News From The North

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Queen’s Birthday Honour - Kevin Mackay

S C H O O L W E B S I T E :

www.dandenongnorthps.vic.edu.au

S T U D E N T W E L F A R E

T E A C H E R S

9 7 9 4 7 8 9 9

SPECIAL

POINTS OF IN-

TEREST:

MONDAY 17TH

J UNE REGION-

AL CROSS

COUNTRY AT

BALLAM PARK,

FRANKSTON.

P I ZZA LUNCH–

WEDNESDAY

19TH J UNE.

ALL ORDERS

AND MONEY

MUST BE RE-

TURNED BY

TUESDAY 18TH

J UNE. NO LATE

ORDERS WI LL

BE ACCEPTED.

UNIFORM

SHOP OPEN

FRIDAY 21ST

J UNE, FROM

8 :30 AM UNTI L

9 :30 AM.

Whilst everyone was enjoying the extra

long weekend this week, it was a double

celebration for our Principal Kevin Mac-

kay who was the proud recipient of the

“Order of Australia Medal” which was

given out this Queen’s Birthday Monday.

Mr Mackay was nominated for this award

by fellow Principal Cheryle Osborne of

Aspendale Gardens Primary School. Ms

Osborne has worked closely with Mr

Mackay at a board level on the VPA

(Victorian Principals Association). This award is the pre-eminent

way that Australians recognise the achievements and service of fellow citizens in

the community.

Queen’s Birthday awards nominations are made to the Australian Honours Secre-

tariat, which makes submissions to the Council for the Order of Australia. Its rec-

ommendations are made to the Queen, who then awards the Medal of the Order of

Australia.

Mr Mackay was of course awarded this medallion in recognition for his dedication

to the Education profession. Mr Mackay is highly respected in his field and has

been a fantastic leader for our school. When he began at Dandenong North it was a

different learning environment to what we have today. He has overseen many new

initiatives that has transformed Dandenong North into the high performing school

it is today. Mr Mackay has spent many years instilling the 4C’s into the culture of

our school and using the Self Esteem Program to ensure that children are motivat-

ed and receiving recognition for their successes.

Outside of Dandenong North, Mr Mackay has worked within the community to

assist past and present families in different situations, as well as providing his

leadership skills for other schools within and outside the Dandenong area. As

mentioned, Mr Mackay is a highly respected board member of the VPA and is the

Junior Vice President of the Federal Executive for the Australian Principal Federa-

tion (APF). Mr Mackay is always being asked to be a part of many different panels

and forums to share his wealth of knowledge and experience.

In August, Mr Mackay will attend a function at Government House where he will

receive his medal. We wish that we could all go along to see him receive this high-

ly deserved medal. Once he receives his medal, Mr Mackay will proudly share it

with all Dandenong North school staff, students and peers.

We wish to congratulate Mr Kevin Mackay on receiving this medal in recognition

of the wonderful work that he has done for our school and local community.

School Crossings

The finishing touches to student reports are being completed in readiness for them

to be sent home to parents on Friday 21st June. There have been some changes to

student reports due to Victoria moving towards the national curriculum. Parents

will notice that the reports generally look the same and the A-E grading scale has

been retained. To date, Victoria has assessed students against the new achieve-

ment standards in English, Mathematics, Science and History as part of the Aus-

tralian Curriculum. For June reports parents will no longer see the hollow dot that

had illustrated student progress throughout the year. The hollow dot will return for

the December reports, which will indicate the progress a student has made in the

second half of the year.

The progress of our children has been very pleasing, with all of our students having high expectations of

themselves and striving to achieve their very best! Their achievements should be celebrated as we know

that at Dandenong North we have the best learners in the state!

The teachers have worked hard to provide programs that enable each student to build on their prior

knowledge, creating an environment that encourages intensive learning to take place. Together the teachers

with the ES staff have worked together to ensure that each child’s educational and social needs are met to

give them the best possible start to their education.

