Macquarie Memo Issue 29 2023

News from the Deputy Principal

Week 8 has certainly rolled around very quickly. We have had a lot happening this term that is worthy of celebrating and still plenty more to come in the next two and a half weeks.

On Saturday 18 November, the P&C held a successful Bunnings BBQ at Belconnen to raise funds for our school. Thank you so much for all the hard work you put in leading up to and on the day. I am sure you saw lots of familiar faces come past to buy a sausage throughout the day. Particular thanks goes to Matt and Brendan for the coordinator of this, as well as every volunteer who helped out. Your efforts do not go unnoticed and are certainly appreciated.

On Sunday we had our working bee for Term 4. Thank you to the parents and kids who came along and joined Lil in the microforest.Our volunteers mulched and weeded so that all our native seedlings can have a good chance of thriving! It's always a great way to get outside, get moving and have a chat with people who are apart of our vibrant school community.

Thanks to everyone who attended a working bee this year! Your efforts are so appreciated! 

Today we hosted our third 2024 preschool stay and play session. We have one more happening next Thursday 7 December. These have been a great opportunity for next year’s preschool children to come along and see our preschool, meet the Educators, meet some peers they will be in a class with and start building some familiarity and relationships. We also held our final 2024 kindergarten transition visit today. All children starting kindergarten next year have had two visits to kindergarten classes as part of their orientation process. These sessions have had held in conjunction with the preschool and kindergarten information sessions which were on Thursday 23 November. If your child is starting preschool or kindergarten in 2024 and you have not been to one of these sessions, please reach out to the front office to arrange collection of your information pack. I would like to acknowledge and thank Maree, Sharni, Lynda, Amaliya, Garima and Steph for the work that went in to both the preschool stay and play and kindergarten transition visits to make them so successful. We look forward to seeing all these little people in their classes from Tuesday 20 January 2024.

On Monday 20 November, our Parent Portal was activated. It is a secure online platform used to share student information between you and your child’s teachers.

Some reminders about Parent Portal:

• If you already have a Parent Portal account, use this Parent Portal access link to start using the great features.
• You can’t access Parent Portal directly through the ACT Digital Account website, you need to use the link above.
• When you are logged into Parent Portal, we recommend saving the browser as a favourite or to the homepage on your mobile phone for quick access in the future.
• The website can only be viewed using a web browser on your computer, mobile phone or tablet. An app is not available at this time.
• If you still need to register, you will need an access key and a Parent Portal registration link via email to link your existing account to your child’s records. If you haven’t received this, please contact Karrina or Stacey via the font office for assistance.

Last Friday, Sean and Lauren took 24 year 4 to 6 students over to Aranda playing fields for a cricket gala day with Aranda Primary School. Both the boys and girls teams had a successful day, winning multiple games. The students we saw at the end of the day, as well as Sean and Lauren, said the day was great fun but tiring. The games were played in a competitive spirit. Hopefully it's an event that we can expand on next year and have a few more schools involved in. 

Next Wednesday 6 December we have our Arts Festival 4-6:30pm. Between 4pm and 4:45pm you will have the opportunity to browse the student art work in both the Brindabella and Namadgi corridors. If you would like to purchase your own child’s for $10, please take it over to the front office where you will be able to pay in cash or via EFTPOS. At 4:45pm the corridors will close and we will move to the Namadgi blacktop to start the class and cohort performances. There will be a sausage sizzle available for $3 and families can also collect their Goodberry’s order if it was placed via Flexischools. Please remember that the Goodberry’s orders need to be placed in advance on the Flexischools website by 5pm on Thursday 30 November. Cross your fingers and toes that the weather is on our side for the evening, not too hot and no rain would be perfect. See you all there.

In an earlier Macquarie Memo this term, we advised that this week we would announce the 2024 staffing. I can now confirm this to be:

Executive, Administration and Support Staff

Teaching Staff

Next Thursday 7 December, we will announce the 2024 classes on the Parent Portal and Class Dojo. This will be in advance of 2024 class meetings happening 1:50-2:50pm on Monday 11 December. We have worked very closely to ensure that your child is in the most supportive class possible for 2024. We know you appreciate the careful consideration that has gone in to this. In addition to this, we have a significant building configuration change happening. Next year, the kindergarten to year 2 classes will be moving to the Namadgi building. The year 3 to 6 classes will be located in the Brindabella and Tidbinbilla loft classrooms. This change will be seamless and not disruptive to students or learning programs.

