Executive Team News

Halfway through the term…

As we approach week 7 and make our way towards the second half of the term, it is a great opportunity to reflect on such a settled start to the year. It has been fantastic to see the learning that is happening at our College. Is has also been fantastic to see the relationships being built between staff and students. The students are very settled and are making great connections with their peers.

NAPLAN

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

The NAPLAN Online testing period begins on Wednesday 12 March and concludes on Monday 24 March. It is a nationwide measure through which parents/carers, teachers, schools, education authorities, governments and the broader community can determine whether or not young Australians are developing the literacy and numeracy skills that provide the critical foundation for other learning and for their productive and rewarding participation in the community. 

NAPLAN results allow parents/carers and educators to see how students are progressing in literacy and numeracy over time – individually, as part of their school community, and against national standards.  

We wish all our students the very best for the NAPLAN testing period.

Swimming Carnival

Over the past couple of weeks the College held our 3-6 and 7-9 swimming carnivals. Both days were a great success. There was a wonderful display of school pride with students dressing up in their house colours and cheering on their peers. There were a number of fun events that students participated in, along with the competitive swimming races. Congratulations to all the students who qualified for the district swimming and a big congratulations to Irwin house for taking out the 7-9 carnival and to Newton house for taking out the 3-6 carnival. 

A huge thank you to Mrs Cross and Ms Roach for their organisation and leadership on the day.

School House Captains

At Brookside College the house captains have the opportunity to develop and lead activities within the school, aiming to build and promote a sense of belonging and school pride. The house captains work hard to promote their house and encourage students to participate and engage in whole school activities.

Students completed an application process which involved a written application followed by a speech delivered to their house group. Students and staff then voted to elect the successful applicants.

We thank all the students who applied, prepared and delivered speeches to their house group. We are in a great position here at Brookside with some amazing, aspiring young leaders.

We are pleased to announce the successful house captains are:

Irwin (Green) House:

Captain: Phoenix 9A

Vice-Captain: Charlie 6D 

Freeman (Blue) House:

Captain: Jhasan 7C

Vice-Captain: Izabella 6C 

Newton (Yellow) House:

Captain: Ali 8C

Vice-Captain: Tyson 5C 

Stynes (Red) House:

Captain: Neish 9G

Vice-Captain: Remi 6A

Harmony Day

On Friday 21 March 2025 students, staff and the extended community at Brookside College will be celebrating Harmony Day. Everyone is invited to wear something that represents their culture or a splash of orange. Orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Week.

Our state is home to people who speak 290 languages and have 314 different ancestries. This is something, at Brookside, we are very proud of. To celebrate this, there will be a presentation displayed in the Office Foyer, showing all the languages spoken by our Brookside families.

There will also be an ‘Everyone here is welcome’ mural created and displayed in the school gym. Students across Prep to year 9 will have the opportunity to contribute to this artwork.

Other activities throughout the week will include arts and craft activities, photo opportunities, design and creation tasks and several morning circle activities completed in Homegroups.

Australia is a vibrant and multicultural country — from the oldest continuous culture of our first Australians to the cultures of our newest arrivals from around the world. Our cultural diversity is one of our greatest strengths and is at the heart of who we are. It makes Australia a great place to live.

An integrated multicultural Australia is an integral part of our national identity. All people who migrate to Australia bring with them some of their own cultural and religious traditions, as well as taking on many new traditions. Collectively, these traditions have enriched our nation.

Thank you for your support with this event and we look forward to celebrating cultural diversity with our entire school community.

Media Consent 

A friendly reminder that in late 2024, Brookside P-9 College introduced a new “Photographing, Filming and Recording of Students at Brookside P-9 College” policy. Brookside College requires permission from parents and guardians in order to publish the participation and achievement of our students in the form of photographs or footage through school media platforms such as newsletters or the school’s website. This new policy requires a once off consent form that will be stored on student’s files for their duration of time at the College.

Families who have yet to consent for the new policy will have recently received a consent form on pink paper. Families with multiple children will have received multiple forms as this consent requires a response for each individual child.

Please make sure that you read through all the information and attachments carefully before submitting your response. We ask that you respond as quickly as you can so that we may finalise your consent choices.

If there are any concerns or clarifications needed feel free to contact your child's classroom/home group teacher, or you can contact Brookside's Digital Technologies Learning Specialist, Steven Bennett. 

Parent Helper Induction Session

At Brookside College, we value and place importance on the partnership we build with our families.

We appreciate the continuous support from our parents and guardians in working together to provide the best learning opportunities for all our learners.

An important element of this partnership are Parent Helpers at our school.

Parent Helpers can assist in many ways at Brookside College. This includes supporting teachers in making resources for the classroom, listening to students read, working with individual/small groups of students, assisting with programs such as SAKG etc.

To become a Parent Helper requires an up to date Working with Children Check Card (WWCCC) and the completion of the Parent Helper Induction session.

A Parent Helper Induction session will be held this term on Tuesday 25 March from 9:00am-10:00am in the Library.

If you are interested in becoming a Parent Helper and would like to attend the induction session, please click on this link to register.

Any parents/guardians who have previously completed the Parent Helper Induction session and has an up to date WWCC, do not have to redo the induction session.

Parent Helpers will begin in Term 2. Communication will be made at the beginning of next term to detail the process.

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend

The Executive Team