From the Principal . .

Staffing News

Class Meetings

Enrolments and Class Structure

Voluntary Contributions

Public Speaking Competition

Bushfire Safety

Parent Communications

Major School Events

School P&C

Kiss & Drive

Congratulations

From the Chaplain . . .

Library News

P&C News

Check out our website at www.mundaringps.wa.edu.au

855 Stevens Street Mundaring 6073 Telephone: 9295 1072 Fax: 9295 3072 Email: Principal.Mundaring.PS@education.wa.edu.au

Term 1 Issue 1

3 February 2017

STAFFING NEWS With the start of a new year comes news of staffing changes and this year is no exception. I am delighted to welcome back Mr and Mrs Tonkin, Miss Goodfield and Mrs Radalj, all who return from leave last year. In addition to returning staff members, we also welcome the following new members of staff to the school.

Mrs Liz Klinger has joined the staff as PE teacher and Mrs Hannah Charlton has re-joined the staff as the Yr 1 Room 1 teacher on Fridays. Mrs Bindi Jones returns to school in the brand new position of Visual Arts Specialist while Miss Sally Boud will takes up the position of tandem Yr 5 Teacher with Mr Tonkin in Room 10 for 2 days per week.

Unfortunately Ibu King has had to take 6 months sick leave and so we wish her all the best for her recovery. During Ibu Kong‟s absence, Mrs Emma Krause will pick up the role of LOTE teacher. We are also delighted to welcome Mrs Cassie Nicholas to the staff as Special Needs Education Assistant. CLASS MEETINGS As in previous years, classroom teachers will be holding information sessions after school in Weeks 2 & 3 (refer back page). All parents and caregivers are invited to come down and find out what the teachers have planned for the year and ask general questions about the class.

Please be aware that this would not a suitable time to engage the teacher in a long discussion about your child. Teachers are more than happy to arrange a meeting at another time to address any specific concerns or questions you might have regarding your own child. During the meetings, children will be supervised in the library.

ENROLMENTS AND CLASS STRUCTURE Enrolments at the school currently stand at 318 which is less than the 345 we closed with in 2016 due to reduced numbers of Kindy and Pre-Primary enrolments. The following class structure has been developed with consideration to the spread of students across the year levels and the school‟s need to reduce the number of spaces in each class as much as possible.

ECE Rm 20 - K/PP - Ms Bowlay & Mrs Bruse Rm 17 - PP - Mrs Pruyn & Mrs Bruse

Forrest Block Rm 1 - Year 1 - Mrs Rhine-Davis & Mrs Charlton Rm 2 - Year 1 - Mrs Radalj & Mrs Rigg Rm 3 - Year 1/2 - Mrs Tonkin Rm 4 - Year 2/3 - Mrs Mittal

Jacoby Block Rm 6 - Year 3/4 - Mrs Taylor Rm 7 - Year 3 - Miss Goodfield Rm 9 - Year 4 - Dr Ellis Rm 10 - Year 5 - Mr Tonkin & Miss Boud

O‟Connor Block Rm 14 - Yr 5/6 - Miss Lorantas Rm 15 - Yr 5/6 - Mrs Dent

Specialist Staff LOTE (Indonesian) - Mrs Krause Phys Ed - Mrs Klinger Visual Arts - Mrs Jones Music - Mrs Reif-Eaves

FROM THE PRINCIPAL . . .

Hello Parents and Caregivers and welcome to a new year at school. I trust the holiday break was as good for you as it was for me and my family, and that the new year sees you all fit and healthy. Students have settled in extremely well this first week, with all classes reporting a smooth start to the year.

This year the school will be putting a few changes in place including improvements to parent communications, increased support for Students at Educational Risk and a rescheduling of major school events to better meet the needs of the school community. More on these changes is included below.

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ALLERGY AWARE No whole eggs or nut products at MPS please.

FROM THE CHAPLAIN . . .

My name is Rachel Kelly and I am the

School Chaplain. I provide a listening

ear and social/emotional support for

students and families. I also run

individual and small group programs that address

issues the students may be facing- such as

bullying, disagreements with friends, anxiety, grief

and changes to the family structure. Chaplaincy is

not a religious role, rather about making sure that

the students, staff and families at this school are

cared for and supported whatever they are going

through.

If you think that your child would benefit from

seeing the Chaplain, I am at the school on

Thursdays and Fridays. Parent permission is always

required for children to begin regular sessions with

the Chaplain and confidentiality is always

LIBRARY NEWS Once again students will be able to order books from “Scholastic Book Club”. Order and pay online at scholastic.com.au/LOOP by 10 February 2017. There are still some library books outstanding from 2016. Please return to the library ASAP. Thank you. Karen McCall (Library Officer)

Working hard to make 2017 a great year!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2017

Student Councillors Oceana D'Abbs Blake Offer Isabelle Richardson Margot Jones Kayla Whitely Tully Morris

Blue Faction Captains Phoebe Bronwin Ethan Altmann

Red Faction Captains Emma Horne Evan Pisano

Green Faction Captains Cohen Chamberlain Ella Redmond

Mulitmedia Publishing Group Justice Gill Libby Jones Jayde Doyle Jessica McHardy

Friday 10 February

3.00pm to 4.30pm

Yay! School’s back!

Come and catch up with old friends, meet new ones and chat

to teachers and staff.

Everyone is welcome. Bouncy castle & giant obstacle course,

free icy poles for kids under 12. Drinks, ice creams and light

snacks on sale at canteen.

MUNDARING TWILIGHT MARKETS 11 February - 5pm to 9 pm

Entertain the kids at the Mundaring Primary School

P&C tent. Kids’ craft activities - $2

Just follow the giggles!!

Our first P&C meeting for 2017 is on this Monday,

6 February, 7.30pm in the staff room.

Please join us and find out what is happening at school

in 2017. We promise you won’t be given a job but you will

have the chance to contribute to making Mundaring Primary

School an amazing place where our kids learn and grow. Look

forward to seeing you there.

We are in desperate need of a new volunteer Uniform

Shop coordinator.

What does it take? An average of 1.5 hours a with a few addi-

tional hours a couple of times a year for stocktake. We cur-

rently open the uniform shop every other Wednesday from

3pm to 3.30pm as well as managing cash orders dropped to

the office and online orders. Shop hours are flexible and the

role could also potentially be taken on by two people. If you

Welcome to all our new students - you have settled in so well!

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS As all parents will know, State Schools in WA do not charge school fees as such but do request parents to pay a one-off voluntary contribution of $60 per student which is used to provide much needed additional resources for your children.

Over recent years the rate of voluntary contributions received has fallen to less than 65%, which is starting to have a negative impact on the level of resources and support we are able to offer students. Put into dollar terms, this 35% shortfall equates to approximately $6,000 which is the amount we spend on Literacy and Numeracy resources each year.

I sincerely request that all parents to pay this contribution as early as possible to ensure the continuation of key programs such as the SAER Support, ICT Program and the maintenance of key teaching and learning resources at the school. Online banking details for Mundaring Primary:

Bendigo Bank-BSB # 633 000-A/c # 155 735616 Please use your child’s surname and Room No as the reference. Thank you.

PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION Parents will have noticed from the term planner, the HEC Public Speaking Competition is running in Week 6 of this term, giving us a very short time to run our own competition to select our own school‟s representatives.

Next week, interested students from Year 1 to Year 6 will be provided with a brochure outlining the competition, including the expectations and judging criteria. From Monday 6th Feb, I will be working with interested students to refine their poems (Yr 1-3) and speeches (Yr 4-6) ready for our own competition in Week 5.

BUSHFIRE SAFETY As parents are aware, Mundaring PS is in a bushfire prone area and as such we have a range of strategies and actions in place to reduce the risk of catastrophic loss of life and property in the event of a bushfire.

Included with this newsletter parents will find a copy of our Bushfire Safety Information brochure and we encourage all parents to read the document and become familiar with the processes and procedures we employ in the event of a bushfire. A copy of this brochure is also available from the school‟s website.

PARENT COMMUNICATIONS This year, the school will be continuing to improve our parent communications strategies to ensure we get our messages out to as many people as possible and in as a timely a manner as possible. Improvements include:

Newsletter - The paper based newsletter will now be produced only once per term and made available at end of each term for the upcoming term. A term planner will also be included with this newsletter.

Website/App - As mentioned in newsletters last year, we will be expanding the move into the digital communications world with more regular updates on our school website and weekly push notifications via the school‟s App.

All weekly news articles will be published on the front page of the website under „Recent News‟ heading. The school App will also be used on a regular basis to send reminders to parents of special events and urgent news items.

Updates to our term planner dates will also be placed on the front page of our website in the Calendar and Event Quick View section.

New Flash - Where the school needs to communicate urgent news updates/date changes etc, we will backup the Website and App notifications with a paper based News Flashes sent home to all families.

Emergency Messaging System (EMS) - In the case of urgent messages related to emergencies (eg: bushfire), the school will continue to use our EMS which will send text messages to all parents via their telephone. These messages will also be sent via our App, updated on the school‟s website and in a News Flash.

It is recommended that parents access to the school‟s website on a regular basis (weekly?) and take a minute to download the school App which is called ‟Updat-ed‟ and is available from the App Store (Apple) or Google Play Store (Android).

MAJOR SCHOOL EVENTS In previous years, the school has held major school events (carnivals, open days, concerts etc) at various times throughout the year. While these events have generally met with success, the timing of some whole school events has led to issues for students, staff and parents and while the old adage ‟you can‟t please everybody‟ is still relevant, we are looking at revising our events calendar to ensure that we please as many people as possible. Planned changes include:

School Assemblies - Each class will once again present an assembly throughout 2017 but as per the term planner, these will be held in weeks 3, 6 & 9 of each term. There will be no block assemblies this year.

Non-class assemblies (Easter, ANZAC Day, Remembrance Day etc) will held in other weeks as per the term planner.

Concerts - This year we are looking at holding the annual school concert at the end of Term 2 as a Mid-Year Concert held during the day as per the Edu-Dance Concert at the end of Term 3.

Carols by Candlelight - We are also looking at working with the P&C to hold a Carols By Candlelight evening at the end of Term 4. Details of this event will be discussed at the P&C meeting on Monday evening.

School Athletics Carnivals - Weather permitting, these events will be moved to later in Term 3 to allow us more time between our school carnivals and the HEC interschool competitions in Term 4.

All major school events will be advertised via the School Website, the Term Newsletter/Planner and reminders will be sent via App and News Flashes.

SCHOOL P&C Finally, I would like to encourage all parents to get behind the efforts of the School P&C by becoming actively involved in this volunteer parent organisation whose only goal is to provide services and additional funding for your children.

Next Friday‟s is just one example of the terrific work the P&C do to make MPS a better place but they can only do this if parents put their hands up to take on roles in the organisation. See you next Friday! Mr Paul Larkin (Principal)

Kiss & Drive Making it safer for our children

A few simple rules make it easier for everyone!

1. Please do not park at the Kiss and Drive before 2:55 pm. 2. If the Kiss and Drive is full, continue around the block and

rejoin the line. 3. Always keep moving towards the first two Kiss & Drive bays. 4. Ensure your vehicle is stationary before you pick up/set

down children. 5. Make sure that children only enter / exit through the left

side doors of the vehicle. 6. If your child is not ready, don‟t‟ stop, drive around the block

and try again. 7. Leave home a little later; you may be able to drive straight

up to the Kiss & Drive without waiting. 8. Children will wait in the school ground near the Kiss & Drive

at the end of the school day. 9. The driver must remain in the vehicle. 10. If you need to stop to talk to a teacher or other parent,

please park in one of the designated parking bays on Stevens Street or Painter Crescent.

11. Always be courteous to other road users.

Please *do not park in the disabled bay without an ACROD sticker. *find verge parking around the school - do not park in the staff parking area!