Heights Happenings – 2023 – Term 4, Week 5

“Hats Off” to our Amazing Teachers

On Friday 27^th October we recognised the work of our amazing team of teachers as we celebrated World Teachers Day. This day gives us a chance to reflect on and highlight all the things our teachers do for your children. This year we celebrated by putting on a morning tea, beautifully put together by our Harvest to Table educator Kelly Woodman, followed by an assembly where our future student leaders in Year 5 gave thanks to each of the teaching teams throughout the school. Our teachers greatly appreciated hearing the positive words spoken by the kids – it was very uplifting.

Throughout my primary school years I fondly recall the teachers who made a positive impact on my childhood. My Prep teacher was Miss Caulfield and she taught me that it was OK to be apart from my twin brother at school so I can make new friends. In grade 2, Mrs Clarke created a pretend airport in the classroom so we could learn about the different forms of transport (I had to check peoples tickets as they got on the plane!) Mrs Drinkwater helped me with my handwriting and taught me to love books such as “George’s Marvellous Medicine” by Roald Dahl. Up to that point, I didn’t really like reading much. Coincidentally, I still catch up with Mrs Drinkwater at Principal meetings because she is the Principal of Regency Park PS. Then, in grade 5, Mr Bartolotta taught me about how to use a computer, which was a very primitive Apple Macintosh 128K.

All of these teachers hold a special place in my memory, and I’m sure the teachers at Boronia Heights PS will be fondly remembered by your children in years to come. I am very proud of the teaching team we have at this school, so “Hats Off” to them for their hard work and dedication.

Market Night

In the previous school newsletter I wrote about how I was looking forward to the Market Night. At the time of writing that message, I had full confidence the evening would be a huge success, but at the conclusion of the night I was absolutely blown away by the community’s support of our school.

The success of this night can be attributed to the tireless work of “The Hubsters”, our group of parent volunteers who were expertly led by Leia Barrett. The Market Night raised $9200 for the school – an outstanding result that is nearly $2000 more than last year. This money will help us build a new bike shed for the kids. On behalf of the school, I want to thank everyone involved in making Market Night a huge success.

Curriculum Days in 2024

This coming Monday the 6^th November is a planned Curriculum Day for our teachers, and is therefore a student-free day. Our teachers will be busily working on finalising end-of-year assessments and writing Semester 2 student reports.

In 2024, School Council have approved the plan for our four curriculum days and one student-free day for teacher Professional Practice Day as follows:

• Monday 29^th January 2024 – State-wide Curriculum Day (all teachers return)
• Friday 9^th February 2024 – Curriculum Day (Berry Street Education Model training day #1)
• Friday 26^th April 2024 – Curriculum Day (Berry Street Education Model training day #2)
• Wednesday 11^th September 2024– Professional Practice Day for Teachers (Student-free day)
• Monday 4^th November 2024 – Curriculum Day (Assessment & Reporting)

The Curriculum Days that focus on Berry Street Education Model, which underpins our whole school approach to student wellbeing, have been planned for the beginning of the year to enable us to embed reinforce our practices straight away. The Professional Practice Day has been organised for term 3 to allow teachers time to plan and prepare leading into term 4. The Curriculum Day on 4^th November coincides with the Melbourne Cup, giving families an extra-long weekend.

Have a great week,

Mat Anderton
Principal

Using Technology for learning support in Prep

This term in Prep, we’ve been actively incorporating iPads into our learning routine through the Get Epic! app. This interactive program enables students to select books of their interest and listen to a narrator read the book fluently. They can also expand their vocab and explore word meanings within the stories. In Mathematics, we’ve introduced Mathletics, allowing students to listen to questions and respond accordingly.
Additionally, our Cyber Safety lessons have been invaluable. Students have learned never to share passwords except with trusted adults. We’ve also referred back to the STOP acronym to manage strong emotions while using iPads at home: Silent (refrain from texting, typing, or talking), Tell an adult – they’ll give you support, Out – just quit the game, and Play something else. The students have thoroughly enjoyed these lessons, especially the engaging songs that go along with them.

Ayla’s favourite part about using the iPad at school is when she can listen to the same book at the same time as her friend.

Noah’s favourite part about using the iPad is using another app called Teach Monster and finding all of the new sounds in the new worlds.

Miss Laura McHugh

Prep Team Leader

Division Cricket

On the 20th of October, we had our Girls Division Cricket finals at Kings Park. The girls did a great job despite it being a very very hot day! A big thank to Lisa Baker for training and coaching the girls. We all appreciate your dedication to P.E. as always.

Regional Athletics

We had Caleb.J, Qianna.Y and Charlotte.G attend and represent BHPS on the 19th of October at the Tom Kelly Athletics Track. You all did an amazing job. Getting into Regional is not easy, so you should be so very proud of your achievements in Athletics this year.

Active Club

Just a reminder that we have Active Club on the top oval every Wednesday for the first half of lunch this Term. All students are welcome to attend and have fun! If your child has not attended before and would like to, please just let them know to listen out for the announcement and to meet Mrs Smith and Mr Blenner on the top oval at the start of lunch.

SEDA Students

I would like to say a huge thank you to Ella Otte and Zac Schmike for completing their certificate 1 & 2 in Sports and Recreation with us at BHPS. We have loved having you both for 20 weeks. Zac attended every Thursday and Ella every Friday. Your support to the P.E. program was amazing and myself and our students will miss you both very much!

Taylah Smith
Physical Education Teacher and Sport Co-ordinator

Weeding Bees

If so, we would love to see you at our Buildings & Grounds Weeding Bees!

• Once a month on a Monday at 3.00-3.30pm
• Small, doable areas targeted.
• No gardening ability required – there will be someone to ensure that you pull out weeds, not plants.
• BYO gloves, hand trowels – the school only has children’s gloves sorry.

The next date is Monday 13th November 3.00pm – 3.30pm

Future dates to calendar are:

• Monday 4th December

We’d like to thank the following stars who helped with some weeding on Monday 4th September – Kitty Bucher, Jen Lawrence, Alex Barnes, Jesse Petchell and Kerrie Bibby.

Playgrounds Completed!

The Year 1 & 2 and Year 3 & 4 children have been having a ball on their new playgrounds. Thanks to the efforts of the Community Hub for raising the funds for the playgrounds!

Student of the Week

2024 Parent Payment Information

2024 Parent Payment information was recently sent out. 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 11th December will be delivered to your home by 24th December. Orders placed before 8th January will be delivered to your home prior to Term 1 commencement.

2024 CSEF

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 $150 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.

Do you have a student leaving BHPS in 2023?

Please ensure you remember to print off any reports via Compass before the last week of the school year. You will lose access to Compass on the 20th December 2023. Please refer to the below image to learn where to find all reports.

Name Your Belongings

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

BHPS Market Night – What a success! Thank you

Colour Run – 22 November

? // VOLUNTEERS NEEDED // ?

Join our #ColourExplosionSchoolRun4Fun and experience the difference you can make in our school! We are looking for enthusiastic individuals to help with our incredible Colour Explosion School Run 4 Fun.

Join us and help our students have a colourful blast!

If you have some time available between 2pm and 3:50pm on Wednesday 22 November, please contact Tracy Vervoort to volunteer!  ? 0427 683 690

We look forward to hearing from you ?!