Principal's Message 

Our Christmas Carols evening was a huge success. I’m so glad that we postponed the event as we ended up with the best weather we could possibly have.

 A big thank you to Peter Humphreys and Jessica McCasker for their work co-ordinating the night and to Michael Georgiou for being on the sound deck.  Also a big shout out to our wonderful Parent’s Group for the excellent raffle. It was a wonderful end to the year and a really pleasing community evening.

School Captains handover

As mentioned last week, our 2025 School Captains will be Jack Ferry and Isla Jenkins and our vice captains are Dahla Armistead and Jem Ryan. We are very excited to see our school leaders shine next year. 

We will do a handover from this year’s school captains to next year’s school captains at the final assembly on Thursday 19 December at 9am. All other Year 6 leadership positions will be decided in early 2025.

Plans for Thursday 19 December

To celebrate our leaving students and staff and our end of year we will be holding an assembly at 9am on Thursday 19 December.  This will include the Year 6 children performing their Graduation dance, the table tennis champions trophy presentations and the drawing of the Christmas raffle.

At approximately 10am we will be heading down to the oval to meet Santa. This is an exciting tradition at Billanook as Santa arrives in a different way every year.  Each class will also get a chance to meet Santa and pose for a final class photo.

Classes are then invited to hold their class parties after recess. This will involve the teachers taking their children for a picnic style celebration of the end of the year. The children will then be cleaning up their rooms and packing their possessions before coming out at 3pm to farewell our departing Year 6 students. Our day will conclude at the normal time of 3:30pm.  

2025 classes and class names

Families found out their child’s 2025 class teacher and class on Tuesday 10 December. In 2025 our class names will be changing to classes being named A, B or C. This is due to our building and classroom numbers no longer making sense when in class names.  We also think it’s a much easier way to remember your child’s class.  The classes and teachers are:

Staffing Update

We are excited to announce that Grace McDonell will be continuing with Cathryn Shewring as a Learning Specialist in 2025. Grace will be leading the curriculum development of Foundation – Year 2 and Cathryn from 3 – 6. Both of these teachers bring a wealth of experience to our teams. They will be developing curriculum, coaching and mentoring our teaching staff.

We are welcoming William Rayner to our team next year as our full-time casual relief teacher. William will be replacing teachers during periods of long term leave and picking up day by day casual relief work as well. 

Farewell Assembly Thursday 19 December 9am

As well as farewelling our Year 6 students, we are also farewelling Anthony Kelly, Nicole MacDowell, Millie Edwards and Janna Hammoud at our final assembly on Thursday 19 December at 9am.

Anthony has been at Billanook for 12 years, he has been a classroom teacher and learning specialist and has taught over a variety of levels, spending most of his teaching time in the upper school. Mr Kelly is moving on to Doncaster Primary School. Anthony’s sense of fun will be missed at Billanook and we wish him all the best on his teaching journey.

Janna Hammoud has been an education support member at Billanook for the past 2 years. During that time she has worked with and supported a variety of children. Janna’s enthusiasm and bubbly nature will be missed. She is really popular with children from across the whole school. We wish her well as she begins her teaching journey in Canberra.

Nicole MacDowell has been at Billanook for 2 years. She came to Billanook as a brand new graduate and has taken on various classroom roles, primarily in the middle and upper year levels. Nicole has been appreciated for her gentle, caring nature and has been supportive of all children and family needs.  Nicole will be moving to Dorset Primary School next year.

Millie Edwards has been at Billanook for the past 2 years. Millie was employed as an Education Support member and more recently has been in the role of full-time casual relief teacher. Millie has formed strong relationships with staff, students and families throughout her time at Billanook. In the short time that she has been in the classroom she has demonstrated that she is an excellent classroom teacher. Millie is moving to Doncaster Primary School next year. 

We also say farewell to the following families, thank you to all that you have contributed to Billanook:

Akeroyd, Andrews, Benninga, Bork, Brahe, Calheiros, Cooper, Debono, Denman, Femino, Ferguson, Giffen, Goodman, Hill, Hulbert, Jayasuriya, John-Holland, Kelly, Kemp, Kilgariff, Leslie, Lincoln, Logan, Mallinder, Modoo, Moore, Morris, Newitt, Pearson, Pena, Pincott, Power, Pride, Rinaldi, Robbins, Sleeman, Smith, Thompson, Timbury-Van Egmond, Villani, Whitham, Whitten and Zigmantis.

Happy Holidays

Congratulations to our departing Level 6 children as they venture to their secondary schools and the next adventures in their lives.  They have been a sensational group and are a great reflection of the hard work of their parents and teachers.  We wish them well and hope they’ll be back to visit!

Thank you to our amazing Billanook community for your continual support throughout the year. Together we make the biggest difference.

I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday over the summer break. I hope that everyone gets the chance to rest and refresh ready to start next year with great enthusiasm.

Regards

Michael Puddy