Principal's Message 

Kitchen Garden

Our Kitchen Garden program has returned with our Year 3 and 4 children participating in gardening or cooking lessons last week. It has been wonderful to see the children so thoroughly engaged as they’re working with the parent and grand parent volunteers to prepare the garden beds or cook a delicious two course meal. It’s been great to witness how confident the Year 4s are after their experiences in the kitchen last year and how excited the Year 3s have been to cook and share a meal together.

The kitchen garden area is really coming together. A big thank you to those families that helped at our mini working bee that was held last week. We were able to fill all of the raised garden beds with soil and mushroom compost ready for planting.  The area is looking fantastic after the works that took place in the holidays. If you haven’t had a chance to look in person, please check out the photos below. The rock work is incredible, and it really breaks the area into defined spaces now. The next steps are to organise steps and a bridge for easy access from the Kitchen Garden room to the vegetable garden. We are also looking at constructing an outdoor classroom at the rear of the vegetable garden so that classes can potentially cook and eat outside. The outdoor classroom will also be used by other classes during the week and as a community resource. We may have a sponsor who will be paying for the construction of the outdoor classroom, more information will follow when this is confirmed.

Student Leaders

All of our Year 6 students are school leaders. We see them in action everyday as they help and support younger children in the yard and as they take on responsibilities in their classrooms and across the school. We also have official leadership positions in a variety of areas, we congratulate the following children:

We will be holding our leadership badge assembly on 17th March where all leaders will be presented with their badges. 

Teacher’s Car Park

Sorry to nag again about the Teacher’s Car Park but we are still having parents and children walk through the car park for drop off and pick up. It is really dangerous at both times of the day as cars are frequently moving. It’s difficult for drivers to see pedestrians, particularly when they are coming up the rise of the lower car park.  If you park in the top gravel car park, please walk across the basketball court and down the stairs to access our school buildings. 

Annual Privacy Notice from Department of Education

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

 [https://billanookps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Photographing-Filming-and-Recording-Students-Policy.pdf], 

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 Google Workspace for Education 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 Google Workspace, please contact the school.

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

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Chinese
• Dari
• Gujarati
• Mandarin
• Somali
• Sudanese
• Turkish
• Urdu
• Vietnamese

Regards

Michael Puddy