Week 10, Monday 11 December

Mirri Mufti Monday: Paws for a Purpose!

Join us for a day of giving back as we celebrate Mirri, our incredible well-being support dog!

Mirri Mufti Monday is your chance to make a difference.

How to Get Involved:

Wear Mufti: Show support by dressing casually on Mirri Mufti Monday.

Donate: Contribute to Mirri's care and impact the well-being of our students.

Spread the Word: Encourage others to join the cause.

Let's make Mirri Mufti Monday a day of joy and generosity!

Your support ensures Mirri continues to bring comfort and positivity to our school community.

Have a great weekend. I will see you all at the Arts Festival.

Stacey

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 carers 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 three 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 year continues, we expect to see a 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 let you know as soon as we can. 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.
• 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.

Library News

Book Swap shelf

As the Christmas holidays approach you might like to make use of our Book Swap shelf in the Gardenside Café, for extra holiday reading. Lots of families have brought in books they no longer need, so there are plenty of good options for you to look through and take home.

All books are due back TOMORROW! We still have hundreds of books yet to be returned. Please send them in so we can ensure our library is ready for use at the beginning of the year.

Getting started with Sora!!!

With Sora, you can borrow free e-books and audiobooks from the central ACT Education Directorate collection. More than 8,000 e-book titles and 1,000 audiobooks available for recreational reading. Borrow up to 10 resources at a time! Loan period is two weeks with an early-return option for those quick, enthusiastic readers. Need a bit more time, then use the renewal option if no one has placed a HOLD (reserve).

Step 1

Go online to soraapp.com. or install the free Sora app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store

Step 2

In Sora, in Find My School enter the set-up code ACT Education Directorate (NOT the individual school’s name), then, sign in using your school, individual login credentials, ie. student ID number and password or the staff Schools net account and password.

Step 3

Browse the tab and borrow an e-book or audiobook. Your book will open so you can start reading or listening right away.

Step 4

Close the book and go to & see all your books (up to 10!). From there you can:

• Select Open book or Open audiobook to read or listen to the book.
• Select Options to renew or return the book.

News from the P&C

Thank you Bunnings BBQ and Working Bee Volunteers

Big thank you to everyone who helped out at the Bunnings BBQ and Working Bee. We sold a whopping 975 sausages, and raised close to $3,000. We will use these funds to help support the student social and learning environments. 

Parent and student volunteers also worked hard at the working bee. The micro-forest got some much needed care, with lots of weeding and mulching. We hope the young plants withstand the hot summer coming up!

Canteen Co-ordinator and volunteers needed

We're looking for a new canteen coordinator and extra volunteers to continue the canteen service in 2024.

If you are available from about 12.15 to 1pm on Fridays, we'd love your help to keep the canteen service going a Friday. It's a quick and easy job of making sure the orders are in the right class baskets! The coordinator doesn’t need to be there every week if we can have just a few volunteers to roster on each term.

If you are available Friday lunchtimes and can volunteer your help please email canteen.mpspandc@gmail.com.

P&C Uniform Shop

Preschool families – get organised for school next year! There are only two more days the shop will be open this year – Friday 1 December and Monday 4 December. Both operating 8:45am – 9:15am.

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

Care - Are you renting privately in the ACT?

The Christmas/Festive season is fast approaching, and along with it is the additional Christmas/Festive preparation expenses, not to mention the bills that will start rolling in come the New Year!

Care continues to facilitate the ACT Government’s Rent Relief program for those who rent privately in the ACT.  Eligible renters can apply for the one off grant of 4 weeks rent up to a maximum of $2,500.

Please note: The current turn around for applications is 2-3 weeks, but could increase depending on the volume of applications received.

For more information, eligibility criteria and application form head to our website – www.carefcs.org/rent-relief-scheme

Care will be closed for Christmas from Friday 22 December 2023 reopening Tuesday 2 January 2024.

Notes / Reminders

All notes are available on our school website.

Community Notices

Contact Details