Extra Curricular

Camps

Foundation

Children in Foundation  commence their participation in the school’s Outdoor Education program with a two day camp.  Day one involves the children going on a hike and returning to school for an evening meal at Middle Gully Reserve.  Parents then collect their child to sleep at home. They then return their child in the morning.  Over the two days the children will have experiences in aspects of Environmental Studies, bushcraft and hiking.

Year 1 & 2

The Year 1 and 2 Camp incorporates an overnight stay.  The year 1 students sleep in the John Curtin Building for one night and year 2 students  set up tents at Middle Gully for the night. The children will have experiences in aspects of Outdoor Education, Environmental Studies and Bush Craft, including Landcare activities at Middle Gully.  The proposed timetable is listed below.  This may need to be changed depending on the weather.

Year 3 & 4

Weekaway Camp

The camp is located in Benloch, 15km north of Lancefield, set in a 72 acre bushland environment. Weekaway offers a large range of outdoor adventure activities, and we have selected the following activities as the core of the program:

• Canoeing and raft building on a safe and shallow lake,
• Flying fox and safe but challenging ropes course,
• Initiative/team building activities and damper/rogaining,
• Archery and hut building.

Qualified instructors are on site to run some of the specialised activities and to support the teachers with the 3-day program. The program provides the children with many fun and challenging adventures, as well as some team building experiences within a safe environment. Children sleep in for tents for 2 nights and have access to showers and toilets. A gymnasium provides additional indoor space for wet weather and leisure time activities.

Year 5 & 6

Cape Bridgewater

Cape Bridgewater is located at the end of the Great Ocean Road, towards the South Australian border, past Port Campbell. Cape Bridgewater has a lot to offer with its breathtaking views and abundance of activities. It is home to Australia’s largest mainland group of seals, the Great South West Walk, pristine beaches, freshwater lakes, underground caves and abundance of natural flora and fauna.

The camp involves the students in an extensive camping program where they set up and sleep in tents and participate in a great range of outdoor education activites.  The activities include: surfing, geo caching, caving, sand boarding, snorkelling, archery, movie night and fun beach activities.

Camp Howqua

Camp Howqua is located in the Victorian High Country, only 45 minutes drive from the top of Mt Buller and 30 minutes from Mansfield. It covers in excess of 64 hectares of picturesque countryside situated on the beautiful Howqua River.  The camp involves the students sleeping in tents in small groups.

The activities are run by professional outdoor education staff trained specifically in this area.  Whilst on camp, the students will be involved in a range of outdoor activities.  These include: horse riding, ropes courses, archery, flying foxes, orienteering, survivor courses just to name a few.

House System

The Macedon Primary School House system incorporates our school values of Respect, Creativity, Team Work, Responsibility and Integrity.  The children are placed in one of the following four houses:

Bourke (Green) – Sir Richard Bourke was the 8th Governor of New South Wales and approved a new settlement on the Yarra River called Melbourne.
Curtin (Blue) – John Curtin was the 14th Australian Prime Minister who attended Macedon Primary School.
Hume (Yellow) – Hamilton Hume was an early explorer of the present-day Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. He was part of the expedition of the first Europeans to discover the Darling River.
Mitchell (Red) – Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell was surveyor and explorer of South Eastern Australia.

House Captains are elected from Grade 6 at the beginning of each year.  House events are conducted throughout the year and all students participate. House events include: swimming, cross country, tabloid sports (a mixture of events including throwing, kicking and running) and athletics.

All students are expected to perform yard duty once a week at the end of lunchtime.  This is organised and led by the House Captains. Points are awarded to each House on their yard duty day and the House with the highest points at the end of the year are awarded the Yard Duty House Shield.

“Got Ya” raffle tickets are given out to children that are demonstrating the school values or motto, in the yard and classrooms. At the end of the week name/s are drawn out and the winners get to choose a special KidsMatter prize. They also receive an award and their photo printed in the newsletter.  At the end of the year the House with the highest points are awarded the KidsMatter House Shield.

Macedon Primary offers school-based ‘House Sports’ competitions for all students in Years 3-6 for swimming, and all students Foundation-6 for cross country running, tabloid sports and athletics. ‘House Sports’ competitions are conducted each year to promote a sense of community and connectedness, and celebrate skills learned in P.E. sessions in a friendly, competitive environment. 

Instrumental Music

The following programs are offered as an additona program, to be arranged and paid for privately by families. 

Guitar Lessons – Infinite Sound

Weekly 1/2 hour group session held at Macedon Primary on Friday mornings during school time for students from grade 2 -6.

visit www.infinitesound.com.au

Or call Aaron Moar – 0438 177 764

Ranges Music Network

Group and Individual lessons from grade prep to grade 6.

voice & singing, harp, ukulele, bass, drums & percussion, violin, flute, clarinet, saxophone, doods & toots (beginner woodwinds), trumpet, trobone, rhythm & more….

Visit www.rangesmusic.net or email info@rangesmusic.net

Middle Gully Reserve

Macedon Primary school is extremely fortunate to have a wonderful resource called Middle Gully Reserve (MGR) across the road from the school. It is a 2.1 hectare area with many native trees, vegetable gardens, a maze, fire pit, soccer field, dam, pizza oven, quiet seating areas, chickens and an Eco Learning Centre. Recently, toilets have been built on the site, and solar power and water has been added to the Eco Learning Centre in preparation for the re-development into a STEM learning space in the near future..

MGR is the cornerstone for a range of activities at the school. Each year level makes use of MGR during these the term for a range of activities, including nature art, planting and maintaining the vegetable gardens and pizza making.

MGR is used for our environmental program. Each term, every class in the school has an afternoon outdoor learning session at MGR. Each session will begin with a focus on learning about particular plants or how to maintain the plants we have at MGR. The students then divide into groups for different activities, such as planting vegetables, clearing weeds or making something to enhance MGR. MGR is also used throughout the year for school events such as the very popular Winter Solstice, and the school fete.

Each week during lunchtime, Years 1-6 have their own opportunity to spend a lunchtime play at MGR. This offers each of those year levels a chance to enjoy the open spaces of MGR and to embrace and explore the fantastic natural treasures throughout the reserve.

Interschool Sports

Our school is affiliated with School Sport Victoria in the Western Ranges Division.

Macedon Primary School students compete against other students and teams from local primary schools including Holy Cross PS, St Bridget’s PS, New Gisborne PS, Gisborne PS, Riddells Creek PS, Mt Macedon PS and Montessori Gisborne.

The District Sports Association offers a range of sports including: Australian Rules football, soccer, netball, softball, basketball, cricket, tennis, athletics, swimming and cross country running for our school to compete in.

Equal opportunity for both girls and boys is provided where good sportsmanship and fair play through healthy competition is promoted. When teams are selected, a strong emphasis is placed on how well students will best represent our school and demonstrate our school values of respect, responsibility, integrity, creativity and teamwork.

Year 6s and then Year 5s make up the majority of the football, softball, tennis, basketball, netball, cricket and soccer teams while Year 4’s are selected to fill in when required.

Year 3s and 4s are also selected to join our Year 5s and 6s to represent our school in the under 10s, 11 year old and 12/13 year old events at district swimming, cross country and athletic carnivals.

If students are successful in any of these events they then move on to represent the Macedon Ranges District at Regional and then State finals.

The school offers lunch-time coaching programs throughout the year, weather permitting, for senior students who participate in the interschool sports.