From the Principal

School Review

The School Review takes place every four years in Victorian government schools, and is an important opportunity to reflect on our progress, celebrate our achievements and help shape our future direction.

Day 1 was our Fieldwork Day, where the review panel spent time in classrooms seeing learning in action, speaking with students and staff, and gathering insights through a series of focus groups. These conversations help the panel build a rich understanding of our school; what we are doing well and where we can continue to grow.

There were many thoughtful discussions throughout the day, with students and staff sharing their experiences, ideas and perspectives. It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the learning, trusting relationships and strong collaborative culture that make our school community so special.

Day 2 takes place tomorrow and will involve an intensive day of collaborative work to develop the priorities for our next 4-Year School Strategic Plan. This plan will guide the direction of the school over the coming years, with a particular focus on extending students in Writing and Numeracy and strengthening student agency; ensuring learners continue to be reflective, active participants in their learning.

Day 2 will include parent/ carer focus groups from across all year levels, as well as conversations with our behind-the-scenes heroes; our Education Support staff. Their perspectives are an essential part of understanding the full picture of school life.

At the heart of this work is our shared commitment to imparare insieme, creare insieme, vivere insieme; learning, creating and living together.

A sincere grazie mille to our review panel and colleagues supporting this process; Janet Gale, Principal at Camberwell Primary School and Bilingual Schools Network Chair; Tanya Gurney, Principal at Glenferrie Primary School; Tony Privitelli, Senior Education Improvement Leader; and Trish Hyland, our Reviewer. We are grateful for the time, expertise and thoughtful engagement each of them brings to this important work.

We look forward to sharing more with our community as the process continues.

Harmony Week

Next week is Harmony Week; a time for us to celebrate the rich cultural diversity of our school community and the values that bring us together. Throughout the week, students will be encouraged to wear a splash of orange as they consider the many beautiful cultures, languages and traditions that make up our school. It is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the importance of respect, inclusion and belonging, and to celebrate the idea that ours is a community where everyone belongs. These values sit beautifully alongside our guiding principle of vivere insieme - living together, where we learn from one another and appreciate the many stories that shape who we are.

At the same time, many members of our community will be observing Ramadan, a significant and meaningful time for Muslims around the world. Ramadan is a month of reflection, prayer, generosity and fasting from dawn until sunset. Many of our students and families will be observing this important time, and we wish them Ramadan Mubarak! Moments like these remind us of the importance of understanding and supporting one another; another way we bring vivere insieme to life in our school community.

Buildings and Grounds update, big news on the synthetic courts, and our 2nd star!

Stage 2 of our building project is now in full swing, with the excavation of old drainage infrastructure and installation of the new system. This work is expected to take a few weeks more. Toward the end of the holidays/ start of term 2, we will be resurfacing both synthetic courts! Initially, only the north court was included in the project scope, but we have been able to make a co-contribution from our fundraising kitty to enable both sides to be done. This is a fantastic outcome, and one that will benefit students for many years to come! Meanwhile, painting and repairs to window frames continue, and once the roof repairs are completed, we will move into extensive internal painting throughout the school.

Thanks to donations to our Building Fund, a new projector and large screen will be installed in the hall later this term. The screen will be perfect for celebrating student achievements at assemblies, making presentations from guest speakers even more engaging, and will bring everyone together to enjoy community movie nights!

Our wonderful Environment Sub-committee are holding a mini-working bee after school this Friday 13th to sustainably spring clean the art storeroom. We are short on storage space, so this decluttering will make room for new musical instruments to be used in Teatro in a manner that aligns with our Resource Smart School priorities. All welcome - many hands make light work.

We are very excited to have been awarded our 2nd Resource Smart Schools star, and work is underway on the 3rd! This is an impressive achievement, as it usually takes at least a couple of years to obtain one, but we’ve managed to achieve 2 in only 18 months! Now we’re just awaiting the new signage to make it official! Boundless thanks to our Environment Action Team, Environment Subcommittee (special shout-out to Kelley and Noel for their dedicated commitment to the cause), Eileen, Ellie and Maddison for bringing it all together; but of course, thanks to our whole school community for your support of this important initiative.

We are proud to be hosting the Resource Smart Schools Northern Progress Workshop on March 25th, where RSS Coordinators will join with our very own sustainability champion, Maddison, to tour our school and see the incredible work we’ve done as a community, and to share achievements and ideas.

Two Resource Smart reminders:

Please help us to eliminate lunchbox litter by choosing not to send single-use plastics to school,
BSPS is a registered Container Deposit Scheme Partner. Enter our code at Container Deposit stations to donate your refund to our school upgrades kitty, with our thanks.

Ciao for now,

Kristie