Macquarie Memo Issue 21 2023

News from the Deputy Principal

Welcome back for Term 3. We hope everyone had a safe and happy school holiday break.

Congratulations to Nell who spoke confidently at the rostrum quarter finals last week. We are so proud of the way she represented our school.

Thankyou to parents who attended our Coffee and Coding training last week.

A massive thankyou to the parents who attended the principal morning tea last week. Kristy was so pleased to meet you all and appreciated your time.

Our next P&C meeting has been moved to Week 3, it will be on Wednesday at 6pm in the cafe. All welcome.

Save the date- Our Athletics ribbons will be handed out in our Week 5 assembly. 

Term overviews will be sent out on Monday, Week 3 and students are required to wear their hats from Tuesday 1 August.

Congratulations to our kindergarten students for reaching 100 days of learning. Thankyou to our teachers for organising an amazing celebration on Monday.

As you know, late last term we had our School Review visit as part of our 5 year School Plan. The process was overall very positive for our school and we got a lot out of it. Over the next 3 fortnights we will share the commendations, affirmations and recommendations with you. The report can also be found on our school website if you would like to have a detailed read. It can be found in the School Board tab of ‘Our School’. Below is a copy of our commendations.

Macquarie Primary School is commended for:

• Achieving a number of the targets in its 2018-23 school plan early in its cycle and revising those targets upwards in subsequent years.
• The steady and significant gain in parent, staff and student overall satisfaction with the school’s performance in the priority areas reported in opinion survey data over the period of the most recent school plan.
• The overall energetic and purposeful tone, with orderly classrooms, corridors and playgrounds and a strong focus on learning.
• The well-embedded approach to PBL, supported by explicit statements of the values of integrity, persistence and excellence developed through a student and community engagement process and highly visible in posters and other displays.
• The close and ongoing relationship with its main destination Secondary school, Canberra High. Staff and year 6 students are closely engaged in curriculum, orientation and transition activities to support the learners’ move to public Secondary schooling.
• The collaborative process of developing the comprehensive data plan that has ensured shared ownership and consistent collection of a range of learning and wellbeing data. That plan guides staff with the data collection schedule and sharing with the parent/carer community, largely through Board and P&C meetings.
• Its consistent approach to embedding spirals of inquiry as part of PLC meetings. That supports teachers’ capability in responding to the range of learning needs and developing consistency across kindergarten to year 6 teaching and learning teams by giving a common template to engage staff in each phase of the spiral.
• The innovative approach to a whole-school intervention model that utilises staff expertise to cater for the diverse range of learning needs.
• The provision of a structured and supportive small-group learning program to meet the needs of students with complex learning needs.
• The processes established for referral to the student support team and engagement with the school psychologist to support learning needs.
• The strategic recruitment of specialist staff to provide quality learning experiences in music and horticulture.
• Common planning templates that support teachers in providing specific detail regarding strategies to differentiate learning for students – particularly in English, mathematics and inquiry learning.
• The whole-school approach to providing individualised writing instruction and feedback to children using conferencing processes.
• The clearly researched strategies and approaches that support student learning and the key priorities, clearly articulated in the curriculum plan.
• The commitment of the Preschool team to incorporating the whole-school improvement priorities in pedagogical approaches.
• Its commitment to developing consistency of practice through the introduction of a Page | 20 whole-school approach to curriculum planning, with significant time and resources invested to ensure staff are supported.
• The renewed implementation of inquiry as a whole-school pedagogical approach, resulting in the transformation of teaching and learning.
• The strong priority on building the capacity of staff to support the school improvement agenda. Leaders have strategically selected and adopted whole-school professional learning that supports the plan.
• The strong culture of collaboration and teamwork across all cohorts of teachers, evidenced through the planning process and PLCs and the willingness of staff to support colleagues within and across teams in their areas of expertise.
• The implementation of the Wellbeing Curriculum that has seen a whole-school approach to supporting student engagement, resulting in significant increases in satisfaction data across staff, parents and learners.

We will be using these to ensure we stay on the path of success as we write our next School Plan.

In recent years, the Australian Curriculum has undergone a thorough review by ACARA, leading to the development of the revised Australian Curriculum 9.0. Our leadership team has spent the past year studying the modifications from Version 8.4. We will begin implementing Version 9.0 in 2024 and have already started upskilling ourselves as a school. This involves adjusting our internal curriculum mapping documents and getting familiar with the changes. We will continue to share snippets of information about this implementation as it progresses.

Managing Staff Absences

As the colder weather sets in, we expect to see a higher number of staff away at times due to seasonal illness and COVID-19.

