The past fortnight has seen extreme weather conditions causing a couple of our events to be postponed. Our community is not going to let the weather get the better of us, so despite temperatures reaching 38 degrees with gusty winds predicted, our Colour Run will still go ahead, but not until Term 2. The Annual Picnic was also postponed last week due to high temperatures, but we’ll enjoy the cool change and gather tonightg for the picnic. The wonderful Miss Nugent and her performing arts teams will entertain us with an ensemble at 6:00pm and ice creams will be on sale from the canteen throughout the evening.

SPORT EQUALITY CAPTAINS

The House and Sport Captains and teams met early this year and immediately set about addressing gender equality. Our students are truly reflecting ethical values as they took action to make adjustments within the leadership roles. It was with pleasure that the House Captains and Sport Equality Captains were presented with their badges at last week’s assembly and spoke to the school about their goals. Here's what our captains said:

Maeve: Gender equality in sport is vital for both genders to have the same opportunities to explore and excel in physical activities without being judged.

Grant: Being active isn’t just about playing sport it’s about encouraging kids to be active in simple ways like walking, riding or scooting to school.

Alena: Our Sport Equality will encourage kids to be more active and have a go at sport even if they think they can’t do it.

Flynn: Pretty soon we’ll have the ‘Tag On’ system working again so students can earn house points by tagging on each morning when you come to school. Your parents can even receive an email when you tag on so they know you’ve arrived safely.

The team also explained they’d like to contact sporting clubs and ask them to come and run some fun clinics at lunchtimes and they’ll be encouraging both boys and girls to participate.

Last year the House Captains wanted to change the House names from the colours to indigenous names. Now that we’ve received permission from the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, the 2024 House Captains look forward to working in collaboration with an indigenous artist to design an emblem for each house and then use the new names and emblems to design House shirts.

We look forward to seeing how their ideas unfold as the year progresses.

BENTLEIGH DISTRICT SWIMMING CARNIVAL

This week our best swimmers competed in the Bentleigh District Swimming Carnival and we’re proud to announce they came second place in the competition. Congratulations to our swim team who not only gave their best in the water, but showed exemplary sportspersonship.

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL (SRC)

This week SRC students had their first meeting and what a productive one it was. Students were shown photos of various areas of the school and asked to brainstorm their suggestions for improvements in small groups. Many of the suggestions were realistic and achievable. The photos below shows the list they came up with. The SRC members’ role is now to speak to their class about the goals and gain further feedback to bring to the next meeting.

2024 FUNDRAISING

We have an ambitious goal this year to raise $100, 000 which will combine with school allocated funds to enhance the school playground with shade and playground equipment. The SRC will be the voice of the students and the Facilities School Council sub committee will be the voice of the parent community for suggestions and feedback.

We are hoping that our fundraising events are well supported including: Colour Run (now next term), the Easter Raffle, Mothers and Fathers’ Day stalls, an end of year activity and of course the Carnival we’re all looking forward to.

SCHOOL COUNCIL

The final meeting of the current School Council was held on Monday 19 February. At this meeting, the various sub committees presented their annual reports outlining activities and achievements for 2023 and recommendations for action in 2024.

To our wonderful school council members whose term of office has now ended, we extend a very heartfelt thank you for your time, input into school improvements, energy and constant support. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to School Council President Sandra Maxfield who has been re-elected time and time again and dedicated 5 years to the role. Throughout her terms on council, Sandra refined council and sub committee processes which contributed to a balance between formal meeting procedures within a friendly atmosphere of cooperation.

Now that nominations have closed and our new 2024 School Council Membership declared, we look forward to our first meeting of council on Monday 18 March. The first part of the meeting will be determining council positions and sub committee roles for 2024 and second part of the meeting will be our Annual General Meeting commencing at 8:00pm with community members invited to attend.

MOBILE PHONE POLICY (and personal devices)

Our students are exceptionally principled (learner profile). They have a strong desire to be responsible and follow the rules, including when it comes to the use of technology. Students are reminded to turn off the notifications on their ipads, phones and smart watches. It is now equally important that parents contact the office to have a message passed on, rather than texting or phoning the child during the school day.

The Acceptable Use of ICT Agreement outlines the actions the school takes to ensure we teach our students to use technologies ethically and how we manage the times when errors occur. The ICT agreements have recently been updated by school staff and are now being reviewed by the eSmart organisation. Once the school receives feedback on our technology policies and Acceptable Use Agreements, we will inform our parents and students.

Thank you everyone for creating and maintaining such a positive tone in the school.

Chellee Plumb

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