Hello BRPS community,

Welcome to the latest edition of the BRPS Newsletter. Can you believe that we are now heading into the 'home stretch' for the 2018 school year and that there are now less than 5 weeks until Christmas?

I’m looking forward to catching up with as many BRPS families as possible during that time through events such as:

7th Dec - 2nd Annual Wellbeing Day
11th Dec - Parent Helpers’ Morning Tea
13th Dec - BRPS Carols
14th Dec - Final 'regular' assembly
19th Dec - Year 6 Graduation Evening
20th Dec - Year 6 Graduation Lunch
21st Dec - 2018 Celebration Assembly (12.45pm-1.30pm)

There are many more student-focused events that will be packed into the next 16 days, including the Bike Hike for our Year 6 students as they continue their Graduation Program.

Casual Day

Please note that tomorrow (Fri 30th Nov) is the final casual day for the year. We appreciate the gold coin donations received on this day that support the orphanage and school in India.

2018 STEP-UP/TRANSITION

State-wide transition day for government schools is held on Tuesday, 11th December. 2018. Year 7 students enroled in government schools attend their secondary college on this day.

At BRPS, 2019 Year 1-6 students will participate in a ‘step-up’ program. Students will participate in a fun and engaging session in their 2018 year level (this is not a meet the teacher day). They will develop an understanding of the special events, opportunities and learning activities that they can expect in 2019.

Meet the Teacher

To allow staffing to be finalised and all 2019 teachers to be present, students will meet their 2019 teacher and new classmates on Thursday 20th December. A notice will be sent home with each individual child on that day, including information about their 2019 teacher and year level team/ leaders etc.

Parents are reminded that we do not accept parent requests for teachers. As stated in the previous newsletter, creating new classes is a complex task that takes into account many factors, including balancing academic, social and emotional needs, gender balance and class sizes. Additionally, all children are given the opportunity to name at least five friends they would like to be with for the following year. Every child will have at least one child from their list in their class next year.

2019 Enrolments, Staffing and Class Structure

If your child is currently in Grades Foundation (Prep) – 5 and will not be enroled at BRPS next year please notify the office in writing at your earliest convenience. It is vital that we receive this information as soon as possible to allow us to finalise class structures and staffing arrangements.

2019 staffing arrangements are still being finalised and will be announced in the next Newsletter published on Thursday 13th December.

Assuming only minor changes to 2019 student enrolment numbers at this point in time, class structures for 2019 will be:

Foundation 4 classes
Year 1 4 classes
Year 2 4 classes
Year 3 4 classes
Year 4 4 classes
Year 5 4 classes
Year 6 3 classes

2019 Commencement Date & Curriculum Days

Each year government schools are provided with four student-free days for professional development, school planning and administration, curriculum development, and student assessment and reporting purposes. The first day of Term 1 is a student-free day in all government schools to allow for appropriate planning to take place for the arrival of students. The remaining three student-free days are determined by each individual school.

To assist parents with forward planning, BRPS has allocated the following dates in 2019 as curriculum days (student-free) to support development and implementation of our identified improvement priorities (please note the changed March date):

Tuesday 29 January
Wednesday 30 January
Tuesday 12 March (immediately following March long weekend)
Friday 3 May

Therefore, the first day of school for all students in 2019 will be Thursday 31st January:

Yr 1-6 will commence at 9am
Foundation students will commence at 9.30am

National Athletics Championships - Super Athlete Henry S.

As one of the amazing athletes at BRPS, we have been following Henry's journey as he progressed all the way to the National Athletics Championships, competing in the 800m and 1500m running events. Huge congratulations must go to Henry for his achievements at the Championships over the past week. Henry gained a 3rd place in both 1500m and 800m 🥉🥉 The whole school was behind Henry, especially his fellow Year 4 students who were lucky enough to watch the races live. Everyone at BRPS is incredibly proud of Henry's efforts and the dedication and determination that he has demonstrated.

If you would like to watch Henry's race:

1500 Final starts at 31.37 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVE3sls_NyA

800m Final starts at 38.19 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9XE_MeGnFI

Giving Tree

Each year the Black Rock PS community donates generously to our Giving Tree on behalf of Family Life Victoria. The gifts received from our community are gratefully received and go a long way towards making the festive season a little better for those who find themselves in a less fortunate position than ourselves.

A representative from Family Life will be attending the school assembly at 3:00pm on Friday December 14th to accept these gifts.

School Council

This year has seen a considerable amount of work conducted by the school leadership team via the school review process. At the recent school council meeting, councillors viewed and discussed the draft review report which includes a number of elements, including the parent opinion survey; student, parent and teacher forums and observations from a panel of education experts who assessed the school’s performance in relation to the school’s strategic targets. The school review process continues and further information will be made available to council and families in relation to goals, targets and the next steps as the School Review Report is released publicly in the coming months.

The council reviewed and endorsed the 2019 Parent Payments Policy which supports our school vision to provide a dynamic, sustainable and creative learning environment for all our children.

Our buildings and grounds sub-committee led by Jayne Timms has been extremely busy over the last few months, with a range of improvements completed such as our new performance stage and interactive playground. Further improvements are planned including a dedicated, well resourced ‘Science Discovery (STEM) Centre’ to support the learning of all students in this vital curriculum area.

School council will next meet on December 4. As always, parents are welcome to get in touch with school councillors with any questions or feedback.

Nude Food Day

Yesterday, Black Rock Primary School held their first ever Nude Food Celebration Day.

The day started off with a bang, beginning with a special assembly run by the Green Team. It included interviews, a whole school game and even a catchy dance and song. The students should be congratulated on their enthusiasm and creativity!

This was followed by a cross year level activity that saw student of different ages buddy up and get talking about nude food and our environment.

After lunch every class got involved with a whole school clean up. There were prizes given out throughout!

Green team members visited classrooms to investigate how Nude Food was going and announced a winner at the end of the day.

A huge thank you to our BRPS Green Team for their hard work and to all the teachers for getting involved!

An additional big thank you to teachers Miss Jacqui Hutchinson and Miss Hayley Rings for their coordination of the day.

Parent Helpers Morning Tea

Save the date!

Our annual parent helpers’ thank you morning tea will be held on Tuesday 11th December. Please save the date as invitations will be sent out soon.

Have a great fortnight everyone,

Sam Tyndall

PRINCIPAL

Christmas

Lions Christmas Cakes and Puddings

available at the office

The Giving Tree

BRPS Christmas Carols