Newsletter Term 1 week 6 2024

"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

Opportunities and Growth
Balgowlah North has a strong professional learning community of teachers who work in a collaborative culture of high expectations. Our teachers engage in weekly professional learning outside of their teaching workload, that is pivotal to our continued growth as a school and as a profession. At times our staff attend professional learning opportunities to build their capacity in an area they may be leading within the school, and/ or  a focus that supports our school’s strategic directions. This may occur during the school day. At all times school programs continue with the teacher that we have employed for the day.

Today Alice Pond, Eliza McAllister and Amanda Mason are attending a High Performance and Gifted Education conference with a focus on  the creative domain. To sustain a high performance culture that enables teachers and leaders opportunities to grow is of benefit to all the students of our school, our school community, The Beaches network and the greater good of Public Education.

Thank you to our teachers who also provide opportunities to develop our students talents and build resilience and grit when providing them with the chance to  explore and try new extra curricular activities. Deb Horsley and Amy Mussett accompanied 18 of our student leaders to the Halogen leadership conference on Monday, a fabulous opportunity for them to connect, be inspired and see the endless possibilities of what they can achieve.

We had over 90 students excited to explore the opportunities that Wakakirri will provide this term. Thank you to Michelle Mandalidis, Eliza Ross, Eliza Mc Allister, Anna Harris, Steph Rooleht and Claudia Mete for your enthusiasm and willingness to provide this for our students.

Yesterday our Eco Warriors team had their first meeting with over 30 students attending this at lunchtime. A very exciting student led initiative with Olivia C and Talon D student leaders supported by Elli Kate Richardson and Claudia Mete. This will be an exciting opportunity for our students who have a strong commitment to Sustainability and want to make a difference for our school, our community  and our planet.

Safety 
Please remember that supervision of students occurs from 8.30am. Students may be at school prior to 8.30am for sports training or band programs. If you need care prior to this time Kulkunna has availability every day in the mornings. Work will commence on our new playground space next Monday the 18th of March.

Playground Equipment
Our play equipment is supervised by staff during the hours of 8.30am until 3.00pm during playtime and when a class may be using the equipment. There is no supervision outside of these hours.

NAPLAN
NAPLAN commences next week, this is one set of tests at one point of time. We encourage our students to do their best. As parents, if you can ensure they are at school with plenty of time, have had good quality sleep, have the equipment that they need, this goes far in them feeling prepared for the days.  You know your child best so consider what positive conversations you can have at home that will support them.

Kind regards
Brooke Keevers
Principal

Assistant Principal News

High Potential Gifted Education
This year we will continue to embed opportunities that foster the potential of high potential and gifted (HPG) students into all aspects of our curriculum. 

Earlier this term, our teachers participated in professional learning where we collaboratively reviewed the way we identify high potential and gifted students within our school. Teachers also reflected on the opportunities we currently provide for students to develop their talent across the four domains of potential (intellectual, creative, sociale-motional and physical) and what we could further develop or integrate into our existing programs to ensure we are providing dynamic opportunities both in and out of the classroom.

Alice Pond, Eliza McAllister and Amanda Mason will be working with colleagues from across the Beaches, Forest and Pittwater networks of schools at the Annual HPGE Cross- Network conference. This is an amazing opportunity for our school to engage with the latest evidence-based research into high potential and gifted education and share practice with our fellow educators. 

The focus for the network conference this year is the Creative Domain, which extends not only to the students who demonstrate talent in the creative and performing arts but also to students who have natural abilities in imagination, invention and originality. 

These teachers will then look at how they can apply their learning to our Balgowlah North context to ensure we are providing rich opportunities for all students.

Rachel Ridley

School News

NBLA Leadership Day

On Tuesday last week the eight student leaders at BNPS attended the Northern Beaches Learning Alliance leadership day. All day we did challenges to test our leadership skills and learnt to cooperate with different people that we didn’t know. At the start of the day, we were all divided into four groups and did small activities with our group. We learnt to listen to people we didn't know, solve different problems and work together as a team.

