Principal's Report

Dear Bundoora families,

All around school this week I have heard the same comment; ‘Can you believe it’s the end of term one?’ Time certainly seems to fly a lot faster than when I was a child, but what a full and successful term we have had! 

Parents Association AGM

In week five our Parents Association held their AGM and new office bearers were elected. Congratulations to the following parents, and thank you for being willing to put your hand up to support our school:

President: Kym McCormick

Secretary: Corrie Quigley

Treasurer: Lia Thiagi

Thank you to all the parents who attend these meetings and help make our school better. All parents are welcome to attend and participate and I know our leadership team would love to see more parents involved.

Celebrating Neurodiversity

During House Assembly in week seven our Disability Inclusion Manager, Mrs. Louise McLean, gave a presentation to the students and staff about neurodiversity and celebrating our differences. It was lovely to hear the positive comments from our students after the presentation. 

We celebrated Neurodiversity Week during week eight. We all wore our favourite clothing or colour to show that we are all different and amazing. I loved reading the fact sheets about famous neurodiverse people that are scattered around the school and seeing our students showing their individual personalities. At Bundoora Primary School we celebrate diversity of all kinds.

Family Welcome Night

Family Welcome Night celebration was held during week eight. It was a pleasure to watch our families enjoying themselves at the activities each class had set up, socialising with each other and our wonderful staff. Thank you to our Parents Association and School Council members, as well as the many other parents who put up their hands to help in some way: whether it was selling drinks, cooking the barbecue, or cleaning up after the event. We have a fabulous and inclusive community and events like the Welcome Night highlights that. 

Thank you to all the families who donated to the Easter Raffle and purchased tickets. These funds contribute to resources for our students. Look out for a photo of the winners on our celebrations page.

Open Classroom

Open Classroom was held last week. This is a chance for families to visit their child’s classroom to and join in some fun learning activities with the class. Thank you to the parents and grandparents who were able to attend this session. The rooms I visited during this time were having great fun sharing work completed throughout the term and playing maths games together. Open classroom will return in term two. 

School Council AGM

At our School Council AGM, we elected new office bearers for the coming year. I am grateful to our School Councillors who help to keep our school a great school, who donate time every month to attend meetings, and who represent all parents and families at our school.

New office bearers are:

President: Dayna Rixon (continuing from 2023)

Vice-President: Owen Hodda (continuing from 2023)

Treasurer: Alex Tzikas (formerly minute secretary in 2023)

Minute Secretary: Kellie Collet (new to school council this year).

The remaining School Councillors for 2024 are Natalie Cogley, Ariane Heritier, Nathan Smith, Tanja Russo, Jules De Angelis (staff), Steven Meagher )staff), and Julie Dunn (staff).

Bundoora’s Got Talent

Congratulations to all the students who auditioned for Bundoora’s Got Talent 2024. It takes great courage to have a go at events like this.

Today the school and many friends and family were delighted to watch the following students in the final:

1. Zoe P – Vocals 
2. Angelia- Piano
3. Aaradhana – Piano/vocals
4. Oscar T - Piano
5. Izaiah, Benjamin, and Joshua – Vocals
6. Tilly G – Bass guitar and vocals
7. Ebony, MacKenzie, Zara H, Hazel, Zac B, Amber – Circus Act
8. Harley and Sage – Dance
9. Zoe, Claudia, and Alara - Vocals
10. Milo and Archie – Vocals
11. Irene – Vocals
12. Christopher, Angus, Bradley, and Sylus – Vocals and drums
13. Kyra – Vocals
14. Tevani (with Charlotte and MacKenzie – Vocals
15. Jayce and Evan – Recorder fun!
16. Zac Daly – guitar 

What a celebration of talent! Every act was entertaining and good fun to watch. Congratulations to the winner of BGT 2025, Zac Daly!

We will share photos and the runner up information next term.

