Newsletter Term 3 Week 4 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

Wonderful news
Congratulations to Charlie O who represented the school U12/ State AFL competition in Albury NSW, what an incredible opportunity for Charlie, we are very proud of you.

Education Week
Thank you to our wonderful community for sharing with us Education day last week. The smiles on all the faces said it all.

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Uniform 
Thank you to everyone for your feedback as to uniform changes. Last week at P&C Pippa Lester and Jane Foster had prepared a summary of changes based on the results of the feedback received from students, parents and teachers. The changes were ratified at P&C and as such the following changes will occur.

Sports uniform

• Pickles will still provide current stock for K-2 of the current sport skort in 2024. Once the stock is sold it will be replaced with the blue skort. By 2025 the blue skort or blue shorts will be the expected sport uniform for all students K-6. 
• 3-6 students are expected to transition to this option as well. Stock will be available at the start of 2024 for those who wish to purchase the blue skort for the start of next year. For students representing our school at events or PSSA they will be expected to wear the blue shorts or blue skort. The school will provide blue shorts if needed as part of the PSSA kit given to the students at the start of the sport season, priority will be given to year 6 students.

Tracksuits

• In 2024 Years 3-6 to have blue tracksuit pants, if they wear them
• In 2024 Kindergarten to Year 2 can continue to buy/wear maroon ones (allowing for currently owned uniforms to continue to be worn)
• Add the blue microfleece tracksuit pants ($35) to the school uniform to provide another option for track suit type pants. Monitor the purchase of these and assess in 18 months. 

School leadership team
I would like to acknowledge the work of the school leadership team who yesterday completed the final panel meeting for external validation. As I have mentioned before this process occurs every 4 years within our public schools. It is an extremely rigorous process and the strength, passion and dedication of our leadership team came to the fore both yesterday and over the past 6 months as we have prepared for this process. 

We are very proud of our results and we look forward to sharing this with our school community over the coming week once the reports are finalised.  Thank you to Rachel Ridley, Jenni Reinhardt, Susie Stock, Olivia Wakelin and Sascha Carroll for your work each and everyday with the students, families and teachers at our wonderful school.

Kind regards

Brooke Keevers
Principal

Assistant Principals News

Opportunities for HPGE students
Our school aims to provide challenging and engaging opportunities for all students to reach their academic potential across all aspects of the curriculum. 

We have clearly defined processes for identifying High Potential and Gifted (HPG) students across the four domains of potential (intellectual, social-emotional, creative and physical) and strive to enrich their learning through quality differentiated learning opportunities.

At times, there are also specific opportunities for HPG students to be involved in enrichment opportunities that facilitate talent development in a specific domain. This may include activities such as representative sporting teams, public speaking events, creative and performing arts groups and curriculum-linked workshops. 

Where an opportunity exists for a student to be involved in a specific enrichment opportunity, we follow a clearly defined process that includes teacher nomination, student self-nomination and parent nomination. 

Some opportunities take the form of a competition, where students eligibility is determined through exceptional performance against a set of clearly defined success criteria. More information on our HPGE processes can be found on our website:

External Providers 
Occasionally we receive requests for externally funded service providers to deliver disability, wellbeing and behavior support services to students at school. These requests are often linked to delivery of a student’s NDIS plan. Decisions for external support delivery are made on a  case by case basis. All decisions take into account the educational needs of the student, the school’s operational context and duty of care obligations towards all students and staff.

An externally funded service delivered in school should support the student’s participation in education and access to the curriculum. Where the service does not link with the student’s learning needs or enhance access to education, the service should be delivered outside of school time. Any request for external provider support should be made in writing to the Diverse Learner’s Team. 

ICAS dates at BNPS 2023
ICAS assessments will commence this week. Please be advised that there will be no make up test sessions as assessment dates were clearly communicated in the newsletter. 

ACAP Psychology Clinic 
The ACAP Psychology Clinic is offering free psychological support services to our community. The ACAP Psychology Clinic is staffed by final year Psychology/Clinical Psychology, Counselling/Psychotherapy and Social Work students on placement and offers a wide range of FREE individual and group therapy options.

Students are closely monitored and supervised by experienced senior clinicians and academics. The wait list for services is brief (up to 2-4 weeks), and they work with children, young people and adults (including older adults). There is no wait time for face to face clients in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

ACAP provide therapy in person at their Clinics in central Sydney. Referrals are made via email clinic@acap.edu.au  or via our website. You can also refer via telephone: 02 8236 8070. In addition to individual therapy, there are a number of group work programs running in 2023. Groups have limited space and early referral is suggested.

For more information on the various groups offered please see attached flyer.
To book, refer, or for more information, visit The ACAP Psychology Clinic website: https://www.acap.edu.au/applied-psychology/psychology/psychology-clinic/  send us an email or call (02) 8236 8070.

School News

Education Week showcase of the Performing Arts

Emily G - 6/5H
The day started with the String Ensemble, Junior Band, Senior Band and Concert Band with beautiful music displaying many different types of genres. From there, the parents got to explore our learning space and we got to interview the parents and learn about what school was like when they were younger. After the classrooms visitors walked to the Hall where Oscar Gill performed many beautiful piano pieces as they entered. Emily Green presented our Acknowledgement of Country leading to the Choir singing ‘Naughty’, and ‘Go For Broke’ followed by the amazing, engaging Bear Pit finalist Talon Davis and Amelia Mckinnon. After the amazing speeches the Drama Ensemble performed ‘When Rats Attack’ which really amused the audience. That wasn’t all. The Dance Group showed us some Harry Styles with the dance ‘Treat Them With Kindness’ finishing the day with Year 1,2,3 performing, ‘Alice the Camel’, ‘Lion Sleeps Tonight’ and ‘Skinny Marinky Dink’. What a showcase!

