The Principal's Report
Boroondara Literary Awards
Last night I was able to attend the 21st Annual Boroondara Literary Awards at the Hawthorn Town Hall. Well done to all of the students who submitted stories and poems for the awards.
Christina in Year 6 was Highly Commended in the Junior Prose section of the awards for her story The King of Dreams. It was my pleasure to spend time with a number of students earlier this year writing, discussing stories and editing finished products. Congratulations to Christina! Her story is included for your enjoyment.
The King of Dreams
The eyes in the painting followed him down the corridor. He wore the most eye catching garments and vividly purple hair. As he walked briskly the roar beyond the brilliantly red door before him grew steadily louder. Once he reached the door he placed his hand on the door knob. Then, with the flick of his wrist, the door gave in and the volume of the crowd exploded.
The boy tilted his head back and laughed an infectious laugh up on his balcony. Then he smiled broadly, revealing perfectly aligned teeth and gestured his hands outwards. He gazed out dreamily into the sea of grey. The people cheered jubilantly and the children clapped with glee, waving tedious grey flags that rippled in the wind. They were all wearing grey, unlike him, the King of Dreams.
Compared to him everything appeared dull and unadorned.
The city consisted of row upon row of identical, boxlike, concrete houses that filled the landscape and the residents were as bland and as unsightly as the compartments they spent their uneventful lives in. The air was commonly permeated with an eerie silence and almost everything was grey.
Not a single leaf swept the streets for there wasn’t a tree in sight. There was only tall grass that carpeted a hill and swayed loftily in the light breeze like an army of gentle ballerinas. The hill would eclipse the sun from the city in the early hours of the morning, submerging the concrete houses in an immense shadow.
Perched on top of the hill was a grand, picturesque house that smiled down upon the city. Its tiled roof bore markings of water droplets which had once danced upon its surface and its door was an intense red. The house was said to contain the most astounding, wonderful magic that lurked in every vacant space. It was the only magic that existed for miles and miles and the boy who walked within its walls found it all, in the most unexpected places.
The boy was the alluring, crackling fire within a silent land of ice. He was the shrill cry in a world of murmurs. He was the rainbow in a sea of grey. No, he wasn’t the king. He was the King of Dreams.
One day he would rule the world.
Working Bee
A huge thank you to everyone who came along to the Working Bee on Sunday.
Our school is looking amazing!
We had 70 wonderful workers of all ages who filled up the sand pits, “fluffed” up the soft fall under the play equipment, weeded and mulched the gardens, prepped the stairs for painting, cleaned the cobwebs, swept the paths, trimmed the bushes and so much more.
Thank you to all of the students who attended, we are calculating house points and will be sure to add them onto the totals for this week.
A special thank you to Greg and David who organised and ran the day, ensuring there were lots of tasks for all of those who attended and that they had the right tools. Thanks for arranging the sausage sizzle afterwards.
We appreciate you all giving your time to BPPS.
If you weren’t able to join the fun this time, don’t worry – the next Working Bee is scheduled for the 16th of February 2020.
Canteen update
School Council would like to inform the school community that a canteen operator has been selected to operate on premise utilising the current canteen space and fittings. It is anticipated that the operator will commence service at the start of 2020.
The selection process included an Expression of Interest where tenders were submitted in Term 3. Interviews were conducted with tender applicants and the School Council’s Canteen subcommittee were able to obtain further information about specific areas of importance to BPPS. These included:
- the operator should be environmentally conscious in operation and in choice of food items,
- provide healthy menu at affordable prices,
- have outstanding canteen staff who build rapport with students,
- provide over-the-counter sales as well as online ordering and on-premise meal preparation.
After this rigorous selection process, School Council have chosen Hungry Hamper Pty Ltd as the BPPS canteen operator. Hungry Hamper are an established and experienced operator with a sound business model which will align with the BPPS values and expectations.
Thank you for your patience as we have worked through the Expression of Interest process, interviews and making a decision. A special thanks to the members of the Canteen team - Lisa, Theresa, David and Joanne who have worked with me to ensure we could relaunch our school canteen.
Staffing News
You will have recieved a message earlier this week letting you know that Randal Symons will be on sick leave for the remainder of the 2019 scool year. We all wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him in 2020.
To support us leading into the end of this year Sue Young from Serpell PS will be working with us. Sue is an Assistant Principal at Serpell and has been acting Principal at a number of schools in the last few years. Please keep an eye out for Sue and make her welcome.
Autism Professional Learning
Last week our staff were fortunate to hear from Dr Richard Eisenmajer from the ASD Clinic. He spoke to us about autism, with a focus on supporting us to understand autism spectrum disorder. We gained an understanding of:
- how autism is diagnosed
- how students can present when they are on the spectrum
- how to support a child on the spectrum to learn
- how the social aspects of school can be a mystery to many students on the spectrum.
Our staff were really impressed with the knowledge imparted by Richard and hope to work with him again in 2020 to build their knowledge about strategies to support students on the autism spectrum in school.
2020 Parent Contributions
A reminder that we have sent home the Parent Contributions letter for 2020. Our Finance Team and School Council work to ensure that the contributions are not a financial burden to our families, considering this there is very little increase for the 2020 school year.
Payments will be taken from December 1st and book packs can be collected from the office after the payment has been received. You can choose to pay cash, cheque or credit card at the office and then a book pack will be given to you.
If you are paying by BPay or direct deposit into the Bank account, after payment has been received and reconciled the book pack will be sent home with the student. Please allow a few days for this to occur.
You will also be able to to pay and pick up book packs on Tuesday 28th January 2020 from 8.30am to 3pm from the Office.
Is your child leaving BPPS?
Please take a minute to fill in the Google Form if your child will not be returning to Boroondara Park PS in 2020. We will then contact you and arrange details. All students have a Victorian Student Number - the VSN is taken from school to school, if your child is moving to another State school then we will provide details to the new school. Thank you for taking the time to complete the form.
Leaving Boroondara Park PS in 2020
Susanne Lowe
Principal