Welcome to the final newsletter for Term 1.
In the past fortnight, students have participated in NAPLAN, the North West swimming carnival, student leadership camp and Stage 1 gymnastics sessions. In this fortnight, NAPLAN testing concludes, students compete in the LitQuiz and Da Vinci Decathlon, we celebrate Harmony Day, have school photos, and the Easter hat parade.

Autumn Festival

It was great to see so many Ben Venue students marching with the school during the Autumn Festival on Saturday. Thank you to everyone who attended.

Pulse Alive

Thank you to Mrs Porter, Mrs Wassman and Mrs Howlett for taking our Pulse Alive dancers and singers to Sydney last week, for their performance at Olympic Park. This was a fantastic experience for our students, all of whom were outstanding representatives of Ben Venue.

Kids LitQuiz

Congratulations to our team of 8 literature buffs who took part in the LitQuiz at ACPS today. This year's competition saw the largest representation of teams in recent years, with 27 teams from across the region, including primary and high schools from the public and private sector.

One of the 2 Ben Venue teams placed third out of the 27 teams, beaten only by the high school teams from ASC and a high school from Tamworth. A huge congratulations to all of the students who participated today. What amazing readers and team players you all are, well done!

Quiz night fundraiser

Less than 30 of the 102 seats for our fundraising quiz night remain available. Thank you to everyone who has purchased tickets in support of this event.

In addition to free venue hire courtesy of The Great Hops Brewery, a load of firewood has kindly been donated in support of the night by Northern Tablelands Earthmoving and Supplies, Guyra. If you are able to similarly support the event, we would love to hear from you.

2025 Annual Report

Our 2025 Annual Report is now available here and on our website. The Annual Report provides a review of our school's progress on key initiatives identified in the School Excellence Plan. Below I have provided a summary of our achievements relating to progress measures.

Strategic Direction 1: Student Growth and Attainment

In 2025, Ben Venue Public School students demonstrated strong results in NAPLAN:

Year 3 Numeracy - exceeding statistically similar schools and the state mean.
Year 3 Reading - exceeding statistically similar schools and the state mean.
Year 5 Numeracy - exceeding statistically similar schools and gaining on the state mean.
Year 5 Reading - exceeding statistically similar schools and matching the state mean.

Strategic Direction 2: Connection

Strategic Direction 2: Educational Leadership

Each year, we assess our practice against the School Excellence Framework to inform our School Excellence Plan and Annual Report. Every four years, our school undergoes an external validation process. During the external validation process in 2025, an independent panel considered our evidence and assessment of our school's progress against the School Excellence Framework. The table below details the judgements supported by the panel, representing our schools achievement against the School Excellence Framework, along the progression of 'working towards delivering' > 'delivering' > 'sustaining and growing' > 'excelling'.

For more details, please review the full report.

New student code of conduct

NSW public schools will soon implement a new student code of conduct, which students and parents will be asked to formally acknowledge at the start of each school year. The new student code of conduct will be compulsory in all NSW public schools from the beginning of 2027. Ben Venue will be implementing the changes as soon as resources to support everyone's understanding have been made available.

Term dates

This term concludes on Thursday 2 April, with Friday 3 April being the Good Friday public holiday. Students resume classes on Wednesday 22 April.

Cam Pryce

Principal

School Photo Day