Author: Heidi Inglis

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

On Monday we celebrated Superhero Day to raise money for the Royal Children’s Hospital.  Our school raised $856.35 .  Thank you to all those families that contributed and dressed up.  We all had a fun day dressing up – thank you SRC, Eve and Nate for organising.

Prep Enrolments 2024

Enrolments have currently open for Preps 2024.  The Department of Education have introduced timelines (similar to the timelines for Year 7 enrolments).  All enrolment submissions are to submitted to the school by Friday 28^th July.  All siblings are required to complete an enrolment form, please do not assume that we know who all our younger brothers and sisters are.  Offers will be sent out by 11^th August.  Last year, we were full after our first offer of acceptance so please make sure if you have a child or know of anyone who would like to attend our school in Prep next year, to collect an enrolment form and submit it by 28^th July.  We have received a lot of applications for next year, so it is important we have all our siblings’ applications to avoid disappointment.

In regards to our grade 6 students, they will find out their Year 7 acceptances early next term.

Volunteers – Parent helpers

A big ‘thank you’ to all our parents who have completed our requirements to comply with the Child Safe Standards to be a volunteer at our school.  I suggest if you have not done it and you can see in the future that you might help out in the classroom, on an excursion or would like to be considered for a camp helper, that you complete the process now – to avoid missing out or frustrations if the process takes longer than expected.

Last year, we received new Child Safe Standards. As part of the new standards, we need to induct our volunteers that are working at our school with information regarding the code of conduct and their duty when working with our students at Beaconsfield Primary School. 

You were sent a notification regarding the process through the Sentral for Parents apps and an email.  If you cannot find the information, please email the school and we will send out all the information and links. Once completed you will be eligible to be a volunteer at our school. 

Your induction will last for this year and we will ask you to complete it each year. Thank you for your support and completing the induction. It is important that everyone working with our students are ensuring that they are creating a safe environment for all our students.  

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disabilities.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au)

Leave

As I mentioned to the students at assembly on Monday, I will be taking long service leave next term.  I will be away the first three weeks, returning in week 4.  I will be heading overseas to visit London, Paris and Berlin.  While I am in Germany, I will be visiting family.

Tyson Buckingham will be taking on the role of Acting Principal during my absence.  Cara Trott will join the leadership team and Chris Jeffries will take a couple of days of the week working in the leadership office. Linda Amos is back on board after enjoying her leave.

For those that have worked out what is happening in London at the moment, I will be going to watch the cricket.  However, I will be watching the women’s ashes.  For those cricket lovers out there, what an amazing couple of weeks of test match cricket.  The win against India was an amazing start (and I did call Scott Boland having an impact!) and then the first test – how good did that win feel!  Sorry for those families that are from England, but it felt good to have a win when we were constantly reminded of falling 2 runs short in the past.  Hopefully it is the first win of many.

Take care over the break and I look forward to seeing you all when I return in August.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Heidi Inglis

Principal

Cross Country – Division

Last week saw our students compete at Division Cross Country.  They all did an amazing effort at giving their best and proudly representing our school.  We are also thankful for our parents who helped with transporting and cheering on our students and Mr Cole for organising the event for our school to attend.  Kaiyah, our sport captain, has written a recount of the event.

“Last Wednesday, the grade 3, 4, 5 and 6s represented our school at Division Cross Country and now we have an unbelievable 12 people going to the next round, Regional.  While the 3s and 4s ran 2kms around Toomuc Reserve, the 5s and 6s ran 3kms.  When watching each and every talented runner from Beacy, we could see that everyone was giving their 100% and absolutely pushing themselves to the limit.”

Kaiyah – Sports Captain

Staffing

As we approach the middle of the year and end of term 2, I want to thank our community for their support and understanding during these challenging times of staff shortages.  Whilst we have been successful in filling all our positions for 2023, we are challenged with replacing staff when away, due to leave. 

At Beaconsfield Primary School, we have a fantastic pool of casual relief teachers, who answer the call when we reach out to replace our staff.  I can report that this is a smaller pool than before the pandemic and we also only have a few people who are available for a whole week, most people can only offer us a few days a week.  When we are unable to fill a place through our pool, we reach out to an agency for support.  What I can report back, is on a few occasions, using both strategies, we have been unable to fill a position.  We then look at cancelling our tutoring program, leadership will step in and take the grade or the grade will be split amongst a number of similar aged grades.  At this stage, we have only needed to move to this option on a couple of occasions.

