Dear Families,

It is hard to believe we are already at the mid-term mark for Term 1! I spoke to all the students at last week’s assembly about this being the perfect time, now we are settled into the new school year, to focus on two things: living our school values through small moments every day and a commitment to good learning behaviours. Two elements at the core of the BNPS learning community.

Pokemon Cards

As many of you will be aware, we have a large number of students who love to collect, share, admire and at times, trade Pokemon Cards. I had to remind students at last week’s assembly that we do not trade Pokemon Cards at school, as it generally ends up creating problems regarding fairness, children changing their minds, etc. We have no issue at all with students continuing to bring them along and play with them at break times, but there is to be no trading during school times.

Pupil Free Days

School Council has now approved Pupil Free Days up to and including Term 3, and I always like to get these dates out to our families as early as possible for family planning. As you are already aware, we have a Pupil Free Day coming up on Tuesday 14th March, where staff will be engaging with an external consultant, Michael Minas, delivering professional learning on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics. Specifically, Michael will focus on problem solving lessons and how teachers cater to individual learning needs in Numeracy. He will then be working with teachers and students in our classrooms the following day.

Future Pupil Free Days:

Friday 9th June (Department of Education approved Professional Practice Day for Report Writing)
Monday 10th July – Curriculum Day with Real Schools consultant, Sheila Bollard
Wednesday 26th July – Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences

Upcoming Events

On Monday, 6th March, we have our Year 3-6 Senior Athletics Day which is bound to be a fantastic event for our senior students. Starting on Wednesday, 15th March our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be undertaking NAPLAN testing. The test schedule for this is as follows:

Wednesday 15th March – NAPLAN Writing
Thursday 16th March – NAPLAN Reading
Monday 20th March – NAPLAN Language Conventions
Tuesday 21st March – NAPLAN Numeracy

On Wednesday the 22nd of March, at 9:30am, we will be holding our 2024 Prep Parent Information Morning and school tours for prospective Foundation/Prep families.

Homework

The school leadership team has spent considerable time this year discussing the implementation of homework across the school. A large part of focus has been on answering the question: What is the overall impact of enforcing homework for our students? To answer this, leaders have provided perspective from their year levels, and we have turned to the research evidence to guide our decision in conjunction with department policy. Whilst we appreciate there is an aspect of setting up good study habits in preparation for high school, the overall evidence shows a very limited positive impact on student learning in primary school, when you consider the time it takes to set, correct, and enforce homework each week. As such, the leadership team has agreed to the following guidelines for our school regarding homework at Ballarat North Primary School:

Priority will be placed on daily reading at home and will be recognised and celebrated by all teachers.

Reading (F-6)

All students are encouraged to participate in daily reading at home i.e., books, magazines, shopping, recipes, comics, letters, newspapers, etc.

High-Frequency Words (F-2)

All students are encouraged to practise reading provided word lists (Foundation – Hot Words; Year 1/2 – Oxford words)

Maths

All students are encouraged to access Mathletics to consolidate classroom learning.

(MathsMates are being utilising to supplement classroom programs in 2023, and will not be sent home for homework)

Speaking and Listening (F-6)

Students may be required to prepare for Oral Presentations (this may include Show & Tell, presentation of projects, etc.) throughout the year.

Where parents are looking for direction on any homework for your child/ren, please contact their classroom teacher to discuss this.

Assistant Principal Role

Lastly, I would like to announce that Mrs Carey, our Assistant Principal, will be reducing her time fraction to four days per week from next week (she will not be working on Thursdays). Mrs Carly Macdonald has been successfully appointed to the one-day per week Acting Assistant Principal role and will work alongside Kim and myself in leading the school this year. Mrs Carmen Morris, who is well known to our students, will take over the teaching of 5/6M on Thursdays from next week.

Until I see you in person,

Regards,

David

“Excellence is not a skill, it's an attitude.” ~ Ralph Marston

BNPS Newsletter

Care Respect Excellence Community

Issue 2 Term 1 Week 6 · 02 Mar 2023

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