Macquarie Memo Issue 4 2023

News from the Deputy Principal

We hope you found last week’s getting to know you interviews beneficial. It was great to see so many parents, carers and students coming to meet with this year’s teachers. These interviews provided us with vital information about your children and how to support them to become the best learners they can be this year.

Last week Jodie spoke about our upcoming school review and outlined the first domain of the National School Improvement Tool. This week I am going to share information about domain two, Analysis and Discussion of Data. This domain places emphasis on the importance of systematically collecting and analysing data and using it to inform our practice. This includes academic, attendance, behavioural and student wellbeing data. At Macquarie we have a number of processes in place to ensure that the data we collect and discuss at classroom, team and school level is relevant and used to monitor and improve student outcomes. We have a Data Plan, Assessment Schedule and a PLC (Professional Learning Community) Plan that guides our work in this space. Other data such as BASE and NAPLAN are also used to triangulate our data to ensure we are having a positive impact on student growth.

We have a lot of things coming up on our calendar before the end of term. On Thursday 2 March we will be participating in Clean Up Australia Day. Jenelle and Chlo will be facilitating some learning about this across the school and we will all spend some time cleaning up in our immediate environment.

On Friday 3 March we have our annual swimming carnival for students turning 8 years or older in 2023, and our annual water fun day held at school for our younger students. We are all very excited about this day. Please remember that if your child is going to the swimming carnival at Big Splash you need to drop them straight to the pool; competitive swimmers at 8:30am and non-competitive swimmers at 8:55am. If your child is enrolled in before school care, school staff will walk them to the pool. Please make sure your before school child is there by 8:45am on this day. Refer to the notes sent home on what your child needs to take to the pool; the canteen at school and at Big Splash will not be open for students to purchase anything. Junior students at school will have a really fun day engaging in some outdoor water fun experiences in the morning and indoor water experiences during the middle session. Please make sure junior students have dry clothes to change in to if needed after the outdoor session.

Monday 6 March we have an online NAPLAN information session for parents ahead of NAPLAN tests for years 3 and 5 students in week 7 and 8. This session will go through how the testing works. If you would like to attend the info session please send an email to Eddie, one of our NAPLAN coordinators Edward.mccallum@ed.act.edu.au

Every year we are required to practise our emergency management procedures on a regular basis. We schedule these to cover both preschool groups  so we can make sure our students are as prepared as possible for emergencies if we ever need to enact one of our procedures in a real situation. This includes our evacuation procedures in the event of fire, flood or other environmental hazard. Our evacuation point is the large oval outside the school fence at the bottom of the playground. Lock down drills are also regularly practised across the school. Sections of the school, or the whole school are placed in to lock down when there is a risk to student safety if they leave a particular space. There are different levels of lock down that can be enacted across the school, from simply remaining inside and continuing learning which may occur if for example there was a snake in the playground, through to hard lock down where students remain quiet and out of sight from windows. Evacuation and lock down drills are conducted during indoor learning time as well as outdoor play time so students can practise all possible situations. It is important to talk to your child at home about how and why we practise these procedures and what might happen, including having short periods where students can not exit their classroom. We know these drills cause anxiety for some students and we aim to forewarn selected students. Of course safety is our first priority during emergencies. When we practise drills as a school, community are always informed straight after via Class Dojo and Facebook.  

Last Friday we held our sporting house captain elections. Students in year 5 and 6 were invited to nominate themselves to be house captains ahead of our sporting carnivals for the year. This year’s captains and vice captains are:

Redfern – Luke, Tyler, Oliver & Ollie

Bennelong – Tilly, Shane, Lucas & Emily

Lachlan – Jai, Aroush, Natalie & Harper 

Have a great week.

Stacey

Staying COVID Smart in 2023

Students, staff and visitors are reminded to:

• Stay home if unwell and get tested for COVID-19
• Stay up to date with your vaccinations
• Practise good hand and respiratory hygiene
• Physically distance from others when in public places

Individual schools may implement additional measures to manage COVID-19 if deemed necessary in a particular setting. Any changes will be communicated to parents and carers.

If your child has COVID-19, you must let the school know. We recommend keeping your child home for at least five days.

RATs are again available from the school for students in term 1 from the front office.

You can read more about how we are being COVID Smart in ACT public schools at https://www.education.act.gov.au/public-school-life/covid-school-arrangements

NAPLAN 2023

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy) is coming up for students in years 3 and 5.  

• On Monday 27 February the students in years 3 and 5 will participate in a coordinated practice test (CPT) to give them the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the testing platform and processes.
• From Wednesday 15 March to Monday 27 March, the children will complete four NAPLAN assessments.

Parents are invited to attend a NAPLAN online information session on Monday 6 March from 4:30 - 5:00.  Please RSVP to Eddie (edward.mccallum@ed.act.edu.au) if you will be attending this session, so we can send you the link.  

Some students may feel anxious about doing NAPLAN; it is different to everyday school and normal testing situations.  If you feel your child would benefit from some additional practice please access example papers for years 3 and 5 through the following links

• https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/public-demonstration-site.  
• https://www.acara.edu.au/assessment/naplan/naplan-2012-2016-test-papers 

At Macquarie Primary School, we encourage all our students to participate in NAPLAN, however if you wish to withdraw your child, please speak with your child’s classroom teacher before Friday 17 February. 

Eddie McCallum and Jenelle Martin

edward.mccallum@ed.act.edu.au jenelle.martin@ed.act.edu.au 

NAPLAN Coordinators

News from the P&C

Next P&C meeting – Wednesday 22 February

The P&C will hold its first regular meeting for the year on Wednesday 22 February from 6-7pm in the cafe. An online option will be available if you would like to attend but can't make it in person, email mpspandcvp@gmail.com if you are interested in this.

P&C Uniform Shop

The P&C Uniform Shop will be closed on the Swimming Carnival day on Friday 3 March. Regular open times are:

Mondays 8:45 - 9:15am, Wednesdays 3:00 - 3:30pm and Fridays 8:45 - 9:15am.

Orders for new uniform items can be placed via www.flexischools.com.au and will be sent home with students.

Limited numbers of new and second hand house coloured shirts are available in the shop for $2 and $5.

Volunteers needed! Can you spare half an hour once a fortnight on Monday mornings or Wednesday afternoons? Contact Liz: uniforms.mps@gmail.com if you can help.

Canteen

There will be no canteen service on 3 March due to the swimming carnival.

Class Parent Representatives

Thank you to all the fantastic volunteers who have taken on the role of class parent representative!  There's only a few classes still needing a volunteer. These include:

• Cockatoos
• Eagles
• Gliders
• Ibises
• Koalas
• Orchard butterflies
• Red goshawks

Please contact classparentrepsmps@gmail.com if you're keen to be the rep for your child's class.

Notes / Reminders

All notes are available on our school website.

Community Notices

Contact Details