Marnebek Newsletter
27th October 2023
Issue 16
Message from the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope this edition of our fortnightly newsletter finds you well. We’re now four weeks into the term, and it has been a dynamic and engaging time for our school community. The last four weeks were nothing short of fantastic, with our students fully engaged in their learning.
We witnessed remarkable enthusiasm and dedication. Our recent Street Stalls, Talent show, Performing Arts Showcase, and our Koorie Day Out were resounding successes, showcasing the remarkable talents within our school community. Congratulations to all our students and to our dedicated staff for organising these wonderful events.
Recent SSG Meetings
Thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us for this week’s SSG meetings. Your active involvement in your child’s education is invaluable. These meetings provide an essential opportunity to discuss your child’s progress, address any concerns, and work together to ensure their success. If you were unable to attend, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher to reschedule a separate meeting.
World Teachers’ Day Celebration
Today, we celebrated World Teachers’ Day, a day dedicated to honouring and appreciating the dedication and hard work of our teaching staff. I want to extend my sincere gratitude to all our teachers for their unwavering commitment to providing the best education for our students. Their passion and devotion are the cornerstones of our school’s success.
Looking ahead, Term 4 promises to be exhilarating and busy. We have a series of exciting programs and events lined up that will enrich the educational journey of our students. Please check your Compass Newsfeed for Term 4 Key Events to stay up to date. Here’s a glimpse of what’s in store:
Allied Health Presentation | 1st November
Our Allied Health Team will be presenting an information session on Teenage Hygiene and Puberty. This presentation is focused on the essential topic of Teenage Hygiene and Puberty, and is scheduled for Wednesday, 1st November at 9:30am at Corrigans Rd Campus. We encourage all parents and carers to attend this presentation as it is an excellent opportunity to gain a better understanding of your child's development and how to support them during this important phase of their lives.
Prep Information Night | 30th November
We’re inviting our 2024 Prep parents and carers to attend our upcoming information night. Families will have the opportunity to hear from our Primary School staff. You will gain an insight into the Primary School, and be provided with information about our teaching and learning program, facilities and student wellbeing specific to the Prep Year.
Camps | Week 8 & 9
Our Year 10/11 students will embark on adventures during their Forest Edge camp and our Year 12 students will enjoy their very last camp at PGL Campaspe Downs.
Graduation Ceremonies
The highlights of Term 4 will undoubtedly be the graduation ceremonies for our Year 12 and Year 6 students. These moments will celebrate their achievements and mark the beginning of new chapters in their lives.
Christmas Concert | 14th December
We are excited to invite you to our annual Christmas concert, where our talented students and staff will showcase their musical and artistic talents. We encourage our school community to actively participate in our school events, strengthening the bonds that make our school a warm and welcoming place. Save the date!
I look forward to the rest of the term with great enthusiasm and hope to see you at our upcoming events.
Thank you for being a part of our school community, and together, we can make this term a remarkable one for our students.
Kind regards,
Jennifer Hamilton | Executive Principal
Key Dates & Events
Term 4 2023 | Term Dates: 2nd October - 20th December
1st November Allied Health Presentation |Teenage Hygiene & Puberty | Corrigans Rd Campus | Staff Room | 9:30am
7th November Melbourne Cup Day | Public Holiday | No Student Attendance
10th November Special Assembly Remembrance Day
20th November Parks & Gardens Graduation
20th November - 22nd November PGL Camp | Year 12
29th November - 1st December Forest Edge Camp | Year 10/11
30th November Prep Information Night | 5:30-6:30pm
1st December International Day of People with Disability
6th December - 8th December Prep Transition Sessions
7th December Year 12 Graduation | 6-11pm
12th December Statewide Transition
14th December Christmas Concert
18th December Year 6 Graduation | 5:30-7:30pm love sha 19th December Last Day of Term 4 (students) | 2pm finish
20th December
Curriculum Day | No Student Attendance
Please note: All dates are correct at the time of publishing. Information will be posted on Compass regarding these planned events, nearer to the date.