When our education support staff are absent (in the classroom support and office), we often do not  have the capacity to replace them but we will shift staff to where the greatest need is.  Once again, you may see leadership stepping in to answer a phone call or question at the office – I am always excited when it is a question I know the answer to but struggle with transferring calls through!

I am sure our workplace is facing the same challenges as yours and I know that we will be fine as we navigate this situation.  Once again, thank you for your support and understanding.

Student Voice and Agency

I know we have great student voice and agency when I receive letters on my desk from students at our school thinking of great ideas to make our school a better place. Last year I received a letter from a (then grade 1 student) regarding an idea for a fundraiser for our school and this week I received a letter from a grade 6 student problem solving a solution for balls rolling out from under the fence and onto the road.  What great initiative to have their voice heard!

SRC Fundraiser – Superhero Dress Up Day

On Monday the 19^th of June we will be having a superhero dress up day! We came up with this idea because some students came to us asking to give back to the Royal Children’s Hospital since the staff there have helped them in the past. As the hospital workers are ‘community superheroes’, we thought a superhero dress up theme would be fun. 

Students can dress up as:

• A well-known, famous superhero
• Any community superhero that is important to them
• A made-up superhero that expresses their personality

Please donate on QKR, with all money raised going to The Royal Children’s Hospital.

Thank you, 

Tilly and Noah – SRC Captains

In the classroom

We also thought you might like to hear from another of our school captains around learning at Beacy.  Here is an article from Taylah – school captain.

“Learning is one of the main parts of school, either listening or teaching someone else something.

The teachers at Beaconsfield teach us learning in an approachable way, knowing we’ll take in new information.

Our teachers engage us with a variety of different activities.  Sometimes we have hands on activities using different equipment like the MAB blocks in Maths or watching a video, taking notes and looking at an autobiography book to look for responses in English.

In my opinion, the way the teachers plan the activity so they aren’t all the same and are enjoyable, is a really great way for us to learn.

Like Mr Buckingham said ‘It’s never too late to be a learner, it doesn’t just stop at high school.”

Taylah – School Captain

In the playground

Last year, our SRC requested shop fronts for our playground. A great place to role play when outside. Trish and Pete (education support staff) were very creative to build the structure and Amelia and Blaze (Art Captains) and Mrs Gittins and Mrs Jennion (Visual Arts Teachers) came up with the design for our shop and cafe. We have installed them near the pirate ship and we can see they are a great addition to our playground.

As a cricket lover, I am very excited that we have Australia playing at the moment.  The time zones are challenging and I struggle to stay awake watching games in England, however it helps distracts me from the Melbourne wintery weather.  I hope that there are things in your life that are providing you some moments of enjoyment.

Have a great weekend and hopefully we return next week with a victory for Australia and another awesome Scott Boland performance.

Heidi Inglis

Principal

As I am writing this newsletter article, the weather has turned from the lovely sunshine we experienced earlier in the week to a gloomy and windy day.  I personally struggle with this time of year – with less light during the day.  I have to work a bit harder to ensure it does not impact my mental wellbeing.  What puts a smile on my face is playing music when I am cooking dinner, trying to get a walk in (especially with a friend) and I have just started reading a new book – Exiles by Jane Harper.  I hope you have strategies in your life to support you feeling good.

Education Week 

Last week, we celebrated Education Week. The theme this year was ‘Make, Motivate and Move’. We commenced the week by inviting our families to join us in a Family Fun Afternoon. We were very privileged with the weather and it was great to see our community moving around our school engaging in fun activities. On Monday we drew out three names for prizes. Congratulations to Georgia PG, Benjamin 2K and Jack 5B. 

Our school captains had a great idea to move our community during the week by playing some music. Over the week, we did the Macarena, Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance. Thank you to our parents who joined in the Chicken Dance last Friday morning. 

We also had a go at putting down our pens on Friday and ‘making’ when we were learning. It was a great opportunity to use concrete materials, oral language activities and being physical.  

Whilst, every week at Beacy has a focus on learning and wellbeing, it was nice to celebrate how awesome our education program is.  When you walk around our school, it is evident of the learning that is taking place and the engaging program our teachers are delivering to our students.

Volunteers – parent helpers 

Last year, we received new Child Safe Standards. As part of the new standards we need to induct our volunteers that our working at our school with information regarding the code of conduct and their duty when working with our students at Beaconsfield Primary School. 

