Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents & Guardians, 

150TH CELEBRATION AND OUR OFFICIAL OPENING

Sunday is probably one of the biggest days ever for our school. 150 is an amazing milestone. When you consider that Baccus Marsh Primary is the state’s oldest school, starting in 1850. 

As I’m sure you are aware Sunday will have a fete type atmosphere with food trucks, market stalls and plenty for the kids to do. Unfortunately, there is a dunk tank that I have to spend time in. 

The day will start at 12pm for the formal part of the day.  After that part is over all the stalls will be open.

Timeline for the formalities:

The formal part of the day is below:

Welcome 12pm - Aunty Joy & smoking ceremony.

12.15pm - James Merlino - including official opening of the school, ribbon held by school captains and cut by Aunty Joy and curtain opening by James Merlino.

12.25pm – Molly, Mila & Tyson (school captains) – old building to the new building and how it’s changed in your time at the school. 

12.30pm - Time capsule buried in 1988, (past student Phil Gardener - alongside captains & Lachlan Gardener current student).

12.40pm – Cindy McLeish MP.

12.45pm - Kieran Cantwell (School Council President).

12:50pm – Danny Hyndman (Past Principal) .

12.55pm – Oliver Thockloth (Current Principal) .

1pm  - Happy Birthday and cake cutting – oldest living student and Matilda Benson (youngest current student).

As someone that loves local history there is going to be plenty on offer thanks to Kaeli Haines (one of our current parents) who has re-written the school history. There will be a stall where you can pre-order the book. The library will be full of history which has also been coordinated by Kaeli. 

You will find many wonderful raffle prizes and silent auction gifts. Amy Burton has spent countless hours coordinating donations. This can be a very thankless job, but Amy is simply the best at it. Thank you Amy. 

Jaz Maloney always helps and loves to be across everything. Thanks Jaz for everything that you do for the school. 

Clive (Mr Mac) for those that remember him as a teacher here, has interviewed more than 50 people around our more recent history. He has cut these interviews into a 10 minute video. This video will be playing in the Library and the corridor on Sunday. Longer segments of the videos will be played around other parts of the main building. We can’t thank Mr Mac enough for the love and devotion he has for our school.

I would also like to thank Rachael Cantwell for coordinating this Sunday. Rachael is a very busy school leader and has a very big role in the school in normal times. However, the work she has put into 150th is truly amazing. None of this would’ve happened without the people above but particularly Rachael. 

Hope you enjoy the school’s birthday.  

CONGRATULATIONS 

This week we congratulate two of our grade six students, Millie Wotherspoon and Isabella Hasenbos. Both students have been accepted into the The SEAL program at Lilydale High School. The SEAL program provides a high quality accelerated curriculum for a select group of students with high intellectual potential. The central aim of the SEAL program, which a few local Secondary School’s run, is to provide educational experiences of an appropriate type and quality for that group of children, identified through the selection procedures, as having exceptional academic ability. 

Well done girls we are very proud of you.

STEPS MORNING TEA

Our deserving Steps winners enjoyed a wonderful morning tea with me in Sandy’s cooking room. We enjoyed hot party food, cake and even ice cream. Thanks again to Sandy for the wonderful job she does in going above and beyond to help the school. 

HATS/BLACK SHOES

A reminder that we require all of our students to wear hats at recess and lunchtime during term 4. If students don’t have a hat they are asked to be in an undercover area which limits what they can do during break times.

This year our whole school uniform is the best it has been at my time at the school. There is still a small percentage of students who are not wearing black shoes and I ask for your support with this as having 100% of our students in full uniform upholds our school motto of ‘Take Pride At All Times’.

If there is a reason why your child is out of uniform can you please contact the classroom teacher to explain why. Thanks for your help with this.

FREINDSHIP REQUESTS FOR 2025

In a few weeks time we will be asking students to put down the names of students they would like to have in their grade next year. This process can be distressing for some children. For example some students like their friend and want to be with them, but they also know that they are not good for their learning. Therefore, they may decide not to put them down as one of their preferences. 

Please be aware that staff go through an arduous process to place students. Teachers do their best to accommodate all things but of course that is not always possible. They have to think about, friendships, academic abilities, behaviour, prior issues, siblings, cousins, staff including if an aide in the room would help. There really is a lot that goes into this. But trust me when I say that we always have every child’s best interest at heart.  

Please do not request a specific teacher as all our teachers are high quality educators. We are proud that our school has a reputation of having excellent teachers, who work together superbly, with a student-centred focus, whole school approach to teaching and learning. Also, as you would appreciate, teachers do not necessarily teach in the same level as the previous year. 

We will have more information about student friendship requests in the next newsletter or through the compass app.

Have a great week and remember when life gets a little tough, come to our 150th celebration afternoon on Sunday!