Newsletter Term 1 Week 7 2023

"We acknowledge and respect the traditional custodians on whose land our school rests. Their footsteps and whispers blow in the wind, drift on the clouds, remain deep in the sandstone and float on the waterways of this place. Their memories and Dreaming stories will continue to connect us to the land and guide future generations of our school community. Country is alive if you take the time to look, listen and learn."

Last Monday, 5 students from BNPS attended the NSW AFL Primary All Schools Girls 12 Years and Under Selection Trial. 

Principal's message

Happy International Women’s Day

Today I acknowledge and celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women globally. I am proud each and every day to be an educator and leader in NSW Public Education. Let’s continue to champion equity, respect and inclusion for all of us regardless of gender.

Congratulations

Last Monday, students from BNPS attended the NSW AFL Primary All Schools Girls 12 Years and Under Selection Trial. We are now waiting to hear officially if they will compete in the All Schools State selection in Batemans Bay in May. Well done to Josie P, Jess D, Addison B Charlie O and Eloise for trying out for selection! 

Thank you  

Thank you to our fabulous school community for once again supporting our school through the Parent’s Night Out. I’d especially like to thank Karen Ciano for all that she does in her role as P&C President. 

I’d like to take the opportunity to highlight the resources that were spent from our Colour Run last year. We have spent over $16 000, on these fabulous literacy resources currently used across our school in K - 4. They will be supporting our teachers within the classrooms as they begin to implement the new syllabus in English. 

Student Representative Council

Our student representatives are busy this week collecting ideas from their classmates in preparation for our planning to improve our sensory garden in the Kindergarten and Year One playground. They will also be brainstorming ways in which we can improve and enhance the play space at the front of the school where many of our Stage 2 students like to play. Thank you to Patricia Vitale and Katherine Evans for facilitating this opportunity for our students. It will be exciting to see what they come up with.

Our P&C will be supporting us with exploring options for grants. If you would like to be involved with this please contact Dan Brabant or the school on 9949 4499.

Community

We have updated our Parent Handbook, it is full of important information that may help you out. Please see the link below. This information is also accessible on our school website.

The school leadership team is also seeking feedback as to our Parent Information Evenings. If you have 5 minutes to spare we would greatly appreciate you filling out the google form link below.

Parent teacher Interviews

Parent teacher interviews will be scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday the 4th and 5th of April. More information will come out next week.

NAPLAN

Naplan commences next week. Please remember this is one snapshot of learning within a school year. Our teachers have given students an opportunity to practice the test conditions and we would really appreciate your support with reassuring your child. Adjustments will be made for students who require it. All we can expect is everyone just to do their best on the day.

Writing and Reading 15th March
Conventions of Language 17th March
Numeracy 20th March
Make up days will be provided on the 22nd March if needed

Our zone swimmers are competing today. We look forward to hearing how they went!

See you around the playground.

Brooke Keevers
Principal

Assistant Principals News

Student Leadership

As the Stage 3 Assistant Principal (Relieving), I have the great pleasure of being involved in and leading the Student Leadership program. The development of life-long leadership skills is one of the learning opportunities offered to all students at Balgowlah North Public School. Having effective student leaders supports the development of our school’s core values of respectful, responsible and safe behaviour.

The leadership journey for our year 5 students started last week with Peer Mediation training. This program helps and supports our K - 2 students in playground conflict situations by finding a positive way to solve a problem. Students attended a full day’s workshop where they participated in a number of activities that rely on building leadership skills that focus on problem solving, conflict resolution, active listening and communication.

This week our year 5 students have been paired and rostered on to the K – 2 area for a morning (8.30 – 8.55am) or lunch time 1^st half (12.50 – 1.15 pm) and 2^nd half (1.15 – 1.35pm) duty for the remainder of the year. The students will be rostered up to three times per term. It is their responsibility if they can’t make their time slot to change with one of their peers. The Year 5 teachers will endeavour to roster students at a time that will not clash with their other commitments.

Balgowlah North Public School expects its Student Leaders to uphold the core values of the school. They are to behave in a respectful and responsible manner, engage in safe play, complete work to the best of their ability, wear full school uniform and participate actively in all school events. Mrs Keevers and I meet once a week to guide the leaders in activities that will benefit the whole school community. Topics that are discussed and organised are the roster for flags, playground and fundraising ideas.

