Welcome to Montello Primary School

Montello Primary School is situated in a park setting near the Burnie City Centre. Nearby are Burnie Aquatic Centre Police and Citizens Youth Club. The school has created strong community partnerships, in order to fulfil our mission of Making People Shine, assisting all students to maximise their learning that they might confidently face the challenges ahead of them as independent lifelong learners.

At Montello Primary we strive to build quality relationships within our community between students teachers and parents. We recognise parents as the child's first educators and believe in creating partnerships to optimise learning. In addition to the core learning areas we offer a range of support programs such as LIFT, LIL, Literacy Intervention, Keeping Kids Connected, BillyCATS, a Life Skills program, pre-Kinder Learners Program, Physical Education, ICT, Kitchen & Garden, Water Awareness and Learn to Swim programs and Breakfast Club.

We treat the responsibility of educating children very seriously and encourage both formal and informal opportunities to meet and to build a team approach to improve learning outcomes for all children.

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Latest News

Scooters & skateboards

03 Aug 2020

Monday 3^rd August, 2020

Dear %%first_name%%,

As of today, Monday 3^rd August, 2020, we have made a decision as a school to ban scooters and skateboards on the school grounds. The reason for this is because of the safety concerns regarding the majority of students that have been riding scooters to school.

Unfortunately these students have repeatedly not listened to instructions from multiple adults in the school, on multiple occasions. We have received phone calls from the public about unsafe riding on the streets before and after school and several students have continually ridden their scooters through the busy carpark even though they are aware that the expectation is that they walk their scooters once on the property. Some students have not always worn helmets and not stopped to speak to adults when asked to do so.

There has only been a small numbers of students that ride their scooters to school regularly and it is unfortunate for those students who have done the right thing that this measure needs to be taken but ensuring the safety of our students and limiting the opportunity for a serious incident to occur are our main priorities.

Starting from today if students bring a skateboard or scooter on to the school property we will keep the scooter or skateboard at the office until it can be collected by the child’s parent or carer.

Bikes are still permitted and we remind students to always wear a helmet and to walk their bikes once on the school property.

Thanks for your ongoing support to help ensure the safety of all students at Montello.

Yours sincerely,

Denise Wotherspoon Dion McCall
Principal Assistant Principal

July 30 Newsletter

30 Jul 2020

Click here to view the July 30 Schoolzine eNewsletter!

July 2 Newsletter

02 Jul 2020

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SRC Pyjama Day Friday 26th

24 Jun 2020

The SRC have organised a fun Pyjama Day for students. P-6 will be held Friday. Kinder Pyjama Day is tomorrow THURSDAY 25th.

June 18 Newsletter

18 Jun 2020

Click here to view the June 18 Schoolzine eNewsletter!

MPS Wear Your Beanie to School Day

15 Jun 2020

This Friday 19th June students can wear their beanie to school to support Brain Cancer Research. Gold coin donation please.

June 4 Newsletter

04 Jun 2020

Click here to view the June 4 Schoolzine eNewsletter!

Denise's return to MPS letter

26 May 2020

26th May, 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians,

What an amazing world we are living in! After a long period of personal leave I have returned to work to find so many changes at our workplace. Returning with the students yesterday was very exciting – it was almost like the first day of a new school year! Students were presented immaculately, looking happy and healthy and settled into classroom routines very easily. I commend you all for the lengths you have gone to over the past few months to keep your child(ren) connected to their learning and safe in your home environment.

I also want to congratulate and thank the amazing staff team at Montello for the work they have done in these trying times. Dion McCall has been an exceptional leader in my absence, in both setting up the school year and then navigating the challenging waters of the Covid 19 crisis. Supporting 54 staff members in stressful times has not been an easy task. His leadership has enabled our teaching team to be well prepared for on-line learning and our Learning Assistants to be meaningfully engaged in preparing activities for students and staff. Cameron Hales and Peter Williams have assisted Dion in their Leadership roles and have taken greater responsibilities than would normally be expected of them. Emma Short and her Admin team have done a fabulous job keeping our central hub ticking over and ensuring all families could remain connected to the school. Ange and her fabulous EFA team have kept our buildings spotless and thoroughly hygienic – a huge task which has been greatly appreciated by all.

And during all of this we had the passing of our highly esteemed colleague – Lisa Bonney. Lisa was not only a highly professional and dedicated educator, she was strong, determined and so courageous during her illness, never complaining and most often soldiering on under the most difficult of circumstances. The shock that ran around our school community was testament to Lisa’s courage, as many – dare I say most – of our students and you - our parents - would not have been aware of what Lisa was going through, such was her stoicism and strength.

It has been said “challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” These are most certainly challenging times but together we will overcome the challenges before us.

Thank you all for your commitment to your children and our school community. Thank you to the many people who sent condolences on the passing of my much loved Mum, and who have welcomed me back so warmly.

Montello Primary is an amazing place, and I have every confidence in a strong and prosperous future.