We have designed a way to send you the information, induction video and code of conduct. You will receive an email and if you wish to be a parent helper this year, we need you to watch the video, read the information and then submit that you have undertaken the induction. Once completed you will be eligible to be a volunteer at our school. 

Your induction will last for this year and we will ask you to complete it each year. Thank you for your support and completing the induction. It is important that everyone working with our students are ensuring that they are creating a safe environment for all our students.  

School Uniform 

As the cooler weather has arrived, it is a good time to ensure that your child has a jumper or two to wear.  Please make sure that their jumper is clearly labelled with their name, and it is either a school jumper or a plain black jumper.  It is to have no writing or motifs on it. 

We also strongly recommend that your child, regardless of their age, has spare clothing in their bag. We understand that accidents happen and sometimes on a wet day, students can get wet and muddy. At school, we have a very limited supply of clothing and students also prefer to wear their own clothing. By being prepared, hopefully you will not receive a phone call to bring a change of clothes to school. Please pack socks, pants and a top. 

Sentral for Parents app 

At the end of the term, your child’s school report will be uploaded to Sentral for Parents app. Please make sure that you are familiar with the platform. You can access through an app on a mobile phone or in the browser on your computer. I also suggest that you consider logging onto a computer as this could be an easier way to view and download your child’s report. If you need any help with using Sentral for Parents app, please contact the office. 

Our office staff are trying very hard to ensure the calendar is reflecting all the wonderful activities that are happening at our school.  I hope you are accessing this resource.  Please note that our next curriculum day is the first day of next term, Monday 10^th July.

Have a nice weekend (and maybe find some time to pick up a book to read!).

Heidi Inglis

Principal

Welcome to Term 2.  I hope Easter and the school holidays was a nice time to relax, explore and engage with family and friends.  Talking to students I hear a lot of camping, visiting beaches, catching up with family and friends and watching the Super Mario Bros Movie.

Please note a couple of dates for your calendar: curriculum day on Thursday 18^th May and a fun family afternoon for Education Week on Monday 15^th May from 3:30 to 5:00pm.

Cross Country

Last term, we held our junior and senior cross country.  We had great weather and it was lovely to see our families coming and watching our students participating in this event.  We are so proud when all our students give it a go – regardless how competitive they are.  For everyone, it is about doing your personal best.

Taylor our school captain has written an article on cross country as her experience from a student perspective:

“On the 4^th of April, just before the holidays, the grade 3s, 4s, 5s and 6s competed in the Senior House Cross Country.  The top ten students from each race will go on to compete at District.  We started off by walking from school down to Holm Park where the track was set up.  Grade 3 and 4 raced together in the 2km race, while grade 5 and 6 ran separately in the 3km race.  It was great to see everyone dressed up in their house colours!

On the 6^th of April, the Preps, 1s and 2s competed in the junior cross country at school.  All classes were dressed in their house colours and the seniors came to help cheer and encourage the younger students.

Everyone was feeling a little bit nervous because we all wanted to try our best.  By the end of the day every student had persevered to the finish line which was the success criteria of the day.  Congratulations to every person who ran cross country because every race had tough competition! In the house competition, the points were tight but in the end Morgan came 4^th, Cooper 3^rd, Lohan 2^nd and coming out on top, Rankin.

Well done to everyone who competed in the junior and senior cross country.  Every student tried their best and that’s what really matters.”

Taylor – school captain

Prep enrolments 2024

Enrolments have opened for Preps 2024.  The Department of Education have introduced timelines (similar to the timelines for Year 7 enrolments).  All enrolments submissions are to submitted to the school by Friday 28^th July.  All siblings are required to complete an enrolment form, please do not assume that we know who all our younger brothers and sisters are.  Offers will be sent out by 11^th August.  Last year, we were full after our first offer of acceptance so please make sure if you have a child or know of anyone who would like to attend our school in Prep next year, to collect an enrolment form and submit it by 28^th July.

We are holding an Open Day on Saturday 6^th May 10:00 – 12:00pm for families looking at enrolling their child at our school for 2023.  This is a great morning to see the school and ask questions of our staff.  If you know someone who is interested in attending our school, please let them know of this date or to contact our office for more information.

ANZAC day

Yesterday we held our ANZAC ceremony with the whole school. Due to the windy weather, we moved the ceremony indoors. Our SRC students did a wonderful job of speaking about the history of ANZAC day and its importance. We are so proud of them.

Incursions, Excursions and Camps – permission

Over the year, our teachers plan many exciting events for your child to participate in.  They work in line with the curriculum and we hope that they are engaging and supporting of the learning that is happening in the classroom.

