From the Principal's Desk
It has been a big couple of weeks across Banmira, full of excitement and challenge. We’ve had camps, plenty of winter illnesses, Student Free Days, opportunities to share learning and lots to celebrate across our community. As we head towards the second half of Term Three, there is plenty more to look forward to!
Book Week is Here!
It’s time to lock in those costumes, get creative and build some excitement around a love of literacy! Book Week runs from Saturday 22 August to Friday 28 August, with this year’s theme, ‘Symphony of Stories’.
On Thursday from 9:30am to 10:15am, we warmly invite family members into our classrooms across both campuses to read and listen to stories together and participate in some fun literacy activities. Students will be inviting family members over the coming days, and we would love to see as many of you as possible.
Then, on Friday 28 August, our whole school will come together at our Parkside Drive Junior Campus for our major Book Week celebration. Students will participate in shared stories, sensory experiences, arts and crafts and a range of activities centred around reading and this year’s theme.
Of course, we’ll finish with one of the highlights of Book Week: a big whole-school costume parade, where students and staff can proudly show off their creations!
A huge shout-out to our English Learning Specialist, Amy Purchase, for her enthusiastic leadership and the enormous amount of work going into bringing Book Week to life at Banmira.
Individual Education Plans Coming Home
This week, copies of students’ Individual Education Plans (IEPs) have made their way home, on Thursday for Junior Campus families and today for Senior Campus families.
IEPs capture the goals we have set together for your child and provide families with an update on the learning we are working towards as a team between home and school.
Importantly, an IEP is never a document that simply sits on a shelf. Banmira teachers continuously assess student learning against individual goals, adjusting, fine-tuning and changing our approach when needed to ensure students experience success and continue moving forward in their learning.
We hope this provides families with another valuable window into what your child is working towards at school. If you have any questions about an IEP or a particular goal, please reach out to your classroom teacher.
Even Adults Love to Learn!
Over the past two days, our staff have been participating in Team Teach training at the VISY Centre as part of our Student Free Days.
Team Teach brings together many important areas of our practice, including positive behaviour support, restorative approaches, understanding the functions of behaviour, and our legal responsibilities when supporting students.
Staff also undertake practical learning about responding safely to physical behaviours of concern and supporting students safely through transitions and moments of heightened behaviour.
Professional learning like this helps ensure our staff have a consistent approach and the skills and confidence to support students safely, positively and respectfully across both campuses.
Winter Illness and School
We love that our students and families value school and understand that every day counts when it comes to attendance. Over the past couple of weeks, however, we have needed to have some tricky conversations with families about students arriving at school when they are unwell.
We have students and staff across Banmira who have compromised immune systems, meaning an illness that might be relatively minor for one person can have a much greater impact on someone else.
If your young person is unwell, we kindly ask that you keep them home, allow them time to rest and recover, and let your classroom teacher or our office team know. We will record this as an approved absence.
When supporting families to understand when students should remain home, we regularly refer to the Victorian Department of Health’s School Exclusion Table:
Victorian School Exclusion Table
Hopefully we don’t have too much longer before the winter bugs begin to settle down! In the meantime, thank you to our families for working with us to keep our students, staff and wider Banmira community healthy.
Thank you, as always, for the support you continue to show our school and one another. With Book Week just around the corner and plenty still ahead for Term Three, we’re looking forward to another fortnight of learning, connection and celebration across Banmira.
Jesse Whittaker
Principal
