Dear families,

Student Transition:

The staff have been working with much care and consideration over the past few weeks so as to create the most nurturing and productive grades for your children for 2021. As per the class placement policy, many facets have been considered and while there is no one ‘perfect’ scenario, we work very hard to create grades which support your child’s learning. 2021 grade lists will be sent out next week.

2021 Teaching Teams:

Over the past few weeks our teachers have been fervently working on class placements, dedicating many hours to deep discussions, advocating for your children’s best interests in regards to their 2021 learning communities. Class lists will be announced next week, however this will not occur on Monday, as we are still finalising our workforce plan, with interviews continuing early in the week. We expect families to be informed of their child’s classmates and teacher before the end of the week, with the deadline for appeals to be extended to reflect this delay.

As per the policy, this week we are announcing the teaching teams for next year - as always, I am excited about the incredible staff who will be working with your children in 2021!

Foundation: Catherine Beswick, Faith Kelly, Larissa Fry

Grade 1/2: Alice Hamilton, Chris Moed, Emma Mallia & Celia Dickinson, Jesse Hughes, Lisa Do, Martin Richards

Grade 3: Kate Middleton, Lori Kirk, Nicole Fausten, Tim Plummer

Grade 4/5: Ann Laming, Bel Martys, Bianca Dallan, Jessie Meade & Rebecca Ewer, Tom Dartnell

Senior School: Deb Robins, Michael McLaughlan, TBC

Specialists: Andrew Lang & Kate McCormack (Art), Ian Adams (Enviro Science) & Shalani Marasinghe (Enviro Science & Indonesian), Kasenya Grant (Indonesian), Jack Madin (Music), Tom Nelson (PE)

You will likely notice that we have tried to maintain many of our teaching teams, where possible. This is particularly true for our Grade 1/2 and Grade 4/5 team, most of whom were in this year’s 1/2 and 3/4 team. This action is to support our students after the disruptive year that was 2020. In both teams we have the addition of teachers from neighbouring teams (Chris Moed is coming up from Foundation and Ann Laming is moving down from our 5/6 team) to provide insights that will support each team to provide a seamless and targeted curriculum.

I have no doubt that you will also note the absence of some of our existing staff members. At the end of this year we say so long (but hopefully not farewell) to Jess Brown and Nadia McComb. Jess is moving back to Brisbane to be close to her family and Nadia is looking forward to taking on new roles in her future. We wish both teachers the very best for their future endeavours and look forward to staying in touch! Jenny Wheatcroft is also absent from our teaching team listed above; following DET guidelines, Jenny’s contract is required to be re advertised and we are completing this process early next week and will inform our families of the outcome along with announcing classes.

As we say goodbye to some teachers, we are excited to welcome back Lori Kirk, who has returned after her year of travel. We are tremendously excited to welcome Lori back, with her notable teaching and leadership experience as well as her remarkable classroom environment.

STELA updates:

By now you would have noticed that works have commenced! Next week your children will no doubt be very absorbed in the earth works starting. As you can imagine this has the potential to create a lot of dust. We will encourage children to keep away from the fences, however we often find sticky beaks. Please remember if your child has asthma or any health need that we need to be informed.

Over the holidays, a lot of the work will commence in our beautiful old building. In fact most of the first floor will be painted, blinds installed and windows repaired so as to allow for airflow. New inside toilets will also be installed for children and adults. This will really give the old building a beautiful face lift. We are all looking forward to this!

Drop-offs and pick-ups!

Drop off:

For the following two weeks, please continue dropping your children off at the usual time. As your children are showing such confidence and independence when coming into school, most classroom teachers will no longer be present at the gate. If your child is experiencing some challenges, I am confident the classroom teacher will make the necessary arrangements.

Pick-ups

Just a reminder that our F-2 parents are allowed back onsite in the afternoons with the following restrictions:

Firstly you are not be allowed into the school buildings unless an appointment is made with a staff member. This is the same for the office - please continue coming to the front door or calling and office staff will assist you in any way required, and
You can only stay on the school grounds for a limit of 15 minutes (any more time than this, attendance need to be recorded.) To help with this an announcement at 3.45pm will be made to request that all families are off site.

All children are now being dismissed at 3.30pm.

End of year Fun day

As with many aspects of 2020 we have needed to adapt and substitute activities so as to maintain our Covid-safe practices. The same is true for our end of year Fun Day. This year we’ve reimagined it and have invited KABOOM to come in to school and run some fun ‘sport’ activities with all students. This will be held on Monday 14th of December. For further information please go to: https://kaboomkidsports.com.au/

A school like no other, during a year like no other!

A parent’s perspective…

Recently during a Student Support Group meeting, in which we were celebrating Noa Brown’s achievement, I was so moved that I asked his mother, Carmen, to put in writing her feelings about our school. Here are her words…

The strength of our Village.

