Newsletter Term 2 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."

Principal's message

Northern Beaches Instrumental Music Festival

Bravo to our Bands!
Over the last week our three bands have performed at the Northern Beaches Instrumental Festival.  Our conductors were thrilled with their performances and all three bands received excellent feedback from the appraisers.  They received a plaque and a recording of the performance which includes advice from the appraisers on which areas the bands can work on to improve their performance.  Well done to the students and conductors. Thank you to the parents for supporting the performances.

P&C School Disco
SAVE THE DATE – Thursday 22 June
Get your dancing shoes ready to enjoy our very popular P&C school disco!  Brought to you by the Band Committee.  At this stage – just save the date and more information will be coming to you soon.
Dancers of all ages are welcome.

External Validation
The external validation process provides an assurance to the school and system that the progress being made aligns with the expectations articulated in the School Excellence Framework (SEF). Once in a four-year cycle each school undergoes an external validation of the evidence of their school’s self-assessment of progress by an independent panel.

The School Excellence Framework (SEF) supports all NSW public schools in their pursuit of excellence by providing a clear description of the key elements of high quality practice across the 3 domains of learning, teaching and leading. Through our self-assessment processes, schools draw on a range of evidence to determine their impact, progress and achievements. The SEF defines the core business of excellent schools, enabling them to reflect on quality practice and ensures consistency across the state.

We are preparing our submission this term, followed by affirmation of our school’s submission by the Director of Educational Leadership, and then an independent panel determines whether the evidence presented supports the school’s assessment. This will then inform our new school Strategic Improvement Plan. We look forward to sharing this feedback with the school community next term. I’d especially like to acknowledge the work that our teachers and leadership team have done to prepare for this process.

Uniform surveys
Thank you to the parents and students who have completed the uniform surveys. The results have been quite interesting. We have provided a summary below:

164 parent responses

How do you feel about the sports uniform?
44% of parents wanted a blue skort to match the blue shorts
36% didn’t mind
19.5% unisex

How do you feel about the dominant colour maroon?
51.9% like it/it’s ok
66% don’t mind what colour it is

Blue tracksuits
75.2% would like this as an option.

Student results were very similar.  We will explore options for blue sport tracksuits, a blue skort to replace the sports skort. We will seek feedback from parents on samples, many parents are interested in this process. Pippa Lester will have some samples and feedback forms available for parents to view on the 22nd of June before the school disco and after school. More information will be available at this point.  Any changes that our school community endorses will involve a period of transition and we will keep parents informed of this.

Online Parent Workshop

Thank you to the parents who attended our combined parent workshop last night at Seaforth. Feedback from parents was very positive, practical and quite enlightening for all. We will aim to have regular sessions with Online Guardian again in 2024.

Playground refurbishment
What an exciting time to see the first draft plans for upgrades to our Kindergarten play spaces. We have received feedback from our students via our Student Representative Council. We would also like to obtain feedback from our parent community. We will place a noticeboard in the Kindergarten and Year One playground before and after school on Thursday and Friday this week with some feedback forms. We would appreciate it if you could spend 5 minutes having a look at these. These are important steps in the draft process for our landscape design company. The students were very excited with the first draft plan!

Brooke Keevers
Principal

URStrong Family Workshop

We are providing an opportunity for parents to attend an ONLINE Language of Friendship parent-child workshop on Wednesday 14 June at 6:00pm. Tyson Greenwood (Director of URSTRONG) will teach you and your children skills + language to foster healthy, feel-good friendships.

 Registration Required: CLICK HERE to register

We believe that empowering our students with these skills will create a culture of kindness at our school and we hope you can attend.

Assistant Principal News

Semester One Reports Are In The Pipeline

The teachers at Balgowlah North Public School are now in the process of preparing your child’s Semester One report. 

Teacher’s carry out ongoing assessment of your child as they are learning day-to-day in all six Key Learning Areas. Teacher judgements about student achievement are based on quality and varied evidence seen through learning tasks and opportunities. Evidence can also include results from formative and summative assessments. Teachers meet regularly to share work samples and assessment pieces and to discuss how the students in that stage are traveling overall, not just in individual classes. These consistent teacher judgment sessions (CTJs) ensure teachers get a well-rounded view of what is a ‘sound’ amount of progress for their students.

The reporting system is called the Common Grade Scale. It has been implemented across all NSW public schools by the government’s Education Standards Authority. All students work towards their stage outcomes.

Students in Kindergarten are placed on a three point scale:

Working Towards - Working At - Working Beyond

For students in Years 1-6, there are five performance grades on the scale: 

Limited - Basic - Sound - High - Outstanding

A ‘Sound’ on your child's school report is a wonderful result. It is something to be celebrated. This identifies that your child is performing exactly where they are expected to be at that given moment in time, based on their stage level and the expected content knowledge from the NSW syllabus. They have nailed it! 

If your child gets a ‘High’,they have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the content and a high level of competence in the processes and skills. In addition, your child is able to apply this knowledge and these skills to most situations. If they get an ‘Outstanding’, your child has an extensive knowledge and understanding of the content and can readily apply this knowledge. In addition, they have achieved a very high level of competence in the processes and skills and can apply these skills to new situations. As you spiral down towards ‘Basic’, this grade identifies that your child has a basic knowledge and understanding of the content and a basic level of competence in the processes and skills required. A ‘Limited’ grade identifies that your child has an elementary knowledge and understanding in few areas of the content and has achieved very limited competence in some of the processes and skills.

It is important to also remember that this is a moment in time. Getting a ‘Sound’ in Semester 1, Year 2 and then getting a ‘Sound’ in Semester 2, Year 2, doesn’t mean that your child is stagnant. It means they were on point at the halfway mark of the year with everything they had been taught and had progressed as expected with everything taught in Semester 2. They had improved.

