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.
Our teachers have been actively planning a range of exciting excursions and incursions for our students this year across each year level. Teachers have been mindful of cost when planning these excursions and throughout 2025, we will be tracking activities across the school with the aim of spreading out and minimising extra costs to parents/carers.
Our school camping program planning is well under way, with bookings secured for all camping experiences in 2025. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the incredible work that Adele Gates has done, alongside our Camp Coordinators to secure camping venues for 2025. Securing these experiences is a significant achievement and will provide life-long memories and valuable learning experiences of our students.
Our camping program is as follows:
· Foundation – Healthy day
· Year 1 – An extended day on-site
· Year 2 – An extended day off-site (Oasis Camp, Mount Evelyn)
· Year 3 – 3-day Oasis Camp, Mount Evelyn
· Year 4 - 3-day Woorabinda, Yallourn North
· Year 5 – 3-day Adekate Camp, Dean (Ballarat)
· Year 6 – 3-day Camp Wilkin, Anglesea.
Information will be sent to parents/carers about specific Year Level camps a minimum of 8 weeks prior to each camping experience. A variety of payment options, including payment plans, are available to all families, and access to the DE Camps, Sports and Excursion Fund is available for eligible families.
We have been able to fund Time in Lieu for our staff for our school camps by utilising funding tagged to our common professional practice day in Term 2, and by allocating the Monday before Melbourne Cup Day as a time in lieu day. These structures have ensured that no additional costs have been passed onto parents and carers, and our camping program has been able to continue in 2025.
We have exciting plans for continuing to grow our Student Excellence Program in 2025, under the leadership of Marty Gill, Assistant Principal, supported by Ms Beth Dean. Mr Gill and Ms Dean have planned a variety of opportunities for our students this year including opportunities to participate in the Tournament of the Minds, Science Talent Search, Maths Olympiad, Maths Explorer, Maths Quest, Coding, and John Monash Science School opportunities. Opportunities will be communicated directly with students and families throughout the year.
We are eagerly awaiting the outcome of our application for a 2024 Gold Award in School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). SWPBS is a framework for preventing, reducing, and replacing problem behaviours and is embedded across our school. The purpose of this framework is to explicitly teach positive, appropriate behaviours while creating an environment in which these behaviours are more acceptable than are other negative, inappropriate behaviours. Our school values are integral to SWPBS as they are the basis of all the positive behaviours that we are encouraging at Bimbadeen.
Mrs Amanda Bailey will lead the program in 2025. Parent and carer involvement in SWPBS and our Student Wellbeing committee is important and warmly welcomed.
If you would like to join our Student Wellbeing committee, please contact Mrs Bree King on Bree.King@education.vic.gov.au
A Valued Beginning
Supporting SWPBS is the Valued Beginning program. At the beginning of each school year, all teachers base their class program on student wellbeing and the building of positive relationships within the classroom. Valued Beginning activities focus on creating an environment of trust and co-operation, establishing class routines and expectations, and developing a common understanding of our school values.
Our Valued Beginning program this year has seen the development of structured, orderly environments and settled students and staff.
As part of the Department of Education’s Mental Health Initiative for Schools, we will be continuing the implementation of the Berry Street Education Model in 2025. BSEM provides strategies for teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement of students with complex, unmet learning needs and to successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth, and academic achievement. BSEM pedagogical strategies incorporate trauma-informed teaching, positive education, and wellbeing practices. BSEM’s unique approach is informed by the last 25 years of trauma-informed practice, positive psychology, and the science of learning research.
Further information about BSEM can be accessed at https://www.berrystreet.org.au/learning-and-resources/berry-street-education-model/about-bsem
We have 3 more pupil free days planned for the 2025 school year (Wednesday 4 June, Monday 21 July and Wednesday 12 November).
On pupil free days, students are not required at school.
Please ensure you have made appropriate arrangements for the care and supervision of your child on these dates. TheirCare runs a whole day care program on each pupil free day.
If you need to book your child into the service, please contact the service directly. Contact details are available on our website https://www.bimbadeenheightsps.vic.edu.au/before-and-after-care/
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.
The Department of Education requires all government schools to ensure this ban is in place and enforced. This helps ensure that school is a learning environment free from unnecessary distractions and disruptions.
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.
By ensuring mobile phones are kept away at recess and lunch times, students can interact with each other face-to-face, without the distractions and social pressures that mobile phones can cause. We ask for the support of all our families, staff and students in continuing to support the implementation of this policy in our school.
For a small number of students with particular health needs, an exception to the policy may be granted. Please contact Adele Gregson, Sabrina George or Marty Gill if you would like to discuss this.
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 office.
This is a very common and regular section of our newsletter as traffic around our school is such a challenge due to the narrow roads and minimal parking in the local area. Drop-off and pick-up are the times when members of our community, particularly our children, are at most risk of an accident. It is critical that all parents, carers, and drivers take every precaution and care to reduce the risks to children. Please be patient and extra vigilant to ensure that our children are safe when travelling to and from school. Please consider using active travel such as parking away from our school and letting your children walk the last couple of blocks or arriving at around 8:45am in the morning or after 3:35pm to avoid rush times.
