Month: February 2023

I hope you and your family are managing through the current heat wave and keeping cool.

On Thursday students participated in Growing with Gratitude.  We will share photos and a recount in our grade blogs.

Playground opened

Last week the new playground finished construction and was opened to the students.  It has been very popular and every year level has had a lunchtime dedicated to them to play on it.

The idea and design of our playground came from 2022 Student Representative Council (SRC).  Every child at our school was given the opportunity to design a playground.  SRC then took all their ideas and came up with five concepts for the new playground.  SRC held a meeting with leadership and presented their ideas.  We then approached two playground companies and asked them to design playgrounds fitting the brief.  Both companies presented to leadership and SRC captains.  We could see that one company was very close to what we wanted, we gave them feedback and they changed their design, and it became the design you can now see.

We are also very privileged to have such a supportive and generous community and the money raised from last year’s Splash and Dash went towards our playground.

Family Open Afternoon

We hope your family can join us on Monday 20^th February from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.  Information about our school and 2023 was sent home yesterday for you to be familiar with as we will not be hosting information nights.

We would love our families to come along on Monday as it is a great opportunity for you to meet your child’s teacher, see their classroom, walk around our school grounds and ask questions about 2023.  All our specialist classrooms will be open.  Please be aware that we do have some sporting clubs using our facilities (gym and oval) and they will be onsite at this time as well.

OSHClub will also be open for you to pop in and meet the team.  Below is some information from OSHClub.

We hope you are able to join us.

Beaconsfield OSHClub provide exciting adventures daily for the Beaconsfield Primary children. We are open in the morning from 6.30 till 9.00, where we set children up for a great day at school with our Breakfast Club, and are back again for more fun 3.30-6.30pm where students have the opportunity to build long-lasting friendships! We also run a wonderful Holiday Program! Come and meet the staff, see our program in full swing, and join in the fun. 

We hope to meet you on Monday! 

Danielle and the team

40^th Anniversary of Ash Wednesday

On Thursday, I had the privilege of attending the official opening of the commemorative exhibition of the 40^th Anniversary of Ash Wednesday.  The local CFA and community have put together a wonderful exhibition to show the devastation that occurred on Ash Wednesday in 1983 and how the community came together to support each other and rebuild.  Sadly, people perished on this day fighting the fires, and many homes and buildings were destroyed. 

I have memories of this day as I did live locally.  I could see the smoke and fires from my home and school.  My family also knew people who had to evacuate and lost their homes.  I am sure there are many in our community who were touched by this day.

The community event is free and will run from Thursday 16^th to Sunday 19^th February at the Upper Beaconsfield Community Hall. 

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to read our school’s collection notice, found on our website.  Link for collection statement.

Emergency evacuation

At Beaconsfield Primary School we work hard to ensure we have a safe school environment for our community.  As part of our Occupational, Health and Safety we conduct Emergency Management drills each term.

In a couple of weeks, we have planned to conduct our first practice.  We will take a moment to allow our students to hear the different bell sounds we have.  We have three bells:

• A bell to let students know that school is commencing, lunchtimes and conclusion of the day
• A bell to let everyone know to evacuate to the gym
• A bell to let everyone know to take cover and hide

Each bell has a different sound and a different action to take.  We will listen to these bells and then teachers will discuss with students what is required of them.

Whilst we hope that we never have to enact our emergency plan, it is important that everyone is aware of them and knows what to do in an emergency.

As parents and carers, it is a good opportunity for you to talk to your child about what they need to do in emergency at your house.  After our practice, they might share with you what they have learnt from school.

School Council

On Monday 20^th March, we will be running our Annual General Meeting for School Council.  We currently have a couple of vacancies on our council.  If you are interested in being a part of this group, please contact the office for a form.  Nomination forms need to be in by 24^th February.

What is a school council and what does it do?

