Balgowlah North Public School eNewsletter

Principal's report

School Excellence

Guiding coalition pilot project - Learning Walks

Over the next few weeks Ms Jenni Reinhardt, myself and Ms Susie Stock will be working with the Upper Hunter network and schools from The Beaches network. Our body of work ‘Learning Walks’ is based on the work of Dr Lyn Sharratt. Dr. Lyn Sharratt is a highly-accomplished practitioner, researcher, author, and presenter. She works all around the world with education systems and we are very excited to be working with her on this project. Working in a collaborative space with a network of schools builds connections, through sharing and improving our practice. It assists us in building school excellence across our public school system.

Mother’s Day stall and breakfast

Next Thursday our students will have an opportunity to purchase a small gift from the P&C run Mother’s Day stall.

Mothers are also invited to listen to our bands and choir perform from 8.15am until 8.45am and share a muffin or croissant with your children before school on Friday 7th of May. You might like to bring a rug or chair to sit on. QR codes will be placed around the area. Breakfast can be ordered from the canteen and we will have a coffee van available as well. This is a relaxed and casual event so you may just like to pop in for a short time before heading off to work.

P&C

P&C meetings are held every Wednesday night on the 3rd and 8th week of term. The meeting of the 3rd will now be held either in the school library or the school hall depending on attendance. The meeting planned for Week 8 will be a virtual meeting. Our P&C meeting in Term One was very well attended. After discussions with the P&C body we are planning on presenting topics that are of interest to our parent body relating to school processes and programs. Ms Rachel Ridley, Mrs Sascha Carroll and Mrs Katrina Ross will be presenting the first presentation on Student Wellbeing. More information is below in the School news.

Our new P&C committee for 2021

President - Richard Wokes

Vice President - Karen Ciano

Treasurer - Lisa Foster

Secretary - Cath Mc Millan

Fundraising - Nicole Nortmann and Amy Black

Green Grove Facilitator - Sadie Melov

World’s Greatest Shave

This morning BNPS hosted the World’s Greatest Shave Fundraising Event for our Year 6 students. It has been a long standing tradition at BNPS that Year 6 students support The Leukaemia Foundation by cutting, shaving or colouring their hair to support families affected by blood cancer. Our school team’s fundraising achievements have been incredible, with the Year 6 students raising over $25,000 for The Leukaemia foundation- enough to provide over 280 nights of accommodation to patients and their families undergoing treatment.

We’d like to thank the wonderful Anne-Marie Pickard, our World’s Greatest Shave Coordinator, for all of her work coordinating this event for our Year 6 students.

Thank You

Thank you also to Mrs Jenny Mercer and the student leaders for a well organised, respectful ANZAC service last Friday. I have attended many ANZAC services over the past 30 years and this was one of the most moving and powerful services I have attended. Thank you to our captains Annie and Caleb who represented BNPS at the Manly Dam dawn service on Sunday.

Brooke Keevers

Principal

The BNPS Student Representative Council would like to welcome Harry Nicol to their ranks. Congratulations Harry on being selected as a representative for KM!

School news

Term 2 Parent Information Sessions and Workshops

At BNPS, we are committed to ensuring our parents and carers are actively involved in their child’s learning. This term, we will be hosting a series of information sessions and workshops to connect with our parent community and provide information around some of our school processes and procedures. Please find some information on this term’s opportunities below:

Student Wellbeing Information Session

This will be a chance to get some more information about our Diverse Learner's Team, the Personalised Learning Profile (PLP) process and our new student wellbeing program, UR Strong. This session will be hosted by Katrina Ross (Learning and Support Teacher), Rachel Ridley (Relieving Deputy Principal) and Sascha Carroll ( Classroom Teacher).

Time: 6:30-7:30pm

Date: Wednesday 5th May

Location: School library

Register your interest here:

https://forms.gle/mabyFPaYTLfLxeLd9

Kindergarten Home Reading Workshop

We understand that supporting your child with their home reading and literacy development can be a daunting new experience for Kindergarten parents. In this workshop, we will demonstrate explicit strategies in the following:

How to interact with your child's guided readers
How to engage your child in building their comprehension of shared stories
How to apply emerging phonological skills to writing
How to approach sight words

This is an opportunity to ask lots of questions and build your knowledge, skills and confidence in how to support your child's literacy development at home.

Time: 9:00-9:45am

Date: Thursday 6th May

Location: TBC

Register your interest here:

https://forms.gle/wx7MPnJrQRpqMBAn6

MiniLit Parent Workshop

This year, we have introduced the MiniLitprogram for some of our Year 1 and 2 students. MiniLit is an evidence-based, explicit and effective early literacy intervention program for teaching reading skills. Our information session will provide parents with an overview of the content covered in the program and how it supports Stage 1 students to develop their literacy skills.

Time: 9:00-9:45am

Date: Thursday 3rd June

Location: Library

Register your interest here:

https://forms.gle/MAn15ZLeZvrGGkbeA

NAPLAN

NAPLAN is an annual assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It tests the types of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Students will participate in tests in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

The assessment provides parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process – it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance.

NAPLAN assessments will be conducted online in order to provide a better and more precise assessment that is more engaging for students. Year 3 writing will still be conducted on paper.

All students eligible for adjustments have been contacted directly.

Our timeline of assessment will be as follows:

Tuesday 11 May- Writing and Reading

Wednesday 12 May- Conventions of Language

Monday 17 May- Numeracy

Thursday 20 May-Make up assessment day

If your child is absent for any of the NAPLAN tests, we will be holding a make up assessment day on Thursday the 20th of May.

