Mentone Park Primary School acknowledges the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we learn and play.

We value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and cultures’ and recognise their connection to lands, waters and communities.

We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

2025 Foundation Transition Sessions 

Mentone Park Primary School has continued to be full of energy and excitement with our Foundation Transition running this term. We are thrilled to warmly welcome our new families to Mentone Park Primary School. Our 2025 Foundation students attended 4 sessions this term experiencing Art, PE, Steam and the classroom experience and meeting our Student Leaders. We have been so impressed with how well our 2025 Foundation students have settled in and loved seeing them make new friends and their joy when playing in the junior playground. We use the Transition sessions to get to know the children and for students to build their confidence and understanding of their new school and to feel connected with the people, spaces and routines for next year. We have our final Transition session on Wednesday 11th December where students will meet their 2025 teacher and be placed in their classes. 
 

Christmas concert 

The excitement is building as we have our Christmas concert next Thursday! Our students have been practicing their songs with enthusiasm and lots of Christmas joy! We can’t wait to see everyone there, please bring your picnic rug, fill up your picnic basket and be ready to see an amazing performance by our incredible students.  

2025 Class Structure: 

We have now finalised our classes for next year. Our structure in 2025 will be: 

Foundation x 2 class,  

Grade 1/2 x 3 classes 

Grade 3/4 x 2 classes  

Year 5/6 4 x 2 classes 

Our 4 Specialist classes are Auslan, STEAM, Physical Education and Art. On Monday 16th December our students will meet their new class and teacher for 2025 on this day. 

We are really looking forward to a wonderful year in 2025! 

Leisa Higgins 

Important Dates

• Friday 29th of November - Body Safe Australia Incursion(Session One)
• Thursday 5th of December - Carols On The Green (5-7pm)
• Friday 6th of December -  Body Safe Australia Incursion(Session Two)
• Thursday 12th of December - Whole School House Sports Day
• Friday 20th of December - Last Day of School (1:30pm finish)

In the Spotlight / Overview

What an exciting few weeks it’s been! Our Prep students had an unforgettable day at Melbourne Zoo, exploring incredible wildlife like playful meerkats and cheeky monkeys. They were fascinated by the animals and their habitats, with their curiosity and excitement growing at every exhibit. Engaging sessions with Zoo Keepers helped them uncover animals’ features, life cycles, and survival needs, bringing classroom lessons to life. The day was both educational and fun, filled with adventure, learning, and smiles. A heartfelt thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers—your support made this memorable experience possible!

Heads Up!

Dixon House Christmas Donations

Dixon House is once again organising a Christmas donation drive to support local families and children in need. This year, we are collecting new toys (but not soft toys please) for children and non-perishable food items for families.

Donations can be placed in the Christmas collection boxes located near the school office. The deadline for donations is Friday, December 6th.

2025 Booklists 

2025 school supply lists are now available on Compass! Please review and submit your orders by December 15th.

Raffle Donations

As part of our Carols on the Green event, each class has been given a unique theme to create beautiful hampers that will be raffled off during the evening. To make these hampers truly special, we kindly ask each class to contribute a small item related to their theme.

Prep A’s theme is Pamper
Prep B’s theme is Summer

Raffle Tickets

A reminder that each family was given a booklet of raffle tickets to sell and to please return them with name and phone number on both stubbs before Wednesday 4th December. There was also a flyer included with the raffle tickets, which we ask for you to pass onto a family member or friends to invite them to our Carols, to make our community night a success.

Literacy:

• We are continuing learning about writing a sentence using subject, verbs and adverbs.  We are learning to write recounts and information reports about animals.

Numeracy:

• We are learning to identify long and short and heavy and light.    

Inquiry:

• We are learning about which animals hibernate and which animals migrate or adapt. They have been exploring how this process occurs. In addition, we have begun designing our own hibernation dens.

Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships (Wellbeing):

• We are continuing our learning on being safe, fair and kind and recognising and acknowledging our similarities and differences.

Recognizing TIER Role Models

Important Dates

• Thursday 5th December - Carols on the Green (5-7pm) 
• Thursday 12th December - Whole school house sports day 
• Friday 20th December - Last day of school (1:30pm finish)

In the Spotlight / Overview 

The end of the year is fast approaching! Please stay updated with information about upcoming events. The students looked terrific for our whole school photo last Thursday. This week, they participated in their first Body Safe: Superstars session, learning about emotions, how they feel in their bodies, and identifying those signs. They also discussed safe adults to approach when feeling scared or uncomfortable. Next Thursday, the 5th, they’ll attend their second session. Meanwhile, students have been busy practicing their Christmas songs—we can’t wait to see them perform!

Heads Up!

Literacy

research using an iPad or laptop to gather information to write an information report about an Australian animal. 

Numeracy

collect and classify data using questioning and tally marks and display the data in simple graphs. 

understand the 5 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Refuse, Repair, and Recycle) and how we can reduce our waste as Earth's temporary custodians to keep our planet healthy. 

Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships (Wellbeing)

identify specific feelings and how we can link them to certain emotions. And 

Recognising TIER Role Models

Olive D - For displaying Integrity and excellence inside and outside of the classroom on a daily basis. She puts 100% effort into her classwork and always presents her personal best work.

