Welcome back Brookside community to Term 3. It has been wonderful to have all our students return back after the holidays and settling in so well into their routines and learning. We hope that everyone enjoyed the break!

Welcome!

It is with great pleasure that we welcome back to Brookside Melissa Barbu from Maternity leave. We are so thrilled to have Melissa back in our 7-9 space.

We also welcome to Brookside College this term Jessica Peters-Rodriguez who is teaching 6E. It is wonderful to have you join the team. We thank Vanessa Taylor for all your work over the past two terms in 6E.

ScienTwits Incursion is coming to Brookside!

To celebrate Science Week from Monday the 14th of August to Friday the 18th of August, Brookside College will be funding an incursion for all students in Years P-9 on Monday August 14th. All families are required to do is to consent to the event via each child's Compass.

Science! Comedy! Chaos! Hop, skip or jump into the Scientwits disastrous science lab for… MORE Wrong Experiments! There will be science, there will be mess and sadly, for poor Scientist Sam, absolutely nothing will go to plan thanks to Captain Chaos! This one-of-a-kind, high-energy and interactive sketch comedy show for kids is not to be missed. Captain Chaos is back as Scientist Sam’s assistant, however without any formal training and an appalling lack of attention to detail, he 'accidentally' derails Sam’s intended science lesson, substituting Scientist Sam’s mundane experiments for bigger, better, messier and far more exciting versions. Welcome to MORE Wrong Experiments!

Suitable for ages 4-4,000,000, get ready to be blown away... not literally of course!

2023 Annual Book Parade

Each year since 1945 the CBCA has brought children and books together across Australia through CBCA Book Week. During this time schools and public libraries spend one glorious week celebrating books and Australian children's authors and illustrators.

This year, our annual Book Week Parade will take place on Tuesday August 22nd. Students in all year levels are encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character and participate in our parade. Parents, younger siblings and staff are also encouraged to dress up to participate. This event will be held under the Hayshed from 11.45am.

There will be prizes on offer for the best dressed students across the college. We can’t wait to bring our school community together for this event and see the creativity you all bring!

2023 Brookside Colour Run

On the 13th of September, Brookside will be holding its whole school Colour Fun Run event. Students will have the chance to participate in a run around the Brookside oval whilst being covered in coloured powder. Each year level will be running throughout the day with a timetable of the day to be released closer to the event.

Students will have the opportunity to fundraise money for the event which will be going towards new sports equipment and new sports uniforms for Brookside College. This week your child will bring home a fundraising pamphlet. This pamphlet has all the fundraising details needed to get you started. The letter (attached to this compass post) is a bit more information for you as parents/guardians and how the fundraising process works.

The more money your child fundraises the larger the prize at the end fundraising period they will have the chance to select. There will be prizes along the way for classes and individuals with sign ups and most money raised so please stay on top of your fundraising. Thank you to Caitlin Pretty for all her hard work in organising this wonderful event.

Prep 100 Days of School

Tuesday 1 August marks a very special milestone for our Prep students. This special day will officially mark 100 days our Prep students have been at school so far this year. Our wonderful Prep teachers have planned a fun filled day of activities, beginning with an assembly in which parents/guardians are invited to attend. Congratulations and well done to our amazing Prep students for this special achievement!

Mobile Phones at Brookside

From Term 1, 2020 new mobile phone policy for all government schools was introduced. The policy means phones brought to school must be switched off and stored securely during the school day.

The aim of this policy is to provide:

a safe environment to learn without inappropriate mobile phone use (including cyberbullying) or distractions
greater opportunities for social interaction and physical activity during recess and lunchtimes.

The use of technology is important, but the risks and benefits from its use need to be managed. You can view Brookside’s mobile phone policy on the college website.

There have been recent instances that students and parents are communicating with each other during the day. We ask parents to please support the policy and in the event of an emergency parents can contact their children through the school office.

Dropping off at school safely

The safety of all our students at Brookside is paramount. Over the past two weeks while the weather has been much cooler, parents are dropping their child/ren off as close to the school as possible in unsafe locations. We ask parents to please not stop at the round-about in front of the school to drop off their children. There are no standing signs displayed at this location.

Changes to NAPLAN reporting

All students in Year 3, 5, 7 & 9 received their 2023 NAPLAN results on Tuesday 25th July 2023. If your child has not yet received their results please contact the college.

There have been some changes to this year’s reporting. These changes have been introduced nationally by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

NAPLAN will continue to measure student achievement in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, and grammar and punctuation, however the results will now be presented in 4 proficiency levels:

These 4 proficiency levels are:

Exceeding
Strong
Developing
Needs additional support.

This change will give schools, parents and carers clearer information that detail student achievement against new proficiency levels.

Students’ NAPLAN reports will continue to show how they are tracking against their peers and provide an indication of their skill levels against national averages and where we would expect them to be in order to get the most out of schooling. This provides valuable information to teachers about how we can continue to support your child.

Each set of NAPLAN results is an important milestone, but it’s also important that students know that one result does not define them – these results are about making sure every student gets the support they need so they can continue to get the best from their learning.

Exford Primary School Fundraiser

Thank you to everyone in our school community who contributed to the Exford Primary School fundraiser last term. Exford Primary School have provided us with a lovely Certificate of Appreciation to acknowledge our efforts, and their sincere thanks for all of the support they have received.

We hope all students and staff have a wonderful Term 3!

The Executive Team

French

With Heather Jones, Eleanor Kratz + Anne Nguyen