To ensure that we continue to provide all students with quality learning with minimal disruption, we may be implementing temporary changes to our learning programs. 

The school may also take the opportunity to temporarily modify timetables or work with external providers to deliver some programs. There may also be a need to postpone excursions and other extra-curricular activities until there is enough staff to support them.  
Every school will implement these measures differently and has the flexibility to make choices that best meet the needs of their school community. 

If changes are required at our school at any time, we will write to you to let you know. We will also ensure we keep you up to date on how long we expect any changes to be in place.

As always, we remain committed to providing our students with high quality learning experiences in a safe and welcoming school environment.

Thank you for your understanding.

Staying COVID Smart in 2023

As you may be aware, there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases across ACT public schools in recent weeks.

To help stop the further spread of COVID-19 in our school, we are encouraging and implementing the following measures:

• Students who are COVID-19 positive or displaying symptoms (including a runny nose, sore throat, cough, fever) should test and must not attend school while unwell.
• Parents and carers must inform schools if their child is COVID-positive.
• Keep up to date with vaccinations.
• Families can access a free rapid antigen test (RAT) from the front office of their school. Nasal and saliva tests are available. Test when symptomatic or as a precaution.
• Practise good hand and respiratory hygiene.
• Distance where possible.

For the latest COVID-19 advice please visit the ACT’s COVID-19 website.

Stranger awareness safety message

This is a reminder to ensure your children and young people understand the importance of stranger awareness safety and information has been included on how to report an incident.

Please support us to keep our children safe by having conversations about moving safely around the community. You may wish to visit the Australian Federal Police website section on Child Safety for tips. In addition, the Safety4Kids is a non-government website that has useful information and links. The Constable Kenny website also has a number of tips for parents for younger children.

If you become aware of an incident or notice anyone acting suspiciously around a school or student, contact police immediately on 131 444 or in the case of an emergency call 000. If you witness an incident or if you have any information that could assist police, contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Information can be provided anonymously. We would also ask that you notify the school so we can also support the wider school community to be aware of incidents.

Apply now for the Future of Education Equity Fund 2023

Apply now for the Future of Education Equity Fund for the 2023 school year. Eligible low-income ACT families can receive one-off payments for financial aid to help cover the costs of their children’s educational costs, such as sport equipment and activities, music lessons, school uniforms and excursions.

The Fund is open to eligible students enrolled in preschools that are attached to an ACT government school, through to Year 12 in the ACT. Further information and the online application form is available at https://www.education.act.gov.au/support-for-our-students/financial-and-resource-assistance-for-families

Evaluation - Active travel programs

TCCS has engaged First Person Consulting (FPC) – a Melbourne-based evaluation consultancy – to manage the evaluation and the surveys. We will not be collecting any identifiable information from anyone completing the survey and all responses will be kept confidential and anonymous. FPC will collect and analyse all responses and provide key results to TCCS in aggregate.

Parents/Carers:

https://fpc.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9zU82MwDxaxYEwS

Library News

Book Club Issue 5 is out now, orders are due in by Sunday August 30. You can place your orders online here. Don’t forget there is a gift option at checkout if you prefer your order to be a surprise – it will be kept at school for you to collect.

If you have any questions regarding Book Club, family borrowing or your child’s borrowing, please email me at pamela.gaukroger@ed.act.edu.au

News from the P&C

P&C meeting 6pm, 2 August

The Term Three P&C meeting will be held at the Garden Side Café at 6pm, Wednesday 2 August. Come along and hear what the P&C will be up to this term, and if you have any suggestions we would love to hear them too. Everyone is welcome!

P&C Father’s Day Stall

The P&C will be running a Father's Day stall on Friday 1 September (week 7). We would love to have a group of volunteers to help us run the stall, any time between 8.30am-1pm on that day. Please contact classparentrepsmps@gmail.com to confirm your interest!

Uniform Shop

The volunteer run P&C Uniform shop is open:

Every Monday & Friday 8:45am-9:15am, and every second Wednesday 3:00pm-3:30pm (even weeks only)

Volunteer are still needed once a fortnight on Wednesday afternoons so the shop can re-open every week on Wednesdays. If you have half-an-hour to spare, please get in touch with the shop coordinators: Liz and Julie at uniforms.mps@gmail.com.

Orders for new uniform items can be placed via www.flexischools.com.au and will be sent home with students – no need to collect from the shop.

Donations of pre-loved uniform items are gratefully accepted during open times, or can be left with the office.

Notes / Reminders

All notes are available on our school website.

Community Notices

Contact Details