Principals' News 

Principal News, 07.03.2025

Dear Banyan Fields Primary School Community,

What a busy and exciting few weeks we have had. Since our last newsletter, our review panel have spent 5 full days observing in classrooms, meeting with students, staff and parents, analysing our processes and discussing the next steps in our school’s progress. We expect to receive our report by the end of the term and will then start working on our 4-year School Strategic Plan (SSP) and our Annual Implementation Plan for 2025. 

SRC:

Last week we held our 3-6 assembly where the Student Representative Council members were announced. We have a strong student voice at the school and encourage all students to work together to raise issues they are passionate about and create lasting change within the school. Students from Years 3-5 will work with the SRC captains in Year 6 and Rebecca McCorkindale, Emma Wilkinson and Catherine Tewksbury on a range of whole-school events throughout the year. Congratulations to the following students:

Year 3- Matthew, Morgan and Michaela

Year 4- Zac, Xander, Henna and Abby

Year 5- Punaswitha, James and Aubrey

Foundation picnic:

Our Foundation students celebrated their first full week of school this week with a family picnic. It was lovely to see parents and families come and share a special lunch with their child to celebrate this milestone.

Easter Raffle:

Students brought in copious amounts of chocolates and treats for our annual Easter raffle. Jayde McLeman has been busy creating Easter hampers for our raffle. Make sure you don’t miss out on purchasing your tickets for these amazing prizes!

GRIP Leadership Conference:

On Tuesday 4th March, Rebecca McCorkindale took our Year 6 school and vice captains to the city for the annual GRIP Leadership Conference. They spent the day working through a range of topics to help build their confidence and capacity as leaders. They are really looking forward to getting their ideas shared and put into action.

District Swimming:

Last week, James Weirzbinski and Rachel Cole took 13 students to the Pines Swimming Pool where they represented Banyan Fields in the Frankston District Swimming Carnival. 

Overall, our team performed extremely well finishing 5th overall in the district. 11 of our 13 students will be eligible to represent the school again in 2026, which establishes a platform for even more success next year.  

Congratulations to the following students for their outstanding results:

3rd place for our 11 year old boys 50m freestyle relay team;

2nd place for Archie (4C) in the 9-10 boys 50m freestyle;

6th place for Xavier (5J) in the 11 boys 50m freestyle;

4th place for Luca (6W) in the 12-13 boys 50m freestyle;

5th place for Xander  (4M) in the 9-10 boys 50m backstroke;

6th place for Felix (3J) in the 9-10 boys 50m backstroke;

3rd place for Flynn (5J) in the 11 boys 50m backstroke;

2nd place for Archie (4C) in the 9-10 boys 50m breaststroke;

2nd place for Flynn (5J) in the 11 boys 50m breaststroke; and

3rd place for Luca (6W) in the 12-13 boys 50m breaststroke.

Massive congratulations to both Archie and Flynn who finished in the top 2 of their events, and will now go on to compete at the Northern Peninsula Division Swimming Carnival on Wednesday 26th March.

Poppy:

Our beloved therapy dog, Poppy, has been coming to school and helping students engage in their learning. Students have been spending time with her giving her lots of cuddles throughout the day!

International Women’s Day:

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. On March 8th we celebrate this day and make a call to action accelerating women’s equality. Banyan Fields would like to acknowledge the hard work of all women in our community. 

NAPLAN:

The students in Years 3 and 5 will participate in their NAPLAN assessments over the next few weeks. They have had the opportunity to complete practice assessments this term to prepare them for the logistics of using the online platform. We are excited to celebrate the students’ learning. 

Parents are reminded that, while it is important for students to get lots of sleep and healthy food during the period of the assessments, there is no additional preparation required. We suggest that you avoid making any big plans during the time as your child may be tired and need additional rest.

School Council:

Thank you to everybody who self-nominated for our School Council. We received enough interest to fill the available spots without requiring an election. We will share more information with you after our first meeting of the new council on March 20th. 

School Review: 

Our review panel have been busy over the past fortnight, visiting classrooms, discussing processes and structures with staff, gathering feedback from students and parents, celebrating the successes achieved over the past four years and identifying key areas for improvement over the next four years. 

On Thursday, March 6th, the panel, including the principal class officers at Banyan Fields, set a range of key improvement strategies:

Learning:

• Build a culture of high expectations through a shared vision and values
• Build school-wide consistency in the implementation of the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model

Wellbeing:

• Refine, document and consistently implement evidence-based best practice for inclusion
• Build community engagement

We will provide you with more information as we finalise the 4-year Strategic Plan and the Annual Implementation Plan for 2025. 

We are grateful to every member of our community who contributed to the process. 

Patrick Halpin - Principal 

Jacqui Sampson - Assistant Principal 

Jennifer Churcher - Assistant Principal 

Sharleen Nason - Assistant Principal