Womin Djeka

Womin Djeka means 'welcome'.

Last Saturday our school had the privilege of attending the Womin Djeka festival at the Balnarring Racecourse. This was a fantastic day and a unique opportunity to celebrate and honour First Peoples cultures and contributions.

I was so immensely proud of our student's art work and writing that made our school display. We received many compliments for and I enjoyed talking with the community about our fabulous school. Thank you to the Linda and her family for assisting with our stall and to Mrs Roberts for her expert skills in working with the students to prepare for this event.

Student Led Tour/Open Night

Last week our students hosted a tour and open afternoon for our school community. This was a successful event and provided a great opportunity for our students to show their parents/carers around our school, meet the teacher and visit many of our new buildings and garden areas completed in our Capital Works project.

Parents had the opportunity to view their child's work, discuss the start of school progress with teachers and engage in activities provided in each classroom. Our Elysium educators provided some exciting activities including decorating cup cakes and there was a lovely smell of sausages wafting across the yard from the BBQ. It was a great afternoon and thank you for your attendance.

Student Leadership/Lunchtime Clubs

I am immensely proud of our student leadership team. Every week they lead our our lunchtime clubs with confidence, enthusiasm and positivity. We have a club scheduled for every day of the week. See timetable below.

Day	Clubs
Monday	Art Club
Tuesday	Library Club
Wednesday	Garden Club
Thursday	Shed 11 activities
Friday	Lego Club

Junior School Council

Introducing our Junior School Council Representatives (JSC) for 2025.

Name	Year Level
Marlee	Prep
Westly	1
Elouise	2
Grace	3
Amity	4
Kayden	5

We held our first Junior School Council meeting last week. Our agenda covered lunch time clubs, facilities improvements, fundraising and special events. The ideas from our young leaders were impressive and we plan to implement many of these suggestions throughout the year.

Crazy Hair Day - Term 2

Please note that the leadership team and JSC are keen to have a crazy hair day in Term 2 to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis. Crazy Hair day will be instead of our Easter Hat Parade. There will NOT be an Easter hat parade this term due to Easter landing at the end of our school holidays.

School Council Membership 2025

I would like to announce our 2025 Bittern PS School Council Membership.

Congratulations to the following school council members.

Parent members

Jack Mott

Trish Bampton

Jason Antoniou

Holly Emmet

School Employee Members

Kate Bacon

Stephen Espenschied

Facilities

We continue to prioritise efforts to maintain and improve our buildings and grounds.

ROOF CLEANING: Over the next few weeks contractors will be onsite after school hours to clean the roof areas of our buildings. We will be pleased to complete this scope of works as it is long overdue and will make a marked improvement to the appearance of our school.

PLAYGROUNDS: Contractors are currently on site to install edging around our 3 playground areas. This will ensure that our Softfall stays in place and keep these areas safe for our children.

Child Safe

Child Safe Standards: Tradespersons

Child Safe Standard 6: Strategies to Identify and Reduce or Remove Risks of Child Abuse

In accordance with DET guidelines, BPS implement risk management assessments and strategies to ensure the safety of all students, staff, families and visitors, including:

allocation of a Project Manager on all projects
induction of all tradespersons
signing in and out procedures
provision of additional bathroom facilities
clear line of communication with the Principal class at all times throughout the project

Sally Herbert

PRINCIPAL

Parents and Carers Information