HARMONY AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY WEEK @ McKinnon PS
This week students and staff celebrated Harmony Week in a multitude of ways both in their classroom and as part of whole school events. These include:
- The admin team decorated the office and created tallies to showcase the diversity of our mother-tongue languages.
- On Tuesday we launched a mother-tongue greeting competition and asked all students to participate – where students create signs in their language of choice to welcome and greet others to their classroom. Winners will be announced at next whole school assembly on Wednesday 27th
- On Wednesday our wonderful art teachers and student captains started a collage mural celebrating the incredible diversity of our school. This will be assembled in the learning centre and be displayed for the remainder of 2024.
- On Thursday we had our Harmony Day feast and traditional dress day. As you are aware Harmony and Cultural Diversity Weeks occur at the same time each year. We would like to thank all members of the community who supported the day and particularly wanted to recognise those observing Ramadan which fell at this time.
- The library curated a wide selection of books connected to Harmony Week for students and teachers to explore and borrow. On Friday members of our community read picture story books in different language to the students.
STUDENT SAFETY AROUND OUR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY
We have had a lot of parents and staff complaining in the past few weeks about the behaviour of members of the community when using Collins Street especially around pick-up time. This includes people parking illegally, trying to complete U-turns and people trying to collect children by opening their car door whilst in traffic (not parked) encouraging children to cross into traffic. We know that it is a frustrating time to collect your child at the same time as so many others, but we ask you consider how your actions may endanger your child or another child’s life.
As school staff we have no jurisdiction to ask you to behave differently however we are only asking for the most important thing we can – safety. We have written to the council to come and complete a number of spot checks so please be aware there will be people scrutinising this area regularly until the situation improves.
REMINDERS
- Don’t forget there will be an early pick up at 2.30pm on our last day of Term, Thursday 28th
- First day of Term Two is Monday 15th
NAPLAN
From March 13th to March 25th students in Years Three and Five participated in the annual NAPLAN test. These tests are nationwide and provide insight into student performance under strict testing conditions. Whilst we analyse the results of these tests to help build a picture of students in differing testing scenarios, we are very much aware that student learning evolves in varied ways for all students.
At McKinnon PS we maintain a focus on holistic learning that represents the progress of the whole child over time. We offer a breadth and depth of curriculum that is not represented in the NAPLAN tests and we are constantly assessing student performance in a range of settings and curriculum areas. Congratulations to our Year Thee and Five students for completing their NAPLAN testing and thank you to everyone who has contributed to their learning journeys so far.
SCHOOL COUNCIL
We had our first meeting of the 2024 School Council this week. At the meeting we:
- welcomed and inducted our new members
- elected the new executives, Louise Schirmer PRESIDENT, Geoff Manolista VICE PRESIDENT, Rebecca Newboult TREASURER and Shweta Mookerjee SECRETARY
- reviewed the 2023 Annual School Report which was endorsed by council and will be shared with the community via Compass and at our Annual General Meeting Monday 20th May. This will be at school in the staffroom.
KINGSTON DIVISION SWIMMING CARNIVAL
Congratulations to our swimmers who went off and competed at the Kingston Division Swimming Carnival on Monday. They all have done extremely well to make it this far and represented our school with pride and resilience. Congratulations to all our swimmers and to Ruby and Ross Wallace who are going through to the next level of competition. Please see the sports news page for more information.
2025 FOUNDATION ENROLMENTS
We will be holding an information evening early next term for any parents or carers who have children who will be ready for enrolment for the 2025 Foundation year. This session will be held at 5:30 pm on Tuesday 23rd April in the Learning Centre. Bookings for this event will be crucial so that we can adequately prepare.
Book your spot now using the QR Code on the flyer. Please pass this on to any families you know who might be living within our zone and have children who will be starting school next year.
SCHOOL PHOTOS WEDNESDAY 24TH APRIL
Hope you all have a great weekend
Suzanne, David and Andrew