As part of their own leadership journey, they have the opportunity to attend the Halogen Youth Conference and the Northern Beaches Learning Alliance Leadership Day. The Halogen Conference day involves student interaction with lots of other student leaders and three speakers that give their perspective of their own life journeys. As part of the NBLA leadership day they have to come up with an initiative that will benefit the school. Our student leaders have already chosen their project which will be further developed over the term but one which they believe will benefit all of our student community and give them a student voice. The first student leader podcast was aired last week to the students at the school.

Susie Stock
Stage 3 Assistant Principal (Relieving)

The National Young Leaders Day

On Tuesday the 7th our school leaders went to the Halogen Leadership Day to hear personal stories from people that have become leaders from a young age.

Chris Green (the captain of the Thunders BBL cricket team) was the first speaker and told us that it's important to include others and take a break once from your sport and enjoy life with friends and family.

Our second speaker was Caitlin Bassett, she is a retired netball goal shooter who played for the Diamonds. She was selected team captain by her teammates not because she was the fastest or the strongest but because she was a great team player. (Fun fact she was 6ft at age 11!)

Nazeem Hussain taught us about standing up to bullies and that books can change your life; he told us about how he put his teacher car for sale.

The next speaker was his Excellency David Hurley the Governor General. His speech was based on humility and owning your mistakes. He spoke very wise words.

Last but not least Dr Jordan Nguyen spoke. He is a robotics engineer and he focused on making a change in people's lives. He was very inspirational and told us many amazing stories about the things he has invented to improve other people's lives. The quote he lived by is ‘One life persists to improve many’.

Darcy Y, Matthew D, Isaac A, Scarlett P, Jackson T, Emily M

School News

School photos at BNPS 

Brush up the black shoes and get your best smiles ready. School photos are on the horizon. Tuesday, 21st March, 2023. All students will have their individual and class photos on this day, as well as sibling photos.

Important note for Year 2 students/families: Our school photos fall on the first of daily Swim Scheme lessons for our Year 2 students. Swim Scheme sessions are not until after recess, so all Year 2 class and profile photos have been scheduled to be taken first thing in the morning. Those families wishing to have sibling photos taken, with any sibling being in Year 2 this year are being asked to present directly to the hall/library on Tuesday 21st March, with all BNPS siblings to be photographed, to have their sibling photo taken between 8:30-9:00am. Any siblings of a Year 2 student that are in band should attend their band practice as usual. There will still be enough time for photographs once the band has finished.

All other sibling photos (families that do not have any children in Year 2) will be taken later that day as originally planned.

To view prices and pay online, please go to www.theschoolphotographer.com.au and enter our school code, found on the flyer: X1291EL50B

Ethics Note 

Our Primary Ethics team is seeking more volunteers to teach Primary Ethics. We particularly need volunteers for Kindergarten, year 1, year 4 and year 6 students.  

Ethics teachers receive full training by Primary Ethics, the not-for-profit organisation approved to design the curriculum and training for the ethics program. Training consists of a two day workshop and short online modules. Suitable volunteers have an interest in children’s education and the development of their critical thinking skills. You must be available to teach a 30 minute class on a Thursday afternoon each week. All lesson materials are provided.  

In ethics classes, we aim to give students an opportunity to discuss and think for themselves about ethical issues relevant to them. 

Students discuss topics such as:

- empathy;
- being an ethical consumer;
- how should we treat living things;
- how do we know when we have done something wrong?;
- intentions and knowledge - what might a whale know?; and
- understanding diversity.

If you are looking for an opportunity to make a valuable contribution to our school and be part of a great program, please visit www.primaryethics.com.au. You can also email our Primary Ethics Coordinator Susan Gray at bnpsethics@gmail.com for further information.

