From The Principal Team

Hi Parents and Carers,

Thank you for an outstanding first Semester for 2024. We would like to thank the wider school community for the warm welcome we have all received as we have moved into our new roles as a new team.

Some of our highlights from Semester 1 have been:

Running Student Focus Groups to get student's insights on various things.
Our student's personal and academic growth. We thoroughly enjoyed reading each child's Semester 1 report, as well as reading their personal reflections.
Spending time in classrooms working with our students.
Bringing the chicken's back to BPS - Mrs McManus has a naming competition in the works!
Implementing and sharing Positive Chronicle messages with parents and carers.
Implementing our Booster Group Initiative for both learning support and enrichment with Mrs Charlotte Molloy and Ms Kate Ryan.
Welcoming parents into our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 classes to support student's reading.

This week, Grace and David accompanied Ms Kate Ryan and students in Years 4-6 who are a part of the Exceptional Learners Booster Group to Beaumaris Secondary College. The BSC HAWK Students ran workshops focused on deep thinking and extension in both Literacy and Numeracy. This was a wonderful opportunity for these students and we enjoyed the opportunity to connect with Beaumaris Secondary College.

A reflection from some of our students:

We went to Beaumaris Secondary on the 25th June with the Year 4, 5 and 6 Exceptional Learners, Miss Ryan, Mr Tapp and Miss Hulls. We had so much fun solving problems that involved numbers , riddles and hieroglyphics. The Year 7 and 8 HAWK group along with their teacher Mrs Casley planned an escape room type challenge that required us to move from room to room while working in small teams. Some of the problems were quite challenging. When we worked as a team we were able to figure out the answers, as well as learning about Ancient Egypt along the way. Our favourite challenge was the balloon room!

Esther A, Indi C and Miss Ryan

This Semester we have ensured reading is the main focus for homework from Prep to Year 6. Thank you for supporting and encouraging your child's reading, including recording this in their reading journals. We have begun to see some classes Reading Rockets take off as the number of nights of reading grows, which the students are enjoying seeing!

We began the year committed to improving our school's literacy resources, including take home readers. We have recently placed an order for over 3500 books, which we are looking forward to continuing to build upon in Semester 2. Please remember to access Beaumaris Library, or other local libraries, over the term break if different books are needed to enjoy at home.

This evening we are looking forward to celebrating our Years 4, 5 and 6 student's art work as it will be on display at the Bayside Schools Art Show. Please see our 'School News' page for further details. Miss Ally Palermo is also continuously updating the hallway outside our Visual Art classroom with student's artwork which we absolutely love seeing - you're more than welcome to pop in and take a look before or after school.

Please be aware that over the term break, the gates on Emily Street and Herbert Street will be locked. This is to support Team Kids who are running their holiday program and have access to our school grounds. We also have a number of works happening to our school grounds over the term break. This week the pergolas outside the Visual Art classroom and over the Japanese Garden were rebuilt, and we've recently had all of the lights replaced in the Year 2 learning area, making it much brighter. We're looking forward to continuing to gradually update our facilities and grounds next semester.

As we reflect on Semester 1, we have noticed a significant amount of absence across all year levels. We know that, particularly post Covid, students are encouraged to stay home if they are unwell. We have analysed student absence and we have a large number of students who are missing partial days due to appointments. We understand that this is unavoidable with medical appointments, however we would strongly encourage all families to make sure students strive for 100% attendance in Semester 2. In this semester's report we have published partial day absence as well as whole day and late attendance. Department of Education Guidelines highlight that if there is a rate higher than 10% for absence; the child will only finish the equivalent of 12 years, not 13 years of school. Partial attendance impacts your child's learning opportunities, as every session is an explicit scaffolded direct instruction lesson.

We hope you and your family enjoy the term break and we're looking forward to seeing the student's back on Monday 15th July.

Kind Regards,

David, Grace and Ellen