All government schools in Victoria have a school council. They are legally constituted bodies that are given powers to set the broad direction of a school, in accordance with Ministerial Order 1280 Constitution of Government School Councils, and the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. In doing this, a school council is able to directly influence the quality of education that the school provides for its students.

Code of conduct for school councillors

School councils in Victoria are public entities as defined by the Public Administration Act 2004.
School councillors must abide by the Code of Conduct for Directors of Victorian Public Entities issued by the Victorian Public Sector Commission. The Code of Conduct is based on the Victorian public sector values and requires councillors to:

• act with honesty and integrity – be truthful, open and clear about their motives and declare any real, potential or perceived conflict of interest and duty
• act in good faith in the best interests of the school
  – work cooperatively with other councillors and the school community, be reasonable, and make all decisions with the best interests of students foremost in their minds
• act fairly and impartially – consider all relevant facts of an issue before making a decision, seek to have
  a balanced view, never give special treatment to a person or group and never act from self-interest
• use information appropriately – respect confidentiality and use information for the purpose for which it was made available
• exercise due care, diligence and skill – accept responsibility for decisions and do what is best for the school
• use the position appropriately – not use the position as a councillor to gain an advantage
• act in a financially responsible manner – observe all the above principles when making financial decisions
• comply with relevant legislation and policies – know what legislation and policies are relevant for which decisions and obey the law
• demonstrate leadership and stewardship –
  set a good example, encourage a culture of accountability, manage risks effectively, exercise care and responsibility to keep the school strong and sustainable.

Enjoy your weekend and I look forward to seeing you on Monday afternoon.

Heidi Inglis

Welcome everyone to 2023.  What a fabulous start we have had – I hope you and your family have had a smooth transition into or back into school.  If you are experiencing any difficulties, please contact your child’s teacher to discuss.  We are here to support you and your child.

Please note that we will hold our next Curriculum Day on Friday 10^th March.  Students will not attend this day as our staff will be participating in professional learning.

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide you with information about our school and keep you up-to-date with events that are happening.  We aim to distribute it fortnightly on Fridays.  I hope you take the time to read through it so you know what is happening and feel very informed!

Welcome to new and returning staff

You may have heard about the teacher shortage being experienced at the moment.  We are not the only industry being impacted by staffing.  At Beaconsfield Primary School we are very fortunate that we have not been impacted at this stage and have filled all our positions.

This year we have two new teachers and three of our teachers returning.  We welcome Charlie Nilsson (grade 3N) and Julie Taylor (tutoring) to our school.  Charlie and Julie have both worked at our school as relief teachers so they are very familiar with our students and staff.

We also have Alyssa Clinnick (German), Hayley Dimitrakas (grade 6) and Renae Sulaiman (wellbeing program) returning from family leave.  I know everyone was excited to have these wonderful teachers back at our school.

As mentioned last year, we have introduced a couple of new specialist program this year.  Your child will continue to have Performing Arts, Physical Education, Science and Visual Arts for the whole year.  We have introduced German and DigiTech and your child will attend one each semester (two terms).  Therefore, if your child had German this week, they will attend for term 1 and 2 and then change to DigiTech for term 3 and 4 – or vice versa.

Family Open Afternoon

We will be hosting a Family Open Afternoon where we invite all our families to join us on Monday 20^th February from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.

This is a great opportunity for you to meet your child’s teacher, see their classroom, walk around our school grounds and ask questions about 2023.

You will receive information about our school and 2023 before this afternoon.  We will not be hosting information nights this year, however, we will still provide families with information and this afternoon is an opportunity to ask questions.

We hope you are able to join us.

Wellbeing Program

Our wellbeing program continues this year with Renae Suliaman.  Renae will be working Mondays and Thursdays.  If you feel your child might require some extra support, please speak to your child’s teacher regarding a referral.  Here is some information about the program from Renae:

“The Wellbeing Program of 2023 is taking a whole school approach to encouraging healthy and productive members of our Beacy community. Students may also have the opportunity to participate in the Wellbeing Program. They will work in small groups or individually to learn and practise strategies to help move through challenges in their lives. Students will be in the program for a set number of weeks and will then receive casual check-ins to see how they are practising their new skills. If a child requires more time on the program after some time away this is always a possibility.”