When organising these events, there are many requirements that we must meet due to our duty of care.  We have Department of Education policies to follow to ensure that the events are safe.  Some of the things that are considered are adult to child ratios, transportation, medical care, child safety requirements, risk management and more.  We work diligently to ensure that we are meeting our requirements so our students have a great and positive experience.

As a parent, you are informed of the event and we ask that you provide permission by the due date and make payment.  If payment is an issue, we ask that you give permission and then speak to us about payment plans.  We are more than happy to work with families to work out payments.  We understand that we use two platforms – one for permission and one for payment.  We are working at streamlining this process but we have yet to come up with a solution that works for everyone.

We understand that households are busy places so some things that we do to support families about events are:

• * Notification sent out on Sentral for Parents app of the event (notification of activities are also sent to your email)
• * Notification sent out on Sentral for Parents app that will be closing soon
• * Events written on the Sentral for Parents app in Calendars, as well as the due date for permission and payment
• * Parents can check the Sentral for Parents app in Forms to see if you have any
• * Teachers will remind your child in class and at their year level assembly
• * Depending on the event, we sometime mention it at the whole school assembly

We look forward to more exciting events to come and we hope all our students are able to join us.

Vale Jillian (Jill) Phillips

Sadly on the holidays, we lost a dear staff member.  Jill Phillips was our computer technician and had worked at our school for over 20 years.  She was battling an illness and we had to say goodbye to a great friend.  Our thoughts are with her family at this difficult time.

Jill did an amazing job at our school.  She worked tirelessly in the background, ensuring that all our technology was working for our school community.  She was instrumental in ensuring WiFi, teamboards, laptops, iPads, platforms and more, were all up and running.  Jill would always walk into our school with a smile on her face and would take the time to check in on us all.  Sometimes you could be brainstorming ideas with her whilst she would be in front of her many screens, helping and fixing problems at our school and at other schools.  Her knowledge about technology and how it works best for students and teachers was amazing, however her strength was how calm she was in a crisis and how kind she was with all staff and students.  Jill would come into the room and try very hard not to intrude on the lesson and quietly fix the problem and sneak back out of the classroom.

We are heartbroken to say ‘goodbye’ to Jill but we are so appreciative to have had such a wonderful friend. 

Take care of the people you care for,

Heidi Inglis

Principal

We are nearly at the end of term 1 – with one week to go.  I hope it has been a positive term for you and your child.  There has been lots of learning happening in classrooms, I hope your child has been sharing it with you.  Some grades have also had swimming, excursions, incursions and sport excursions.  What a busy term and we finish it off with cross country next week.

Curriculum Days and Professional Practice Day

As a government primary school, we hold four curriculum days each year.  This year we have held two curriculum days so far, with two more to come.  Our staff are also entitled to a professional practice day and we are able to hold this as a common day, where students do not attend school and staff spend the time working on their professional development.  We have decided on the final three pupil free days for 2023.  They are:

• Thursday 18^th May (Term 2)
• Monday 10^th July (Term 3)
• Friday 3^rd November (Term 4)

Cross Country

Next week we have senior (grade 3 to 6) and junior (Prep to grade 2) cross country.  Senior is on Tuesday at Holm Park Oval and Junior is on Thursday at our school.  On Tuesday, students in grade 3 to 6 are invited to wear house colours for their race and on Thursday the whole school can come dressed in their house colours.

The colours are Cooper (yellow), Lohan (blue), Morgan (green) and Rankin (red).

Parents are more than welcome to watch but we ask that you stay in your allocated viewing spots.  This helps with our duty of care with supervising students and the smooth running of this large (and exciting) event.

The event does depend on the weather; however we may still hold the event even if it is wet under foot.  Therefore, I suggest a change of clothes and shoes on these days, in case your child gets muddy.

Prep enrolments 2024

We are holding an Open Day on Saturday 6^th May 10:00 – 12:00pm for families looking at enrolling their Prep child at our school for 2024.  Prep enrolments will open next term.  If you know someone who is interested in attending our school, please let them know of this date or to contact our office for more information.

Save the Date

The staff are planning a fun family afternoon for Education Week on Monday 15^th May from 3:30 to 5:00pm.  More information to come next term.

ANZAC day

We will be holding our ANZAC ceremony on Thursday 27^th April at 12:20pm.  Families are more than welcome to attend.  We plan to hold the ceremony on the oval at our Remembrance Garden.  If weather does not permit, we will move to the shed.

