Deputy Principal's Message
In what feels like the blink of an eye, we have come to the end of yet another school year at Ben Venue. Thank you to all our families, students, teachers and other staff members for a marvellous year. It has been fantastic to see families and friends attend the various events we have held over the year and share in the education of our students. I wish everyone a safe, relaxing and rejuvenating holiday and look forward to welcoming our families back to school in the new year, meeting our new students and embracing all that 2024 has in store.
The Smith Family Share Christmas appeal - SRC end-of year fundraiser
This Friday 15 December, the SRC will be holding our last fundraiser for the year to raise money for The Smith Family.
SRC representatives have been focusing on what it means to be a good citizen and expressed the desire to raise money for people in need. As a result, we will be holding a mufti day on the last day of school as well as selling Zooper Doopers at recess and lunch.
Students are asked to bring a gold coin donation and wear mufti clothes. Please remember to wear enclosed shoes and a broad brimmed hat and bring your spare coins if you wish to purchase a Zooper Dooper for $1 each.
For further information regarding the Smith Family Christmas Appeal, please visit their website.
SRC Report
This year, the 2023 SRC continued the work initiated by last year’s SRC to improve our bathrooms. Push taps, paper towel and hand sanitizer dispensers have now been installed in the senior toilets and the new recycling bins are also in use across the school. Our Aboriginal design shirts that were designed by our students last year are now available, with many students wearing these shirts with pride every Friday.
One of our main priorities for 2023, has been fundraising for different charities and focusing on students being active citizens. Our first fundraiser was the Colours for the Kids event, initiated by Ryka and the SRC. Students and teachers dressed up in colourful clothing to raise money for Ronald MacDonald House. We raised $801, which was a fantastic effort!
Ryka and the SRC team also organised a special puppet show, presented by Camp Quality to help educate students about cancer. We had lots of fun watching the puppets and learned a lot from the show. We also raised $124 for Camp Quality to go towards making sure other schools can benefit from the puppet show, just like we did.
One of the main projects the SRC ran this year was the Wonder Rewards Recycling Program. Students were asked to bring in bread bags to recycle. The more bags we recycled, the more points we received to purchase sporting equipment. Ben Venue were super recyclers and earned the maximum amount of rewards we could receive, meaning we recycled over 20kgs of plastic bread bags. We used the rewards to buy new skipping ropes and tennis balls so that students have more equipment to play with in the playground.
This year has been another wonderful year for our SRC and it has been a great experience. We encourage anyone who would like to be involved, to put up their hand to be a part of the SRC next year.
2023 SRC Representatives
Roblox - latest warning
Recently there have been reports in the media regarding police warnings relating to the popular online game, Roblox. This is a timely reminder of the importance of children being safe online, particularly over the holiday period. See the SMH article for more information.
Parents can find out more via the eSafety Commissioner website. Students can access the eSafety for Kids website to learn how to be cyber safe and to gain advice on how to deal with a variety of situations.
Lana Howlett
Deputy Principal