Principal's Report

Newsletter. Week 11, term 2, 2024

Welcome to our final newsletter for term two. I hope you enjoy reading about the amazing learning activities that we have engaged in this term.

Prep Enrolments

A reminder that enrolment applications are now open for prep 2025 at Bundoora Primary School. Enrolment applications can be made through the new Student Insight Platform located at the following link, or by collecting an enrolment pack from Ms Jodie in the office.

https://students.educationapps.vic.gov.au/s/

Teacher Leadership Programs

Congratulations to the teachers who are completing leadership programs this year. Mr Steven Meagher has commenced the Numeracy Leaders program, while Ms Jacqueline Mitchelhill is completing the CREATE leadership program through the Victorian Academy. Ms Tiffany Dean has completed the CREATE leadership program and an instructional coaching program through the Victorian Academy.

As a school we prioritise professional learning for our staff to ensure we achieve the best possible outcomes for our students.

Unwell students attending school

A reminder to please keep your child home from school if they are unwell. The number of students that are still attending school when they are unwell is having a dramatic effect on the health of our staff and our ability to have a teacher to teach your child every day. You may be aware that there is a severe shortage of suitably qualified casual relief teachers in Victoria at present and this combined with Bundoora teachers catching viruses from children is making this a very challenging time. Where possible we place a CRT with a class, however, at times we are forced to split classes as no teachers are available. 

Taking photographs and videos at school – Expectations

We remind our school community of our expectations regarding taking photographs or videos at school events or on school grounds. 

From our Photographing, Filming, and Recording Students policy (available on our website):

School performances, sporting events and other school approved activities:

Bundoora Primary School requests that parents/carers, students and invited guests who photograph, film or record school activities do so only for their own personal use and do not publish the images in any form, including on social media, or without the prior consent of persons whose children also appear in the images. Neither the school nor the Department (of Education) own or control any images of students taken by parents/carers or students, or their invited guests at school activities.

In addition, personal photography/filming must not:

-occur outside of these school events

- be done by people not attending an event with our school

- be done during recess/lunchtime from outside the school grounds.

These measures are in place to promote the privacy and safety of our students and their families.

Please share this important information with other family members, such as grandparents.

Long Service Leave 

Mrs Julie Dunn will be taking a period of extended long service leave in term three. Mrs Dunn will be travelling around Europe and visiting the Olympics whilst in Paris. We will miss her while she is gone but wish her safe and happy travels.

Ms Tsiaras

Ms Vicky Tsiaras has informed me this week that she is resigning from the Department of Education. Although she will miss our school and students, she is taking a break to look after her health. We wish Miss Tsiaras well. Her final day with us will be the 28th of June 2024 

As soon as we have been able to recruit a new teacher for Prep A, we will invite families to come and meet the teacher. In the meantime, we will ensure continuity of learning for these children. Our priority is to find a teacher who will build relationships with the children quickly, with no interruption to their learning.

Respectful Relationships (Social and Emotional Learning)

Respectful Relationships is a mandated initiative to support schools to promote and model respect and equality. It also supports educators to teach our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence.

The whole-school approach to Respectful Relationships goes beyond curriculum, recognising that to drive real change, classroom learning needs to be reinforced by what is modelled within the school community.

The age-appropriate resources support curriculum delivery and include lessons and activities that help students learn and practice social skills and apply them in a positive way to learning, life and relationships.

At Bundoora Primary School our students participate in one Respectful Relationship or Resilience Program lesson each week.

Next term we will begin by focusing on body safety; talking about personal space, not allowing anyone to touch your body without permission, and where and how to get help. You will see posters around the school about this and other topics in term three.

Term overview of learning

In term three we are introducing a Term overview of learning. Each team (Prep/One, Two/Three, Four, Five/Six, and the Specialist team) will send out an overview of the learning expected to take place in term three. 

Please remember that this overview is the expected learning only and many factors can influence coverage. For example, in term three we have swimming and grade five/six camp, among other things. As teachers teach new knowledge and strategies, they will be continually monitoring student progress and may need to repeat learning from time-to-time if they judge that the students need more time on a concept before moving on.

Similarly, we request that parents refrain from teaching their children the class concepts in advance as this can lead to misconceptions that then need to be undone before teaching can occur. It is much harder to undo a misconception than to teach a new concept.

Ideally, invite your children to share what they have learned each day in class, focusing on the positives.

School photos

Our school photos have gone home in the last couple of weeks. We found the new photographers to be professional and easy to work with and the results, including presentation, were fantastic. I’d like to acknowledge that the recent hand out of school photos was not done as smoothly as we would have liked. With several teachers away sick, some families did not receive their photo package straight away. We will do better next year. Please take the time to fill out the survey sent out on Compass by School Council to let us know what you though about the change in photographer. https://forms.gle/jjuqb7gYhXFW7YD26

The Witches Party

Last week the Prep to year two students performed in The Witches Party. The students were outstanding and were clearly having a great time.

Thank you to Mrs Newell and her team, and the classroom teachers, for putting on this event for us. Our teachers give up their own time for these events to take place and I thank them all for their work.

Professional Learning Community (PLC) Celebration

Professional Learning Communities are an essential part of our school’s improvement process. PLCs are teams of teachers within a school who work collaboratively to improve student learning and wellbeing. The teams engage in continuous improvement cycles focused on improving student learning and wellbeing. They ensure data and evidence forms the starting point for the improvement cycle and is the foundation for all discussions. The teams use protocols to guide the PLC, ensuring that all voices are heard, the inquiry moves past surface assumptions, and that conversations, while professionally challenging, remain safe and inclusive.

Teams work together to develop a ‘crumb’ – a specific learning focus for the improvement cycle.

This week our PLC team held a celebration to share our successes this term. Our focuses this term were:

-Maths -based on each team’s data, and

- wellbeing.

The Specialist team focused on wellbeing alone.

Each team presented their work and findings to the staff, and we were fortunate to host our Senior Education Improvement Leader (SEIL), Justin Esler, and PLC Practice instructor from the region, Sally Nejkoski. I was impressed with the work that our teams put in and their dedication to our students. It was great to see them pushing themselves out of their comfort zones, as we ask our students to do. Please check out the photos of our teams presenting below.

Semester one reports

It is anticipated that our semester one student reports will be out later today. Please enjoy reading through your child’s report together and celebrate their progress and learning for this semester. Learning is hard work and much has been achieved so far this year.

Our parent teacher conferences will be held on September 11th and bookings will be able to be made on Compass by the end of July. We will send out a notification once the bookings are open.

SEP Pop up Disco

Congratulations to the SEP team who ran the Pop-up Disco yesterday. Our student leaders and teachers give up their own time to coordinate and run these events and I admire their passion and commitment. Well done, Team!

School of Rock

Congratulations to Mrs Newell, Mrs Allibon, Mr Cass and the team of band and choir students who attended School of Rock yesterday. The students were outstanding and extremely well received by the crowd. 

Mrs Newell said,

“So many teachers from other schools have approached me today to say amazing they were! Definitely BEST primary school by a MILE (Most entertaining out of every school today! Crowd went nuts!)”

The rock band and choir gave us a repeat performance at assembly today. Once again, thanks to our dedicated staff and parent helpers for their great work. 

Start of term three

The school holidays started today, with the TheirCare OSHC program available each weekday during the holidays.

Term three commences on Monday 15th July at 8:55 am. 

Thank you to our school community for your continued faith in our school and support for programs, camps, and learning activities. We are very lucky to have the team we have. 

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday.

Sherrin Strathairn

Principal

Professional Learning Communities presentations