Peer Mediation Reports

The Year 5 students enjoyed role playing as part of their Peer Mediation training. Each group was presented with a real world playground scenario where they had to mediate between students to resolve their issues. We had a chance to practice a couple of times before we presented our scene to the Year 5 students. I was really nervous but enjoyed the experience. All the role playing scenes were different and I recognised some moments that I had experienced myself as a younger student! We got to wear high visibility vests which will make us stand out in the K-2 playground. We’re looking forward to using our training next week!
Jaime S 5M

Gooey marshmallows and raw spaghetti filled the hall and laughter and joy was let out by the children! The marshmallow challenge was a very fun experience. It required listening and cooperation. To build the marshmallow tower, your group needed patience and good communication. If your group did not work together, you would have a problem. My group did a good job listening to each other's ideas. No idea was ever excluded. I realised listening was very important and without it we wouldn't have had so much fun! 
Evie H-A 5M

One of the activities we did in Peer Mediation training was called “Island Dilemma”. All the students were split into groups of 6 and had to work together to solve a tricky problem and to justify our reasons why. Our group was stuck on a deserted island and were presented with 6 crates but could only choose 3 to open and inspect. In each of the crates, there was a variety of items which would help us to survive, but we had to justify our reasons why we chose them. It was hard to decide as some things could only be used once (a box of matches) or lots of times (a waterproof tarp). The Year 5 students all learned how to collaborate with one another to solve problems and I think this will help prepare me for when it’s my turn to do Peer Mediation!
Lachie P 5M

We had a lot of fun activities in our Peer Mediation learning session, but one of them was the human knot. A group of people would cross their arms over, then link their hands up with the person opposite them. The aim was to uncross everyone’s arms so that you would be a normal circle again. We did this challenge twice, once with verbal communication, and once without verbal communication. We did this to understand why we need to communicate to solve uneasy situations. I think it was a fun and mind twisting experience, or should I say arm twisting experience!
Josh N 5R

On the 1st of March, Year 5 had Peer Mediation training day. We made spaghetti and marshmallow towers, we untangled our human knots, we completed a deserted island task and we did role plays. Peer mediation is all about helping younger kids with their friendship fires, solving problems that they might have in the playground and giving them a Band-Aid if they hurt themselves. Peer mediation is really fun and it can be a great way to be with younger kids and help them.
Meg A 5R

Peer mediation is all about problem solving and leadership. On our training day, Year 5 mastered necessary skills to help K to 2 students to build healthy relationships. From the 6th of March, you may notice Year 5 students with yellow vests on in the K-2 playground. We are here to help!
Matias R 5R

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Naplan

Library News

Monday March 20 - March 26

Harmony Week is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate our differences and bring together Australians from all different backgrounds. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.​We will be celebrating Harmony Week during week 9 with a number of activities to promote our awareness and acceptance of diversity. On Thursday March 23, students are invited to wear a splash of orange with their normal school uniform. We would also like to invite any Balgowlah North parents or extended family members, who would like to contribute to our Harmony Week and talk to their child’s class about their cultural background or diverse situation. This can be anything from a brief chat or story to a craft or art activity, which helps the class to understand and appreciate more about our different backgrounds. If you would like to do this, please contact your child’s teacher.

The Week Ahead

Dates for the diary 

Wednesday 15 March                                    NAPLAN commences

Sports News

Summer PSSA results: Round: 2

Class snapshot KM

Waste Free Wednesday Winners

Waste Free Wednesday Winners for Week 6. Congratulations 4HL, KR and KM. 

Administration

We have had lots of calls regarding making payments over the last week. Please find below instructions on how to do this if you are unsure.

P & C News

A huge thank you all for such a fantastic night Saturday, for our first fundraising event of the year. This community is like no other, thank you!

Thank you to our major sponsor Stone Real Estate’s, Louise Ashdown & Maria Cassarino.
Thank you to Freshwater Brewing at Brookvale.
Thank you to Wavescape Orthodontics & Vision PT Balgowlah & also Woodbine Bakery for sponsorship.

Thank you all for making this school community so special & all your support always.

Karen Ciano

Band News

Band Election BBQ and Cake Stall Fundraiser – Sign up to help

The BNPS Band community is looking for volunteers to help with the upcoming Election BBQ and Cake Stand Fundraiser, held at the school on Saturday 25 March, 2023. This event represents a significant portion of critical funds raised to keep our fantastic band program operating and relies on volunteer support from our parent community. So, please join us, we have slots available for BBQ cookers, cake stand operators and money/till operators - 1.5 hr slots. We are also looking for cakes, cookies, slices or other baked goods to sell on the day for the cake stand.

You are guaranteed to have some fun and meet other parents in the band whilst supporting our kids on their musical journey at BNPS. 

Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c094aada722a7ffc16-bnps#/

Community news

School Sponsors