“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)

WILD!

What a wonderful event Wild was!

It was so lovely to see BNWPS coming together to celebrate art and community. Not only the art, but the way in which it was exhibited meant that we could truly immerse ourselves in it. The performance was spectacular, and it was fantastic to see each student having their own moment on stage. What a talented community of students we have!

We would like to thank Kate and Jenny for all of the work, effort and planning that they put into the event. Thank you to the other staff and members of our community who supported Kate and Jenny’s vision in any way - big or small, your support was hugely appreciated. Well done to the students, for the time you dedicated to auditions, rehearsals and prop development. And a big thank you to the wonderful families who came and shared this celebration.

Anyone who has ordered a limited edition t-shirt or tote, payments can be made at the office - we will let you know once your order is ready for collection.

Planning for 2025

Our parent & carer survey for input into classes has now closed, however our work will continue. Today we ran our second Step Up session and have enjoyed hearing how our students are finding moments of joy in change.

The leadership team will work through the parent & carer requests while our teachers continue to develop classes for 2025, finding balance across year levels, genders, academic and behaviour needs as well as those very important friendships.

Each year our teaching teams change a little as we welcome back some staff, say goodbye to some staff and as we balance the passions, interests and experience levels of our current staff across the school. Next year, every cohort has teachers who are remaining and some who are moving into other areas. Our 2025 teaching teams are:

FOUNDATION CLASSES
FNF	Nici Fausten	Team Leader
FTD	Tom Dartnell
FJJJ	Julia Jackson-Jin
JUNIOR CLASSES
JDR	Deb Robins	Team Leader
JBA	Bev Andrews
JBO	Brenton O’Hoy	Brenton is new to BNWPS
JHR	Hyeri Robertson	Hyeri is new to BNWPS
JJL	James Lytras	James has previously worked as an ES, but will be moving into a classroom teacher role
MIDDLE CLASSES
MLK	Lori Kirk	Team Leader
MMR	Martin Richards
MMM	Michael McLaughlin
MNM	Nina Manson	Nina is new to BNWPS
MBK	Bek Tankard (Monday, Tuesday, Friday) Kate Middleton (Wednesday, Thursday)
SENIOR CLASSES
SJH	Jesse Hughes	Team Leader
SCD	Celia Dickinson
SAT	Tim Plummer (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) Ann Laming (Wednesday)
STA	Tim Harwood (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) Ann Laming (Thursday, Friday

SPECIALISTS
Visual Art	Kate McCormack	Team Leader
Performing Arts	Jenny Wheatcroft
Physical Education	Max Williams
Science	Ben Guest	Ben is new to BNWPS
Indonesian	Kasenya Grant
SUPPORTING TEACHER-LEADERS
Numeracy	Alice Hamilton	Alice is returning from family leave next year.
Disability Inclusion	Lilly Van Dyk
Mental Health in Primary Schools	Bek Tankard	Bek will be sharing her time between classroom teaching and this role.

We are really looking forward to working with these teams of educators and always feel incredibly privileged to have such an incredible group of professionals to place.

Sadly, this does mean we are saying goodbye (or so long) to four of our existing teachers;

Catherine Beswick, our current Foundation Team leader is moving house to the Eastern suburbs. Cath has gained a job at Ashburton Primary School, where she will continue to share her passion and knowledge.

Ernesto Bobadilla, also from Foundation, is taking one year’s leave to enjoy life and find balance. We may see Ernesto again in the future!

Lian Beveridge, one of our Middle school teachers, will not be returning next year and we wish them the best for their future endeavours.

Alicia Flynn shared that she has loved teaching at BNW and will miss the children, teachers, ES, and the whole school community! She has especially loved working with the Enviro Leaders this year. For now she is going into researching environment and climate justice, and teaching at university. This is the third time she’s taught at BNW and she may return again one day!

We wish everyone the very best of luck in their individual journeys next year and thank you for all you have offered our school, our students and our community.

Sprout