Balgowlah North Public School eNewsletter

Principal's report

My New Gallery

The weather is definitely starting to warm up which is fantastic, summer will be upon us before we know it. Just a reminder please to make sure all our students have their names on all their belongings, especially jumpers. This makes it easier for our students to find their belongings! Water bottles, hats and sunscreen need to be part of our student’s daily bag packing rituals.

Pyjama day today. The SRC have done a great job raising awareness of Westmead Children’s Hospital they collected $732. Enjoy the photos in the newsletter. The SRC have many ideas and are researching different options for improving the K-2 play spaces.

Thank you to the parents who have been remembering to bring their phone when picking up students early. It makes a difference to our administration team when parents/visitors can use the QR code to record their details.

Thank you from Carolyn Watson our Learning and Support teacher

One of our treasured Learning Lab, reading volunteers, Gloria Enfield passed away this week. She gave over 3 years of service to the Learning Lab after a career in teaching. We thank her for her kindness and dedication. Gloria will be sadly missed at our school.

Social Media and Digital Citizenship

Just a reminder to parents to please revisit digital citizenship with your children. I have included the points from our Digital Citizenship Agreement that our students sign at the start of each school year.

Choosing online names that are suitable and respectful.

• Only inviting people you actually know in the real world to be your friends in the online world.

Only visiting sites that are appropriate and respecting the rules that websites have about age. Some sites are only for adults. If you wouldn’t feel comfortable showing the website to you parents or grandparents then it’s inappropriate

• Setting your privacy settings so that only the people you know can see you and your personal information.

• Only putting information online that is appropriate and posting pictures that are suitable. Not everyone seeing your profile or pictures will be friendly.

• Always reporting anything that happens online which makes you feel uncomfortable or unhappy.

• Talking to trusted adults, like your parents and teachers, about your online experiences. This includes both the good and the bad experiences.

• By using only age-appropriate social media.

BNPS Communication procedures

Patricia Vitale has been working with a team of teachers to create a Balgowlah North communication procedures document. Patricia will be presenting this tonight at the P&C. It will be available for parents to read and provide feedback to the school via the P&C. Thank you to Susie Stock, Chris Mc Call, Molly Mc Indoe, Steph Rooleht, Jenny Mercer and Stuart King for working with Patricia through this process. This document will provide a framework for communication with students, parents and teachers.

BNPS Diverse learners’ team

Thank you to Belinda Norrie, Katrina Ross and Steph Lade for their work in streamlining our diverse learners’ processes within the school. This team is the communication hub to all external agencies that provide support services to our students. It is vitally important that information is shared confidentially with the correct personnel within our school so we can provide maximum support to our students. On our school website parents can access the diverse learners process and also the parent referral form which gives our school psychologist the opportunity to work with external support agencies. More information will be provided through the P&C tonight.

BNPS Attendance procedures

Balgowlah North Public School is committed to providing a caring and supportive teaching and learning environment to enable students to achieve their personal best. For students to learn, they need to arrive at school on time and attend regularly. Regular attendance is a critical factor in ensuring that students have every opportunity to learn and develop. This cannot occur without a strong partnership between parents/carers who have the legal responsibility to ensure that students attend school regularly and school staff who have a duty of care to ensure that student attendance is managed according to the school’s procedures. Student attendance is everyone’s responsibility. We have uploaded our Balgowlah North procedures to the website, these will also be presented at P&C tonight.

School Website

We are working on updating our school website to lift our profile in the wider community. Balgowlah North is a fantastic school with amazing opportunities for students. We want to showcase this through our website. If you have some suggestions for how we can improve this space for parents please feedback your ideas through our wonderful P&C.

Secretary address - pandcbnpssecretary@gmail.com

General address - pandcbnps@gmail.com

P&C meeting

Looking forward to seeing you all in the virtual space tomorrow night. Don’t forget to register to attend.

Brooke Keevers

Principal

Assembly Awards - K-2 Term 3 Week 7

Deputy principal's report

Collaborative Planning

Next week, our teachers will be engaged in collaborative planning for Term 4. Each team will spend a day working together, led by their Assistant Principal, to create teaching and learning programs. Time to sit and work together to plan rich learning experiences for the students is essential, and ensures consistency across the classes. Casual teachers will be working across the school for the week and learning continuity is assured.

Check In Assessment

Year 5 have recently completed an online 'check in' assessment. This online assessment forms part of our school based assessment data. We were thrilled that the results were available within 48 hours of the assessment being completed. Year 3 will be completing the assessment in Week 10. Please note, that unlike NAPLAN, parent reports are not provided. These assessments focused only on reading and numeracy skills.

Band

Thank you to our band committee and conductors who have worked tirelessly to find alternate ways to provide band instruction around COVID-19 instrument restrictions. The creativity to have students participate in drumming, percussion and zoom sessions has been pleasing to witness.

