A full calendar of events can be found in the Compass App

24th April - First day of Term 2 - 8.55am start
25th April - ANZAC Day Public Holiday - NO SCHOOL
12th May - Mothers Day Breakfast - 7.30am to 9am
2nd June - Working Bee from 2.30pm

A very warm welcome back to all our students and their families for a BIG term 2. I hope everyone had some time to unwind and spend time with loved ones as we head into the colder months.

Annual Report to the School Community Wednesday 26th of April 7pm via Webex

We welcome all families to join School Council for the presentation of the MVPS Annual Report this Wednesday, 26th if April at 7pm via this link.

Ready Set Prep 2024 2nd May 6pm

If you have friends with children starting Prep in 2024 encourage them to attend our Prep Readiness Session on the 2nd of May. They can register their attendance here.

Staffing Update

It was with very short notice that we said farewell to Mrs Marianne Carter. Marianne made the difficult decision to seek employment closer to home to manage family responsibilities. I am sure all our families join us in wishing Marianne all the very best in her new appointment at Melbourne Grammar.
Whilst we were sorry to see Marianne leave us we are pleased to welcome Miss Melissa Den Elzen who will be replacing Marianne for the rest of the year. Melissa is an experienced Early Years teacher who I am sure will be a great addition to our team.

Miss Katie Airey will also be taking a few weeks leave for surgery and recovery. Miss Natalie Selisher will be replacing Katie in 5/6A during this time and will be a great support to our school and students during Katie’s absence. Get well soon, Katie!

As of next term, Irene will be reducing her time to three days in the office. We will be interviewing for a one day replacement in the coming fortnight as well as an Education Support staff member to replace Leanne in the Inclusion Team.

ANZAC Day – Lest We Forget

Our Junior School Council will be leading the school in our ANZAC Day assembly this Wednesday afternoon from 3pm. This assembly will be for students and staff only as we also have our first assembly for the Term this Friday in the Sherwood Centre. Our House Captains represented MVPS last Term at the Shrine of Remembrance and laid a wreath on our behalf. See video here. Please note that Tuesday is a Public Holiday with no students in attendance that day.

Painting Update and Working Bee 2nd June 2:30pm

A very big thank you to team at Dulux who very kindly gave their time and donated their paint to refresh our Inclusion Hub space. They have also kindly donated enough paint for our community to paint the external admin building. A very big thank you to Inclusion Team leader, Stephanie Gatehouse who coordinated this amazing opportunity. We are seeking your help to complete the painting works and assist with some general maintenance on Friday, 2nd of June from 2:30pm. This will be our first Working Bee for the year and hopefully we don’t get rained out!

Canteen Survey and Committee Invitation

We are very lucky to have the support of Shino and Binh giving their time to coordinate the canteen however, all school canteens should operate under the School Council with either an appointed school canteen manager overseeing the canteen or outsourcing to another provider to offer the service. We would like your input regarding the canteen and its future. Please complete this very short survey regarding whether you would prefer the school to hire a canteen manager and continue with volunteers, or you would prefer the school to outsource the service. We would also like parents and carers to join a canteen consultative committee in the possible event that we seek outsourcing. Please complete the survey to express your interest in being part of this group.

School Review

As part of our School Review we sent out a survey regarding the School Philosophy and Values. Please review this policy as part of our consultation with community and let us know via this survey (another short one I promise) whether you agree with our current policy.

Compass Direct Communication

Did you know that you can email any staff member via Compass. If you click on “send email to the teachers” you can search for the staff member you wish to email and add them to the communication. We hope this supports our goal to improve responsive communication.

Tracy Skiba
Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Due to the success of the Friday Sports, we’ve decided to extend our morning program to Term 2. The Friday Sports morning will continue the same as last term, however, we are adding a Wednesday morning session which will be based around training for the upcoming Grades 3-6 Cross Country in Term 2 and Athletics Carnival in Term 3.

Both morning sessions will start at 8:15am. Due to the weather often being difficult during Term 2, please stay tuned for a compass alert on Tuesday and Thursday nights for any cancellations.

Regards
Andrew

Canteen News

Welcome back to Term 2!
The volunteer roster for Term 2 is now available on SignUp and can be accessed via this link. Your eldest child would have brought home a letter outlining the dates and the signup procedure. Please take the time to read this and sign up to volunteer if you are able to.

A BIG thank you to the following volunteers for your time and help in the Canteen in Term 1.
The Canteen at MVPS is fully volunteer-run, and without the following volunteers, the Canteen would not have run as smoothly, if at all!

Tanya Labonne, Tanille Jewell, Michael Badge, Maki, Milky Lu, Alison Main, Sarah Wall, Jennifer Holden, Konstantin Ilinov, Julie Hart, Stephanie Maiyah, John Simeone, Christine Lim, Shirley Kwan, Sammi Moffatt, Tina Johnston (and Bryce), Louise Nicholls, Jo Healy, and Binh Luong.

I am aware that there has been a lot of talk and concerns regarding the future of the Canteen within the school community. Please rest assured that until anything is announced by the School, the Canteen will continue to run in its current format, and no changes will be made without community consultation first.

The school has put out a survey asking for input towards the future running of the Canteen. Every feedback is appreciated and will help decide the future of the Canteen at MVPS. This will be your opportunity to have your say, so please consider responding to this survey.

Shino Shibata
Canteen Supervisor

One thing we are very proud of here at Malvern Valley is the strength of our community. Whilst often that means having fun together and collectively sharing in the joy of our children’s education, sometimes it also means helping each other out in times of need. We are all thrown obstacles during our journey through life and sometimes a little help from our friends makes a world of difference.

“Friends of Malvern Valley” is a mechanism by which families in need can anonymously seek support from the broader MVPS community. This may be in the form of providing meals, picking up or dropping off children, donating clothing/books/toys etc.

Every year we call on families to register their interest in becoming a “Friend of Malvern Valley” and indicate in our database where you may be able to assist a family in need. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be called on, but that you will receive an alert if a family is in need and can indicate at the time whether you can assist or not. If you are happy to be on the Friends of Malvern Valley contact list please register your details here. Please also mark the email address fomv@outlook.com in your safe senders list to ensure that emails don’t go to your junk mail.

If you feel that you’re in a situation yourself that could use some assistance through this program, please contact the Principal, Tracy Skiba.

Thanks in advance for your support.