Month: February 2021

Hello Beacy families,

I hope this newsletter finds you all in a good place and you are managing our Circuit Breaker Lockdown. At this stage, we are working with the information that we are all back onsite on Thursday 18th February. If this is not the case, we will receive information from the Department of Education tomorrow.

Also, if there are changes to the way we operate, we will inform all our families through our Sentral App tomorrow.

Virtual Information Sessions

Last night our staff from Prep to Grade 2 presented their Information Night. It was lovely to see so many of our families attending the online session. The recording of the session was sent out to families today. Our Grade 3/4 and 5/6 sessions are this evening. Information and links have been emailed out to parents. I hope you are able to attend the session or watch the emailed out recording.

If you have any questions for our teachers, please do not hesitate to email, call or catch up with them, when we return onsite.

Our staff will be hosting Progress Interviews. Grade 1 to 6 will be in the week of Monday 22nd March and Preps will be next term in the week of Monday 26th April. These interviews will be conducted on Zoom. Booking information will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.

Leadership at Beaconsfield Primary School

One of the highlights in my job is working with our school captains. I met with them at the start of the year to hear their opinions on how to run assemblies during these times. They have seen different models of how we have done assembly – in person and remotely. Through this discussion it was clear that they missed the opportunity of speaking in public. We then had a go at running a live assembly to our school. We had some of our students in the gym with myself and the rest of the school watching from their classroom.

Even though our captains did not have 700 students looking them directly in the eye, the thrill of speaking to an audience was still there. The captains did an amazing job and the technology was a success. Now that we know it can work, we will endeavour to record our live assemblies and send out to all our families to view.

Our School Captains also participated in a children’s panel with the Shire of Cardinia. They had the opportunity to meet the mayor Brett Owen and hear about what council is responsible for. They then had the opportunity to work with other captains from local schools to determine what they see is important in their community and what they would like council to put their efforts into. The students came up with many great ideas such as a local hospital, more opportunities for sports and higher education places. The students felt very privileged to have their voice heard.

Enjoy the last few days of lockdown and this glorious sunshine. I am looking forward to seeing you and your child on Thursday.

Heidi Inglis (Acting Principal)

Circuit Breaker Lockdown

Well I think that lockdown came as a surprise to us all! Once again, well done to our staff and families who adapted so quickly to the stay at home orders. Luckily, we have done this before, and we were able to switch to “learn from home” mode very quickly and efficiently. Our staff had already prepared virtual information night events, therefore these sessions were able to proceed successfully. If you missed out, links to the recordings have been made available.

In our current times it is important to be kind to yourselves. We are in the midst of a pandemic and it is normal to feel overwhelmed, anxious, unsure, and a whole host of other feelings — even all at once. Please reach out if there is something we can do to support you and your child during this time.

Parents and Friends
A big thanks to the parents/carers who attended our (virtual) Parents and Friends meeting.
Don’t worry if you couldn’t make the meeting, your contributions are always welcome.
A big thanks goes to our office bearers for 2021:
President: Alison W
Vice President: Nicole N
Secretary: Amy S

Thanks also to those who agreed to be general committee members, your contribution to the school is greatly appreciated. If you are available to help from time to time, leave your details at the office to be joined up to the “What’s App” group. This way you are connected to the P & F conversations and can see when the committee need some help.

Student Safety and Parking
Our “drop offs” and “pick ups” have been running really smoothly so far this year. Thanks to everyone for contributing to this. Many of our parents are helping to reduce congestion at pick up times, by remaining on the other side of the roads and allowing their children to walk to them. Thank you for this, we appreciate it.

It is important that from time to time, we provide a couple of reminders in the interests of the safety of all of our students and families, therefore please be mindful of the following:
– Use the crossing – even if you need to walk a little further, it sets the right example for our children.
– ‘Kiss and Go’ means exactly that, do not leave your vehicle and only stay in that zone on Lyle Ave for two minutes.
– No vehicles are to enter the school driveways between 8:30am and 5:00pm.
– Please do not park on nature strips, our students are put at risk when cars are driving and reversing in and out.

Our local by laws officer visits our ‘Kiss n Go’ zone and surrounding areas regularly and monitors closely to ensure that drivers obey the signs. Between 8am and 9:30am and between 2:30pm and 4pm cars are not to be in the ‘Kiss n Go’ zone for longer than 2 minutes. This means that cars cannot line up prior to pick up time and wait. When the zone operates properly the traffic runs smoothly around the whole area.

