Newsletter Term 1 Week 2 2022
"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 report
2022
Hope, excitement and positive energy were all on display yesterday! We have had a very smooth start to the new school year. Thank you for preparing your children so well for the start of the year. Working together ensures we give every student an opportunity to have the best start possible.
Class structures
Classes have been formed carefully to ensure we meet the needs of every student in our school. Teachers teach content pertaining to the NSW syllabus for their stage. All our teachers across a stage work together to ensure curriculum outcomes are met and students are taught at their learning point of need. Our curriculum is delivered over a 2 year cycle as our curriculum is organised around stages of learning.
For the most part, it is the quality of teaching, combined with student interest and engagement that has a greater impact on learning than on class organisational structures.
Quality teaching that is differentiated to meet the needs of every student, well supported by mentoring, instructional leadership, teacher collaboration and professional learning, has a far greater impact on student achievement than the structure of classes.
Teaching practices such as explicit teaching, formative assessment, flexible grouping strategies and collaborative inquiry-based learning, all of which are routinely implemented across classes at Balgowlah North PS, are equally effective in composite classes as in single grade classes.
Please see questions and answers regarding our composite classes. (Balgowlah_North_Public_School_compositeclasses.pdf (nsw.gov.au))
Meet the teacher
Dates for ‘Meet the Teacher’ will come out later this week. These will be via zoom and will be an opportunity for parents to ask questions and hear how our classes will be organised. If you have specific questions that you would like answered please add them to the links below.
Early Stage One (Kindergarten):
https://forms.gle/M4Po4H1xt9TJCyuy5
Stage One: (Years 1 and 2):
https://forms.gle/RjUQdXH37rquFFeV9
Stage Two (Years 3 and 4):
https://forms.gle/vWeNNXdwCyhi8m5v9
Stage Three (Years 5 and 6)
https://forms.gle/2Jduios2XgHZvQf79
Please note that all responses must be submitted by 3pm on Monday February 7th.
New staff
We would like to welcome Jess Hardy to BNPS. She comes with many years of teaching experience in Stage 1 and Stage 2. We also welcome back Mae Short, Cassie Cowburn and Karina Lewis from maternity leave.
The wonderful Eliza Mc Callister will be taking on music and dance from Mrs Malar. Our new school counsellor is Joy Thompson and she will be with us on Wednesday and Thursday.
Music Ensembles for 2022
We are very excited to have our music groups back onsite ready for rehearsals. Fabulous to hear we have been fortunate to have secured the conducting expertise of Mark Strykowski who has extensive experience as a band director, private tutor, AMEB examiner plus a classroom music teacher. Mark has a reputation as a leading music educator, is an accomplished brass musician (specialising in trumpet) and is widely sought as a guest conductor for camps, workshops and other performance projects.
If you are interested in your child joining our music program please email Caroline Fechner at bnpsband@hotmail.com
Covid Guidelines
Thank you to our parent body for supporting our students and teachers by following our health guidelines. As we navigate this term our priority is to maintain our students and teachers wellbeing and continuity of learning for our students. We will continue to navigate this with agility keeping our students at the centre of all decision making. Over the next few weeks we will continue to work through the logistics of school events in as safe a way as possible.
Please remember to let the school know if Covid is having an impact on your family. As I’m sure you are all aware this impact is also affecting our school staff. We have staffing strategies in place but we may find that we will need to be flexible in our approach as we navigate this the best that we can.
P&C virtual meeting will be held next Wednesday night. More information will be available on the SZapp.
Take care everyone
Brooke Keevers
Principal
School news
Welcome back to 2022. It has been so wonderful to see so many happy, smiling faces coming through the school gates and settling into their new classes for the year ahead. Our focus for the first days of the school year is to build connections and establish classroom communities where students feel safe and valued. Prioritising wellbeing as the foundation of the new school year, ensures students are able to learn and thrive academically, socially and emotionally in the year ahead.
Best Start
It has been wonderful to welcome our new Kindergarten students this week who have been attending their Best Start assessments. Our Kindergarten students will have their first full day of school on Friday the 4th of February and we look forward to helping them settle into their new classes and school environment.
Diverse Learners Team
Our Diverse Learner’s Team (DLT) plays an integral role in supporting student wellbeing at BNPS. A student may be referred to the DLT if they require support with any aspect of their school experience. This can be social, emotional, behavioural or academic. It may include:
- Students requiring academic support
- Students requiring academic enrichment
- Students with physiological or medical needs
- Neurodiverse students
- Students from different cultural or language backgrounds
- Students having challenges with their friends or in the playground
- Students dealing with complex home or family circumstances
The Diverse Learner’s Team assesses and implements appropriate supports to assist a student in achieving their personal best while at school. The DLT also links families with community support services where appropriate.
Our DLT for 2022 consists of Mrs Keevers, Mrs Ridley, our new School Counsellor Mrs Joy Thompson and our Learning and Support Teacher, Mrs Amanda Mason.
Students may be referred to the DLT by a Classroom Teacher or through Parent Referral. If you seek out external assessments or services from allied health professionals, such as speech therapists, OTs, psychologists, vision and hearing specialists, we ask that you supply us with a copy of the report at your earliest convenience. These reports will be reviewed by the Diverse Learners Team. Should you supply these documents, you will receive a 'parent referral form'. This form must be returned as soon as possible. If any of the allied health professionals request information from our teachers, this can be accomodated, however, the reports will be sent directly back to the specialist.
Your child's classroom teacher is always your very first port of call if you have any concerns about your child’s progress at school. It is important that you speak with your child's teacher regarding any concerns you may have about your child's learning.
Please contact Rachel Ridley, via the school office if you have any further questions about the Diverse Learners Team.
Birthday Treats
Birthday treats are not required to be sent to school. If you decide to send a treat in, please ensure it is a pre-packaged, individually wrapped item. Please be mindful of student allergies in the class cohort. Birthday treats will be given to the students at the end of the day. We are unable to accept or distribute homemade goods at this time.
Attendance Matters
Attendance is a legal requirement of all school age students and parents are expected to ensure that their child is at school every day. The above link gives detailed information about compulsory school attendance. The school is required to keep accurate and monitored attendance records. We ask that if your child is absent, then a note is submitted through the schoolzine app as a priority. If we do not have a note within two days of absence, your child's teacher may be in contact to follow up. If children are late to school they are to be walked to the office by a parent or guardian. Students are not to present to the office late without an adult. School begins promptly at 9.00am. The roll is marked shortly afterwards.
The following link is a great visual to discuss with your child and family about the impact of missing days of school.
I look forward to an exciting and productive 2022,
Rachel Ridley
Deputy Principal (Acting)
Year 6 team building exercise
Dates for your diary
01 & 02 February
- Best start days for Kindergarten students
04 February
- Kindergarten students start school
09 February
- P&C virtual meeting
11 February
- P&C Kindy drinks
19 February
- P&C Parent night out
21 February
- School swimming carnival
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