Balgowlah North Public School eNewsletter

"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."

Principal's message

Connections

World’s Greatest Shave and Zany Hair Day

Thank you to our wonderful Year 6 students and parents for supporting this incredible charity. Today is the Day! Year 6 pupils will shave, cut or colour their hair and Kindy to Year 5 have participated with a Zany Hair Do!.

Every day, 53 Australians are diagnosed with blood cancer, and 16 will lose their life. Money raised through our efforts will give families facing blood cancer the special care, support and information they need – while driving breakthrough research projects discovering better ways to diagnose and treat blood cancer.

We would like to extend a special thank you to some of our outstanding school community members who have made today’s event possible:

Lisa Moses, Paul Corbitt and Natalie McGrath who have volunteered their professional skills to shaving, trimming, clipping and cutting our students’ hair this morning.

Lucy Orth and Kate Bartlett for working tirelessly behind the scenes to coordinate the event and fundraising initiative.

Marie from Hairografi who has offered to tidy up any student’s shaves this afternoon for $10, which she will donate back to the BNPS World’s Greatest Shave fundraising drive.

Please follow this link to sponsor a Year 6 student or donate to the BNPS Year 6 team for Zany Hair Day. You can also donate cash on 3rd May at school.

Balgowlah North Public School | World's Greatest Shave | Leukaemia Foundation

We look forward to welcoming all our Mother's or special person to school next Thursday morning from 8.00am. Our bands and choir will be performing on the deck, we will also have a coffee cart and breakfast menu available from the canteen.

We have added a couple of extra things this year, including a photo booth with some dressups and our classrooms will be open for the first 20 minutes of the day. Please feel free to come at any time that works for you and your family and work schedules. The P&C will also be running a Mother’s Day stall so students can purchase a gift for a special person in their life.

School Uniforms

We are currently seeking feedback from students, parents and teachers in regards to our current school uniform. Last year at P&C meetings uniforms were highlighted as an area that the P&C would like to gather further feedback from the school community. Thank you to Pippa Lester and Jane Foster for working with me on this.

At this point in time there are currently no changes to the uniforms. Our first steps will be surveying focus groups of students and parents to understand what is working well, and what adjustments are possible to ensure equity for all.

As the weather cools students will transition into the winter school uniform over the next few weeks. Generally speaking Term 2 and 3 are winter uniform terms.

While discussing uniforms, hats have been an issue. We have had quite a few caps sneaking into school lately. Can you please ensure that your child has a school hat, there are a lot of second hand uniforms available to purchase. Please ensure names are current on all uniform pieces.

Student Supervision

Students are not to be dropped at school before 8.30am unless they are attending a supervised extra curricular activity. We have playground supervision from 8.30am. Koolkuna is available before school if your family need supervision. We have had some of our older students coming early to be able to ‘bags’ handball squares. We would appreciate it if you could remind your child that they are welcome at school from 8.30am onwards.

Cross Country Carnival - Wednesday 10 May

It’s running time! The school Cross Country carnival will take place on Wednesday 10 May. After feedback from last year, we have decided to run the same course - around the footpath on the outside of the school.

Parents are welcome to view the cross country. Please note that as students will be running along the footpath, we ask for your assistance to park safely around the school and not as races are being run.

We need helpers to be official course marshals - If you are able to assist between 9am until 12:30pm could you please email the office with your name/ contact phone number/ child’s name / child’s class, and we will be in contact to confirm. Thank you in advance to those who are able to assist.

Please ensure your child has a hat, sunscreen applied and a water bottle on the day. Students are permitted to wear a house-coloured T-shirt. Please make sure it is appropriately sun safe.

Kangaroo: Red
Koala: Yellow
Wombat: Blue
Wallabies: Green

Finishing time: 2:30pm (approx.)
School Representation: First six students in the 2km and 3 km races represent Balgowlah North at Zone. 7th and 8th place are reserves. (Reserves don’t go to Zone unless someone is injured or sick.)
Ribbons Presentation: At K-2 and 3- 6 assemblies
Zone: Thursday 25th May

Selective High school Tests

Good luck to our 9 students sitting the test for a selective high school placement. We wish you all the best at Manly Selective on Thursday. Make sure you have a good sleep and do your best. We are very proud of you all.

