Principal's Report

Dear Bundoora Families,

As we complete the final week of Term one, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff for their hard work this term. Our staff are extremely dedicated to our students’ education and wellbeing and show this every day. We hope they enjoy a well-deserved rest these holidays.

Social Enterprise Program Pop-up Disco

Last week saw our first SEP Pop-up Disco for the year. Our wonderful SEP staff and students planned a wonderful, fun, community event with the able assistance of our parent volunteers. It was wonderful to see so many students and parents enjoying the music, food, and fun. Thank you to everyone who assisted or stayed to see the dancing. 

Year Level Ambassadors

Thank you to our Year Level Ambassadors for embracing this new role. It has been great to hear about their plans for building community and getting to know each other which have included an after school golf session for 5/6, a yoga session in the hall organised by our prep YLAs, and in the holidays the year ones will enjoy a picnic and Easter Egg hunt. I am sure we will see many more activities in the next terms. 

Chess Tournament

On Monday, third of April, several of our students participated in a chess tournament that our school hosted. Four other schools attended from as far away as Hanging Rock. Our students enjoyed the day and played a total of 7 games each. Thanks to Mr. Cass for taking charge of the team!

Bundoora’s Got Talent

Congratulations to all the students have participated in BGT this term. Many students tried out but there just is not room in the final for all students. We wish our finalists the best of luck today and thank Mrs Newell for her hard work.

Easter Bonnet Parade

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Easter Bonnet parade today and for the hard work that has gone into making the hats, both at home and at school.  We saw a huge variety of colourful hats and other easter head wear. Another fabulous Bundoora Primary Event! Thanks to Mrs Allibon for suggesting such a fun event.

Easter Bunny

We were very lucky to have a visit from the Easter Bunny at school today. The furry gentleman visited our oval on the way to start his deliveries and we were all very excited to see him. Thank you, Easter Bunny, for fitting us into your busy pre-Easter preparations!

Use of mobile devices and our senior students.

We encourage all parents of our senior students to revisit the use of mobile phones and tablets outside of school hours. 

We have recently had more incidents of cyber bullying and unpleasantness happening outside of school hours, and this spills over into the school ground. 

While we will continue to educate our students, including a visit from the Australian Federal Police next term to further educate our senior students, we ask that parents talk to our students, their phone use, and the apps they are using. As we know, many social media apps are for young people 13 and over, with none of our students reaching 13 yet. 

Please speak to your children about how an unkind comment can reverberate for a long time and continue to cause harm. Hurtful comments made online always find the way to the person they were intended for, whether they are said in secret or not. 

Last week the senior teachers and I explained to our students that things like excursion, incursions, and even graduation are not rights, but rather earned privileges. If your student is doing the right thing, there will be no consequences of poor choices. However, there is a group of students who are constantly, rude, refusing to work, making threats, and being unkind and we intend to hold them to account so that others can learn and continue to enjoy their last year/s of primary school. 

If you have concerns about your child, please make a time to chat with their teacher and/or me.

Behaviour Expectations at Bundoora Primary School.

The teachers and leaders at Bundoora PS have been working on a consistent behaviour plan for our school. We want consistency across all classrooms, and to explicitly teach our students what is expected at school, and the consequences of poor choices. 

The following explains the steps that we propose for our students, and we ask for your feedback on the steps developed so far. We will then match behaviours to the consequences and ask for parent and student feedback again. We do not intend to publicly shame any student with this process.

Proposed School Wide Behaviour Plan Draft one.

Step one: Reminder of the agreed school rules and the rule that is being broken.

Step two: If the behaviour continues – Give a warning that the behaviour needs to stop.

Step three: If the behaviour continues – Move the student to another place in the classroom.

Step four: The teacher matches a consequence to the behaviour/student. Consequences relate to the severity of the behaviour. 

1. Move the student to another class for a chance to reset and reflect.
2. The student will walk with a teacher on yard duty for half of recess or lunch.
3. The student will participate in community service in the yard.
4. The student may be removed from the yard for half of recess or lunch.

At this step, an email may be sent home advising of the situation, and a parent meeting called with the teacher and the student. 

Step five: The student is sent to or collected by a member of the leadership team. An email or parent phone call will be made to inform parents of the situation. Parents may also be asked to collect to their child from school, depending on the severity of the incident.

Step six: The student is suspended from school for a period of one to five days, depending on the severity of the incident. 

The majority of our students would only ever require steps one to three.

I invite you to give feedback on this plan via the school email: bundoora.ps@education.vic.gov.au. Please mark your email as ‘Feedback’ in the subject line.

New Parent coffee and chat

Mrs Dunn and I recognise that many new families have started at Bundoora Primary School this year. Whether you are a new prep parent or new to the school at another level, we invite you to join us on the 4th of May at 10 am for coffee and a chat. This is an opportunity to see who is else new to the school and make some connections amongst our community, but also a chance to speak with Mrs Dunn and I, to ask questions or give feedback. We hope that your Year Level Ambassadors will also be able to attend so that you have a familiar face in the playground at pick up and drop off, and at school events.

Time correction

Last bulletin I advised that our parent information session for 2024 preps would be held at 6 pm. This is incorrect. Our 2024 Prep Information session will be held at 4pm on May 3rd in the STEM room. This is to fit in with new staffing rules under the VGSA.

We wish all of our families a safe and Happy Easter.

Sherrin Strathairn

Principal