This year our School Photos will be taken by Crackerjack Studios on Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd February. The sibling pack has a separate tab and must be ordered along with your Deluxe, Classic or Portrait pack before February 20th for your children to be on the photographer's list.

Photos will be delivered to the school when completed and sent home with your child. If you order ONLINE, you DO NOT need an envelope. You will need to fill out 1 simple form for your child/children and another for your sibling photos. Please go to Crackerjack Studios page to order your photos. http://crackerjackstudios.com.au/mitcham-primary-school-photos-2023

Behaviour and Wellbeing Consultant, Madhavi Nawana Parker presented to our school community on Wednesday night 15/2. A small group of parents and carers attended the night and were extremely positive of the practical and relevant information Madhavi provided.

Madhavi explained and presented strategies around why it’s difficult for our students to ignore social media, text messages and other awesome things on their devices. She helped us understand how to help them enjoy time with and without their device so their wellbeing, learning, friendships, family relationships, sports and hobbies continue to flourish. Madhavi answered specific questions about household technology use and provided suggestions to help those parents.

Madhavi’s presentation was practical and highly relevant to our school community and the needs of our students. Feedback from attendees was optimistic and they expressed their thanks as a school community of having strategies to reinforce positive and compassionate behaviours around devices. As always, we welcome feedback and suggestions about topics for parent workshops.

Outcome of the Materials & Services Poll

We wish to advise parents/carers of the outcome of the 2023 Materials & Services Poll conducted by the School Governing Council. The school community voted in favour of making the prescribed sum of $460 legally recoverable. The votes received were 211 For and 41 Against.

$100 Materials & Services Rebate

For the second year, South Australian families with children attending public schools will receive a $100 SA Government discount per student on their annual materials and services charge. 

Unlike last year, you don’t need to do anything to claim the $100 discount. A $100 credit has been automatically applied which reduces your 2023 Materials and Services charge to $360.00. 

Financial Statements showing the $100 credit and your Materials and Services invoice have been sent home with your child.  Please only pay the amount printed on the red sticker of the Statement. 

The rebate does not apply to families approved for school card as they are not required to pay the materials and services charge. See separate School Card heading for more information.

Payment of the Materials & Services invoice is due by the end of Term 1. Any extension on this time can be arranged by setting up a Direct Debit or Payment Plan. Please email dl.0270.finance@schools.sa.edu.au for the authorization form.

Excursions and Activities

Excursions, camps, activities, aquatics, swimming lessons etc will be invoiced individually prior to each event. A letter and consent form will be sent home with details of the excursion and amount payable. Details will be uploaded on our QKR! App. and payment must be made prior to attendance.

Have you downloaded the Qkr! App yet? It's our preferred method of payment

We encourage parents/caregivers to download the Qkr App which is a convenient way to pay for all school fees, excursions, uniform purchases and canteen lunch orders. Details of your order and payment will be forwarded securely to the school each day. This provides you with the convenience of being able to make payments at any time and will eliminate payments being left in school bags.  Itemised QKR! e-receipts provide you with a record of purchase and are a convenient way to keep track of your payments.

Low-income families with children that attend government schools can get financial help with school fees – materials and services charges – through the School Card scheme.

School card applications are now open for 2023. Income limits, based on the number of dependent children in your family, have been increased by 6.4% this year. With this increase, some families who were not previously eligible may now qualify. Information on school card eligibility, income limits and the application process can be found at www.sa.gov.au/education/schoolcard.

School Card MUST BE APPLIED FOR EACH SCHOOL YEAR and lodged at your earliest opportunity.

If you need help completing your application please contact School Card on 1800 672 758 (free call).

You will be notified by the School Card Section of the outcome of your application, please do not pay any money towards your Materials and Services charge until you know the outcome.

We are always looking for volunteers in the canteen so if you have some spare time and would like to help, please go to the front office to collect a volunteer application form. You will need to complete a DHS Screening for Working with Children and a Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect - Education and Care (RRHAN-EC). Once these have been completed and copies of certificates supplied to the office, you will be able to become a member of our wonderful volunteer team.

Welcome to the Library

Hello and welcome back everyone! A special hello and welcome to students and parents who are new to Mitcham this year. The library is located in the Tutt building at the end of the corridor. The library is a welcoming place where students can read, borrow, play with puzzles, colour in or create a masterpiece of design with our Lego wall. We are closed during recess but open for the lunch break. We are closed before and after school. 

Borrowing Books 

Class teachers have booked a time to bring their classes in for weekly borrowing lessons and students may borrow at lunch time too. Reception to year 2 students may borrow up to four books and years 3-6 students may borrow up to six. Students can keep books for up to two weeks. After two weeks the books are overdue and will need to be returned before any more are borrowed. 

