From the Principal Team

Welcome Back

Welcome back to school for 2026. We hope all families enjoyed a restful and relaxing summer break.

We are delighted to welcome our 79 new Prep students as they begin their Bell Primary School journey, with half commencing yesterday and the remainder starting today. We also extend a warm welcome to several new students joining us from other schools across Grades 1–6, including Tasman, Stevie, Luca, Artie, Jozi, Clover, Ida, Stevie-Lee, Darcy and Reuben.  A special welcome to the new families joining our school community, we are so pleased to have you with us.

As always, our students have been wonderful in helping new classmates settle in. We encourage parents and carers to start conversations with new faces in the yard to help everyone feel part of the Bell community as quickly as possible.

Over the first few weeks, our focus will be on the Start-Up Program. During this time, teachers work with students to establish learning routines and expectations aligned with our school values, while prioritising relationship-building and team-based activities.

Administration Staff

Following the departure of our Business Manager, Luisa, at the end of 2025, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Jessie Storm as our new Business Manager. As a valued member of our admin team, Jessie will already be familiar to many parents and carers, and we are delighted to see her step into this role.

We also extend a warm welcome to Nahla Said, who joins our admin team and will take on the role previously held by Jessie. Nahla’s key responsibilities will include student enrolments and first aid, and we look forward to the valuable contribution she will make in supporting our students, families and staff.

Uniform

A reminder to families that our mandatory school uniform colours are navy blue and white.

While items featuring the Bell logo are available, it is not a requirement. There are a range of uniform options available, and we do not have any gender-specific expectations for uniform items.

In the first few days of school, we have noticed some non-uniform items being worn. To ensure consistency, safety, and fairness for all students, we ask families to please note the following reminders:

• Footwear: Crocs are not permitted for safety reasons. Students must wear fully enclosed footwear suitable for physical activity, both in the classroom and during break times.

• Hats: Baseball-style caps that are not broad-brimmed or in school colours are not part of the uniform. Students are expected to wear a broad-brimmed hat in approved school colours.

• Tops: Hoodies and other tops that are not in the nominated Bell navy and white colours are not part of the school uniform. The only exception is the special Grade 6 hoodies featuring student names and the Year 6 emblem, which will be permitted once they arrive.

• Bottoms: Black shorts and leggings are not part of the uniform and should be navy blue.

Thank you for your continued support in maintaining our uniform policy and helping to promote a safe, inclusive, and consistent learning environment for all students.

Reconciliation Action Plan

We are pleased to announce that over the break, our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) was formally endorsed and published by the Narragunnawali: Reconciliation in Education team.

Our RAP outlines Bell Primary School’s commitment to fostering respectful relationships, creating meaningful opportunities, and embedding reconciliation principles across all aspects of our school community. It reflects our shared responsibility to learn, listen, and take action in ways that support reconciliation now and into the future, and strengthens our commitment to creating a culturally inclusive and respectful learning environment.

A sincere thank you to the parents and carers, staff, and students who contributed to the development of our RAP. Your ongoing support, thoughtful contributions, and commitment to this important work has been invaluable.

At an upcoming meeting, the RAP team will discuss an appropriate and meaningful way to formally launch our plan. Further information will be shared with the community in a future newsletter.

This is also the first edition of our newsletter in its new format. We hope families find it more user-friendly and easier to navigate, and we welcome any feedback as we continue to refine it.

Emma Heywood

Principal

Grade Level Information Nights

Year 1-6 Grade Level Information Nights will be conducted in Week 3 of this term (Monday 9 - Friday 13 February). Information Nights are an opportunity to begin the establishment of home-school partnerships at the beginning of the school year with your child’s grade level team. These nights provide parents/carers with an understanding of the learning foci, teaching and learning approaches and extra-curricular events and activities for the year. 

The Grade allocated times and locations for parents to attend are contained in the table below:

You will also receive an invitation on Compass from the Grade level teaching team early next week to book this information session. 

Other important administration reminders will be sent to families via Compass Newsfeeds continuously over the coming weeks and will be available on the school website for future reference. This makes it especially important to check the Compass app regularly so that you can be connected to what's happening at the school and what your role is as a parent carer. 

For Prep families, their information night will be conducted in Week 6 on Tuesday 4 March.

Where parents/carers are unable to attend the information session, the PowerPoint presented by the team will be sent out via Compass for access following the session and prioritised at the top of the Compass Newsfeed for the term. 

Getting to Know You Meetings

On Tuesday 3  March, teachers from Years 1-6 will be conducting 1:1 Getting to Know You Meetings. These meetings facilitate individual time for parents/carers to share information about their child with this year’s classroom teacher/s and are an important opportunity for you to:

• meet and get to know your child’s teacher(s)

• help your child’s teacher(s) understand more about your child

• exchange information to support your child’s learning, social and emotional needs

• continue to strengthen the crucial home-school partnership

These meetings, whilst about your child as a learner, are not designed to give detailed progress reports of student achievement given the early scheduling.

If your child has an Individual Education Plan, your child's teacher will contact you to arrange a combined Getting to Know You/Individual Education Plan meeting.

Prep teachers will be conducting Getting to Know You Meetings with Prep parents earlier in Week 3 on Wednesday 11 February. Prep families will be sent information via Compass early next week regarding times, as well as information about how to book a meeting.

Paul Nicholson

Assistant Principal