Important Dates

In the Spotlight / Overview:

Over the past two weeks, our students have been participating in Body Safe and Bike Ed. In Body Safe, they discussed how our bodies respond to emotions like happiness and fear. They’ve also loved Bike Ed, building their bike safety skills and confidence.

Heads Up!

Bikes

For Bike Ed and all students riding bikes to school, please remember to remind your children to dismount once they reach the school gate and walk their bike through the school grounds at all times to ensure everyone's safety.

Dixon House Christmas Donations

Dixon House is once again organising a Christmas donation drive to support local families and children in need. This year, we are collecting new toys (but not soft toys please) for children and non-perishable food items for families.

Donations can be placed in the Christmas collection boxes located near the school office. The deadline for donations is Friday, December 6th.

2025 Booklists 

2025 school supply lists are now available on Compass! Please review and submit your orders by December 15th.

Raffle Donations

As part of our Carols on the Green, each class has been allocated a theme so we can put together a beautiful hamper. This will be raffled off during the evening. To make each hamper a true showstopper, we kindly ask if each class could contribute a small donation related to their theme. Whether it’s a book, a toy, gardening gloves or tools, a sweet treat, or something festive, your contribution will help make the hamper the best it can be! 

• 3/4A’s theme is gardening
• 3/4B’s theme is Christmas

Literacy: Be able to use reading strategies to help my comprehension of texts. Edit, uplevel our vocabulary and publish our persuasive letters.

Numeracy: Identify independent and dependent chance outcomes and record results of chance experiments, and identify symmetry and lines of symmetry.

Inquiry: Understand how human actions change the Earth’s surface.

Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships (Wellbeing): Identify times when we can use relaxation techniques to reduce tension levels.

Recognising TIER Role Models

Kavya D - She is a positive role model for her fellow peers, demonstrating attentive listening and always taking on tasks and feedback with a positive attitude.

Important Dates

In the Spotlight / Overview:

The countdown to multiple highly anticipated events is on and the Senior School is busy preparing themselves for an EPIC few weeks! With all of the extracurricular activities going on, we haven’t slowed down with any of our learning and are almost finished reading our novel study, ‘ A Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ by Jules Verne. We hope to watch the film adaptation in a week or 2 as an opportunity to not only celebrate the incredible adventure this classic text has taken us on, but to also compare and contrast its modern interpretation.

Heads Up!

Bike Education

Mentone Park Carols & Hampers 

Each class has been assigned a theme for a hamper to be raffled off at the upcoming Carols Night. If you have something appropriate to donate to either hamper, we would be very thankful. The themes are: 5/6A - Games Night  5/6B - Craft

Icy Pole Fridays

Thank you for the generous donations of Zooper Dooper packets. If you are able to include a packet in your shopping, it would be greatly appreciated as there are plenty of Icy Pole Friday’s and special days coming up! They are currently 20% off at Woolworths.

Body Safe Australia

Committed to keeping children and young people safe, these sessions are designed to empower children with the knowledge and skills they need to protect themselves, communicate their boundaries and respect others. A facilitator will work with each year level separately to work through 5 x one hour sessions. These sessions will be spread across 2 days. Please provide consent on Compass and payment on Qkr. 

Yr 6 Events

Please check Compass for details related to the upcoming Yr 6 specific events. Consent needs to be given in order for children to attend the Big Day Out.

Dixon House Christmas Donations

Dixon House is once again organising a Christmas donation drive to support local families and children in need. This year, we are collecting new toys (but not soft toys please) for children and non-perishable food items for families.

Donations can be placed in the Christmas collection boxes located near the school office. The deadline for donations is Friday, December 6th.

2025 Booklists

2025 school supply lists are now available on Compass! Please review and submit your orders by December 15th.

Literacy: 1.Read, spell and define words with the Greek morphemes, mon (one), di (two), tri (three), tetra (four), penta (five), hexa (six) & hepta (seven). 2. Utilise the Seven Steps for Writing Success to generate persuasive arguments. 3. Analyse our rich literature text, ‘A Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ by Jules Verne.

Numeracy: Design, map and budget for your own theme park.

Inquiry & Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships (Wellbeing): Communicate boundaries and respect others while participating in Body Safe Australia activities.

Recognising TIER Role Models

Alexis St - for her consistent positive attitude and always demonstrating respect across the Senior School.

In Auslan, students have been learning to sign everyday routine signs including morning, afternoon and evening routine signs.  The students in grade 3 to 6 have learnt to sign O’clock, half-past, quarter to and quarter past times while our younger students have learnt to sign the days of the weeks and the months.  We have also been busy practicing to sign the Christmas song “We Wish you a Merry Christmas”

Here are some signs you can practice at home:

Important Dates

• Thursday 12th of December - Whole School House Sports Day

In the Spotlight / Overview

The Junior School students have been enhancing their hand-eye coordination, mastering forehand strokes, and developing teamwork skills through engaging tennis activities. Meanwhile, students in Years 3-6 have continued their Bike Ed program, focusing on safe riding practices, understanding street signs, perfecting slow riding techniques, navigating small jumps, and avoiding obstacles.

Heads Up!

Sports Day Helpers

Soon we will be asking for helpers for Sports Day! 9:30-1:30pm OR just the morning or afternoon session would be great.

Bike Ed

Bike Ed has one more week. Please remember to discuss with your children the importance of getting off of their bike once they reach the gate and walking it within the school grounds to avoid accidents at peak times. The staff car park is not an entrance and is not to be used.