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.
It has been a great term thus far, with the highlight being the incursions, excursions, and extra-curricular activities our students have participated in. Families coming together within our community, having fun, and learning together are incredibly important to our school and supports student engagement, wellbeing, and learning.
As the weather cools down and we see an increase in illness across our community, we thank you for keeping your child at home when they are unwell. Sending a child to school who is not well, often results in illnesses spreading quickly through a class, year level and across the school, impacting many.
Thank you for your support in helping keep our community safe and well.
Poppy, our wonderful crossing supervisor on Hayrick Lane outside the school car park entrance, is working her final day on the crossing today. Poppy recently graduated with a degree in Zoology from Latrobe University and has secured full-time employment in her field.
On behalf of the school community, thank you for the wonderful care and kindness you have shown our community over the past three years, Poppy.
We will miss you, and wish you all the best for the future and your next challenge!
Last assembly, we enjoyed three wonderful performances from some of our students who participate in extra-curricular guitar and singing lessons. Maisie and Kiara performed a song called ‘Freaks’ by Surf Curse, and Marty performed ‘These Days’ by Powderfinger and were all supported by Matt, our guitar teacher. Nicki, our singing teacher, coordinated a group of her singing students to perform the song ‘You’ve Got a Friend In Me’, including coordinated actions. As always, the performances were thoroughly enjoyed by the students, staff and parents and friends who came along to support them. Congratulations on your wonderful performances, kids!
We would like to remind our community that the official on duty time at school is 8:45am for staff. We understand that traffic flow and other challenges sometimes means an earlier arrival, however, we ask that parents and carers avoid dropping off their children any earlier than 8:45am, unless they are attending Active Club or Breakfast Club. There is no formal supervision of students until this time. If you require care for your child, please contact TheirCare for information about the before school care program.
Each day, our classroom doors open at 8:50am so students can settle themselves and get organised for the start of the school day. Please plan to arrive at school on time for a 9am start. Our teachers have developed strong, positive routines at the beginning of the school day to support our students to settle in and engage in learning as soon as the bell rings. This includes marking the roll at 9am and beginning our teaching and learning activities straight away. We have implemented this approach of opening our classrooms 10 minutes before the bell to support the wellbeing and engagement of our students. When students arrive to school late, they take longer to settle into learning, and this can be unsettling for both them and their peers. Please support your child to enjoy a positive start to the school day and their learning by planning to arrive on time.
When students arrive at school after the bell, they will be marked as a late arrival. As we are now well over the halfway mark of Term 2, we hope that our families have created morning drop off routines to support your children to arrive at school on time. Please note, when a student arrives after 9am, a parent/carer must sign them in at the office. This is to provide a reason for the student’s late arrival and ensure our attendance records are up to date. We have duty of care for all students, and it is imperative that we know when our students are at school and maintain accurate records of attendance. The Department of Education requires us to have documented reasons for all late arrivals and absences.
Please continue to be ultra-cautious and safe around our school at drop-off and pick-up times. Also remember to be courteous and respectful. We have continued to receive reports from neighbours and members of our school community who report dangerous driving and illegal parking. The Traffic Control unit was seen outside our school this week, along with parking inspectors from the Shire of Yarra Ranges.
Please remember, if you want to avoid traffic congestion in the mornings and afternoons, active travel is a great option. Walk with your children, get them to walk with friends, or park a few blocks away from the school and walk the rest of the way to school. Your children will be exercised, socialised and much more ready to learn when they get to school, and you won’t have to deal with potential traffic infringement notices, or other hazards related to trying to drop your child off at the front gate.
Student Resource Funding is determined by parent codes taken from the self-nominated category on student enrolment forms. This means that funds from the Government are taken from the parent/carer occupations. We take this opportunity to remind families to advise the school of any changes to employment. As always, any information is confidential.
In the case of an emergency, we will attempt to contact parents, and if there is no response, then we move to the emergency contacts. It is important that the office has the most current and correct contact details for any parent, to help ensure this will happen.
Please take this time to check your details on Sentral, and if you find them incorrect, email the office at bimbadeen.heights.ps@education.vic.gov.au and we can amend these for you.
