Barwon Heads PS Newsletter

Principal's Message

School Vision - To empower students to enrich the world around them.

Week 8 of term one has come around very quickly! The last day of term is Thursday April 6th with a 2:30 finish time. we will also hold our School Cross Country on this day from 9:30 am - all families are encouraged to attend. 

 

In this Principal's Message you can read about:

  1. Positive Language and Building People up
  2. Curriculum Days and Public Holidays
  3. Junior School Council - Crazy Hair Day 5th April
  4. Attendance
  5. NAPLAN
  6. Fundraising
  7. Voluntary Contributions 
  8. School Council
  9. School Uniform 

As the principal of your children's school I strive to maximise my connections with the students, and like the staff at the school, pride myself on the care and concern that I have for each and every student and family. 

 

Students visit my office regularly to share their successes and things they are proud of; you can see above, a student presenting me with some artwork she created in class. Added to this I also receive visits from students to say hi or share things that they may be worried about. I encourage students to see me or other members of staff if they are worried about anything. Students feeling confident to speak up about how they feel or something that has happened to them at school is an important step in the process to resolving incidents or managing any bullying that may occur.

 

For the Parents and carers at school, the same applies to you. Please share your successes and the things you are proud of about our school and also reach out to me or your child's teacher if there are any matters that you feel we need to know about. A community wide approach is crucial. 

 

1. Positive Language and Building People Up

A focus that I will be discussing and honing in on over the remainder of the term and early next term will be the idea of Positive Language and Building People up - "Not Putting them Down. This notion has come to the fore during the past week with some students taking the opportunity to give people a boost and positivity but unfortunately there have been instances of of the opposite. I will be sharing this directly with students via a series of clips made with other students to share with their classes. The crux of the clips will be to use 3 simple ways you can build others up:

 

APPRECIATION

Appreciation is simply expressing gratitude to someone. Decide to be the kind of person who consistently expresses gratitude.

AFFIRMATION

Affirmation is simply telling someone what they've done well., what their strengths are or a strength that you've noticed about them.

ENCOURAGEMENT

While appreciation and affirmation focus on the past, encouragement focuses on the future. Appreciation and affirmation say, “you did it” while encouragement says, “you can do it!” The word encouragement literally means ‘to give courage.’

 

On the flip side of this students will also understand that if they are using put downs this will be followed up proactively to help them understand how put downs effect others. This will especially be the case if we hear anything that refers to race, religion, gender or abilities. 

 

2. Dates/Curriculum Days and Public Holidays

Working bee this Tuesday the 28th of March in the Edible garden from 3:20-4:30!

5th April Crazy Hair Day/Casual Dress Day - ( GAWS Fundraiser - Gold Coin Donation) 

Final Assembly Wednesday 5th April at 2:20pm 

School finishes Thursday 6th April at 2:30 pm

School Returns Wednesday 26th April ( Monday 24th is a Pupil Free Day and Tuesday 25th is the ANZAC Day Public Holiday) 

 

 

3. Crazy Hair/Casual Dress Day 

The Junior School Council are holding a fun casual dress day on 5th April ( second last day of term). We have completed a survey of the classes and after tallying up the votes there was a clear winner- CRAZY HAIR DAY with funds raised going to GAWS. 

On this day we encourage you to show your style. 

Remeber to bring a gold coin donationfor GAWS. The organisation helps people find their lost pets, adopt animals, and look after sick animals. Our goal is to raise more than $500 ( that's about $1 per student).

We hope to see you there!

Regards

Junior School Council

 

4. Attendance

Thank you to all families for their efforts in maximising attendance for their children. We have shown some improvement compared to last term but still need to be mindful of maximising attendance where possible e.g although it must have been an amazing experience, the post Ed Sheerin absenteeism was significant.

 

You may have received an email to assist us in tidying up unexplained absences this year. Thank you for supporting the reduction in unexplained absences, it is important. 

155 students still have 100% attendance.

4B and Mercury lead the way for March so far with Saturn closing in. 

 

4. NAPLAN

A special mention to our year 3 and year 5 students and staff for their participation in NAPLAN. The testing period means a change in routine and structure with the students responding exceptionally well to the changes. 

 

The message to the students remains that NAPLAN is one way to help us as a school to discover their strengths and areas for improvement that will be cross checked with the information the teacher gathers from their work and other assessments we use at the school. 

 

5. Fundraising

Hot Cross Bun orders can be collected from the school on Wednesday 5th April between 2pm and 4pm  

 

Raffle tickets are still for sale via the schools24 app. To purchase your tickets please see the links below.

 

School24 log in - https://www.school24.net.au/login 

Guest Link - https://www.school24.net.au/canteenorder/guest/event?ezp=2042 

 

The Raffle will close 11am Wednesday 5th April.

 

NB: Prizes will be announced at our final school assembly on Wednesday April 5th at 2.20pm. 

 

6. Oval Works - School grounds maintenance and improvements - Voluntary Contributions

Thanks to your Voluntary Contributions we have been able to:

  • Install a New Controller System for Irrigation (including app and wifi)
  • Replace worn sprinklers (we have over 40 sprinklers)
  • Aerated and fertilise the Oval surface. . Over the holidays we will have 40m3 of turf sand spread.

This should keep our oval in great condition over winter and ready to go green again in spring. The grass is dormant over winter which is why it will look brown

 

7. School Council

Please go to our School Council tab on the newsletter to find out more about our School Councillors

 

8. School Uniform

As much as I love a Barwon Heads sports team as the next person, well done to the Cricket club on winning the A2 Premiership, as well as the club attire it is important that students do not wear these items instead of their uniform. This has started to creep in as the term has progressed. If you need support to access uniform please let us know and if your child is out of uniform please inform their teacher via the school diary or email.

 

Enjoy the weekend - Hopefully I will see you at the final Assembly