Newsletter Term 3 Week 7 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."
Love of Learning - Challenge, Creativity, Connections
Principal's message
Staffing
Julia Gough has been successful at interviewing for the position of Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction. These are new positions in all public schools in NSW. The Assistant Principals, Curriculum and Instruction role will support strong instructional leadership models in our school, coordinate professional learning for teachers, monitor student outcomes and support families to be key partners in student learning. We welcome Julia to our leadership team for 2023.
Challenge
Our congratulations go this week to our students who have challenged themselves on the sports fields. Toby O competed in Canberra as a member of the NSW Hockey team. They were victorious and took out the Gold medal. An outstanding achievement!
Isaac R has also won a Gold medal as a member of the NSW team, at the Nationals schools Cross Country championships and also received an individual silver medal. The relay team in which Isaac competed also took out a gold medal! What an incredible achievement. Thank you to our SRC for organizing the sports day in support of Isaac’s trip.
Darcy H and Chris O have also been selected to play in the NSW PSSA Rugby Union team. We look forward to watching their journey over the next couple of months. We wish them luck.
Congratulations to Talia, Ella, Darcy and Naomi for going through to the next round of the North Sydney Premier’s Debating Challenge after competing against Balgowlah Heights last Friday. Well done Team Manning! Thank you to Chris McCall who runs our debating program at BNPS.
Our students have demonstrated grit, tenacity and an ability to challenge themselves to be the best they can be in their areas of passion. Well done to our students, our school community is very proud of you all.
Creativity
What an incredible night we had at Homebush last night performing at the Metro North Gala event for Dancesports. 14 schools were represented with over 680 students. To move through the quarter, semi and finals is quite an achievement. Top 8 out of 680 students is certainly something to be extremely proud of.
Quarter Finalists Matthew D and Darcy Y - Samba, Jackson T and Lucy J - Samba, Alex D and Isla M - Tango, Matthew D and Isla H - Tango, Archer T and Scarlett P - Salsa, Henry R and Charlie O - Salsa, Beau P and Jess D - Jive, Van H and Neve R - Jive.Semi Finalists Matthew D and Darcy Y - Samba, Jackson T and Lucy J - Samba, Matthew D and Isla H - Tango, Archer T and Scarlett P - Salsa, Beau P and Jess D - Jive, Van H and Neve R - Jive.
Connections
Thank you to our fantastic P&C for all the opportunities you have provided for our students and their families this term. It has been a time to reconnect as a community, supporting the students and our school. I look forward to chatting with our fathers at our Fathers Day breakfast on Thursday morning. Please see below a message from our wonderful P&C President Richard Wokes.
Kind regards
Brooke Keevers
Principal
Isaac R., 10yrs 2000m individual silver medalist; mixed composite 6x1500m bronze medalist; 10yrs 5x1000m State team relay gold medalist; State team Championship gold medalist
Toby O., State hockey team gold medalist
Dear Parents at BNPS,
Term 3, Week 7… how did that happen? The saying “Time flies when you are having fun” comes to mind and I can only assume that we must be having a lot of fun, as time is certainly flying. And on reflection that is exactly what Term 3 has been from a P&C perspective!
On behalf of the P&C committee, I wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you! We can plan the most exciting events and activities, but if you as a community don’t get behind the initiatives, then, well nothing happens.
This term has seen the school come together to support our sporting champions.
- James Pittar, former parent of BNPS student, blind long distance swimmer, local legend, came to the school with the hope to raise $10k for the Fred Hollows Foundation ((https://www.fredsbigrun.org/fundraisers/jamespittarcame) by swimming 100KM in August. As part of that James wanted to swim 10km, with BNPS students swimming beside James in support. We had a whole school of swimmers, and as of writing James was well past $10k.
- Isaac R, our cross country champion was off to the compete in the Nationals, as did Toby O with the NSW Hockey team in Canberra and the kids got to dress up as their sporting heroes for a day in support of Isaac competing in Adelaide.
From a band perspective, we have seen regular performances of our budding musicians, and considering the challenges with COVID over the past two year, the band numbers are strong and the music is even stronger! The parents of the Band committee were busy organising the school disco where we had approx. 400 kids attend so that they could get together and sing and dance and just have fun, all while raising much needed funds to ensure the band program continues to build.
