Hello BRPS community,

It is hard to believe that we're in the month of December and the sun is setting on another incredibly successful year for the BRPS community.

I encourage your participation and look forward to seeing many of you at end of year activities and celebrations.

2024 Parent Payment Arrangements

All families have received information regarding the 2024 Parent Payment Arrangements via Compass.

School Council and the Finance Sub Committee have worked hard to maintain costs given the current cost of living pressures we understand families are experiencing, without compromising the educational programs, diversity of offerings and quality of schooling your children enjoy. We thank you for your ongoing support and contribution to the school, without we would not be able to provide the quality of learning and wellbeing programs, as well as resources and facilities that we do. Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the office.

Student Achievement Reports and Parent Teacher Conferences

2023 Semester Two Student Achievement Reports will be published via Compass at 3.30pm on Monday 4th December.

The reports are comprehensive and are a celebration of the learning and wellbeing progress that students have made throughout the year, Semester Two in particular. I encourage parents to read the reports with your child/ren and celebrate the learning success that they have achieved this year.

Please note that due to the unforeseen changes in teachers for PE this term, Health and Physical Education reports will not have individual comments.

Parent Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Wednesday 6th December following the publishing of reports. Bookings can be made now via Compass.

2024 Enrolments

The enrolment landscape continues to be fluid with enrolments and exits having an impact on final student numbers at each year level. Please notify us immediately if you know that your child will not be enrolled at BRPS next year.

We are currently finalising class placements and accurate projected enrolmentnumbers help to determine the class structure and staffing requirements.

**Early confirmation of student numbers is essential to ensure this process is managed effectively.**

2024 Class Placement

"Meet Your Teacher" letters will be sent out next Friday 8th December. This will be followed by a transition session on Tuesday 12th December where students will have an opportunity to meet with their 2024 class and teacher.

Please do not contact your child’s classroom teacher or the school with a request for your child’s class to be changed.

Considerable thought has gone into class placements for 2024 and students will have at least one of their requested learning partners. Our process is extensive as we seek to place around 495 students into the best possible learning environment and make the most of the coming year for all students. There are many other issues to consider including staffing allocations, cohort size, gender balance and room combinations – not to mention the individual academic, physical and emotional needs of our students.

The Wellbeing Page provides information for parents about supporting your child to have a healthy transition.

2024 Class Structure

The class structure, specialist and support programs for 2024 will also be communicated next Friday 8th December as planning for these is in the final stages.

Capital Works Projects

Sports Court Resurfacing

Our application still sits with the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) for approval for our major fundraising project - asphalt/sports court resurfacing. We're hoping to obtain approval soon so that the works can be booked in to start at the earliest convenient time.

Stadium/Oval Toilet, Changeroom and Sports Store Build

A successful tender process has been completed and a builder appointed. There will be a site meeting next week to start planning timelines etc. , with work hopefully commencing early in the new year.

2024 Student Leaders

Our 2024 School Captains were announced to the Year 4 & 5 students (2024 Year 5 & 6) last week and I would like to formally congratulate them on this achievement.

2024 Captains:

Kiki-Dieter Eves, Josh Growse, Sam Lynn and Max Taylor.

These newly appointed leaders will complete a handover with our 2023 school captains to gain an insight into the role and to prepare themselves for 2024.

We will introduce the 2024 School Captains at the assembly on Monday 11th December.

I would like to acknowledge and congratulate all the Year 5 students (over 30 in total) that submitted an application and presented to the panel of teachers as they were all of an extremely high standard. From those applications, ten candidates were shortlisted to present in front of their Year 4 & 5 peers before final selections were made and ratified by the entire BRPS staff group. All ten students’ presentations were of the highest standard and although not all could be selected for the roles I am certain that they will all find opportunities to demonstrate their considerable leadership skills in the near future.

Thank you and congratulations to all students for showing great courage in applying for these positions and I wish you all the best of luck as we now continue the process of nominating the broader student leadership group for 2024.

School Council

Our final School Council meeting for 2023 was held on Thursday 30th December. I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the contribution that all School Council members make to our school and thank them for their ongoing support.

The council is made up of the following parent members: Laura Anderson (President), Ari Jenshel (Vice President), Cheryl Toner (Treasurer), Debbie Halas, Nick Vakrinos and Nives Zubcevic-Basic. It also includes school staff: Emily Harvey, Davina Dibbs and Matt Berry, plus additional contributions from our Business Manager, Tanya Gundry. As new parent members and long-serving staff members to our School Council, I want to thank all for their significant voluntary contributions and commitment to providing our school with strong governance and support of our improvement agenda.

The support is much appreciated and I again look forward to working with the Black Rock Primary School Council in 2024 in a focused manner to achieve the best possible outcomes for all students at our school.

Christmas Concert & Picnic - Monday 18th December

We're looking forward to welcoming our school community to the Christmas Concert and Picnic from 3.45-5.30pm on Monday 18th December. Detailed information will be provided in our next and final Newsletter.

