Principal's Report

P-2 TOILETS UP AND GOING

After a lengthy renovation project, the P-2 toilets are ready to go and being used by the kids.  I’m sure those with a child in P-2 would have heard all about it.  The new toilets are very flash and include touchless lighting, taps, toilet flushing, hand sanitising and hand drying.  This will all be a novelty for a few weeks, but the kids are certainly showing their appreciation of the facilities by taking good care of them. 

BUS SAFETY

Last week’s bus crash involving Exford Primary School will prompt many schools to reflect on policies and processes relating to safety for students and staff when travelling on buses.  As parents, I’m sure you’re interested in what we have in place.

All of the buses used to transport our children have seat belts fitted, whether they be buses booked by the school for excursions and camps or those used for school country runs (before and after school each day).

When travelling to camps or excursions, there is an expectation that children are wearing seat belts and are not moving around the bus.  There is always at least 1 staff member on board for these journeys, making sure behaviour expectations are clear and are being followed.

In terms of country bus travellers (before & after school), we meet with them at the start of the year to explain behaviour and safety expectations.  Children and their families are provided with a “Conditions of Travel” document to sign, which outlines the expectations to ensure safe travel on the bus.  As you’d expect, this document includes an expectation that children are wearing seat belts and not moving around the bus unnecessarily.

We are in the routine of gathering bus travellers again in terms 2, 3 & 4 to check in on how things are going and remind everyone of expectations.  This routine seems to be working well.

The Exford experience is certainly a prompt for us to make sure the reminders about the wearing seat belts to our country bus travellers is more regular, combined with routine check ins with bus drivers to monitor compliance in terms of seat belt wearing.

Hopefully we never have the distress of dealing with an accident involving a bus transporting Buninyong Primary School students, but rest assured our mission is to have measures in place to keep everyone safe. Our thoughts are with all of those impacted by last week’s incident. 

Opening of the Scotsburn Kitchen

Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the official opening of the kitchen at Scotsburn.  After hearing from student leaders and Ian Corcoran (Buninyong Community Bank Board Chair), guests were treated to delicious food prepared by the students in the refurbished kitchen. 

The official opening provided the opportunity to thank Buninyong Community Bank, who funded the project and Michael Anderson who helped with the design and then built the kitchen.  Well done to the Scotsburn team who have been part of the project throughout and are now making great use of the kitchen to provide excellent learning opportunities for the kids.  The space is also a much-improved space for the community to gather and will serve us well for many years.

SCHOOL REVIEW UPDATE

Yesterday we had the first of 3 field days with our panel spending the day on site to

undertake classroom observations, run focus groups with students & staff and observe teacher planning sessions.  That all went well and the panel returns on May 25 and 29 to continue this work.

All parents are invited to attend parent focus groups.  For Scotsburn, this will take place in the old building at 9am on Monday May 29th.  For Buninyong, this is scheduled for Thursday May 25th in the staffroom.

The review concludes on June 19, when the panel will convene for the last time to consider key themes that have emerged throughout the review and develop goals and targets to guide our work over the coming 4 years.