Future success starts with great attendance.

TERM 3 CLUBS

At Mickleham Primary School we offer clubs at almost every break. Any changes will be announced before each break.

House points update

Remember to check your child’s profile on Compass if you are unsure what house they are in.

Attendance Award

Each term at Mickleham Primary School, students with exceptional attendance are rewarded by being invited to a hot chip lunch.

Remember, being at school is very important as we want all our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day. If students miss school regularly, they miss out on learning the fundamental skills that will set them up for success in the later years of school. There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind and can affect their educational outcomes. Each missed day is associated with progressively lower achievement in Reading, Writing and Mathematics.

Well done to Prep A (Mr Tuttle) who were the attendance award winners for Weeks 4 and 5. 

District Athletics Day

On Monday 25th August, 44 Grade 4, 5 and 6 students attended District Athletics Day at Meadowglen Athletics Centre. 

Students participated in a range of different sporting events against our local schools. We are very proud of all the students who attended and showed our School’s RICH Values. We are especially proud of the effort you all put into your races – we had nearly every student stick through their event, even when they were not in with a place. We saw real resilience in you.

OUR RESULTS:  1st and 2nd place-getters are invited to the Woodlands Division Athletics Carnival on 16th September. 

On Wednesday 3^rd September we will be conducting our first ever Student Led Parent-Teacher Conferences.

Children do not attend school on this day, but they are expected to attend the conference as they will be speaking to you about their work. ALL CHILDREN ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND A CONFERENCE WITH YOU ON SEPTEMBER 3^RD. Attendance will be marked by teachers once your child has appeared for their conference.

You will be able to select a 15-minute block between 11:00am – 6:45pm. Teachers will have two short breaks during this time. We have ensured there are more than enough time slots to accommodate all parents & children.

We want to help you make the upcoming Student-Led Parent-Teacher Conferences informative. Please consider these questions and add any others you might want the answers to.

Your child has selected work samples they are proud of, have found challenging, show their growth or goal achievement or they simply enjoyed. They have been making notes and preparing to present their reflections to you. Many children may be a little nervous and some may be shy as they have not done this before. Teachers will be ready to step in and help them with that and give them prompts.

We anticipate each conference will look like this:

We look forward to engaging with you through this exciting development in our reporting program.

Questions parents might ask their child:

What did you learn through this task?

How does each selection show that you are doing your best work?

Questions parents might ask teachers:

How do these work samples demonstrate my child’s growth?

What are my child’s next steps?

What can we do at home to support my child’s learning?

*Other questions…

The specialist spotlight

Visual Arts – Susan Dowey

During Science Week all students created a picture of a scientist for display.

Grade Prep have been using a range of art techniques to create artworks about weather.  In the photographs shown they experimented with wax resist watercolour paintings.

Grade 1/2 have been working on a collaged artwork of a bird nest. They have learned about what materials birds use to build their nests and replicated this using scrap art materials.

Grade 3/4 have learned about textiles and have created a loom using a paper plate and wool.  Before beginning their weaving students decorated the plate to add a colourful background to their woven artwork.

Grade 5/6 started this term by making a cardboard frame to display their botanical artwork which they made in term 2.  They are now learning about the Pop Art Movement and will be creating their own artwork inspired by the work of Roy Lichtenstein.

STEM – Erin Donnelly and Tracy Budin

Students have been learning about Food and Fibre production in Term 3. 

In Grades 1/2, students have been learning about plant lifecycles. We planted seedlings in recyclable tubs and observed the changes over time. We have also started exploring how technology can improve our lives. Students have been eager to use our Dash robots, programming them with commands and watching as the robots complete each sequence of steps.

Grades 3/4 have been learning about the way foods start with fresh ingredients that are then processed and/or cooked for ease of use – you may have heard about our popcorn and butter-making already. Questions they have brainstormed for their market research on packed lunches are being asked, tallied and analysed. Students will consider this data when designing a tasty, colourful and fun healthy lunchbox. Along the way, we will make hummus and cook some healthy oat bars.

In Grades 5/6, students have been learning about different farming productions and processes. We visited a virtual egg farm to explore the technology used to get eggs from the farm to our pantry. We also planted seed potatoes to observe their growth and are looking forward to harvesting them later in Term 4. Our goal is to grow enough potatoes so that we can cook something together!

Students have applied their knowledge of technology in food production by creating model designs using the LEGO Prime kits. They have been building machines such as “grabbers” and “conveyor belts,” and will soon learn how to program these machines to follow their instructions.

Library – Taylah Ryan

We are excited to welcome Miss Ryan to our specialist team – Miss Ryan will be teaching in the Library for the remainder of this year. 

Please remember to bring your Library bags on your library day: 

‘I am thrilled to be joining the Specialist team for the rest of the year in the library, and I look forward to getting to know everyone and producing amazing work in our beautiful library space.’

P.E – Tracy Budin

For the next 4 weeks the whole school will be doing a gymnastics unit. This will be age-levelled with a focus on moving our bodies in interesting ways, and keeping them safe. Please have your child/ren wear tights or pants to tuck their shirts into – this provides modesty and confidence to roll, stretch and tumble a bit.

Socks are a MUST – students will remove their shoes so they MUST be able to put them back on themselves.

The Last 5 WEEKS: 

Grade Prep-2 We have been working on our listening and team-work skills in relay games, catching and throwing, and recently kicking skills. We are practising how to get ready for activities by learning some quick ways to get ready for games – like Ladder Partners, Wall Partners, Pizza Corners and Circle Time.

Grade 3-6 We have been learning the skills of our Olympic Athletics’ Teams – shot put, discus, long jump, high jump, relay baton changes, hurdling, how to start a fast race and even triple jump. Students have been surprised at how easy it is to perform these skills when they focus on them. We have a very good Little Athletics Club in Craigieburn that you might want to go to when the season starts in September: https://www.craigieburnlac.com.au/

The Mickleham Primary School canteen operates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

We would welcome the assistance of any parent who is able to give up an hour or two, especially on Fridays. Please fill in the volunteer request form and we will be in touch with you shortly

Lunch orders must be placed through Compass by 9.30am.

HOT FOOD

Burgers, Rolls and Toasties

Noodles

Beverages

Frozen treats

Winter treats

There will also be a limited amount of hot food available for sale over the counter during break times.

We would welcome the assistance of any parent who is able to give up an hour or two, especially on Fridays. Please call the school and leave a message for Ange.

Bunnings Father’s day celebration

Hume Tennis and Community Centre

Australian Plants Society

BlueFit Swimming School