Principal News

Dear Parent/Carer

With the coming of beautiful Spring weather we know Term 3 is fast coming to an end. As this edition of the Newsletter shows, we continue to offer our young learners new experiences while still focusing on core Literacy and Numeracy.

There have been a number of important announcements recently that impact on the Brookside community.

Burnside Primary School

Last week the Department of Education and Training announced that the new Burnside Primary School will be taking enrolments for Prep to Year 6 in 2019.

We have a number of primary students enrolled at Brookside College who currently reside in the new Burnside PS Designated Neighbourhood Area (DNA) and could enrol there next year. Families in the new Burnside DNA, whose children currently attend Brookside, now have a choice as to which school they enrol in for 2019.

Families who wish to enrol at the new Burnside PS should email the Principal, Davide Lombardi, at lombardi.davide.d@edumail.vic.gov.au. Families who reside in the new Burnside DNA and wish their children to remain enrolled at Brookside College need do nothing.

We have communicated this information to our community via Facebook and to all Primary parents through Compass. Information regarding the new Burnside PS DNA can be found on the Victorian School Buildings Authority website.

We are working closely with Burnside Primary School and the Department of Education and Training to ensure families are supported to make informed decisions.

If you have particular questions, comments or points of clarification regarding this announcement please contact me on 7379 1555 or by email;

brookside.p9@edumail.vic.gov.au

New Learning Spaces

The Department of Education and Training has been monitoring our classroom space in the light of an increasing enrolment over the last year. As a result, I am pleased to announce that we have been allocated three ‘Mod 5’ relocatable buildings – the same as the building we received last year that is home to some Year 7 classes. The six new classrooms open up a number of opportunities to strengthen the work we have embarked on the last two years including space for digital learning and wellbeing/intervention. Of course with opportunity comes challenge; locating the new classrooms on such a tight campus won’t be easy and there will be some disruption during the building works. This is exciting news for the College and I will update you as soon as we have more information.

Use of Recreation Space

On the subject of space I am also pleased to announce that following discussions with the Melton Council we now have use of both the Oval and the synthetic soccer pitch for Lunchtime and Recess. This has allowed us to review how students use the campus at Lunchtime and Recess and allow more space for more age specific activities.

Starting this week the Oval will be for Grades 1 to 6 only at Lunch and Recess. The synthetic pitch will be for secondary students only. This trial will last until the end of the year and we hope it will provide our older and younger students with a greater sense of belonging and confidence.

I hope to see most of you next week at the Parent Teacher Interviews but if I don’t I would like to take this opportunity to wish you an enjoyable Spring vacation.

Simon Sherlock

School Council Report (August 2018)

Hello everyone and I hope Term 3 has been a good one for you so far.

As I mentioned in my last report, the Education Department has introduced rules requiring school councils to now have two student representatives. I am pleased to let you know that year 9 students Deklyn Staropoli and Kristian Josevksi have been nominated as the school’s first ever student members of School Council. Congratulations Deklyn and Kristian and School Council looks forward to working with you in the remainder of 2018.

School Council (with Deklyn and Kristian in attendance) met in August and we discussed:

The school working with the Department and our cleaners to improve quality of cleaning services
The results of the recent student attitudes to school survey
The expected impact of new Burnside primary school to enrolment numbers for 2019
School Council establishing a Building & Grounds sub-committee and Community Engagement sub-committee
The school raising funds (gold coin donation) for Rural Aid Australia on parent-teacher interview day (18th September) to support rural communities facing difficulties especially weather-related.

School Council welcomes members of the school community to attend School Council meetings. If you are interested, please contact myself or Mr Sherlock (School Principal) at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Also, if you are interested in joining Council's new Building & Grounds and/or Community Engagement sub-committee, please contact me directly or Mr Sherlock to express your interest.

If you have any feedback or questions about School Council, I encourage you to email me directly (Anderson.Christian.C@edumail.vic.gov.au). I look forward to sharing more with you following our next meeting in September.

Christian Anderson

School Council President

Brookside Book Parade

The Brookside Book Parade for 2018 was a great success! Students from prep to year 6 were able to dress up as their favourite book characters to celebrate all of the stories we love and enjoy.

Thank you to all of the parents and guardians who turned up on Tuesday to support our students during the parade and also thank you for all of the hard work and time we’re sure went into the costumes!

Congratulations to all of the best dressed award winners. Also congratulations to the YEAR THREE TEAM who were undoubtedly the winners of the teacher competition.

Until next year!