Welcome to all our staff, students and BPS Community!

Welcome to BPS term 1 2026 everyone! I hope you had some sort of break and rest over the holidays and enjoyed some quality time with your family and friends. My name is Merissa Pickford (Mrs P) and I am our BPS Physical Education teacher and Whole School Sports Coordinator. Welcome to all our new Foundation families, new families and all our returning families!

One of the things I love about the school holidays is the time I have to move, reset and watch sport! Over the holidays I've watched "The Ashes", the Big Bash, NFL, College Football, Basketball and the Australian Open! I also loved time with our family, taking our dog Billie for lots of walks and swims at the park and Warrandyte and a small vacation to the seaside town of Glenelg in South Australia. If you haven't been to Glenelg, put it on your "holiday list". We had a ball! We swam, ate icecream, watched the beach volleyball players do their thing, walked, ran, rested, saw the pandas at the Adelaide Zoo and enjoyed the summer vibe along Jetty Road. Glenelg is a beautiful spot with a restful and relaxed atmosphere and also a cool holiday vibe. I totally recommend it!!!

And now as we hit the ground running into term 1, our students are back and we're ready for another great year here at BPS! Below are a few important introductions and pieces of information for all of our BPS community relating to physical education and sport!

BPS House Captains 2026

I'd like to formally introduce our 2026 BPS House Captains to our school community. Our BPS House Captains have a pivotal role in all things Physical Education and Sport at BPS including running our lunchtime sports borrowing system, leading at special event days including our BPS Whole School House Cross Country and presenting our Sports Short at assembly.

Congratulations to our Grade 6 House Captains below.

Red - Melanie and Jess

Blue - Max and Charlie

Yellow - Lachlan and Christian

Green - Arielle and Connor

BPS House name change

Our school is in the process of changing our exisiting House names and our aim is to have our four new BPS house names annouced by the end of term 1. In term 4 2025, all our students were given the opportunity to have a "voice" and post their suggestions and ideas for names or categories in our "post box" in the gym or on Showbie. Our JSC have recorded all our suggestions in a document (thanks Mrs Sage and JSC) and we are now in the process of looking at all our students' suggestions and narrowing down the field. When suggesting names, our students were asked to think about names they thought would represent our school now and in the future. We look forward to the next steps in our process and hopefully having our names announced by the end of this term.

Before School Running Club

Do you like to get active and get your brain and body moving before the school days starts! We'd like to invite all BPS Grade 1 - 6 students to join our FREE Before School Running Club. Our Running Club motto is "You come, you run!"

Our first training is Friday 6th February - 8.10am - 8.40am - BPS oval.

An information and consent form was sent out in week 1 via our Compass News Feed. You can also collect a form from our front office. If your child is keen to be part of our running club families need to read and fill in our Information sheet and Training policy before their child starts.

We request that on your child's first training you hand in the permission form. Please print this out and fill this in prior to your child's first training.

We are looking for Running Club Volunteers!

If you love being part of a team and can help out on a roster as a volunteer for our before school sessions, please contact Mrs P via email (merissa.pickford@education.vic.gov.au). We rotate our volunteers so that we have at least two volunteers present to run our trainings every Friday.

All volunteers must have a current "Working with Children's Check" registered with our BPS front office.

Thank you to Jen Fuller, one of our amazing parents, who is heading up our volunteer team.

SSV Team Vic.Elite Sports Trial nomination letters due Friday 6th February

If your child is in Grade 5 or 6 this year and is playing at a representative level for their chosen sport, they may chose to submit a nomination letter to Mrs P to be considered for endorsement through to the School Sport Victoria trials later this term.

A Compass News Feed was sent out last week about this opportunity with all relevant information. This process requires a student to write a nomination letter and hand it in to Mrs P no later than Friday 6th February.

Important BPS Sporting Dates for 2026

Term 1

District Swimming nomination letters due – Friday 30th January 2026.

Before School Running Club starts - Friday 6th February - BPS oval - 8.10am - 8.40am - week 2

TEAM VIC nomination letters due – Friday 6th February.

District Swimming Championships (Nunawading Aqualink) – Wednesday 11th February 2026 - 8:30am - 12pm

Whitehorse Division Swimming – Monday 2nd March

BPS Music and Movement School Readiness session – Tuesday 3rd March - 3.45pm – 4.30pm

BPS Whole School House Cross Country - Tuesday 17th March

BPS Whole School House Cross Country Back-up Day – Tuesday 24th March

Term 2

Blackburn District Cross Country – Friday 8th May – Ruffey Lake – 12 noon – 2.20pm

District Winter Sport Round Robin Day – Grade 5 and 6 – Friday 15th May

AFL 9’s

Soccer

Netball

T ball

Whitehorse Division Cross Country – Monday 1st June – Ruffey Lake Park, Doncaster

BPS Whole School Swimming F- 6 - Monday 15th June – Friday 26th June (2 week program)

Term 3

BPS House Aths Grade 3 - 6 – Pre-event briefing for all volunteers and staff – Tuesday 21st

BPS House Athletics (grade 3- 6) - Thursday 30th July (week 3) – Bill Sewart (all day event)

District Athletics – Tuesday 25th August 2026 – Bill Sewart Athletics Track

District Athletics Back-up Day – Thursday August 27th

District Summer Sport Grade 5/6 round robin day – Friday 4th September

Sofcrosse

Hooptime Basketball

Volleystars

Kanga cricket

Hot shots Tennis

Term 4

Whitehorse Division Track and Field Athletic Championships (Doncaster) – Tuesday 13th October 2026 (Doncaster Athletics Track – 9am – 3pm - week 2.

Eastern Regional Athletic Championships – Thursday 22nd October – Doncaster Athletics Track – week 3

BPS F-2 KABOOM House Movement Celebration morning – Tuesday 27th October 2026

Victorian State Championships – Thursday 5th November – Lakeside Stadium, Albert Park – Week 5

Well that's all Team BPS!

Physical Activity Tip - Remember to Play!

Think of it as Play instead of “exercise” - Dance to a tune, shoot hoops, play catch with your pet, sing while you walk!"

A great resource for fun family games to keep you active - "The School of Play" app. Check out the "games" section!

High fives, Mrs P:) - “Move and play, every day!”

BPS Netball