Principal's Report
WELCOME TO THE 2024 SCHOOL YEAR
Welcome back to everyone and hope you had a nice break. We’ve had a very mild summer so far and will be happy for that continue as the kids return to school. It’s also been very wet, meaning everything is very green and growing like crazy.
Unfortunately, the rain event on December 29 resulted in significant flooding of the BER building, which has required a large cleanup and replacement of carpets. That building was a work site until just a few days ago, so thanks to our teachers who have been patient, but managed to pull everything together and have the space set up and ready to go in time. We have been working with Ballarat City Council to prevent further flooding events and engineers are currently developing a plan to divert water from our school site.
On Monday and Tuesday our staff came together for a combination of final planning and professional learning, making sure we were ready to hit the ground running this morning. As a result, we’ve had a lovely day at both campuses. Our grade 1-6s are excited to be back at school and classes across the school were very settled. Tomorrow, we have 73 preps start with us, 68 of those at Buninyong and 5 at Scotsburn.
Quite a few new families have joined our school, with a number of families moving into the area and of course lots with their eldest child starting in prep…. a special welcome to you all.
There has been lots of coverage in the media regarding teacher shortages and schools starting the year without a full complement of staff. Luckily, we are fully staffed, with very little change from 2023.
We welcome Chelsea Connor back after some time on Family Leave. It’s lovely to have Chelsea back. But that’s about it in terms of teacher changes. We have a new Business Manager, that being Chris Delaney. In the office we also have Christine White returning, joined by Cindy Connor and Imogen Ritchie, who are new to the school. So, the office team will look quite different for this year. We also have Allyssa Quick, Ella Young and Margy Waak joining our teacher aide team. All things said, we are pleased to be fully staffed and ready to go.
Many of you will have already met with the relevant classroom teachers, but if not, hopefully you will get an opportunity to come along on the ‘meet and greet’ evening on Feb 21.
There’s lots to look forward to, with some exciting developments coming in 2024. Some of these include:
o The expansion of STEM as a specialist subject at both campuses, meaning all classes will receive a weekly 60 STEM session.
o The introduction of Scholarship Programs and other improvements funded through the Coxall Family Scholarship Fund. This will provide a number of students with opportunities not normally available in primary schools.
o Our first school concert since 2018. We know this be the highlight of the year for many of our students. This will be held from August 28-30.
o The return of our trips to Japan. Our last trip was in 2019 and we are very much looking forward to resuming this tradition next year.
We look forward to catching up with everyone throughout the year and please get in touch if there’s anything we can help with.
PARENT HANDBOOK
Schools are complex places and do our best to give parents every opportunity to understand how things work, so you can feel comfortable, able to support your child and able to get involved as a member of the school community. To help with this endeavour, we have a Parent Handbook which can be accessed below.
The handbook covers a wide range of topics and is there as a useful resource across the school year. The latest version of this document can always be found on the school website.
As always, whenever you have a question, but can’t find the answer in the handbook or on the website, just give us a call.
VALE ADAM BRIDGES
We were greatly saddened over the break by the loss of Adam Bridges. Our thoughts are with Belinda and the kids, Layla, Emmie and Alfie and we know the Buninyong community will be doing everything possible to support the family.
FINAL ASSEMBLY OF 2023
The final assembly in any given year is a big event and presents a nice way of celebrating the year and thanking everyone for helping to make Buninyong PS a special place.
As is tradition, there was a focus on our grade 6 students who were heading off to secondary school. To finish the occasion, the grade 6s performed their grade 6 dance before walking through an avenue of honour, throwing their hats in the air and signing polo shirts. The assembly is a nice way for all staff and students to acknowledge the group, thank them for their efforts and to say farewell.
CATHERINE KING COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD WINNER 2023
Our local Federal Member of Parliament offers an annual community service award for someone in the community who has made a strong contribution to the school. For 2023, the award recipient was Irene Coats.
Irene was recognised as someone who has quietly worked behind the scenes volunteering for the school and the broader community over a number of years.
From the school perspective, Irene contributes most days across the entire school year. Often this involves early morning starts and long days. Most often the volunteering has been in the canteen, where she has poured hundreds of hot chocolates, bagged thousands of chicken nuggets and spent many hours washing dishes. She is often seen doing a little dance in the canteen with Teri after a big morning of Hot Chocolates.
She is always in the background working away at the fetes, concerts, sausage sizzles, pie drives and with catering events like the Grade 6 graduation.
Leading up to the 150 year celebration she popped down after school hours and trimmed the roses bushes and weeded the garden at the front of the school.
Her granddaughter thinks that maybe her Nan is so active because she was always surrounded by young people.
In the broader community she also volunteers her time along with her husband Bill at the Victoria Goldfields Railway.
We can’t thank Irene enough for her contribution to our school and community and look forward to many years of her being an important part of our school.