Month: June 2021

Mr. Methven Day

Thank you for a very special day yesterday, it was so much fun! So many children dressed as me was a little disconcerting, especially when some of the children looked more like Mr. Methven than I do! What surprised me most was that 700 children can keep a secret. I had no idea what my last assembly would look like when I walked into the gym but I loved the speeches, artwork and lively concert. A big thank you to our Music Department, Irene and Vicky; our Art Department Liz and Danielle and to all of the staff who worked at rehearsing and co-ordinating the concert.

MY GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS:

I have two great achievements of which I am so proud.  Some schools are built from brick and wood, but our school is built from kindness!  I have enjoyed the privilege of working with so many wonderful teachers over the years; extraordinary teachers who embody our Beacy Culture.  Our teachers believe that every child can learn, and then they shower our children with their love, care and respect; engaging and connecting them to school and to each other. 

Our teachers model care and compassion to our students and take every opportunity to elevate them, praise them and build their self-esteem.  Our teachers fuel a love of learning and academic pursuit, imagination, curiosity and wonder, so that our children can create their own bright futures.  This is what Beacy culture is all about.  During the darkest, most difficult of times of the COVID-19 pandemic; my teachers supported this community, projecting hope in every home, supporting resilience and optimism for the future in every child! 

I am so proud of my staff.  Our teachers are my greatest achievement and my legacy to this community. Beacy Culture is much bigger than any one person; so you don’t have to worry about the transition to a new principal – Beacy Culture runs deep here and kindness flows through every heart.

Our Beacy children are a celebration and exaltation of the human spirit and today I will be a bit cheeky and claim this as my other great achievement shared with their parents and teachers!  Every time a child shows kindness to another, respect for their peers or teacher or compassion for others, that is a Beacy victory.  Every child who strives to learn and do their best or shows ambition or surprises us with their questions should be celebrated.  When we see a child’s curiosity at work, or witness their sense of wonder we know that learning will follow.  I am grateful for the child with a big sense of humor or who can see the fun in their everyday life and we love to see those children with a sense of justice and integrity as they take on the world! Our children will move, shake and shape the world and make it a better place to live.

My life and your lives are linked forever because of the experiences and special moments we have shared here at school.  Beaconsfield Primary School has been an important part of my life story and I would like to thank you all for filling my life with meaning and fun!

Cheers, Gary

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory” – Dr. Seuss

Welcome back.  It is great to have everyone back at school, for the last couple of weeks before holidays.

I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the Beacy community for their great support and efforts during the last lockdown.  I am so proud with how our community is able to adapt to the changes we face and look out for each other.  I would especially like to thank the people that made an effort to send through lovely messages to the school and the staff, showing their wonderful support to the staff at Beacy.  It does help and is greatly appreciated.

COVID practices

Our current restrictions are (as of 9am Wednesday 16th June):

• Only attend school or come on site if well.  This applies to all students, staff and parents.
• If your child is able to walk into school and leave school independently, this is encouraged.  Do not congregate in our school grounds.
• If you need to come onto our grounds, all adults to leave our site by 9:10am at drop off time and do not enter our grounds until 3:15pm at pick up time.
• Do not enter classrooms or buildings.
• We encourage you to email or phone the office.  However, if you need to have a face-to-face interaction, adults can enter our office area.  You will need to check in with the QR code and wear a mask.
• Currently masks are compulsory indoors and outdoors.

We will keep the community updated with changes to these practices.

Prep 2022

If you have a Prep or know of a family wishing to enrol their Prep for 2022, we are taking enrolments now.  We ask that our sibling enrolment paperwork is in at the office by the end of the term.  If you have any questions regarding enrolments, please contact the office.

Last month, I took some of our grade 6 students down to Beaconsfield Kindergarten to visit the kinder kids.  This is a great opportunity for our students to show their leadership skills and help the kinder kids to see how awesome our big kids are.  They answered questions from the children, played with them and then finished with a song and dance.  Everyone had a great time.

New staff

We have had some new staff join Beacy this term due to family leave.  Jodie King left us at the start of term and we welcomed the safe arrival of her new son, Ethan.  As you can see from the photo, Ethan is already being exposed to rich literature!

Nat Cayford took up the position for the new grade 4 teacher, working with Shoana Carey in the double grade.  She has been a fantastic addition to our Beacy team and we are very lucky to have her on staff.

Rochelle Airdrie has also left us this term to care for herself before the safe arrival of her new bundle of joy.  Bianca Katsiavos has joined grade 1A as their new teacher.  Bianca has been helping out at our school this year and we are delighted to have her join the team.

Dress Up and Celebration Days

We have a couple of dates for you to note:

• Thursday 24^th June – Dress as Mr Methven Day
• Friday 25^th June – Crazy Hair day to raise funds for Monash Children’s Cancer Centre

Dress as Mr Methven Day

To celebrate Mr Methven’s retirement, we are asking students to dress up as Mr Methven. Some things to know about Mr Methven that could inspire your dress up:

• Plays the guitar
• Has a beard
• Wears a suit
• Wear a driza-bone and akubra
• Loves sailing
• Grew up in the country
• In Cooper house
• Loves stories

Or you might have a memory of Mr Methven that would inspire your costume

Crazy Hair Day

On the last day of school, we will hold a Crazy Hair day.  This event is organised by our SRC (Student Representative Council) to acknowledge the amazing work of the staff at Monash Children’s Cancer Centre.  We have had, and do have, families from our community who work with the hospital to support the health and wellbeing of our students.  If you would like to donate to this worthy cause chosen by our SRC students, you can go onto QKR to donate.  We normally request a gold coin. We are not asking for coins on the day – all through the app.

