Macedon Primary School Newsletter

Dear parents and carers,

Meet the Teacher and Parent Information Sessions – Via WebEx

On Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd of February the staff will be conducting the parent-teacher meetings via WebEx.  On the same two evenings we will also be holding short information session for each of the year groups to give you an overview of the year and give you an opportunity to talk to our teaching teams.

 Year Group information Session Times

Foundation – Tuesday 22 February – 4:30pm – 5:00pm - hall.kirstie.j@eduvic.webex.com

Year 1 and 2 - Wednesday 23 February – 4:00pm – 4:30pm - taylor.belinda.a@eduvic.webex.com

Year 3 and 4 – Tuesday 22 February – 4:00pm – 4:30pm

 - wuthrich.veronica.v@eduvic.webex.com

Year 5 and 6 - Tuesday 22 February – 4:30pm – 5:00pm - bortolot.anthony.l@eduvic.webex.com

https://eduvic.webex.com/meet/forrest.matthew.j

Please find the link and QR code for the online booking system for the individual parent teacher meetings is below.  Foundation parents, you will not have a meeting in this time, however a 10min meeting has been built into each of the one-on-one assessments your children are doing.

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/smd3e

Booking will close at 1:00pm on Monday the 21st of February, teachers will then email you a link to a Webex meeting. 

School Council nominations close – Friday 18 February

We are holding an election to fill the vacant positions on the school council for 2022/2023.  There are three parent positions and two DET employee positions that will be vacated by the end of February.  The school council is an important opportunity for parents and staff to become involved in the governance and support for the school.  The school council oversees the financial, facilities and programs such as the before and after school care, the Macedon PS pine plantation and the Farmers’ market.  The school council also supports the school to operate with strong governance and transparency.  There is no special prior knowledge or experienced required for parents to be on school council and we encourage you to consider this option if you are interested.  If you would like further information please contact me, I am happy to answer any questions you have.  All of our meetings are open meetings and we invite you to attend if you are interested is seeing how they run before you decide to nominate.  Our next meeting is on Wednesday 16th of February via WebEx, please email me for the details matthew.forrest@education.vic.gov.au

The school council membership term is two years. Below is a timeline of the election process.

If you would like to nominate someone, or self-nominate, please fill in and submit your form to the front office by 4pm on Friday 19 February.  You can find the forms at the front office.

School Council Election Process and Timeline 2022

Parent Payments / family invoices

Curriculum Contributions, (previously called essential learning learning items) are the annual fees that we collect each year.  We are sending home a letter tomorrow with the eldest child outlining Macedon Primary Schools Curriculum Contributions for 2022. Please take the time to read the information and feel free to contact the office if you have any questions.

 Kind regards and Sampai jumpa (until next time)

 Matt

Lunch orders are every 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 

22 February - Parent-teacher interviews

23 February - Parent-teacher interviews

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.

Student Enrolment Information Forms

Thank you to the families who have returned their student enrolment forms. These are a sand coloured document which lists the current personal details held by the school for your child(ren). If you could please take the time to check the details listed to ensure they are correct and then either;

• if all the details are listed are correct, sign the form and return the sheet as it is, or
• Make the necessary alterations, sign and return.

It is really important that we have your families most current details, especially in times of emergency or illness.

If your family circumstances have changed and parents are no longer living together, we have an alternative family form. If you could please send this into the office with the updated situation. https://macedonps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Alternative-Family-Details.pdf

Limiting cash transactions

QKR - this is the preferred payment method at Macedon Primary. It is a free app on your smartphone or it can be downloaded onto your computer. It allows you to pay for excursions, camps and other school related payments. No more searching for coins! We would really appreciate it, if families could use QKR (or BPAY) to reduce cash handling in the office.  If you need any assistance setting up QKR on your phone, please contact the office.

Working with Children Check

All parent helpers at Macedon Primary must have a valid working with children check. It is free for a volunteer check, please apply online at https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply-1If you have a valid working with check and have yet to provide it to the school, please email a copy or come into the office and we will take a copy.

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 2022 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).

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.  

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

The following awards will be presented at our weekly assembly on Friday at 3:00pm.  The assembly takes place outside the John Curtin Building (JCB). Parents are welcome to attend.

1/2CS - Matilda C - for being a helpful member of our class and her terrific approach to her learning.

1/2CS - Joe G - for a terrific start to grade 2 and hard work all week!

1/2CS - Sean P - for his excellent recount writing and fabulous effort all week.

1/2CS - Sarah B - for excellent listening and approach towards all class tasks.

1/2BT - Patrick D - for a wonderful start to the school year!

1/2BT - Stella B - for an excellent start to the year!

1/2TT - Eliza H - for a terrific start at Macedon Primary.

3/4MS - Baxter Mc - for working hard at listening to class instructions.

3/4RS- Toby H - for settling in beautifully to Macedon Primary School.

3/4RS - Myles C - for outstanding work on his 'superhero' narrative

3/4VW - Ava B - for a great start to Macedon Primary School

3/4VW - Rory L - for settling in well to Macedon Primary School

5/6AB - Atticus H - for excellent focus with all his learning.

5/6AB - Phoebe M - for an awesome start with being a confident year 6 student.

5/6MS - Lucy D - for using effective writing devices in her creative writing.

5/6MS - Hunter E - for her fantastic efforts when solving numeracy equations

5/6RC - Bailey M-S - for being a welcoming friend to our new class member

5/6RC - Dusty M - for being a welcoming friend to our new class member

5/6RC - Lachlan A - for being a welcoming friend to our new class member

5/6RC - Kai L - for being a welcoming friend for our new class member.

5/6RC - Niamh Mc - for her confidence in reading information from the whiteboard with accuracy, well done!

Visual Arts

Raph B - 1/2TT - for great attention to detail in visual art.

Anja E - 1/2BT - for great attention to detail in visual art.

Last week we held the house swimming carnival at Kyneton Swimming Pool. It was fantastic to see everyone in their house colours participating for their house, and cheering on the swimmers in the pool. There were swimming races and novelty events. There were 3 swimming strokes which we ran races for. They were freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. There were some fantastic efforts in the swimming races.

Congratulations to everyone who competed for their house in the swimming races and the novelty events. This week, Mr O will hand out ribbons to the best performers, and those students who are going to the district swimming sports next week will get their note. The result for the winning house will be presented at assembly this week.

It was a great day and we had lots of fun. Thank you so much to the parents who came to help and support, and also to all the teachers for their help.

Declan and Erica – Sports Captains.

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.