COVID Safety measures and restrictions

As we approach the end of Term 1, I would like to thank all our community for working with us to keep students, staff and yourselves safe. It has been wonderful to be back to face-to-face teaching and having our students back at school with their friends and teachers. As the term is progressing, I am pleased to be in a position to start introducing many of the programs that make our school a great place to work and learn.

Next term more lunchtime clubs will be run by staff to support children in the yard, buddies with Prep and Year 4 students will happen, oval and garden project opening, Education Week activities, and many other programs will begin. These events help students to feel connected to school, create social engagement and improve well-being.

We will be receiving an extra 22 Air Purifiers in the coming weeks to add to our already 25 that are in all classrooms, this will allow us to have all rooms covered. The students are well and truly versed in washing their hands with soap regularly and using hand sanitiser and of course wearing masks in years 3-6, with many of our junior school students choosing to wear a mask also. We strongly encourage windows and doors to remain open when it is possible, and many classes take the opportunity to use our outdoor learning spaces when possible. Thank you for testing your child twice weekly with the RA Tests, these add an extra comfort and control to keeping everyone safe. Whilst I am reassured that the majority of tests have been negative, I also know that there have been students test positive on these tests that had no or very few symptoms and as a result were able to isolate and ensure others weren’t infected. To those families that have been impacted, we understand how challenging this has been for you and thank you for making every effort to keep the rest of the community safe.

The even more exciting news is that we are able to invite parents back to school for some of our special events and assemblies. Starting next term, we will hold some of our assemblies outside, when possible, on the front netball court and parents are welcome to attend. (Parents will be notified if the assembly is able to be outside). In order to attend events at school, parents/friends should be double vaccinated and where possible adhere to social distancing requirements. As the assemblies are outside, face masks are not required. In the event of extreme weather, rain/heat/lightning, the assembly will have to be moved indoors and parents will be unable to attend due to the requirement to check and record the vaccination status of those attending. Our traditional end of term 1 “Happy Hour” will take place on the last day of term, April 8th, at 11:30am. As this event is also held outdoors, we encourage you to come along and enjoy the spectacular performances of all our students. Bring your chair, hat and water and get ready to be entertained.

3 Way Conferences

Thank you to all those families that have made an appointment time to have an interview with your child’s classroom teacher/specialist/tutor. These interviews are important for you to have an understanding of your child’s progress and hear the goals and future learning planned. They also allow students to reflect on the term, on their attitude, work ethic and focus capabilities. These interviews give you the opportunity to understand the success and achievements that your child has made and future goals and areas to work on, and how you can help, support and guide your child’s learning at home.

Student Leaders -mentoring

Our Year 6 student leaders have been very busy in their leadership positions already this year. They have been developing their skills and being guided by the Staff leading these rolls and clarifying their responsibilities. Last week Mrs. Elizabeth Swan college Principal of Bayswater Secondary College visited and spoke to our Year 6 students. This was a great interactive session which allowed our students to gain a further insight into Bayswater Secondary College and our students asked many very insightful questions. Our students will be visiting Bayswater Secondary College early next term.

Child Safety

Boronia Heights Primary School is committed to child safety. As a community we want children to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children. There is zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures. We meet our legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.

Boronia Heights Primary School is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early and removing and reducing these risks. We have robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and volunteers. Our school is committed to regularly training and educating our staff and volunteers on child abuse risks. As a community we support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children, the cultural safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse background and to providing a safe environment for children with a disability. Boronia Heights Primary School has specific policies, procedures and training in places that support our leadership team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.

At Boronia Heights Primary School:

Everyone connected to our school can help children be safe.
We have zero tolerance for any abuse of children.
We already have policies and processes in place to protect the care, safety and welfare of children. These are being strengthened to ensure a zero-tolerance approach to child abuse. As policies are ratified at school council, they will be made available to your through the newsletter and on our web page.
There will be clear boundaries about how adults in our school community may interact with the children here set out in our school’s Child Safe Code of Conduct. This will be made available when school council ratifies it at school council
The child safe standards apply to school staff (including volunteers and contractors), visitors and students’ family members.
Keeping children safe is everyone’s responsibility. Different people at our school have different roles and responsibilities for ensuring children’s safety
Things you need to know about: what ‘zero tolerance’ means to us, what roles and responsibilities adults have for child safety, our new procedures to respond to and report complaints of any form of child abuse.
We want to ensure you know how we are keeping your children safe at school, and how we’d like you to support us (for families).
Staff members (including volunteers) will receive training and support to understand and carry out their responsibilities under the standards.
Unsupervised contractors will be asked about their child safety arrangements as a condition of working with us if they work with children enrolled in the school (or children can reasonably be expected to be present while they are at the school).
Other people using our school facilities will be asked about their child safety arrangements as a condition of using our facilities if they involve children enrolled at the school (or children can reasonably be expected to be present while their staff or other adults are at the school).

