Building our community

It was wonderful to have our community come together on Friday night, 27th March, for a Potluck Dinner and movie night. In excess of 50 people were in attendance. Nicole Dalby, community liaison for Five Farms Property and a member of school council, worked with us to organise this event. We enjoyed food from many cultures, people were able to meet each other and socialise, and children and students enjoyed a film on bean bags. The popcorn machine was very popular! Thank you all for coming together and supporting us in building a fantastic community.

New Class

Simone McKenzie, our Food Technology teacher, has gone on leave. As a result, we will be running Drama in Term 2 instead of Food Technology. I would like to take the opportunity to wish Simone the very best on her leave and welcome Jared Riscioli as our new Drama teacher. Farani Tavita will take over the 7E PEARL group to replace Simone.

PE Uniform

Students are now permitted to wear their full PE uniform on days when they have scheduled Health and Physical Education classes. Please ensure your child checks their Compass schedule each morning and comes prepared in the correct uniform on their schedule days.

Respectful, Safe and Engaged: Shared expectations to support student behaviour

When schools, families and students work together, we achieve the best outcomes. These partnerships are essential to creating school environments that support all students to belong, believe and become.

At Birranga College all students are expected to be respectful, safe, and engaged. These behaviours help make our school a place where everyone can achieve their best. As a parent and carer, you play a vital role in helping your child to understand and meet shared behaviour expectations.

Students meet behaviour expectations by being:

Respectful

Following staff instructions and school rules.
Caring for school property and others’ belongings.
Using respectful language.
Safe
Keeping themselves and others safe from harm.
Speaking up or seeking help from an adult if they or someone else is being treated unfairly.
Only bringing safe and necessary items to school.

Engaged

Going to school every day, being on time, and ready to learn.
Taking part, doing their best, and asking for help when they need.
Knowing and following the school’s policies, including the mobile phone policy.

Birranga College is supporting our students to meet these expectations by being:

Respectful

Teaching and demonstrating school rules and positive behaviour expectations to students.
Explicitly teaching, modelling and acknowledging expected respectful behaviour.
Engaging collaboratively and positively with all students, parents and carers.

Safe

Having clear policies and procedures to prevent and respond to bullying and keep students safe.
Offering additional supports to students proactively and supporting students to speak up and seek help.
Proactively identifying and addressing problems to maintain a physically, socially and culturally safe school environment.

Engaged

Delivering evidence-based, inclusive education that meets the needs of all students.
Empowering students to have a say in decisions that affect their learning and school life.
Building strong, trusting relationships to ensure all students feel seen, heard and valued.

How parents and carers can help

By modelling and encouraging positive behaviour, you help your child build the skills and habits they need to be successful at school. This can include:

Respectful

Knowing the school’s rules and supporting them at home.
Modelling respectful behaviour in how you speak to and about school staff, families, and others both in person and online.
Making use of the school’s processes to raise and resolve concerns early.

Safe

Working together with staff if your child is having problems at school to understand and resolve the issue.
Ensuring your child knows it is okay to ask for help from a trusted adult at school.
Ensuring your child stays safe online by talking with them and addressing concerns early.

Engaged

Helping your child to attend school every day - every day counts.
Communicating with school staff and working together to support your child’s learning and wellbeing.
Talking with your child about their day and how they are feeling and encouraging their learning by noticing their effort and progress.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ privacy policy and the Schools’ privacy collection notice.

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students policy, describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use digital technologies safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using this, please contact the school.

BC_Digital-Technologies-Acceptable-Use-Agreement.pdf

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents. This information is also available in eleven community languages:

Amharic
Arabic
Chinese
Dari
Gujarati
Mandarin
Somali
Sudanese
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese

We will do our best to respond to general queries as soon as possible. The right to disconnect legislation makes explicit that all employees have the right to refuse to monitor, read, listen to or respond to contact that occurs outside their working hours from their employer or a third party (such as a student or a parent), unless that refusal is unreasonable.

We ask that you allow us 2 school days to provide you with a detailed response to general queries. We will endeavour to respond to urgent matters within 24 hours where possible.

Building update