From the  Principal's Desk 

It is time for the Banyan Fields Primary School community to reflect on 2021 as we say goodbye to what has been a very eventful year. My sincere appreciation goes out to all families and staff for the resilience and commitment shown to work through lockdowns, remote learning and to then again adjust to resuming school onsite. This level of support really made a difference to our students during these challenging times. I am feeling excited as I look forward to 2022 and I am sure we are all hoping for a more settled school year.

On Tuesday 7 December all students spent time meeting their new teacher and classmates for 2022. This included welcoming our new Foundation students and sending our Year 6 students off to their destination Secondary Schools. It was really great to see a number of students reporting that they are excited to get to know their new teacher and looking forward to 2022 with their new classmates.

On Thursday 9 December we were delighted to be able to host our annual Presentation Assembly where we awarded student scholarship nominees and winners, acknowledged our graduating Year 6 Student School Leaders and introduced our newly appointed Year 6 Student School Leaders for 2022. All of our scholarship nominees and winners as well as our graduating and newly appointed Student School Leaders will be featured later on in this edition of the newsletter.

Our Year 6 Graduation Ceremony was held in our Sports Hall on Friday 10 December. Our students looked so grown up in their graduation attire and the night was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate their achievements at Primary School as well as to give them a wonderful send off to Secondary School.

Being the end of the school year, there are a number of staff that we will farewell from Banyan Fields Primary School. 

Amelia Busuttil has accepted an Assistant Principal position at another school for next year. This is a very exciting opportunity for Amelia and her career progression. Amelia has worked at Banyan Fields Primary School for that last 14 years. She began her career on 'the fields' as a classroom teacher demonstrating great care and attention for her students and colleagues. As her potential and commitment to Banyan Fields became more evident she was offered promotion positions including Leading Teacher/Learning Specialist as well and most recently Acting Assistant Principal. In her role as Wellbeing Leader for our school she has had an incredible impact whilst dedicating her efforts to support our students, staff and families in various ways. Personally, I have worked very closely with Amelia and will sincerely miss her commitment towards our school and bright personality.

Karen Parkinson will not be returning to Banyan Fields in 2022. Karen is a very well known teacher after being part of the Banyan Fields community for the past 11 years. 

Paula Decarli, Sam Woodroffe, Kristen Harly, Ashlee Spoor, Jenny Burnet, Cindy Burke, Peter Adshed, Sarah Weiss, Jan Hutton and Leanne Marcin will also leave 'the fields' at the end of the year. These staff will be greatly missed and I would like thank them all for their service to the Banyan Fields Primary School community.

Ale Alefsio our Chaplain will be moving on at the end of the school year. Ale has been a great support to many students, staff and families during his time with us. I would like to wish Ale all the very best with moving interstate and thank him for his dedication in supporting our school community in recent years.

We have a number of new staff who will be joining us at the beginning of 2022 and these staff will be introduced at the beginning of the new year. I am very pleased to share that Mr Ricky Joyce will be joining us as Assistant Principal at the beginning of 2022. This will mean that Sharleen Nason, Jacqui Sampson and Ricky Joyce as an Assistant Principal team will work in partnership with me to lead our school next year.

I hope that everyone has a very well deserved school holiday break. I am really looking forward to 2022 and I hope our school community is as well. Merry Christmas to all.