Macedon Primary School Newsletter

Dear parents and carers,

I was so pleased to welcome your children back to school yesterday. I was delighted to visit each of the classrooms and see our students back talking with their classmates and engaging with their teachers. 

I would like to extend a warm welcome our newest families to the Macedon Primary School community, this includes some families with a child starting in foundation and several families who have children starting in other year groups.

We also have some new staff members starting with us this year I would like to welcome them to our school.

Bec Carey – Year 5/6 Classroom teacher

Ginny Tulloch – Visual Art Specialist Teacher

Daniel Garcia – Digital Tech and STEM Specialist Teacher

Karen Masterton – Educational Support in Classrooms

COVIDsafe procedures

With the start of the new year, we are moving into a new phase of living with the virus in school and we will be doing what we can to avoid the lockdowns we have experienced over the last two years.  We have received and installed our air purifiers in every classroom.  The mask mandate will stay in place for the year 3-6 students and is highly recommended for the Foundation to Year 2 students.  With the beginning of the rapid antigen testing this week we also expect to see positive cases detected in our student cohort.  Identifying these cases and the subsequent family isolation will help us reduce the risk of unnecessary spread of the virus in our school.

Rapid Antigen Testing

Hopefully you have all received your rapid antigen testing kits by now.  We are suggesting that you test your children on Tuesday and Thursday each week and to make a routine of the process however there are no set days, if you miss a day, please just test the following day.    There is no need to report a negative result and positive results can be logged on the department website https://covidtest.educationapps.vic.gov.au/ These results are displayed in a school portal which supports us to keep a track of the positive cases in our school.  Thank you for your support with this.

Household Contacts

This is a reminder that children who are household contacts of a positive COVID case need to isolate and stay away from school for seven days from the positive test of the person they are living with.

Buildings and Grounds Update

We have had a bit of activity on the school site over summer with the northern boundary fence replaced, further painting and repairs on the inside of the building as well some roof repairs.

Some of you may have noticed the large plastic bubble in the front office of the main building.  This is in place as there were some remediation works conducted to repair some water damaged ceiling in that area.  I hope to have this removed within a week.

We were recently granted $369 000 dollars by the government to convert our dated old multiple purpose building into a new Library Learning Hub.  The design stages of this process are complete, and the job has now gone out to tender for a builder to work with our project manager.  I will keep you all up to date with the progress of these works once they begin.

Farmers’ Market

Last Saturday the Macedon Village Farmers’ Market was held on the oval.  We had over 50 stall holders and it was lovely to see a lot of our families out and about after the last two years.  Thank you very much to Briohny Lebbink for her support and organisation of the event.  The school benefits from this market on a social level and we also collect stall holder fees that contributes to our fundraising to make ongoing improvements to our school.  Thanks also to all the parents who volunteered to help on the gates throughout the day.

Some of the current fundraising priorities are:

1.       Connect power to the Middle Gully Eco Learning Centre so we can run a more comprehensive program in Middle Gully.

2.       Purchase of additional reading books to support quality reading instruction.

3.       Construction of a Wurundjeri garden in Middle Gully Reserve.

4.       Redevelopment of the Middle Gully Fairy Garden.

5.       Remediation works on the garden beds outside my office and down the Southen side of the main building.

Science Of Reading – Professional Learning

On Friday 28 and Monday 31 January our staff participated in the InitialLit reading professional learning session.  InitialLit is an approach to teaching reading in the junior school area which is evidence based and science backed.  The days were highly beneficial for our teachers to learn about this approach to reading and our plan in to implement our key learning and strengthen our reading, spelling, and writing teaching in our school.  More information about the InitialLit approach to reading will be shared to parents of student in Foundation to Year 2 throughout the year. 

Kind regards and Sampai jumpa (until next time)

Matt

Lunch orders will resume this Friday, please make sure you have the correct class name and room number. Please try to avoid dropping directly at Red Door as this create issues when lunch orders arrive at school.

The menu is available here: https://macedonps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Red-Door-Menu-2021.pdf 

10 February - Year 3 -6 House Swimming Sports

Welcome back to returning students and a warm welcome to the new families and families, we look forward to a successful year.

First Aid

We are in the process of updating all student details. As such, we request that all Anaphylaxis, Allergy and Asthma plans are updated (if needed) including a recent photo of your child, or Medication Authority Forms (for any other medication held at the school) are completed for 2022, and forwarded to the office no later than the end of next week. This will ensure we have the most up-to-date information possible.

We also request all medications held for your child are in date.

School's Privacy Policy

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website https://macedonps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Collection_Statement-primary_school.pdf.  For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/Schools-Privacy-Policy-information-for-parents.aspx

Insurance

A reminder for parents/guardians and staff the Department of Education does not hold insurance for personal property brought to school and it has no capacity to pay for any loss or damage to such property.

Parents or guardians of students, who do not have student accident insurance, are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including the cost of ambulance attendance or transport as well as any other transport costs.  Parents/guardians can purchase insurance policies from commercial insurers.

Camps, Sports, Excursion Fund (CSEF)

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund helps ensure that no student will miss out on the opportunity to join their classmates for important, educational and fun activities. School camps provide children with inspiring experiences in the great outdoors, excursions encourage a deeper understanding of how the world works and sports teach teamwork, discipline and leadership. All are part of a healthy curriculum. CSEF will be provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities. If you hold a valid means-tested concession card or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF. A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. The allowance is paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child. The annual CSEF amount per student is $125 for primary school students. Contact the school office to obtain a CSEF application form. If you received CSEF last year, please note that you must complete a new CSEF Form for 202 and return to the office by the end of February. 

