Newsletter Term 3 Week 3 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 message
What a wonderful week of celebration - Athletics carnival, 2023 Kindergarten information evening, Education Week Open Day and Bear Pit finals at Government House! What a week...
Kindy 2023 enrolments are open, if you haven't already enrolled for 2023 please complete the online enrolment, we are holding our first virtual information evening tonight!. This year, as every year it’s particularly important for us to confirm enrolments in all grades for 2023 as student numbers directly impact our staffing. At this point in time we have 64 students leaving Year 6 and we have 40 kindergarten enrolments for 2023.
This drop in student numbers is being experienced in almost all schools across the Northern Beaches, as families move out of the city to find cheaper and/or different lifestyle options, often in quieter, more affordable rural and coastal areas.
If you know you will be leaving the school at the end of the year can you please complete the form below.
School Drama Program returns to BNPS
An enormous body of Australian and international research demonstrates the importance of Arts Education to student academic and social wellbeing.
This term KW, 1HR, 3M and 5S are taking part in the Sydney Drama Company’s School Drama program. School Drama is a teacher professional learning program for primary teachers that aims to develop teacher capacity in using drama strategies and devices with quality literature to improve student literacy. Sydney Theatre Company pairs each teacher with a teaching artist and together the pair co-plan, co-mentor and co-teach the seven week program. The teaching artist spends an hour a week in the classroom, sharing knowledge of process drama and drama strategies, for example: role play/improvisation, freeze frames, visualisation, conscience circles and dream sequences. The teacher uses follow up literacy exercises between each workshop.
With a strong focus on the 4C’s: creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking, student outcomes include, deeper comprehension and inference, confidence in oracy, improved imaginative writing and vocabulary development.
We look forward to Miss Witton, Mrs Hardy, Miss McIndoe and Miss Roohlet sharing their experiences and hearing about what the students in these classes have learnt and loved about School Drama.
Mrs Reinhardt
School Drama Coordinator
I look forward to seeing everyone around the school this week.
Brooke Keevers
Principal
School News
Congratulations to our MiniLit award recipients
NBLA Writer’s Festival
Last Thursday we hosted our first Enrichment Writer’s Workshop for the Northern Beaches Learning Alliance (NBLA) for 2022. Balgowlah North Public School was represented by Jonty F, Evie W and Lucy O.
Thirty-five students from across Years 5 and 6 spent the day in our library, immersed in deep thinking and creative activities designed to further develop their talent for writing.
In the morning session, some incredible students from Forest High ran mentoring workshops that engaged students in writing tasks that asked them to make sophisticated compositional choices to evoke an emotional response about a range of current social issues .
The next presentation was by author,Lisa Nicol, who speak to our students and provided some tips for finding inspiration for their writing. The students were also lucky enough to hear the first chapter of Lisa’s new book, ‘The What on Earth Institute of Wonder’.
The final session of the day was hosted by children’s publishing legend, Paul MacDonald, who presented the students with innovative ideas for finding a unique narrative voice that will set them apart from the crowd.
Feedback from our workshop participants was that the day was challenging, inspiring and that they couldn’t wait for the second workshop in October.
Connections with Forest High School
We are continuing to strengthen our connection to Forest High School and build a partnership that facilitates greater continuity in teaching and learning between Stage 3 and 4 for our students as they transition to high school.
This week, Ms Susie Stock and Ms Steph Rooleht visited Forest High school for a day of observation of Year 7 and 8 classrooms. They were hosted by Mrs Karen Gourlay (Head of Mathematics) and Mrs Sarah Peachman (Head of English) who organised a series of lesson observations so they could gain an understanding of syllabus delivery in the early years of high school and use this to reflect upon our own practices.
It is important to us that we continue to develop our network of connections to ensure we work in partnership with our local learning community to provide the best possible educational experience for all students.
Year 6 Wellbeing Workshops run by Kyds
Last Wednesday the 27th of July, our Year 6 students participated in a wellbeing workshop run by Kyds Youth Development Services (Kyds). This full day incursion involved students in a series of interactive sessions that aimed to build their understanding of mental health and develop skills that will support them in managing their emotional wellbeing as they move into high school and their teenage years.
If you wish to find out more about Kyds you can access their website via the link below:
Rachel Ridley
R/Deputy Principal
High Jump Finals
Congratulations to all the students that competed in the high jump finals on Thursday and Friday last week. We had two beautifully sunny days with some amazing jumping. Special mention to Isaac R for breaking the long standing junior record of Tyson Holmes with a jump of 1.29m. Well done!
Please remember to check the school App for digital permission notes to be completed.
The week ahead
3 Aug Years 2-6 Athletics Carnival
P&C meeting virtual session
Kindergarten 2023 Virtual Information Session
4 Aug Education Week Open Classrooms - band performances
5 Aug DanceSport - year 5
8-12 Aug Winter walk to school week
9 Aug ICAS writing - years 3-6
10 Aug Stage 2 excursion to Field of Mars
PBL Week 3Term 3
Class Snapshot - 3M
Library News
Open Day August 4
It is so exciting to welcome parents back to our school this year for Education week. During our open morning on August 4, our library will be having a donation book drive. If you would like to donate a book to our school library this year we will have a large selection of quality texts, supplied by the Children’s Bookshop at Beecroft, available for you to purchase. The library will be open from 8:30 – 11:30.
Waste Free Wednesday
Congratulations go to 4/3V for being 100% waste free!
Canteen News
We are currently making a few tweaks to our Flexischools menu that you may notice over the next week. The main change will be that you no longer need to choose a bread or spread on sandwiches and we are adding an $8 Monday meal deal to the menu. All sandwiches are on wholemeal bread with butter by default unless you choose a customisation like 'gluten free bread' or 'no butter'. This means if you are happy with the wholemeal bread and butter option you just choose the sandwich and then confirm the order - a few less clicks to streamline ordering. Also, depending on the sandwich type, we will have a few other customisations available like mayonnaise, salt, pepper and 'no beetroot'. For the Monday Meal Deal we will have a "quick pick" basic combo of Pasta Bolognaise, an apple and a Juice box and a "custom pick" option where you can choose a hot meal, small snack and a drink.
Mel & Alex
Cracker Catering
BNPS Canteen
P&C Band News
The P&C BNPS School Disco is back for 2022! Kids from Kindy to Y6 will be dancing the afternoon away at the school hall on Thursday August 18.
This year’s theme is VIVID AT BNPS, so kids should come dressed in their favourite Fluro outfit or feel free to Glow! Each ticket includes a small ‘glow pack’ for your child so if you want to avoid the shops - we’ve got you covered!
The Kindy to Year 2 disco is 4:30pm-6pm and Year 3-6 from 6:30pm to 8pm. Tickets to each disco are sold separately on Flexischools and are available now. No food will be provided at the event.
Kids at Koolkuna that day? No problem. Talk to the Koolkuna team about drop off and pick up from the disco. Special thanks to Jayson at The Party Starters for DJing the evening.
Looking forward to dancing!!
P&C News
Our School working Bee will be on Sunday 14 August, more details to come.
Community news
School Sponsors