We always have staff members on duty until 3:45pm to wait with children who have not yet been collected. In that 15 mins, the area clears substantially. Any children not collected by 3:45pm are taken to the office to wait there for a few minutes. A bell signals 3:45 to remind any children still in the yard to report to the office.

Please also note that children are not to get in vehicles that are not properly parked. Do not allow your child to step out onto the road to get into vehicles, even if they are stopped in traffic.

We aim to teach our children safe behaviours, and expect our adults to help in modelling safe practices. This includes walking those few extra metres to use the crossing. Please do not cross here near the front of the school.

We thank you for your support in this.

Have a great week!

Dates to remember:

Labour Day Public Holiday – Monday 8th March

Curriculum Day – Tuesday 9th March

Family credits:

Some families will find they have a credit on their family statements. If you wish to use this credit for your essential items, please email the school and ask us to use your credit.

Qkr!:

To check if a payment has been made through Qkr!, click on the activity tab at the top right hand side of the screen and this shows you a full record of your receipts. This can ensure you do not duplicate your payment. Excursions and payments will remain on Qkr until the due date, even once you have made your payment.

Isabella G, Mitchell S, Logan G, Luke N, Blake D, Oliver H, Charli A, Alicia M, Zara R, Freddie Y, Ezra F, Lillie S, Madden D, Zofia Z, Zahara P, Katie L, Hamish C, Flynn S, Lachlan D, Mali L, Joshua P, Brooklyn M, Lacey J, Hiya M, Ashlee L, Billie S, Chloe S, Ayden S, Ava T, Isobel T, Hudson F, Blake S, Evie J, Jake H, Jack F, Ella G, Jayda M, Chloe T, Scarlett C, Mabel L, Levi C, Anne A, Kobi R, Cenzo T, Alysha B, Max H, Yasas K, Jacob B, Shiloh T, Aaliyah P, Layla H, Ollie M, Olivia T, Chelsea W, Allegra S, Jake B, Lily B, Chase M, Archie H, Hope T, Oliver W, Si R, Blayze P, Ryder P, Ryder S, Elyssa J, Louis S, Toby H, Memphis Y, Caden H, Roy P, Ava C, Toby T, Charlotte B, Mila G, Nate C, Kane A, Flynn C, Sofie F, Charli M, Emily A, Hamish K, Patton T, Ava P, Emmy H, Flynn P, Zac H, Paige J, Dominic R, Emma W, Remy H, Georgie T, Erin S, Joshua W, Hir M, Archie B, Samson S, Joshua R, Ella C, Kaiyah C, Jack A, Emmy M, Liam D, Ryder S, Linkin H, Olivia W, Max R, Sienna J, Lane P, Callum C, Mary D, Elodie R, Jai E, Jax E, Harvey G, Renalynn E, Liam W, Liberty W, Hudson P, Angus K, Ashton T, Liam T, Jake D, Emma J & Annabelle C

Welcome back to school for 2021! It has been wonderful to see our children return to school with such enthusiasm this year. Our classes quickly settled in, with a calm and happy start with our students really happy to see each other. Our prep students have seen one of the calmest starts for years — except of course for the torrential rain that accompanied them on day one. These kids can’t take a trick, their transition day wasn’t much chop in regards to the weather either! They have shown such resilience and enjoyed being in their new classrooms with their new friends. They all got out into the yard on their second day at school, and it was terrific to see our bigger children so eager to show them around and help them out.

New Blogging Addresses

We now have new blogging addresses for our classroom blogs. The classroom blogs are an excellent way for parents and carers to keep in touch with what is going on in the classrooms. We have moved to a new format this year, with one blog per class level. The blogs are still in the process of being developed at the moment, so more information will come regarding how to subscribe to them. If you bookmarked the old blogs, you will need to update your bookmarks to the new addresses. It is a great way to keep in touch with what is going on in your children’s classrooms.

New blog addresses:

Newsletter – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Newsletter
Grade Prep – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Preps
Grade One – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade1
Grade Two – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade2
Grade Three – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade3
Grade Four – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade4
Grade Five – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade5
Grade Six – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade6