2022 Principal's Welcome
Welcome to 2022
I would like to welcome you all back and thank you for showing confidence in our school by trusting us to educate your child. We would like to make a special welcome to all of our new families who have chosen Mudgee Public School as their school. We all look forward to getting to know your children and family and we encourage you to get to know our fabulous P&C.
COVID Update
I have created a video explaining the majority of our guidelines and restrictions. Within this video you will find further information about Rapid Antigen Testing, cohorting and student playground as well as what to do if you are sick with COVID. There is also a little bit of information about upcoming communication from your child's teacher as well as future whole school newsletters.
One small update from the video above....If there is in fact a COVID case in our school, we will notify the school communtiy each time there is a positive case. This communication will share which Stage / Cohort the case was from. We will also send a specific email to the relevant class.
New Staff
Each year brings positive change. This includes a few additions to our staff. We are delighted to welcome Mrs Tess Lewis (Assistant Principal, Curriculum Instruction - Primary), Miss Nicole (Nikki) Evans (Stage 3 RFF and Learning Support) and Mrs Hannah Sheridan (Support Unit SLSO with class LL). We also welcome to the teaching team Miss Jessie Forrester (Kindergarten) who worked with us in Term 4 as a regular casual and now has her very first class. The same is with Karli Mcklinley who was also a regular casual at MPS last year and she will co-teach 2GM with Mrs George. We welcome back Mrs Jenna Donoghue (Year 2) along with Mrs Ashlea Fletcher (Year 4) who will be be working a part-time capacity. Mr Fred Wheeler will also continue as our Technogloy Learning Faciltiator in Term 1. I will share more information about these staff members in coming newsletters. Please join me in welcoming these special people.
Students and their new class
The first few weeks of school is an exciting and nervous time for all children. Every effort has been made to take all factors into consideration when forming classes. With over 600 students at our school, making new friends and socialising is a crucial life skill and one which can often only be developed with experience. When forming classes, careful consideration was given to input from staff and families as well as student learning styles and indeed their friendships. Classrooms have been balanced academically and socially. Our class lists are structured to provide equitable class sizes at each grade level. Moving students is difficult without causing imbalances and inequities. Whilst we have made efforts to transition students to their new class, it is expected that some will have trepidations about their new settings. I ask that you give all children time to settle into class and develop their own respectful relationships before raising any concerns about 2022. Of course, if you believe that concern can’t wait we ask you to contact your child’s teacher, or the relevant Assistant Principal for that stage.
Composite Classes:As you may have seen, like years in the past, some of our classes in 2022 will be composite classes. I would like to write to you to hopefully put you at rest in relation to the structure of these classes. I actually see many benefits of this class structure.
The most common fear for parents having a child in a composite class is that they will fall behind – that the teacher's attention will be split between the two years and they’ll get less overall learning time with their teacher. The research, however, doesn’t agree. Multiple studies conclude it makes no difference to performance whether students are in a straight year group or in a multi-age class. Experts agree the most important factor in determining how well a student does is the quality of the teacher and their teaching.
Did you know that there are actually significant benefits related to composite classes? Some of which are listed below:
1. More balanced class sizes, meaning students in all classes have greater opportunities for personalised interactions with their teacher and support staff
2. It encourages teachers to further cater for individual learning needs, as they break out of the habit of stereotypically teaching to the whole year group, and rather focus on where each student needs to move forward individually
3. It allows teachers more flexibility with groupings, both academically and socially
4. We use progressions of learning to drive differentiated teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy which follow students from Kindergarten to Year 10. The learning prgoressions allow teachers to more accurately locate a student's current literacy and numeracy knowledge, understanding and skills to support planning for learning and teaching from the syllabus. This means that all teaching and learning is created for the individual, not the Year Group.
5. Composite classes can actually enhance individual development with research suggesting students become more confident and assertive, and learning to operate as part of a group while bolstering independent learning skills.
6. Older students are able to practice and reinforce their own skills as they teach them to younger students.
7. Older students provide a model of appropriate behaviour for the younger students – this also means less behaviour problems in the classroom because younger students integrate quickly into established class routines as modelled by the older students.
8. Younger students are able to seek help from a wider range of people rather than relying on the teacher to help them all the time.
9. Changing the focus of learning from achieving a certain ‘grade’ to individual personal best alters the nature of the learning experience to lead children to value learning and the learning process.
10. Students develop a greater respect for individual differences across the board.
11. The syllabus is written in stages, not year groups, meaning that there is very little impact upon mandatory guidelines for teaching and learning.
There are many other benefits, however; hopefully the ones listed above can help you feel more settled about the classing structures at Mudgee PS in 2022
Parent Liasion / Class Emails
In the past, we have used the Parent Liaison Network, to communicate with our MPS community and channel feedback to the appropriate people. This year, we will be doing things slightly different, where some teachers will be taking on this role themselves. Some teachers will also be seeking the assistance of a parent to help with communication from class teacher to parents. You can expect a class Newsletter early in the year to let you know what is coming up in your child’s classroom. This will most likely continue roughly on a fortnightly basis. If you have changed your email address or need one added, please contact the front office.
Sport Days
Listed below are the allocated days for students to wear their sports uniform to school!
Tuesday - Kindergarten
Wednesday - Year 1 & 2
Friday - Years 3, 4, 5 & 6
P&C Meeting
Our first P&C Meeting will take place on Monday 14 February at 7pm. This meeting will be dual mode, meaning online as well as on school site. If you are wanting to join online you will need to register in advance for this meeting:
https://au01web.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5wud-mhqDsjHtL0Evwimq4zpKWFAA0NMscg
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
At this meeting, I will be avaialble to answer all your questions about the start to the school year as well as our response to COVID-19 guidelines.
New and returning faces are always welcome.
Stationery Supplies
I have sent this out a couple of times before, but just a reminder - This year, we will be providing the majority of stationery for our students so there is no need to go and buy a whole heap of extra supplies. Students in Years 1-6 may like their own pencil case with the basics in it, eg pencils, rubber, sharpener, textas etc (and pens Year 4-6) but all of that will also be provided. Other than that, there may be some small supplies requested by classroom teachers in the early weeks. Kindergarten students do not need to bring anything – just their smiling selves 😊
In closing
Whilst we may have some challenges with COVID-19, I am looking forward to a great start to the year. In advance, I want to thank all of our parents for helping our children develop their own new respectful relationships within the classroom. Please continue to remind our children how precious they are…They are our future, so let's work together.
John Carters
Principal