Principal Report

It's hard to believe that we are at the end of the Term 2 of the 2024 academic year – where has the time gone? It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time goes as we have now reached the midpoint of the year!  I would like to thank all of our staff, students and parents for your dedication, support, and active participation in our school community, helping to make it another outstanding term of teaching, learning and collaboration. Together, we continue to make BPPS a special place for these wonderful young children and I am so appreciative of the role each of you play. 

For our students, this Term has provided an abundance of positivity and fantastic programs. Inside the classroom, our dedicated teachers have created engaging lessons that sparked curiosity and continued to foster a love for learning. They have applied themselves with distinction and continued to shine in their learning growth. Outside the classroom, they were given an abundance of opportunities to thrive through various extracurricular activities and events. 

Thank you, parents and carers for your always dedicated support you give not only your children and their education, but BPPS! This was evidenced on Wednesday at the Parent Teacher Interviews and then our end of term Expo on Thursday where you celebrated the amazing work your children have produced over the term. A special mention to our School Council who work tirelessly to support our school community providing wonderful opportunities such as Coffee Club and Movie Night.

And thank you to our amazing staff for their commitment to providing a diverse learning program for our students, as well as all the extracurricular opportunities such as Disco Club, Drawing Club, Gardening Club, Fitness Club.  They continue to hold student wellbeing and learning at the core of all they do, and they should be proud of their continued efforts this term. I had the privilege of reading the reports for all the children in the school this year and it was so evident how well our teachers not only know the learning capabilities of each and every one of the students in their class, but how much they care for and value them. 

I would like to make special mention of Julie Tainsh, Sarah Jacobs and Kristen Schultz for their outstanding efforts and all their support this term. As you may know, Julie and Sarah have taken on the roles of Numeracy and Literacy Learning Specialist respectively and are responsible for coordinating the school's curriculum in these areas, on top of being in the classroom full time. A massive endeavour and they are both doing an amazing job! And thank you to Kristen Schultz, our Learning Specialist for Wellbeing, for her continued hard work ensuring that the wellbeing of our students is front and foremost with everything we do. 

Congratulations to Maddie and Max

We are proud to share the exceptional performance of Maddie Duong and Max Tam who represented BPPS at the Regional Cross Country competition held at Yarra Glen Racecourse on Thursday 13th June. Both Maddie and Max did extremely well - Maddie came17th in 12-13 primary girls race and Max 54th in 12-13 primary boy's race.  We are all proud of how well both of you represented yourselves and our school. 

Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant 2024

We are thrilled to announce that our school has been awarded a $1000 Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant! This wonderful grant will be used to create a Yarning Circle, an outdoor space that will greatly enrich our students' learning experiences.

A Yarning Circle is a traditional Aboriginal method for collaborative learning and storytelling, promoting inclusive communication and fostering a deep sense of community. This new space will provide our pupils with a unique environment to engage in open discussions, share stories, and learn about the rich cultural heritage of Australia's Indigenous peoples.

The creation of the Yarning Circle will not only enhance our educational programmes but also support our ongoing commitment to sustainability and outdoor learning. It will be a place where pupils can connect with nature, each other, and their teachers in meaningful ways.

Stay tuned for updates as we begin the exciting process of planning and constructing our Yarning Circle. We look forward to sharing this journey with you and celebrating the many stories and lessons that will be shared in this special new space.

A big thank you to Clare Efron who put in the submission for BPPS, great work.

Boroondara Preschool visits

Children’s transition into school has long lasting impacts on how they engage with school. As part of our ongoing relationships with our local kindergartens and childcare centres, we value reciprocal visits between educators and students as a way to strengthen these connections. 

This term we have been fortunate enough to have had Boroondara Pre School 4 year old group visit us on two occasions. During the first visit, the kindergarten children started the session with a reading activity in the Foundation classroom. After the reading activity, the kindergarten children were involved in an Art lesson where they were to create an echidna, our school logo, using the most magnificent art and craft resources including glitter pens, chalk markers, pop poms are other very cool art materials to add spikes and other features to their echidna! The kindergarten children were guided by our grade 6 Art pillar in making these beautiful creations.

Two weeks ago, despite heavy rain and icy winds, the Boroondara Pre School children walked up the hill to visit us again and were met by our STEM and Wellbeing pillars. Our STEM pillar organised an activity with the children using Bee Bots. This was fun! The children made pathways using connector blocks and the year six students set up the Bee Bots to move in different directions using buttons to program the floor robots.

After the Bee Bot activity, the children enjoyed a story in the library while having their snacks. The next activity was an obstacle course in the Hall and classic games such as Duck, Duck, Goose. Thank you to the grade 6 pillars for their enthusiasm and support with organising these activities for the kindergarten children. 

Next term, we will be building on our relationships with our local kindergartens and childcare centres in various ways including organising our Choir to perform for Boroondara Pre School and other reciprocal visits. We know that positive transitions occur when children feel a sense of belonging in their new learning environment and the more opportunities children have to experience this, the smoother the transition to school.

Thank you to Kristen Schultz and Kirstin Jones for all their hard work organising these visits.

Their Care - Holiday Program

Just a reminder that Their Care will be running a Holiday Program these holidays. 

Times: 7am to 6.30pm

They have some fun activities planned to include excursions to Disney on Ice, the movies and Bounce. 

More information on the Their Care page at the bottom of the newsletter.

Happy holidays 

Wishing you all a safe, relaxing break and we look forward to seeing you all back again on Monday 15 July for another exciting term of learning.

Shannon Reeve

Assistant Principal