Principal's Report

Wishing all of Boronia Heights a very Merry Christmas

Thank You 

I would like to reach out to every parent and carer and thank them for their support this year.  During this challenging year we were all called upon to operate in a very different manner, again.  I would like to thank parents, students and staff for their continued positive manner and respectful way we all communicated and adjusted to another lockdown and the rigours and structures around Remote Learning.  Also, we had many disappointments in terms of special events cancelled, excursions and camps postponed or cancelled and our huge whole school production literally cancelled twice…However, there is definitely a skip in our step and a smile on our face as we pivot back into our normal day to day living that we all previously took for granted. We are grateful that we can all be with our families and loved ones for Christmas and the holiday season. We all deserve a well-earned break and I hope you can enjoy some special time with family and friends over the Christmas break.

Vaccination Requirements

Thank you to all those parents that have volunteered to keep their vaccination status on record at the school, we are collecting this information for ease of parents to be able to work in classrooms, enter buildings and attend excursions and incursions.  If you would prefer not to have your vaccination status on file, then by all means just show your digital certificate when required. 

2022 School Captains 

We have now finalised our process for selecting our 2022 School Captains and Year 6 Student Curriculum Leaders. It was a very comprehensive process, and I would like to congratulate all of the students who were involved. It was wonderful to see the students standing up in front of their peers delivering well-prepared and rehearsed speeches. The hard part was selecting the students for the positions as the calibre of students who applied was so high. All students are a credit to themselves, their families and the staff at our school.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that our 2022 School Captains and Vice Captains are:

Our Year 6 Curriculum Leaders are:

Congratulations to all students who have been successful in gaining a leadership role for 2022.

Farewell to our 2021 Year 6 Students 

The Year 6 students will be attending their Graduation Celebrations on Tuesday 14th December. This is a celebration of their stories, recognition of the journey that each of them has walked to be here, a celebration of the accomplishments, the sacrifices, the tears and disappointments, the friendships and the camaraderie. It is a recognition of the support of families, friends and of the many teachers they have had along the way. It is going to be a wonderful celebration and a chance to say congratulations and well done to our graduating class of 2021. 

I would like to congratulate our Year 6 students on completing their Primary School education and graduating from Boronia Heights as mature and responsible students who are now ready to begin the next exciting chapter in their lives. I would like to wish them all every success and happiness in the future and hope that they make the most of every opportunity that comes their way. Remember to always try your best, have fun and keep smiling. You should all be very proud of your achievements and the fabulous students that you have become. 

The organisation that staff and parents put into celebrating the end of year graduation is huge. I would like to thank staff and parents who have worked with absolute passion and enthusiasm to support our graduation day. Thank you to our parent committee who have supported Year 6 staff and to Prue Baum for supporting the staff and students in Year 6 with photography and videos in preparation for their graduation ceremony.

BHPS Artist Legacy Award

Each year, Boronia Heights is honoured to choose an artwork from one of our Monet of the Week winners to receive the Artist Legacy Award. 

This year’s recipient is Evie Lawson in Year 6 for her outstanding Pop Art Self-Portrait. 

Evie created a self-portrait to depict her inner self. She has expressed her calm thoughtful nature through the cool analogous colour scheme and pondering pose. She used a range of mediums such as photography, painting and drawing to design her serene portrait in a style inspired by the Pop Art movement.

This chosen artwork will be purchased by the school so that it can have a permanent place in our hallway to inspire future generations of artists. Evie will receive a voucher to go towards supporting her future artistic endeavours. Congratulations, Evie!

Happy Hour Production focus

A very special congratulations to all the students who performed in our Happy Hour, singing their hearts out with their production songs. I was extremely proud of our students who performed beautifully and with confidence.  Organising a whole school production takes an extraordinary amount of organisation, time and vision. I am always astonished at the calibre of our students especially our Year 6 main cast.  School productions provide students with the wonderful opportunity to perform with their peers. We are so proud of all of our students who took up the challenge and performed on Friday with such confidence and talent. A huge thanks to Adrian Batt and Andrew Walker for their music and technical support. 

A huge thank you to classroom teachers who continued to work with our students on their return to school. Thanks to everyone involved, especially the parents who worked on props and costumes.  A big thank you to Len Simpson and Gina Gaglio for their support with the remarkable Props. And last but definitely not least an upstanding applause for our dedicated and talented music maestro, Mr Fox!

School Values

After two years training on our well-being model, Berry Street, a large component of the last module was about values.  This has been a great opportunity to reflect and restructure our values for the coming years.  Thank you to parents, students and staff for their contributions in choosing our 4 Values for BHPS. They are:

Community……. teamwork, responsibility, trust, togetherness, partnership

Achievement…growth, curiosity, participation, goal setting, persistence, 

Respect… kindness, gratitude, integrity, empathy, equality, compassion, honesty

Engagement…willingness, resilience, stamina, fun, humour, positivity, confidence

Combine the acronym and it makes the word CARE. 

Our motto at BHPS is ‘We Care’. 

These values encompass many other important aspects that will be taught in our classrooms to build the capacity of our students socially, emotionally and academically. Our students have been working hard to design logos to represent the 4 values and our care tickets for assembly.  

Our winning designs above are:

Community – Ayla Barrett

Achievement – Sammie Bibby

Respect – Zahra Winter

Engagement -  Jasper Feng

Congratulations to these amazing artists who we believe have depicted our values perfectly. 