I look forward to seeing you all at our upcoming events over the next couple of weeks.

Brooke Keevers

Principal

Assistant Principal News

Our teaching team met this week to engage in professional reflection around assessment practices in mathematics. With the implementation of a new Mathematics syllabus in K - 2 this year and a new syllabus planned for 3-6 in 2024, it is essential that our teachers have opportunities to collectively review our current practices and continuously seek to improve our practice and align our assessment protocols to those embedded in the new syllabus.

Effective assessment practices guide a teacher to facilitate learning opportunities that meet each student at their point of understanding and develop the knowledge and skills they need to progress in their learning.

One of the critical areas of change in the new mathematics syllabus is the increased importance that is placed on a student's ability to work mathematically. Working mathematically essentially refers to the ability to understand and connect mathematical concepts, apply effective problem solving techniques and communicate reasoning.

As part of our professional learning, BNPS teachers looked at developing consistent processes to assess student ability to work mathematically and how this can be effectively communicated to parents through reporting.

Pre-Service Teachers

This term, Balgowlah North Public School will proudly be hosting and mentoring student teachers from a range of universities. At BNPS, we value the role we can play in the development of pre-service teachers as an integral part of us contributing positively to the future of our profession and the education of our students.

Please join us in making our pre-service teachers feel welcome and supported in our wonderful school community.

Playmates

This week we commenced our Playmates program. Playmates is a friendship and games program run by a group of Year 4 students in the Fort playground each week. The Year 4 students plan and organise a series of fun activities they can include our Kindergarten and Year One students in to support them in developing their friendships and social skills. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to learn through play, develop skills in leadership and cooperation and have fun being active.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Debating Club

Administration

Schoolzine

The app can be downloaded by following the link below:

SZapp - School Communication App - Schoolzine

On the app you can:

Read information and updates from our school
Submit an absence form for your child
Make payments
See the school calendar
Give consent for excursions and activities

The Week Ahead

Wednesday 3 May Worlds Greatest Shave
Thursday 4 May Maths Olympiad
Friday 5 May Year 5 Dancesport
Saturday 6 May Band Workshop- all ensembles
Wednesday 10 May P & C, AGM Meeting 7.30pm in the Library
Wednesday 10 May School Cross Country Carnival
Thursday 11 May Mothers Day Breakfast (from 8am onwards) and Mothers Day Stall

School News

Seedling Sale

REMINDER - Our BNPS Green Grove seedling and herb sale will be held tomorrow morning (Thursday) at the Bardoo Avenue entrance from 8:30am.

Sports News

Winter PSSA
There will be one more round of trials this Friday afternoon Week 2.
Winter PSSA commences in Week 3 on the 12th May.

Congratulations to Nieve S (6S) for being selected to Represent Aussie Gems and Australia at an international level cheerleading competition in Waikiki, Hawaii in May 2023.

Waste Free Wednesday

Class snapshots 3V and 1ES

Canteen News

Mother's Day Breakfast

Ordering for the Mother's Day Breakfast is now live on Flexischools. We have a range of items available and of course the all important Coffee Van will be availble for hot drinks (pre-order via flexischools). Some items will have limited availability so be sure to get in quickly.

Sushi

Sushi is once again available. Our Sushi Days are Wednesday and Thursday and the cut off time is 8:45am. Due to the earlier cut off time, Sushi has it's own service on Flexischools. All the drink and snack items are also available in that service so you don't need to do two separate orders if you want to add a drink etc to your sushi order.

P & C News

AGM Meeting

The AGM Meeting will be held in the Library at 7.30pm Wednesday 10th May

Community news

Opportunity Classes for Year 5 in 2024
The link below gives on information on Opportunuty classes for students going into Year 5 in 2024.

Opportunity_Classes_for_Year_5_in_2024_Information_for_applicants.pdf

Ethics

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.