A Message from Hannah & Keir

We would like to acknowledge and honour the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which our school stands. We pay our respects to all First Nations elders, past present and emerging.

New School Entrance

Here are a few quick snapshots of the beautiful new BNWPS front entrance that everyone will get to see next year when they enter the school. The ‘Deeds not Words’ mural is especially exciting because the font was designed by Hazel Joliffe-Wilczek (one of our amazing and creative year five students) You might even see other signs and posters in that font next year. 

Thank you for sharing your creativity and talent Hazel! 

Graduation & Awards

Last Tuesday evening we celebrated our graduating class of 2022 with a grade 6 dinner, games, speeches, awards and a grown-ups versus grade 6s dodgeball game. It was an evening filled with laughter, reminiscing and a few tears.

For more than 15 years we have presented a special award at our graduation ceremony. This award is titled the Suzanne Peterson award and is presented to a single student who is voted by our school staff as living our school values with great fidelity. Our Suzanne Peterson award this year was awarded to Neko Grove. 

Neko has been a valuable member of the Brunswick North West Community from Foundation to Grade Six. During this time she has shone academically, socially and in every other aspect of school life. Neko has a wide range of talents and eagerly participates in a variety of in-school and post curricular activities. She is a keen sportsperson, with a very impressive list of sporting achievements.

Neko is incredibly self-motivated with great enthusiasm for learning. She continuously strives to achieve her personal best and has an outstanding ability to problem solve and think outside the box in order to come up with creative solutions. Her independent work habits and sound organisation skills are reflected in her work, as is her ability to persist, stay focused and on task. She is inclusive and empathetic beyond her years, always taking the time to reach out to those in need. 

Congratulations Neko!

In 2021 we introduced new awards at our graduation ceremony, based on our school values. These awards are given to students who consistently embody one of our values to a high degree. Our 2022 values awards this year went to the following students:

• Ibtihal Ibrahim & Rowland Lubcke for Authenticity
• Eleanor Rodwell for Respect
• Angel-Rose Lagowski for Connection
• Finian Mulcahy for Creativity

Pool/Fun Day

We wanted to say a big thank you to our whole school community, but especially to our students after their exceptional behaviour at our FunDay last Friday. It was a pleasure to see our whole school gather together for some fun in the sun, after three years of cancellations and alternative activities. The bucket-filling joy came from seeing how wonderfully our students interacted with each other and with the school and pool staff present. Everyone followed water and sun safety instructions without being asked more than once, which meant we could all celebrate our year together without incident.

We do have quite a bit of lost property left over from Friday, so please come and check the undercover area if something did not make it home.

Thank Yous

As we get to the end of the year it is a wonderful time to say thank you to the parents, carers and grown up friends of BNWPS, who help us in our vision of nurturing and educating the young people in our community. It has been so special to be able to invite volunteers back to our school operations and to see how our parents and carers love to get involved.

We thank all the people who have sat on school council, worked on a sub committee, helped with an event or working group, those who have visited classrooms, attended excursions, those who have designed our calendars and publicity materials, edited newsletter materials, attended working bees and those who have turned a sausage (or hundreds). We thank everyone who has made an effort to be involved not only in their child’s education, but in the cultivation of our community. 

While we are appreciative of the hours and energies everyone exerts in the name of our school, we do want to acknowledge a few special people who are stepping down from roles after they have made a special, splodge shaped mark on the hearts of this school and the staff within it.

It is likely that you will all know of our School Council President, Tanya Pittard. If you do not know her personally, we are sure you will have had experience with something she has been involved in. Tanya has been part of our school community for 10 years and has remained highly active throughout the whole time. Tanya has been part of our Education Committee, where she analysed data and assisted with communication about multiple educational improvements. She has been part of our CET where she introduced our whole school sports day and helped organise, set up, pack up and work on countless trivia nights, she has lead the winter magic market team through many evolutions of our beloved market that so many of you know and love and for the past two years, she has been our School Council President - leading our council through unprecedented times. 

Tanya is a powerhouse of intelligence and energy that can sometimes be a force to be reckoned with! But when Tanya’s name is raised in the company of school staff, it is always met with warmth and smiles. Any teacher or staff member who has ever worked with Tanya trusts that she has the best interests of the school and public education at her heart and that her deep love of community is what drives her forwards. We want to say thank you to Tanya for the countless hours she has dedicated to our school and community and hope she has found it to benefit her even a fraction of how it has benefited us.

This year, Sandra Simpson took on the task of leading “Communications’; our new School Council Sub-committee. She was also a much valued and respected member of the School Council. Sandra led the Communications group with passion and heart, and was able to welcome new members of the community into the Communications group. Sandra led the group through the development of a wide variety of deliverables and processes, and has created a very strong base for the next leader of the group (and the members of the committee) to carry into the future. 

Last but not least, we want to say thank you to Liz O’Neill and Emily Myer, who finish up this year in their role as CET co-chairs. While Liz and Emily will continue to be part of our school community for a few years to come, their time at the helm of our Community Events Team has finished up. Thank you Liz and Emily! Between you, you have streamlined processes, worked closely with the school and school council and the efforts you made to keep our school community connected throughout lockdowns will forever be remembered and appreciated. We hope you get to enjoy the events next year, without getting too involved!

Family farewells

As we do at the end of any school year, we must also wave a heartfelt good-bye to many of our year six families as they leave the day-to-day BNWPS community. We would like to say farewell to these families, and other families in this list who are  leaving us. We look forward to seeing you all at the Winter Magic Market in 2023!