Principal's Report
Dear Parents and Families,
Well it certainly feels like Winter has hit Ballarat!
I just wanted to share a few of the happenings so far from Term Two at BNPS:
- Whole school swimming program at Swim and Survival
- District Athletics and Winter Sports
- Year 3-6 golf clinics
- Kids and Worry staff and parent workshops
- Equality Day – TEAMs and lunchtime activities
- Whole school Zumba – raising money for the Ballarat Foundation
We are coming into assessment and reporting period where teachers will be completing assessments to inform their Semester One reports, which are released on Compass on the last day of term. Our teachers use a wide variety of assessment tools, learning tasks and portfolio tasks to gain a deep understanding of each student’s achievement, learning growth and goals.
Wellbeing and Engagement Systems of Support at BNPS
Over the last eighteen months, we have worked very hard to keep extending our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for all students in need of assistance with their wellbeing, mental health and engagement at school. We are so fortunate to have Mrs Carmen Morris (pictured) as our wellbeing teacher in a part-time role (also one of our amazing Performing Arts teachers), working alongside our leadership team to implement strong, layered supports in out school targeting student wellbeing. To compliment this, we have also employed – for the last 12 months – a Provisional Psychologist from Federation University to work with individual students one day a week, and more recently, have been successful in receiving four-years funding under the National Student Wellbeing Program for a wellbeing support person to work in our school one day a week.
The provisional psychologists change each semester, however our wellbeing support chaplain, who started with us last week – is experienced in this role, and is trained in a number of interventions such as Peaceful Kids and DRUMBEAT. Sharelle (pictured) will be working with groups of students across Year 1-6 implementing a series programs targeting positive coping skills, emotional literacy and resilience.
Mrs Carey, Mrs Macdonald, Mrs Morris and myself meet regularly to discuss students who might be in need of additional support above and beyond regular classroom practices such as Real Schools, Respectful Relationships and restorative practices, and work closely with parents/carers to build a system of support tailored to the individual needs of their child.
As lucky as we are to have such rich layers of wellbeing support in the school, it is a finite resource, and I always encourage parents to also seek GP advice around implementing a Mental Health Care Plan to seek assistance where more focussed intervention is required. The Psychology Service at Federation University (FedCare) also offers an amazing resource for access to lower-cost counselling services. More information about this is included on the Wellbeing and Mental Health Page of this newsletter.
As always, we work in partnership with you all to wrap around every child in our school, and as you know, you only have to come and speak to your child’s teacher or a member of the leadership team to raise any concerns that we may be able to assist with or guide you on.
Until I see you in person,
David Garner
“Well-being cannot exist just in your own head. Well-being is a combination of feeling good as well as actually having meaning, good relationships and accomplishment.”
