Principal's comments

Staffing News

It is with very mixed feelings that I announce that there will be some staff changes in the leadership team of our school.  Assistant Principal, Garry Fowler, and Business Manager, Brenda Michael, have informed me that they will be finishing their illustrious careers at the end of this term.   There can be no question that these two outstanding leaders will be greatly missed at our school. 

Garry has been a part of Bimbadeen for over 30 years, starting out as a PE teacher where his passion for all children to succeed, his love of learning, (he studied in his own time to earn his Masters of Education), and his outstanding organisational skills soon saw him in leadership roles at our school.  Garry has been Assistant Principal for the past 7 years and I will miss him greatly.  There is nothing he doesn’t know about this school and his knowledge of the children and their families is outstanding. 

Bren has been here as our Business Manager for the past 6 years and has been outstanding in this role.  She has been an amazing steward of the school’s finances where her commitment to following the often quite complex  DET guidelines is second-to-none.  Her finance reports to School Council are always detailed, comprehensive and accurate.  Bren is the epitome of our school definition of integrity that we teach the children, ‘Doing the right thing even if no one is watching’.  I will also miss working with Bren and her capacity to answer, or find the answer, to whatever question I have for her. 

Garry and Bren are both taking their accumulated Long Service Leave prior to finally resigning from the Department of Education and Training.  Their positions will therefore be filled in an acting capacity for the remainder of 2019 until they are advertised substantively in 2020.  Adele Gates, who has replaced Bren and been acting Business Manager for several months in 2018, will step back up into that role and we are in the process of advertising for a short term replacement for her in the office.

The acting AP vacancy has been advertised across the state via an expression of interest and we expect it to be filled within a few weeks.

As apprehensive as we may be about these staffing changes, it is also an opportunity for us to build our staff team and bring in new ideas and positive changes.  Bimbadeen has a very strong and reliable culture of steady and stable leadership, reflected by a strong, steady and reliable staff.  There is no reason to believe that this culture will not continue here at Bimbadeen as we carefully choose new people to step into these significant leadership roles at our school.

Reinstated Playgrounds

The playgrounds that were removed from our school to make way for the construction of our new buildings were reinstalled, in different locations, last week.  Quite understandably, the playgrounds have been crowded and we’ve had more bumps and bruises to the sick bay this week but excitement levels are high and children have generally been patient and happy to have their playground equipment back.  The equipment near the Founders classrooms is just for the Foundation children.  The equipment near the Year 3/4 classrooms is just for the Year 3- 6 children and the equipment near the end of the tennis court is just for the Year 1/2 children.  If you bring your children up to school outside of school hours the children are welcome to play on any of the equipment.

Election Day BBQ – At Mooroolbark College

Don’t forget to go and vote in the Federal Election tomorrow and while you are there buy a sausage or egg and bacon roll or have a cake and a coffee.  For the first time in living memory, our school will not be used as a polling place however voting will take place at Mooroolbark College and we will be running the BBQ there.  Bimbadeen Pre-school will have a cake-stall there and Kaitri's Catering will have their coffee machine there as well. 

A big thank you to Kate Hession and Bree King who have organised the BBQ and the volunteers who will be cooking sausages tomorrow.

Attitude to School Survey 2019

Over the next few week’s students in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 will participate in the 2019 Attitude to School Survey. As in previous years children will complete the 20 minute survey online during school hours using a purpose built secure online survey tool. The confidentiality of your child’s responses is protected at all times.  It is important to note that we are not in any way “testing” the children

We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement,  wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting the survey to find out what your child thinks of our school.

The  Attitudes to School Survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. We will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience.

The survey results will be reported back to the school before the end of term 2. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified.

Mid-Year Reports

In the last newsletter I wrote in some detail about the three equally important aspects of our reporting processes here.  Assessment Portfolios, Parent-Teacher Interviews and written reports sent home at the end of Terms 2 & 4.  It is important for parents to know that this year the written reports will not be published in hard copy and sent home with children but will instead be made available to parents on the Sentral Parent Portal on Monday June 24.  The written report will look exactly the same as past reports and will be available in PDF form for parents to download, read online or print out a hard copy for themselves.  Obviously for parents to access their own child’s report they will need to be registered for the Sentral Parent Portal.  If you have not yet registered please ensure that you do so this term so that you can access your child’s report.  Parent-Teacher interview appointments are also made via the Sentral parent Portal so please ensure that you have registered and logged on so as to fully access all the functions of this important school management system.

Mother’s Day Stall

Thanks very much to Sarah Huxley and all the parent helpers who came along last Thursday to make the Mother’s Day stall such a success.  Not only is this a great event for children to carefully choose a gift for Mum or other special person, it is also a great learning opportunity for a ‘real’ shopping experience for children, handing over real money and getting something in return.  (The Father’s Day stall and the Spring Fair provide similar learning experiences.)  The teachers and the volunteer parent helpers on the stall assist the children with change and help them work out the sort of gifts they can afford with the money they have.  It is always a great joy to see the focused looks on the children’s faces as they choose what to buy. 

I was told by one of the parent helpers how impressed they were with the excellent manners of the children and how patient and considerate they were while waiting for their turn. 

Well done Bimbadeen children!

Pupil Free Day – NO SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN NEXT TUESDAY

Please make sure that you are aware that next Tuesday, May 21 will be a pupil free day and there will be no school for children that day. Teachers will be having a day of numeracy professional learning with an external consultant, Margarita Breed from RMIT, on the ‘Big Ideas in Number’.  Margarita will be providing our teachers with additional strategies to better ensure our children have the basics embedded and mastered in the primary school years so they can excel in mathematics right throughout all years of their schooling.

2020 Enrolments

Mr Fowler and I have been conducting quite a lot of school tours recently and on Tuesday night this week we held the first of our transition events for children starting school next year, a story-time evening here in the Foundation Classrooms with this years Foundation teachers. 

Our school does have a well-deserved and hard-earned good reputation which will only be enhanced with the new building project finishing this year.  Bimbadeen will have the newest facilities of any primary school in our area.  We anticipate that enrolments will grow and the Education Department has given us capacity to grow to 550 students.  If you know of anyone considering Bimbadeen Heights for their child/ren for next year please encourage them to get in touch with us and enrol as soon as possible so that we can best manage our growing school.

Leukaemia Foundation Hair Colouring

Kaydee, Chloe, Maddi and Charlotte all coloured their hair in support of the Leaukemia Foundation’s Worlds Greatest Shave last weekend. How wonderful that these girls are putting into practice our school value of Compassion by demonstrating a kind, caring and understanding attitude and willingness to help others.  Well done girls and your families!

Final-Leigh: 

“The Pessimist Sees Difficulty In Every Opportunity. The Optimist Sees Opportunity In Every Difficulty.” 

(Winston Churchill)