Principal's Message

Principal's Message

Welcome back to Term 4! We are excited for a wonderful term ahead full of learning and fun. It is set to be a busy term as we continue to focus on learning, celebrating growth and achievements and planning and preparing for the year ahead in 2023. 

Whether our children are in Grade Prep or part of our graduating class of 2022 (Grade 6), it will be the last time they experience school at this particular stage of life. I encourage all to embrace these moments and consider how you might cherish and celebrate these milestones as they occur throughout the term. Key dates are published in the newsletter to help families consider and plan ahead.

By now you will have noticed our School Newsletter is looking a little different as we adopt an online iNewsletter platform. The School Newsletter will be published via Compass each fortnight. Families may also subscribe to receive the newsletter via email. A separate Compass Newsfeed will be shared every other Saturday should there be any urgent messages that need to be communicated. We trust families will enjoy our new approach as we attempt to enhance and streamline our communications between school and home. 

At the beginning of each term, your child's teachers will continue to provide a curriculum overview of the term ahead via this newsletter. Each subsequent publication will include celebrations of learning that have taken place at school. We love that our families are so keen to engage with their children's learning at school!

It appears that Covid-19 restrictions are to be lifted paving the way for more community-based activities. Our last-day assembly was a great success in Term 3 and we look forward to more face-to-face assemblies this term. Our Parent Partners did an outstanding job organising the Footy Pie Day special lunch and we are excited by the interest being shown for a Christmas Fair and other events and fundraisers later in the year. Please reach out to your child's class' Parent Partner should you be able to support in any way.

It is a real privilege to work with you all at BHPS and I look forward to a great term ahead. 

Here  are a few photos from our final assembly in Term 3. Our children were magnificent.

Student Placement 2023 

Early in Term 4, staff will place students into draft 2023 classes. Teachers have not yet been allocated to grades, and the teacher placement process will occur later in the term when we know all staff intentions for the new year. 

It is not possible for parents to 'name their child's new teacher' and this is not an opportunity to do so. We have full confidence in our staff and we expect only small tweaks of feedback from families regarding the placement of their child.

We value strong school-home partnerships and this process offers the chance for parents to put forward their perspective if they feel valuable information needs to be considered during the class placement process. The school understands there is sometimes valuable feedback to be shared when teachers are placing students into new classes. This information should pertain to academic and wellbeing outcomes for the child and not merely based on a 'preference for a teacher'. 

A time window opening from Monday, October 3rd and closing at 3.30pm on Monday, October 17th will be available for the Principal to receive any parent feedback about their child's placement that is relevant to education and wellbeing. This feedback may guide us in our placement decisions, but no promises can be made. 

The feedback will only be accepted in writing to the school's email address (barwon.heads.ps@education.vic.gov.au). No verbal or other submissions will be considered. A receipt will be issued to you via reply email acknowledging that your feedback has been received. Emails should be addressed with the subject line: "Attention Miss Carmen." 

It is important that parents understand that feedback offered outside this time window will not be accepted, except for exceptional circumstances. We thank you for your support in this process. Please note that whilst your letter will be officially acknowledged as being received, the outcome of your child's placement will occur using the same process and timeline as all other children. This is in keeping with the spirit of fairness for all. 

It is relevant for parents to alert us to any issues with relatives (e.g. cousins in the same year level) as we will not necessarily associate students via surname. Also, if you have made requests previously, please do not assume we will have a corporate memory of them in placing the students. You would need to mention issues raised in previous times via a new email.

Thank you.