From the Principal's Desk

Crazy Hair Day

Crazy Hair Day is on tomorrow, Friday 21st Aug. This is a P&C event. While we are not hosting a whole school assembly parade, individual classes or blocks will be celebrating the event with the students with mini parades sometime during the school day. I encourage all students to come with ‘Crazy Hair’ and their gold coin donation. 

Carnivals

As many of you would be aware Phase 4 has been extended with a new tentative date of the 24th October (Week 2, Term 4). This will have some impact on our faction carnivals this term. These carnivals are usually well supported by parents/carers. Families are welcome at this year’s events with the 1.5m physical distancing being done between adults. The P&C is organising a fundraising lunch opportunity for students and their families. More information about these events will be sent out to families in the coming weeks. In the meantime bookmark Thursday 17th Sept for the Pre-primary to Year 2 Junior Carnival (organised by Mrs Bain) and Friday 18th Sept for the Year 3-7 carnival (organised by Mr Crouch).

We participated in the Interschool Cross Country this week. Congratulations to all of our competitors. Your behaviour and sportsmanship are a credit to Burrendah PS. More information about this carnival will be in our next newsletter.

Open Classes

‘Open Class’ is a new concept for Burrendah PS. It is a way for parents/carers to visit their child’s classroom on a scheduled Friday morning between 8:30-9:15am. Open Classes are held once a fortnight. While each class will have their own design for the 45-minute session, the aim is for parents/carers to see what their child has been learning and visits parts of the school that are important to their child. Each classroom will have one ‘Open Class’ in Semester 2. The list of scheduled classes and when they are open can be found in the calendar. 

Parents/carers attending these events are asked to wait in the undercover area until 8:30am if arriving early. From 8:30am families are able to go into the classroom of the Open Class. The length of time parents/carers stay is up to the individual. While you are welcome for the entire 45 minutes it is not an expectation. Feedback from our last group of parents was that opening up the classrooms, 15 minutes before the siren from 8:30am is helpful for our working parents.

Last week Rooms 1,3 and 4 had their Open Class. A highlight for a number of parents and students was to visit the green screen some of the classes had set up in the school hall. Thank you to the Year 6 parents who took the time to speak with our Board Chair, Brad Warburton, on what they enjoyed about their first Open Class visit, as well as suggestions on how to make them even better.  Some of our Pre-Primary/Year1 classes are hosting the next Open Class (Rooms 16a, 16b, and 17) next Friday 28th Aug. The teachers have taken the Board’s feedback from parents into account when designing their Open Class. The teachers have also planned how to host their Open Class with adults' physical distancing. See below for photos of Rooms 1,3 and 4’s Open Class.

National Quality Standards (NQS)

An expert review team visited Burrendah PS and spoke with all staff from Kindergarten to Year 2 regarding NQS. They visited classrooms and spoke with students. There are 7 standards that need to be met. Our business plan target was to meet 5 Standards by 2021. Pleasingly the reviewers determined that we have met all 7 Standards. This is an outstanding effort by all staff involved. Sue Horoch and the early childhood staff are to be commended on this wonderful result. It took a monumental effort of consistent application over the last 12 months to complete all requirements needed to achieve in every area. 

Undercover Area Extension Update

The Department of Education has funded the replacement of the facia (which contained asbestos) in the area of our UCA extension. This work has now been completed. The Department has also funded repairing drainage that was causing flooding in this area. I am hopeful this work will be complete in the holidays as it involves installing additional soak wells near the UCA. It is then expected that the building of the UCA extension can proceed. This extension is funded by the Department of Education with a successful shade grant, a Local Schools Community Grant and substantial funding from OSHClub.