Whole School Happenings
Berry Street Educational Model at Bimbadeen Heights
We are thrilled to announce an exciting development within our Bimbadeen community: the introduction of the Berry Street Educational Model (BSEM), which commenced implementation in 2023 and will persist going forward.
BSEM represents a comprehensive approach to education, offering invaluable strategies to address the diverse learning needs of students, particularly those facing complex challenges or unmet learning needs.
Their mission is to see fewer children in care and more children safe with families who know how to nurture and support them. As BSEM is one of Australia’s largest independent family service organisations, their main belief is that all children, young people and families, should be safe, thriving and hopeful.
Through BSEM, Bimbadeen educators have gained invaluable resources to foster students' self-regulation, interpersonal connections, and overall well-being, consequently strengthening academic engagement and achievement.
We are so proud of how our teachers have made this a part of their teaching philosophy and we have seen amazing student results in terms of performance, attendance and overall well-being.
Stay tuned for future newsletters, where we will delve deeper into BSEM and what strategies and areas we are focusing on at Bimbadeen in which you may find to be beneficial to use at home too.
Thank you,
Olivia Maestri and Marty Gill
Berry Street Education Model Leader and Inclusion Leader
SWPBS Program
Our School Wide Positive Matrix helps us to support student engagement and positively reinforce our school values. The behaviours listed in this matrix are as explicit as possible so our students can connect when they receive a token to the value itself with teacher support. Our students learn about these values but also have time to practice these too. When the student’s demonstrate these values we positively reinforce this with our value tokens. As tokens are earned, we collect them in our cylinders in the office and when they top up, we celebrate!
We encourage you to share the SWPBS Values Matrix at home and talk about these values with your child/ren. As the names says, the Values Matrix is school wide, so we hold this true for our students, staff and you as our BHPS community too!
Sustainability at Bimbadeen!
It looks like 2024 is gearing up to be a very exciting year at Bimbadeen Heights! Students and staff have been sharing ideas around Sustainability in the classrooms, staffroom, and in the yard – with some wonderful ideas towards enhancing outdoor spaces and learning opportunities, our environmental practices, and our involvement with community.
Last week, we have had our very first lunch time club, attended by some very enthusiastic students, keen to make Bimbadeen an even better place to learn and play. We brainstormed some ideas and will be creating an action plan. We even brainstormed some ideas for a new club name – ‘Super Sprouts’, maybe? Stay tuned to this space to see our projects come to fruition! To help support this student-led club, we are looking into creative fundraising ideas, including making use of the Container Deposit Scheme – so start collecting those containers and stay tuned for more information!
Bimbadeen also signed up to the ResourceSmart Schools program, an initiative offered through Sustainability Victoria. As a school community, we will be able to gather baseline data, create and action a plan, and track our progress over time. There are five main areas of focus; Core, Waste, Energy, Water and Biodiversity – all opportunities to connect real-life learning to the Curriculum. Aside from providing authentic learning outcomes and having a positive impact on the environment, we will be able to save school resources and money, too!
On Friday 1st March, the Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning held their annual Learning for Sustainability Conference. Here, schools, local councils and community organisations converge to share knowledge and ideas to help nurture schools along their sustainability journey. We attended two workshops; Chickens, Compost and Closing the Food Loop at Schools, and Embedding Indigenous Perspectives in Your School Curriculum – both very timely and important for our work here at Bimbadeen. We look forward to sharing our learning with you soon.
If Sustainability is a passion of yours, or if you could support our endeavours (especially with supplies for the Gardening Club, supporting Active Travel or attending a Working Bee), we would love to hear from you. Please leave your name and details at the office.