It is also important that Parents take the time to read their child’s report, as they will then be able to discuss

student progress in greater detail during Parent Teacher Interviews.

A ‘C’ assessment means that your child is working at exactly the standard expected of them at their year

level. A ‘B’ assessment shows they are working at approximately six months ahead of their level and an

‘A’ shows they are one year ahead.

Parent teacher interviews will be held on Monday 24th June for English speaking parents and on

Tuesday 25th June with interpreters for all non-English speaking parents.

Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews

With our recent spate of wet days it is timely that we should remind parents about the

importance of using our school crossings at all times. During times when the roads are

wet or it is raining, a drivers vision of the road is impaired and wet roads make braking

in an emergency situation, difficult.

We have three crossings that are provided by the council for the safety of our students

when crossing Cleeland and David Streets. The first is situated on Cleeland Street,

next to the basketball court. The second crossing is on David Street, just on the other

side of the roundabout. Our main crossing is also situated on David Street and is

placed just near the Prep rooms.

These are supervised by crossing attendants employed by the City of Dandenong with an expectation that

between the hours of 8am and 9am and 3pm and 3.45pm, students and their families will cross at these des-

ignated areas.

We have also noticed a large amount of foot traffic through the staff car park before and after

school. This is an out of bounds area as there are staff coming and going through this car park at dif-

ferent times of the day and it is unsafe for students to cross here - even under the supervision of par-

ents.

Please make sure that you speak to your children about the importance of not walking through the

staff car park and also the importance of using the school crossings provided.

We thank you for your co-operation in this matter as student safety around roads is something that

we need to work on together.

Divisional Cross Country Last Friday 7th June, twenty children from Dandenong North Primary ran in the

Divisional Cross Country events after winning their way through to represent our

District after finishing in the top ten in the District event. The Divisional Cross

Country Championships is made up of children aged 10 years old and older from

schools in Noble Park, Springvale and Dandenong. Of the twenty children Mr

Malone took to compete in the events, twelve made it

through to the Regional Finals which are being held at Bal-

lam Park in Frankston on Monday 17th June. This is a fabu-

lous effort by all of the students who competed - all of

whom finished in the top 15 competitors out of 30 runners

in each race. As Mr Malone always states, this is the hard-

est team to be a part of as each individual child has to con-

tinue to train on their own to maintain the fitness to compete

at this level.

There were some fabulous individual efforts such as Maryam (5/6H) who came in

first place in the 10 year old girls and Muntazir (6M) who came first in the 11 year

old boys.

Miss Atkinson and Mr Malone should be congratulated for their efforts in training

the children and ensuring that they can compete against the best.

10 Year Girls 11 Year Girls 12 Year Girls

1st - Maryam Janice 6th - Margrett

3rd - Hasna Jessica 14th - Mia

4th - Ny 15th - Thusi

7th - Mariama 11 Year Boys

8th - Wacha 1st - Muntazir 12 Year Boys

13th - Fatima 5th - Mohamad 4th - Gervais

7th - Malesh 12th - Ali F

10 Year Boys 15th - Ali R

7th - Talha

12th - Edmond

15th - Jacob

Maryam 5/6H -

1st 10 Year Girls

Muntazir 6M - 1st

11 Year Boys

Our new website was re-launched last year and it has a lot of new pieces of information that families can

access. It is being kept updated by a team of dedicated staff which is lead by Mrs Colaci.

Part of this new website design allows families to access the fortnightly newsletter on line. If you wish to

receive an email when each Newsletter is published, please go to the school website

www.dandenongnorthps.vic.edu.au and click on the Subscribe to Newsletter button. This is located on

the right hand side of the home page and then enter your details.

Subscribe to the School Newsletter

Ms Mac our fantastic Art teacher is con-

tinuously coming up with creative activ-

ities for our students to participate in.

The children always come away from

Art sessions with a smile on their face

and something to be proud of. Here are

some photos of the sensational clay

Dragons that the Year 5 & 6 students

designed and created this term.

Miss Mac’s Fabulous Art Classes!