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!”― Audrey Hepburn

We will also be having an incursion for all our students.  On Thursday 16^th February, your child is invited to participate in ‘Growing with Gratitude’.  The school is funding this program so there is no cost for families.  Please complete the consent form on Sentral.

Growing With Gratitude (GWG) is a mental health and wellbeing prevention program for primary school students. GWG supports students through whole school and classroom approaches. The aim of the program is to empower primary school children with valuable tools and skills to help them lead healthy, successful and productive lives.

Growing With Gratitude will be visiting Beacy on February 16^th where they will work with each year level. Students will participate in games, activities and reflections to practice the skills of gratitude, empathy, positive reflection, kindness, self-awareness and ownership. They will debrief at the end of each activity about how the skill can be used in their lives to move forward from challenges and to help others.

At the end of the day, the staff will participate in a Professional Learning session and will be provided with activities to continue the program in their classroom for the rest of the year.  We are very excited to be able to provide our students will tools and skills to help support them as they navigate through life in a healthy way.

School grounds

We hope you have been able to have a wander around our school grounds this week.  We have an amazing team of staff who worked over the holiday to ensure that our outdoor setting is a great place for our students to be in.

I would like to thank the Carr family for organising the donation of a very substantial amount of good size trees for our school.  They have all been planted around our school and it will not be long before they are providing lovely shade for our students and a beautiful environment to look at.

We also had a few trees removed.  We conduct annual tree audits and as a school that is 133 years old, we have a few very old trees.  The few trees that were removed have already been replaced.

I hope you have seen that the new playground has begun its installation and is so close to completion.  This playground was funded by the amazing efforts of our community from last year’s Fun Run.  We are waiting for the rubber flooring and final mulch and then we will be able to open it for students to use.

Drop off and pick ups

We have had a few days of settling into the new year.  I would just like to mention a couple of things:

• Our school grounds are open from 8:30am.  Please do not bring children before this time.  On the one-off event that you require to drop them off early, your child is to sit in the office foyer until 8:30am, that is when we have staff out in the yard for duty.  If you require more permanent arrangement before school, OSHClub are open before school from 6:30am.
• In the morning we lock the gates by 9:15am.  As soon as the bell has gone and students are in classes, please make your way off our grounds.
• At the other end of the day, please do not enter the grounds until 3:15pm.
• The drop off area in Lyle Avenue is affectionately known to us as our “Kiss ‘n Go” area. Drivers are not to leave their cars, and should be in the area for no longer than 2 minutes (the sign is very hard to see). The area flows really well when everyone follows the rules.
• Please remember to abide by the road laws – drive very carefully around the area, do not park on nature strips or block roundabouts or driveways.  Please do not put our students at risk and we also need to consider the neighbours. 

Assembly

Our whole school assemblies will resume next week on Monday and parents are invited to join us.  We hold assemblies every fortnight.  We aim to start the assembly at 2:45pm and they are held in the shed or gym – depending on the weather.  We will open up the top gate at 2:40pm for parents to enter. 

As our Preps are settling into school, they will not be joining us at this stage.  The Prep teachers will inform you when they will commence coming to assemblies.  Prep parents are still more than welcome to attend assembly next week.

I have provided you with a lot of information.  I hope it is helpful.  Please remember if you have questions about the school, please contact the office.  If you have questions regarding your child’s learning and their grade, please speak to your child’s teacher.  We have staff on the gates before and after school every day.  Sometimes we are helpful to answer a question or point you in the right way to obtain the answer – feel free to test our knowledge!

Let’s celebrate we have completed the first week of 2023!  I am sure we have many tired students.  Hopefully they can rest up on the weekend, ready for another wonderful week of learning.

Heidi Inglis (Principal)