Mary Queen of Heaven Newsletter Term 1

The school year begins in the week of Australia Day.  Tuesday and Wednesday are reserved for staff planning and preparation with an open school event on Tuesday 28th January from 3-4pm.  We encourage all families to attend this day, preps can wear their school uniform and get their ‘First Day Photos’ and all students and family can come along and meet their educators.

Thursday & Friday we welcome our year 1-6 students in for the 1:1 meetings with their educators.  Information around bookings has been shared on Audiri.

Friday we welcome our Preps.  On this day families are invited to bring their children into the classroom and will be encouraged to ‘Kiss and Drop off’ in a quick and positive manner.

Each day our school gates open at 8:30am with two staff on yard duty supervising students. Families drop students at the gate, this time is a great opportunity for the children to play and socialise before the school day begins.  We encourage children to be at school well before the bell at 8:45 for a seamless and stress free start to the school day.  Again, at the end of the school day, the yard and front gate are supervised.  Children wait with the teacher at the Hillside Gate to be collected by families.  Please be punctual in collecting children.  Children not collected by 15 minutes after the bell will be taken to after care at the cost of families.

Terms 1 and 4 children wear summer uniform and terms 2 and 3 they wear winter uniform.  We have a great selection of versatile uniform options. These are designed to be mix and match.  Please ensure children ONLY wear sports uniform on their sports day and Fridays.  All other days are full school uniform. Hats are to be worn in terms 1 and 4.  Children without a hat will be encouraged to play in the shaded areas.

Please ensure you have downloaded the Audiri app as we use this platform for communication with families, sending excursion forms and distributing our newsletter.  Once you have done this, please join your child’s class group (e.g. Grade 1B 2025) and year level group (Grade 1 2025).

If you need support with this, please see one of our office staff or your child’s educator for support. 

Before and After Care at MQH is run by BIG Childcare.  This is an excellent service, utilised by many of our families.  The quality of care and amazing educators are a real blessing to our community.  Before care runs from 7am until 8:30am daily and After care from 3pm (Mon & Tues, 3:15pm Wed-Fri)  until 6pm daily.  Prep children are collected from their classroom each day, the rest of the school makes their way to our library area to meet the educators.  They are then walked over to the BIG Child Care space.

We encourage families to apply sunscreen before school each day. 

Zooper Doopers are sold for $1 each Monday and Friday in terms 1 and 4 and warm popcorn is sold for $1 in terms 2 and 3.

The last day of each term is a casual clothes day for the children.  On this day we often ask for a gold coin donation, this goes towards a charity of the children’s choice.  This will be communicated prior to the day.

Please see attached PDF

Fees Mary Queen of Heaven 2025.docx

The areas surrounding our school can get quite busy at drop off and pick up times. We ask all families to please follow road rules and parking rules.  Please be reminded that the area on the school side of Hillview Rd is a 10 minute drop off only zone, you cannot park along this area for more than 10 minutes.  At pick up times, children will wait with the teacher on duty for parents to collect them.  Children need to be walked across Hillview rd by an adult or are encouraged to use the French Rd crossing.

At the end of Term 1 and Term 3, we hold Parent-Teacher Conversations to engage with families and discuss student progress.  Additionally, we use the Seesaw App for real-time reporting throughout the year across all learning areas.

Families also receive two written reports at the end of Term 2 and Term 4. These reports are driven by data and include personalised comments and progression points, providing a comprehensive overview of your child’s growth.

At the start of each term, Curriculum Overviews are shared on Seesaw, outlining the topics and learning areas being covered in class.

We encourage our families to visit The Victorian Curriculum website to familiarise yourselves with the curriculum content to better understand our allocation of progression points etc. https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/

Teachers will communicate with families outside of these reporting times if there is a need.

Our reporting policy meets the requirements as outlined by the VCAA, which provides advice for Victorian schools on the development of whole-school curriculum plans and reporting student learning achievement based on the Victorian Curriculum F–10

On Thursday 30th and Friday 31st of January, we are offering an opportunity for children in grades 1-6 to participate in one-on-one testing sessions with their educator. These 30-minute sessions provide a valuable chance for connection and to gather data that will inform teaching and learning.

Please check Audiri for more information regarding this.

Prep children will have their testing days on their Wednesdays off.

Lunch Mums deliver nutritious, tasty and healthy lunch orders to our school each Thursday.  Orders can be made online using the My Schools Connect app. (see below)