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your child’s participation in NAPLAN.Further information can also be accessed here:

https://nap.edu.au/docs/default-source/resources/naplan-online-information-brochure-for-parents-and-carers.pdf

Rachel Ridley

R/Deputy Principal

Learning support

At BNPS we support students with additional support needs with quality differentiated teaching as a first step. We have an active Diverse Learners Team that meets weekly to discuss support needs for a child beyond differentiated teaching.

When teachers are the driver of education, the technology available to us today, can act as an accelerator. (Fullan, 2019)

After trialing a few tech tools last year, we are now using Voice Typing in Google Docs through Chrome, to make sure their fabulous ideas, full of rich language, can be placed onto the page without the challenges of spelling and handwriting getting in the way of success! It also allows for the option to increase editing skills. As teachers, it is important that we can see and assess what the children know, rather than just what they can handwrite.

We also needed to ensure every Stage 3 child had access to the age appropriate, rich language in the chosen, quality Stage 3 texts. With the use of a few tech tools on the ipad and the kindle app on the laptops, these books are now offered in an audio form to support equal access to these wonderful texts. It was wonderful to see the normality of a handful of Year 6 students get out their headphones and laptop when the class was asked to do silent reading. It gives reluctant readers an easy opportunity to have access to texts they previously would have avoided.

Keeping up to date with technologies, that teachers can use for the benefit of their students, is an ongoing professional learning journey. It is always rewarding to see these adjustments benefit the children's self esteem and academic proficiency.

Katrina Ross

Learning and Support teacher

URSTRONG

Ever heard of a Friendship Ninja? Want to know more about how to put out a Friendship Fire when it ignites? Interested in discovering the Four Friendship Facts?

These questions and many more will be answered when the URSTRONG whole-school friendship strategy is introduced to our school later this term.

On Tuesday, June 8, Balgowlah North will hold a Day of Friendship. Each student will participate in a fun, engaging friendship workshop led by an expert URSTRONG educator.

Next term, on Tuesday, July 27 from 6-7pm, families are invited to attend a Language of Friendship workshop to help parents support their children through the ups and downs of friendship. The workshop will be delivered by URSTRONG via Zoom. Please pop the date in your diary.

URSTRONG has been kindly sponsored by the Balgowlah North P & C. There will be no additional costs to parents. All families are encouraged to participate. Booking details to come.

Relationships are at the heart of wellbeing. We are incredibly excited to empower our students with a common language, practical skills and strategies to navigate friendships with strength and kindness.

The Wellbeing Team

Sports news

Over the next 2 terms, Year 3 to 6 students at Balgowlah North have the opportunity to undertake sporting opportunities on Friday afternoons. Students can participate in school sport, tennis and futsal, or P.S.S.A. (Primary Schools Sporting Association) competition.

At the end of last term, students were asked to nominate which sports they were interested in trialling for in PSSA. This information will be used to assist the coaches in selecting teams.

They were given the choice of Boys and Girls Soccer, Netball, Year 3 Netta’s and Rugby League. Trials for these sports will be held on Friday afternoons in Week 1 and Week 2.

Tennis and Futsal, to be held at Wakehurst Tennis Centre, will commence in Week 3, the same time as the inter-school PSSA competition.

School sport will consist of learning the basics of the martial art Krav Maga, as well as developing basketball skills. These will be provided by trained external professionals.

These programs allow students to further develop teamwork and communication skills, as well as the ability to be resilient.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school office, who will pass your query onto the relevant coaches.

Stuart King

On behalf of the sports committee

PBL

Be Respectful

Weekly focus: Classroom Expectations

What it looks like:

Discuss the different ways you can be respectful in your classroom with your teacher. How did the students show this in the video?
Reread your classroom behaviour expectations.

Wellbeing Team

Assembly awards

Library News

Premier’s Reading Challenge

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is well under way for this year and it is great to see so many students registered and working towards completion. There must have been lots of reading done in the holidays as there is already a group of students who have finished their reading for the challenge. Well done to the following students: Frankie B, Nina F, Lucy A, Thomas B, Finn H, Benjamin L, William R, Jackson A, Kurt H, Chloe H, Erin R, Eddie, C. Keep up the great reading.

Sydney Writer’s Festival

Mrs Ridley and I are very excited to be taking students on this excursion next Monday, May 3. All students registered for the Writer’s Festival must be at school at 8:30am.

Deborah Horsley

Teacher Librarian

Debating

Masters Academy are again running the debating club here at Balgowlah North.

Debating and public speaking are great catalysts for learning invaluable communication skills.

Although not all students will go on to compete in debating and speaking competitions, all students will need to master active listening, critical thinking and learn to communicate effectively.

Through the practice of debating and public speaking, students will learn persuasive language, critical thinking and logical thinking skills, while gaining a deeper understanding of key knowledge areas, such as health, economics, history, law, politics, media and current affairs.

We teach these key life-skills through activities, teamwork, discussions and participation in classroom debates at your school.

Enrol now for term 2: enrol.mastersacademy.com.au

Sessions will be held in 5M on Wednesday mornings at 8:00 am (Term 2, Week 3).

Music news

Congratulations to all the children in the junior and senior choir who sang beautifully at the school ANZAC assembly. This was the choir’s first performance in over a year. What a wonderful effort!

Margaret Malar, Anna Harris & Sarah Bee

Choir teachers