Dear Parents and Carers,

End of Term

We would like to thank students, parents and staff for another fantastic term at Burwood East Primary School. There have been many highlights this term including:

Year 5 camp
Student delivery of the Stand-Up Project (SUP)
Weekly assembly directed by students
Parents sending information and celebrating students' achievements outside of school
PLA winners' Pizza Lunch
Robotics teams competing in external competitions
Book Week with a real focus on reading
School swimming program
Victorian High Ability Program (selected students)
Lacrosse Clinic

A big SHOUT OUT to our community who got behind our ‘Specialist Fair’ last Thursday and joined in the celebration, which offered the community an opportunity to view the continuum of learning through workbooks, exhibits and student performances. The turnout for our assembly was a great indicator of the value parents and friends place on the importance of creativity, as well as the impact this has on their child/ren's lives. The event offered a wonderful opportunity for our student leaders to lead the afternoon with great success.

Year 5 Camp

This week the Year 5 students headed to Alexandra Adventure Resort for a two-night camp. The students’ limits were pushed with activities such as the flying fox, canoeing, game challenges and laser tag to name a few.

The staff (Beth, Daniel, Ally, Ken ) and parents ( Grace, Les, Persephone, Renuka and Yuen Lam) who attended were very impressed by the students' sense of adventure, and the way they stepped out of their comfort zones to try something new, which could at times be a little bit scary. Well done to all Year 5 students who attended for their respect, effort, resilience, confidence and teamwork, all of which encompass our school’s core values.

Lacrosse Clinic

I'd like to express my thanks to Camberwell Lacrosse Club for the running of a successful three week program at BEPS. In a sport that is not easy to quickly pick up, the coaches were thoroughly impressed with the students' enthusiasm and progress during the clinics.

Students' Achievements

As always, recognising student success plays a big role in how leadership views learning and wellbeing at BEPS. Congratulations to Josephine in Year 6 and Teddy in Year 4 who both represent Camberwell Lacrosse Club and received club awards last week. Josephine, who plays in the Under 14 Girls team, was awarded the 'Most Tenacious' award. Josephine showed incredible grit and determination, fearlessly attacking every ground ball and her efforts sliding in defence to support her teammates helped stop many goals. What makes this award more special is she was playing one age group above her own, against bigger Year 7 and 8 students. Teddy, who plays in the Under 12 Boys team, was awarded the 'Best Teammate' award. Teddy is always the first one at training and the last to leave. His positive attitude and dedication to the team, as well as his willingness to play any position the coaches asked of him, helped the team to a 10-win and 2-loss record for the season.

We also recognise Olivia in Year 3 and Minh in Year 6 who received a High Distinction for

ICAS Digital Technology.

Staff Professional Learning

Last week our Learning Specialist in Maths, Lorraine, directed a professional learning session on the new Mathematics Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0. The focus was to identify the key changes to the Mathematics Curriculum, build familiarity with the Victorian Curriculum Mathematics 2.0, become familiar with key terminology to support its implementation and share what we need to know more about to ensure successful implementation.

Key elements that we as a school are focussing on are the proficiencies that are developed across the 6 strands. The proficiencies are fundamental to learning Mathematics and working mathematically as they are the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of Mathematics in action, enabling students to respond to familiar and unfamiliar situations, make informed decisions, and adopt reflective approaches to verify and evaluate solutions.

School Staff Survey

The School Staff Survey is conducted annually and is an opportunity for staff employed in Victorian government schools to provide feedback on factors of the school environment proven by research to influence student outcomes. All staff members, including teaching and non-teaching staff, full and part-time, received an invitation to participate. Once again, our data outcomes in school climate, teaching and learning, school leadership and professional learning are exceptional. If anyone in our community has questions or concerns about staffing, we encourage you to reach out to the school leadership team directly. We’re always here to listen and have open, honest conversations. It’s important to rely on facts rather than rumours, and we’re happy to clarify anything you’d like to discuss.

Art Mural - New Building

Please take time to see our Mural which is located on the side of the New Building. The Mural tells the narrative of BEPS' vision, 'Learn, Create, Inspire', highlighting the journey the students take as they progress through their first educational journey.

Parents Approaching Students

A reminder to all parents that we strongly encourage you to speak to class teachers when an issue or concern arises that relates directly to something that has happened in the classroom/playground. Parents must never address the issue with another child, nor approach the parents of the other child/ren (Students being confronted by an adult is quite distressing). The matter must be dealt with in the first instance, through the class teacher and where required, leadership.

Sometimes, what has happened or been said in the classroom/playground is taken out of context or is exaggerated; or both sides of the issue are not presented. When such matters are discussed widely, or when passing information from one party to another, the facts can often be distorted and inaccurate. If an incident occurs at school and has been dealt with at school, it should be left as a school issue and should not be discussed outside of the group of people it directly involves.

Parents are welcome to discuss an incident with the class teacher who has dealt with it for further information or clarification. However, I reiterate, due to confidentiality, the matter should not be discussed with other parents in the school community. Parents may sometimes not agree with the way a staff member deals with a classroom/playground incident between two or more children. Just like two different sets of parents may approach the same inappropriate behaviour differently — one may choose to ignore the incident, the other may choose to reprimand with some form of consequence — each teacher deals with inappropriate behaviour differently too; often based on the best information they have possession of at the time. At BEPS we are working with students to action solutions to issues which arise around learning, friendships and disputes, and I think parents would agree this is a lifelong skill which requires building strategies and unconditional support.

I encourage communication and a great deal of patience and understanding with our restorative practice approach. I can’t emphasise enough the importance of good parent-teacher communication — it is much easier to solve problems, feel reassured and be confident in what is happening in the classroom when there are open channels of communication between home and school.

Parent requests for 2025

As highlighted in our Buzz newsletter from Week 6, we are currently planning for 2025, and as part of this process we are determining our class structure and staffing profile to meet the needs of all students. A great deal of thought, planning and time goes into placing students into classes each year. Every effort is made to place each child in a learning environment that is happy, productive and successful. Class placement is a complex process involving various factors and allocations, and will not be finalised until later next term.

It’s that time of the year again when we seek parent requests for 2025 student placements. We do not accept requests for placement with individual teachers; however, we take into consideration relevant information based on educational needs which can help us with the placement process, and we try to place students with at least one known friend, if possible.

If parents have any requests for their child/children for 2025 please email, Darren, by 4 pm on Friday 18th October, 2024 (no exceptions). My email address is darren.mcdonald@education.vic.gov.au

Yours in Partnership,

Darren.

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