I’m sure many of us will attest to the fact that we’ve learned a new found appreciation for the amount of talent that goes into teaching our little ones. These last few months of lockdowns and remote learning have made me reflect on the amazing set of skills that our teachers and staff have demonstrated. Not only do they teach their little minds the nuances of reading, writing and arithmetic but our teachers have been thrust into the not so comfortable position of being counsellors and support persons for our little people during a truly turbulent and unprecedented time.

I always knew we were lucky to have landed at BNWPS but these last two years as a parent here have taught me so much about the resilience and dedication of the teachers and staff of our school.

As we approach the end of a very challenging school year, I reflect back onto our own beginnings here at BNWPS.

Choosing a school for many is more of a perfunctory activity. Most of us are blessed to be surrounded by excellent educational options. We are really lucky in Melbourne to have many excellent primary school options within our neighbourhoods. As immigrants to Australia, we were fraught with anxiety not only due to the “foreign-ness” of the educational system but because we had a child with additional needs and navigating a new system PLUS having that additional anxiety of acceptance was beyond stressful.

We did our due diligence, looking at over 20 schools in multiple suburbs hoping to find somewhere that would be a good fit, not only academically but psychologically. One fateful day years ago, we had an appointment to meet Hannah and Wendy when looking for the “perfect fit” for our special boy. Most of the other school meetings I came out wanting to cry because I felt that our son would be tolerated by the school at best. However, after meeting with Wendy and Hannah I still felt like crying---only this time it was tears of overwhelming relief. This was the first time I could imagine what inclusion would look like for our son.

We have seen Wendy, our teachers and Educational Support staff literally work magic trying to determine strategies to support not only our son but the countless number of children that need additional support at school. Gone are the days where the “cookie cutter” educational approach was used. BNWPS continually shows us that they remain dedicated to the principles of supporting and nurturing individual learning styles. There is so much that goes into creating these environments and learning the different strengths and weaknesses of ALL of the children. I can’t imagine how they keep it all straight but they do it so WELL.

Inclusion and diversity are so very important to creating well rounded and safe societies and I feel so lucky that we landed in the right place. Their dedication to these principles are not just “lip service” but a truly ingrained belief system reflected in everyone at the school. I applaud our teachers, staff and my fellow parents for creating something truly special in our little school on the Hill. In the current uncertain and occasionally chaotic world we really have created a beautiful place. We should all be VERY proud.

Student’s perspectives…

At the beginning of 2020 me and my friends were really excited about being Grade sixes in 2020. Now we’re thinking, thank God that lockdown’s over. But some good did come of coronavirus. For example, the world got to recover a bit from global warming and air pollution levels decreased. Because people were working from home, they didn't drive cars as much, and I think people are walking and riding to school more. I liked some aspects of lockdown, like choosing what work we did and when. We didn't get to do camp, but we did an at-school camp week and the teachers even managed to do Big Day Out, and we will be able to do graduation, so we got to have a normal end of year. The school has made this last term really fun with lots of group projects. So even with coronavirus, this year has been a really good one.

Written by Joey Price

Being a grade 6 in 2020 has been an extremely unique experience. Everything has been so different because Covid has really messed this year up. All the usual activities have changed in some way or another. Big day out was nearly cancelled, we've had no proper excursions at all this year, camp was cancelled and we almost couldn't invite anyone to graduation.

Even though so many things were cancelled, the teachers got things to replace them. For example, grade 5/6 camp was cancelled, so instead the teachers organised camp week for us. When whole school pool day was cancelled, the teachers announced we were having a ‘fun day’ to replace it. I am so grateful that the teachers did these things for us, because they made my last year at this school a lot better.

There have been some positives to Covid, like having a year we'll never forget. The school has done such an amazing job making this year special. We missed a lot of the year, but while we have been here, it’s been amazing. I wish I didn't have to leave this school. Written by Zoe Cohen

2021 and beyond…a personal journey!

I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you and farewell to the BNWPS community.

While I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in this incredible community, it is time for me to firstly have a break and then to reflect on my next professional step! I have worked in education in different guises over the past 30 years and while I’ll always have working with children as my core, I’m excited to explore other avenues. So over the next 6 months my goals are more personal and includes spending time with my family, including helping to plan for my daughter’s wedding, travelling, exercising, reading and most of all rejuvenating!

I sincerely wish all the best for this wonderful school, and in fact feel VERY EXCITED for the next steps. I am very confident that under Hannah’s leadership and the talent and determination of the staff, all that has been established over the past 3 years and previously, will provide a solid platform for significant academic growth. I wish the best for you and your children and am confident that I’ll be dropping back into the school on numerous occasions. I’ll sincerely miss everyone!

Wendy

The Nor'Wester

Issue 36 · 04 Dec 2020

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