Principal's Message

Welcome back to Term 2 everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday break and feel ready for the new term. We can’t believe how quickly a quarter of the year has gone by already, but we are excited to have your little ones return, full of energy and ready to learn!

School Review - Validation Day

On Thursday of this week we had the first day of our three-day Review. John Haines, our reviewer, joined a panel with Tony Privitelli (our Senior Education Improvement Leader), Tanya Pittard (our School Council President), two Challenge Partners as well as Keir and myself.

The panel started the day by visiting classrooms, so we could see learning in action - thank you to Alice, Andrew, Cath, Deb, Emma, Ian, Jenny, Jessie and Lori for letting us visit your classes. We then continued after recess with student forums, where the panel heard from students about their learning and their connection to our school. Thank you to the students who were involved in each forum. After lunch, the panel reviewed the feedback gained from the community in Term 1 2020 and assessed our school’s performance against the Department’s expectations. The day was a wonderful demonstration of our school and our students and our conversations were fuelled by delicious food from Sprout (thanks Stacey & Kris!). 

The next day of our Review is next week, where the panel will meet with students, teachers, leaders, education support staff and parents and carers. If you are interested in attending this session to share your ideas and reflections with the panel, please see the invite to this special session on the next page of our newsletter.

Flu Season

The pandemic was tough and continues to have impacts on the way we live our lives, but there were some interesting positives that came from communities restricting their interactions with one another. For example, incidents of the common cold and flu were significantly down across the state last year. Whilst we are thrilled to be back and have everyone together again, we hope to maintain some of the better habits we have formed over the past twelve months.

As we approach flu season, we have been informed that this year’s strain of flu is particularly virulent. As such, we ask that everyone remains vigilant with hygiene and staying home when sick. Students demonstrating signs that might be linked to COVID-19 must continue to be sent home as a safety measure, but we would love sick kids (and grown ups) to be staying at home until they are well again, to avoid spreading any germs or sickness to others within our community.

Hand sanitiser remains in all classrooms and students will be reminded of how to use tissues and how to cough or sneeze, but the best way to keep people healthy is to stay at home if you are unwell. We thank you all for your cooperation in this.

Staff Announcement

It is with great excitement that we announce the upcoming birth of Rebecca Ewer and Michael McLaughlan’s second baby in September of this year. Although we will miss Rebecca whilst she is on family leave, we are excited to see their family expanding and wish them the best in their future.

Instrumental Music Program

At BNWPS, we love our instrumental music program - it offers high-quality education to our students and supports the varied interests of our students and their families. Wherever possible, we like to provide educational opportunities that inspire the whole-child.

In 2021, the Department of Education made adjustments to the School Guidelines in relation to managing COVID-19 risks. One of the areas impacted by these changes is School Instrumental Music Programs, as instructors are now required to pay for the cleaning of the rooms and resources they use throughout the program.

We thank families for their patience in waiting for these changes to be finalised, with a comprehensive music program, it was not an easy task! We also want to acknowledge that with our exceptionally limited spaces, we have had to make some adjustments to the roster, which means some of our tutors have had to start operating outside school hours. Once our building works and STELLA has been completed, we hope to enjoy far more internal spaces and be able to offer some of these to the tutors who have worked with us for so long.

If you are interested in enrolling your child in an instrumental music program, please contact the office for more information.