Principal's Report
Buninyong Primary School
Grade 2 Sleepover
The Grade 2 students enjoyed a fantastic night and following day at their annual sleepover. They displayed wonderful behaviour, resilience and kindness towards others throughout the event, reflecting our school values beautifully. We hope this experience provided a valuable steppingstone for future camps.
Congrats to the Grade 2 Team that did an excellent job organising this experience for the kids. And we extend our sincere thanks to the parents who volunteered their time to support the sleepover and assist with breakfast the next morning. Your generosity and involvement make these experiences possible, and we’re very grateful for your continued support.
Prep - 2 Sports Day
It was pretty warm out there on Thursday, but that didn’t seem to bother the kids. It was lovely to see them enjoy the experience and to have lots of parents attend to cheer them on. A big well done to Ms Morris who did an excellent job running the event and to our Grade 6 House Leaders who did an amazing job running each of the events. It’s a credit to everyone that our kids are capable of taking on responsibilities such as this.
Scholarship Program - Inviting Applications for 2027
We are now 3 years into running our scholarship programs and could not be happier with how each of the programs (Music, Visual Arts, Master Chef, Photography and STEM) have run, and the learning and enjoyment has been evident for the participants.
In the coming week I will speak with grade 3, 4 and 5 students to explain the scholarship program for 2027 and how they can apply. Current grade 4 and 5 students who have participated in a scholarship program in 2026, are welcome to apply again, whether that be for the same scholarship program, or one of the others. To share opportunities around, students who have not been part of a scholarship program or have just been part of 1 program will be prioritised over students that have already participated in 2 years of scholarship programs.
They are also welcome to attach supporting documentation, which might include relevant samples of their work or photos showing their involvement in the relevant field.
Students are welcome to apply for more than one program but can only be selected for one.
Applications need to be submitted to the office by November 20.
We expect the number of applications will far outstrip the number of spaces available, so students will need to submit their best work.
Attached below are flyers that will answer some of the questions you have, but please feel free to give me a call if you need.
Fete Planning
We have a Fete in 2027, which is happening from 5-8pm on February 19th. This is a bit earlier in the school year than normal, so preparations have begun.
One of the tasks we need to kick start soon is seeking sponsorship from local businesses to make it possible for us to run some raffles at the fete. This work will be led by 3 parents from School Council (Kylie Bickerdike, Kelly Dalby & Charlotte Cannan), and they’re keen to have others join their team.
Initially this work involves making contact with businesses to see if they can help us out. Then as the fete approaches, the work will turn to bundling donations into prize packs to be raffled. If you’d be happy to help us out, please give Cindy a call in the office.
The fete will be our major event for the year, bringing together the community while raising valuable funds for the school. Everyone will get a chance to be part of the activity or stall run by your child’s class, but if you can see yourself helping with the raffles, let us know.
Grandparents and Special Friends Day
A reminder to everyone that we have our Grandparents and Special Friends Day on Friday November 27, which will come around fast. This is always a big event and one of the highlights on the school calendar.
If your children have grandparents that can attend, please invite them along, but if not, they are welcome to invite anyone else that is special to them…that might even be you.
Our guests are invited to come along between 9am and 11am to visit classrooms and we will have people around to help visitors find the relevant classrooms. Our teachers will organise activities during this time that allow our grandparents and special friends to get involved.
At 11am our visitors will be invited to the BER for some morning tea and a chat. In the past we have had parents bring along a plate, resulting in an amazing spread for our grandparents to enjoy. We’d like to do the same again and invite all families to send something along. We also need a few adults to help organise and serve morning tea. Please let the ladies in the office know if you are able to help. We’ll be looking for helpers between 10am and midday, but any help during that period would be appreciated.
To give you a sense of the day, we have included some photos from last year’s event.
Grandparents
Melbourne Cup Holiday
Don’t forget that there is no school next Tuesday. This is a holiday for state schools across Victoria.
Organising Classes for 2027
Term 4 is slipping by and next month the process of organising students into classes for next year will begin. If there are significant issues we need to be aware of when allocating your child to a class, please make sure they have been made known to Nicole, Narelle or myself by Friday, November 13th. Teachers will be meeting soon after to begin sorting children into classes.
It is not our intention to provide parents with the opportunity to select a teacher of choice. We have developed a very strong teaching team and parents can be confident the needs of their child will be met by any member of our team.
Developing well-balanced classes is best for everyone and that can be made difficult if there are large numbers of requests – as such, it is important that placement requests be founded on significant reasons and not related to specific teachers.
If you have made a request in the past and would like that to extend to 2027, we recommend you make that clear with us. That helps take some of the judgement off the table at our end when determining if historical requests remain relevant.
We try to accommodate parent requests relating to student placements, but you will understand this is not always possible.
It is also important when we come to organise classes that we know of students who will not be at our school next year. If your family is moving on, please let us know as soon as possible.
EBT Thankyou
A big thank you to everyone who came along to support our EBT Sausage Sizzle Fundraiser over the weekend. We would like to thank the staff and parents who generously volunteered their time to help make the event a success. Our BBQ team sold more than 850 sausages, raising valuable funds for our EBT team. Well done to everyone involved!
