Principal's Message

Welcome to Week 8 of Term 1. 

 

Families are reminded that this is an eleven week term. Following the Easter long weekend of Friday 29 March - Monday 1 April, students return for a further 9 school days before holidays commence on Monday 15 April.

Harmony Week

This week is Harmony Week, during which we celebrate the diversity of our school community. At Ben Venue, we are proud to have over 35 cultures and ancestries represented in our school. Every odd numbered year, we celebrate our multiculturalism with our International Food Fair. This year, students will participate in activities in their class that promote understanding, acceptance and awareness of the contribution of multicultural Australia.

STEM challenge day

On Tuesday 5 March, 33 Stage 3 students participated in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) challenge day at the University of New England. The event provided students with opportunities to investigate, explore and create solutions to a range of problems, developing both skills in STEM and in interpersonal, leadership and negotiation skills.

LitQuiz

On Monday 11th March, eight Ben Venue students represented our school at the Armidale heat of the Kids Literature Quiz - an international literature knowledge competition. Our two teams of four joined 17 other teams from primary and high schools in the area to put their knowledge of literature to the test. The quiz consisted of 100 questions, which our teams worked tirelessly throughout the day to answer.

One of our teams placed fourth overall, with only a very small margin separating second, third and fourth places and only high school teams scoring higher than our top team. Well done to our literature buffs!

Stage 2 & 3 literacy extension

The implementation of our stage-based mathematics groupings in Years 1-6 in recent years has been a great success story in providing the right learning for our students at the right time. To provide additional extension for high performing students in literacy, selected students in Stage 2 and 3 now have access to a weekly extension program run by our learning support team. Students will be delving into textual concepts and learning at a Stage 3 and early high school level, using more complex texts as their focal point. Consultation with ASC has been undertaken to ensure the texts being used are not repeated in high school. Students selected to participate will receive letters this week.

Leadership excursion

In Week 6, members of our Student Leadership Team travelled to Sydney for the Young Leaders Conference. While the conference was engaging and contained some positive leadership messages for our students, life sometimes provides us with unexpected opportunities for learning and growth. This was certainly the case for our students, who found their homeward travel journey interrupted by mechanical issues, including the appearance of smoke in their train carriage. This necessitated a return to Sydney and then a long bus trip and late arrival into Armidale.

The conduct of our students throughout the entire excursion was exemplary and the experience was informative in the areas of negotiation, resilience and maintaining interpersonal skills in challenging situations.

Thank you to Mr Osborn, Mrs Pattison and Mrs Wassman for looking after the students during their extended experience.

Feedback and school satisfaction

Late in 2023, we sought feedback from families on a number of areas of school performance. We received 61 responses to this survey, with feedback being overwhelmingly positive. The survey responses also helped us identify areas in which we can improve, and a small number of areas in which further consultation with our community may be required.

Late this term or early next term, it is likely that a further survey will be distributed to families, seeking additional clarity in relation to these identified areas. When this occurs, I encourage all families to take the 5-10 min required to provide their perspective, as significant changes should only be made on the basis of a response from a majority of our community.

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey last term. The results will be published in the Annual Report at the end of Term 1.

School Photos

School photos will be held on Wednesday 3 and Friday 5 April. A class schedule will be sent to families in the coming week. Families are asked to plan ahead for full school uniform, including black shoes.

Cam Pryce

Principal