We had a Stage 2 working bee, which saw parents and kids come together to give not only our Green Grove a nice spring clean, but settle the chickens into the coup, and reclaim the corner near the tennis courts, where I realised that there are actually seats in there!
We were then lucky enough to have the Dads ‘night’ out from 2:30pm to watch two games of rugby. All for the kids of course! It’s a simple formula and to be honest this was just about getting the Dad’s together. Again with the challenges that COVID and in person events has bought us it was the first social events for a lot of the dads. There was friendly banter between the nations and a nice little warm up to Father's Day this weekend. There were many times I found myself reflecting on truly how lucky we are to be connected to BNPS and this wonderful community.
A really important part of our events are always our brilliant sponsors who were Louise & Julian from Stone Real Estate Seaforth, Brookvale Insurance Brokers and Classic Country Cottages. Thank you for the continued support of these sponsors, all three of whom are regular school supporters.
Overall we raised around $7k for the P&C.
And if that’s not enough we have the movie night coming up, bringing parents and kids together to connect and enjoy each others company, and the wonderful school community that we are so blessed to be apart of!
Thank you again,
Richard Wokes
P&C President
Many congratulations to all of our latest MiniLit graduates
School news
Kindy/Year One Athletics Fun Day
We had a gorgeous afternoon of spring sunshine for our K/1 Athletics Fun Day. It was so wonderful to see so many of our parent community join us for a picnic lunch and to cheer their little ones on as they raced around our school oval. Our Kindergarten and Year One students were beaming from ear to ear as they proudly accumulated stickers for their tremendous efforts in the full oval run, sprints and novelty races. Our incredible Year 6 Sports captains offered encouragement and support throughout the afternoon and acted as wonderful role models for their younger peers. We’d like to acknowledge Mrs Megan Rose for her organisation of this wonderful event that was so enjoyed by all who attended!
Sports uniform
All students are to wear sports uniform on their PE day from this week until the end of term, as they will be doing gymnastics with Mrs Kelly on their PE day.
NAPLAN
Students in Years 3 and 5 will receive their NAPLAN results to take home today, Wednesday the 31st of August. NAPLAN is an informative assessment tool that supports our understanding of student progress and should be viewed in a broader context of the ongoing assessment of learning that occurs in the classroom. It is one set of assessments that provide a snapshot of learning. If you wish to discuss your child’s learning, please make a time to meet with your child’s Class Teacher.
Check In
Students in Years 3 - 6 will complete the Check-in assessment over the remainder of the school year. The Check-in assessment is an online reading and numeracy assessment that provides teachers with formative assessments that can give an indication of how students are progressing in their learning. Year 6 will also complete a new writing assessment in addition to the reading and numeracy assessments.
Year 6 will complete the check in assessment in Week 9 of Term 3. Years 3,4 and 5 will complete the Check-in assessment in early in Term 4.
ICAS Results
ICAS will release student results and certificates by mid September. We will send these home with students who have participated in the assessments once they have been received.Students who receive a High Distinction, Distinction or Credit certificate will be acknowledged in the newsletter.
What is a Learner? Community Feedback form.
We are looking for feedback about the language we use around being a learner and how that integrates with the PBL (Positive Behaviour for Learning) at BNPS. We value feedback from the community in this process. Please take a minute to click on the link and type in 5 words that come to mind to describe a learner.
https://forms.gle/RgidWo2JbmxCzkubA
Kindergarten enrolments
Kindy 2023 enrolments are open, if you haven't already enrolled for 2023 please complete the online enrolment.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.
If you know you will be leaving the school at the end of the year can you please complete the form below.
Rachel Ridley
R/Deputy Principal
The Forest High School Year 5 Enrichment Program
The Forest High School Enrichment Program is an opportunity for gifted and talented students to undertake hands-on activities that enrich their learning and foster the development of critical thinking, communication, problem solving and project management skills. Year 5 students attend from different primary schools in our area, giving them the opportunity to work and explore learning with similarly gifted students. Henry R, Matthew D, Scarlett P, Darcy Y and Jessica D have been selected to be involved in the program commencing today. They will attend the high school every Wednesday for 10 weeks, concluding with a showcase on 16 November 2022. Well done to these students! We hope you gain many skills and enjoy the experience.
