Principal Report

Whole School Production

Thank you and congratulations to our amazing students. Rock Bottom was performed over two nights last week. 

We were so proud of all of our students. It was wonderful to see them all in their costumes, singing and dancing. The main cast, crew and chorus worked so hard to be prepared for the performances. 

An amazing effort from our Performing Arts teacher Emma Thomas. She has worked tirelessly this year to teach our students their songs and dances. To set up and conduct auditions, to teach lines, to oversee rehearsals, to coordinate costumes and props with an incredible set of parents. There were many other tasks needed to get us to the theatre last week. 

A special thanks to the parents who assisted with costumes and props, we were pleased to be able to thank you on the second night of the production. 

• Carmen Yiu
• Sandra Bell
• Melissa Lewis
• Abby Wong
• Dorothy Frost
• Nely Berlian-Sulamet
• Sofiene Wong
• Diana Le
• Moni Schelbach
• Lydia Lai
• Maggie Cusdin

Thank you to all of our staff, who volunteered to participate in auditions, who supervised rehearsals and attended in various roles on both nights of the production. 

Emma is now on maternity leave and we look forward to sharing the news when her second child is born in a few weeks. 

Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey 

We want our parents, caregivers and guardians to tell us what they think! 

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents / caregivers / guardians think of our school. 

This is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. 

The survey is optional but we are inviting and encouraging all families to participate. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. 

The Survey will be open from Monday 7 August to Friday 8 September 2023.

It will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the survey period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. 

The online survey will be available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

If you would like more information please contact Shannon or myself via the office. 

All families will be sent an invitation to participate on Monday August 7th via COMPASS. 

Bowling Night 

Did you book in for the Family Bowling Night  on Saturday August 5th. There is one slot left in the 4.00-6.00pm session, the 5.30-7.30pm  session is sold out but there are still spaces in the last session from 7.00-9.00pm. 

Thank you to Theresa and her family for supporting the school and enabling us to hold the event at Box Hill Tenpin Bowl, 1st Floor Healthways Recreation Centre in Mont Albert North. 

Bowling night QR code - book via Trybooking. 

Working Bee 

What an amazing effort and celebration of Boroondara Park PS at our Winter Working Bee. 

Thank you to all of the parents and students who attended. You will have seen lots of weeded garden beds, trimming and cutting. 

Our Bolinda Rd entrance has been cleared and everyone can get through the gates two abreast now. The garden at the Ruth St entrance was carefully weeded, the front garden was weeded and we started to turn over the soil. The garden outside the Year 3/4 rooms was given a totally new look. There were so many other areas of the school where our amazing volunteers worked. 

Thank you to Michael and Frank our coordinators, who worked tirelessly from 9.00am to 1pm. 

Thank you to Reuben from Noel Jones for sponsoring the coffee cart for the first hour. 

Thank you to the Lee family for cooking our BBQ. 

A special thank you to the Vilitati family who came with their Calm your Palm truck, tree trimmers and extra crew to work tirelessly. They also took away all of our green waste. 

We are so lucky to have such support from our BPPS community. 

French Day

What a creative community we have, there were so many great costumes on Tuesday  August 1st for French Day. 

Thank you to Madame Higgins for organising our performer - be sure to check out the French page in this newsletter. 

Communication - COMPASS

A reminder if you have any questions about COMPASS submit them via our - Ask a question about COMPASS 

We continuing to add to the School documentation section of COMPASS. If there is something you would like to see added please contact us via the school email - boroondara.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au 

How to find the documentation section.

COMPASS menu when looking at the browser looks like this - 

Click on the people which is the community menu and there will be a drop down box with an option for School documentation - 

Clicking on the school documentation should enable you to access a variety of documents throughout the year. 

Parent Forums

We are planning 2-3 parent forums and would like to know when it might be best to hold them. We will shortly send out a Google Form to seek your input. We will then provide details about each forum, the context for them and the aims for each session. 

Please look for the form which will be sent out via COMPASS. 

Wellbeing

SuperHIRO Day is on Wednesday August 16th. Be sure to check out the JSC page of this newsletter for details. 

We have also been provided with information about the Rice Jar Experiment, inspired by Dr Emoto's book The Hidden Messages in Water. The experiment works to demonstrate the effects of being kind (or unkind). 

We need to fill two jars with one part rice and two parts water. The jars are labelled love jar and hate jar. They are then placed together in a room where they are exposed to the exact same temperature and light. 

Each day, we should say kind words to the "Love" jar, and unkind words to the "Hate" jar. We can even add extra labels such as "Thank you," "You are beautiful," or "Disgusting," and "Ugly." We do this for 30 days, recording your findings. 

Perhaps you might like to try it at home and let us know what you discover.

ICAS

ICAS begins next week, all bookings have closed. 

• Digital Technologies - between August 7th to 11th
• English - Between August 14th and 18th (this will happen around Year 3/4 Camp)
• Science - between August 21st and 25th 
• Mathematics - between August 28th to September 1st 

eSafety Commissioner

This week I have included conversation starters for kids and young people. They are question cards designed to be used in a family to start everyday conversations about online safety. The cards cover topics such as identifying online risks, using technology safely and reporting unsafe behaviour. Use them together with the information at eSafety kids or eSafety young peopleand empower kids to take control of their online experiences.

A reminder the eSafety resources we have added into the newsletter this year are going to all be uploaded to the School documentation of COMPASS. 

BPPS Facebook and Instagram 

Don't forget to follow our social media accounts and see what is happening at school each day. Boroondara Park Primary School Facebook

Search @BoroondaraPark on Instagram to follow the school. 

Susanne Lowe

Principal