Year 4 'Super Pollinators' incursion

Yesterday, Year 4 participated in an incursion about bees and their importance to our environment, food and health. It was a highly engaging incursion and supported the students' learning in geography and science.

Collaborative Planning

Next week, our teachers will be engaged in collaborative planning for Term 4. Each team will spend a day working together, led by their Assistant Principal, to create teaching and learning programs. Time to sit and work together to plan rich learning experiences for the students is essential, and ensures consistency across the classes. Casual teachers will be working across the school for the week and learning continuity is assured.

Check In Assessment

Year 5 have recently completed an online 'check in' assessment. This online assessment forms part of our school based assessment data. We were thrilled that the results were available within 48 hours of the assessment being completed. Year 3 will be completing the assessment in Week 10. Please note, that unlike NAPLAN, parent reports are not provided. These assessments focused only on reading and numeracy skills.

Band

Thank you to our band committee and conductors who have worked tirelessly to find alternate ways to provide band instruction around COVID-19 instrument restrictions. The creativity to have students participate in drumming, percussion and zoom sessions has been pleasing to witness.

PBL

Weekly focus: Respectful behaviour in the hall

What it looks like:

We walk quietly in two lines
We cross our legs when sitting
We congratulate our friends by clapping appropriately
We show our 5Ls of listening
We sing the national anthem and school song with pride

Library news

Premier’s Reading Challenge

This year’s reading challenge is now officially closed and I would like to say a huge congratulations to all our students who participated. These certificates will be sent to the school in term 4 and presented to students. Well done to the final group of readers who successfully completed the challenge: Camilla Haigh, Alyssa Schmidt, Lachlan Philipsz, Evelyn Schmidt, Bronte De Laine, Mae Ivanyi, Milly Philipsz and Toby Kick.

Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

This year we will be celebrating book week on October 21, with our annual character dress up day and a parade. The parade may not look like it has in previous years, however, there will still be an opportunity to celebrate wonderful stories and characters. I would like to invite interested students to create the official Book Week poster for our school to have on display around the school leading up to the day. I will be talking to students at school about this opportunity, however, if they would like to complete the poster at home, the following details should be included:

The theme: Curious Creature; Wild Minds, Date: October 21^st; lots of great book characters.

These are to be handed in to me in the library by Friday of Week 10.

2020 Premier’s Debating Challenge

On Monday, round 2 of the 2020 Premier’s Debating Challenge for Years 5 and 6 saw the two BN teams compete with the Allambie Heights PS Anacondas and the Allambie Heights PS Hyenas via Zoom.

Team Manning were successful in the affirmative and debated ‘that Years 5 & 6 kids should have to cook dinner for their families one night a week’. Team Bardoo were the negative team in their debate on the topic ‘that all kids should have to save any money they receive until they turn 18’.

Well done to Team Manning - Jessica O, Chloe F, Caitlin R and Max W.

Commiserations to Team Bardoo - Keira K, James R, Amali E and Hayley L - a close competition.

Round 3 is the intraschool debate between the two teams. This will take place toward the end of the term.

Chris McCall, Debating Coordinator

Sports news

Dear Parents and Carers,

Unfortunately, due to the recent changes to the COVID-19 school guidelines provided by the Department of Health and the Department of Education, our summer PSSA Competition will not be able to go ahead as planned in Week 9 , Term 3. These recent guidelines specifically state that there is to be no more than 100 people at a venue and no mixing across stage groups. After careful consideration, it has been decided that we are not able to participate in a viable competition and adhere to the guidelines at the same time. Dependant on the levels of restrictions in place later on, we will review the possibility of resumption in Term 4.

Thank you all for your understanding, patience and support as we strive to provide sporting opportunities in 2020 for our students.

Kerry Kelly

Sports Co-ordinator

Waste free Wednesday

Congratulations 1M, 2E & 6Z

Band news

Our Junior Band in a percussion rehearsal last week - they loved it!

P&C news

Community News

GERRIC at the UNSW School of Education is proud to presentan eight-part Gifted Parenting series.

It’s common for parents of gifted children to feel confused about the educational needs of their gifted child. Sometimes, the advanced development of the abilities of a gifted child outpaces the child's physical development, and results in frustration for both parent and child. Additionally, challenges exist for parents in understanding the affective needs of gifted children, which may be very different to the rest of the population.We hope that this eight-part series will assist parents to develop a greater understanding of their gifted child's needs both at home and at school; interact with other parents of gifted children; and learn from current research and experts in the field of gifted education.This series is delivered online (via Zoom), 7-8:30pm Tuesday and Thursday nights, over the month of September will be led by our GERRIC academics: Associate Professor Dr. Jae Yup Jung, Dr Geraldine Townend, and Dr. Peta Hay.Find out what's in the series