Alice L - 4/3W
As I stepped into the library door and took a few steps forward, I saw it. The black book with the shimmering pink title saying: Barbie The Decades of Doll Generations. I knew straight away this was the book. I walked right over to the line not caring about any other books because this was the one.

When I got into the classroom filled with parents, kids and lots of chatting, I went over to the back table, sat down and started writing a poem about bees. At the start I had a total mind blank, but when I started writing I had lots of ideas and soon enough (with a bit of help) I had finished! My poem was three paragraphs long and said:

Buzzy, bumbly bees,
Flying over trees,
Pollinating flowers,
Making honey for hours.

Black and yellow stripes,
Reaching super hights,
With their little wings,
Flying over green things.

They make our healthy food,
And it tastes really good,
Say thanks to the bees,
For pollinating trees.

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Creative Arts News - Inspiration from our Incursion with Musica Viva - Wyniss
We have been exploring resources from Musica Viva in our music lessons so far with Mrs McAllister this term. Wyniss incorporated songs or dances with spinning tops, string figures, firefly props and games. Students were so inspired by the ensemble visiting our school that we have been creating our own versions of the songs now too, including making a spear from string, using a homemade spinning top and even playing along with instruments! We have been seeing many students in the playground with their strings and spinning tops and you might like to continue learning how to do this at home too!

Eliza McAllister - Music and Dance Teacher

Thank you Mrs Keevers!
Friday, 4th August, 2023, marked Australian Primary Principals Day. The whole of the BNPS staff, community and especially students were excited to take this opportunity to acknowledge our wonderful Mrs Keevers and say THANK YOU for her dedication and contributions to making our school the best place to be and to learn.

Mrs Keevers leads and learns by example. Students from Kindergarten to Year 6 love to see her smiling face popping into their classroom and floating around in the playground. “She is always interested in what we are learning,” said a Year 2 student. We are very fortunate to have you Mrs Keevers.

Sports News

NSWPSSA Netball Knockout
On Friday morning the Balgowlah North ‘A’ netball team played in the semifinals of the NSWPSSA Netball Knockout. The team of  Scarlett P, Jess D, Sophie R, Josie P, Darcy Y, Sophia C and Evelyn S played with purpose and grit to defeat a determined Mona Vale Public School 21 - 6. I would like to acknowledge Charlie O and Addie B who have supported and played in the past games but are currently injured. Girls, I was very proud of your sportsmanship and conduct on the day. Well done!

Admin News

Staff carpark
The staff carpark is for emergency vechile entry and exit, it is out of bounds for students.

School Bytes
Parent Portal provides easier navigation of the statement of account, permission notes and other information sent form School Bytes. The app can be downloaded by following the link below:
On the app you can:

• Make payments and pay fees
• Give consent for excursions and activities
  Parent Portal: Provide consent and payment for an excursion – School Bytes

Waste Free Wednesday

Library News

Education Week Book Fair
I would like to say a huge thank you for all the generous book donations made to our library during Education week. I am so excited about the enormous amount of new quality literature for our students to borrow and read. These books take a few weeks to get processed and ready to borrow but will be available to the students as soon as they are. 

Book Week
Our school will be celebrating Book Week in Week 7. I am very excited to have visiting author Gus Gordon come to our school and present to all our year groups. The CBCA Book Week Theme this year is Read Grow Inspire. We will be having a book week parade on the morning of Thursday August 31. This is an opportunity for students to dress up as their favourite book character or link their costume to this year’s theme. This is always a fun event and all parents are welcome to come. More details to come.

Class Snapshot - KC

Positive Behaviour for Learning

The Week Ahead

9 August                 Stage 3 Forest High Writing Workshop
10 August               ICAS-Writing Assessment 9:30am
15 August               Choir Performance - Australis Concert
17 August               ICAS- English Assessment 9:30am
21 August               ICAS- Science Assessment 9:30am
22 August               K-1 Fun Sports Carnival
23 & 24 August      Zone Athletics 
23 August               Kindergarten 2024 Parent Information Session
28 August               Book Week
29 August               Author visit - Gus Gordon
30 August               ICAS- Maths Assessment 9:30am
31 August               Fathers Day Breakfast

P & C News

The Green Grove Working Bee will now take place on Sunday 13 August at 10am, please sign up to help out using the link: BNPS School Community: Balgowlah North School Community Working Bee (signupgenius.com)

Canteen News

Please don't forget to place your orders before 9.00am and 8.45am if ordering sushi.
We can't recommend ordering the night before highly enough to get ahead of the morning rush and of course we're just a phone call away if you realise you've forgotten to order.

Koolkuna News

For Term 3 Sustainable OSHC is collecting items for Smiles2U Care Packages.
Smiles2U is a charity that aims to bring care and comfort to the many children, adults and carers who pass through the doors of our local hospitals every day. Smiles2U now supports 13 hospitals (including Bear Cottage Hospice, Sydney Children's Hospital Westmead, and Royal North Shore Hospital) with care packages, smiles bags, cancer care packs and comfort for those who find themselves in hospitals unexpectedly.

We will be collecting the following items for these packs to support families and patients with comfort and care whilst going through a very challenging time in their lives.

Hygiene items 

• Shampoos/conditioners (travel size)
• Toothbrushes/toothpaste
• Moisturizer, hand creams
• Soaps, mini tissue packs etc
  
  Children Activity items 
  (must be brand new - due to hygiene regulations)
  

  
  

• Gel pens, pencils, crayons, textas etc.
• Colouring in books, Reading books, Sticker books, etc.
• Teddy bears 
• Playing cards, Hot wheel cars, Mini Board games etc.
• Craft Packs

 Koolkuna OSHC

School Community news

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