Month: August 2023

We certainly had to practise our resilience on Wednesday night, when we all sat down to watch the Matildas sadly miss out on their chance to win the World Cup.  However, there is so much to celebrate about this event, that we all quickly moved on the next day and were smiling again.  What this event and this team has achieved for sport, soccer and girls in sport is amazing and I am so grateful to have been part of this history.  Hopefully they are able to win on Saturday and finish third and I am sure in the next World Cup, they will go all the way!

Student Voice and Agency

This week we had an exciting activity running at lunchtime for our grade 2 students.  Piper, our science captain, run a slime making activity with a team of grade 6 students.  Piper is very passionate about science and has worked closely with our science teacher, Ms Jacobsen, and her friends to offer our grade 2 students a fun activity to promote Science.  The grade 2 students were given opportunity to make slime during lunchtimes.  Before the activity, Piper needed to test and work out the correct recipe.  She also needed to work with a budget. Here is her recount.

“I’m Piper and I am the science captain for Beacy Primary.  Last term I thought about what I could do for a project, when the idea of slime popped into my head.  Over the course of many weeks, Ms Jacobsen, my team and I planned and tested our slimes until week 6 when we did the event with the grade twos.  It was so much fun and we had a blast.”

Piper – Science Captain

School Interviews

This morning we opened the school interview’s booking site.  This term we will be holding student-led interviews.  This is an opportunity for your child to tell and show you what they are been learning.  This is a very powerful experience for your child to share and to take on that sense of ownership of their learning – because ultimately, they are the one doing the work.  Our teachers provide the space, the opportunities, the resources, the strategies and the support but the student is the one that needs to engage and do the work.

Interviews will be running in the week beginning Monday 4^th September and will be held onsite in their classrooms.  Your child is required to attend the interview.

Here is the link:

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/5dyd5

If you have any questions about booking interviews, please reach out to our office staff or your child’s teacher.

Building Works

At the end of the month, the Department of Education has employed contractors to work on our ramps at our school.  These are the ramps between the buildings and there is also some works up at the portables.  This work needs to be done to make sure our ramps comply with current standards.  This will cause disruption and we ask that you are patient and observe all signs for where you are able to walk.  We will know more once they commence as to how it will impact us.

Road Safety

As some of you may have seen, I had the pleasure of being the crossing person the other day.  Well done to all our students and families for demonstrating great road safety.  Over the past couple of weeks we have noticed a couple of behaviours that are unsafe.

• Balls – please make sure if your child is carrying a ball, that they hold it while around roads and especially when crossing the roads.  Occasionally, a ball will bounce on the road and a child’s natural instinct is to chase the ball onto the road.  This is frightening for everyone.  Once inside our school gates, they can bounce them as much as they like.
• Crossing at Lyle ave – I recognise that sometimes we wish to walk the shortest distance, but crossing at the bottom of Lyle ave, near the Princes Hwy, is such an unsafe option.  Cars are coming from every different direction.  Please take those few extra steps and use the crossing.  You want to role model to your child the safest way to cross roads so the day they are to do it independently, you know you have shown them the safest behaviour.  Also, when walking out our gate near the gazebo, turn right instead of left, and use the crossing.  Could I ask all our parents to practise road safety, as all our children are watching all our adults.

Casey Netball Tournament

Mrs Humphries had the pleasure of attending the Casey Netball tournament and here is her reflection:

“On Tuesday 8th August I had the honour of chaperoning 20 of our students from the 3/4 cohort at the Casey Netball Tournament held at Casey Stadium.

There is absolutely no doubt that the day could not have gone ahead without the support of our wonderful parent community who transported our children to the event, encouraged and cheered throughout the games, scored the games and finally coached the games! Special mention must go out to Kelli Staniforth and Susan Dewsnap for their coaching prowess!

A highlight of the day for me was the children’s support of each other, willingness to try different positions, encouragement of each other, listening and respecting umpires decisions, appreciation shown to the opposition and generally being good humans! A true exemplar of our Beacy spirit!”

Here are some thoughts from some students that attended:

On Tuesday the 3-4’s went to Netball. We played 5 games and everyone had fun. My highlight was getting 4 goals in the second half – Mason

My highlight was playing in Wing Attack because I got the ball a lot – Holly

My highlight was getting to play with the team – Dane

Suz Humphries – grade 3 teacher

Picking up early

Just a reminder about our picking up procedures.  If your child is leaving early as you have an appointment or an unavoidable event to attend to, please let your child and their teacher know of the arrangement and we will endeavour to have your child at the office at the time stated.  Please come into the office to collect them. Please note that only adults listed on your child’s emergency contact list are authorised to collect students.

