Hall Program

Our Hall program is a rich developmental play and language experience program for children in Foundation to Grade 2.

Developmental play is an important component in childhood development.  Children learn through experiencing and experimenting with language. Oral language and social skills are developed through shared experiences. The immersion in oral language facilitates the language development of all children. Children engage with their peers negotiating, comparing, sharing, describing and problem solving in a stimulating environment.

Hall sessions run for an hour and consist of children from different grades.  Currently, 10 children come from 3 different classrooms. This supports transitions through the school as it allows for students to know a wide variety of children. This supports the wellbeing of all students and benefits are evident in the playground. Children have several opportunities each week to participate in Hall as follows:

• Children in F/1 classrooms usually have 3 sessions per week
• Children in 1/2 classrooms have 2 or 3 sessions per week
• Children in 2/3 classrooms have 1 or 2 sessions per week

Classroom teachers ensure that mixed groups attend Hall each session and that younger children or those with needs that are best supported by Hall have the extra sessions. Over the year, Grade 1's (for example) end up having the same number of sessions regardless of the grade they are in.

Parent/Carer Helpers:

There are opportunities to support the Hall program and the running of small group activities. They might be your own ideas or support for activities already running. Organisational jobs are available for helpful parents as well. Please let the office know that you would like to make time to help or check the Hall noticeboard.

Donations are gratefully received. Please check the noticeboard for items that are needed or let the offie know if you have anything else you would like to donate.

Japanese

Konichiwa!

Japanese is the Language Other Than English (LOTE) that is offered at MPW. It is taught to at all year levels from Foundation to Grade 6. All children attend Japanese classes for 1 hour per week. 

The Japanese program is integrated into the classroom curriculum as much as is practicable. This might mean that a particular aspect of a unit that lends itself to the language is selected as a focus to not only extend the unit but to consolidate and develop new language and language patterns. The activities may have a cultural background with a unit influence as appropriate.

Language is made up of different components that are interactive and interdependent – listening, speaking, reading and writing. All aspects are covered as a whole and independently at times, depending on the unit and/or the needs of the students.

Please come and visit us whenever you can. If at any time you have questions, suggestions and time to help please see Diana or Cindy. You are most welcome.

Sayonara!

Physical Education

Our main aim is to make Physical Education enjoyable for all children and for them to develop a lifelong appreciation of physical activity.

All students participate in at least a 1 hour P.E. session each week with the P.E. Specialist covering such areas as fundamental motor skills, ball skills, gymnastics, dance, fitness work, athletics, games and sports.

The students in Grade's 5-6 (and occasionally some Grade 4's) are involved in interschool sport and compete in swimming, cross country, athletics, summer and winter sports. There is a high expectation of good sporting behavior and an emphasis on working as part of a team.

We encourage links with community groups and we have recently had visits from local Hockey, Football, Cricket and Basketball clubs.

We also organise two whole school sporting days which currently are a Fun Run and a Jump Rope Day. The aim of these days is to encourage all children to participate in a healthy activity, to create a positive school feeling and to raise money for a charity and our school.

Learning Support

In addition to normal classroom programs, MPW runs a Learning Support Program throughout the school (Foundation to Grade 6).

The Learning Support teacher works with classroom teachers to support the progress of students who require additional support  including students from backgrounds other than English.

The focus of the program is upon supporting the learning needs of each and every individual child.

Creative Arts

 
Our program at MPW incorporates Singing, Music, Drama, Dance and the Visual Arts including 3 dimensional works.

Creative Arts aims to involve each child in a range of experiences that foster: 

• Independence, perception and imagination
• A positive self-image, resilience, and feelings of worth
• The development of skills and interests, which enhance their individual creativity and self-expression
• Learning through direct experiences whereby children experiment, make decisions, judgements, solve problems, acquire and use information skills
• An awareness of and appreciation of other people's culture, past and present
• The ability to appreciate, respond and reflect upon the ideas, works and skills of others
• A recognition of multiple intelligences

Library

Our library is an attractive, enjoyable and interesting place where books are valued. The library has a wide range of literature. Our aim is to promote and develop a love of literature by encouraging children to attend library sessions and borrow on a weekly basis.

The library provides high quality and current resources to support the learning needs of all students. It is organised to allow easy access and information retrieval for all children and teachers.

To maintain the children’s interest in literature, the library provides a range of displays, visiting authors/illustrators/performers and family activities.

We have a parent borrowing system available, with a range of books for parents to enjoy reading with specific focus on Parenting, Student's Wellbeing and Student Learning.