School Council News

From the School Council President

G’day!

Making memories.  There have been lots of ups and downs for our family over the last couple of months and I’m sure yours has been the same.  It’s been a stressful and difficult time for everyone each in different ways.  Personally I’ve been finding it challenging to find the right balance between helping our kids to be focused on their work and to not fall behind and allowing them the space and freedom to enjoy chatting with friends and feeling relaxed and cozy at home.  Our families will come away from this time with memories of what we did and how we felt during Covid-19 to share with future generations.  Let’s choose to make our memories of love, support, safety and care – for ourselves, our families, our friends, neighbors and community.

School review

We’re at the end of a 4 year strategy cycle where we review the schools progress and implementation of the strategy over the last 4 years in preparation for setting the strategy for the next 4.  This review involves BPPS staff and community, Department of Education Regional staff, and leaders from other schools for a very comprehensive look at how we’ve been doing.  Due to the current circumstances the review will be postponed until Term 4.  With so much up in the air at the moment, we don’t have revised dates yet.  But we’ll keep you updated as things are rescheduled.

Bottom oval

The building and grounds committee was invited to visit Hawthorn West Primary school, who recently completed a similar project to ours.  It was about the same budget and scope.  The principal, Glenys Williamson, showed us around their new grounds and explained their approach and how things had progressed.  All in all, their project went quite smoothly and finished within budget with enough money to do some of the optional extras they weren’t sure they could afford.  We all came away feeling encouraged and enthusiastic about getting our own project underway.  If you haven’t already seen the master plan for the bottom oval, please take a look below.

School fair

I’m sorry to have to say that the school fair will not be going ahead in it’s usual form this year.  The council has been working long and hard to assess all the options for the fair, and with so much still unknown and such a long lead-time for planning as well as financial commitment in the form of deposits to vendors, we felt that it would be better to reshape the fair into a more flexible (but still really fun!) community event that we can adjust to fit these rapidly changing circumstances.  I don’t want to raise expectations too high, but the words “bake off” and “sausage sizzle” were both thrown around.  Let’s have some “old school” fun!  We’ll have more information closer to the time.

Webex

I feel fortunate that we have the technology to keep in touch the way we do.  On April 29th school council had our first meeting via webex.  As with doing classes over webex, it wasn’t as good as face to face, but it sure is nice to be able to see everyone’s smiling faces.  I hope you’re also doing ok with the technology. We will hold our next meeting on May 20th via webex as well.

Thank you’s! 

So many people to say thank you to at the moment.  Firstly thanks to the teachers.  They don’t let on just how hard they’ve been working to reinvent lessons and shape the curriculum into an online format for the benefit of our kids.  They’ve been working some incredibly long hours to make the shift to online learning, while still being a consistent and reassuring presence in our children’s days.  Teachers, thank you!  We appreciate all the time and effort you’ve been putting in, at home and at school, way above and beyond what anyone could have asked. 

Thanks to the admin team.  They’ve made the shift seamlessly, and have continued to run the office always looking to put the needs of the families front and foremost.

Thanks to the leadership team.  What a time to be in charge!  Susanne, Randal and Shannon have overseen the biggest thing in education in decades.  We’re fortunate to have such experienced, capable leaders in our school.  They have also put in an enormous amount of time and effort to assess and implement the tools and techniques for online learning and support staff and students through this time of change.

Finally, thanks to you!  If you’re a student, thanks for just being awesome.  I know some of you have been baking, some have been reading, some learning new and interesting things, keeping your parents entertained with stories, learning and music.  Keep up the great work!  If you’re a parent, thanks for your patience during this time.  Keep making those memories.

Cheers,

Greg

0413 701 032