Newsletter Term 4 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 message
Our students are buzzing this week! We all have our fingers crossed for a good day for our Colour Run on Thursday. At this point in time it is a tight race for the winning class and we are well over $7,000 our target is $10, 000. Thank you so much to our school community for supporting our Colour Run and involving the children in collecting sponsors.
With two new syllabi in English and Maths next year we are purchasing new resources for English, Maths and Science. We are all looking forward to the afternoon of fun! Who wouldn’t love to colour bomb the teachers and have a pizza party with their class!
We are also off to the Seymour Centre for the State Drama Festival on Thursday night, and the Battle of the Bands is back on again on Sunday the 21st of October. We have many of our local schools taking up the opportunity to perform. Our concert band has been practicing hard, it’s going to be a great battle! Thank you to our band parents for organising stalls to support this event.
Thank you to our P&C for covering the cost of our new sports uniforms. We have new uniforms for AFL, Soccer boys and girls, Rugby League, senior netball and Athletics.
Planning for 2023
The school leadership team has commenced planning for 2023. At this point in time we will have 16 or 17 classes for 2023. As we are aware this may change depending on our Kindergarten enrolments, students leaving the school and with the movement of families out of our catchment area we find this affects our enrolments as well. We are extremely fortunate at BNPS to have highly skilled, professional and passionate teachers. Creating classes is an extremely rigorous process that teachers take very seriously. Our aim is to provide equity for all students based on their academic, social and emotional needs. We will be creating composite (multi stage) classes in 2023. These classes, as all our classes, will be created carefully to create best fit for all our students at BNPS.
If your child has any social, academic or emotional needs that we are unaware of which may have an impact on their class placement for 2023 please email the school - attention Brooke Keevers. This information must be submitted by Friday 4th November. Requests for specific teachers will not be taken into consideration.
Students not returning for 2023
If your child will not be returning in 2023 could you please complete the google link below. This information is very important because it has an impact on our class structures and staffing of the school.
Year 7 Selective High 2024 information
Please see the link below for further information.
https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-7
Important dates:
Registrations open 18th October
Registrations close 16th November
Date of Test; Thursday 4th May 2023
P & C Meeting Wednesday 26th October
Our next P & C meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday the 26th of October. Please email pandcbnps@gmail.com to register your interest if you would like to attend.
We will be providing our parent community with a synopsis of our 2022 NAPLAN results at this meeting if you are interested to hear more about our results this year.
Kind regards
Brooke Keevers
Principal
School news
Important Dates for your diary
As we reach that point of the year where the weeks seem to zoom by as we head towards the end of 2022, we wanted to ensure we highlighted some important dates for your diaries.
Monday 12th December: 3-6 Presentation Day
Tuesday 13th December: K-2 Presentation Day
Thursday 15th December : K- 6 End of Year Picnic Day
Friday 16th December : Final day of 2022 school year for students
ICAS
We wish to advise our parent community that we are still awaiting the ICAS results certificates. We will distribute these to you as soon as they are all received.
You will be able to access your child’s ICAS results by using the Tap ID located on the back of the certificate.
Gifted Writers’ Workshop
Last week we hosted the second day of the NBLA Gifted Writers’ Workshop. It was so wonderful to bring 33 talented young writers from across 10 of our local primary schools to connect with high school mentors and industry experts to further develop their writing skills.
This workshop is now in its second year and has been received by our local network of schools with great enthusiasm. We are thrilled to be facilitating rich, engaging opportunities for our High Potential and Gifted Students.
Kindergarten Orientation Program
We are looking forward to welcoming our new Kindergarten students and their families to our school in a couple of weeks for our Orientation Program.
We will be running two orientation sessions on Thursday November 10th and Thursday November 17th. During these sessions, our new Kindergarten students will participate in a series of activities designed to support them in building familiarity and connection with our school and their peer group.
We invite our Kindergarten 2023 parents to join us for a parent information session and welcome morning tea during the second orientation session on Thursday November 17th. There will also be an opportunity to order or purchase uniforms on this morning.
Year 6 Camp at Point Wolstoncroft
Last week year 6 went to camp. The activity I liked the best at camp was Rogaining. I liked it because it was very similar to orienteering which I enjoyed and found it quite easy. Our group was made up of four boys from 6S and 6/5M. You have to run around and to find letters and numbers by using a map and directions on another sheet. Once we found all the numbers then you could get another sheet and do it all again. It was lots of fun and especially as we were the winning team. We won an NSW Sport and Recreation water bottle. I loved camp.
Aidan H
My favourite activity while at camp was stand up paddle boarding. Grabbing a paddle and pushing our board out on the water, being able to glide through an amazing lake on crystal clear water was amazing. The noise of the ripples as my paddle sank into the water and the cries of laughter and joy was echoing through the trees. I jumped of our board into the cold icy water and crawled up on the jetty, as cold as an ice cube, so happy to be back on land. I looked out on the calm black water thinking about what sort of creatures would lurk under the surface of the lake. As the water dripped from my drenched swimmers, I walked back to our lodge looking forward to a game of ping-pong.
Charlie M
There was so much to do at camp, there was the best food and every meal was so yummy.We had lots of different activities throughout the day like initiation team games, archery, rogaining, stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and bush walk. The day we went for a bush walk we also learnt how to build a fire and cook damper. The damper was dripped in golden syrup. After our final afternoon activities here were so many options for things to play. We could play tennis, on the playground, soccer and cool life sized games, like drafts and chess. My cabin was awesome as I had some of my great friends to stay with. I loved camp it was really fun!
