From The Principal Team

Last week we had the pleasure of attending the Bayside Principals' 2024 Conference alongside other primary and secondary Principals and Assistant Principals within the Beachside, Sage and Kingston school networks. We proudly represented Beaumaris Primary School and immersed ourselves in two days of rich learning and conversations, continuously thinking about what we were being presented with means for our students and our staff. It's important to us to approach new information thoughtfully, responsibly and with an open mind. As a team, we are committed to continuously question, wonder and learn more to ensure our students and our staff are able to learn, teach and work in an exceptional school. 

Alongside the three of us, we work collectively with some outstanding school leaders. We'd like to take the opportunity in this weeks Stop Press Newsletter for our school's Learning Specialists to introduce themselves and share a little about themselves. 

Allan Skea

I am a pleased to say that I have loved the transition into my new role here at Beaumaris Primary School. The students, staff and wider community have been very welcoming. I am tasked with the job of Numeracy Learning Specialist here after 7 years at Solway Primary School in Ashburton where my role was that of High Ability Practice Leader. This was a varied role which included overseeing students selected to take part in Victoria’s High Ability Program, delivery of a Challenge and Enrichment program across the school and being a source of support for all school staff on supporting our high ability students. I look forward to continuing to support BPS in the above areas as well as continuing to build a strong numeracy program here across all levels of the school.

Anthea Cain

I have had the pleasure of working at BPS since 2017. I have taught primarily in the early years, but have moved into the senior school to teach Year 6 in 2024. I have a passion for all things Literacy; I studied French and Linguistics as part of my undergraduate degree, I have always loved getting lost in a good book, I enjoy the creative process of finding the right words when I write and I am fascinated to learn about the history of English spelling. 

One of the most rewarding parts of my job is sharing this passion with my students. Whether it’s through explicit teaching, facilitating class discussions or exposing students to rich texts, I get great satisfaction from supporting students to develop the skills required to comprehend what they’re reading, become critical consumers of information and develop the confidence to express themselves, both verbally and in writing. I believe whole-heartedly that every child deserves quality literacy instruction. I love learning about research-informed practices, sharing this knowledge with colleagues and working with them to implement best practice in their classrooms.

Keli David

I am thrilled to be back at BPS after almost two years of family leave. Our school is a special place to teach and learn; I particularly love the culture of kindness and generosity between the students, staff and families. My decision to become a teacher was based on my thirst for continual learning. A few years ago, I decided to return to university and I am now just one unit shy of completing a Master of Educational Leadership at Monash. I am enjoying gaining a big picture understanding of school leadership including the influence of the political and social landscape on our education system. 

My passion lies in teaching Literacy because I am fascinated by the nuances and history of the English language. In fact, my favourite book, The Dictionary of Lost Words, is all about the words that were selected (and equally those that were not) in the first edition of the Oxford Dictionary in the late 1800s. Historical fiction is definitely my favourite text genre! To me, teaching Literacy is all about fostering a love of language and developing students’ capacity to communicate with clarity and precision. 

We are thrilled to be working together as the Literacy Learning Specialists at BPS within a wonderful leadership team in 2024. We are embarking on a number of projects to enhance our literacy program and look forward to sharing updates with Beaumaris families throughout the year.

As you can see, Allan, Keli and Anthea all bring so much to our school - our teaching and learning programs, our direction, our professional learning and as wonderful teachers to two of our Year 6 classes. Please introduce yourself if you see them in our yard!

We've had an exciting week at Beaumaris Primary School celebrating Japanese Day. We've shared more details and photos about this day later in our newsletter, but we'd like to take this opportunity to thank our Japanese teachers, Gall Sensei and Miss Beth Wilson, and all of our staff involved in making this special day for our school happen. We'd also like to congratulate our Japanese Captains, Teresa and Victoria, who did an exceptional job introducing and concluding our assemblies - speaking in both Japanese and English. What remarkable role models they both are in their Year 6 leadership position. 

Enjoy the rest of your week. 

Kind Regards,

David, Grace and Ellen