“We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people, the first people to dream, create, wonder, dance, play and learn on this breathtaking land. This land was cared for and respected for tens of thousands of years. The First Nations people lived in companionship with the animals and the life on this land. We acknowledge that this is stolen land and we pay our respects to elders, past, present and emerging.”

Rayma Atkinson (2023 Suzanne Peterson Award Recipient)

Term Three in our Middle School

Term three 2024 is an exciting time of change and welcoming new babies and new teachers in our Middle School.

We would like to congratulate Lian Beveridge and their partner on the (very soon!) upcoming birth of their second child. Lian will be taking a six week period of leave at the beginning of next term to spend time with their beautiful new family. We would like to welcome Tom Mansfield who will be the teacher in Unit LB for those six weeks. Tom works regularly as a CRT at BNWPS, and we are very happy that he has agreed to work with Unit LB for this time. Please say a big BNWPS “Hello and Welcome!” to Tom if you see him around the school.

Very soon we hope to be able to announce the name of the teacher who will be replacing Shalani in unit SM. Shal will continue to be at school for the first two weeks of next term, and we will be able to use this time as a handover period. We will let our community know as soon as any more information becomes available.

Eddie Betts

On Tuesday of last week, our senior school students had a visit from Eddie Betts as part of their Inquiry. Eddie spoke to his captivated audience for approximately an hour; sharing details of his personal life, his football career and his advice for the next generation. Eddie spoke with remarkable positivity as he shared examples of the hardships and barriers he had faced in his life and always returned to concepts such as the importance of showing kindness to others, how to encourage courage, how we all have a responsibility to make the uncomfortable comfortable for ourselves and others, how each individual can use their privilege to help others and the importance of going to school!

It was fantastic to see the smiles and genuine admiration so many of our students have for Eddie Betts, he really is a spectacular role model for young people Australia-wide. We look forward to using his stories and images in much of the Inquiry learning that is still to come.

We thank Eddie for taking the time to speak to our students in grades 5 and 6 and a very big thank you to our OSHC program - as they funded this experience, making it free for all our students to attend.

Winter Solstice Event

We would like to thank everyone who attended or contributed in any way to our fantastic Winter Solstice event last Friday afternoon. It was so lovely to see, hear and feel the gentle Winter BNWPS buzz. A truly beautiful afternoon.

Yellow Ladybug Conference 2025

Last week, teacher representatives from each of our teams attended the Yellow Ladybug Conference. The Yellow Ladybug Conference brings together autistic experts from the allied health, education, advocacy, research, care-based and creative sectors to share their experience, work and ideas on how to better support autistic girls and gender diverse youth at school, home and beyond. There were some truly amazing and inspirational speakers, as well as some very clear and simple strategies and practices that we can employ to continue to make BNWPS a more neuro affirming space and community. The teachers who attended the conference will be sharing their learnings with other staff early next term, and this will then filter through to student experience in the classroom and the yard.

Term Three School Calendar

A hard copy of our Term three 2024 school calendar will come home to families later this week. Term three is jam-packed with lots of exciting moments and events, so we recommend you keep the calendar somewhere visible so that your family can be ready to engage in each and every one of them.

Just a reminder that on the back of the calendar is a brief description of some of the big events that will be happening. This information also includes key contacts for each event in the instance that you might have a question or a wondering, or you might like to offer your support. Other important information on the back of the calendar is the upcoming key dates and events for the next term (in this case term four 2024) It can be so easy to pin the calendar up at home, and then forget that this important information is right there on the back.

We would like to remind everyone that school finishes at 2:30pm on Friday. We will hold a brief assembly, starting at 2:15pm. We wish everyone a safe and happy Winter holiday. We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday 15th July for the first day of term three.

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