Welcome to Week 7, Term 1.

As always, there is a lot happening at Ben Venue. Below are photos from the Bike Bus, zone swimming, the science and engineering day at UNE, our leaders repainting the Kinder cubbyhouses, our female leaders attending a celebration of International Women's Day at ASC, and the Kindergarten team hosting an information evening and welcome BBQ.

Congratulations to the 23 Ben Venue swimmers who competed at the regional swimming carnival today. In this fortnight:
Pulse Alive dancers and singers travel to Olympic Park, Sydney to perform
our tennis players take on Sandon PS
cricket and hockey seasons commence
Stage 1 students begin their visits to the gymnastics centre
our leaders embark on their leadership camp, and
students in Years 3 and 5 sit NAPLAN.

Fundraising Quiz Night

Save the date - Friday 8 May

Early next term, we will hold a fundraising quiz night at the Great Hops (adults only). If successful, we aim to make this a recurring event, with all proceeds going towards reducing the cost of the Stage 3 camp.

The Stage 3 camp is a seminal experience for students while at Ben Venue. Each year, the excursion alternates between the Great Aussie Bush Camp and Canberra - both memorable and valuable experiences. Unfortunately, rising costs are making this experience increasingly expensive for families. We want to continue to offer this opportunity, and are therefore working to reduce the cost of the camps.

Your support of the quiz night can help, so start planning you alliances to form a competitive table of 6! Tickets will be released on sale on Monday 16 March at 5:00pm, via School Bytes, with only 100 spaces available. There will also be the opportunity to join a table if you don't have a team of 6.

Arrive at 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start. Food will be available for purchase, with a special 'meat box' (similar to that pictured) available for $20, with $5 from each purchase going directly to reduce the cost of the camp to families. This special will also be quicker to your table than meals ordered from the menu.

I want to thank Sam and Kate Martin, who are providing the use of the venue free of charge, as well as donating prizes for the quiz. Our P&C is supporting the event by seeking donations from local businesses, with the view to holding auctions of these donations, as well as using them as prizes. If you are able to support this in any way, we would love to hear from you.

Electives

Last week, Tuesday afternoon elective subjects kicked off for the year, with the following options on offer:

Stage 1 - Cantonese/Mandarin, Drama, Choir, Dance, Fitness Fun, Art

Stage 2 - Choir, Circus, Art, Dance, French, Lego, Gardening

Stage 3 - Electronics, Lego, Dance, Art, Games, Choir

North West Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to Dakota Archibald, Charlotte Baillie, Darcy Collett, Finn Connors, Billy Crick, Thomas Donaldson, Patrick Doyle, Sophie Fittler, Thomas Goodare, Kinley Greene, Annamika Harper, Michael Harper, Jack Harris, Evan Hunt, Remi McGilchrist, Zara McGilchrist, Hudson McKay, Stella Piddington, Celeste Ried, Mabel Salway, Lara Stewart, Bessie Waters and Patrick Waters for their efforts competing at the North West swimming carnival today.

Well done to Evan Hunt, and the relay team comprising of Patrick D, Paddy W, Darcy C and Finn C, who will be traveling to Sydney to represent Ben Venue and the Nort West Region at the state championships.

Autumn Festival

Our school will march in the Autumn Festival parade on Saturday 21 March. All students are invited to participate in the march. Details will be shared via School Bytes closer to the date.

ANZAC Day

All students are also invited to attend the ANZAC Day service on Saturday 25 April at the Central Park Memorial Fountain. Further details with be provided closer the time. This is an important community event for our school, but is also quite lengthy, and younger students often find sitting for the duration of the service challenging.

Please also note that Monday 27 April is now a public holiday.

Messages for students

For messages that need to be passed on to students during the school day, please phone the office directly. We cannot guarantee that emails will be read in sufficient time to pass such messages on.

K-6 Assembly Wednesday 25 March

Parents, carers and families are invited to an assembly in the hall at 12:30 on Wednesday 25 March to celebrate student achievements from Term 1. Student work across all stages will be showcased and the Zone and NW PSSA Swimming ribbons will be presented.

Welcome to our new P&C executive

Following the AGM held last week, I congratulate and welcome the following new members of the P&C executive:

President - Emma Briggs

Vice Presidents - Lauren Carrigan & Nicole Blackman

Secretary - Sarah Reeves

Treasurer - Joel Hooper

Communications & media - Kate McLinton

P&C representative sport travel support

Please be aware that our P&C kindly supports students traveling over 100km for PSSA sport, at the North West and State levels, with a $100 contribution to travel and accommodation costs. This can be accessed by applying via the 'Forms' section of the School Bytes Parent Portal.

Uniform donations

Our school operates a small second hand clothing pool, selling uniform items at very low cost. If you have school uniforms that have been outgrown, we welcome donations to the front office.

Cam Pryce

Principal

School Photo Day