Principal's Report 

Welcome Back!

Welcome back everyone, we hope you all had a restful and relaxing break. 

The school year has started seamlessly, with everyone settling in well. Prior to the first day of school, our staff worked very hard behind the scenes to prepare for the return of our students and we are now full steam ahead into what promises to be a fantastic year of learning, fun and growth. 

Our students have started the new school year with enthusiasm and the determination to work hard and enjoy their time at school. Walking around our classrooms over the past week, it has been very pleasing to see how quickly and easily everyone has settled into their new class and adapted to new routines. 

Welcome to our Founders

It is fabulous to see how quickly our 94 new Foundation students have settled into school life. This is a reflection of the effectiveness of the Kindergarten programs run by our preschool colleagues, our comprehensive school transition program, the efforts put in by parents to ensure school readiness and the warm and welcoming classroom environments created by our wonderful Foundation teaching team. Our Founders students are quickly becoming familiar with routines, expectations and how to be a school kid. 

Founders Literacy and Numeracy Assessments

During the coming Wednesdays our Foundation teachers will be conducting literacy and numeracy assessments with students in preparation for the year ahead. This is an important opportunity for our teachers to meet with our new students and their parents and collect important information and data that will guide their teaching and learning programs to support every child to enjoy a positive school experience and reach their full potential. If you have not made an appointment for your child’s assessment, please contact their classroom teacher.

Welcome to our New Families

This year we have welcomed a number of new families to the Bimbadeen community. Many of our new families are first-time Founders parents and others are new families who have moved into the area. Making the move to a new school can sometimes be daunting, however, the kids are settling in well and have already formed some great friendships. 

We would like to welcome all new families to our school and look forward to working with you and your children.

Helping Out Around the School

We encourage all families to become involved in their child’s schooling and are always in need of adults to help in classrooms and on excursions, in the library or with fundraising activities throughout the year. Our families are also able to contribute to our termly working bees or join our school council or contribute through one of its many sub-committees. If you are interested in being involved in some or all of the many opportunities to contribute to the Bimbadeen community, please see you child’s teacher or keep an eye out for information that will be publicised in Year Level Newsletters, School Newsletters or our Sentral newsfeed. 

Please note that we do require that if you are volunteering within the school that you have a current Working With Children check and that you provide a copy of this to the school office. Information about and applications for Working With Children checks are available online at https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/

Get to Know You Interviews

This year, we are holding Get to Know You Interviews instead of our annual Meet the Teacher Night. By moving to an interview structure, teachers are able to privilege time with each child’s parents/carers to ensure we know everything we can about each student and develop a strong, collaborative relationship between each teacher and their students, and their parents/carers. Get to Know You Interviews will be held next week. Information has been sent home to families via Sentral. Please ensure you make a time to help set your child up for success at school in 2021.

Hats and Sunscreen

In line with our SunSmart policy students are required to wear school hats during terms 1 and 4. School hats provide protection from the harsh sun and are available at Spartan’s (Uniform Shop) or can be purchased online via the link on our school website. Students without a hat will be required to play in the designated undercover area outside the hall. 

It is also recommended that your child wears sunscreen to school and suggest that this is applied prior to the start of the school day. You are also encouraged to send sunscreen to school with your child to independently apply, prior to recess and lunch breaks when they will be given the opportunity to do so. Sunscreen is always available for our students, staff and community members at the office.

Hot Weather Processes 

During days of extreme heat where the temperature exceeds 35 degrees we will use our judgement to determine whether students should spend all or part of their recess and lunch breaks outside. Students are reminded to stay hydrated, to regularly re-apply sunscreen, to play in shady areas and to refrain from playing running games. On particularly hot days we will keep students inside in air-conditioned classrooms. We have also been asked to remind our parent community about the dangers of leaving children in cars on very hot days, this includes at school drop off and pick-up times. 

Accident Insurance and Personal items brought to school 

The Department of Education and Training (DET) does not provide personal accident insurance for students. Parents are generally responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs. 

The Department of Education states that reasonable low-cost accident insurance policies are available from the commercial insurance sector. For those parents who seek personal cover, details of an insurer who offers individual accident insurance for $29 for the year is EBM Insurance Brokers and their website is www.studentcover.com.au. 

Similarly, DET (which includes the school) does not offer replacement of personal items which are brought to school and are lost, broken or stolen. Sentimental or expensive belongings and toys, including sports equipment and electronic devices, are normally best left at home. 

Annual Privacy Reminder 

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to remind yourself of the school’s collection statement, found on our website https://www.bimbadeenheightsps.vic.edu.au/policies-documents/

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in nine community languages:

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Dari
• Mandarin
• Somali
• Sudanese
• Turkish
• Urdu
• Vietnamese.

Communication

There are many forms of communication used between school and home to ensure that parents are kept informed about what is happening both in the classroom and at a whole school level. This year, our main form of communication will be through the Sentral platform. Messages and reminders will be sent out via Sentral. Teachers will also use Sentral as a primary way to communicate to parents. Please contact the office if you require further information about Sentral. Our school newsletter will be sent out fortnightly via email link so please ensure that the office has an updated email address for your family. The link to the electronic version of the newsletter is sent to parents and it is also available on the website.

Staff Car Park and School Pick Up / Drop Off Zone

To kick start the year, we thought it was important to send out a reminder about the Staff Carpark and parent pick up/drop off zone at the front of the school. We would like to remind all members of our school community that the Staff Carpark is not a drop off or pick up zone. The safety of our students, staff and community members is paramount.

We would like to request that parents/carers use the strip of parking parallel to the yellow curb marking at the front of the school as a kiss and go zone. This means parents should remain in their car, with the car running and once their children have safely entered their car, to move on, allowing space for the next parent to park. If we all use the yellow zone area as a drop off zone, it will help improvement flow of traffic immensely along Hayrick Lane and surrounding streets. 

When parking at the front of the school, please reverse into car spots with care and be courteous to other drivers. As per Victorian road rules, when driving out of a car park indicate, check mirrors and blind spots and give way to all vehicles and pedestrians on the road. This includes giving way to drivers who are reversing into car spots and waiting for them to park before you drive out of your car spot. Please be mindful of your speed on the road and please do not block driveways while parking or queueing on Hayrick Lane.

Please ensure you adhere to parking limits as there have been numerous reports to local council already this year of parents/carers who have been parking in spaces for longer times than permitted. 

Arrival Times at School

Just a friendly start of year reminder that official on duty time at school is 8:45am. We understand that traffic flow and other challenges sometimes means an earlier arrival, however, we ask that parents avoid dropping off their children any earlier than 8:45am. Whilst staff are on site, there is no formal supervision of students until this time and we are obviously conscious of student safety. 

We hope you have a wonderful week everyone, feel free to pop in for a chat with either of us or any other member of our Leadership team should you wish to discuss anything. Our doors are always open! 

Kind regards, 

Adele and Sabrina