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.

Open Streets

Last week’s Open Street Event was a huge success, with many members of our community exploring Culloden Street and Shetland Avenue on bikes, skates, scooters and on foot! We did some wonderful drawings on the road with chalk and we practiced our Hula Hoop and skipping skills. This amazing event will be happening again tomorrow (18th October) and the following Tuesday (25th October) from 8.30am - 9.30am and from 3.00pm - 4.00pm. We would love to see even more members of our community there enjoying the open streets and trying out some different active transport choices.

Sprout will be open after the morning sessions for any grown up members of the community who would like to stick around for a coffee and a muffin - a great opportunity to connect with people who you may not have seen for a while. We will both be around Sprout at that time also if you would like to say hi.

2023 Class Structures

Following our class formation policy, the class structures for next year have been finalised. After some great consultative discussions with staff, the community and school council, our grade structure will predominantly remain from 2022, with a small change to the senior school.

We have chosen this model as it best supports our school priorities of small class sizes across the school, with teaching teams that support collaborative planning (all teachers within each team plan together for all students).

	F	1	2	3	4	5	6
Students	42	58	45	59	53	74	63
Classes	3	5		5		6
Team Av.	14	20.6		22.4		22.83333333
Union Av.	18.125			22.63636364
Overall Av.	20.73684211

In next week’s newsletter you will find the link to a survey that provides some families the opportunity to make requests for class placements next year. We ask that families don’t send emails regarding class placements or friendships, as there is potential for them to be forgotten while we work from the survey data.

Student Celebration

Last week we celebrated a student who had received an award from St John’s, for her courage in a crisis and we are excited to celebrate another student’s extra curricular achievements. Romy from grade 1 received an award in a short story writing competition through Merri-bek Council (previously Moreland Council). Romy’s story ‘My Happy Place’ won top place for 8 years and younger age-group. Congratulations Romy!

Romy’s story is a beautiful depiction of the importance of belonging, acceptance, inclusion and ‘finding your tribe’. Romy’s story aligns with our school values brilliantly and we are not surprised that her story won a prize. But most of all, we love that Romy has found opportunities to practise her narrative writing outside school! Keep it up, Romy.

Calling all Creatives!

We are looking for some creative community members to assist us with two tasks that are beyond our skillset.

One task requires someone who (literally) wants to leave their mark on our school: part of our front entrance renovations will include a giant splodge painted on the wall of the corridor, with ‘Deeds not Words’ written underneath. We are looking for a font or writing style that really represents the vibe of BNWPS. Whether you have the beginnings of an idea or a full vector drawing that you would like to share, we welcome any input from our artistically talented community.

The second task requires someone with photographic talent: we are looking for someone who is available to spend an hour or two during school time to take photographs of learning in action. These photos will be used in our updated enrollment and transition documents as well as our new website (coming soon). As you will be photographing students, a valid Working with Children Check is required.

If you are able to assist with either of these tasks, please contact Hannah (hannah.reid@education.vic.gov.au) or Keir (keir.jasper@education.vic.gov.au) to discuss.

Sprout

Kris Bidenko