We would like to acknowledge and honour the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which our school stands. We pay our respects to all First Nations elders, past present and emerging.

Voluntary Curriculum Contributions

Our school aims to provide a high-quality learning environment catering for the needs of all students. Our wide and varied curriculum incorporating a number of specialist areas supports a whole-child approach to education. We also aim to maintain and improve our facilities which support our goals of having a vibrant and active school community.

Each year we ask for our families to make a voluntary contribution to the curriculum costs of your child’s learning. The money received helps us pay for the books and stationery in classrooms, resources for lessons, updating our ICT equipment and resourcing our incredible Enviro Science subject.

Due to the increased cost of living, our School Council last year approved a small increase ($50) to the contributions we will be asking families to make this year. We have a long history of keeping our voluntary contributions very low; in recent years we have even delayed increasing the contributions to reflect the challenges people were facing in the world at the time. Our new contribution amount remains lower than the majority of schools in our area. The PDF attached below outlines how the contributions are allocated by the school.

With an understanding that families have multiple financial commitments, partial payments of voluntary contributions are welcome at any time.

School Council Elections

Each year School Council elections take place in Term 1 with the process reaching completion by the end of March. Principals are responsible for conducting the election in accordance with Departmental Guidelines. School Council Elections are part of Ministerial Order No 52.

Nominations for elections will open Monday 13 February, with information on the nomination/election process and how you can get involved in our School Council and its Sub Committees regularly included in the newsletters throughout term 1.

While we try to be paper-free where possible, nominations must be made on paper - forms can be found at the school office. If you are unable to attend the office during nominations, you can ask someone to nominate on your behalf. If you are keen to find out more information on our school council elections, please read the PDF below.

Term One Inquiry Focus

As we begin a new school year, and start to weave the fabric of new class communities and year level combinations, we are also starting a new Inquiry exploration. This new Inquiry will help us all to continue to work through and settle into the change that we began to explore through our transition inquiry at the end of last year.

The School Wide Key Understanding for our Inquiry this term is;

We are BNWPS. We are a colorful community of learners made up of many diverse people and cultures. Our values are creativity, authenticity, respect and connection. These contribute to our sustainable culture and our role as citizens of the world.

Classes and cohorts across the whole school will be unpacking and exploring all of the concepts, celebrations and challenges that come with this key understanding.

It might be a good idea to chat about this understanding at home too - maybe pick out some key words or concepts and brainstorm what they might mean to the family.

Social and Emotional Learning PLC

In addition to our whole school Inquiry, teachers will be working in teams (called Professional Learning Communities or PLCs) to dig deeply into the teaching and learning of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skills. Social and Emotional Learning includes skills such as cooperation, managing conflict, making friends, coping, being resilient and recognising and managing our own feelings.

Teachers will be using daily moments such as Guided Play, Inquiry, or transition moments to closely observe and understand the SEL skills that students are applying, and where these students and skills might be on a learning continuum. The PLC will then be identifying a focus group of students, and employing a new (or re-invigorating an established) teaching strategy to further advance the SEL skills of the students in the identified group.

We are starting with a focus on SEL skills to acknowledge the importance of understanding ourselves and how we learn as well as creating and maintaining positive connections with our classmates. If you have any questions about the SEL PLC in your child’s classroom, please do not hesitate to contact the classroom teacher.

Ride & Stride video

You might remember our Ride & Stride events last year - the introduction of our Tag On system, our trial of e-bikes with Lug+Carrie and our wonderful Open Streets mornings. Merri-bek Council has created a promotional video featuring some members of our community that you can find here.

The Bicycle Network Victoria and Merri-bek Council have created a report on our active transport statistics, which you can find below.

Our School Council will be discussing the merits of continuing these events this year and into the future.

The Nor'Wester

BNWPS is committed to Child Safe Standards and prevention of child abuse

Issue 2 · 06 Feb 2023

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