Heights Happenings – 2022 – Term 4, Week 7

Assembly

Last Friday we held a whole school face to face assembly with the theme being achievements.  Apart from our Student of the Week Awards and our Specialist Awards, which always are around student achievement, we also looked at other programs that we have celebrated.

Thank you to Sue Dalrymple who has led the Maths Olympiad program all year, supporting and encouraging students in their continued development of their maths skills and abilities. These students achieved remarkable results and I congratulate each and every student for working hard to achieve such amazing success.

We also celebrated the overall winners of Jackson Taylor’s Bayswater Schools Writing Competition. The winners were Jasmine Edmond (grade 3E) and Charlotte Taylor (grade 5B).  Also due to Charlotte’s excellent entry, she’s been chosen by Jackson as one of the four overall winners, meaning BHPS have received a bag of books for our library, to the value of $200!

Our final face to face assembly will be on the last day of school (Tuesday 20^th December) where we celebrate and say goodbye to our Year 6 students. We welcome all who wish to attend.

Local Kinder Visit

Last Friday we had our local kindergartens visit with their 3-year-old kinder groups for a celebration of music, showcasing our amazing student talent in our junior and senior choirs and our school band. Our students that are involved in these extra curricula activities give up their lunchtimes every week to practice as a group and to further develop their love of music and their musical abilities. A big thank you to Eliza Hansen and Kate Wardlaw for giving our young students the opportunity to perform and showcase their skills in the Junior School Choir and of course Simon Fox for his dedication to our senior students in fine tuning and explicitly focusing on each and every student’s talent in both choir and band.  It is very special to see the looks on our kinder kids faces as they enjoy, engage and aspire to be like the BHPS students’ that were performing.  The musical showcase concluded with a small morning tea for the kinder children and our students that were performing. These are the special moments that we cherish as a school community, further developing our relationship and transition with our local kinder and our school. Thank You to Colchester Pre-School and Great Beginnings for a lovely morning.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day was recognised by all staff and students last Friday. A big thank you to our school captains Maggie and Isabel who addressed the whole school to support our student’s knowledge and emphasise the importance of the day and what it means to them. Congratulations to the captains for a great speech to BHPS students and well done to our students who recognised the day with respect.

Stay cool and hydrated

With the change in weather over the coming weeks, I would like to remind our students to ensure they are wearing their Sun Smart hat and drinking plenty of water throughout the day. It is important to keep up our fluid intake and find a comfortable place to play in the shade when the weather heats-up. We have had a few high pollen count days so please make sure that if your child is asthmatic or suffers from hay fever that they have their preventative puffers or medication before they come to school.

Student Book Packs

Just a reminder that the ordering details for the student book packs went home a few weeks ago.  Orders placed before 12th December to COS will be delivered to your home by 24^th December and receive free delivery. All students require their books for the first day of school.  In addition to their books students also require a sturdy set of headphones, library bag and art smock for the first week of school. Please name your child’s belongings clearly.

Xmas Raffle

I am delighted to announce that the Community Hub are putting together a Xmas raffle. Tickets will be selling for $1 each.  This raffle will be drawn at our Christmas Carols night on 6th December. All money raised will go towards our playgrounds. There will be 3 major prizes. Raffle tickets will be sent home next week with your children.  This is our final fundraiser for the year, and we thank you in advance for your continued support of our school.

Christmas Carol night

We are looking forward to welcoming our school community to our Christmas concert on the 6^th of December. The evening will begin at 6pm and should go through to 7:30pm.  Our beautiful students will be performing on the night in grade items. Have an early dinner or bring a picnic to the carols. PLEASE NOTE no alcohol is allowed to be brought into the school and we ask that all rubbish be taken home with you please. Bring your small change as we will be taking around a tin on the night all money raised will go towards our music program.

Cuddle Bears for Preps

As you may be aware we offer our prospective families starting Preps a cuddle bear.  We have volunteers who knit these bears, many are staff members and grandparents.  We are asking our community to donate any wool that they may have at home.  All donations will be greatly accepted.  On the other hand, if you are able to follow a simple pattern (so I’m told) to help us make these cute bears we would love to hear from you.

Parent Payments for 2023

Parent payment forms have been distributed to all families this term for 2023.  These payments go towards classroom supplies, specialist supplies class sets of iPads and chrome books online subscription to Mathletics and Reading Eggs.  Thank you to those families that had paid the parent payment or have entered into a payment plan, we appreciate your support.

