Newsletter - 27 June

Principal's Report

Striving for excellence at Mount Nelson Primary School

What's happening with literacy at Mount Nelson Primary School?

There is a lot of discussion in the media about student's literacy skills and achievements. We would like to keep you informed about all that happens for our students at Mount Nelson Primary.

Literacy is a significant and vital part of every student's day. Literacy skills are the key to unlocking all other parts of the curriculum and equip a child for the best opportunities in life. As a team of educators, we strive to know, support and extend every student to achieve the literacy skills the need to be readers, writers and communicators.

Each week, teachers meet and participate in professional learning and work in teams to review their students and the effectiveness of their teaching.

This year in kinder, our team are focusing on listening comprehension. They are participating in a new trial of assessing and building children's early oral literacy skills.

Teaching teams in prep to 2/3 start the day with an explicit focus on phonics. This is in accordance with DECYP research and recommendations.

In all of our classrooms, teachers are focusing on ensuring that students have the essential literacy skills for their grade level. Assessments are used in class to monitor each student and plan what is needed to help them achieve as readers and writers. This term, teachers have done extra work with a focus fluency group, to support the students to read more fluently which assists their understanding.

In addition to the quality teaching happening in classrooms, there is a team supporting students. Margaret Crosswell and Julie Ransley regularly work alongside teachers to provide extra support to identified students. We also have an amazing group of teacher assistants who work with targeted students to help build their skills and engagement with literacy tasks.

Three times a year, every student is tested as a part of a new DECYP assessment program. This allows us to track every student's progress with reading skills and to identify students who may require extra support. Other summative tests are also used throughout the year. At the end of each year, PAT Reading is used to examine each student's comprehension.

Comprehension, the understanding of what is being read, and being able to use texts to investigate and extended learning is a priority at Mount Nelson Primary. Staff have used a reading inquiry approach for several years to develop students' ability to understand, think and use texts. After this term's focus on fluency, next term, staff will be working on reading complex texts and extending students' vocabulary.

At every grade level, all of our staff and students are striving for excellence!

How can you help?

Please support our vision focus by ensuring your child reads at home often and discuss with them what they are reading. Look out for tips in your child's reading folder and in the newsletter, and of course, pop in and speak to your child's teacher.

Catherine Grace - Principal    Marg Crosswell - Literacy Coach     Julie Ransley - Literacy Support Teacher

Staffing Update

We’d like to share a staffing update for Term 3. Polly Pullin, who joined us on a fixed-term contract earlier this year, will be finishing up at the end of Term 2. We sincerely thank her for the wonderful contribution she’s made to our school and wish her all the best in her next steps.

We’re pleased to welcome Tessa, a permanent DECYP staff member, who will be joining us from the beginning of Term 3. Tessa is an early career teacher and is already engaging positively with our team and school community.

Families directly affected will have received formal communication on Thursday. We know our community will join us in thanking Polly and warmly welcoming Tessa.

Family Engagement

Welcome to the 4th Edition of Engaging & Learning Together.

Use these conversation starters below to discover how amazing your child's imagination can be!

Speak Up! Stay Chatty - Shorts Day

Our School Executives would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who braved the cold and wore their shorts to school last Friday! It was great to see so many people getting involved, and donating to such an important cause. 

Mount Nelson Primary School raised $348.00! The money will go directly towards the Speak Up! Stay Chatty organisation.

The Importance of Speaking Up

As part of empowering our students through Mount Nelson Primary School's communication asset, we want all of our students to feel that they can speak up if something is worrying them, making them feel unsafe, or if they just need someone to talk to. Speaking up is a brave and important step in looking after our wellbeing.

We encourage our families to have a discussion with their children to identify who is their trusted person and to know that there are trusted adults at school—like teachers, support staff, and school leaders—who are always here to listen and help. Knowing who your trusted person is, and feeling confident to talk to them, helps keep our school a safe and caring place for everyone.

Together, we can make sure every student feels heard, valued, and supported.

Design Challenge

We would like to invite our school community to participate in an exciting challenge:

 Designing a new school logo that reflects our motto - 

“We Nurture, We Empower, We Strive for Excellence.”

Our values and assets are the foundation of a strong, supportive, and ambitious school community. They ensure that every individual is valued, challenged, and inspired to make a meaningful impact.

In 2023, we asked the question, “What makes Mount Nelson Primary School unique?” Through conversations with students, staff, and families, we gathered valuable insights that highlighted the core values and assets of our mission and vision.

MNPS Assets: Contributors, Researchers, Communicators, Self-managers, Thinkers and Collaborators.

Please submit your designs to the school office or your classroom teacher. We can’t wait to see your creative ideas come to life!

2026 Enrolments

If you have a child born in 2021, are living in our catchment area or have a sibling currently enrolled at our school, please contact the school office for an enrolment form.

Planning for 2026 is in the early stages. To help us with preparations, if you know that your child will not be attending MNPS in 2026, please inform the school office at your earliest convenience.

Moloch, The Thirsty Frog

2/3 Choir Performance

You're Invited!

Our amazing 2/3 Choir will be performing Moloch, The Thirsty Frog in two special shows!

Monday 30 June & Tuesday 1 July

Our students have been working incredibly hard and can’t wait to share this show with you. We’d love to see you there!

If you have a child performing, please remember to pack their costume for both performances.

Out and About

We have had many classes out and about over the last few weeks. Our grade 4s attended a workshop for Dark Mofo. Our 2/3 classes were treated to a musical performance of 'Matilda' at the Friends school, and our Prep and Prep/1 classes visited Fullers Bookshop. Students have thoroughly enjoyed their outings, and it was wonderful to hear about their experiences in the Celebration Assemblies.