Our Student Representative Council runs the ceremony for our school community.

Thank you

Thank you to our Parents & Friends committee who have been working very hard to organise hot cross buns, Easter raffle and a treat day.  Thank you to all the families who generously donated for our prizes.

This week we ran our parent-teacher interviews.  It was nice walking around the school in the afternoons and seeing parents and teachers meeting face-to-face as well as many interviews being held virtually.   I would like to thank our school community for all their support this term and we are looking forward to a fantastic 2023, filled with lots of learning and laughter.  I thank you for the respectful way in which you work with us.  The partnership between parents and our school, works best when we are respectful to each other with all our communication – in person, emailing and on the phone.  It is lovely to come to school each day knowing the wonderful community that we are working in and that we will all be treated in a respectful manner.

Enjoy the busy last week and the school holidays.

Heidi Inglis

I hope you had a nice extra-long weekend.  I know there was a lot happening in our community and in the city for families to take part in – or did you just have a lovely weekend at home? I went into the city and saw the production Romeo & Juliet’.  It was very enjoyable with a great storyline and playlist of music.

There is a lot of information in this newsletter about what is happening at our school and some useful information from the Department of Education.  I have included some information about the Respectful Relationships program and supports, as well as information about sleep – its importance and strategies.  There are lots of links for information.  I hope you find them all useful.

Curriculum Day

Last week we held our second curriculum day for the year.  Our staff spent the day furthering their knowledge and understanding on effective teaching of reading.  We looked at current research and effective teaching practices.  We also spent time working with a Disability Inclusion coach learning about the Department of Education’s Inclusive Education Initiative that commences in 2024.  We began to work on and will continue the work around effective teaching practices, adjustments and accommodations to support all students in our classroom.

Attendance

Last week I attended a Principal’s meeting and attendance of students was discussed.  As a person who works in education and values what we do every day with our students, I see the value of students attending every day and for the whole day.  I can see that as a community, you also see the value as we have such great attendance at our school.  Our school community makes every effort to get our students to school every day, on time and for the whole day.  Thank you for your support.

We know that by students attending school it has such benefits on their academic results, social connections and, physical and mental wellbeing.  If you ever experience difficulties in your child attending school, please reach out for support.  We are happy to work with families to support the child’s learning and wellbeing.

I saw a post the other day and I wanted to congratulate all our families for being such awesome mathematicians because think of the maths that is needed to get kids to school on time.

“Ok it starts at 9 so we need to be there by 8:45 which means we need to leave by 8:10 so we need to have breakfast by…and be ready by…which means we need to wake up at…”

Good luck to all our families in grade 5 and 6 attending Sovereign Hill excursion next week – your child is required at school by 7:15am!  Start working out the maths.

Parent-Teacher Interviews

We will be conducting parent-teacher interviews beginning the week of Monday 27th March. You have the choice of coming to school and having a face-to-face interview or going online and having a virtual interview.  When entering your details online, please let us know if you would like an in person meeting or virtual. Interviews will run for 10 minutes.

Please go online to book a time that suits you. If there are no times that suit, please contact your child’s teacher to arrange a time.

Click on the following link:

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/ueqg3

The booking site will be opened until Friday 24th March at 9am.

Please note, links will be sent on the day of the meeting and interviews will be held in the classroom.

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy)

We are currently administering NAPLAN to our grade 3 and 5 students.  They will participate in 4 assessments using an online platform except for grade 3 writing.

At Beaconsfield Primary School, we treat this as a normal day.  We try very hard to minimise the anxiety levels of your child and not to put pressure on them.  It is a snapshot of one day in their life as to what they know.  Our teachers value the everyday classroom work, where we are able to see and ask a child about their thinking and understanding as a better reflection of your child’s learning.

My advice to parents to best support your child is to not increase the anxiety of our child about their performance and participating in NAPLAN, just encourage them to ‘have a go’ and answer all the questions, make sure they have good routines at home and are receiving good nights’ sleep.   This will support your child is able to do their best work.

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Program

In 2016 Respectful Relationships (RR) education became a core component of the Victorian curriculum. The program was born after the Royal Commission into the tragic death of Luke Batty in 2014. It was a recommendation from the Royal Commission that all schools teach Respectful Relationships Education (RRE) through a Whole School Approach, to support students to recognise and regulate emotions, develop empathy for others and establish and build a framework for positive relationships. 

The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships teaching and learning materials have been developed to support schools to deliver the curriculum and are mandated to be taught in all Victorian government schools. 