Steph Rooleht
Wellbeing Week
Love was in the air last week at BNPS as students K-6 took to the oval and formed a giant love heart. Students proudly held their “Flowers of Gratitude” as Miss Ross’s drone captured an aerial shot of our amazing BNPS community. Our Rainbow Day donations raised an outstanding $470 for the mental health charity, RUOK?. Thank you for your generous support. From dancing the Macarena under the COLA to writing small notes of thanks, students immersed themselves in an extra dose of wellbeing. We know the students loved the buzz of classroom activities, enjoyed exploring new mindfulness skills and we are excited to see these flow into daily practice. Have a great week moving your body and moving your mind; remember, “Kindness is free. Sprinkle it everywhere!”
Alice Pond & the Wellbeing Team
Library news
Book Week Parade – Thursday September 8
Our Book Week Parade is fast approaching! Students are invited to dress up as their favourite book character or link their costume to this year’s theme – Dreaming With Eyes Open. Families are welcome to come and join in the fun that morning. The parade will begin at 9:15am at the collar.
Book Recommendation
In 2020, we hosted the wonderful Australian author, Deb Abela, at our school. She inspired our students with her back story to her writing career and introduced us to all the fabulous texts she had written. I am very excited to announce her latest book has just been released – The Book Of Wondrous Possibilities. During her visit we were privileged to have had a sneak preview of the book in its early stages. We loved it then and the final product is fantastic! For a preview of the first 4 chapters follow this link: https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-book-of-wondrous-possibilities-deborah-abela/book/9781761044021.html
Thank You
I would like to say a huge thank you to Eve Harvey, Shannon Morrell, Erin Remblance, Brooke Krncevic and Angela Olsson who covered the books from our donation book fair. The students have been very excited to take these home over the last week and your help is much appreciated.
Deborah Horsley
Teacher librarian
The week ahead
01 Sept Father's day breakfast & gift stall
05-09 Sept Book week
Band & strings open rehearsals - all welcome to come & listen
07 Sept Indigenous Literacy day
08 Sept Book week parade
Sports news
Sporting achievement
Last week two of our students, Chris O and Darcy H, competed in the NSWPSSA Rugby Union championship at Mudgee. Their Sydney North team made it to the grand final. During this Championship, both Chris and Darcy were selected into the NSW State team - a fantastic achievement! Congratulations boys - we are so proud of you and wish you every success with your involvement at the next level!
Zone Athletics Results
On Wednesday and Thursday last week, the zone athletics championship was held at Narrabeen Sports academy. Congratulations to all those who took part with such great spirit. We are so proud of everyone who competed! Thank you to the parents who were able to come and support the team.
Junior Boys
Henry F - 2nd 1500m
11 Years Boys
Matthew D - 2nd 1500m
- 2nd 800m
Noah S - 3rd 1500m
Senior Boys
Tyler W - 3rd Shot Put
Junior Girls
Frankie J- 2nd 100m
Senior Girls
Isabelle K - 3rd High Jump
Chloe G - 1st 13 Year Girls 100m - Zone Record!
Congratulations to Frankie J, Chloe G, Matthew D and Henry F who will go on to the Regional Carnival at Homebush. We wish you all the best!
Kerry Kelly
PBL term 3 week 7
Class snapshot - 1K/M
Waste Free Wednesday
2R, 1E & 1/KM were our wonderful Waste Free Warriors for week six. Thank you to everyone at Balgowlah North for your excellent efforts in helping keep our environment healthy!
Koolkuna
Dear Families,
All families are entitled to claim one Service NSW $500 BASC Voucher per child for use in Before & After School Care & Vacation Care Services in NSW.
Key Dates
* You will need to apply online to claim your Vouchers through your MyServiceNSW account. Applications will be accepted by Service NSW until 30 September
* When you receive your vouchers, please email the attached $500 Voucher to kkoshc@sustainableoshc.com.au. The credit will be applied to your family account and be offset against sessions booked for each child.
* The credit can only be used for the child in whose name the voucher is claimed. Although the vouchers may appear on your statements as a deduction against the total family balance, the vouchers must be used in entirety per child and cannot be applied against your other child.
* Vouchers can be redeemed with a Before & After School Care, & Vacation Care provider from 28 February to 31 December 2022.
* IMPORTANT - Voucher credit can be used for services until 30 June 2023.
Please do not hesitate to contact our Admin Team if you have any questions.
Kind Regards,
Maire
Koolkuna OSHC Admin
Sustainable OSHC
Mob: 0400 774 697 | kkoshc@sustainableoshc.com.au
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