In 2023, the reports of all students in Kindergarten, Year One and Year Two will reflect the outcomes from the new NSW English and Mathematics syllabuses. Reports for students in Years 3-6 will reflect the previously existing NSW syllabuses and move to using the new syllabus for their reports in 2024. 

Parents will receive their child’s Semester One report via email on Thursday 29th June, in the last week of this term. What a fantastic way to celebrate a semester of learning at our school. 

Jenni Reinhardt

(Assistant Principal Curriculum & Instruction)

School News

Wellbeing Week

Week 8 is ‘Wellbeing Week’ at BNPS. Throughout the week, students will be participating in a range of activities and events in their classroom that focus on wellbeing. Tuesday 13th June is ‘Rainbow Day’, where we ask students to dress in school uniform with a splash of bright rainbow colours and bring a gold coin donation for Kids Helpline.

Attendance

Regular attendance is essential for our students to be able to thrive at school. Coming to school every day not only ensures continuity of learning, but also fosters a sense of belonging and supports positive social connections.

We understand that absence from school can sometimes be unavoidable, particularly in the current season of colds and flu, and we thank our parent community for keeping their children home when they are unwell.  

We would like to remind our parent community that all student absences must be explained within 7 days of the first day of them being away from school. We’d also like to remind parents that every day of absence must be accounted for in writing. This means if your child is away from school sick on the Monday and returns to school on the Wednesday, we need an explanation for every single date they are away from school, not just the first date. We also cannot accept verbal notifications of absence. 

Please contact us promptly via the school app whenever your child is absent and let us know the reason for them being away. This allows us to provide the right support and make sure your child's absences are recorded correctly. 

In the event your child has repeated or ongoing unexplained absences, we will continue to try to contact you about each absence to provide appropriate support for you and your family.

Behaviour

Balgowlah North Public School is committed to creating an inclusive learning environment where our students are able to challenge themselves, create connections and contribute positively to our world. 

Our school is a place of quality teaching, quality learning and quality behaviour. We pride ourselves on ensuring every student is known, valued and cared for and that every student can feel safe, included and respected when they come to school each day.

Balgowlah North Public School is committed to explicitly teaching and modelling positive behaviour which is embedded within our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) expectations of Being Safe, Being Respectful and Being Responsible.

The school operates a formal behaviour expectation program from Kindergarten to Year 6. This allows all students to recognise that choosing inappropriate behaviour will result in formal consequences. When a student has not followed the school’s expectation of  Being Safe, Being Respectful and Being Responsible, they are asked to reflect on their actions and behaviour, its impact on others and how they could make more appropriate choices in the future. 

Behaviour incidents are recorded and monitored to identify trends where a student, student group or cohort may benefit from some targeted support to develop their behaviour regulation skills. For more serious and/or repeated behaviours parent contact and intervention programs may be required as a strategy to support the student in modifying their behaviour in the future. 

At Balgowah North, we are committed to partnering with our students and their parents to ensure behaviour expectations are valued and upheld and that behaviour incidents are managed in a timely, fair and supportive manner. We have developed a comprehensive Behaviour Support and Management Plan that details all of our processes in further detail. This document can be accessed on our school website under ‘Procedures and Policies’.

Interrelate

The Interrelate Program will start on Wednesday 14th June for all Stage 3 students. Interrate is a program that is committed to providing information to empower our students to thrive in the vital part of their lives, their relationships. Our stage 3 students are involved in two different programs with professional educators delivering the course. Please read through what our students will be learning over the next three weeks.

Moving Into the Teen Years: Year 5 Program

The program focus: 
• Acknowledge personal differences and promote respect for, and acceptance of, others
• increased awareness of personal safety and protective behaviours
• Develop students’ understanding of physical development at puberty, and provide strategies for managing these changes
• Discuss different types of relationships and strategies for managing conflict 

Moving Into the Teen Years:  Year 6 Program

The program focus: 
• Revisit development at puberty
• Outline the process of human reproduction, including conception, foetal development and birth
• Explore respectful relationships with self, friends and family
• Enhance students’ self-esteem, communication and decision-making skills in relation to taking responsibility, taking care of themselves and respecting others
• Assist students to become aware of the influences on their personal choices and the potential consequences of those choices
• Raise awareness of technology and its influence on teens, including strategies for cybersafety
• Discuss expectations in high school

Susie Stock
Stage 3 Assistant Principal (Relieving)

Operation Art

Operation Art is an initiative of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in association with the New South Wales Department of Education. Operation Art will be exhibiting the art achievements of students from all over NSW during September and October at the Sydney Olympic Park Armory Gallery.  As a school we are able to choose and submit 3 pieces of outstanding work done by students across the school. This year we are very proud of the creative pieces done by our students. Well done to Phoebe W (Year 1), Jessica M (Year 5), Hannah M (Year 6) and Darcy Y (Year 6).

The Week Ahead

12 June             Kings Birthday Public Holiday
13 - 16 June     Wellbeing Week
14 June             NBLA HPGE Stage 1 Robotics
14 June            Stage 2 Excursion - State Library
14 June            Stage 3 Interrelate
14 June            URSTRONG Language of Friendshop Parent/Family Workshop on Zoom - 6pm
15 June            Regional Cross Country
15 June            Maths Olympiad  Contest 2
17 June            P & C Trivia Night

Sports News

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Class Snapshot

Waste Free Wednesday

P and C News

Green Grove Working Bee
Please come and lend a hand to get a few things done around our school! 
Bring the family & enjoy a BBQ after! Please sign up using the link below:

BNPS School Community: Balgowlah North School Community Working Bee (signupgenius.com)

Koolkuna News

Guessing Competition for Backpack Bed for Homeless

Community news

School Sponsors