The Bimbadeen Blaze

Principal's Report 

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work, learn and play. We pay respect to Wurundjeri elders past, present and emerging and extend our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and families of Bimbadeen Heights Primary School.

Celebrating our students’ successes

A steady stream of students has passed through our offices this fortnight, to share their learning and to talk about the progress they have made towards their personal and learning goals. We are so proud of how our Bimbadeen students are always striving to achieve their potential and enjoy celebrating in their successes. 

 

It was wonderful to hear about our Foundation students exploring words using Frayer Charts, where they look deeply into words and explore word definitions, put the word into a sentence, illustrate the word and then code the word. Well done, Siena and Paige, we loved learning about your words!

Mason and Nicholas visited us to share their writing pieces about their ‘favourite hat’. Both students selected their Carlton Football Team cap to write about and used interesting descriptive language in their texts. While Mr Gill thinks your hats should be coloured red and black, we thought your written pieces were entertaining and great examples of your developing writing skills.

 

Congratulations to our Bimbadeen students who participated in finals competitions over the past fortnight. We love hearing about and helping to celebrate your successes. A special congratulations to Caitlyn and Skylar who played in their Under 11 netball grand final over the weekend and won! It was very exciting for the girls to win their first final competition, representing Bimbadeen Blaze Netball Club. Congratulations also to coach Belinda, a Bimbadeen parent, who coached the team to victory!

Values Tokens Award Recipients

An important element of our SWPBS token system is the awarding of certificates and ribbons when students reach specific milestones. Classroom teachers and students track the awarding of values tokens to positive reinforce our students’ choices across the school. When our students reach the milestones of 25, 50 and 75 they receive a certificate that is presented in their classrooms by their teacher, while certificates for 150 and 250 tokens are presented at assembly. When our students receive 100, 200 and 300 values tokens, we recognise their achievement at our next assembly and present them with a 100, 200 or 300 values tokens award ribbon.

 

At our assembly last week, we presented the following values tokens award certificates or ribbons to the following students:

  • 100 values tokens ribbons
    • Ivy C 0KW
    • Marcus M 0KW
    • Madelyn P 0KW
    • Matilda S 0KW
    • Emelia D 0KW
    • Logan F 0KW
    • Jeremy C 0KW
    • Mia W 0KW
    • Anesa S 0KW
    • Hailie R 0KW
    • Eva K 0KW
    • Michael L 0KW
    • Oscar P 0KW
    • Darcy H 0TM
    • Ivy N 0TM
    • Kyah M 0TM
    • Stella H 0TM
    • Ellie K 1JG
    • Dustin G 1JG
    • Sophie P 1JG
    • Billy K 1JG
    • Jason W 1AJ
    • Cammi B 1AJ
    • Mia M 1AJ
  • 150 values tokens certificates
    • Lily R 1AJ
    • Zoe M 0LN
    • Amelia P 0LN
    • Rhui S 0LN
    • Addie G 0LN
    • Mason H 0LN
    • Max C 0LN
    • Logan B 0LN
    • Kasey V 0LN
    • Paige H 0LN
    • Jack M 0TM
    • Kyah M 0TM
    • Lani A 0TM
    • Lucas S 0TM
    • Tate T 0TM
    • Jimi D 0TJ
    • Harry 0TJ

 

  • 200 values tokens ribbons
    • Siena T 0LN
    • Hunter H 0TM
    • Austin N 0TM
  • 250 values tokens certificates
    • Hunter H 0TM
    • Austin N 0TM
  • 300 values tokens ribbons
    • Hunter H 0TM  (pictured above)

Congratulations to these students for demonstrating our school values and for being positive role models for our community. We look forward to presenting more values tokens award ribbons throughout the second semester.

 

Thank you Regina and Professionals Methven Real Estate

Last week, I met with Regina Atkinson from Methven’s The Professionals in Mooroolbark who donated a further $1000 to our school from recent sales in our area. 

Methven’s The Professionals are a long-time supporter of our school and regularly make donations when they sell properties of people connected to the Bimbadeen community. To date, they have donated over $9500 to our school. 

