Grade 2 Sleepover: Well done to all our brave students who enjoyed a sleepover at school last week – for some, their first night away from home. Many thanks to Amy Chisholm and the support teaching team for providing such a rich experience for our students. Special thanks from Olivia from Their Care who also assisted on the night.

Be sure to read BBPS Life for more on the many great learning opportunities taking place across P-6, including the Prep/Grade 1 excursion to CERES!

Grade 6 Action Projects: Congratulations to our Grade 6s who have completed their community action projects. Thank you to the Grade 6 teachers for the support and mentorship provided as part of the process. See below for some Grade 6 reflections:

Health and Fitness: Healthy Food Drive (Brody, Camille, Peter)

At first it was difficult to get organised but once things were finalised it was a relief. We met with someone at Coles, Brighton and they have generously donated healthy food snacks to the winning class – to be announced next week.

War and Peace: Refugee Beach Drive (Flynn, Edan, Harvey)

As previously shared, please bring all donations to the front office, to go to families enrolled at Noble Park English School. Thanks to Kmart and Zoe Daniels who are supporting our initiative.

Discrimination: RRR student led session (Scarlett, Anya, Annabelle, Ben)

An email from Paul Zappa, Bayside Respectful Relationships Liaison Officer following his attendance at the outstanding parent session led by our students - thank you to the parents who came and supported our students. This is why we do what we do.

Good morning Jodie,

Congratulations on the work you have done with your students.

They were excellent. Their parents were so proud and gave excellent responses.

So wonderful seeing the capacity of these students.

Please pass on my congratulations to them.

Paul

Environment: Clean up Brighton Beach (Zoe, Daisy, Ivy, Charlie)

Last week grade 6 cleaned up Brighton Beach. We collected quite a lot of rubbish and it worked perfectly to plan. We would love to do it for longer, or more often in the year. Thank you to Bayside Council who met with us and provided materials to help us run our project.

Inclusion: ¾ Hub guest presentation (Will, Angelina, Mia)

The 3/4s seemed to really enjoy the session and were really engaged and asked lots of questions. Thanks to Christopher, Sean and their care takers for giving their time to tell us their story. The main messages of inclusion were to treat everyone equally and that having a disability doesn’t stop you from doing the things you love.

Health and Fitness: Tour De Cure healthy life style presentation (Alfie, Jasper, Elliot)

It was great to work with Joe and Victor from Tour de Cure and we felt pretty proud to have it happen. The team spoke to us about the importance of being happy, healthy and fit. We were surprised when we were all given prizes – thanks to Tour De Cure! Don’t forget, if you’d like to donate to their cause click here

Grade 6 - preparing for high school

Parents of grade 6 students are invited to participate in an online event, hosted by Sue Pain from ABOUT REAL LIFE on Wednesday, 30th November, 7.30 - 9pm

"Sexuality & Safety...moving into Secondary School"

https://www.trybooking.com/CDXHZ

War and Peace: Poppies for Remembrance Day

Thanks to all those families who purchased a poppy for Remembrance Day this Friday. Grade 4 will be facilitating our assembly at 11:30am, parents of presenting students are welcome to attend. Well done to Cassie, Kaevish and Euan for volunteering their time on behalf of Bentleigh RSL to sell items at school and on Church Street.

Parent Association

A big thanks to Georgie and the parent team for organising the spectacular Halloween Disco – an outstanding night that brought such joy to our students. Congratulations to 4E and Prep S, winners of the annual Halloween Disco Mural competition. Pizza parties are currently being organised.

Our final two PA led events for the year are:

Saturday, 26th November, Election BBQ – we are looking for helpers between 8:30am and 2pm if you can spare an hour! https://signup.com/go/irhOiUy

Friday, 2nd December, Christmas Extravaganza

Keep this date free.

Health at BBPS

There are a number of nasty viruses circulating through the school currently – a number of our staff have been absent with similar symptoms: headaches, sore throat, no voice – Please tune into your children’s health and keep them home if unwell. It appears these viruses are quite contagious.

While reported COVID-19 cases have reduced within our community (yay!) please continue to be aware of its presence. Recommendations continue to be:

If showing any symptoms, complete a RAT or PCR.
If unwell, stay home.
If a positive COVID-19 result, isolate for five days.
If you are a close contact, wear a mask at school for the five days following the positive result.
While schools are no longer required to notify the school community of positive cases, it is helpful to still notify the school of a positive result. This helps us to monitor for increased case numbers, at which point the school can notify the relevant grade cohort or whole school community if deemed appropriate. This helps us all to continue to be safe.

There have been changes to Victorian school term dates for 2026. This will provide an opportunity for Victorian communities to participate more broadly in the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The 2026 Commonwealth Games will take place across regional Victoria from Tuesday 17 March to Sunday 29 March 2026, with Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Gippsland and Shepparton hosting a range of activities and events for 20 different sports and 9 para-sports.

LONG TERM PLANNING Please note due to the Commonwealth Games - The 2026 Victorian school term dates are:

Term 1: Tuesday 27 January to Friday 13 March 2026
Term 2: Monday 30 March to Friday 19 June 2026
Term 3: Monday 6 July to Friday 18 September 2026
Term 4: Monday 5 October to Friday 18 December 2026.

For the list of school term dates until the end of 2030, refer to School term dates and holidays in Victoria.

Wedding celebrations

We congratulate and wish Tasleem Sahib and her partner Jed all the best in the coming two weeks as they embark on their wedding celebrations. Claire Paitiridis will be working with 3S while Tas is on leave.

BBPS Christmas Community Fair

Remember to book your tickets and tokens - this is our biggest fundraiser yet and all funds will go towards our new inclusive playground!

https://www.trybooking.com/CDGVI

CALLING OUT FOR DONATIONS

As you know planning is underway for our exciting Christmas Party where all money raised will be used towards an amazing new inclusive playground for our kids to enjoy.

We will be hosting a Giant Raffle and would greatly appreciate your help with donations towards the hampers. We are asking each grade to contribute towards the following hampers:

Prep: Donations that will go towards a Sports Hamper. (Sport toys, sporting goods, anything sport related).

Grade 1: Donations that will go towards a Homewares Hamper. (Eg: Candles, photo frames, home decor etc).

Grade 2: Donations that will go towards Gourmet Foods Hamper. (Eg: preserves, olives, mustards, sauces, crackers, etc) and baskets for our hampers

Grade 3: Donations that will go towards a Sweets and Christmas Food Hamper and baskets for our hampers

Grade 4: Donations that will go towards a pamper hamper this could include body wash, lotions, bath salts, creams etc

Grade 5: Donations that will go towards a Toys Hamper.

Grade 6: Donations that will go towards a Beach Hamper. (Games, towels, etc)

**** donations from all year level categories will be accepted if you prefer to donate something else

**** wine and beer donations are also welcome for hampers. Parents are to bring in to the office to Benita and not to take to the classrooms

There will be a box in each classroom where these can be dropped off. There will also be a pizza party for the class that collects the most donations. Thank you for your support to ensure this is a brilliant event for our community. 🎄🎄🎄

Community News

Lest we forget