Enrolments are open for Foundation in 2025. We encourage prospective parents 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 through our school grounds and answer any questions you might have or discuss your child’s individual needs.
This year our school is using an online system for 2025 Foundation enrolments called VicStudents. VicStudents is available for students who are enrolling in a Victorian Government School for the first time. This includes Foundation (Prep) enrolments for 2025.
VicStudents has been assessed by the Department of Education to a high degree of security in line with the Victorian Protective Data Security Standards and is compliant with ISO 27001, the leading international standard for information security.
For more information about enrolling your child into a Victorian government primary school, visit Enrolling in Foundation (Prep).
Please contact our school office on 03 9726 9989 or via email to Bimbadeen.Heights.PS@education.vic.gov.au should you need any further information or help to complete your child’s enrolment application.
A reminder to all parents and carers that there is no smoking or vaping on school premises (buildings and grounds), or within 4 metres of school entrances.
Parents, carers, schools, and community all play an important role in protecting children and young people from, and educating them about, the harmful effects of smoking and vaping.
Research from the Royal Children’s Hospital shows many parents and carers are not aware of the harmful effects or how their views about smoking and vaping can impact the likelihood of a young person taking up smoking or vaping.
The Department of Education has developed resources to help you learn more about the health risks of smoking and vaping. The resources include advice about how to talk to children and young people about vaping, and where to get support. To access the resources, go to https://www.vic.gov.au/smoking-and-vaping-advice-parents
You can also view this video on smoking and vaping from experts at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne for health advice and tips for starting a conversation with young people.
The Department of Education (DE) does not provide personal accident insurance for students. Parents and carers are generally responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs.
The Department of Education states that reasonable low-cost accident insurance policies are available from the commercial insurance sector. For those parents and carers who seek personal cover, details of an
insurer who offers low-cost individual accident insurance is EBM Insurance Brokers and their website is www.studentcover.com.au
Similarly, DE (which includes the school) does not offer replacement of personal items which are brought to school and are lost, broken, or stolen. Sentimental or expensive belongings and toys, including sports equipment and electronic devices, are normally best left at home.
A reminder that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones and digital devices to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours.
All Bimbadeen students who bring their mobile phone or digital device with them to school must sign in their device at the office upon arrival. All devices will be locked in a secure location during the day. Students then need to sign out and collect their device at the end of the day. If your child brings a digital device to school, please discuss this expectation with them and ensure your child signs in their mobile device/s at the office by 8:55am and collects them after school by 3:40pm.
In addition, any student who brings a wearable device to school, such as a smart watch, must have ‘school mode’ enabled to prevent them using the device to make calls and send messages during the school day. If ‘school mode’ is not enabled, the student will be required to sign in their device at the office and collect it after school, in line with the Department of Education policy.
In the event of an emergency or if you need to immediately contact your child, I ask that families contact the school office who will pass on a message as required.
A copy of our school’s local mobile phone policy, which implements the government’s mobile policy in line with our local context, is available on our school website. The Mobile phones in schools webpage provides links to resources for families to help them balance their children’s time using mobile phones. If you have further questions, please contact the administration office.
Reporting to parents/carers about how each child’s learning is progressing supports the work of teachers and parents/carers in supporting our students to achieve their full potential. Our teachers are busily collating information about their students’ learning and are preparing to implement formal assessments in coming weeks that will assist with report writing. Our mid-year reports are made available to parents on the Sentral Parent Portal. Mid-year reports will be available in PDF form for parents/carers to read online or print out a hard copy for themselves. Reports will be available for parents/carers on Sentral on Monday 24th June.
For parents/carers to access these reports they will need to be registered for and be able to access the Sentral Parent Portal. If you have not yet registered or are having difficulties accessing the portal, please contact our Sentral co-ordinator Melinda Ruscitti on Melinda.Ruscitti@education.vic.gov.au or contact Shelley and Emma in the office for support.
Parent/Teacher Interviews will be held in Weeks 2 and 3 of Term 3, with information being sent to families at the beginning of next term.
Interviews will be booked online via Sentral and will be held either via WebEx, telephone, or in person.
We hope you enjoy a lovely
weekend.
Kind regards,
Adele Gregson and Sabrina George
