YEAR FOUR CAMP
The Year Four Campers have all arrived back safely, looking a little weary after an action-packed camp. While the weather was not always cooperative over the three days, we heard all about the flying fox, bouldering, talent show, amazing food, candle making, archery and a lot more. It sounded like a great camp and there were a lot of happy campers! Thank you to the Year Four Team for their leadership of this event and additional staff Nadia Pellegrino, Hannah Macklow, David Zuker, Yasmin Irani, Chris Barker, Shraddha Apte and Jessica Bence.
STAFFING UPDATE
Welcome to Ashleigh Klooger who will be working in the 5A classroom for the remainder of the year. We also welcome Steve Cox who has come on board as our new Grounds and Facilities Manager. We have also had some new education support staff join us over the past month their names are Hannah Hoy, Julie-Ann Miles and Yasmin Norhota. We also wish Kushboo Aurora – education support staff and Rachel Bowels -Visual Arts, the very best in their new opportunities as they depart McKinnon Primary at the end of this term.
Simone Eirth will be on leave until the end of Term 1 2024. During this time Simone will be continuing her work with The Academy of Teaching Excellence. At this point, Suzanne Khatib will continue to be the Acting Principal for the duration of next term (Term 2) and we will keep you updated as soon as we have any further news in this area.
INFORMATION NIGHT – TUESDAY 23RD MAY 6:30PM
RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER PAUL ZAPPA
Respectful Relationships liaison officer, Paul Zappa is our special guest and will be talking and answering questions about the program, its importance and what we can do as a school community. We strongly encourage you to come to attend.
Rights, Resilience and Respectful Relationships is a mandated program run at all government schools across Victoria. The Respectful Relationships program has been developed by Deakin University and the University of Melbourne. These programs consist of age-appropriate resources to support curriculum delivery and include lesson plans and activities that help students learn and practise social skills and apply them in a positive way to learning, life and relationships. While we have been running this at our school for a number of years, we have identified this as a priority to further support our students in 2023 and to do this well we need to involve the whole community.
PARENT CLUB
Thank you to Parents Club and volunteers for again running our termly sausage sizzle. It’s always very popular with the students and we appreciate the efforts of Minh and the invaluable volunteers who all ensured this event could run smoothly.
PARENT READING HELPERS – FOUNDATION TO YEAR TWO
Monday May 1st 9:15 – 10:00am or Wednesday May 3rd 6:00 – 6:45pm
Come along to learn more about and develop the skills to be a parent reading helper. These skills are essential to volunteer in your child’s classroom for reading support, but the great thing is they are also very transferrable skills for when you read with your children at home. We are offering two different time options to ensure that you are able to make it along to one of these sessions if you wish to. Following your attendance at one of these sessions you may volunteer to support your child’s class or year level.
WORKING WITH CHILDREN CHECKS
A reminder to all parents/carers about the need for all people who help in the classroom, on excursions and camps or any other times when adults are with children, that they require a Working with Children Check. This can be obtained by logging on to the Department of Justice website; www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au Please remember to nominate McKinnon Primary School as one of your organisations when applying.
PARENTING PROGRAMS AND SUPPORT – DEALING WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY AND BUILDING EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT CHILDREN.
We have had a number of parents enquiring about ways they can further support their children emotionally. Please find below two suggested supports recommended by our student services team.
“Fear Less Triple P Online” is an online course for parents of children aged 6-14 with anxiety, to help parents understand and manage their child’s anxiety. It includes some fantastic modules about things like avoidance and social anxiety which we know have increased for many students in this post-lockdown world. Please follow this link to find out more. https://www.triplep-parenting.net.au
“Tuning into Kids” https://tuningintokids.org.au/parents/ is a face-to-face set of six sessions to support building emotional intelligence in our students. These sessions are best delivered face-to-face however the team will support you with child-minding if you choose to attend.
EARLY DISMISSAL AND FIRST DAY OF TERM TWO
Please remember that the school term ends early today at 2:30 pm.
Our first day back in Term Two is Monday 24th of April – this day is NOT a curriculum day; this is a regular school day.
Wishing you all a happy and safe holiday break