Month: March 2021

Hello Beacy families.  I hope you are having a good day.

Writing at Beaconsfield Primary School

At our school, we are very passionate about ensuring that our students enjoy writing.  We want them to have the skills and desire to communicate effectively their ideas and thoughts.  We believe that every child has a message in them.

We use the 6 traits + 1 framework from our planning and delivery of our writing program.  Many of you would be familiar with them after hearing about them in remote learning last year. The traits are:

• Ideas: develop a single topic to convey a message
• Organisation: reveal ideas in a logical order, including a beginning, middle and end
• Word choice: use the right word in the right place to convey just the right meaning
• Sentence fluency: improve the readability of a piece with complete thoughts and sentence variety
• Voice: increases a reader engagement with intentional writer feeling, attitude and emotion
• Conventions: make writing more correct by following the rules of punctuation, capitalisation and grammar
• Presentation: how the writing looks to the reader

I would like to explore ‘ideas’ a bit further. When commencing writing, you need to have an idea to write about.  At school, our teachers will sometimes give our students a topic to write about.  We call these ‘seeds’.  The students, sometimes with the support of the teacher, will explore their idea or ‘seed’ to come up with different ideas to write about.  Once the students have an idea and know what type of writing they are going to use to convey their message, they can begin. 

The teachers will model with the students different ways to explore their thinking about an idea to come up with different topics to write about.  Let us work through a ‘seed’.  Looking at this picture, what could you write about?

• A story about a dog working on a farm.
• A persuasive piece about how everyone should own a dog as a pet.
• An informative piece about how to care for a dog.
• A research piece about working dogs in our community.
• A poem about a dog missing his family.

Once you have an idea and the message you wish to convey, let’s begin writing!  The best way to support your child’s writing is by giving them experiences and talking with them, to help develop their ideas.

There is a writing competition running that students can enter in to show their craft of writing.  Write4Fun is hosting this event.  Click on this link to enter: www.write4fun.net

Write4fun encourages young student writers and artists with fantastic competitions, by publishing top quality books and conducting interactive, fun workshops across Australia. Get creative today for your chance to win some awesome prizes! Share your poems, short stories and artwork with other students around the world. Get writing, typing, drawing, painting, shooting (photos of course) and designing today! See how your work compares, read and rate other student entries.

Swimming Sports

This term we have run our swimming tryouts and taken a team of students to compete in the District Swimming Competition.  I have asked Brooke, our Sports Captain, to share her recount.  We are very proud of all our students who tried out to represent our school and for those that were successful in getting to the next level.  We wish those students who have moved on to Division level, all the best and hope they achieve personal bests.

Hi I’m Brooke and I’m one of the Beacy primary sports captains.

Last week on Wednesday the 24^th myself and some of the other students attended the district swimming competition. We competed against other schools in many different events and we all did our best and had lots of fun. It was held in Pakenham at the outdoor pool which was really cold. All the students behaved very well and represented their schools outstandingly.

This was a great opportunity to be active and still have fun at the same time. I would highly recommend you try out for all of your school’s sports programmes as they are loads of fun and help with your fitness.

School Council

On Monday 22^nd 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.  Nomination forms need to be in by 12^th March.

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 the extra long weekend, with Tuesday being a ‘student-free’ day.

Heidi Inglis

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!

Office hours:

8:30 – 4pm Monday to Friday

Dates to remember:

Monday 8th March – Labour Day public holiday

Tuesday 9th March – Curriculum Day

Wednesday 10th March – Division swimming carnival (Selected students)

Monday 15th March – Swimming commences for Grade 2s & 4s

Thursday 1st April – Last day of Term 1, 2:30pm finish

Uniforms:

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 wet socks and/or other items of clothing.

Our lost property is overflowing with unnamed items, because of this we will be having a ‘free for all’ stall where parents can come and choose any item of clothing they like. We will be running this from Wednesday the 10th March to Friday the 12th March from 3:15-3:45pm each day. The racks will be placed outside the Lyle Ave office door each afternoon. Please note any labelled items will not be included and will be returned to the rightful owner through teachers pigeon holes.

Please ensure ALL your child’s uniforms are clearly labelled. We can easily return all lost items when they are clearly named.

CSEF:

If you have a current health care card you may apply for CSEF (Camps Sports Excursions Fund). Applications must be in by the 25th June. Contact the office for more information.

Library News:

With a little extra time over the long weekend could we please ask families to have a look in children’s bedrooms, school bags & bookcases for any library books. Lots of books were lent to children during last years lockdowns and we have a number that are still to be returned.

Rose K, Sebastian L, Ava L, Eva W, Joel B, Payson C, Tyson T, Aynjil B, Mitchell H, Peyton G, Corey T, Makayla S, Hunter L, Joshua G, Jye W, Macey R, Nate F, Mayra G, Zac P, Jordan D, Amelie H, Tatum N, Charli B, Stella T, Cameron W, Zach D, Noah K, Kiara H, Eddie L, Emily D, Alyssa M, Aidan M, Mikayla T, Ethan M, Indie W, Leo P, Alyssa D, Flynn M, Harrison W, Harrison L, Max M, Ollie B, Abby S, Max M, Isaac L, Maddie F, Ruby J, Gabriella C, James S, Chloe E, Julian R, Madeleine H, Oliver B, Owen R, Harry S, Owen A, Cooper H, Ruben B & Aurora B