Karen Starkiss Intensive Parent Helper Literacy Course

This course will be held on Tuesday April 23rd from 9 am to 12pm. There are still places available if you would like to learn how to assist our students in the junior years, and your own children at home. 

Please contact the office to book in for the course.

Prep 2025

Prep enrolments for 2025 will be open from the start of term two. If you know anyone looking for a school please encourage them to call Ms. Jodie in the office to book a tour.

Our prep transition program commences next term with three sessions of story time. you can pick up a flyer at the office, or check out the Prep 2025 page in this newsletter.

Wellbeing programs

Ms. Bonazza has been instrumental in securing funding for some fantastic programs for our students and parents. These include parenting courses, transition for our year 6 students to high school, and a five week program commencing next term that focuses on motivating students through inspirational life experiences. Please check out the Wellbeing page for more information about this. 

2023 Survey feedback

As Principal and School Council we would like to say a huge thank you to those that completed our end of year (2023) survey. There were 46 responses overall and there has been discussion around the points that are already on track as part of the school’s Annual Report and that align to the community feedback. 

A community survey assists us to continuously hear the community voice. Please consider that small numbers of responses give perhaps an unbalanced view, and limits our implementation.

To refresh your mind’s, the questions in the survey were: 

1. What are we doing well at Bundoora Primary School?
2. Where can we improve?
3. What important to you as a family in our school?

Responses to what we are doing well included:

Great teachers and staff, new grounds and facilities, Specialist classes such as Music, Auslan and STEM, the weekly ‘What’s on this week’ compass posts, and parent volunteers and events.

Responses to where we can improve included:

Communication, which continues to be a focus for our improvement school wide. Consistency in staffing (bearing in mind the shortage Statewide) – we are pleased to be fully staffed for 2024! A mix of experience is something new for Bundoora PS. Student Engagement and Management Guidelines – we are focusing on schoolwide consistency from grade to grade and within specialist classes. We hope that you will see an improvement in this as you visit the school.

Communication around the learning at each grade level is something the school will consider going forward. Our team leaders have been discussing the best way to do this and we hope to be able to roll out a consistent model in term three. Check out each year level's page in this newsletter to learn more about their learning this term.

Responses to what is important to families included:

School community and student connectedness and safety continues to be important, as is staff engagement with their students, their work, and each other. Our school continues to ensure student learning needs are at the centre of all we do.

School Contributions 

Our office is open to receive school contributions which are needed every year to ensure the provision of a high quality of education, supported by resources and a wide range of programs and activities. These can also be paid via Compass.

Kiss and Drop Zone

Every week I receive emails from parent unhappy about the kiss and drop zone. This week one of our students was hit by a car when she was dropped off on the opposite side of the kiss and drop zone and then rushed across the road without looking. Fortunately, the child was not injured, nor was the poor parent doing the right thing when dropping her own child off! 

We need parents to co-operate and follow the rules for the Kiss and Drop zone. Pull as far forward as you can. Stay in your car. If your child has not arrived within two minutes, pull out and circle the block, joining the end of the line. The next car in line should then pull forward and repeat the process. Sometimes it is better to come five minutes later to avoid the rush! 

Under no circumstances should children be dropped off on the opposite side of the road unless it is on Balmoral Ave, where your child should then use the crossing with the help of the crossing supervisor. Nor should u turns be done on either Balmoral Ave or Bendoran Crescent. The road is just too narrow to do so safely at busy drop off and pick up times.

We need the co-operation of all school community motorists if we are to keep our precious children safe. 

First day of term two

The 15th of April is a pupil free day. TheirCare is open for bookings and students will commence on April 16th.

Our teachers will be participating in their own learning on this day; learning about teaching neurodiverse youth and completing Deaf Awareness Training.

Wishing you all a safe and Happy Easter and holiday break. See you on Tuesday, April 16 for the start of term two!

Best Wishes,

Sherrin Strathairn

Principal