During the middle session we did an initiative course where there were little activities to test our team skills, for example we had to swing from one tire to another and if one of your teammates fell out the whole team would have to start again.

Our last activity was to build a raft that would get to the other side of the lake without sinking. There were some difficulties along the way, but because we had learnt to be good communicators and work with other team members, we managed to successfully reach the other side. It was so much fun doing little challenges to test our leadership skills. Such a fun experience!

Olive B and Kahlia M 6S

On Tuesday the 27th of February the leadership team went to Narrabeen Sports Centre for an extremely fun Leadership Camp hosted by the NBLA. We did lots of enjoyable activities based on leadership and teamwork. We had to build a raft out of rope, barrels and wood planks. After building the rafts we had to swim across the lake with someone on top of the rafts. We did team building activities like building a tower of crates and we built paper planes in different ways practicing communication. We also learnt things in sign language like the whole alphabet and we had to try and put ourselves in order of our birthdays from 1st of January to the 31st of December. Whilst doing these activities we met kids from different schools and in a couple of the activities we had to interact with them by mixing groups all sought of different groups. Overall, this joyful day was a great opportunity to learn all these wonderful things and practice lots of leadership qualities.

By Charlie B, Amelia S and Finn E 6/5M

Halogen Youth Conference 

On Monday the 4th of March all the school leaders, house captains and band captains went to the young leader Halogen conference. There were so many amazing speakers but our favourite speakers were Matt Cosgrove, Eva Amores. They are a married couple and wrote the hilarious book series, The Worst Week ever. We like them the best because they taught us how to draw Macca the Alpaca, a picture book that Matt Cosgrove wrote. And how to draw Justin Chase from the main character in the worst week ever. Overall, this was such a great opportunity and was so fun.

Sammy D And Taylor G 6/5M

It was an early start for the student leaders, house captains and band captains on Monday March 4. We met Mrs Horsley and Miss Mussett at Manly Wharf and caught the fast ferry to Circular Quay on our way to the Halogen Young Leaders Conference. We hopped on the light rail to Town Hall and after a quick walk, we arrived at the International Conference Center in Darling Harbour. 

The first speaker was Anastasia Woolmer, the two-time memory champion. She pulled a volunteer from the crowd who gave her 30 random numbers. She memorised them quickly and was able to recite them both forwards and backwards. Her goal one day is to memorise the whole dictionary. The next speakers were Australian authors, Matt Cosgrove and Eva Amores, who co-authored the series, The Worst Week Ever! Their important message was about thinking positively. The glass is always half full!

The third speaker was Stephen O’Keefe, former Australian, NSW and Sixers cricketer. He told us about his journey which was not always easy and the three words which he wanted us to remember being, perseverance, resilience and sacrifice.

Our day ended on a high with the final speaker, Bryson Klein. He is a Ninja Warrior Champion who has a strong focus on never giving up. Each of the speakers throughout the day were inspiring and we learnt something different from each of them. It’s a day we will remember for a long time. 

James Jones and Cooper Inches 6/5H

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Hip Hop Incursion
In dance during this term, we are understanding influences of dance through time and composing our own. Students have been learning about dance from the Aboriginal Dance to modern day dance now. To enhance this learning, we are thrilled to be hosting a Hip Hop group to hold a workshop with our students. 

On Tuesday 2nd April, students will participate in an hour-long interactive session in the hall where they will listen to music, appreciate their dance movements and have an opportunity to join in. 

The incursion will take place in Term 1 Week 10, in the school hall. All stages will be participating in this incursion.The cost for the incursion is $10.00 and has been included in your Term 1 Statement of Account. This can be paid online via schoolbytes.

We are looking forward to an exciting learning experience.

Mrs McAllister

School photos at BNPS
Brush up the black shoes and get your best smiles ready. School photos are nearly here! They will occur on Tuesday, 19th March, 2024 (Week 8). Students will have their individual and class photos on this day, as well as sibling photos.

