Buninyong PS Newsletter

Principal's Report

FINAL WEEK OF TERM

It certainly has been an action packed and productive nine weeks, so well done and thank you to anyone that has helped in any way.  Some of the highlights have included:

 

  • Celebrating Naidoc Week with a range of activities.
  • Hosting some kinder visits early in the term.
  • More Young Authors workshops and Think Tank activities.
  • Participating in the South Street Debating Competition.
  • A highly popular disco, which almost every student attended.
  • Celebrating 100 days of school for the preps…some of the role play from the preps was outstanding!
  • A very successful Book Week, which this year included a dress up day that the kids loved.
  • Fathers' Day Stalls and breakfasts, giving our kids the opportunity to show their appreciation to their dads.
  • The usual array of sporting events, with our kids achieving considerable success….and more to come, which includes our lawn bowlers who are off to the state finals.
  • We administered student and staff surveys, with the results being very encouraging.
  • Each of the Scholarship programs are gathering momentum and continue to be very popular with the kids.
  • A very successful 5-6 Melbourne Camp.
  • The EBT Team have enjoyed the lunch time and after school practice sessions and will enter this year’s competition in a strong position.
  • The VOTS crew have been active and are enjoying sharing their thoughts and ideas.
  • We made it through a fortnight of swimming.
  • Our involvement in VSSS was a highlight of the year, providing the kids with an experience they’ll never forget.
  • We know to expect a large crowd at Wednesday’s Celebration of Learning Evening.  It’s always nice to see the kids proudly showing and explaining their work and to see the parents appreciating the opportunity to come in and learn more about what’s happening in the classroom.

  • And we’ll finish off the term with our Footy Colours Day, sausage sizzle, staff v students contest and Mpatso fundraiser on Friday, which will be a nice way of heading into the break.

     

We wish all of our families a safe and relaxing holiday break and we look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday, October 6 for an action-packed final term of 2025.  Don’t forget to dig deep into your cupboards at home to find any school hats, so your kids attend ready for a sun smart start to the term.

 

We have lots to look forward to in term 4, including the P-2 Sports Day, our Pre-Schooler Program, continuation of the Young Authors and Think Tank Programs, the Energy Breakthrough event, a Colour Run, more inter-school sport (cricket, tennis, regional athletics and state final of lawn bowls), Grandparents and Special Friends Day, a Karuta Competition, grade 2 sleepover, Scotsburn whole school sleepover and grade 1 late stay, Orientation Day, Scotsburn Christmas Concert and Grade 6 Graduation.  

 

A calendar of events for term 4 is included below.  Please note that this is a draft calendar only and further events will be added next term.

VSSS (Victorian State School Spectacular)

Congratulations to Liz Morgan and our student dancers for an outstanding effort with VSSS.

 

The kids are certainly lucky that Liz is willing to devote so much time and energy allowing them such an experience.  The performances on Saturday were quite amazing, with enormous talent on show by students from across the state.  When the performance is on TV, it’s well worth tuning in to get a sense of the scale of the event.  

 

 

Plan for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) iPads 2026

Recently consideration has been given to the future of our BYOD iPad program.  This included looking back at feedback provided by parents in an online survey conducted early in term 3 last year and follow up discussions with School Council.  That led to the decision to discontinue the BYOD iPad program for this year’s grade 3s.

 

 We have now made the decision to discontinue the BYOD iPad program for our grade 4s from the beginning of next year.  The BYOD iPad program will remain unchanged for students in grade 5-6 for 2026.  During 2026, we will make longer term decisions regarding the use of devices at school. 

 Prep Enrolments for 2026

If you have a child to enrol for Prep in 2026 and haven’t submitted an enrolment, please do so this week as workforce planning for 2026 is happening in earnest.

 

All parents with a Prep enrolment submitted for 2026 should have received an email with an overview of transition activities scheduled for later in the year.  This includes the Pre-Schooler Program, which runs in weeks 1-4 of term 4.  If you have yet to book your child in for the Pre-Schooler Program, please get that done as soon as possible.

Parking Around the School

Thanks to parents for being patient and understanding during the rush at the beginning and end of each school day.  We all acknowledge that it can be a challenge finding a park out the front of the school, particularly at the end of the school day.  We urge parents to not allow that to result in parking illegally or behaving badly.  Thankfully we’ve had no reports of that recently, so well done everyone.

 

 We don’t want parents parking in places that cause inconvenience for local residents, nor parking in places that impede foot traffic or road users.  And of course, we’d like all of our parents being patient and courteous to everyone else that is part of the end of school pick up. 

 

As mentioned previously, for many families it can work to consider parking one block away.  Then you can arrange for the kids come to you or meet them at the gate and walk to the car.  Then you can avoid all of the rush out the front of the school.

 

 Ultimately, we just want everyone to be safe and for there to be a respectful environment in and around the school community.  Anything you can do to help with that is much appreciated.