Hello BRPS community,

Isn't this term flying by? It feels like we've covered so much ground in only the first three weeks - with plenty more to come!

Foundation 100 Days of School

What an amazing day the Foundation teachers (Miss Parkinson, Mrs Kemp, Miss Nicoll and Miss Lancaster) created for our Foundation students as they celebrated their first 100 days of school.

Commencing with our inaugural '100 Days Assembly' and a special guard of honor formed by their Year 6 buddies, the Foundation students proudly sang and danced to 100 before James (FN), Bella (FA), Ollie (FL) and Zoe (FK) confidently described some of the best parts of being in Foundation so far (not to mention some very impressive Maths skills!). The rest of the day was filled with many exciting activities and by the end of it everyone was ready for a big rest!

Urban Agriculture Program

Yesterday our Year 4 students participated in the first session of the Urban Agriculture Program being developed at the school. Rather than just create a garden space for the students to utilise, the students in Year 4 are doing the hands on work and creating the space themselves! Jenn & Rorie from Jenn Reed Designs are supporting the students in Year 4 as part of the horticultural outreach program.

Yesterday's session began with an overview to all Year 4's, explaining that we had all been given the responsibility of taking care of this parcel of school land and that our goal was to produce enough food to open the farm gate each week to sell back to families.

The first session was with 4L and students chose what farm work they wanted to be involved in and had a safety briefing for each activity.

Group One – Designing the layout and signage for the farm.

Group Two – stripping bark and sawing sticks into one metre lengths for our farm built fence.

Group three - digging.

Class 4H then did a student lead handover with the first group and continued the work.

All problem solving was done by the students and they worked super well through each hurdle that was presented. At the completion of the sessions the students all asked when they could come back!

Follow up questions that the students are researching following today are

Why are worms sticky?
Will the worms just come if we build a worm farm?

Next week's scope of works in the farm will be:

Emptying planter boxes
Painting notice board
Building a fence
Preparing soil
Inspecting our new lemon orchard for pests

Holiday Care Program - September Holidays

School Council is pleased to advise that Camp Australia will be running a Holiday Program here at Black Rock for the upcoming school break. Please keep an eye out for further details. To book in for the program, you need to have an account with Camp Australia first. It is free to register and you can do so online at: https://pp.campaustralia.com.au/account/register-contacts

For more information about the program, please see the attached letter.

More Baby News!

Black Rock PS staff recently welcomed our fifth baby into the world this year ! Michala Bartholomeusz and her husband Luke would like to introduce you to Elsie. Born at 8:31am on Wednesday 17/7/2019 and weighing in at 2.772kgs, 100g more than her big brother was!

By all reports Michala and Luke are settling in well with their growing family!

Student Achievements

GOLFING STAR - Abbey M, Yr 4

Abbey is featured on the cover of the latest Golf Victoria magazine. The June/July edition of the magazine celebrates all the different types of golfers from around Victoria.

Abbey this year has been a regular in the Golf Victoria Rookies events and had her best result during the Easter Holidays where she won the Golf Australia Pitch’n’Putt event in the U10 girls by 6 shots. She will represent the

school later in the year at SSV Primary Schools golf competition.

MOUNTAIN BIKERS - Kynan and Caleb

Kynan P and Caleb S from Year 5 competed in the second round of the Victorian schools MTB competition at Lysterfield on Sunday.

They finish 6th and 9th respectively in the U13’s scoring points for Black Rock in the Inter Schools Competition

Parent Opinion Survey

WE WANT OUR PARENTS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour and student engagement. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

Approximately 30 per cent of parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 22nd July to Sunday 11th August.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 10-15 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones.

The survey results will be reported back to the school at the end of September.

Please speak to the Principal if you would like more information.

NOW OPEN - 2020 Enrolments

New enrolments across all year levels for the 2020 school year are now being taken. Enrolment numbers are increasing quickly with early indications suggesting the possibility of a fifth Foundation (Prep) class in 2020. Please submit your enrolment, or encourage others to do so as soon as possible to assist with our planning.

Sibling enrolments are now open, please collect an enrolment form from the office.

Transition Program

Our renowned transition and orientation program commenced on Tuesday 23 July and continues through until Wednesday 4 December.

There was a huge number of new and prospective students who participated in a wonderful 'Fictional Favourites' dress-up morning.

Have a fantastic fortnight everyone!

Sam Tyndall

PRINCIPAL

Cybersafety

Parenting in the Digital Age - Research

Time Online