You can let your child’s teacher know by writing a note, speaking to the teacher or office staff, or emailing the school.

We are trying very hard to avoid distracting the classrooms and the learning happening, so we wish to limit phone calls to the classroom.  We will only call up to the classroom if your child has not arrived at the office 10 minutes after the stated time.  If you choose to arrive early, we ask you to wait until the time that you told your child and classroom teacher.

We do understand that some events are unavoidable but we ask that every effort is made to ensure students are attending and completing full days of school.  The teachers work hard to ensure an engaging program is provided and students do not enjoy missing out. 

We have many fun activities coming up for our students – Book Week dress up on Monday, P&F Disco on Friday after school and our SRC are organising a Beacy’s Got Talent.  I hope everyone enjoys these special events.

Heidi Inglis

Principal

Hello everyone,

I received a wonderful surprise when walking into school this morning – on my door, and Mrs Amos and Mr Buckingham’s, were very large posters from the students with their hand cuts with messages of gratitude.  What a great way to start the day and to celebrate Principal’s day!  When reading my messages from the students, it was moving to hear how I have had an impact on them and how well they know me.  We (our staff) all come to work every day to make a difference in these children’s lives and feel very privileged to have the opportunity to build relationships with them to help them learn, grow and be the best versions of themselves.

And that’s right – I have returned from my holiday in Europe and it is lovely to be back at Beacy.  I had a wonderful time travelling through three countries and visiting five cities.  I went to London, Bath, Paris, Berlin and Dortmund (England, France and Germany).  Everything went well and we got to see and explore lots of places – and did lots and lots of walking.  My highlights were definitely visiting family in Germany, watching a cricket game at Lord’s, watching theatre shows in West End London, going to Disneyland and staying in the town of Bath.  However, there are so many more but one thing I did love was meeting and talking to people – those traveling and the locals. 

While I was away, I did think a lot about the students back home and making connections with them.  I am someone who gets nervous and anxious.  Taking a trip overseas and experiencing new things (especially being in Paris where I do not speak French) was a big challenge.  There were times where the cognitive load of navigating in places where I am not familiar, trying to communicate effectively, putting myself out of my comfort zone was a huge task.  I had to call on my strategies to help me through at times and everything went well, and I am so proud that I did everything I wanted to and I have no regrets. 

Our students are often placed in these situations and it very important as adults in their lives, that we provide guidance and support to help them work through their challenges.  This is always highlighted when we have camp approaching.  Attending camp is a fantastic experience and one that we would love all our students to experience.  While going to camp can present many new experiences for students, please encourage them to give them all a go.  If as a parent, you are worried, please speak to staff and other parents about your concerns so you are able to hear about how it looks and alleviate your concerns.  Also, as a parent, there are many things you can do to support your child.  If sleeping away from home is your child or your worry, then start having some sleepovers at other houses now.  A night with family and close friends is a really good start.

If trying activities like flying foxes and giant swings are worrying them, remember we have an agreement at school of ‘right to pass/participate’.  This means that doing the activity is solely in the hands of the student to choose.  As staff, we will encourage them or modify the activity as we want them to achieve success.  We also find that other students are awesome and step up to support their friends.  There is nothing better than sitting at the dinner table and recounting your experiences of the day.

Also, if you are having financial challenges with how to pay for camp, please come and speak to us as we can help with putting together payment plans.

A couple of events happening this term

Book Week – Monday 21^st August

We will be celebrating Book Week.  We are asking students to dress up as a character from a book – have fun coming up with costumes.  We will have some prizes for those that have dressed up.  We will have a parade at assembly that afternoon and there will be some activities for students in class.

A great week to celebrate all the rich literature that is available for us all to read.

Disco Night – Friday 25^th August

Parent and Friends are hosting a disco for our students from $10.  Prep to grade 2 students – from 4:30 to 6:00pm and grade 3 to 6 – from 6:30 – 8:30pm.  This will be in our school gym.  All the information is on QKR.  Please note that all purchases of tickets must be made by Wednesday 16^th August.  We cannot accept any after this date.

We have a small team of wonderful parents organising this event and we have had lots of parents putting up their hands to help the running of the day.  We are so fortunate to have a community of parents who help to put together a great night for our students.

For those following the World Cup soccer, it was exciting to see Australia have a win the other night to keep them in the tournament.  Our next game is on Monday night against Denmark.  If you are following another team, I hope they are having success.  Let’s hope the Matildas can go all the way.

Heidi Inglis

Principal

Making friends at the Tower of London