Enrol Now for PREP 2023!!

We are currently receiving high interest for our 2023 Prep enrolments and need to establish how many siblings of our enrolled students are due to start at Boronia Heights next year. The priority of placement for new students dictates that children who reside in the designated school zone and those who are siblings of current students have the highest priority. We ask that families within the Boronia Heights community who have a child who is due to commence Prep in 2023 please enrol as soon as possible. Thank you to those of you who have already collected and returned your enrolment form. You will also need to provide a Birth Certificate and Immunisation Statement when returning the form to school.

2022 School Council Members

Our office holders are:

School Council President: Sharon Walker

Treasurer: James Burrows

Executive Officer: Leanne Jennings

School Councillors: Mick Holden, Jessica Petchell, Deborah Boettcher, Morten Windfeld-Lund, Marcus Cook, Rachel Husar, Sarah Kiss and Serge Tolmachev

DET representatives: Leah Hodgson, Kristy Foster, Lisa Baker, Saascha Cargill, Leanne Jennings

I look forward to working with our school councillors this year to continue the great work that happens in our school.

Parking around the School

Pleases be patient, kind and generous with families while parking your car in the mornings and afternoons. We are extremely fortunate to have so many entry points in the school and so many adjoining roads that you can drop your children off and allow them to walk a little way to the school. This would certainly alleviate some of the congestion around the school. Please be mindful and especially with older students that they don’t need to be dropped off directly outside a gate, a short walk with their friends is a great way to start the day. Please show respect and kindness by parking legally and being excellent role models for your children. Our crossing supervisors are there to support and help students and parents to cross safely, please do not abuse the supervisors, they are doing an amazing job. Please do not park your car in driveways that block households from leaving their property. We all need to work together not against each other. Thank you for your understanding.

Athletic Sports Day

WOW!! What a great day was had by our students in Years 3-6 today at our school. I was so proud to see our students have a fun and competitive day where many personal bests were achieved and students did their best in all events, skills were practiced and further developed. A huge thank you to Ms Taylah Russell whose organisation, planning and passion for the day was extremely obvious. These special days take a village to run an event like this properly and with so many parents there to support our students it was tremendous. Thank you to our amazing staff whose energy made the day one to enjoy. A big thank you to our office staff Tanya Wick who was the first aider on the day and had all of our students needs thoroughly organised.

The HUBSTERS Easter Raffle

I would like to thank the parents involved in fundraising for organising the Easter Raffle. We have a wonderful selection of stunning Easter goodies to win. The prizes are amazing and were generously donated by our community. Our winners will be thrilled to pick up their Easter goodies at the end of ‘Happy Hour’. The generosity of this community never cesses to amaze me.

We wish all our community a very Happy Easter and a restful and enjoyable holiday. If you are travelling, take care on the roads.

We look forward to the students returning on Tuesday the 26th of April.

Take care and have a great holiday.

Leanne Jennings

NATIONAL YOUNG LEADERS DAY

On Wednesday 23rd March, the School Captains and Vice Captains attended the National Young Leaders Day. It was held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. It was one of the most amazing and inspiring days ever! There were some incredible speakers, such as Cate Campbell, Damien Fleming, Lachie Smart and Guy Edmonds. They each shared their interesting journeys and the insanely difficult challenges they faced to get where they are today. Some really inspirational words came from Lachie Smart and Guy Edmonds: Lachie told us that mistakes are the only way to learn, and Guy told us to lead with laughter, which means don’t be hard on yourself and have fun along the way.

Personally, our favourites were Cate Campbell and Damien Fleming, as they showed a new perspective on how to lead. We also participated in some really fun games and dancing.

Over all, this day was a total blast!

Maggie, Matthew, Isabel and Shrivanth

School Captains & Vice Captains

Dates to Remember