Regards,

Denise Wotherspoon

Principal

Return to School 25th May Information

22 May 2020

22nd May, 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

Staff at Montello are looking forward to having students return to ‘at school’ learning on Monday, 25^th May. Montello will be doing the best we can to support the safe return of students to our site. We have developed a COVID-19 safety plan which includes some directions from the Tasmanian Department of Education to help minimise the impact of COVID-19 in Tasmanian schools. This means that while students will be returning to school on Monday, there will be changes and there is a new normal. We will continue to review these changes, as will the Tasmanian Government and we will communicate any further changes to you.

Tips_to_prepare_for_returning_to_school_Coronavirus_COVID_19_.pdf

Please have a conversation with your children about the changes. Keep talking with your child about the importance of washing their hands and following any instructions staff might put in place to help with hygiene and physical distancing. We must have practices in place to meet a COVID-19 Safety Plan and these requirements are important components in managing any risks that may exist for school sites:

“Maintaining health and safety for learners and staff on our school sites is a priority, and schools are implementing practices to support physical distancing between adults, and maintaining strict hygiene protocols, based on public health advice. A range of measures will continue to be in place in schools including:

students and staff who are unwell must not attend school
adults must not gather in and around school grounds, car parks, entrances and outside classrooms
physical distancing of 1.5 metres is required by all adults
Public Health advice is that physical distancing between children is not required in schools provided they are well. However, for extra precaution, physical distancing will still be encouraged where practical, provided it does not impact on education provision.
increased cleaning frequencies of high-touch surfaces
students will continue to engage in regular effective handwashing and hygiene protocols, including regularly washing hands with soap and water or using hand sanitiser and covering coughs and sneezes” – Department of Education, (May,2020)

Why_Our_Schools_Are_Safe_Places_Infographic_COVID_19.pdf

Important information:

To help limit contact between adults, there will be an extension of adults not being allowed into classrooms or the building before or after school. To help achieve this there will be some changes to our before and after school routine.

Before school:

External classroom doors will remain locked. The external doors that students can enter through are on the deck or the door next to the canteen. Grade 5 and 6 students will be able to go directly to their classrooms. Students will not be able to play on the equipment before school. The office is open for essential reasons, however, if your enquiry can take place via phone we would prefer this.

After school:

Change of time at end of day: To assist with physical distancing at the end of the day and to help keep everyone safe, Kindergarten – Grade 2 (plus their siblings in Grades 3-6) will leave at 2:30pm. Grades 3-6 will leave at the normal time of 2:45pm.

Adults are to maintain physical distancing of 1.5m while waiting to pick up children. This has been an issue on the early childhood deck and adults need to follow the directions from the Tasmanian Government regarding this. Parents and students are to leave the grounds straight away. There is to be no afternoon catch ups on the school grounds.

3._Stop_Drop_and_Go_A3_Poster.pdf

Traffic zone before school:

If using the drop-off zone in the morning please do not park and exit your vehicle -wait until you are at the front of the line and then have your child/ren exit your car from the left hand side only. We do not want children walking in between cars and traffic. Expect that there will be an increase in the amount of cars using this method so please be patient. To ease congestion on Bird Street, we ask that when leaving the driveway please turn left only (please see map attachment). If you are wanting to go right please turn up Tattersall Street and then right on to Mace Street.

MPS_Entry_Exit_MAP.pdf

Traffic zone after school:

The driveways, and top car parks will be closed from 2:00pm. At 2:30pm the driveway will open for drive through collection only. There will be no parking in the school car park during this time. Senior staff will be on duty to help ensure the flow of traffic. Please follow instructions to help keep everyone safe. Again only turn left on to Bird Street or up Tattersall Street, DO NOT turn right (see map attachment).

Seesaw is the preferred method of communication with class teachers. Could parents please let class teachers know via Seesaw whether or not your child will be using the pickup system. Children will be in the hall and when your car is at the front of the line they will get into your car. Please do not overtake in the line and wait for the people in front of you. If your child is not ready when you arrive you will have to leave and go around the block via Tattersall and Mace Street and enter again. Do not turn into the driveway from the right, you need to travel up Bird Street from the sea end and enter the driveway from the left. Again this is to avoid congestion.

A reminder that there is to be no parking on the yellow lines outside the netball courts, this is a no parking zone. Pedestrians are to enter by the wooden steps or the staff car park pedestrian entry. Do not walk up or down the driveway at any time.

This is a big new change to the drop off and pick up procedure. We are determined to make it work. The traffic set up in this area is not ideal and we need your support to make this work. In the past when the school has tried to have a designated pick up area it has not worked because parents have not listened or followed the instructions. It is in everyone’s best interest to make this work and support this system.

Thanks for your continued support and assistance during the past weeks. We acknowledge that is has been different and challenging. We also acknowledge that you have done a great job with learning at home and we look forward to seeing everyone on Monday. There will be issues and problems as we go along but we need to communicate and work together to help transition our children back to school.

We can do this.