New Visitor Sign In/Out Platform - Passtab

Last week, our Buninyong campus enabled the new sign in and out platform for visitors called Passtab. Passtab enables our school to keep a digital record of who is in the school at any given point with the aim that this will support our child safety practices and emergency procedures.

If you are intending on visiting (longer than a drop-off) or helping out in your child’s classroom, we ask that you:

Come to the office

Sign in and collect a visitor’s pass or lanyard.

Visit the key person in the school who you have organised to see.

Return your visitor’s pass (or lanyard) at the completion of your visit and sign out

By doing this well, we will ensure everyone is safe on our site. We thank you for your cooperation with this in advance.

Following Up on Michael Grose and Jodi Richardson’s presentation on Anxiety - Part 3 (Anxiety Strategies)

Last term we held quite a significant parent information session with 2 well-known experts (Michael Grose and Dr Jodi Richardson). As follow up from this session, we wanted to remind and educate our community about anxiety and how it can affect ourselves and our kids.

This week’s focus is on ‘Strategies to support people with anxiety’.

When responding, it’s important for children (and all people) who are anxious, to stay SOBER. SOBER is an acronym that can be used to remind the anxious person of the following:

S - STOP (Pause wherever you are and stop the busy thinking that is going on)

O - OBSERVE (What is going on right now? Where are you? Who is around?)

B - BREATHE (Take a deep breath. Take 10 if need be and let the mind and body calm)

E - EXPAND (Expand your awareness to what is taking place - Mindfulness tasks can assist this)

R - RESPOND (Rather than react)

As a parent/carer, you can support your child’s anxious times by responding in the moment. This means to:

Recognise that your child is feeling anxious.

Validate how they feel.

Prompt deep breathing.

Bring their attention back to the present.

Guide them back to taking action on what matters.

In our next update, we will be highlighting management tools that Micheal and Jodi referred to as a way of supporting anxiety.

Raising Boys and Raising Girls

As parents and carers, we’re always looking for ways to support the growth and development of our children; wanting to exceed our expectations and grow up to be confident and well-rounded people. For those that are interested, renowned psychologist, Steve Biddulph, has two really interesting books available for reading (and listening via Audible). The books are broken into developmental sections and help parents/carers to understand the changes that occur as children develop from infants to adulthood. With some really key research embedded in the books, they’re a great read.

Working with Children Check Reminder

To minimize risk of harm to students and ensure Buninyong Primary School is meeting the Child Safe Standards, Buninyong Primary School requires staff, visitors and volunteers to provide evidence that they have appropriate approvals to work with children in accordance with legislation and Department of Education and Training policy.

As additional safety mechanisms, Buninyong Primary School also requires the following groups to provide their Working with Children Check:

all parents/carers/helpers attending excursions/camps; and

any parents/carers/helpers who are helping out with reading or supporting other student learning activities.

For more information about the Working with Children Check and to apply for a check, please visit:

https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply

School Policy Update

Over the past two school council meetings, the following policies have been ratified for our school community. We encourage all of our parents/carers to take a read and refer to these documents if there is anything you are unsure of.

Camps and Excursions (Including Local Excursions)

Student Engagement and Wellbeing (Welfare) Policy

Working with Children Check Policy

Asthma

Now the cold weather is well and truly here, we have noticed an increase in children needing their puffers.

Just a reminder that it is our school policy to have a current asthma action plan on file and a puffer (with spacer if needed) available at the school office.

Please pop into the office to check your child’s supply of medication and the status of their action plan.

Thank you for your support.

3BA Winter Appeal

AFTER SCHOOL RELAXATION ROCK/MINDFULNESS ART SESSIONS

Indoor Plants in Aussie Classrooms

We have been lucky enough to have an article written by a Grade 1 mum and published in MamaMia regarding the trend of having indoor plants in classroom.

Community Notices

Mphatso

Host a Japanese Student