Macquarie Memo Issue 24 2023

News from the Principal

We are extremely lucky at Macquarie to have such an amazing community! I would like to thank all our helpers and organisers of the Father’s Day Stall last week. It was a wonderful success and we had very happy students with special gifts to take home on Friday. I would like to thank our P&C for facilitating the Colour Run this Friday.  A special thank you goes to Brendan Ding, Chris Hollis and Lauren Johnston for their hard work and organisation. We also appreciate the volunteers who will be helping it run smoothly tomorrow. We have some special guests from Belconnen AFP coming to join in the festivities and I know we will have a fantastic day.  A reminder there will be no canteen this week as we are having a sausage sizzle for the colour run.

If your child catches the bus to school, please have a conversation with them about road safety; particularly crossing the road. We will discuss this in classes too. Please tell them to always use the crossing. Many have been crossing directly behind the bus.

A big thank you to all our parents who have attended our Coding and Coffee sessions on a Thursday morning. They will be on each Thursday at 8:30am, please feel free to come along and test out our robots.

Learning Journeys are on this afternoon from 3:00pm- 6:00pm in your child’s classroom. Please join us to view and celebrate your child’s learning.

Good luck to students in our choir participating in Limelight this evening, I cannot wait to see your performance! A big thank you to Cynan for all his organisation and preparation for the show.

We would like to wish 3/4 all the best on their camp to Birrigai next week. We know you will have a fantastic time and we can’t wait to hear all about your adventures.

It is with excitement and sadness that we say farewell to Ben White at the end of this term. Ben and his family are relocating interstate for family reasons and Ben has secured an exciting new position as an Assistant Principal in NSW. I'm sure you will join me in congratulating Ben and wishing him the best in his future endeavours.

Curriculum update-

As the term draws to an end, we as a staff have continued to familiarise ourselves with Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum. We have explored the Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) most recently. The teams have continued to report that the curriculum is more accessible, concise, and connected. The initial work in HASS will set us up for success in 2024 as we elevate our current inquiry units and continue to develop and deliver a strong inquiry-based curriculum.

The annual school satisfaction survey closes tomorrow. If you have not yet completed it we encourage you to do so before midnight Friday night. This gives us valuable information to make our school a better place. Currently only 24% have completed the survey.

Have a great week

Kristy

National Schools Championships

Anika has been been competing at the National Schools Championships in Sydney. During the competition she has competed in: 

200m individual medley

50m backstroke 

100m backstroke 

50m butterfly 

100m butterfly

50m freestyle 

100m freestyle 

11 years Girls medley relay

11 years Mixed medley relay 

She has achieved PBs in all her events, and made many new friends from the ACT and other states. She is looking forward to being back at school.

Triple P – Positive Parenting Program

Hi everyone,

I wanted to let you know of Triple P – Positive Parenting Program.  It is an Australian evidence-based parenting program which aims to upskill parents in strategies and knowledge to add to your existing parenting ‘toolbox’ to use when and how you like.  The delivery of the program to parents and cares of children in Australia is supported by funding from the Australian Government (that’s how well regarded the program is!).

Currently Triple P are offering families in Australia with children under 12 FREE access to Triple P online courses.  All you need to do to access them is to register and you’ll receive one year’s free access, meaning you can complete the courses and review the information“(“24/7 online, at your place, at your pace”).  There are currently 3 versions of the course:

• Triple P Online for Baby - Online support for parents-to-be and new parents (of babies up to 12 months old)
• Triple P Online Under 12 - Online program for parents/carers of young children (under 12 years)
• Fear-Less Triple P Online - Online program for parents/carers of anxious kids (from age 6+)

Also available on the website (no need to register!) are a range of easy read, helpful articles  regarding a range of parenting topics.

If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend registering to complete a course, or at least, browsing the articles regarding parenting topics.

https://www.triplep-parenting.net.au/au/triple-p/

Cheers,

Erin | Psychologist

Managing Staff Absences

As the colder weather continues, 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

Author Visit

Our visiting authors, Kate and Jol Temple, had a wonderful day entertaining our students in the library last week! They shared some hilarious stories and had the children in stitches, and they were absolutely inspiring. All 26 of their books that we have in our library collection were quickly snapped up the very next day. Keep an eye out for them coming home in library bags!

Book Fair

Our last big library event for the year starts next week! The Lamont Book Fair will be held in the library from Thursday 14 until Wednesday  September. We host the Book Fair to excite children about reading; I will encourage them to make suggestions for library purchases so no one feels like they are missing out, even if they don’t purchase something for home.

The Book Fair process will be:

• All classes will visit the fair to look at the books for sale, complete a wish list for home and suggest books for the library.

• Wish lists will be brought home with your child. If you wish to purchase anything off their list, please see payment options below but remember that purchases are OPTIONAL!

• If we run out of any titles that have been paid for Lamont will bring extra copies on Thursday 21.

Payment options:

1. Online payment instructions on the wish list
2. EFTPOS in person; the fair will be open from 8.30am – 3.30pm, and until 5.30 on Thursday 14^
3. Cash may be brought on the day your child’s class visits, but this is not the preferred option as you won’t be able to help your child with a decision, and bringing cash to school has the risk of loss.

There will be a Dojo post next week with the class timetable, and Dojo reminders throughout the fair. You will, of course, be able to contact me with any questions or advice regarding purchases.

Pamela.gaukroger@ed.act.edu.au

Librarian

News from the P&C

Colour Fun Run

The P&C are excited to be hosting a Colour Fun Run on Friday 8 September – if you are yet to fill out your permission form (and can’t find it anymore!) there are some available at the front office.

It will be a huge colourful mess, and we think it will be one of the most exciting days on our school’s calendar. We would love to welcome parents and family members to attend. If you would like to volunteer please complete the volunteer section on the Permission Slip.

The Colour Fun Run is also a fundraising activity by the P&C to help fund phase two of the Adventure Playground. If you would like to help raise funds then please go to schoolfunrun.com.au and create a student fundraising profile.

Father’s Day Stall Wrap-Up

Thank you to the amazing volunteers who helped make the Father's Day stall run smoothly! We couldn't put on these events without the help of parent volunteers, and we are so grateful for your efforts. We hope all the Dads, Grandpas, and special carers in the MPS community had a wonderful Father's Day and enjoyed the special gifts your children chose for you.

Coding and Coffee

Please join our fun before school activity – coding with our new robots! Students, parents, carers, and siblings are welcome to play with the (easy to use!) robots, from 8:30-8:55am in the school café on Thursday mornings, starting week 5. So come grab a coffee or milo, and get coding!

Mango drive

MANGOS!! The P&C are running a Mango Drive to raise money for the Year 6 farewell activities.  Orders are now live on the ‘Events’ page on Flexischools and will close at 5pm on Friday 13 October.  Delivery will be during week 9 of next term with a date to be confirmed.  Order your box for $28 now!

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