Balgowlah North Public School eNewsletter

"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."

3E doing their NAIDOC clapping stick practise

Principal's report

Thank you for the overwhelming support our school community has shown in supporting the current Health advice. Currently we are in a different situation in Sydney than we were at the same time last year. As such the advice to schools has changed as well.

Message from the Department of Education -

'Parents must keep children - of all ages, across primary and secondary schooling and early childcare - home if they can. Students will be supported to learn from home. Schools and early childhood education and care services, including Out Of School Hours Care services are open for any child that needs it.'

Tuesday and Wednesday are a perfect opportunity to check in with your class teacher from an academic and wellbeing perspective. Please let your child’s teacher know how your child is travelling and if we can provide any further support at home. Our teachers meet virtually every day and are continually adapting and changing programs every week to meet the needs of our students, cover outcomes and make this manageable within the home environment.

Novels and library books were collected on Monday by Stage 3 students. It was great to see many of them zip up to school on their bike to collect their books. Today Early Stage One and Stage One will have been notified of pick up times. On Thursday there will be time for Stage Two to pick up their library books as well. Thank you to Mrs Horsley and Mrs Elder for coming in on Monday to organise these resources for our students.

Connecting with texts and reading everyday are priorities. Don’t forget to access our extensive EBook and Audio book collection available to students for borrowing as well. The collection includes texts ranging from picture books for young readers, early chapter books and novels for independent readers. Please make use of this wonderful resource. You can access it by downloading the EPlatform by Wheelers app or at https://balgowlahnorthps.wheelers.co/ and logging in with student DET Username and Passwords.

Unfortunately we have had to cancel our Education week performance that was scheduled for next week. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule this for later in the year. I know the students have been working hard with Mrs Malar on their dances. The teachers will be working with their students on some surprises to share with you during the week.

I hope you have an opportunity to watch the NAIDOC School singalong with Christine Anu. See if you can spot the Balgowlah North students! A big thank you to Margaret Malar and Anna Harris for providing this opportunity for our students to be involved.

'Congratulations to all the members of the junior choir who contributed beautifully in singing My Island Home with Christine Anu to help celebrate NAIDOC Week. We are very proud!' - Margaret Malar & Anna Harris

Thank you to Mrs Kerry Kelly for updating our Balgowlah North Sports Guidelines. A copy is available via the link below and also on our school website.

BNPS Sports Guidelines

I’d like to acknowledge the work of Mrs Amanda Baker that she has put into updating our school website. All current school procedures are easily and readily accessible via our website. If you haven’t had a chance to browse through, any feedback to us would be appreciated. We are always looking at how we can improve this space.

Our P&C meeting next week will be a virtual meeting, keep an eye out for further information from our P&C.

Stay Safe Everyone - We have got this - keep working together and we will support our students and our school community.

Brooke Keevers

Principal

School news

What a start to the term! I want to extend an enormous thank you to our families who have been so supportive of our transition to home learning. I also want to acknowledge and celebrate our incredible group of teachers who have been working tirelessly to create engaging programs to continue our student's learning.

I also want to extend my gratitude to our Principal, Brooke Keevers, who has lead our school community with integrity, compassion and clarity at this challenging time.

We understand that learning from home looks different in every household. We understand that there will be great days, challenging days and lots of in-between days. Please know that our number one priority is the wellbeing of our students and their families. We encourage every family to focus on quality of learning time over quantity of busy time and just do what you can. Please make contact with your child's Class Teacher or me if we can support you in any way.

Here are some links to some online resources that you might find useful in supporting your family’s wellbeing and mental health:

https://www.childhood.org.au/covid-19/

https://kidshelpline.com.au/teens/issues/covid-19-quarantine-isolation-and-lockdown

https://kidshelpline.com.au/teens/issues/covid-19-schooling-home

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/learning-from-home/wellbeing/wellbeing-at-home

Wellbeing at home

The Department of Education has released their updated guidelines around video conferencing that apply to your child’s daily Zoom call with their teacher. We have summarised the key points for you to be aware of:

Are chat sessions (video or audio) with students allowed?

Only whole class or group sessions are allowed. Teachers should not conduct 1:1 video, audio or chat sessions with a student. If teachers need to have a private discussion with one student, a parent/carer and another teacher must be present.

If teachers are audio chatting with a group of students does a parent or other adult need to be present?

No. Parents can help their child set up devices but should not join any group/class chats being moderated by the teacher. When the live online session is finished, teachers should wait for all students to exit the meeting before leaving. This ensures that students do not continue chatting without the teacher present.

How is teacher and student privacy protected?

MS Teams and Zoom have the ability to customise backgrounds either by blurring the background or loading a static picture. If you are using Teams or Zoom you should ask all students to blur or set their background to an appropriate static picture at the beginning of the lesson.

Are Zoom sessions allowed to be recorded?

No. Zoom sessions are not allowed to be recorded if students can be seen or heard. At all times child protection guidelines and following digital permission guidelines of students is paramount.

How long should a live online session be?

Most sessions should be no more than 20 minutes each to give an opportunity for feedback and clarification.

URSTRONG Family Session Reminder

Our Language of Friendship workshop will be running next Tuesday, July 27 between 6 and 7pm. This workshop will be delivered by URSTRONG via Zoom and will assist parents in supporting their children through the ups and downs of friendship. We are really excited to be able to offer our parent community this wonderful opportunity to engage with our new whole-school wellbeing program and look forward to you joining the URSTRONG team for this worthwhile presentation.

Rachel Ridley

R/Deputy Principal

Making Music Online

Lockdown isn’t deterring our young musicians from making music together online. Week One of the band online sessions was approached with enthusiasm by the band students who were engaged and attentive. These online sessions enable the conductors to see each individuals’ progress and can tailor the sessions to hone in on the skills they need to work on. An added benefit is that the students are picking up their instrument and socially connecting with their band friends. We’ve had positive feedback from parents and students – let’s keep the momentum going. Thank you to the parents for your support and to the students and conductors for making the online sessions a success.

Our string ensemble joins the online sessions with their first rehearsal on Thursday morning. Thank you to conductor, Yenny Johnson for managing these sessions.

Caroline Fechner, BNPS P&C Band manager

1R class snapshot