End of term 1 already! Wishing you all a fantastic holiday break, much deserved by our staff and students who have built engaging and inclusive classroom communities this term.

School Council was held for the first time with our new School Council. Many thanks to our new members, working within the following roles for 2023:

President – David Capps

Vice President – Helen Tiver

Secretary – Sharon Andrew

PA representative – Marnie Lewis Downing

Buildings and Grounds: David, Marnie, Amy, Bev

Media and Publicity: Megan, Will, Merline (Terri-Anne, Anissa, Elizabeth as volunteer members)

Education Policy: Megan, Emily

Finance: Sharon, Emma, Bev, Simon

Latest updates from our meeting include:

School Council members completed annual training around their ChildSafe responsibilities as volunteers within our school community.
School Council approved a student free Professional Practice Day for all teachers, Monday 24th April – this means that students will begin term 2 on Wednesday, 26th April. Theircare is available for 24th.
A number of Parent Association Events were approved for 2023 – thanks to PA members for ensuring all paperwork was prepared.
The Annual School Report for 2022 was shared and feedback sought – this becomes available to our community in Term 2
The Grade 6 camp to Canberra for 2023 was approved. This is in term 4.

Victoria Police are seeking diverse community feedback as part of our commitment to Neighbourhood Policing. We are seeking information about the community’s safety concerns, engagement preferences, and ideas to improve the work that we do.

The annual Victoria Police Community Sentiment Survey commenced on Friday 31st of March and will run for a period of 4 weeks. The findings of this survey will identify the issues our community cares about most and help us to develop ways to tackle them.

Our Prep 2024 Information Night was well attended – well done to our Grade 6 volunteers who spoke so eloquently about BBPS.

Well done to our Grade 6 Cultural Captains who represented BBPS and attended St Peter’s Kindergarten smoking ceremony last week. Our Community Program with our neighbouring kindergarten will begin next term, with numerous opportunities for grade 6 and grade 4 students to connect and lead these students.

Charlie, Henry, Yiannis, Jet

Well done to Giselle and Amelie, who represented BBPS proudly at this year’s Seaside District Tennis Tournament.

A big thank you to our P-2 parents who attended our Parent Helper Information session. Julie Shepherd, literacy consultant, provided useful strategies to support students to engage in reading – both at school and at home. If you were unable to attend, please familiarise yourself with the following information and speak to your class teacher should you have any questions. As per the Volunteers Policy, all parent helpers must have an up to date Working With Children Check, provided to Benita for filing.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Tfhmvm4jbiwpl7e7ZRpl1z1bdFIubO9/view

Each term we aim to share your child’s learning with you formally in some way. For term 1, we share a visible learning task in the area of writing. You can now access your child’s writing sample via Compass, see the separate Compass post for directions on how to access your child's learning – this is an opportunity to celebrate your child’s growth this term, and to see direct feedback as provided by the class teacher in a particular area of focus.

What’s coming up next term?

Wednesday, 26th April: Students return to school. Monday 24th April Theircare available.

Sunday, 30th April: We have a great opportunity to fundraise for our school, and to support a local event that is of particular significance to a former student of ours. BBPS will be running the sausage sizzle for the event, Finding 15, if you can spare an hour or two for a shift, please sign yourself up https://signup.com/go/rjMoRZC

Proceeds will go towards resourcing our STEAM program, and a portion will be donated to the organising charity.

Thank you in advance!

Also in Term 2, more details to come …

Week 1-3 Grade 4-6 Bike Education – students will be required to bring their bikes into school Wednesday – Friday of the first week for a safety check. Teachers will communicate further about this via Compass.

Week 3 Mother’s Day Stall and on Friday, 12th May – Mother’s Day Lunch

Week 4, Tuesday, 16th May: Grade 3-6 House Cross Country

Thursday 18th May: Open Classrooms in the afternoon

Other Programs and Activities

Music Lessons with Phil Gunter

Art Smart Program

Drama Time

Young Engineers

Chess

Karate

Soccer at BBPS

Jewish Life Program