Buninyong PS Newsletter

Principal's Report

Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us and we’ll be using this week to have a good tidy up and make sure we are ready for the summer break. It’s been another successful year at both campuses for Buninyong PS and I have listed some of the more notable achievements a bit further down in this report.  It’s a credit to our staff, students and parents that so much has been achieved.

  

A big thank you to everyone for your support throughout the year.  We understand the power of school and home working together and recognise that we are lucky to have such a strong community, which is willing to help out and support its children.  Whether you have helped in the classroom, with EBT, the fete or debating, with sporting teams or on camps and excursions, with the canteen or being one of our Parent Liaison Contacts, with School Council or helping out with working bees, we are very grateful. For everyone who has supported their child’s learning at home through home reading, helping with homework and just through providing encouragement, again, we are very grateful.

 

We wish all the best to staff who won’t be with us next year, those being Kathleen Cassells, Rhiannon Eustice and Ken Lovig.  All have made strong contributions in that time with us.

 

In 2020 we welcome Mitch Walsh to the teaching team and welcome back Jess Micallef from family leave.  Both have already spent time with us in preparation for next year.

 

We are delighted with the staff teams in place across the school for next year and head into the break knowing there is much to look forward to in 2020.

 

We wish our Grade 6 students, and others moving on, all the best and hope they have fond memories of their days at Buninyong Primary.  We look forward to giving the grade 6's a fitting send off with the Graduation Ceremony on Thursday night and our final assembly on Friday.

 

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and enjoyable summer break.

Reflecting on 2019

At this time of year it’s worth taking a moment to pause and reflect on the year.  In some ways the year has been a bit of a whirl-wind, with a seemingly constant stream of events and activities.  Despite that, the core teaching has been strong and we have seen calm and productive classrooms across the school, which is important.  This has been a focus for 2019 and the team has done a great job in this regard.

 

When thinking of the achievements for 2019, the following first come to mind:

  • Leadership Structure – We started the year with an expanded Leadership Team, which we now call our School Improvement Team.  The new structure has worked really well.
  • Student Learning Behaviours - This has been a focus all year and is something we’ll carry into 2020.  There’s no doubting this work is helping teachers build stronger learning environments.
  • Coaching – One on one coaching has become a key element of professional learning for our teaching staff, which is something that will stand us in good stead for the years ahead.
  • Working with an External Critical Friend (Andrea Hillbrick) - Our association with Andrea has been strong again in 2019.  So much so that we have arranged for her to work with staff again in 2020.
  • School Review - This was our first experience of a four day review, after many years of 1 day reviews.  It was great to get lots of staff and parents involved and we left the process with a strong sense of our performance over the 2016-19 period and solid plans for the coming 4 years.
  • Trip to Japan - The 2nd trip to Japan was hugely successful and provided an amazing experience for our kids.  Planning for the 2020 snow trip is well underway and Claire Morris is well down the track in terms of organising this adventure.
  • Wakakirri – Liz Morgan did an amazing job (with the assistance of Steve Skilbeck) recruiting and training up a team of performers and took them to Bendigo where they competed against other schools.  The kids involved won’t forget the experience.
  • IT Review – A team of parents and teachers worked to undertake a review of the way we use IT in teaching and learning programs across the school. This was a worthwhile exercise and enabled us to develop a sense of direction in this space.
  • Energy Break Through – Lou Marr and Aaron Coulter led the way with our first foray into EBT, which was an enormous undertaking.  The effort was worth it, as all involved thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  It appears we are locked in for the next few years at least.
  • Base 1270 - Our Outside of School Hours Program grew significantly in 2019 and is going really well.  We were very nervous in the lead up to our first rating assessment, but it all went really well.
  • Cultural Understanding - In 2018 we began stepping up efforts to build cultural understanding across the school.  In 2019 the Koorie Kids Club, led by Gaye Murphy and Gorgie Reynolds has gone to a whole new level, which has been terrific for our Koorie kids and helped build strong relationships with their families.
  • Back Creek Farm - Our Scotsburn Campus struck up an association with Back Creek Farm, which is benefiting both and will hopefully become a long term partnership.
  • Canteen - The canteen is going from strength to strength, with coffee and hot chocolate sales steadily climbing this year, which helps create a nice atmosphere in the courtyard each morning.  Lunch order numbers have increased significantly as well.   Healthy profits will enable us to employ a food technician and to start up a cooking program once the kitchen renovation is complete.
  • Fete - The fete was a roaring success, providing a great experience for the kids, lots of fun and a tidy profit in the end.
  • Solar Boats - The Solar Boat challenge was successful again, culminating in a fun day with the students from Mt Pleasant PS.
  • Maestro and Me program and MOTM – These provide an experience for our kids that would be rare to find in other schools.  In my mind there is no doubt that M&M and MOTM have a long term positive impact on participating students.
  • Bike Ed – The implementation of Bike Ed improves every year and we were certainly impressed with the outcomes for students from their participation in this program in 2019.
  • Use of Compass - There is ever increasing use of Compass as an online portal for our school.
  • Uniform Shop – The Uniform Shop is doing a really good trade and continues to provide a convenient service for families.
  • Mother’s Day and Father’s Day stalls – These were really popular again and helped teach our kids to appreciate those around them.
  • Lunch time clubs – This lunch time option for kids has continued to be popular and provide a brilliant option for lots of kids.  We are lucky to have a dedicated team of teacher aides willing to run programs like this.
  • Catering for High Achievers - Continued efforts to extend our high achieving students with opportunities such as the Young Authors Program, debating and public speaking have been worthwhile.
  • Survey Results - We again achieved strong survey results across the board, which is really encouraging and suggests there’s a lot to like about our school.  Having said that, there’s no room for complacency and we’re always keen to understand our weaknesses and work to improve where needed.  
  • Camps Program for grades 3-6 – Our camps went very well again this year and a number of students attended Woorabinda Camp.  The sleepovers were very successful too.
  • Sporting Achievements - Our outside of School Sporting Teams have done very nicely and many students have had the opportunity to compete at interschool sporting competitions.  For the first time in a number of years, BPS has a state champion, that being Armani Anderson in the 100m sprint.
  • Story of Buninyong – This program has now been running for more than a decade, but doesn’t seem to lose any of its impact.
  • Other Special Events - Special events such as the Japanese Festival Day and Grandparents’ Day were very successful as always. 

We made really good progress with facilities during 2019 at both campuses, resulting in each looking fantastic.  At Buninyong we have:

  • Planted lots of trees to create more shady spots for the summer. 
  •  

School Captains 2020

Congratulations to Grace Shackell, Hayden Staggard, Lucy Gravell and Cooper Greenbank who have been selected to be our school captains for 2020. We know they will make an outstanding team and will follow in the footsteps of past School Captains. They are pictured below and will be presented to the school community at our final assembly on December 20.

As mentioned in the newsletter last week, all applicants went through the process of writing and delivering a school captain speech, before being interviewed by the current school captains, Mr McGlynn and myself.  The process also included seeking feedback from classroom and specialist teachers.

We’re proud of the efforts and courage of all who applied and congratulate our new school captains. Students who were shortlisted for interview automatically receive entry to the leadership conference in Melbourne for 2020 where they will continue to learn about leadership and develop their skills. They also get first choice for the grade 6 team they would like to be part of next year.

Another thank you to our current school captains, Luke Eddy, Matilda Jones, Conal Seare and Hilary Sullivan, who maintained the utmost integrity, professionalism and thoughtfulness across the entire year and especially through the 2020 School Captain selection process.

Pictured below are our 2019 and 2020 school captains.

 

Uniform

Our uniform shop will be available from the 20th January 2020. If you would like to purchase uniforms through the QKR app, the order can be available to pick up when collecting your book packs.

Also please make sure the items you purchase fit our uniform policy (see our website for a copy).

In particular, please make sure your children have:

  • Shorts that comply - that is, all black and without a visible logo.  Some children have been wearing shorts that don’t fall within our uniform guidelines and we’d like to correct that in 2020.
  • Black school shoes, runners or boots.