We appreciate your ongoing support Regina, and Methven’s The Professionals - Mooroolbark, and thank you for your contributions to our school.

National Child Protection Week (4-10 September) - Every Child in Every Community Needs a Fair Go

National Child Protection Week is all about the ways that we can all work together to build communities that support children and families. Children are safest when they are listened to, respected, and believed.

 

All adults can play a part by ‘tuning in’ to children in everyday situations about small worries; then they are much more likely to feel comfortable telling us if something big is wrong.

 

Talking with children about safety:

  • Support children to identify trusted adults (both within the family and outside) they can talk to, if they are worried, upset, or don’t feel safe. Make sure these adults know they are on your child’s list.
  • Remind children that they can talk to you or a trusted adult about anything, no matter how big or small their worry might be.
  • Talk to children about how they know when they feel safe or unsafe. Help them to listen to their early warning signs (how their body feels), and to trust their feelings and instincts.
  • Use everyday activities as opportunities for conversations (e.g. preparing meals and snacks, going for walks, playing, shopping). If children are used to having lots of communication, it can make it easier to talk when big or tricky issues come up.
  • Be open to talking about all kinds of feelings, including anger, joy, frustration, fear and anxiety. This helps children to develop a ‘feelings vocabulary’.

 

National Child Protection Week is a great time to start conversations with children and families about feeling safe.

Child Safety and Wellbeing at Bimbadeen Heights PS - Information for families and the school community

The Victorian Government has announced new Child Safe Standards to further strengthen child safety across organisations, including schools. The new standards recognise the critical importance of families and the broader school community in maintaining and promoting child safety and wellbeing. 

 

Bimbadeen Heights Primary School has reviewed and updated our child safety policies and procedures to ensure they meet the requirements of the new standards. These are available to view on our school website https://www.bimbadeenheightsps.vic.edu.au/

 

We are committed to continuous improvement in our approach to child safety and wellbeing and welcome feedback from families and members of our school community on ways we can further strengthen our child safety policies, procedures, and practices. 

 

If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions about Child Safety and Wellbeing at Bimbadeen, please contact us.

 

School Council Annual Reporting Meeting and 2021 Annual Report

On Wednesday 17th August, we held our School Council Annual Reporting Meeting where we share the activities and achievements of our School Council from the previous year. At this meeting, we also present the Annual Report from the previous school year. 

The Annual Report attests:

  • all teachers at the school meet the registration requirements of the Victorian Institute of Teaching (www.vit.vic.edu.au)
  • the school meets prescribed minimum standards for registration as regulated by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) in accordance with the Education and Training Reform (ETR) Act 2006, and
  • the school is compliant with the Child Safe Standards prescribed in Ministerial Order No. 870 – Child Safe Standards, Managing Risk of Child Abuse in School.

Our 2021 Annual Report is available on our website at https://www.bimbadeenheightsps.vic.edu.au/annual-report/

 

Thank you to our parents and carers and staff members who attended the meeting. 

 

Would you like to be involved in School Council? Please consider joining one of our School Council Sub-Committees or nominating for School Council at the next election (February/March).

 

2023 Parent Payments Information

It may seem a bit like seeing Christmas things in shops too early however we prefer to think of it as just being well organised and giving parents and carers as much notice as possible to help with managing the family finances. 

We are referring to the Parent Payments for next year that you will receive details about in a letter sent to families in the first week of Term 4. 

This is very important information so please look out for it. 

Once you have received the letter and forms you will be able to pay for next year’s Curriculum and Other Contributions so that you are ready and organised for school next year.   

 

End of Term Arrangements

Friday 16th September is the final day of Term 3. A final assembly will be held at the end of the day from 1:50pm, with students being dismissed at 2:30pm. 

Please make appropriate arrangements for your children to be collected. TheirCare will be running an afterschool care program on this day, beginning at 2:30pm. 

They also have a comprehensive holiday program planned for the school holiday break. Please contact TheirCare directly for bookings.

 

 

We hope you and your family enjoy a lovely school holiday break together and we look forward to seeing you all back for the beginning of Term 4 on Monday 3 October.

 

Kind regards, 

Adele Gregson and Sabrina George