Heights Happenings – 2025 – Term 4, Week 6

Thanks to the “Hubsters”

This year, our Community Hub team has worked tirelessly to add value to the school through fundraising and community events. The team have organised events such as the Mother’s and Father’s Day Stalls, Colour Run, Chocolate Drive, Christmas Raffle and the major fundraising event for the year, the Trivia Night, which raised more than $13,000 for the school. This is an outstanding achievement and we are very thankful for the work done by these parents in a voluntary capacity.

For many years the team has been wonderfully led by Leia Barrett. If you know Leia, you will be well aware of the countless hours she puts in to coordinating and running school-wide community events. She is a true gem! Unfortunately, Leia will be taking a well-earned break from the Hubsters at the end of this year as she needs to focus on other work commitments. I cannot thank her enough for everything she has done for the school over many years. While she will be sadly missed, Leia has built such a strong team of people who are able to take over many of the roles that she helped coordinate. The Hubsters would love to have more people help out, so if you think you might be able to spare some time to contribute to the school’s fundraising and community events, please let us know and we will put you in touch with the team.

From all of us at BHPS, thank you Leia for everything you’ve given to the school.

Student-free Days in 2026

School Council have endorsed the plan for our student-free days next year. Please put these dates in your diaries and calendars:

• CURRICULUM DAY 1: Tuesday 28^th January (Term 1)
• CURRICULUM DAY 2: Friday 6^th March (Term 1)
• 3-WAY CONFERENCES: Tuesday 31^st March (Term 1)
• CURRICULUM DAY 3: Friday 5^th June (Term 2)
• TEACHER PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE DAY: Wednesday 9^th September (Term 3)
• 3-WAY CONFERENCES: Thursday 17^th September (Term 3)
• STUDENT-FREE DAY: Monday 2^nd November (Term 4)
• CURRICULUM DAY 4: Friday 18^th December (Term 4)

In consultation with School Council, Monday 2^rd November has been designated as a student-free day so that we can provide time in lieu to staff for the additional hours they work at school events that require work outside normal hours.

As there will be a Curriculum Day on December 19, the final day of school for students next year is Thursday 17^th December with a 2:30pm finish.

Christmas Concert night and Raffle

We are looking forward to welcoming our school community to our Christmas concert on the Wednesday 17^th of December. The evening will begin at 4pm and should go through to around 5:30pm.  Our very talented students will be performing on the night in grade items. You are most welcome to bring a picnic afternoon tea, however, please note that NO ALCOHOL is allowed to be brought into and consumed at the school. In the interest of keeping our school clean, we ask that all rubbish be taken home with you at the end of the night.

If the weather is looking to be unkind to us on the night, we do have a backup plan to run the concert in the gymnasium the following morning. If this happens, it will be a scaled-back event as there will be limited space available for parents. We will let you know the plan in more detail if this is what we decide to do based on weather conditions.

The Community Hub will have once again organised a Christmas Raffle, with all tickets selling for $1 each. This raffle will be drawn at our Christmas Concert night. 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.

Parent Feedback from Timetable trial

Thank you to those parents who gave us feedback from the recent timetable trial. We had 82 people respond from nearly 1000 parents in the school, so it’s hard to get a proper understanding of how the majority of people in the parent community feels about the proposed changes. Here’s a summary of the feedback:

• 76% of parents who responded felt their child adapted well to the change of routine.
• 52% said their child was more engaged or about the same level of engaged as the current timetable. 10% were unsure.
• 56% said their child’s energy was improved or about the same. 10% were unsure.
• Positive comments noted the shortened final part of the day was well liked.
• Comments for improvement were heavily focused on food times and changes to eating routines.
• 50% of parents were supportive; 17% had no opinion.
• Finally, 54% of parents were supportive or a “maybe” for adjusting the school start and end times in 2027.

I also gathered feedback from staff and students, who were mostly supportive of the plan provided we made a few slight changes to brain breaks and food routines. I will continue to have discussions with staff to see what adjustments can be made, which means I can then make a final decision about any changes for next year and let the community know. Either way, the start and end times of the school day won’t be changing next year.

Enjoy your weekend.

Mat Anderton
Principal

Champion Christmas Food Drive 2025

We are collecting for the Champion Christmas Food Drive. What an amazing collection we have so far! All donations to your child’s classroom please.

CARE Ticket Winners

Prep – How the Birds Got Their Colours
Prep artists read the Dreamtime story How the Birds Got Their Colours. They used forks to create colourful feather textures, then decorated their birds with sequins to make each one unique.

Prep – Abstract Painting
Prep artists created abstract artworks featuring lines and circles. Inspired by Kandinsky, they explored different types of lines — diagonal, horizontal, vertical and wavy — and experimented with circles of various sizes. These bright and joyful artworks are on display outside the Prep classrooms in the library.

Year 5 – Stained Glass Poppies
Year 5 students reflected on Remembrance Day and created beautiful stained glass poppies. These artworks are displayed on the windows in the school’s front entryway.

Tara Henstock
Visual Arts Co-ordinator

2026 Parent Payment Information

The 2026 Parent Payment information was sent out last week. Click here to access a digital copy. The Melbourne Office Supplies portal for student stationary orders is now open. Login information is found in the Parent Payment information packs.

The Parent Payments are a voluntary contribution that enables the school to offer:

• High quality programs & specialist classes to all students
• Maintain high quality ovals and grounds
• Upkeep our new playgrounds
• Delivery a range of current sporting equipment
• Offer effective first aid and first aid supplies for all students

The above cannot happen without the support of our families and their contributions.

2026 CSEF

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

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 $154 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.

2026 Extra-Curricular Activities

The 2026 Extra-Curricular Activities payment is for activities that enhance or broaden the schooling experience of students and are above and beyond what the school provides for free to deliver the Curriculum. These activities are provided on a user-pays basis.

The amount per student is $100.00 which covers all your child/rens excursions and incursions for the whole year.
It does NOT cover sporting activities, swimming, camps or Year 6 Big Day Out and Graduation.

Parents can choose to pay per event or via this event as a lump sum. If you have a valid Health Care Card, you may be eligible for the Government support through the Camps, Sports & Excursion Funding (CSEF). This can be used to pay for the Extra-Curricular Activities payment.

Attendance

Please remember if your child will be absent ALL day, you need to enter an absence note on COMPASS. The office will be following up all unexplained absences.

Compass will automatically generate an SMS at 10.00am if your child is not at school. Please note that if you are bringing your child in late, ignore this SMS as late arrivals get signed in on the COMPASS Kiosk at the office on your arrival.  However, if your child is going to be absent for a complete day, you must approve this absence with a ‘note’ on Compass. This will avoid you receiving additional correspondence from the office to follow up this unexplained absence.

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.