ELECTION PROMISE

On Tuesday 11th October, Nick Staikos, our local member of parliament visited us to make an election promise which involved Mckinnon Primary School receiving $12.58 million funding for new buildings.

Nick met with several Year Three students, our school council president, Louise Schirmer and myself. We discussed the possibilities for new buildings and the additional playground space. Our vision involves updating learning spaces for our students and reducing our physical footprint to maximise student play space.

NEW STAFF TO MCKINNON

We had an exciting start back to school with some new staff faces. We warmly welcome Katie Elsender teaching Foundation A, Josephine Compasso teaching 3C and Sabrina Vining as our registered nurse in the First Aid room. Please make these staff feel welcome as you see them around the school.

YEAR SIX CAMP

Last week 111 excited Year Six students and a team of incredible McKinnon staff set off for a whole week of fun, physical activity and social connection at Grantville Camp.

Camps offer such extraordinary opportunities for students to experience new things, build and strengthen social networks as well as physical and mental health and of course make lifelong memories to cherish. This camp sounded no different to this. Some positive feedback detailed the new activities students had not tried before, a visit to Churchill Island and a day at the beach to just enjoy themselves.

We appreciate more than ever the opportunity to offer these camps to our students and deeply thank all staff for their efforts in making this camp such a success.

DON’T FORGET THE COLOUR RUN! WEDNESDAY 26TH OCTOBER!

This is going to be such an exciting and memorable event for our students. Every student I speak with about the McKinnon Colour Run is very keen to attend and they already know exactly what they are wearing to show the most colour.

Our last update is that we’ve raised $5658! Well done and thank you! We are hoping to get to $15,000. Money raised will go towards new shade and seating in the playground which our students can use for many years to come.

How can I help? You can help out by helping your child sign up at the website below – they’re able to earn prize rewards by raising just $10.                                                                                           Sign up: https://www.schoolfunrun.com.au

You can also help by…helping out on the day. If you think you might be able to help for even an hour or two please contact Minh on 0414 290 592.

HEIDI ROGERS PARENT SESSION – DATE 3RD NOVEMBER

We are thrilled that Heidi Rogers will be returning to McKinnon Primary School after the success of her last session in 2021, on dealing with student anxiety. Parents who attended have been impressed by her sessions and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

For those that have not had the chance to attend yet, Heidi is a psychotherapist, counsellor and speaker with twenty years of experience in mental health, with a focus on trauma therapy. She has worked with the staff and parent community at McKinnon covering various topics over the last few years.

In the current climate, more and more parents are asking for support and have requested further learning about how they can best help their children manage everyday challenges at home and school.

In this session, Heidi will cover the topic:  Managing Stress: Yours + Theirs – Discover how we can model effective management of anger and stress to help our children do the same.

Date: Thursday 3rd November

Time: 7:00pm

Location: McKinnon Primary School

Cost: $15 

MCKINNON KIDS ARE SUN SMART KIDS

With the recent deluge of rain and wet conditions it can be hard to remember that we need to remain Sun Smart. We have been observing our students during yard duty and have been impressed by the high level of compliance by our students in remembering their Sun Smart hats in the yard. We need to be especially careful during high UV times as it does not take long in the sun for burning and skin damage to take place. Much better to take protective measures such as covering up, wearing sunscreen and wearing hats so that our students can enjoy the outdoors. A reminder to our community that students without hats in the yard will be sent to a designated sun-protected area.

Another important reminder is for students to ensure they neatly store their hats in a secure area, such as their bag or on their lockers during class time and make sure it is clearly labelled with their name so that it is returned to them if misplaced. Our SunSmart policy clearly states from 1st September to 1st May our hats are on!

2023 PLANNING

We are well underway for the planning for 2023. This includes our staffing, programming and home group allocations. The composition of our year level structure is also being developed. Preparing home groups is an exhaustive process that our whole staff commit many hours to getting right. There are many considerations in developing classes including social, emotional, behavioural and academic needs of each class. Additionally, we always consult with our students on who they would like to be in their class with next year. Students provide a list of requested peers, we ensure that they have at least one of these requested peers in their next year class. When planning for next year it is imperative that we have received notifications of any new enrolments (Foundation siblings) and also notified if you are leaving the school. We try to manage the influx of new enrolments to sustain positive class sizes and forward planning is most helpful to this. Thank you for your support and timely communication on this matter.

Suzanne, David and Andrew

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