Conveyance Allowance

Parents have primary responsibility for transporting their children to and from school. The Department of Education (DET) provides financial assistance in the form of a conveyance allowance to help families in rural and regional Victoria with the cost of transporting their children to their closest appropriate school. The conveyance allowance is a contribution towards transport costs and is not intended to cover the full cost of transporting children to and from school. The allowance is an acknowledgement of the often limited government-provided transport infrastructure available outside metropolitan Melbourne. A conveyance allowance is provided to a student on the basis of individual eligibility.

To receive a conveyance allowance individual students must meet all of the following criteria:

1.      Attend a school/campus located outside the Melbourne Urban Growth Boundary.

2.      Attend the closest appropriate school/campus. For students attending government schools, this will be the closest school appropriate to the age and gender of the student (e.g. primary, secondary, single sex).

3.      Reside 4.8km or more from the school (shortest practicable route calculated by school at time of application from the student’s home to the school attended).

4.      Be of school age (between five and 18-years-old at the time of application), and a resident of Victoria.

5.      Be enrolled and travelling to school three or more days per week.

Students’ circumstances can change during their school years (e.g. moving residence or changing schools). Change of circumstances affects eligibility and a new application must be submitted with each change of circumstance. If you are unsure if you are eligible for Conveyance Allowance please contact the office.

If you received Conveyance Allowance last year, please note that you must complete a new Conveyance Allowance Application Form for 2022 and return to the office ASAP.

Conveyance Allowance applications must be lodged in early March, therefore the Conveyance Allowance Application Forms must be received at the office no later than Friday 4th March 2022.

(No late applications can be accepted).

Contact with teachers

During class time (bell times listed below) teachers are busy teaching. If you need to make contact with a teacher by phone, please do so outside of class time.  Alternatively, you can email them. Parents are reminded that staff are not required to reply outside of school hours or over the weekend.  All staff emails are available on the school's website under 'staff'.

Bell Times

8:50 am         Bell signals as a prompt for the commencement of the school day. 

8:57 am         Music commences as a prompt for students to assemble outside of their classrooms.

9:00 am         Bell signals the start of the school day.

11:00 am       Commencement of morning recess

11:27am        Music commences as a prompt for students to assemble outside of their classrooms.

11:30 am       Bell signals the end of morning recess

1:00 pm         Bell signals lunch, students eat lunch inside

1:10 pm         Bell signals students can go outside for lunch break

1:50 pm         Bell signals 10 minutes until the end of lunch break

1:57 pm         Music commences as a prompt for students to move to their classroom ready for the afternoon session.

2:00 pm         Bell signals the commencement of the afternoon session.

3:30 pm         Bell signals for dismissal for the end of the day.

The dismissal time for the  last day of terms 1, 2 and 3 is 2:30 pm and 1:30 pm at the end of term 4. 

School Crossing

I have received a message from our friendly crossing guards about some unsafe crossing use.  Please make sure you are not parking over the crossing, or doing u-turns in front of the crossing.  Our ultimate goal is to keep our most precious little people safe.  Please do your bit by using the dedicated crossing and waiting for the guards to stop traffic and blow their whistle.  

Staff Carpark

The car park bays on Smith Street are reserved for staff carparking. Can parents please refrain from parking in these carparks during school pick up and drop off.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office on 54261518 or email macedon.ps@education.vic.gov.au

Julie and Emma

Middle Gully has survived another Summer break with the friendly support of a number of parents and students who regularly tended to the gardens.  Thanks to all of the families who came in and watered / weeded and tended to the gardens.

We are happy to be able to welcome parent helpers back to our Middle Gully program. We will be holding a planning meeting on Thursday the 10th of February at 2:15pm in the Eco Shed, all parents/guardians welcome!

 The sessions run from 2:00pm to 3:30pm on Thursdays. 

Please make sure that you have a valid Working With Children Check and double vaccination certificate that this has been shown to the office. 

Welcome back for 2022!

Spaces are filling up for OSHC.  Most spaces are taken up by permanent bookings and we are unable to book casuals in (they will have to be placed on a waiting list).  If you have a permanent booking and do not need the service for After School please advise the program as soon as you know, preferably before 11.00am on the day so we are able to give that space to another child.  For Before School, please call before 6.30pm the day before or email the service on oshp@macedonps.vic.edu.au

Late cancellation fees apply if your child’s place is cancelled after 11.00am.  Further, if you do not cancel your child and they do not attend, fees may still apply.

Fee increase for 2022

Our rates for 2022 are: $16.00 for Before School Care (7:00am - 8:45am) and $23.00 for After School Care (3:30pm - 6:30pm). All you need to do is call the school 5426 1518 or email oshp@macedonps.vic.edu.au to book.  If the unexpected happens and a casual booking is required within 24 hours, please contact the school via phone, we cannot accept walk-ins after school.  Please note that enrolment forms need to be completed at least one business day before the first session of care.

Please pay through the school via Direct Deposit, using the following details (not BPay):

Account name: Macedon Primary School

BSB: 063-840

Account: 1003 4330

Vicki, Helen, Karen & Marie.