After many months of interviewing and developing various models, we are super excited to share with you our 2023 teaching teams! It is always an honour to work through this process each year; we are humbled by the quality of applicants interested in working in our school and we are excited to create teams with a balance of experience and expertise. We have mixed feelings about saying hello to new people and farewell to some people we have known for a while.

Foundation:

Catherine Beswick will remain our Foundation team leader in 2023. Edith Kenny-Smith has returned from her trip overseas and will be rejoining our BNWPS family. Ernesto Bobadilla will be finishing up our Foundation team when he moves from our Junior School to the Foundation team.

Juniors:

Alice Hamilton will remain our Junior team leader in 2023. Beverly Andrews and Nici Fausten will continue their time in the Junior team and will be joined by Tim Harwood and Shalani Marasinghe, who will share a class as well as Deb Robins, who is moving down from the Seniors!

Middles:

We are excited to announce that Celia Dickinson is returning to full-time teaching, and will be leading our Middle school in 2023. The team will continue to have Tim Plummer and Kate McCormack, who will again share a class next year and Emma Mallia (our Literacy Leader) will now share a class with Rebecca Ewer, who is returning from family leave. We are pleased to announce that Lian Beveridge will be working with us in a full-time capacity, now their baby is a little older and the Middle team will be rounded off with Larissa Fry, who is moving down from the Senior team.

Seniors:

Lori Kirk will be leading the Senior school in 2023, moving her way up from the Middles this year. Jesse Hughes is also moving up to the Senior grades next year and they will be joined by Ann Laming and Michael McLaughlan, who are remaining in the Senior school. New to the team will be Martin Richards, who is returning to us from a year teaching in Footscray, and Rebekah Tankard - a fantastic new addition to our team, who has moved from Mildura.

Specialists:

Even our specialist team has had a reshuffle for the new year. There is no change to the program for PE or Indonesian, with Tom Nelson and Kasenya Grant continuing to teach those subjects. Andrew Lang remains our adored Art Teacher for grades 1-6, with Kate McCormack teaching Foundation Art again. Jack Madin continues to travel the world being a celebrity, which has presented an opportunity for Jenny Wheatcroft to move over to the Specialist team in 2023, teaching Performing Arts. Finally, our Environmental Science subject will be shared by Shalani Marasinghe and Alicia Flynn - another teacher who is returning to BNWPS after teaching and learning in other settings. Alicia helped design our Environmental Science program a number of years ago with Ian and some colleagues, so we are excited that she can hit the ground running (or planting, as the case may be).

So Long:

Many of you will have noticed the names missing from our list; people we will be saying ‘so long’ to, but hopefully not ‘goodbye’.

Cam Ball has been a ‘Cam of all trades’ for us this year and we will always be grateful for this! Cam taught Performing Arts in term 2 and did a brilliant job at taking over from Edie in Foundation for the second half of this year. Cam will be teaching at Moreland Primary next year and we wish him the best of luck for the future.

Aidan Bryant taught in our Junior school this year, bringing even more colour and vivacity to the team. Aidan will be teaching at the Niddrie Autistic School next year and we know he will have a fantastic time there.

Tom Dartnell will be returning to relief teaching, whilst exploring other opportunities and devoting time to passions and interests outside of work. We will forever be grateful of the years Tom has spent with us and hope to see him around at school events in the future!

Ian Adams has run our Environmental Science program for a number of years now and has been instrumental in moving our productive garden and revegetating some parts of the school. Ian is undertaking some tertiary studies next year, which we know will make him an even bigger asset to any school or community. We wish Ian the best of luck for the future and thank him for everything he has helped us achieve.

Steve Young has been such a super star in the performing arts role this term, it feels like he’s been here all year! As Steve’s contract was only for a term, we will say goodbye at the end of the year, but we hope Steve will remain part of our community through his work as a CRT with us.

30 November	Foundie Transition
01 December	Seniors Big Day Out - Fun Fields Art Attack 6 - 8pm
05 December	Grade 5/6 Camp (5-9 Dec)
08 December	School Council
09 December	Christmas Plant & Produce Market
13 December	6-7 Transition Grade 6 Graduation
15 December	School Council Dinner
16 December	Friyay Fun Day!
19 December	Last Day of Term

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