From the Principal Team

Natalie Shanahan, Sam Fleming, Claire Johnston

This week's newsletter celebrates how amazing our Banyule Primary School community is, which has very much been on display during a fortnight filled with great community events.

Election Day BBQ and Bake Sale

With over 40 families volunteering to help cook and serve democracy sausages and sell cakes, and even more taking the time to prepare and donate delicious baked goods, the broader local community saw Banyule Primary at its best while visiting to vote. Thank you to our Community Engagement Community and all involved for making the day such a success.

Family Maths Afternoon

The mission was to have fun with maths. MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED! It was great seeing our students, our teachers and a huge number of families engaging with our hands-on maths incursion last week.

Special Visitors Morning

It's always a lovely time when our special visitors come and visit our classrooms. And it was no different on Monday when our classrooms were again filled with proud family members, celebrating learning with some games and sharing the experience of being a Banyule Primary Student. Trying to determine who had the biggest smile, the child whose special visitor walked through the door, or the special visitor, proud as punch of their little learner.

Education Minister Visit

A visit from Education Minister, Ben Carroll was another highlight of the fortnight. Coming to see our capital works project, it was great to show Ben around with our school captains and share the great things we do. The Minister and his entourage spent time watching a Prep literacy lesson during which he was impressed hearing our history of teaching phonics in all P-2 classrooms, something only recently mandated for all schools. A trip to our S.T.E.A.M room had the Minister dodging flying rockets, launched by Year 1 mini-rocket scientists. The visit also allowed the opportunity to discuss a number of Department initiatives. We talked about the implementation of the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 and our plans for ongoing professional learning with staff. We were also given the opportunity to discuss some challenges for schools such as the roll out of the School Savings Bonus and also highlighted some programs we are not able to be part of, such as the Glasses in Schools program for schools in disadvantaged areas.

Hidden Heroes...

Today we celebrated the often unsung heroes of BPS, our Educational Support staff. With the theme 'Hidden Heroes', it was a chance to acknowledge and show gratitude for the amazing things we know our Education Support team do. From supporting our most vulnerable children, to answering calls, tending to the sick and injured, managing finances, keeping computer systems running and keeping the place looking amazing, it is nearly impossible to create a job description that accurately describes what our Education Support team do. Quite simply, it's a fair bit of everything! And we definitely couldn't do it without these heroes!!

Playtime! ...almost.

This week saw an exciting development in our new play space with our playground being installed. Staff watched on from the vantage point of the staffroom, like excited children as the playground took shape. After a day of elbow grease it was up and we're another step closer to its completion. Our school community can now look proudly at that playground and say "We fund-raised for that!".

Next week sees the installation of our climbing tower.

We'll see you around!

Natalie, Claire and Sam

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