Please ensure you adhere to the parking signs installed around our school. The parking area outside the front of the school is a 5-minute zone only between the hours of 8am-9am and 3pm-4pm, this time covers both drop off and pick up times. We have been working with our local council who have recently installed Drop and Go signage in this zone. Please use this zone as a drop and go zone to support the flow of traffic at the front of our school.
Please also ensure you do not block the school crossing at the front of the school. There have been numerous incidents where members of our community have blocked or reversed their car across the school crossing after blocking the school driveway.
We have been notified by the local council that Safer Community Officers will be patrolling the area around our school and may issue infringements to cars parked illegally. This is to ensure the safety of our community.
Thank you to the many families who have already returned the forms from the Back to School kit that was sent home at the beginning of the year.
If you have not yet read through the kit and/or returned the relevant forms to school, please do this at your earliest opportunity.
Sentral is our main form of communication between school and home. We expect that parents and carers are checking Sentral regularly for upcoming dates on the calendar, newsletters, excursion notices and year and school level communications. If you are experiencing difficulties with Sentral, please don’t hesitate to speak with Shelley and Emma at the office.
The Victorian Government is committed to continuing to provide free pads and tampons in all government primary, secondary and specialist schools. Sanitary items are a necessity, not a luxury, and this initiative supports tens of thousands of girls and young women in schools across the state. Our dispenser is installed in the female bathroom in the BER Building (Year 5 & 6 building) and is available for any student who may need to access sanitary products while at school. The aim of this initiative is to:
· Provide students with the confidence that there will always be sanitary items available at school.
· Relieve female students of the stigma, anxiety and discomfort that can be associated with menstruation and its management so they can focus on their studies.
· Ease the cost of living for families.
The School Student Broadband Initiative offers eligible families with school-aged students free NBN broadband internet at home. The initiative was due to end on 31 December 2025 but has been extended.
The initiative is capped at 30,000 services connected. Once this number is reached, no further applications to participate in the initiative will be accepted.
Households already connected through the initiative, or with a voucher to do so
Families and carers currently connected to the NBN network through the initiative will have their connection automatically extended with their participating internet provider until Friday 30 June 2028.
Eligible families and carers who already have a voucher to take part in the initiative should activate their free service with a participating internet provider as soon as possible. This voucher will become invalid once the cap is reached.
For all other households
Families and parents/carers who haven’t been assessed and may be eligible for the initiative can contact the NBN’s National Referral Centre for an assessment. If you are eligible, you will be sent a voucher to access free home internet until Friday 30 June 2028. However, this voucher must be activated before the 30,000 cap is reached.
Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice.
Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy, available on our school website, describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.
We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.
For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents.
This information is also available in ten community languages:
· Amharic
· Arabic
· Chinese
· Dari
· Gujarati
· Mandarin
· Somali
· Sudanese
· Turkish
· Urdu
· Vietnamese.
We love seeing our Bimbadeen students reach for the heights. Below are some success stories from the end of 2024 and start of this year. If your child has celebrated a significant achievement, please let your classroom teacher know if we can highlight this in future newsletters.
Jordan’s Science Talent Search Project 2024: A Brilliant Innovation for Protecting Local Wildlife
Jordan’s project for the 2024 Science Talent Search is a fantastic example of how technology can help protect the fish and frog species of the Yarra River. He created an innovative working model that features a Lego piston pump to circulate water, a motorized Lego litter collector to capture floating debris, and a bioretention basin to filter pollutants.
After testing several pumps and fine-tuning the litter trap, Jordan’s persistence paid off, resulting in a live-action model that successfully cleaned actual polluted water. His outstanding project earned the Working Model category bursary award, demonstrating his creativity, determination, and dedication to protecting the environment.
Lauren B and Katie O: A Distinction-Winning Game that Educates and Inspires
Lauren and Katie’s 2024 Project, The Mountain Pygmy Quest, is a brilliantly designed board game that both captivates and educates players aged 6-12 about the endangered Mountain Pygmy possum. In the game, players challenge themselves to collect 25 tokens and reach the mountain’s summit by answering trivia questions about biodiversity, all while avoiding environmental hazards.
The game features two-sided gameplay—one side depicting the possum’s natural habitat and the other showing fire-ravaged terrain—adding an exciting level of difficulty and strategy. After conducting extensive research and careful design, Lauren and Katie’s hard work earned them a well-deserved Distinction in the game board category, showcasing their creativity and dedication.
Miles’ Exciting Day with the South East Melbourne Phoenix!
We’re excited to share that one of our students, Miles, had an unforgettable experience with the South-East Melbourne Phoenix! He was lucky enough to tour the team’s stadium, getting an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the impressive venue.
Miles also had the chance to watch a high-energy training session, where he was inspired by the players’ focus and determination as they prepared for their upcoming games. The highlight of the day? Meeting the players for photos and autographs — a dream come true for Miles!
A huge thank you to the South-East Melbourne Phoenix for making this incredible experience possible.
What an amazing opportunity! We hope it encourages all our students to chase their passions with enthusiasm and dedication!
We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please feel free to pop in for a chat with us, or any other member of our Leadership team should you wish to discuss anything. Our doors are always open!
Kind regards,
Adele Gregson, Sabrina George and Marty Gill