ARTSHOW 2022

Save the Date - BHPS will be holding an Art Show in Term 1 next year so that we can celebrate with families onsite in the hall. Students have worked hard this year completing their pieces for the Art Show and we are very excited to share them with you!

It will be wonderful to finally come together as a community to celebrate the creativity we have here at BHPS. 

2022 Art Show Date: Term 1 Thursday 10th March 4pm-7pm

2022 Curriculum Days 

Provision is made by the Department of Education for four student free days per year to allow for professional development, curriculum planning and reporting. School Council approves the dates of each of these days and students do not attend school on these days. School Council have approved our 2022 Curriculum Days and they will be as follows: 

Friday 28th January – Berry Street

Tuesday 15th March – Student Voice 

Wednesday 4th May - Numeracy 

Monday 31st October – Report Writing

School Council and Sub-Committees 

I would like to say a special thank you to all of the members of our School Council. It is a big commitment being on Council and being involved in making decisions that impact on the education of the students at our school. Their dedication and overall input into school operations is greatly valued and appreciated. The team has worked extremely hard this year during another year of COVID and we have been able to achieve a great deal for the school. 

I would also like to say a special thank you to the School Council sub-committee members. These committees include Finance, Education, Buildings and Grounds and Fundraising (Hubsters). School Council members, parent volunteers and staff make up these committees and they attend regular meetings throughout the year. 

All of these people volunteer their time to contribute in numerous ways to improving the education of the students at our school. Thank you so much.

Thank You to our School Council Team in 2021: 

Len Simpson                               Leah Hodgson

Jessica Petchell                          Saascha Cargill

Deborah Boettcher                    Lisa Baker

Yvette Willison                             Kristy Foster

Morten Windfeld-Lund             Lori Lundberg

Mick Holden                                Leanne Jennings

Rachel Husar

Marcus Cook

James Burrows

Sharon Walker

School Structure

We will be operating 24 classes in 2022 with approximately 525 students.  The classes and teachers are as follows:

Tutoring Initiative

In 2022 the Education Department has again allocated a range of funding to all schools to employ tutors who will provide students with extra small group support to catch up with learning they may have missed as a result of remote/flexible learning. 

We have employed four tutors to support our students. They have been allocated to Years 1, 2, 3, and 5 to support their reading/writing. The tutors will be working alongside the classroom teacher implementing focussed strategies to meet student’s point of need. We have collected whole school data to initially identify students in need of tutoring support. Students will have three 60-minute sessions three times a week in small groups.  Students will be assessed for their growth and when deemed appropriate those students will exit from the program and other students in need of support will then begin working with the tutor.  Students that will be initially involved in the tutoring program will be contacted this week so they can work in partnership with the classroom teacher and the tutor. This is an exciting initiative, and we aim to support as many students as possible. 

I would like to introduce our Tutor staff for 2022:

• Ms Kate Wardlaw 
• Ms Samantha Dunkinson 
• Ms Ilusia Koronczewski
• Ms. Daina Neilsen

Canteen

The final day for canteen this year is Monday 13th December for canteen orders.  In 2022 the canteen will be open in the first week of school starting on the Monday 31st January.  A huge thank you to Cathy and Andrea for supporting our students and families, we are grateful for their ongoing support of our school community.

Library Books

Just a friendly reminder to families that we still have over 50 books that have not yet been returned to the library.  Could you PLEASE have a good look around your home and in bedrooms for those well-loved books that we need returned.  Thanking you in advance.

Our newsletter cover photo this week is a sneak peak of our amazing, updated Library resource page.  Staff, students and parents will all have access to this library program ASSESSIT next year.  We are so excited with this new resource, thank you to Leanne Bentley our Head of Library for this amazing new library tool.  This will be on our new website that will be launched in term 1 of 2022.

Final Assembly for 2021

Individual Year level cohorts will have their own farewell assembly in their classes. We will be having our final Year 6 assembly on Friday the 17th December and will start at 1pm in the school gym, to farewell our Year 6 class of 2021. We are very happy to invite two parents per Year 6 student to join us onsite to be part of our final goodbye to our Year 6 students.  Our Year 5 students will also join us in farewelling our Year 6 students. Our Year 5 students will help farewell our students at this assembly. All other Year levels will hold their own final assembly in their cohorts and will wave and say goodbye as our Year 6 students as they walk through the school for their final time.

Looking forward to seeing you there. 

Farewell & Welcome

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Donna Hey, Zoe Gavalas, Laura Mann, Tayla Goldspink, Eleanor Yeske, Bec Bird, David Torr and Judy Goulding for their dedication to our students over the years. They have all made an impact on students at BHPS and I know you will join in with me to wish them all the very best in the next stage in their journey.  We wish Dianna Sutterby a wonderful year of Long Service Leave.

We would also like to welcome to BHPS staff for 2022:

• Ms Bianca Swaine
• Ms Georgia Arbertella
• Ms Ellie Stait
• Mr. Eliza Hansan
• Mr. Justin North
• Ms Emma Strahan
• Ms Mirella Irving
• Ms. Elly Turcinovic
• Ms Emily Scarbro

All students will be dismissed from the school at 1.30pm.  School will resume for students in Years 1 to Year 6 on Monday 31st January. 

Have a safe and Merry Christmas with your families and enjoy the summer holidays together. I look forward to seeing everyone return in 2022 for an uninterrupted year!! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

Leanne Jennings

Principal