Melrose Park Public School Newsletter

Welcome to the last term of the year.  The next ten weeks will fly by.

We have now really got into the rhythm of ‘schooling’ in COVID times. For us at  Melrose Park PS this means we have the benefit of a huge playground for children to run, play, learn and have fun with friends. Teachers also utilise this space to get outside and learn. For us, COVID has been about taking the circumstances we have and adapting to the restrictions.  We continue to follow the Department’s guidelines to ensure the safety of students, staff and the community. The most obvious one is that parents are not to come onto school grounds.  Detailed information can be found on the Department's web link.

https://education.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/advice-for-families

Kindergarten Orientation will look  a little different this year as we follow a strict COVID safety plan.

It has been my pleasure making contacting with our new  Kindergarten families and welcoming them to our school over the phone. The next step will be to make an interview time and meet our new students and families at an individual level. Following this, we will welcome our new students into the Kindergarten classrooms for some fun activities.  Unfortunately due to Covid restrictions parents will not be able to join in these activities. As more information comes to hand we will revise our transition program.

If you do know of a neighbour who has yet to enrol for Kindergarten please encourage them to contact the office for enrolment advice. In 2021 Melrose Park PS will enrol students who live in the local catchment area and siblings of students who attend the school. 

Group photos of the Whole School, School Leaders, Student Voice, Sports Leaders and Year 6 are available for purchase.

To place an order  visit www.theschoolphotographer.com.au and use code 20S1104EC37M.

Earlier in the year I notified the school community that the school would undergo External Validation some time in 2020. This is a system requirement for all schools, undertaken at least every 4 years, where the school does a self-assessment against the Department’s School Excellence Framework (SEF) in the three domains of learning, teaching and leading, across fourteen elements. The School Excellence Framework supports schools in our pursuit of excellence by providing a clear description of the key elements of high-quality practice.  

Led my Miss Mee and supported by the whole staff, we have gathered evidence to support our progress in the fourteen elements and have self-assessed against the SEF in terms of whether we see ourselves as delivering, sustaining and growing or excelling. We have prepared six sets of evidence in our submission. These evidence sets were formed around our processes in our 2018 – 2020 School Plan and include Student Wellbeing, Student Engagement, Quality Teaching, Instructional Leadership, Quality Systems and Connect Communities. 

In November we will present to an external panel of Principals and Educational Leaders our on-balanced judgement of  Melrose Park PS. I look forward to informing our school community of the measures of our success.

We are very pleased to let you know that updated guidelines will allow a return to much more ‘normal’ band and tuition in term 4.

 *Students will continue to learn in small groups, updated guidelines will allow students to play together as a group, not just individually.

*Students will also be able to resume full band rehearsal although with some important social distancing guidelines.

 Please send your child to school with their instrument on Wednesday  14th  October . Band rehearsal will take place before school and students should meet at the Hall for an 7:45am start.

TSA Services

Marsden High School will be hosting several events aimed at ensuring students and parents new to the school community, have a smooth transition  to High School.  Students who will attend Marsden HS will be sent information regarding the upcoming transition events.   

P&C meetings will continue to be conducted as a virtual meetings  during Term 4.

The next meeting will be held on Monday the 2nd November.

This term we are holding a Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie Dough drive as a major fundraiser and we are hoping for your support. 

 Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie Dough is an Australian made frozen cookie dough that comes in many flavours. Each tub is 1kg (minimum) and will make approximately 40 cookies. The dough can be thawed and refrozen multiple times, or can be kept in the fridge for up to four weeks. We will be selling the following flavours ….

• Triple Choc - White and dark choc chunks combined with chocolate syrup for the real chocolate tragic!
• Raspberry White Choc - Raspberry and white choc pieces to create this moorish cookie!
• NESTLE® SMARTIES® - Colourful semi-sweet NESTLÉ® SMARTIES® makes this cookie fun to look at – and even more fun to eat.
• Choc Chunk - Semi-sweet choc chunks folded into our delicious cookie dough to create the ultimate choc cookie.

Information will be sent home this week and the final date to return orders will be Thursday 29th October.  During this time, kids can take orders from family, friends and neighbours, submit them online through our P&C website (preferred option) or contact Dolores Bragg 0409919581 if you require to return a manual form filled out with cash (this will need to be collected outside the school).  There will be some random prizes for kids placing multiple orders……

Thank you in advance for your participation.  Happy fundraising!

Dolores, Kendall, Kim @ Melrose Park Public School P&C

Some added bonuses with Billy G….

Win a Dream Holiday worth $10,000! When you sell or purchase one tub or more of Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie Dough and you will automatically go into the draw to win a $10,000 Dream Holiday.

 The Leaderboard Challenge – If you become the highest fundraiser in our Melrose Park leaderboard you will automatically go in the draw for the chance to win a Cruise worth $5,000. How exciting!