From the   Principal's

Desk

Welcome to our 2023 school year and a particular warm welcome to our 68 new families.  Our 2023 parent book is available online under the Community tab at burrendahps.wa.edu.au . This booklet has our 2023 processes. I recommend all parents/guardians take a look at our parent booklet as a number of processes have changed from our prior years dealing with Covid.  We have a Welcome Evening for all of our school community on Friday 24th March. More information regarding this event will be sent out in due course.

Parent Meetings

Classroom teachers will be getting in contact with families regarding parent meetings. These meetings will be held from this week to Week 4. I encourage all parents/guardians to attend a parent meeting as this is a great way to meet your child’s teacher as well as other parents of your child’s class.

Community Assemblies

Our first Community Assembly was held today. Congratulations to our school leaders who were officially presented with their leadership badge in front of our Pre-primary to Year 6 students. Please see our calendar on the school web page for future Community Assemblies.

School Payments

We have had a very smooth start to the year despite a number of changes with the Department of Education (DoE) processes. I thank you for your patience particularly with holding off on payments until the new processes were finalised. I am happy to report that this has been completed and we can now take school payments. To assist in this, Mrs Leece, our Manager Corporate Services, will take payments from the medical room in the Administration building from 8:15-9:00am Monday 13th, and Tuesday 14th February.

P & C AGM

Our P & C Annual General Meeting (AGM) is being held this Monday 13th February at 7:00pm in the school hall. I urge our school community to come along to this important meeting (more information is available on the P & C page).

Public School Review

This Wednesday 15th February we will be having our Public School Review. Reviewers from the DoE will visit our school to validate our meeting the Standards set by the DoE.  Mr Gary Crocetta, Director Public Schools and Mrs Melanie Osborne, Principal of Melville PS, will be our reviewers and meeting representatives from staff, student leaders, members of the Board and P & C during the day. 

School Board Representatives

There are two parent and two community School Board vacancies commencing in Week 8 of this term. If you are interested in being a part of the Burrendah School Board please indicate your expression of interest by emailing  Burrendah.PS.Administration@education.wa.edu.au  by the close of business Friday 17th February. Please include your name and your child’s name if applying for a parent position. Board meetings are held twice a term on a Tuesday evening through a mixture of face to face and online meetings.

I would like to acknowledge the work Mr Velu Ramasamy has contributed to the Board over the last 4 years as a parent representative. Thank you also to Gavin Turner, parent representative for 2022 whose tenure has also finished. Burrendah School Board was very fortunate to have such active members on the Board who contributed greatly over their tenure.

Upgrades

We have had a number of projects completed over the holiday break. Our transportable classrooms now have fully functioning reverse cycle air conditioning. Wet areas in Swan, Cygnet and Magpie Blocks were upgraded with new vinyl flooring.  Our basketball court has been resurfaced. The Nature Playground is almost complete with some curbing still to be installed. Students are enjoying the additional play space.

Playgrounds

Playgrounds are not available for use before school except for Kindergarten students in the Kindergarten area. This gives time for our cleaners and gardener to ensure these play areas are clean and ready for student use during the day. With parent supervision, the Nature Playground and ECE playgrounds can be used by students after school between 3:00pm-3:30pm. Due to safety, only students from Kindergarten to Year 2 can use the ECE playground. Students in Year 3- Year 6 need to use the Nature Playground which has been built to handle student of all ages, instead of the ECE playground.

Before School Drop off

A small number of students are being dropped off by their parents or older siblings and arriving at school before 8:00am. Supervision of Burrendah students commences from 8:15am. Please make alternative arrangements for your children such as accessing Camp Australia if they need to be at school earlier and are not part of a supervised program. Camp Australia are open from 7:00am each school day.

Traffic Warden

Mrs Green, our traffic warden, will be on vacation from Wednesday the 15th of February  and returning on Tuesday the 7th of March 2023. At the moment the Children’s Crossing Unit are unable to find anyone to replace Mrs Green. If your child is on their own when crossing Pinetree Gully Road, please consider getting your child to use the crossing outside Willetton SHS where there is a traffic warden.