Principal News

Champions!

Congratulations to our Senior Girls Football (AFL) team who won the interschool district football event.  We are so incredibly proud of your effort and team work on this day. What a great result for Banyan Fields Primary School!

Well done to: 

Sierra, Asher, Brooklyn, Bailey, Ariana, Mika, Tully, Georgia, Mackenzie, Emily, Harper, Charlotte, Jannali, Eva, Lexi, Indi, Serena, Kaydence, Mahalia, Bonnie, Belle, Grace & Paige. 

Our build project is well underway. Students (and staff) were fascinated to see a crane operating to move things around as part of the build project. I took the opportunity to speak with Chris and Imogen from class 4W who had some very good questions about the crane. I have since asked the builders to respond to these questions. Keep reading on to see Chris and Imogen's questions answered.

• Why do you use a crane and not just carry the materials?  A crane is a much safer and time efficient way of transporting the materials. It also depends on the size of the job, if it’s only a small roof then generally a crane is not used.
• What part of the building are you using the crane to work on? We are using it for the entire roof on the Multi-Purpose Hall.
• Why do you blow a whistle when the crane delivers what it is carrying? Whenever using a mobile crane, it is usually accompanied by another worker called a ‘Dogman’. The crane driver will always require a dogman to assist with many technical aspects of any crane lift, from identifying and setting up a suitable parking spot for the crane, securing and tethering materials to be lifted/loaded/placed and to ensure the crane operator has an external set of ‘eyes & ears’. This is probably the dogman’s most important role as the crane operator cannot always ‘see’ where they need to place items or even have the ‘hook’ in the right place to pick items up and when to stop. When you hear the dogman blow his whistle, sometimes in a variety of ways, these audible signals can mean a variety of things from ‘stop!!, slow down, go up, go left or go right. It’s a very old and traditional method of communication that was developed well before the advent of mobile phones, cameras, and other modern means of communication.

I am excited to share that our Easter Raffle at the end of last term raised $4,000. Thank you everybody for contributing by sending in Easter Egg donations or buying tickets. The funds raised will go towards improving our garden areas.