We are looking forward to seeing our students and staff come to school on the last day with their crazy hair!

Mr Methven will join us back at school for the last week of term and his last week of being a Principal.  You will be able to catch him at the Kiss and Go zone in the mornings and after school.  We do have some special events planned for him but unfortunately due to the current restrictions, we are unable to have parents join us.  The staff and students will give him an amazing send off!

Stay warm. Mrs Inglis.

Reports are Coming! – Parent Portal and Student Portal
It is coming up to report time and this means that all parents will need to access the portal to view and download their children’s June reports. The portal also provides access to attendance.

I strongly urge all families to log into the portal now so that they are ready for the release of reports later this term. If you are having trouble remembering your password, don’t click the “Forgot my Password” link – it doesn’t work well. All password resets should be done by the school, therefore if you cannot recall your password, please email the school and we will reset it for you. We will respond to your email when we have done the reset.

If you are having difficulties give us a call and we will help you out.

Alternate families who have not yet received their registration details, please contact the school. If your family situation has changed, please let us know so that we can adjust portal access accordingly.

Parenting Ideas Articles
From time to time we post articles of interest on the Parenting Ideas page of this blog. Please take the time to scroll down through some of the articles. They are written by experts in the field and provide practical examples for parents. This week’s article is on the importance of sleep, and how looking at screens before bedtime can interrupt our natural sleep patterns. A great reminder for us all, to put down our devices and keep them out of bedrooms.

Have a great week!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

24th June – Dress as Mr Methven day

25th June – Last day of term 2:30 finish and Crazy hair day (gold coin donation)

COVID:

The Office is open to parents 8:30-4:00 Monday to Friday. Please be aware we can only have 2 adults in the foyer at any one time and upon entering the office please use the Covid QR code to sign in. Thank you for your cooperation.

SICKBAY:

If you have received an email regarding medication from Melissa could we please ask these are actioned promptly so we have up to date medication and records for your children.

If your child requires antibiotics, could we please ask you to administer all doses at home where possible. Thank you.

CLOTHING:

With the cooler months approaching it may be a good idea to keep a spare change of clothes in your child’s bag as they can come back from playtimes with muddy, wet clothing. We have very limited spare clothing at school, phone calls to parents will be made requesting dry clothing to be brought to school.

Please ensure all items of clothing are clearly labelled so any lost uniforms can be returned to their rightful owners.

Seth G, Eliza P, Eleanor C, Matilda N, Valentina M, Matilda H, Liam G, Roman E, Olivia T, Tahlia N, Kaylee W, Archer T, Abbie V, Nate J, Mia P, Olivia D, Hayden B, Peggi F, Neiv S, Georgia B, Keely D, Caitlyn W, Sarah A, Rylan S, Elyssa T, Amelia N, Tawhiri S, Daisy B, Mason P, Jake H, Willow D, Aanika L, Jack T, Patrick C, Harshitha P, Kai C, Taylor B, Elpida V, Ava R, Jade T, Harry F, Zaiden T, Lewis P, Layla P, Henley R, Daci T, Reina M, Henry D, Lily B, Reece B, Holly H, Luca B, Niamh I, Maggie L, Mathijs C, Fletcher R, Amelia C, Ben L, Wesley R & Jack S.

Hello everyone,

I hope you and your family are well during this lockdown.  I know that we are all disappointed to be back into lockdown, but we understand that this is important for us to keep on top of this very contagious virus.  I know that our Beaconsfield community are very resilient in pivoting in different directions to manage the changes in restrictions.  We understand that families work and operate in different ways, so please do what works best for your family. 

Today the Acting Premier announced that we will be extending the current lockdown until Thursday 10^th June (inclusive).  This means that we will continue with remote learning for our students.  We will provide you with activities for Friday as our current packs only went to Thursday.  We will then send you out next week’s learning pack by Monday. 

To support you and your child working through the learning pack, our teachers will be available on Zoom from 9:00 – 11:00am each day.  The teachers are there for students or parents (depending on the age of the child) to pop in to ask questions about the learning packs and receive support.  We understand that for our younger students, it will be the parent coming online to ask the question, however, for older and capable students, please encourage them to reach out to their teacher for support.  Please remember that there may be multiple people in this Zoom at one time so if you require a more personal conversation, please contact our teachers through the school email or by ringing the school. 

To support our students’ wellbeing, the teachers will provide two additional Zoom sessions for students to come along and see their teachers and classmates and participate in some fun activities.

Teachers will be emailing out all the details with the Zoom links. 

However, please know that if you or your child are finding this difficult and these supports are not enough for your family, please reach out by emailing or ringing the school for our teachers to contact you.

We acknowledge these are challenging times for everyone, so please be kind to yourself.  Take time each day to make sure that you are looking after you and your family.  Hopefully we are all back together soon.

Heidi Inglis (Acting Principal)

We are sending all our families a big virtual Beacy hug. Stay safe and we all look forward to seeing you all again soon.