Important Notices
Dealing with distressing online content
With the tragic and distressing events unfolding in the Middle East, Australia's independent regulator for online safety, eSafety, has issued guidance to help parents and carers support their children in dealing with distressing online content. The eSafety website has resources for parents and carers about online safety. These include information on extra precautions you can take to protect your children from seeing disturbing content online.
eSafety encourage parents and carers supporting young people who may be more vulnerable to check in with them. If they are presenting with signs of distress, support is available through external services including: ·
headspace: 1800 650 890
Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636
Thunderstorm asthma – be prepared this pollen season
Grass pollen season, which typically runs from October to December each year in Victoria, brings an increase in asthma and hay fever symptoms. It also increases the risk of thunderstorm asthma. For people with asthma or hay fever, especially those who experience wheezing or coughing with their hay fever, thunderstorm asthma can be sudden, serious and even life threatening.
Marnebek School will implement a range of measures to keep our school community safe as the risk of thunderstorm asthma increases.
Many of our staff are trained in asthma first aid, and we will monitor the VicEmergency app to receive thunderstorm warnings, and, where appropriate, keep students indoors when weather forecasts identify greater risk.
During the season, there are some things you can do to prepare and protect yourself and your family:
If your child has ever had asthma, talk to your doctor about what you can do to help protect them from the risk of thunderstorm asthma this pollen season, including updating your asthma action plan. Taking an asthma preventer properly and regularly is key to preventing asthma, including thunderstorm asthma.
If your child has hay fever, see your pharmacist or doctor for a hay fever treatment plan and check if you should have an asthma reliever puffer. These are available from a pharmacy without a prescription.
If your child has hay fever and experiences wheezing and coughing, it is important to make sure they don’t also have asthma. Speak to your doctor about an asthma action plan.
Where possible, avoid being outside during thunderstorms from October to December, especially during the wind gusts that come before the storm. Go inside and close your doors and windows. If you have your air conditioning on, turn it to ‘recirculate’.
Protect yourself this pollen season – managing asthma and allergies matters.
Find out more For more information, speak to your doctor. You can also visit the Better Health Channel website.
Compass Parent Portal
Compass is our primary parent communication tool for day-to-day operational matters, upcoming events, notices and notifications so it is essential that all parents download the app.
Please ensure you log into Compass to update your family contact details. This ensures we are able to contact you, your partner or your emergency contacts should an emergency arise.
Please check to confirm the phone numbers and email addresses on your details are correct, or alternatively amend as required.
Please also ensure we are aware of any updated living arrangements, independent students, students living in ‘Out of Home Care’ or any legal documentation the school should be made aware of.
Our Administration staff at the front office can support families who need some guidance on using Compass. Please contact the school office on 5996 3858 for assistance if needed.
The Compass Parent & Carers FAQ guide has been specifically designed to help you get the most out of your Compass experience.
Compass Tip
How do I pay for the Graduation tickets on Compass?
In your compass app:
Click on 3 bars on top left side
Select - Canteen –
Select - Place Order at the bottom of the screen
Select Student
Select date - Choose today's date
Select a sitting - Year 12 Graduation Tickets
Select the item you wish to purchase and quantity
Add to cart
When you have finished your ordering - View Cart
Proceed to checkout
Select payment method
If this is your first time it will ask you to add your card details.
Select Pay
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the office on 5996 3858.
Classroom Snapshots
News from New Holland Drive Campus
Greetings from Prep D
In our ever-exciting journey of learning, we wanted to share with you the exploration of the letter “S” that has been taking place in our Prep B classroom. Our students were encouraged to participate in various sensory and craft activities to learn about the sound of the letter “S” and the words that started with “S”.
This week, our Prep B classroom also engaged in a variety of numeracy assessments to gauge our students’ mathematical growth. Through these engaging and interactive assessments, we can see that our students have been building a solid foundation in number sense, counting, and locations.
Lucy Tao | Prep B Teacher
Greetings from 4/5E!
In 4/5E students have learn to write words by saying the sounds and graphemes.
Students were taught to use their fingers to help them write words. The students say the word out loud and break it down into individual sounds. If a word has 3 sounds children hold up 3 fingers, 4 sounds 4 fingers etc. Students pinch each finger as they say the sounds needed in the word then they write the letters that represent each sound. Our students did an excellent job!
