Principal's Report
We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work, learn and play. We pay respect to Wurundjeri elders past, present and emerging and extend our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and families of Bimbadeen Heights Primary School.
The 'Welcome' sign at the entrance to our Administration building proudly features the languages spoken by our Bimbadeen Heights students and families. Since its installation, we’ve been excited to add new languages as more families from diverse multicultural backgrounds join our community. Our sign currently represents 19 languages, with one more coming soon!
If any of our new families speak a language not yet represented on the sign, please let us know. We’d love to add it and celebrate your background and heritage.
This week, students and staff at Bimbadeen came together to celebrate and embrace cultural diversity through a variety of classroom activities and discussions as part of Harmony Day. Harmony Day is a special occasion that celebrates our rich diversity and brings together Australians from all walks of life. It’s a day focused on inclusiveness, respect, and fostering a sense of belonging for everyone.
Our students showed their support by wearing a touch of orange or dressing in culturally significant attire. Many also brought items of cultural importance to share with their peers during the classroom celebrations. It’s always such a joy to recognize and celebrate the vibrant diversity of our community.
Be sure to check out the beautiful photos from our whole-school celebration later in this newsletter!
We’re excited to announce that our new water bubblers have been installed outside the library!
Last week, the finishing touches were put on these sleek new additions, which replace the old, worn-out bubblers. Not only do they look fantastic, but our students also love using them to stay hydrated and fill up their drink bottles.
A huge thank you to Erin Murphy, whose creative poem submission won our school one of these amazing bubblers. These bubblers are a wonderful new feature on our grounds, and both our students and staff have been working together to draft guidelines for their use. Once the Student Representative Council finalises the expectations, we’ll be all set to enjoy them to the fullest!
On Friday, 14 March, a group of talented students represented Bimbadeen with pride at the annual Lilydale District Elite Athletics Carnival, held at the Mount Evelyn Athletics Track. It was an exciting day full of energy, teamwork, and impressive performances as our students gave their all in every event.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Mr. Munnecke, Ms Buzaglo and the Physical Education teachers from the Lilydale District schools, whose dedication and planning made the event a success. We also appreciate the support of our parents, carers, volunteers, and teaching staff, whose presence made the day even more special.
We are incredibly proud of all our participants, who demonstrated determination, sportsmanship, and respect throughout the carnival. Congratulations to everyone who took part, and a special congratulations to those who have been selected to continue on to the next level of competition! Your hard work and passion are truly inspiring.
Those students are -
| Harry C | 800m |
| Lachlan H | Discus, High Jump |
| Carter R | Long Jump |
| Aidan K | 100m, 200m |
| Tom H-G | High Jump |
| Violet R | Shot Put |
| Hayley N | 1500m |
| Mikayla W | Shot Put |
Traditionally, on the last school day before ANZAC Day we hold a special whole school ANZAC Day ceremony. This year’s ANZAC Day Service will be held on Thursday 24 April at 2:30pm on the basketball/netball court in front of our ANZAC Memorial.
Our ANZAC Ceremony is one of the most memorable school assemblies that we hold at Bimbadeen each year and it always makes us proud to see the children showing such respect and learning about this important part of Australia’s history.
The service features a guest speaker along with presentations by our Student Leaders and School Captains from Mooroolbark Secondary College. Please add this date to your diary and we look forward to seeing you there!
A big thank you to everyone in our community who donated items, purchased raffle tickets, and supported this event. We’d also like to extend our gratitude to the Year 3 Teaching Team for coordinating the Easter Raffle this year, as well as the wonderful group of parents and carers who are helping to prepare the prizes for next week’s draw.
If you haven’t purchased your tickets yet, don’t worry—you can still buy them until the end of the day on Monday. A special thank you to the Thomas family for generously donating the first prize, a giant bunny from The Ministry of Chocolate!
Good luck to everyone who has purchased tickets and thank you again for your support!
There is a buzz of excitement around our annual Whole School Cross Country event taking place within and around the school grounds on Monday.
Dust off your house colours and get ready for a fantastic day of competition.
Keep an eye out on Sentral for further information.
We are thrilled to announce that we have officially received confirmation of our Gold Level accreditation for School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) in 2024. That’s right—it's a three-peat for us, after earning Gold Level awards in both 2022 and 2023!
This prestigious recognition highlights our continued commitment to maintaining strong Tier 1 foundations, effective classroom systems, and key fidelity measures. Achieving Gold this year is particularly meaningful as it requires having earned Silver or Gold the year before, making this accomplishment extra special.
Implementing SWPBS is a multi-year journey, often taking 3 to 5 years, and this milestone reflects the dedication of everyone in our community to creating a positive and effective learning environment for our students.
To celebrate, Amanda Bailey and Ash Janssen have teamed up with our SRC to plan an exciting school-wide celebration on the final day of term. Keep an eye on Sentral and later in this newsletter for more details!
Bimbadeen Heights PS has a closed-circuit television (CCTV) system in operation at our school. Our school has an obligation to ensure the school environment is safe and secure, and fulfil our duty of care to students, staff, and visitors. The CCTV system assists our school to fulfil these obligations and prevent and manage other inappropriate behaviour on school grounds. CCTV also provides enhanced capability to protect our school’s assets against vandalism and theft.
