From the Principal Team

Natalie Shanahan, Sam Fleming, Claire Johnston

Welcome to the final newsletter for Term 1!

And, what a term it has been! Firstly, CONGRATULATIONS to our Preps for finishing their first ever term at school. They continue to settle into school-life with aplomb and have already achieved so much. Secondly, at the end of every term, we like to look back and celebrate things that went well. While our school review was a huge part of Term 1 (and our School Council president shares his experience throughout it below), on reflection there was still plenty that happened within our school community. Here's just some of what went well...

The School Review Through the Eyes of our School Council President.

You may have read in the last Banyule Bulletin that the school review is now complete. I wanted to take a moment to reflect & thank the school for the hard work that was put in both during the lead-up to the review and the review itself. The review occurs once every 4 years, with a panel including external and impartial parties reviewing data (lots of data), observing teaching practices, speaking to students, parents (thank you again to those who were able to attend the parent focus group), staff and much more. All of this was done through the lens of comparing how Banyule is performing, not just against prior targets, but also similar schools and state benchmarks.

And the outcome is that Banyule Primary School has done well. Really well.

The results of the review were impressive - something our school community can feel a great sense of pride in.

As a parent of a child at Banyule, it was fantastic to hear positive and extremely complimentary feedback of the school from a number of external parties who were on the review panel. This feedback stretched across Banyule's leaders, teachers, students, programs and results. The review showed that Banyule is seen as a high performing school across a number of key areas including leadership, learning & wellbeing - areas where the school is outperforming both similar schools and the state.

To hear principals from other schools and the reviewer speak so highly of what we have here at Banyule was impressive - these are education professionals who are exposed to other schools, systems and communities and can see that we really have a great school here. Hearing their feedback left me with some great feelings that I hope you all can share - pride in the school community, thankfulness for the hard work everyone at Banyule puts in, but most importantly comfort that our kids really are in great hands at this school, and the results show it.

When the report comes out in a couple of months, I highly recommend taking some time to have a read through to see the results and feedback from students, parents and staff. This made me appreciate that choosing to send my girls to Banyule was the right decision, a feeling that I believe you'll share about your own children when you have a chance to read the report for yourselves.

The outcome of the review is an impressive result for the school and sets the platform for some fantastic years ahead.

Will Weijers

BPS School Council President

Proud Parent

We are grateful for Will's support throughout our school review. His contributions both personally and on behalf of the broader parent community were valuable and very much respected by the panel.

Busted! Banquet...

Today saw our Term 1 Busted Doing Your Banyule Best Board of Famers rewarded for their efforts at the luncheon with the Principals. The kids made short work of all things party pies, pizzas and pieces of fruit, with one child exclaiming "This is the best day of my life!". While this lucky group had the opportunity to be spoiled today, we would like to thank all students that were busted displaying our school values throughout the term.

And thus, we arrive at the Easter break knowing and feeling that it is well earned by all. We wish everyone a safe and restful holiday period and look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday April 22nd.

Natalie, Sam and Claire.

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