Grade 4 - Dark Mofo Excursion

On the 12th of June, the Grade 4 students attended a workshop at Dark Mofo.

Firstly, we went outside to see the big skate as the burning crew were having a test run. The tour guide was telling us what was going to happen. She told us that the skate held many of other people’s fears, she also told us that the skate was endangered, and the salmon were killing the babies of the Skate. 

We went back inside the big warehouse and got split into groups of six. Our group made tentacles. The second group taped our bamboo fish onto the sticks. The third group was putting traditional and freaky masks on and the fourth group got to play with the puppets.

Once we had moved on, we got to write on a piece of paper with gold and silver leaf. We wrote our fears on them, for example, thalassophobia. Then we put them in purses (a skate's egg basket) and put them inside the skate. They told us that the skate gets burnt at the Dark Mofo festival, so we don’t have to worry about our fears and have nightmares.

After all of this we looked at some of the beautiful statues they had made; a devilish frog, a tree guy, a diabolical hog and a statue entirely made from newspapers! How cool is that!? How incredibly talented they are.

Then, with our fish that we had decorated, we followed the leader with the jellyfish in a parade around the statues. Some people had mini drums they could clash together to make a noise in our parade. We went up the staircase and brought the fish to a man who collected them and put them behind a curtain, ready for the Dark Mofo procession on the weekend.

written by George and Andrew

From our Student Voice

Hello everyone. We’re almost at the end of term 2 and we are going to recap last week's Shorts Day and Authors Day, Live.

Shorts Day - On Friday last week, we had a fundraiser to raise money for Speak Up! Stay Chatty. To raise money for the charity, we wore our shorts to school, even though it was cold, and brought a gold coin or more for a donation. We also received donations online. Overall, our school raised $348 dollars.

Authors Day, Live - On Wednesday, 5/6 Yellow and 5/6 Green watched a live steam about Authors Day. We listened to Sarah Rippen, an author/illustrator of many well-known books such as Billie B Brown. She taught us how to use our experiences and imagination to put into our stories. We also got a drawing lesson, teaching us how to draw monsters. It was amazing to listen to her experiences, and we learnt a lot.

Class Spotlight - 5/6 Yellow

5/6 Yellow were invited to participate in the State Library of Victoria's ‘Book Bash’ initiative. We got to listen to and interact with author, Sally Rippon, and create some fun and crazy characters of our own. Sally is currently the ‘Australian Children’s Laureate’ and Australia’s best-selling female author. 

Staff Spotlight - Marg Crosswell

What is your current role at Mount Nelson Primary?

My current role is Instructional Specialist. My role is centred on providing support to teaching staff, teaching teams and senior staff to implement evidence-based, consistent and aligned strategies for the teaching of literacy and numeracy and to improve the learning outcomes for all students within the classroom. I like to work alongside teachers, modelling and sharing the teaching of reading, grammar and spelling (morphology) take small groups and be in and out of classrooms sharing in the learning. I know all the students and love having time to see them learn and flourish.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and experience before coming here?

Before coming to Mount Nelson Primary, I worked for ten years at Molesworth Primary School on class and in Literacy Leadership roles. I loved my time there being part of a small, dedicated teaching staff tucked away in the bush. Prior to Molesworth I’ve taught at Bagdad Primary, Chigwell Primary and Maydena Primary School and spent a year up on the North West coast at Burnie.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I love being outdoors. I bushwalk with my husband Murray and many friends. We often just head out the door and walk up on the mountain or some of the tracks close to town. I have a large garden that needs regular maintenance. I enjoy bike riding- my ancient mountain bike needs a serious upgrade! I’m just getting started on a yoga journey with Ashtanga yoga and I also love travelling and exploring new places. I’m trying to maintain my fitness with gym sessions including spin and reformer.

Sometimes on a quieter weekend I’ll do some baking and then we’ll have cake or biscuits to take on a bushwalk.

Do you have any pets?

No we don’t have any pets. I grew up with a cat and a Great Dane and had to walk the dog as part of my jobs every day. I love dogs but I’m not at home to care for a dog and don’t like the idea of a dog left by itself for most of the day.

Where is your favourite place to travel to?

Tasmania is my most favourite destination. I have explored many wild places and camped in remote spots that you can only get to by walking with a map and compass.

Recently I’ve enjoyed bike riding in Spain and walking in the Pyrenees and hope to head back to Spain later this year.

If you weren’t in this role, what other career would you pursue?

I really love being a teacher but I think when I was growing up I wanted to be a vet.

Celebration of Learning

Thank you to all the parents and families who joined us for our Celebration of Learning assemblies.

Our students and teachers have been working hard this term on their units of inquiry. It is always great to be able to share our learning with you.

Congratulations to all our students who received awards!

Science Week is coming!

School Updates

School Crossing Update - Great news – our School Crossing is now being manned! Thank you to our staff and parent volunteer, Leonie, who are helping to keep our students safe every day. We really appreciate your support!   

Exciting News – Soccer Goals Are Coming!
We’re thrilled to share that our brand-new soccer goals are on their way! If all goes to plan, they’ll arrive during the holidays and be fully set up in time for the start of Term 3. We can’t wait to see students enjoying them and making the most of this new addition to our beautiful oval!

Playground Update - As we shared in an earlier newsletter, we are lucky to have received a playground grant to upgrade our current playground area. We’re currently waiting on a project manager to be assigned to us to provide support and guidance as we move forward with planning. A huge thank you to the School Association and everyone who contributed generously through the Quiz and Curry Night — your support is contributing towards to making this project possible!

Reminders

School Calendar

Chess Championships

School Holiday Events