Invitation to families

Disability Inclusion Survey (family survey)

Disability Inclusion is increasing support for students with disability to ensure every student at every ability thrives at school and in life.  Disability Inclusion is being rolled out to Victoria’s 1500+ Victorian government schools between 2021-2025, delivering:

• 1. A new strengths-based Disability Inclusion Profile
  2. A tiered school funding model
  3. Increased workforce capability to provide inclusive education

The Department have engaged Deloitte Access Economics to undertake an independent evaluation of Disability Inclusion.

As part of this evaluation, Deloitte is conducting a short online survey (no more than 15 minutes) of families in Victorian government schools implementing Disability Inclusion.

The survey aims to capture family awareness and understanding of Disability Inclusion, any adjustments made at a student-level and attitudes towards inclusion of students with disability more generally.

As part of this evaluation, Deloitte is surveying all families with children enrolled in Victorian government schools. This includes families who have children with disabilities and those who do not.

Please note, participation is entirely voluntary, and families are under no obligation to participate. If you wish to provide input, you can complete the survey here: family survey. We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate. If you would prefer an alternative way to share your experiences and perspectives (such as completion via phone) please email: diproject@deloitte.com.au.

Enjoy your weekend

Kind Regards

Leanne Jennings

2023 Parent Payment Information

2023 Parent Payment information was sent out last week. Click here to access a digital copy. The COS portal for book pack orders is now open. Login information is found in the Parent Payment information packs.

Orders placed before 12 December will be delivered to your home by 24th December. Orders placed before 9th January will be delivered to your home prior to Term 1 commencement.

Do you have a Health Care Card?

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) helps eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.

If you have a valid means-tested concession card, such as a Veterans Affairs Gold Card, Centrelink Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card, or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible. There is also a special consideration category for asylum seeker and refugee families.

Payment amounts this year are $125 for eligible primary school. Payments are made direct to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions and sporting activities for the benefit of your child.

You can download the form here.

Check with the school office if you are unsure, and please return completed forms to the school office as soon as possible.

Secondhand Uniform

We have tubs of secondhand school uniform available outside the Chaplain’s Office.

Name Your Belongings

We know you treasure your uniform and books. Please remember to label all uniform, books and belongings coming to school in 2022. Like most years, we had an incredible amount of lost property last year. The majority was unnamed, along with illegible tags. We would love lost items to boomerang back to your kids.

Let’s get EPIC with our Reading Eggs! 

Throughout Term 4, the Year one students have continued to enjoy using our class iPads during our reading strategy groups. 

During these sessions, the Year one students have been lucky enough to utilise special school programs/apps called ‘Epic’ and ‘Reading Eggs’. These apps have allowed the students to practise their phonics and reading skills through interactive games and the exploration of fiction and nonfiction texts that are differentiated according to student needs. 

These apps also allow students to consolidate their learning that takes place during conferencing, guided reading and explicit teaching.

YEAR 5 MARKET DAY FRIDAY 25^th NOVEMBER

We are excited to announce that Year 5 Market Day will go ahead this year on Friday 25^th November for students across all year levels. The Year 5 students have been working hard to create small businesses for the day for your children to play games for the chance to win a prize and/or buy handmade products. Businesses are offering products and services valued between 50c and $2.50. Stalls include ice-cream cones, spider drinks, lucky dips, guess the number of lollies in the jar, quoits toss, sale of chips, lollies, bookmarks and key chains, hair braiding and spraying, just to mention a few!

Every class will be attending the Year 5 Market Day during the school day. If you wish your child to take part, please send them to school that day with some money to participate.

If you do not want your child to have their hair sprayed with colour on the day, please let your child’s class teacher know.

Student of the Week

CARE Ticket Winners

Chocolate Drive Prize Winners

Congratulations to the following students and their families for selling a massive 5 boxes of chocolates!!

• Ava T from 1N
• Emma S from 1K
• Emily H from 5C

They will be presented with their prize on Friday.

Christmas Concert Raffle

Christmas is coming which means so is the Annual BHPS Christmas Concert!

The Hubsters will be running a Raffle fundraiser on the night as our LAST Event for 2022.

The Christmas Raffle will have 3 prizes and will be DRAWN ON THE NIGHT. Tickets ($1.00 each) will be sent home in the next two weeks and will also be available for purchase from the Hubsters Marquee on the night. There will also be chocolates to purchase to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Please note that our gorgeous Promotional Leaders will be coming around prior to the concert with shaker tins to raise money for our amazing music program. Please bring your loose coins (no change will be able to be given).

Thank you for your support,

Leia Barrett

Community Hub