Mansfield Primary School Newsletter

Dear Families,

Each time I write a Principal Message I have a look at the message from last year as a helpful reminder.  This time last year we had just started our first bit of Remote Learning.  It is amazing to look at the last year and see what has changed.  I feel particularly lucky to have students and staff at school, parents able to come and volunteer and things like the Grade 3 and 4 Community Expo, New Families Pizza Night, World’s Greatest Shave and Buddy Day able to happen.

Mobile Phones

We understand that students sometimes need to have a phone for contact at the end of the school day.  Our mobile phone policy is that students sign their phones in at the school office before school and sign them out again in the afternoon.  Phones are kept in a locked box at the office.  If your child has a phone, could you please have a conversation with them and make sure they are signing their phone in at the office?

Pizza Night

Thank you to Parents and Friends for hosting the New Families Pizza night last week.  It is a great way for families that are new to Mansfield Primary School to connect with each other and to other members of the school community.  A huge thankyou to Jaqueline Elliott from Mansfield Pizza who donates pizza bases to us every year.  The conversations were great and the pizzas were delicious.

Buddy Day

Last Friday there were no students or staff at school.  We were all out on a river somewhere spending time with our buddies.  There were endless reports of Big Buddies showing incredible maturity and kindness when looking after their Little Buddies.  Well done everyone and thank you Ms Driessen and the teachers for their planning and organisation.

World’s Greatest Shave

Well done Monty, Lilly, Zac, Asti, Nick and Campbell on their incredible efforts in raising money and awareness for the Leukaemia Foundation over the last few weeks.  The shave last week was a great celebration and very brave of the kids.  The last figure I saw was more than $7000 raised.  Thank you Billie for setting up the MPS team, supporting the students and making sure the shave went smoothly.

Victorian High Ability Program (VHAP)

VHAP is run through Virtual School Victoria and gives our high performing students an opportunity to be extended in Literacy and Mathematics.  Grade 5 and 6 students are chosen by the Department of Education and we support them to complete the program at school.  Each unit runs for a term and the students have a virtual lesson each week. 

We have previously been a part of the MacRobertson Girls School’s High Ability Program.  We feel that the VHAP program gives our high performing students more support, so we are choosing not to do both this year.  

Ride 2 School

Tomorrow is National Ride to School Day.  It is not a huge, dress up, bells and whistles event.  We do that for walk and ride to school month later in the year.  I will be riding in from Merrijig, let’s see if we can fill up the bike shed tomorrow.

Like always, please get in touch with us with any questions or concerns.  Call or email your classroom teacher, call the front office or email me tom.macmunn@education.vic.gov.au.

Have a great weekend.

Take Care,

Tom  

March 19th - Bully No Way Day / Ride to School Day / Assembly

April 1st - Last Day Term 1 finish at 2:30pm

April 19th - First Day Term 2 - ALL Students

April 22nd - State Swimming

April 23rd - ANZAC Day commemoration

April 30th - District Cross Country

April 30th - P&F Meeting - Mansfield Hotel 7pm

May 4th-7th - Gd5 S2S Melb-Sea Camp

May 17th - School Council Meeting

May 20th - Grade 4 Hike - Stirling

May 21st - Division Championships Gd5&6

May 28th - Division Cross Country - Yea

May 31st - GRIP Leadership Conference - Shepparton 

THANK YOU JO

Thank you to Jo Wilkes for making up the sandwiches on behalf of 'Eat up for student sandwiches' and to Bertallis for donating the bread. We use these sandwiches for students who come to school without lunch. 

NEW FAMILIES PIZZA NIGHT - THANK YOU 

Thanks you to all the families who attended the New Families Pizza night & to all the volunteers who helped on the night. Thank you to Mansfield Pizza again for donating the dough.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Uniform Orders cannot be taken at the office now until the end of term. Uniform Orders will move to online orders through Spartan School Supplies as of Term2.

LOST PROPERTY

Rachael has done a great job sorting through lost property and returning named items. Please note we cannot return items that have no name. As we are getting close to end of term please come in and check the black cupboard near the office for lost items.

Grades 5 and 1 Buddy day 

Buddy Day! We couldn’t wait. When the Grade 5’s and 1’s were called out we walked to our bus. We all sat down and started talking with our buddies then it got extremely noisy. There was lots of whispering and talking. When we excitedly got off the bus at Jamieson everyone was playing. There were frisbees flying everywhere and people climbing on the playground.  We were swinging the hoops, drew pictures and read. We went to the sparkling river and played and built rafts. We came out soaked! We ate lunch with our buddy groups and we went on a big walk to the Jamieson Primary School. It was very calm and quiet. We took care of our buddies and had a great time.

