A Message from Hannah & Keir

We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which our school stands. We pay our respects to all First Nations elders, past present and emerging.

Reflecting on Term 1 2022

We made it! Congratulations everyone on completing the first full eleven weeks of school since term 4, 2019. This has been an incredible term, filled with learning, connection and play, as well as rebuilding our schooling stamina.

This term we have transitioned into new classrooms with new teachers, and our fantastic foundies have started their adventure into big school! We have run school council elections, student-led conferences and education family forums, with community events on the horizon. We are starting to run excursions, hold assemblies and we huffed and puffed our way through cross country. Our building continues to be renovated, our new furniture is starting to arrive and we can’t wait to see our new Sprout.

This is not to say that this term has been entirely easy - parents and carers spent much of this term restricted from our yard, we have had high levels of absence due to sickness for both students and staff and our teachers are yet to meet as a whole staff, due to DET restrictions. However patience, compassion and teamwork has helped our community travel through this with great success.

We have minimised school-based exposures and avoided remote learning completely (yay!) which has supported our students to make great progress in their learning and their cubbies (thanks hard rubbish).

“Our kids really are incredible. Here I am feeling quite tired, but they are laughing, talking and learning every second of the day! I’m actually amazed at what they have managed to achieve this term, they’ve even surprised themselves. It’s easy to forget how much energy you get from learning something new.” (BNW teacher)

Term 2 Calendar

Today, the eldest child in each BNWPS family will be bringing home a hard copy of the school’s term two calendar to put on their fridge or noticeboard. If any family would like an extra copy, there will be some available at the front office. We are releasing the calendar on a term by term basis so that we can make sure (as much as is possible) that the dates we publish are accurate. To help everyone with planning for terms three and four, we have also included some tentative key dates on the back of your term two calendar. 

On the term two calendar you will see that there is a ‘ Teacher  Professional Practice Day’. Similarly to our Parent/Teacher interviews, students are not required at school on this day. The Teacher Professional Practice Day is given to teachers to complete administration, planning and organisational tasks. It was decided this year by the DET that, instead of spreading these out across the term and needing to find replacement teachers to cover individual teachers, schools would take this as a whole staff day instead. We have only just heard of this change from the Dept and understand that it might feel that it has not been communicated in a timely manner. We apologise for any feelings of disorganisation or reorganisation that this might cause. 

Staffing Changes

It is always sad to say goodbye to members of our school family, but it is also a great joy to see people following their passions and living a rich life. The end of term 1 means that we will be saying ‘goodbye’ to Linda, who is exploring options outside of teaching and ‘welcome back’ to Shalani, who is returning from Family Leave to replace Linda in our Science and Inquiry role.

We will also be saying ‘so long’ to Jack, who has already started his next international tour with Shouse. We will see Jack return in term 4 and are currently in the process of finding the right person to teach performing arts throughout term 2 & 3.

Newsletter Publish Date

Next term, we will be publishing our newsletter on Mondays rather than on Fridays. “Why??” you might ask; 

In consultation with the Communication Sub Committee, we have been focussing on improving our channels of communication. The general feeling is that when the newsletter is published in the middle of  ‘Friday fatigue’, families might read it but not fully take in all of the important information it includes. In addition, if you read something in our newsletter on a Friday and have a burning question to ask; there is no one available over the weekend to answer your questions.  Next term, we will publish the newsletter on a Monday so that families are reading it with fresh’ Monday eyes’, and so that if anyone does have questions, the school is available to answer them.