Principal News, 21.02.2025

Dear Banyan Fields Primary School Community,

The past two weeks have been filled with excitement and community spirit! Last week, we hosted our first (and hopefully annual!) Welcome BBQ, bringing families together to enjoy a relaxed afternoon of food, fun, and connection. It was a wonderful opportunity for families to meet one another, engage with our staff, and for students to enjoy delicious and well-cooked sausages.

A heartfelt thank you to Adam and IGA for generously providing the sausages and bread and to TheirCare for their invaluable support. Their contributions helped make this event a huge success, and we truly appreciate your generosity. We look forward to continuing to build a strong and connected school community throughout the year!

Crazy Hair Day Fun for a Great Cause!

Our Crazy Hair Day was a huge success! Students came to school with the most creative, wacky, and colourful hairstyles while supporting a great cause. Thanks to our amazing school community, we raised money through gold coin donations to support Cystic Fibrosis awareness and research.

A big thank you to everyone who participated and donated—your generosity helps make a difference!

Home Reading Program – Foundation to Year 2

We are excited to share that all students in Foundation to Year 2 have now commenced their Home Reading Program. This week, students received their home readers and reader diaries, supporting their literacy development and fostering a love for reading.

Foundation to Year 2 students have been actively engaging in phonics learning through the Little Learners Love Literacy Program, building essential early reading skills.

We kindly ask for your support in reminding students to pack their purple reader bag and bring it to school each day. This ensures they have access to new books and can continue developing their reading confidence.

Thank you for your ongoing support in your child’s literacy journey!

NAPLAN

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is scheduled from Wednesday, 12 March to Monday, 24 March. This assessment involves students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 across Australia. The tests are conducted within schools under supervised conditions, primarily online, with Year 3 students completing the writing test on paper.

The assessment covers four key areas:

● Writing

● Reading

● Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar, and punctuation)

● Numeracy

For comprehensive information, including details on test preparation and support, parents and carers can refer to the official NAPLAN information brochure in this newsletter.

Recess Playtime Extension

It was announced this week that the students will have an extra 10 minutes of playtime at recess every day on a trial basis. This was in response to mature and sensible requests submitted from students from across the school. Going forward, the students will eat in their classrooms during the review stage of their lesson from 10:50am. At 11am, they will go to the yard and will have 30 minutes of playtime. The students were challenged with leaving all rubbish inside to ensure our school environment stays tidy and organised, with returning to the classroom as soon as the music begins to play so they are ready to re-engage with their learning as soon as playtime finishes, and to continue to engage positively and politely with their peers on the yard.

Parent Focus Group

Thank you to the three parents who have volunteered to join our focus group as part of our review. We will confirm the exact time and day once confirmed, and are hopeful that more parents can support our work by joining us. Please email patrick.halpin@education.vic.gov.au if you are interested or would like more information.

School Photographs

With our school photographs coming up, please remember to return your consent form so your child can be photographed. We use annual photographs on our internal systems so please return your form at your earliest convenience if you haven’t already.

Annual Privacy Reminder

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice.

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy, describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

· Amharic

· Arabic

· Chinese

· Dari

· Gujarati

· Mandarin

· Somali

· Sudanese

· Turkish

· Urdu

· Vietnamese

Easter Free Dress Day

We’re excited to celebrate Easter Free Dress Day on Thursday, March 6th! Students are invited to wear free dress. We are asking for donations that will be included in our Easter raffle.

For more details, please refer to the flyer.

Thank you for your support! 🐰🌷

Patrick Halpin - Principal

Jacqui Sampson - Assistant Principal

Jennifer Churcher - Assistant Principal

Sharleen Nason - Assistant Principal

2026 Foundation Enrolments & Tours