National Reconciliation Week is an important event in our calendar and provides great opportunity to talk about and understand our shared histories, cultures and achievements.
The theme of Reconciliation Week, ‘Be Brave. Make Change’, asks all of us, regardless of our own personal and cultural backgrounds to talk about reconciliation. Teachers have been engaging with students through story, video, yarning circles and classroom discussion. Students investigated the history of reconciliation in Australia and were encouraged to share their own perspectives on how we can make change in our own lives.
We have asked all students to express their own perspectives by either drawing symbols and language of indigenous groups, creating their own symbol or image that represents Reconciliation or writing a personal message or poem. This collaborative artwork is on display in the Learning Centre and will be a constant reminder that action and reconciliation is on-going and not just in one week of the year.
STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES
Thank you again for your feedback and attendance to our Student-Led Conferences during education week last month. It was wonderful to welcome parents and families back into the school and classrooms.
Students were very excited and proud to share their learning with you and we have asked students how we can improve the conferences in Term Three. We are also very interested in parent and community feedback and welcome you to respond to the SLC Parent Survey!
YEARS 3-6 ATHLETICS CARNIVAL
Thanks so much to Dylan Hislop for all his efforts in organising the Years 3-6 Athletics Carnival. We were very lucky with the weather for one of the days, unfortunately we have had to reschedule the field events to Thursday 9th June. Please see some fantastic students in action shots of the carnival in the newsletter.
Thanks again to all the staff for their significant support on these days and also to the parents who come along to cheer on the students.
ELECTION DAY BBQ
A huge thank you to everyone who donated cakes or volunteered their time for our Election BBQ. It was a great day and the generosity from Coles (Bentleigh) and Bakers Delight (Bentleigh and Bentleigh East) was sensational as they donated most of the ingredients for the BBQ and George the Store Manager from Coles even visited us on the day and topped our supplies up! Huge thanks to Sukant for his persistence in gaining donations from businesses and coordinating the BBQ along with Robyn and Bec who coordinated the cake stall. All round it was a great community event and we raised over $3000 with the rental from the hall included. This money is supporting developing seating and shade around the school. So, a big thanks to our Parent Club who made it happen.
Parent Club are meeting next Friday 10th June at 9.15am in the staffroom at school so please come along.
CURRICULUM DAY TUESDAY 14th JUNE – NARISSA LEUNG
Staff at McKinnon will be participating in a Curriculum Day on Tuesday 14th June. The professional learning seminar is around using quality literature to improve students’ writing. This is part of our overall focus on making sure students: enjoy writing, can write effectively for different purposes and audiences. It builds on seminars and professional learning that staff have been involved in over the past two years.
MONDAY 20th JUNE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE DAY AND PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS
On Monday 20th June students are not required to attend school. On this day teachers will be working in teams to target areas of planning and assessment specifically for their year level or specialist area. Part of this day is also dedicated to Parent Teacher Interviews. These will be held online and will be from 1.45pm through to 5.45pm. Bookings will be available on Compass from week eight. We have decided to continue with the online format this year, to avoid long waits in the cold and provide flexibility for parents. In 2020 when we collected feedback from parents about online interviews it was overwhelmingly positive. Understanding that things might have changed over the last couple of years, we will also be collecting feedback from parents after the interviews in week nine to help us to decide what Parent Teacher Interviews will look like in 2023.
Please note students are not required at school on this day, however Team Kids are available. Please book your spot by calling 1300 035 000.
SISTER SCHOOL ONLINE EXCHANGE BEGINS
Last week we held our first meeting with our sister school, Miduqiao Primary School as part of our online exchange program. The Year Four students were a part of this initial meeting and had many questions about life in China for the students of our sister school. There was lots of sharing of information as we continue our relationship online. Thank you to Mr Meng for organising this event.
ENROLMENTS FOR 2023
If you have a child who will be starting Foundation in 2023, can we please ask that you drop off your completed enrolment form to the school office as soon as possible. If you know of a family who is wanting to join the McKinnon community in 2023, can we encourage you to remind them to call the office to organise a school tour. Tours occur every Wednesday. If you know a family who may be interested please ask them to call the school to book in.
Further information on our enrolment process is published on our website at: https://mckinnon-primary.vic.edu.au/enrolments-2/
Just a reminder we always welcome communication from all members of our community. If you have any questions or there is anything you would like to discuss, please contact your classroom teacher or other relevant staff at the school. You can do this through: school diaries or by phone call 95781 851 or email mckinnon.ps@education.vic.gov.au
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Suzanne, Andrew and Simone