At Beaconsfield Primary School we all want our children to have an education that gives them the best start to a happy, healthy and prosperous life. This approach leads to positive change in students’ academic outcomes, their wellbeing, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students. We know that changes in attitudes and behaviour can be achieved when positive attitudes, behaviours and gender equality are lived across the school community. Together, we can lead the way in creating genuine and lasting change so every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

The classroom program will focus on 8 key areas:

• Emotional Literacy: This helps students develop the ability to be aware of, understand and use vocabulary about the emotional states of themselves and others with competence.
• Personal Strengths: Students develop a vocabulary to help them recognise and understand various strengths and positive qualities in themselves and others. They identify the strengths they admire in others and those they need to draw on to engage with the challenges and opportunities that life presents.
• Positive Coping: Students develop language around coping, critically reflect on their coping strategies and extend their repertoire of positive coping strategies.
• Problem-solving: Students learn a range of problem-solving techniques that can be applied when confronting personal, social and ethical dilemmas. They engage in applied learning tasks in which they apply their problem-solving skills to be realistic.
• Stress management: This teaches students to learn a range of problem-solving skills through applied learning tasks, so that they are able to cope with challenges as they arise.
• Help-seeking: Help seeking is a coping strategy that involves seeking technical, instrumental, social or emotional support from other people.
• Gender and identity: These are age-appropriate learning activities that assist students to understand and critique the influence of gender norms on attitudes and behaviours.
• Positive gender relationships: This teaches students to build positive relationships between and within genders, and the importance of accepting difference and diversity.

Respectful Relationships takes a whole-school approach, recognising that schools are a place of learning, a workplace and a key part of local communities. It embeds a culture of respect and equality across our entire school community, from our classrooms to staffrooms, sporting fields, fetes and social events.

You can visit the FUSE Website to access the Curriculum Framework for the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Program.

https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/ResourcePackage/ByPin?pin=2JZX4R

Help and Support

Please contact one of the support lines below if this content raises issues for you and you need to speak to someone, or if you or someone you know is experiencing violence and needs help or support.

Call 000 for Police and Ambulance help if you or someone else is in immediate danger.

1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 (toll free)

24 hour national sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault. 24/7 phone and online services.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Lifeline has a national number who can help put you in contact with a crisis service in your State.  Anyone across Australia experiencing a personal crisis or thinking about suicide can call 13 11 14.

Kids Help Line 1800 551 800

Free, private and confidential, telephone and online counselling service specifically for young people aged between 5 and 25 in Australia.

Relationships Australia 1300 364 277 (for the cost of a local call).

Support groups and counselling on relationships, and for abusive and abused partners.

Sleep – Its importance and supports

While we know sleep is essential for good health, research shows that many children and young people are not getting enough sleep on school nights. This can affect thinking, concentration, memory, reaction times and mood.

Research shows about 12% of primary school-aged children, a quarter of 12- to 15-year-olds and half of 16- to 17-year-olds don’t get enough sleep on school nights. The recommended amount of time to sleep for primary school-aged children is 9 to 11 hours. For teenagers, it’s 8 to 10 hours.

Signs that your child is not getting enough sleep can include:

• low mood and irritability during social interactions
• reluctance or arguing about getting off devices and going to bed
• falling asleep during the day
• difficulties waking up for school and sleeping in late on weekends to catch up
• changes to communicating or interacting at home.

You can help your child to improve their sleep by:

• establishing a regular sleep pattern and consistent bedtime routine
• supporting them to avoid using electronic devices such as smartphones before going to bed and in bed
• encouraging your child to exercise and spend time outside in daylight, steering clear of vigorous activity in the hour before sleep
• encouraging them to wind down and relax before going to bed.

If your child is still having trouble sleeping, has persistent problems with low mood, excessive daytime sleepiness, restlessness in bed, severe snoring or wakening unrefreshed, despite getting adequate length sleep, they should see a doctor.

For more information on sleep health, you can refer to (click on links):

• Sleep tips for children and Facts about sleep for parents and school staff, from the Sleep Health Foundation
• Why sleep is so important, from the Kids Helpline’s
• Sleep explained, from the Better Health Channel.

I hope you found all this information useful.  Don’t forget that we have Harmony Week next week.  Students are invited to come to school on Monday wearing orange to celebrate Australian multiculturalism and have food in their lunchbox. On Friday bring along an artefact from their culture.  The message of Harmony Week is ‘everyone belongs‘.

Heidi Inglis

Principal