To start my final Principals Report at Bunyip Primary School, I would like to thank all the staff and students for their hard work and commitment to the teaching and learning at Bunyip in Term One. It has been a busy Term, but our school is filled with a buzz each and every day with the amazing staff, students and families that make up our school community.

Last week, I had the pleasure of taking our School Captains to the National Young Leaders Day in the City at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The event had 1000’s of students in attendance from Primary and Secondary government and independent schools across Victoria. We heard from high profile guest speakers such as Comedian Naeem Hussain, Tech Inventor Amanda Johnstone, TV Sports presenter and journalist Candy Hertz and AFL legend Robert ‘Dipper’ Dipierdomenico. Each presenter shared insights into their journey from school to their careers and shared valuable pearls of wisdom to inspire our young people to aim high and work hard. Our students were absolute superstars and carried themselves with distinction as they embraced everything the day had to offer. Including appearances on stage and performing in front of the crowd of 4000 people. It was an amazing day to share with these students and I was so proud of each of them for the way they embraced and engaged with the program.

This week I was lucky enough to join my first Athletics Carnival at Bunyip Primary School and what an amazingly positive event that Mr Craig and our staff were able to provide for students. I loved seeing the combination of participation, competition and performance of our young athletes, and also the support and encouragement they provided one another. I really feel this is a strong feature of the Bunyip community to celebrate the success of others. It was great to see a sea of smiling faces all day and to observe some of our aspiring athletes pushing themselves to perform at their personal best. A huge thank you to Mr Craig, staff, parent helpers and everyone involved in the day.

I met with Jeff Smit this week who will be taking over from me next Term as I commence my new endeavour at Andersons Creek Primary School. Jeff is a very experienced educator and I have no doubt he will lead the school to the highest of levels as he gets to know the school and community. Jeff shared a few words for me to include in the Newsletter.

Hello everyone, I’m Jeff Smit.

For the past 5 years I have been working at Warragul Primary School and am excited to now join The Bunyip Primary School Community as Acting Principal. I am looking forward to meeting the community and working alongside you all to best enhance every students abilities and providing a safe learning environment where students can have fun while they learn.

A little about me. I enjoy my sports. I am a recently retired hockey player but still play cricket. I enjoy watching the AFL and NRL. I like to spend time with my family and getting down to Inverloch on weekends or during the holidays. Hopefully you all have a fantastic time over Easter and feel free to come and say hi once we return from the holidays.

I would like to wish Jeff all the best in his role as Acting Principal.

Finally, I would like to say a sincere thank you to Bunyip Primary School for accepting me into your community last year and making me feel so very welcome at the school. To say I have loved my time at Bunyip is an understatement and I feel so blessed to have had this time, albeit short, as Acting Principal of the school. We are a school with a rich history, connected community and most importantly filled with fantastic people that really care about supporting young people to flourish. I hope in my time you have been able to see that I care deeply and genuinely for your children and their engagement, learning and wellbeing at school. My days are filled with countless positive interactions where your young people make me feel special, appreciated and valued in their school life. You should be really proud of how their little acts of kindness have such a profound effect on my day. I certainly am really proud of all our students and will really miss them.

I would like to thank all of our families for supporting our school and working with us to support all of the children in it. I have really valued getting to know you all and wish you all the very best for the future. Lastly, I would like to thank our staff and acknowledge the tireless work they do to support everyone in the school. It is clear to anyone who keeps up with the news that schools are being hit hard with teachers leaving the profession after the Covid-19 years. There are many factors influencing this, but I think undoubtedly a view shared by most is that our school staff work incredibly hard to help students thrive and our staff at Bunyip are some of the best people I have worked with across many schools. I feel very grateful to have shared this time with you and thank you all for the trust you placed in me as Acting Principal and the support you have given me since joining Bunyip.

I hope everyone has a lovely Easter and wish you all the best for Term 2 and beyond.

Daniel Webber

Bunyip Primary School Newsletter

Issue 5 · 06 Apr 2023

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