Principal's Message
Welcome to the final month of this term. The past seven weeks seem to have gone in the blink of an eye and there has been a lot going on. This term we have had the Stage 2 major excursion, Learning Showcases, An Evening with ACOS, Stage 1 gymnastics, the book fair and parade and Great Aussie Bush Camp, with the Opera House Choir excursion still to come!
Book Parade
It was great to see everyone in appropriate costume for our Book Parade in Week 6 and I thank parents and carers for your support in this regard.
Thank you also for your support of the Book Fair, which raised nearly $3000 for our library. Well done Mrs Gale and Miss Jarman, who organised both the fair and parade.
Great Aussie Bush Camp
Last Friday night, a tired but happy group of nearly 130 Year 5 and 6 students disembarked from their return bus trip from the four day Great Aussie Bush Camp. Meeting the students at school, it was lovely to hear the excitement with which tales of overcoming challenges were related.
A huge thank you to our Stage 3 teachers, Mrs Pattison, Mrs Watson, Mrs Wilson, Mrs Hunt and Mr Cotter for giving up time with their families and a lot of sleep to look after our students and provide the experience. Special mention to Mrs Clayton for both attending and organising the camp.
Look out for more photos of the camp in the Stage 3 section of our next newsletter in Week 10.
Sporting, debating and artistic achievement
Congratulations to Caleb Davies on his selection to the North West Primary Athletics team. Caleb will compete at Sydney Olympic Park next term.
Our girls football team has also experienced recent success and will compete in the regional final this Thursday. See the 'PSSA Girls Football' section for Mrs Gray's report.
In art news not previously reported, congratulations to finalists in the UNESAP 'Let's hang it!' competition, Jackson Bartolo and Ryka Pankaj. Ryka's artwork went on to be awarded Highly Commended in the final judging.
Following the completion of this year's Premier's Debating Competition, Ryka has also been nominated to compete for a place in the regional debating team.
Well done to all and best of luck to those progressing to higher levels of competition.
Creative Arts Showcase - change of date
Last week, the decision was made to postpone our Creative Arts Showcase to Term 4. This is due to the failure of the lighting system in the hall, for which repairs are unlikely to be completed in time for staff to learn the new control system by Week 9. While the showcase now lands in a very busy time of year (which we had hoped to avoid), the postponement will also allow additional time to prepare more performances. The new date for the Creative Arts Showcase is Thursday 30 November.
Welcome Mr Osborn
Following a merit selection process conducted earlier this year, Mr Zane Osborn has been appointed as an Assistant Principal to Ben Venue PS. Mr Osborn will commence at our school at the start of Term 4 as the Stage 3 Assistant Principal and will be taking over executive responsibilities from Mrs Clayton and Ms Divall. He will also be the new class teacher on S3J. I would like to thank Mrs Wilson for her work with the class this year and for supporting a smooth transition to the class's new teacher. Mrs Wilson will remain in the school for the first five weeks of Term 4, working in the library. Thank you also to Mrs Clayton and Mrs Divall for sharing the Stage 3 leadership responsibilities this year.
Mr Osborn will be visiting Ben Venue later this week, taking the opportunity to get to know staff and students in preparation for next term. Families of S3J will receive communication introducing Mr Osborn on Monday next week.
SASS Recognition Week
This week, schools around NSW recognise the contribution of our School Administrative and Support Staff. These are our front office staff, Student Learning Support Officers and General Assistants. Without their contribution, schools would be impossible to run and students would not have access to additional supports in classrooms and through support programs.
Thank you to all of our SASS for the work that you do to support our students and teachers.
Curriculum & Policy Monitoring
As part of Department of Education systems for monitoring schools' compliance with policy and the quality of curriculum delivery, schools are occasionally nominated to provide evidence in these to an evaluation panel. Last week, Ben Venue participated in this process, within the focus areas of Stage 1 creative arts, child protection and complaints handling. This was a valuable opportunity to evaluate our practices and have them reviewed by an objective panel. While we received a small number of recommendations for minor improvements in assessment and reporting in visual arts and timetabling layouts, the panel was very impressed with how rigorous and detailed our programs and processes for policy compliance are. Congratulations to Mrs Frost and the Stage 1 team, Mrs Porter and Mrs Howlett for having their work so positively evaluated.
Teacher professional learning
Ben Venue teachers and SASS regularly engage in professional learning to continuously improve the service we provide to our students. Ben Venue now has embedded practices of peer observation and shared professional learning focused on classroom practice. Our stage teams currently are focused on explicit instruction in oracy (quality classroom discussion skill development), phonics, vocabulary, multiplicative strategies, or formative assessment in mathematics for effective differentiation.
To support implementation of the new 3-6 English and mathematics syllabuses from 2024, our teachers will join with Armidale City PS and Drummond Memorial PS this Tuesday afternoon/evening for shared professional learning on the new curriculum.
Later this term, Ben Venue teachers will also learn how to best support the increasing number of students in our school who have trauma backgrounds.
Cam Pryce
Principal