We follow Department of Education and Training policy requirements for the design, installation, management, and use of the CCTV systems. This policy is available at: CCTV in Schools – Installation and Management. We will also have a CCTV Privacy Notice on our school website with more information about our school’s use. If you have any questions or concerns at this stage, please contact the office.
School Council would like to express their sincere thanks for the voluntary parent contributions made by our parents and carers. Without the generous contributions of our families, we would not be able to provide the same high-quality programs, resources, and experiences for our students.
The first meeting of the new School Council was held on Wednesday last week. The meeting included the election of office bearers, and the following members were duly elected to specific roles on our council:
The membership of your School Council this year is as follows:
Parent Members
School Employee Members
Community Member
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We were pleased with the interest from our parent/carer community in nominating for council. We are also very pleased with the calibre of people on our School Council who are all great supporters of our school, and we look forward to working with them as we continue our journey with a focus on improving student learning outcomes.
Our School Council sub-committees provide an excellent opportunity for our parents/carers to contribute to our school community. Members of our community, including parents/carers, do not need to be on School Council to be a member of a sub-committee, and we warmly invited you to consider joining one or more committees to help lead the work of our council this year.
In 2025, we have five sub-committees of School Council:
Each sub-committee meets once a month (approximately 6-8 times per year), in the week prior to each School Council meeting. Meetings are usually held in the early evening and to ensure accessibility and inclusion, all sub-committee meetings include a WebEx option for members of our school community to attend meetings virtually, when they are unable to attend in person.
If you are interested in joining one or more of our sub-committees for this year, please contact the relevant convenor via phone or email:
Our 2025 Active Club and Breakfast Club will kick off in Term 2. Both clubs are designed to help our students build healthy habits that support their overall wellbeing, while also offering opportunities to connect with peers and staff.
Active Club is a fun way for students to get moving, engage in physical activities, and enjoy games in a friendly, supportive setting. Breakfast Club provides a great start to the day, helping students fuel up with a healthy breakfast and set a positive tone for the day ahead.
Keep an eye out on Sentral for further information about these important clubs!
In accordance with the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic), schooling is compulsory for children and young people aged from 6 to 17 years unless an exemption has been granted. Parents/carers must enrol a child of compulsory school age at a registered school and always ensure the child attends school when the school is open for instruction. Students are expected to attend the school in which they are enrolled, during normal school hours every day of each term, unless there is an approved exemption from school attendance or attendance and enrolment for the student, or the student is registered for home-schooling and has only a partial enrolment in a school for activities. Schools must advise parents/carers of unexplained absences, on the same day, as soon as practicable. We use Sentral attendance to record this at Bimbadeen Heights Primary School.
At this time of the year many people are thinking about choosing a school for next year. This may be parents of children in Year 6 who are deciding on secondary schools or parents of pre-schoolers who are looking for a primary school.
Choosing the school that is best suited to your family and child’s needs can still be a challenge. The best way to determine the right school for you is to visit them, participate in the school tours and take advantage of the open days/nights and various transition events that the schools offer. This approach works equally well for primary and secondary schools.
From the first day of Term 2, we will be accepting enrolments for Foundation in 2026. We encourage prospective parents and carers to complete an online tour via the school website where you can learn about our wonderful school and meet our staff and students. Prospective families can also attend an in-person tour where we can show you our school and answer any questions you might have or discuss your child’s individual needs.
Mrs Gregson, Mrs George and Mr Gill have been busily providing personalised school tours for interested families, looking to enrol their child at Bimbadeen in 2026. Prospective families can book a school tour through the office on 9726 9989 or via email to Bimbadeen.heights.ps@education.vic.gov.auWith a new state-wide enrolment timeline this year, we will be accepting enrolments for Foundation for 2026, and any other year level, from the beginning of next term. Further information about choosing a school and enrolling your child is available at https://www.vic.gov.au/how-choose-school-and-enrol Enrolment information will be available at the office from Term 2.
If you know of anyone who is looking at a Primary School for next year, please encourage them to visit our website and register for the online tour where they will hear teachers, parents and students talk about our school. They are also encouraged to come and visit Bimbadeen and see our school ‘in action’ where they will get a sense of the great relationships that exist here. We love showing people around and talking about this outstanding school.
Our School Council Student Learning Sub-Committee regularly review and update our school policies that fall under the umbrella of the Child Safe Standards. In 2025, we will be discussing and reviewing the Child Safe Standards at each meeting, with the aim to continue to improve how we address each standard and improve the structures and processes we have in place to help keep our students safe from harm.
Over the coming Term, we will be sharing an overview of each of the Child Safe Standards in the newsletter to help build community awareness of the standards and to seek feedback around how the standards are addressed at Bimbadeen.
A vital component of reviewing and updating school policies is parent/carer involvement and feedback. Whilst there are several avenues for this, the most effective way is to attend a Student Learning Sub-Committee meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday 12 May at 5pm, in the staffroom at school. If you would like to join the Student Learning Subcommittee or attend our next meeting, please contact Marty Gill on 9726 9989 or Angad.Marty.Gill@education.vic.gov.au
Future Student Learning Subcommittee meetings for this year are:
If you have any concerns about Child Safety, please speak with a member of our school leadership team.
We hope you enjoy your weekend, and we look forward to a fantastic final week of Term 1 at Bimbadeen.
Kind regards,
Adele Gregson, Sabrina George and Marty Gill
