Burrendah Bulletin

School News 

Swimming Lesson Term 3

All students need to be wearing their bathers when they arrive at the pool.  Your child may wear their bathers under their uniform or get changed at school before they depart on the bus. If they wear their bathers to school it is important that the swim bag has dry underwear, towel and footwear that can be easily removed at the pool. All students will return on the bus in their bathers and change at school. They may wear an overshirt, tracksuit, dressing gown or poncho over their bathers. Students are to provide their own fitted goggles if required.  Please label all belongings with your child’s name.

Apply now to enrol your child in 2024

Application for new enrolments in the 2024 school year is now open and should be made by Friday 21st July 2023. Enrolment Application forms can be found on our website or from School Reception. 

 

You will need to apply to enrol for 2024 if:

  • Your child is starting Kindergarten in 2024 (Born 1st July 2019 - 30th June 2020)
  • If your child is attending the Burrendah Primary School Kindergarten in 2023 and you live outside the school intake boundary, you will need to enrol for Pre-primary 2024.

All other children do not need to enrol. We will assume they are coming back to Burrendah in 2024 unless you tell us otherwise. Please inform Reception, by email at burrendah.ps@education.wa.edu.au if for any reason your children will not be attending Burrendah Primary School in 2024.

 

Parents of our Year 6 students must enrol their child into a secondary school. Please make sure you have enrolled your child at their local secondary school by the end of this term.

History of Faction Names

To reflect Burrendah’s true pioneering spirit it was decided to choose faction names to acknowledge earlier pioneers in the Canning District. Foundation Deputy Betty Kirk led a research group that uncovered names associated with local history, and the students voted for Gwai, Moreau, Canning, and Nairn.

 

Gwai Faction 

Indigenous heritage is represented by Gwai, which is a Dharawal word for ‘Red’. Gwai nebu, the robin redbreast, was Gwai’s mascot.

 

Moreau Faction

As part of the French 1801-03 Baudin expedition to map the coast of New Holland, a scientific party aboard the ‘Naturaliste’ explored the Swan River in 1801. They mistook a tributary of the Swan River to be an inlet from the sea. Heirisson, who was in command, called this supposed inlet ‘Entree Moreau’ or Moreau Inlet, in honour of his companion, Ensign Moreau, who was in command of the second fleet.

 

Canning Faction

In 1826, Lieutenant Belches, under Captain James Stirling’s command, explored Moreau Inlet and realising it to be a river of some size, renamed it the Canning. This was in honour of George Canning, who had been Secretary of State Home Affairs in Lord Liverpool’s Cabinet for some years. On the death of Lord Liverpool in April 1827, Canning became Prime Minister of England. He died shortly after taking office, and to this day remains the shortest-serving British Prime Minister.

 

Nairn Faction

William Edward Nairn (1767–1853) was an Infantry Major who arrived in Western Australia in 1831 on the ‘Egyptian’. He soon established himself as an astute farmer and was one of the early entrepreneurs of the colony. Nairn built Maddington Park homestead in 1836, which remains today as an extremely rare, intact early example of a substantial settler’s house. Descendants Bibdi and Karly Nairn were foundation students at Burrendah. Bindi was the first Nairn captain in 1976.

Absences from School

A written explanation is required under the School Education Act for each and every absence from school.  Notes are kept on file by classroom teachers for perusal by District Attendance Officers.  Electronic notes are saved on the Department of Education school server. 

Parents/guardians may notify the school via the following methods to inform the school of any absences:

 

Please note: notification of absences for holiday reasons must be addressed to the Principal.  These absences will not be approved leave as it is very important for children to attend school regularly.

 

Please note: a child who has a 90% attendance rate and misses school 5 days each term will complete their 12 years of schooling having missed over a year of school.

The 2023 Premier's Reading Challenge 

Get ready for the 2023 challenge. Students from Kindergarten to Year 10 are invited to uncover great mysteries through the world of books for the Premier's Reading Challenge. 

 

The challenge is to log 12 or more book titles during the challenge.

 

The 2023 Premier's Reading Challenge will run from Monday 8 May 2023 to Friday 8 September 2023. https://www.premiersreadingchallenge.wa.edu.au/