To view prices and pay online, please go to www.theschoolphotographer.com.au and enter our school code, found on the flyer: X1336EL52B

Please be aware when purchasing photos that if you have chosen for your child’s photo not to be published, they will not be included in the class photos. An individual portrait will be taken for school records, which is available for you to purchase if desired. 

Also, we will not be providing a make-up session for absent students on the day. Sibling photos will occur at lunchtime. In some cases, if the class photos are running ahead of schedule, we will start the sibling photos earlier. This will be announced over the loudspeaker in all classrooms. It is a good idea to notify your children if you are wanting them to have a sibling photo to prevent confusion on the day.

Sports News

PSSA Round 1 results

Admin News

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Class Snapshot - 1S/E

Library News

A BIG thank you to the amazing library monitors for the incredible help they provide in the library, especially with reshelving books and all the other tasks that keep our library running smoothly. Their commitment to maintaining the organisation of our library is truly commendable.

The Library Monitor favourite books:
Yumi P- Percy Jackson series ( Rick Riordan)
Khloe L - Where there’s Smoke ( John Heffernan)
Evie H - Sun and the Star   ( Rick Riordan)
Will G - Salah: Ultimate Football Heroes ( Matt Oldfield)
Archer C - Skulduggery Pleasant series ( Derek Landy)
Charli K- Gone series ( Michael Grant)
Amy G - Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Bedtime ( Lisa Harvey-Smith) 
Talia P - His Name was Walter ( Emily Rodda)
Matias R - The Land of Stories series (Chris Colfer)
Josie C- Wings of Fire series (Tui T Sutherland)

A reminder about the Premiers Reading Challenge
The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely. The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 10, in government, independent, Catholic and home schools. If you need help using the website and the answer cannot be found on the PRC Support site, please contact -  prc@det.nsw.edu.au 

2024 Challenge dates

Monday 26 February 2024: Challenge opens
Friday 23 August 2024: Challenge closes for student entries 

For more information and an updated booklist please check the Premier’s Reading Challenge website https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

Waste Free Wednesday

The Week Ahead

Friday 8 March                              PSSA Round 2 
Saturday 9 March                          P & C Parents night out
Monday 11 March                          3-6 Assembly 2.30pm
Monday 11 March                          Zone Swimming Carnival
Wednesday 13 March                    NAPLAN Writing Years 3 & 5
Thursday 14 March                        NAPLAN Reading Years 3 & 5
Monday 18 March                          NAPLAN Conventions of Language Years 3 & 5
Monday 18 March                          K-2 Assembly 2.30pm
Tuesday 19 March                         School Photo Day
Wednesday 20 March                    NAPLAN Numeracy Year 3
Thursday 21 March                        NAPLAN Numeracy Year 5

P & C News

Parents Night Out
Tickets are selling fast so don't miss out on a great night out! Get onto Flexischools today and order your tickets. Don't forget to grab some raffle tickets too!

Koolkuna News

Dear Families

Please find attached the 2024 Autumn Vacation Care Program. Bookings are now open via the Xplor Home App.

Please use the Xplor Home App to find the bookings tab and book into the appropriate sessions labelled "Vacation Care K-2" or "Vacation Care 3-6" where you will be able to book each child in for the days requested. When a solid orange circle is displayed above, your child is successfully booked in for that day.

Changes or cancellations will be accepted up until 2 weeks prior to your booking and must be requested via Email.
If your Xplor Home account is currently showing as “Inactive” – please contact Koolkuna OSHC on kkoshc@sustainableoshc.com.au  to reactivate your account.

Koolkuna OSHC Admin

Canteen News

Please find below our latest menus!

School Community News

NBSC Cromer Campus open night 
An open Night will be held on Tuesday March 26^th from 4pm to 7:30 pm. This has been rescheduled and some families may not be aware of the new date.
Principal talks and school tours commence at 4:30pm, 5:30pm and 6:30pm.  Bookings are not required.

School Sponsors