Year 6 Graduation Events/Celebration Assembly

Graduation is a special time for our students at Black Rock Primary School. Our Year 6 students are working hard to prepare for the special activities and

Graduation Night

Our graduation night is the chance for parents and guardians to celebrate their child's journey through primary school. This year's Graduation Ceremony will be held at Sandringham Secondary College on Thursday 14th December.

“Buddy” Fish and Chips

On Friday 15th December, the Year Six students farewell their Foundation buddies with a walk down to Black Rock beach for a sand castle building contest. They will then return to school for a hot chip lunch with the buddies.

Graduation Lunch

Graduation lunch will go ahead at the Black Rock Bowls Club on Tuesday 19th December.

Celebration Assembly

We are again planning to send off our Year 6 students and the entire school in style at our celebration assembly on Tuesday 19th December. Final day dismissal is at 3.30pm, with the final assembly commencing at 2.45pm.

Transition Activities

Kinder to Foundation – the newest students to our school have been able to participate in their first ‘Meet the Teacher’ session this week.

I must sincerely thank our Foundation team for the super work they are doing to not only ensure continuity of learning for their current students, but also to provide opportunities for new Foundation students and their families to get off to the best possible start next year.

Term 4 - Important Dates

As previously communicated, the final day for students in 2023 will be Tuesday 19th December. Dismissal will be at 3.30pm after the final Celebration Assembly. The Year 6 Graduation Lunch will also be held on that day.

2023 Final Day for Students - Timetable

9am: Start in classrooms

11-11.30am: Recess

12.30-2pm: Graduation Lunch/Lunch Break

2.45pm: Celebration Assembly

3.30pm: Dismissal

To stay up to date with all events and key dates, see the Compass Calendar.

Book Fair

This week we welcomed members of the BRPS community to our Book Fair. It was a joy to see how excited the students were about the new books on sale.

Thank you to everyone who braved the weather to come to Book Fair. A big shout out to all our wonderful parent helpers, we couldn’t run such events without you. Special thanks to Adriana Griffiths who helped recruit our parent helpers. Thanks also to Mrs Hill in the front office for all her support.

A proportion of the Book Fair sales will be gifted to the school allowing us to purchase more library resources. We are grateful for your continued support of our school library.

Happy reading!

Ms Baker

First Lego League Regional Competition

On Saturday 18th November, two teams represented Black Rock Primary School at the First Lego League Regional competition held at Richmond.

First Lego League is a team challenge, as teams of students ages 9-16 engage in research, problem-solving, coding and engineering – building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of a robot game. As part of Challenge, teams also participate in a research project to identify and solve a relevant real-world problem.

The FLL Challenge program is a competition program and has tournaments in select areas. Successful teams can progress to the National Championships and even International events by invitation.

This year we had a Year 5 and a Year 6 team compete.

Year 5 - Freddie D, Joseph E, Archie H, Lily H, Nina K, James R

Year 6 - Chris B, Emily B, Lachlan C, Harry C, Kristians J, Ava P, Jack P, Laura T, Katya T, Isabelle W, Heidi W and Liam Z.

The students in each team worked collaboratively for many weeks, including during lunch breaks, to prepare their respective missions. Students take on many roles during this team event that align with our school values of Respect, Relationships, Teamwork, Innovation and Sustainability.

All of the students should be very proud of their efforts and the way they represented themselves, their school and their families throughout all aspects of the challenge.

Thank you to Mr Littlehales for organising and preparing the team, as well as attending for the full-day event on Saturday. The team was also well supported by our 'Adopted Engineer' throughout the year - James Heffernan.

Our partnership with Real Time Learning (RTL) has made this and other STEM opportunities possible this year and we look forward to providing similar opportunities to many more students over the next few years.

Celebrations

Hoop Time Basketball Teams

Good luck to the Year 4 and Year 6 basketball teams who are competing in the Hoop TIme State Championship competition early next week.

Bayside Dance Competition

Congratulations to our dance teams who competed at Hampton PS on Friday 24th November:

F-2: Olivia F and Kate F

3/4: Isobel B and Allie H

5/6: Tilde P and Charlize J

2024 Start Dates & Planning

Please refer to the Compass Calendar for 2024 dates which are beginning to fill.

Several key dates for the commencement of the 2024 school year have been determined:

Mon 29 Jan: Staff Return (Statewide Student Free Day)

Tue 30 Jan - All students F-6 Return

Wed 31 Jan; 7, 14, 21, 28 Feb: - Foundation days off

Fri 8 March: Curriculum Day (student-free)

The dates of the three remaining student-free days for 2024 are TBC.

2024 Intensive Swimming Program Dates

To assist with forward planning, the 2024 Intensive Swimming Program dates are published by term and week below. Please see the Compass Calendar for the exact dates.

Foundation: Term 4 - Week 1 & 2

Year 1/2: Term 3 - Week 9 & 10

Year 3/4: Term 2 - Week 1, 2 & 3

Year 5/6: Term 4 - Week 7 & 8

Sam Tyndall

PRINCIPAL

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