Overdue books 

We would much rather students be able to continue borrowing than be worrying about a book they can’t find. Parents, please, if you or your child are concerned about any books that are overdue or lost, contact Vasi in the library on vasi.gelasakis474@schools.sa.edu.au. While we expect students to treat our library books with care, we do understand all sorts of things can happen. Overdue notices will be sent directly to the parent email you have nominated for receiving notices. Years 3-6 students have a school email address to which we will also send overdue notices.

Premier’s Reading Challenge

Teachers will be distributing these forms in the classroom. When completed, reading challenge forms should be handed in person to Vasi or Sunyoung in the library. The library has spare forms if required. We have an excellent range of the Premier’s Reading Challenge books and we are always happy to help students locate them. The PRC website at https://premiersreadingchallenge.sa.edu.au/ has online lists you can check from home. In the Library these books can be identified by the coloured stickers on the books’ spine. Reception to Year 2 students have red stickers, Year 3-5 have green stickers and Year 6 books have yellow stickers. The Premier’s Reading Challenge concludes on 8 September.

Book Club 

Our school is participating in Scholastic Book Club again this year. Once a term, during the school year, I will send home a Club catalogue with a different selection of books offered for all ages. This year the book club catalogue has a new look – instead of a magazine it is being printed as a newspaper. You will find award-winning books and bestsellers, as well as old and new favourites. Each order helps earn free books and teaching materials for our library, however there is never any obligation to order. 

It is easy to order. The Book Club LOOP platform for parents allows you to pay by credit card. Your child’s order is submitted directly to school safe and sound and the books will be delivered to class. You can place your child’s order at www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. Only orders requested and paid for online via LOOP will be accepted. We are unable to accept cash, cheque or credit card payments to the school. The first catalogue was sent home last week. 

Yours in reading,

Vasi and Sunyoung

Year Sixes! - The Primary School Music Festival is here again!
We did the MPS choir's "Try B4 U Buy" session on Wednesday, and that went tremendously well.
If you want to be a part of the choir, simply return the permission slip and pay the fee. Forms went out today, but we can arrange another one if it was misplaced.

As we discussed, there are LOTS of roles besides being in the choir. If you're interested in being a HOST at some of the performances, information can be found here.

If you're interested in being a singing SOLOIST at one of the shows, information can be found here.

If you're interested in being in the dance TROUPE at some of the performances, information can be found here.

If you're interested in being an instrumentalist in the ORCHESTRA at some of the performances, information can be found here.

Roles in the orchestra, dance troupe, or host and soloist positions are all applied for through the PSMF website and are decided by audition to the PSMF team. I look forward to seeing the eager singers next week at our first choir rehearsal with our accompanist!

Mr Fielder - Choir Leader/Performing Arts Teacher

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for helping to make the 2022 - MPS Quiz Night such a success. This year the Quiz Night sold out in record time!!! With your support we have managed to raise an incredible $18,000 to purchase staging and IT equipment for our new gym!!!

On the night everyone looked amazing dressed in their Sequins and Sneakers and our new gym was a fabulous venue for the return of this popular event.

To the MPS parents & teachers who filled the 26 tables, it was wonderful to see you all answering quiz questions, dancing to some old favourites and especially enjoying each other’s company.

To the Fundraising Committee - Sophie, Chevonne, Caitlin, Jacqui, Diana, Arthur, Claire & David – congratulations and a special thank you for helping to organise such a successful event.

We would like to acknowledge all our generous sponsors who donated prizes, vouchers and wine for the event. We really appreciate your contributions.

A fun night was had by all and we look forward to your support of future fundraising events in 2023.

Please see below the upcoming important dates and school events for the rest of Term 4

Borrowing in Term 4

Friday 2 December (week 7) will be the last day for student borrowing. All books should be returned by Wednesday 7 December (week 8).

If your child is unable to find a book please pass a message through their teacher or email sophie.calvertsmith315@schools.sa.edu.au.

Yours in Reading,

Sophie and Sunyoung

Wow!!! What a fantastic response we have had from our amazing school community.

Last week, the Junior Primary Student Representative Council, the Citizenship Committee and School Captains were hard at work sorting all the fabulous donations received for this year’s Community Service Project.

We would like to thank all those families who donated items for Puddle Jumpers, a charity that supports vulnerable children and young people by providing activity days, camps and food assistance for those in need.

Thanks to your generosity we will be able to provide many young people and families with essential items heading into the Christmas holidays.