Author: Linda Amos

Junior Cross Country
What a fun day we had all dressed up in our house colours watching our junior students participate in the cross country event. It was lovely to see everyone out there having a go, with our senior captains helping out and encouraging the younger children. Well done to everyone who got out there and participated. We were lucky with the weather, and were able to put on a fun event.

Social Media and Photo Permission
As we haven’t really had large school events for quite some time, it is easy to forget some of the processes and procedures we have in place. Whilst we understand that parents often like to capture photos of their children participating in events such as the Junior Cross Country, it is important to recognise that it is really only acceptable to photograph your own children. To protect the safety and privacy of our students we do not allow the photographing of children other than your own. Images of children other than your own, or images of school staff should not be uploaded to social media.

Well Done Austin!
Over the past two years Austin has been growing his hair out with a great gesture in mind, to donate it to someone in need. After reaching the necessary length, Austin recently shaved his head and donated his hair. In addition to his hair donation, Austin is raising money with the charity, Hair with Heart. Please click on the link below if you would like to support him. Well done Austin, what a kind and generous gesture!

https://hairwithheart.variety.org.au/fundraisers/austinburns/hair-with-heart

Evacuation Drill
On Monday we practised our on site emergency evacuation. Our whole school did a fantastic job of accounting for everybody and getting everyone to our meeting point in 8 minutes. In the event of a real emergency, parents will be contacted as soon as we have secured the safety of all of our students and adults. We have on site and off site evacuation points, and in the event of a real emergency, we ask that parents keep our phone lines free so that we can communicate with the appropriate authorities. We will communicate with you as soon as we can. Well done Beacy Team!

Have a great week!

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.

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.

Junior Cross Country
Unfortunately we had to cancel the cross country event, as we could see some rain activity coming our way on the radar. Our grounds were pretty wet under foot too. Hopefully we can run the event next week.

Road Safety – Concerned Neighbours
We have recently been contacted by some Beacy neighbours, concerned by unsafe behaviours they have noticed before and after school by some parents and children. Please ensure that you use the crossings and footpaths, and that you have spoken to your children about riding their bikes and scooters safely. Remember to model safe road use as your children watch and copy your behaviours.

Welcome Back to Term 2
It is always lovely to see the smiling faces of our children return for a new term of learning. This term we have lots to look forward to and it starts this week with Photo Day. Please ensure that all students are on time on this day as we have a lot to get through. Most importantly don’t forget your big smiles! Schoolpix have indicated that they cannot take photos of anyone displaying cold or flu symptoms. It is therefore important that anyone displaying these symptoms stay at home. Schoolpix are happy for people to attend their office to have photos taken, if you missed out on the day.

Mothers Day Stall and Raffle
Our Mother’s Day raffle is on Monday 3rd May and the stall is on Thursday 6th May. The children love to come and choose a gift for the special people in their lives and how nice that this year they can do this once again. Thanks to the P & F team for organising the Mother’s Day raffle and stall.

Classroom Blogs
Great News! Our NEW classroom blogs are now ready for subscription. By subscribing to these, you will receive an email when a new post has been uploaded about your child’s classroom.

To subscribe look for the ‘Subscribe Here’ box on the right hand top corner of the page, on a desktop device or by scrolling down to the bottom of the first page on your mobile device. Please remember to check your ‘Junk or Spam’ box as these notifications can be delivered there on the first few occasions depending upon your email security.

The blog addresses are below:

Preps – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Preps
Grade 1 – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade1
Grade 2 – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade2
Grade 3 – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade3
Grade 4 – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade4
Grade 5 – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade5
Grade 6 – https://blogs.beaconsfield.vic.edu.au/Grade6

Have a great week!
Linda

Easter Raffle

What a success our Easter raffle was! It looks like the Beacy community was ready to celebrate after the interesting year we have had. We had so many families contribute to our prize pool and so the committee ended up making up 48 fabulous prizes. The children were also excited about celebrating and purchased lots of tickets in the hope that they would be a lucky winner. The raffle raised a massive $2278.50! A big thanks to the Beacy community for making the Easter raffle fundraiser a big success. The Parents and Friends committee have been very busy planning some fun fundraisers, and were also kept busy with the Easter bun deliveries. Thanks team for the work that you do to contribute to our school community. We appreciate it!

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Regional Swimming

Well done to our Regional swimmers who went to MSAC on Monday to represent our school. It was great to see our children leaving school ready to take on the challenge of competition. Congratulations to Olivia D, Max H, Zoe M, Billy R, Tahlia S, Jack S, Matilda T, Jye W and Zofia Z for representing our school at this level. I believe that our students swam well with some personal bests being achieved. Thanks to the parents who were able to drive the students to the event and support them.

School Leaders

On Wednesday the 24th of March, our school captains attended a leadership planning session in association with the Cardinia Shire Council. This was run to build relationships with leaders from other schools and develop a platform for children to have a voice in their community. Our captains completed group tasks and heard from the Cardinia Shire CEO Carol Jeffs and the Mayor Brett Owen. Thanks Mr Buckingham for taking the students.

I hope you all have a relaxing holiday and a hoppy Easter!

World’s Greatest Shave – Well Done Josh!

A big congratulations to Josh in Grade 6 who has shaved off his hair in support of the World’s Greatest Shave. Josh raised $652.75 for this great cause, and his funds go straight towards helping families who are dealing with blood cancer. We love it when our children think beyond their own situation and actively do something to help others. Thank you Josh for caring, we are very proud of your efforts!

Speaking of good samaritans – A big thanks to the good samaritan, who noticed that a lot of mud had washed down onto the pathway near the top boom gate in Lyle Ave. Word has it that the good samaritan, came back with a shovel, broom and wheelbarrow and cleaned up the path. We are very grateful and say thank you for your act of kindness!

Have a great week!

Classroom Blogs
We are still working on the subscription function of the blogs so that when it works properly you will get an email to say that the blog has been updated. For the time being you may just need to check on the link from time to time to see what has been added. Hopefully this will be up and working soon as the blogs are a great place to see what is going on in the classrooms. Links to the blogs can be found on the right hand side of this page if you are viewing on a desktop computer. If you are on a mobile device you may need to scroll down.

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Talking to your Kids
Ever asked your child what they did at school, and received the reply, “Nothing”? Often our children can be tired, hungry or simply on ‘information overload,’ and don’t know what to share with you. Sometimes they just don’t know where to start.

Why not try a new approach, with the following conversation starters. Try to be more specific with your questions and you may find that you get a different response. Sometimes thinking about a specific moment in the day, triggers a whole lot of memories that will be more easily shared. Good luck!
– What game did you play at recess?
– Who do you remember seeing outside?
– What did you read today?
– What did you do in maths today?
– What did you do well today in PE?
– What does your classroom look like?
– What is your favourite part of the classroom? Why?
– What did you like the best/least about today?

Remember it’s best not to turn it into an inquisition, just start with one or two questions and see what follows.

Webinar – Communicating with Teenage Boys
Yes, I know that it may seem like a long way off, but it will be here before you know it, and it may be useful to go into those teenage years armed and ready. As our school subscribes to Parenting Ideas, we have been offered free tickets to the webinar. To find out more click here.

Have a great week!

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!

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.

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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

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