Principal's Report
Welcome to Term 2!
A new element in our fortnightly newsletters begins this week with year levels invited to create a page featuring news and events taking place in their classrooms and beyond. Please be sure to navigate to the Year 6 page who have taken over for the first week.
ANZAC Day Ceremony
Thank you to Year 6 students Alice, Macy, Elle & Jasper for confidently leading the BRPS students and community through their participation in our commemorative ANZAC ceremony. The ceremony marked the landing of Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli and recognised the service of all Australians who serve in war or peacekeeping operations.
Susan McLean Cybersafety Evening - Thur 16 May
Black Rock Primary School is pleased to be hosting a parent evening with Susan McLean, renowned as Australia's foremost expert in the area of cybersafety for young people.
ALL parents are invited to join us for an important evening about keeping our young people safe online.
Given the complexity of the online world that our children now have to navigate, this could be one of the most important evenings that any parent could attend.
If you intend to come along, please start the conversation with other parents and encourage them to join you. The more members of our community that are aware of contemporary issues for our young people in the online space, the stronger the ability we have to combat them and support our children and their safety.
Further information and details will be sent out separately early next week.
Mother's Day Luncheon
It was my pleasure to attend the inaugural BRPS Mother’s Day Luncheon today, an event designed to bring together and celebrate some of the most important members of our school community – our Mums!
It was an amazing afternoon and I’m confident that this luncheon will become an annual event and also a successful BRPS tradition. Thank you to parents (mums) Sam Rawlings and Kara Jeffers for organising the entire day, it was most appreciated by all and a wonderful support for the school.
Please see the Assistant Principal's report on the next page for further details.
School Improvement Projects
I'm excited to inform our school community that our previously announced school improvement projects are progressing through the design stages. We are starting to develop a long term strategic plan to create outdoor learning zones and spaces that not only improve the aesthetics of the school but also provide a connection between indoor and outdoor learning spaces.
The outdoor spaces will support a variety of student learning opportunities including science, mathematics, languages, English, geography, health and wellbeing, interpersonal and personal learning. Ultimately we want to utilise our open spaces to support our students to be leaders in sustainable practices and urban agriculture.
I’m pleased to announce that the next stage of this project is due to commence next week. This includes a new flag pole display and rejuvenation of the seating/gathering area outside the Foundation rooms.
Also this year we will redevelop and enhance our working garden areas to tie in with existing gardening, science and technology programs.
School Council AGM - Monday 13 May
The Annual General Meeting of Black Rock Primary School will be held on Monday 13 May at 7pm in the staff room. The 2018 Annual Report to the school community will presented at this meeting, along with an opportunity to discuss the new four-year School Strategic Plan 2018-2022 and future direction of the school.
Parents are invited to attend and join in the discussion.
New Movement Guidelines
You may have already seen that recently the Minister for Sport, Senator Bridget McKenzie, launched the new 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for 5-17 year olds, outlining the right balance of high levels of physical activity, low levels of inactivity and sufficient sleep for optimal health. This is the first time that Australia has included all intensities of physical activity (e.g. light-intensity activity are a unique addition) and sleep within 24-hour guidelines.
This has some very interesting information for families that you can access here.
NAPLAN
National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessments will be conducted in Week 4 (14th, 15th and 16th of May).
NAPLAN is the measure through which governments, education authorities, schools, teachers and parents can determine whether or not young Australians are meeting important educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy. The tests provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. They also provide schools, states and territories with information about how education programs are working and what areas need to be improved. NAPLAN tests are one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process; they do not replace the extensive ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance.
All parents of children in Year 3 or Year 5 will receive an information booklet and timetable schedule soon. If you have any queries or concerns about your child’s participation in the NAPLAN please contact their teacher or Mrs Timms in the office.
2020 Enrolments
If you know any families who may be considering schools for next year and they were not able to attend previous sessions, please remind them of dates for future information mornings and tours:
Thursday 23rd May @ 10am
Wednesday 29th May @ 10am
Sibling enrolments are now open, please collect an enrolment form from the office.
Have a great fortnight.
Sam Tyndall
PRINCIPAL