“We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people, the first people to dream, create, wonder, dance, play and learn on this breathtaking land. This land was cared for and respected for tens of thousands of years. The First Nations people lived in companionship with the animals and the life on this land. We acknowledge that this is stolen land and we pay our respects to elders, past, present and emerging.”

Rayma Atkinson (2023 Suzanne Peterson Award Recipient)

Welcome Back

Welcome back to our wonderful community! We hope you have all enjoyed the last two weeks - however your family spent your time. It is always remarkable to see how much your children have grown over the holidays and it is great to see how excited the students are to return!

Teaching teams are planning for the new Inquiry Cycle this week, so there is an adapted timetable for our students, where they will have a whole day of specialists - starting with our Senior Students tomorrow (Tuesday), Middles on Thursday, Foundies on Friday and Juniors next Wednesday. Our Specialist teachers will be planning on Wednesday of this week. Our specialist timetable will return to a more ‘typical’ arrangement from Week 3. Teachers will update their class timetables and upload them to Sentral during Week 3.

Public Meeting

Every Victorian Government School is required to hold an Annual Public Meeting each year, to share details from the school’s Annual Report from the previous year - in this case we will be looking at data from 2023. The Annual Report looks at a snapshot of data in relation to academic progress, student wellbeing and culture as well as our financial position at the end of the school year. We hold the meeting online, as we understand that this technology allows for easier access. Details for the meeting are below.

Thursday, April 18 · 6:30 – 7:30pm

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/azw-ttrb-qkw

Student-Led Conferences

Next Friday 26th April (the day after ANZAC Day) is an alteration to school day to allow for our Student-Led Conferences. Students are expected to stay at home for this day and to attend the conference with their parents or carers. A special all day OSHC program will be available for any families who need childcare - they will have equipment and a quiet room set up for students to attend their conferences online.

Parents and carers will soon be able to book appointments for their child’s classroom teacher and also for our specialist teachers, at a time that suits you. When booking an appointment with our specialist teachers, please keep in mind that there are limited places available for the whole school and only book an appointment if you feel your child needs further engagement, enrichment, support or challenge in that particular subject.

In some special circumstances, teachers may request an in-person appointment to get the most out of the time allocated. If you feel you require an in-person appointment but the classroom teacher has not requested it, please contact the teacher directly to see if this can be arranged.

Sports Days

Many members of our community may have noticed that some of our usual sports days and dates have not been included in the calendar for this term. This is due to the fact that we would like Max (our amazing new PE teacher) to be settled in before we set any plans in concrete. Max will begin teaching at BNWPS in week three, and as soon as we can, we will communicate new sporting events and dates with the community. If you see Max around the yard from week three onwards, please make sure that you give him a true BNWPS welcome!

Baby News

We are very happy to be able to congratulate Shalani and her family on the coming arrival of their new baby later this year (and the expansion of our staffing baby brood)! Shalani will continue to teach in Unit SM all the way up until the end of this term. As soon as we have made arrangements for who will be taking over as the teacher of this class, we will let the community know.

Sprout

Kris Bidenko