By Jesse Maslan and Ella McDonald

Grades 6 and 2 Buddy day 

Last Friday on the 12th of march, the year 6 and 2 unit went to Carter's road for an epic day full of adventures.

The year 6s and 2s climbed off the bus and split into 5 groups where they found their buddy families. Once they were with their buddy families, we got straight into the activities. 

There were five fun activities that the national river team set up for us including finding creatures in the Delatite river and what effects the river and wildlife in it, a blindfolded trust activity with your buddy leading each other towards the loud banging of a drum, building natural boats and racing them down the rapids and a natures art activity creating art and villages from anything we could find on the ground.

Special thanks to the MPS teachers who came and the Landcare team for helping and creating an epic day!

By Emma and Crystal

The Year 3s excursion to Sheepyard Flat

On Friday the 12th of March all the Year 3s went to Sheepyard Flat with the Specialists, Robyn, Irina and their classroom teachers.

We travelled by bus from school and arrived at our destination in time for morning tea.

After our snack we were grouped into Delatite, Goulbourn, Howqua and Jamieson. We rotated between four activities: French/Art (sculpturing), Music (we made our own percussion instruments), boat building and a pipe and ball team challenge.

Everyone had a fantastic, awesome and super enjoyable day.

Thank you Ms. Driessen, Robyn, Irina and Specialists for the best trip ever!

We can’t wait for our S2S camp in Term 4.

MANSFIELD PRIMARY BUDDY DAYS by Jen Driessen 

On Friday 12th March, Mansfield Primary Students headed out for their Buddy Day adventures! Buddy Day is designed for our students to spend the entire day with their buddies in the outdoors, while exploring different parts of our community. We have a strong Buddy program here at MPS, and looking after the younger kids is a responsibility that our senior students take very seriously. The whole school sets off at the same time, but all heading to different locations.

The Prep and Grade 4 students headed to Mirrimbah for the day, where they made boats, went on a treasure hunt and set off on a bushwalk/river adventure. The Grade 1 and Grade 5 students got to explore Jamieson for the day. Their day was full of adventures in the river, team working games and a special visit to Jamieson Primary.

The Grade 3 day was a little different. They are learning to be big buddies this year and preparing for their first camp in Term 4. Grade 3 students headed out to Sheepyard flat, participating in activities designed by their specialist teachers, bush dancing, Eiffel tower building, team work games and of course some river play.

And finally the Grade 2 and Grade 6 students were lucky enough to head to Carters Rd picnic area, with a special visit from Landcare and Water Watch, rotating in educational and fun activities. The day was a great success and a wonderful day to be a part of Mansfield Primary School. 

On Wednesday the 17th of March, 6C went down to the town library to borrow some books and learned how the library works. 6C had a blast at the library and found it very intriguing learning about have the town library and they had a great, wide range of books, DVDs and audio books. We also learnt that we have access to over 3 million items through the system. There are some great online resources to use too.

If you aren’t a library member you should consider signing up.

 A special thanks to Sharon and Justine who invited us even though the library was closed. 

We had 6 students shaving; Lillian Currie, Campbell Poulson, Monte Scott-Barber, Asti Jackman, Zac Mahon and Nick Hoskin. Principal Tom MacMunn also shaved his head in support of children and families living with Leukemia.

Together the Mansfield Primary School team managed to raise a whopping $8,023.00. A big thank you to Michelle Pigdon for helping us out with the shave. 

REGIONAL SWIMMING:

On Wednesday the 3rd of March, 17 students went to Regionals in Shepparton. We had many relay teams and individual events throughout the day. 3 students made it through to State, so a big congratulations to Seb Walker, Jarrah Jackson and Kezi Wolfe. It was a very fun and competitive day. A big thanks to Miss Driessen for taking us there and organising things throughout the day.

Written by Amy Cash (Sport Team)

3-6 SWIMMING CARNIVAL:

On Tuesday the 9th March, the Grade 3 to 6 swimming carnival was held. Congratulations to the students in Stirling house, as you won the carnival, with a total of 455 house points awarded. In second place was Cobbler, with 405 points. In third place was Buller with 364 points, and in fourth place Howitt with a good effort of 354 house points. Great job to everyone who participated in the carnival and we hope you enjoyed your events and had fun with your friends.

From Nick Hoskin (Sport Team)