Manjinder Kaur | 4/5E Teacher
Koori Day Out
News from Corrigans Rd Campus
On Monday afternoons, we are lucky enough to have the Special Olympics Team running some inclusive sports sessions that are open to all students at Corrigans Rd campus to join in. These have been a fun and engaging opportunity for students to practice their movement skills.
Students have learnt about ball skills, improved their coordination, tried the ring toss and also had the opportunity to join in basketball, soccer and cricket games. These sessions are supporting students to develop their physical and social skills as well as improving wellbeing.
We look forward to more Special Olympics sports sessions this term.
Special Olympics @Corrigans Rd Campus
Our students in 8/9D have been engaging in an enriching learning experience, delving into the world of fractions and embarking on a captivating journey through the realm of time.
The dedication, curiosity, and enthusiasm displayed by our students throughout these explorations have been truly exceptional. Awesome effort everyone!
Fantastic Maths work in 8/9D
Over the last 6 weeks I had the privilege to spend time with my wife and 2 sons as my family welcomed our 2nd son into the world. This time at home with my family was extremely special and I am so grateful to have been able to have spent so much time with them.
It was also a reminder for me, that there is so much to be grateful for. Often times it is easy to focus on what is going wrong and what we don’t have available to us. It’s much harder to turn our attention to focus on what we do have and what is positive in our lives. So this week, I’d like to encourage whoever is reading this, to take some time out of your day and try and think of 5 things that you are grateful for.
It might be that you are grateful for your family, perhaps you are grateful for your friends. It might be something as simple as feeling grateful for a nice meal. It doesn’t have to be much. We can be grateful for almost anything. Give this a go and consider trying to even make it a habit! You’ll probably feel much better for it. There is a lot of research that has found that expressing gratitude is very helpful for our health and wellbeing.
Shaun Simpson
Leading Teacher – Wellbeing Senior
Student Wellbeing
SWPBS @Marnebek
Celebrating students’ achievements
House Totals | Term 4 | Week 3
House Totals | Term 4 | Week 4
SWPBS Champions | Term 4 | Week 3
SWPBS Champions | Term 4 | Week 4
Congratulations!
Bus Awards | Week 3
Congratulations!
Bus Awards | Week 4
Who’s Who @Marnebek
Welcome Lucy Tao :-)
Hello, my name is Lucy Tao and I am the new prep classroom teacher at Marnebek School. I am genuinely excited about the opportunity to work at Marnebek School. I am passionate about inclusive education and believe that every student deserves a supportive learning environment to thrive.
In my spare time, I enjoy a range of activities that make me relax. Whether it’s spending time with friends, cooking, or simply going for a walk in nature, I cherish these moments to recharge and have some fun.
Fun facts about me: I have a sweet tooth, and my favorite dessert is Matcha green tea with white choc ice cream.
Marnebek’s Cultural Corner
TheirCare
Afterschool & School Holidays Services
Our school has partnered with an independent provider TheirCare to provide After Care and Holiday Care services to our school community.
The program services the children in the school from 3:00pm each day until 6:00pm. During school holidays the service will operate from 9:00am until 5:00pm. Families wishing to use this service can visit the TheirCare website: http://theircare.com.au/
Families are also eligible for a Government rebate which reduces the cost per session. Further information can also be obtained by contacting the school or ringing TheirCare on: 1300 072 410.
TheirCare provides a stimulating and safe environment for all children and an environment where children from and enjoy their time in their program. During sessions children develop life skills, friendships, confidence and creativity through play.
Community Notices
School Uniform
Beleza Uniform Shop
Marnebek School Uniforms can be purchased through:
BELEZA SCHOOL UNIFORMS CRANBOURNE
126 High St, Cranbourne VIC 3977
Website: Beleza – High Street Cranbourne
Phone: (03) 5996 6861
Our uniform price lists are below:
FEEDBACK FORM
We would love to hear from you!
Please send us a brief message with your feedback regarding our newsletter, what you’d like to see in future, how we can improve it and/or any suggestions you may have.
We really appreciate your feedback.
Your Marnebek Community Engagement Team