Buninyong PS Newsletter

Principal's Report

TERM 2 BEGINS

Welcome back to everyone and we hope you got to enjoy some quality time with the kids.  The weather in the first week was amazing and it’s nice to start off this term with some sunny days.

 

There’s plenty to look forward to in the term ahead, which includes:

  • A chess tournament later this week (good luck to Jayke’s well drilled team)
  • A Book Fair in weeks 2 & 3
  • School photos & Japanese Day  in week 3
  • A Mothers Day Stall on May 10
  • Celebrating Education Week from May 13-17
  • The usual array of Inter-school sports for term 2 (AFL, soccer, cross country & netball). 
  • Excursions to Biocats & VSSEC (Victorian Space Science Education Centre)
  • National Reconciliation Week from May 27-31
  • A Sausage Sizzle in week 8
  • Receiving end of semester 1 progress reports, followed by Parent Teacher Interviews in the final week of term.

Attached to this newsletter you’ll find an events calendar for term 2.

SCHOOL CONCERT DRAWING CLOSER

As communicated at the start of this year, the school concert is scheduled for August 28-30 at Founder Hall (Federation University).  Our last school concert was held in 2018, so it has been a long time between drinks. The theme for this year’s concert is ‘The Magic School Bus’, which provides the scope for a wide range of acts.

 

To give you a sense of what to expect, the concert consists of:

  • A full day of rehearsals on the Wednesday (August 28)
  • A matinee performance in the afternoon and then an evening performance on the Thursday (August 29)
  • An evening performance on the Friday (August 30)

Each of the classes will put together an act for everyone to enjoy.  Running a school concert has many benefits, including:

  • Providing a fabulous experience for all of the students.  For some, the performing arts is their interest and strength, whilst others will be introduced to something completely new.
  • Bringing the school and broader community together to achieve something special, building pride in our school.
  • Raising funds that will help us run important school programs.  The majority of funds raised through the 2024 school concert will go towards the purchase of resources for our STEM program.

The school concert is a brilliant opportunity for parents to get involved and contribute to our school.  How might you get involved?

  • We’re looking for parents to join our team that will oversee the running of the concert. That team will meet on 2 or 3 occasions after school later this term and then weekly in the lead up to the concert. Please email or give me a call if you’d be interested in joining this team.
  • Each class teacher will be looking for help in the lead up to the concert and on the performance days.  You might have the skills and experience needed to choreograph and practise an act or make costumes or props.  You might also be willing to help the teacher backstage at performances.  Typically teachers will have 1 or 2 back stage helpers, each with a Working With Children Check as you’d expect.
  • We will need parents to help running each of the performances, which could involve taking tickets at the door, working on the BBQ, directing traffic, etc.

Attached are a few photos from previous school concerts to help give you a sense of the event. 

HOLIDAY WORKS, INCLUDING A NEW BASKETBALL COURT

We certainly had quite a bit going on over the break including repairs to the BER relating to the flood damage from January,  painting in 2 classrooms (3DS & 3KM), new carpet for the double portable at Scotsburn. 

 

But the highlight of works over the break was the installation of a new basketball court at the Buninyong Campus.  This will be a fantastic asset to the school over many years to come, especially throughout the winter months when the oval is too wet and muddy to use. 

 

Over the coming few months we’ll get basketball stands installed and have the court painted.  A massive thankyou to Mark Dell, a parent at our school, for completing these works, donating much of his time.  A big thankyou also to the Coxall family, who have funded this project. 

 

OFFSITE EVACUATION DRILL

Each term we complete an emergency drill, making sure we’re prepared for situations that could pop up at any time.  We use one of these drills each year to practise an offsite evacuation. Hopefully we’ll never need to evacuate offsite, but that would be necessary if we had a danger on site that we needed some distance from.  This could be the case if we had a fire onsite, a gas leak or a bomb threat.

 

At Buninyong the offsite evacuation location is Royal Park (soccer pitches on Nolan St), and for Scotsburn is the Scotsburn Hall.  Attached you’ll find photos from the offsite evacuation held by the Buninyong Campus in the last week of term 1.