Principal Report

Junior School Athletics 

It was wild weather, with large gusts of winds so our team adjusted the program and we held the Junior school athletics in a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces on Friday August 4th. Thank you to Phil Wickham and our Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers for their work in making this a great event. 

It was wonderful to see so many parents attending. Be sure to have a look at the Sport and PE page of this newsletter to see some photographs. There is also some great writing about the athletics event and more photographs on the From the 1/2 classrooms page.  

Grade 3 & 4 Hooptime

Good luck to our Year 3 and 4 students at Hooptime tomorrow. Don't forget to be here at 8.15am. Buses leave at 8.30am. Thanks to Mr Wickham, teachers, parents and Year 6 student volunteers.

100 Days of Foundation 

Congratulations to our Foundation students who have now been at school for more than 100 days. The Foundation page of this newsletter is full of images of their celebrations, be sure to have a look. 

Book Fair 

Thank you to May for organising our Book Fair. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to assist her. 

Be sure to visit the Library and buy yourself a book. The Library page of this newsletter has lots of information about the Book Fair. 

Father's Day Breakfast 

Have you ordered your Father's Day Breakfast? Log into My School Connect and place your order by Tuesday August 29th.  We look forward to celebrating Father's Day with you on Friday September 1st. 

Meet and Greet with the School Council

School councils play an important role in Victorian government schools. Do you know about the school council at Boroondara Park Primary School? 

The Boroondara Park School Council has a membership of parent and staff volunteers who meet frequently to discuss a broad range of topics that are relevant to the governance of the school. Collectively, decisions are made to improve and grow BPPS into a great learning space for our children. Investing in additional shade sails, renewing synthetic playing courts, organising fundraising events, applying for grants, developing policies, overseeing the Annual Implementation Plan – these are all examples of what school council works on. 

Our next school council meeting will be held next week on Wednesday 23rd August. We  invite all parents and carers who would like to meet the 2023 school council to attend  a short meet and greet session – 6:30pm to 7pm - in the Library. 

This would be a great opportunity to ask any questions you may have directly to school council members. After the 30 minute session, school council will continue into the August meeting – you can leave for home or stay and observe the meeting should you wish. 

Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey 

We want our parents, caregivers and guardians to tell us what they think! 

Our school has invited all parents and carers to participate. The survey is optional but we are encouraging all families to participate. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. 

The Survey is open from Monday 7 August to Friday 8 September 2023.

The survey link was sent out to all members of the community last Monday August 7th via a COMPASS email.

The online survey is available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese. 

Little Anglers Kits

The Victorian Government is investing $1.5 million from the Recreational Fishing Licence Trust Fund to provide up to 95,000 Little Angler Kits to primary school aged children in Victoria.

The free kits provide a wonderful school holiday activity for children with their families and help ease the cost of living, providing a fun activity close to home.

Grade 5 students at all Victorian schools, including ours, will be offered the opportunity to receive a FREE Little Angler Kit. Grade 5 students have been selected based on the Victorian Curriculum focus, movement and motor development, and safety considerations.

The program is entirely voluntary. Schools were provided with the option to opt out of the program. Our school has opted to stay in the program so that parents can decide whether they want their child(ren) to receive a free fishing kit.

Parents of Grade 5 students can advise the school if they do not wish their child(ren) to participate for any reason whatsoever. We support parents in making decisions that align with their family values and beliefs.

The roll out of kits will occur through the second half of 2023 (16 October - 4 December) so that all participating children will have a kit in time for the summer school holidays.

The kits include a rod, reel with line, tackle tray, some tackle and information on how to use them to catch a fish. Please note that the tackle tray includes fishing hooks. The tackle tray will be wrapped in cardboard and placed inside a pocket inside the fishing kit bag, which will be sealed with a cable tie to discourage students from opening their kits until they are with a parent or carer.

Kits will be handed out to students to take home with them as soon as the school receives them. Teachers will tell students not to open the kits until they are safely at home with a parent or carer, however parents can contact the school and request to collect their kit from the school themselves if they prefer.

The Victorian Fisheries Authority will create a Little Angler hub on their website, which will be live when the kits start being distributed. It will have useful information, instructional videos and online resources about where and how to fish linking to existing resources from Fishcare and new resources to be produced just for the Little Angler Kits program.

This initiative aims to grow recreational fishing participation in Victoria by actively encouraging primary school aged children to learn how to fish, as well as learning more about marine life and the natural environment.

COMPASS

We are continuing to add to the School documentation section of COMPASS. If there is something you would like to see added please contact us via the school email - boroondara.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au 

How to find the documentation section.

COMPASS menu when looking at the browser looks like this - 

Click on the people which is the community menu and there will be a drop down box with an option for School documentation - 

Clicking on the school documentation should enable you to access a variety of documents throughout the year. 

Parent Forums

Thank you to those who have given their thoughts about when to hold parent forums. You have one more week to provide your thoughts. Parent forum

BPPS Facebook and Instagram 

Don't forget to follow our social media accounts and see what is happening at school each day. Boroondara Park Primary School Facebook

Search @BoroondaraPark on Instagram to follow the school. 

Susanne Lowe

Principal