Principal's Report

WELCOME TO THE 2025 SCHOOL YEAR

Welcome back to everyone and hope you had a nice break.  Hopefully you had opportunities to take advantage of the many warm and sunny days we had over the summer vacation.  We’re certainly in for a warm week and have lots in place to make sure everyone is comfortable and safe.  Yesterday and today that included a range of options for kids to stay indoors in air-conditioned rooms during the lunch breaks.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday our staff came together for a combination of final planning and professional learning, making sure we were ready to hit the ground running on Thursday.  As a result, we’ve had a lovely day at both campuses.  Our grade 1-6s are excited to be back at school and classes across the school were very settled.  We had 66 preps enrolled this year, 62 of those at Buninyong and 4 at Scotsburn. 

Quite a few new families have joined our school, with a number of families moving into the area and of course lots with their eldest child starting in prep….a special welcome to you all.

As always at the beginning of a school year, we have new and returning staff join us. We have Beth Murphy (Scotsburn 1) and Paul Wilson (grade 3) back after stints on leave and Maggie Cooper joins us for the first time as a 5-6 teacher and is leading IT across the school.  We also have Paige Forbes, Kaitlyn Balazic, Rachael Cartledge and Sarah Dziunka new to our school in teacher aide roles.  Overall, we are very happy with the team we have assembled.

Many of you will have already met with the relevant classroom teachers, but if not, hopefully you will get an opportunity to come along on the ‘meet and greet’ evenings on Feb 17 and 19.

There’s lots to look forward to in 2025.  Some of these include:

• Mr Rogers has set up the Wellbeing Burrow, which will be used in a variety of ways. 
• We now have a dedicated meeting space, which feels like a luxury after a few years of struggling to find places to meet without being interrupted.
• Late last year we had a Sustainability Shed built at Scotsburn and an EBT Shed at Buninyong.  We will thoroughly enjoy having these dedicated spaces to work out of this year.
• We have the Fete coming up on March 21.  You’ll see that we have a dedicated page in the newsletter for the fete between now and March 21.  Have a read to keep informed and understand how you can get involved.
• Mrs Morgan is leading our participation in VSSS (Victorian State School Spectacular), which culminates in a performance at John Cain Arena on Sept 13. 
• Continued involvement in lots of other extra-curricular activities, including a second year of scholarship programs for students in grades 4-6.

We look forward to catching up with everyone throughout the year and please get in touch if there’s anything we can help with.

PARENT HANDBOOK

Schools are complex places and do our best to give parents every opportunity to understand how things work, so you can feel comfortable, able to support your child and able to get involved as a member of the school community.  To help with this endeavour, we have a Parent Handbook which can be accessed through the link below. 

The handbook covers a wide range of topics and is there as a useful resource across the school year.  The latest version of this document can always be found on the school website. 

As always, whenever you have a question, but can’t find the answer in the handbook or on the website, just give us a call.

FINAL ASSEMBLY OF 2024

The final assembly in any given year is a big event and presents a nice way of celebrating the year and thanking everyone for helping to make Buninyong PS a special place. 

As is tradition, there was a focus on our grade 6 students who were heading off to secondary school.  To finish the occasion, the grade 6s performed their grade 6 dance before walking through an avenue of honour, throwing their hats in the air and signing polo shirts.  The assembly is a nice way for all staff and students to acknowledge the group, thank them for their efforts and to say farewell.   

CATHERINE KING COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD WINNER 2024

At the final assembly for 2024, the Catherine King Community Service Award was presented to Ian Rossiter.  Ian has quietly and consistently worked behind the scenes volunteering for the school and the broader community over a number of years. 

In recent years, he has contributed to the improvement of the Buninyong Primary School and its grounds.  Often this has involved braving the elements, regardless of the forecast.  Ian has volunteered his time mostly at the Scotsburn campus, working tirelessly to maintain, enhance and improve the grounds and facilities. Part of this work included developing a Grounds Master Plan, identifying key areas for improvement in the grounds in line with school priorities.

Ian has coordinated working bees, tree planting days, student workshops, tree clearing, propagating and mulching.  He has also played a key role in successful grant applications for indigenous planting and grounds improvements through many organisations, including Landcare Victoria.

In the broader community since retiring, he has committed his time and passion to his community. He has volunteered his time across many organisations with a passion for improving our environment and creating sustainably systems.

We all thank Ian for what he has done for the school and broader community and congratulate him for being a worthy winner of the Catherine King Community Service award.

 FACILITY UPGRADES

As always, we took the opportunity to complete some projects over the break.  We’re really pleased with what we managed to get done, which included:

• The gym floor was sanded and re-surfaced. 

• A new ceiling was added to the veranda outside the canteen.  This is a big improvement and helps create a nice environment for those gathering around the canteen.  

• A new coat of paint was applied to the external trims of the old building at Scotsburn, the first aid room, the gym sports storeroom, gym office, the disabled toilet in the gym and the new ceiling out the front of the canteen.

• A new exit has been added to the Scotsburn boundary.  It will be useful to have an exit and entry point for vehicles on the other side of the campus, but more importantly, provides an additional escape route from the campus grounds in the event of an emergency.  Crushed rock has also been added to the surrounds of buildings at Scotsburn, providing protection in the event of a fire.  

• A ceiling has been added to the sports storeroom in the gym. 
• The 5-6 adventure playground shade sail was removed, repaired and re-installed.  The shade sail over the P-2 playground is beyond repair and will be replaced in the next year or 2.
• Annual maintenance of the adventure playground equipment was undertaken.

Over the easter break new carpet will be laid in 2 of the prep classrooms, which will be a big improvement.