Oscar L
As soon as we got the chance to go stand up paddle boarding, the fun kicked in. Addie decided to push me off the S.U.P board and when I fell in, I felt the cold rush through my body.
We got the chance to kayak and it was a blast. Jess and I were partners and we talked all the way to the stopping bay where we saw cool jelly blobbers and foam. The instructor, Trent, told us to make a raft by holding each other's kayaks. I was the representative of the girl team which means I had to run across the kayaks and I came first but with a cost of bruises.
As we gathered all the sticks for the fire it was time to learn how to make a delicious damper. Trent was teaching us the correct way to warm up the dough and position the dough on the stick to evenly cook and not fall off. Once done, we all poured golden syrup inside.
Camp Wolstoncroft had a lot of exciting activities for us to do and a bunch of new things for us to learn. Thank you Camp Wolstoncroft, we all had a blast.
Helena F
The nerves rush through me as I get called up. I pick the bow and arrow and set it up for a bullseye. The instructor says “all clear!” We pull back the string . STRIKE! My eyes wander up at the target, my finger shakes as the string vibrates. BULLSEYE!
Hana D
Tell Them From Me Survey
The parent ‘Tell Them From Me’ survey is now open for parents and carers. This anonymous survey provides parents' perspectives on their school as well as their child's learning at home. Communication between parents and staff, activities and practices at home, and parents’ views on the school's support of learning and positive behaviour are surveyed to help build an accurate and timely picture that can be used for practical improvements.
To access the survey, please visit http://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/rhm7y
The survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and will be open until Friday 21st October (Term 2 Week 4).
tudents in Years 4-6 will be completing the online student survey at school in Weeks 1 and 2 of Term 4. This will provide the school with information in relation to areas such as student interest and motivation, positive relationships, skills and learning challenges, sense of belonging and participation in school activities.
Mrs Sarah King
Assistant Principal
Taronga Zoo Excursion - Kindergarten and Year 6
We went to Taronga Zoo with our buddies. My buddy’s name is Mia. We went around Taronga Zoo. It was fun. We saw animals. We were in three groups. We got to see poisonous snakes and we went to see a bilby called Billy the Bilby. We got to see red pandas but not normal pandas. There were mums helping us. They were Mrs Mackenzie and Mrs Johansson and some teachers too. The coolest bit was when we went in the cage for birds. We saw monkeys and they were very funny. I saw five koalas. We saw a peacock which was near us. The seals were hilarious. We were having so much fun.
Harper M - 1KM
On the 21st of September, year 6 and kindy went to Taronga Zoo and had a great experience. The journey began getting split into different groups the blue group, green group, yellow group and red group. When we got there we had our recess and crunch and sip. We had a great time looking at all these big and small animals. After looking at all the amazing animals we got to go to an Animal Encounter with different types of animals. The year 6 group got to touch a snake, blue tongue lizard, an echidna and a few other things, and kindy got to touch a furry bandicoot and a snake as well. Then we went off at different times and saw more animals. After that, the day ended, and we all headed back to schoolvery tired and sleepy.
Lily H - 6S
Sammy P - KW
Library news
Last Thursday our school hosted another inspiring and exciting day of workshops for gifted writers from schools within our network. The students participated in three writing workshops throughout the day each with a unique focus and approach. We were once again lucky to have students from Forest High School run the morning workshop where students were involved in a collaborative writing activity based on fairy tales. The students were inspired to see and learn from students only a couple of years older than themselves. The next presentation was from graphic designer and author Dan Marshall. His presentation focused on non-fiction writing and a deep dive into his most successful book No Way. Paul McDonald ran the last workshop helping students with strategies for imaginative writing using quality texts as inspiration. The student feedback about the day was overwhelmingly positive, many students commenting on the enjoyment they got from meeting and learning with children from other schools in our area. We look forward to organising and hosting more of these opportunities in the future.
Deb Horsley
Teacher/Librarian
Class Snapshot - KW
Sports news
PBL
Remembrance Day - Poppies for sale
In honour of our veterans, Mrs Watson will be at school on Wednesday 9th November from 8.30am to sell poppies at $5 each. She will be near the flagpole by the front gate.
The Week Ahead
20 October Colour Run K - 6
20 October State Drama Festival Matinee and Evening Performance
23 October Battle of the Bands
25 October Festival of Choral Music Y3-6 choir:
Rehearsal 1pm - 4pm
Concert 7.00pm - 9.30pm
25 October Band Committee Meeting 7.30pm
26 October P & C Meeting 6.30pm
Band News
Battle of the Bands is BACK! Sunday 23 October from 11am
Our annual friendly but hard fought competition is back where our Concert Band will go head to head with other local schools for the Battle of The Bands trophy and first prize.
Six schools will be participating this year and our adjudicators will score, provide feedback and ultimately decide a first place and second place encouragement award.
There will also be a small fundraising element with a few stalls – BBQ, cake stall, second hand book and games stall and more. Stalls open at 10.30am. Come along to support our band program.
Please no games/toys. We just need books at this stage.
Band 2023 – Join our Fabulous Band Program. We are excited!
We are delighted to invite students who will be in Years 3 -5 in 2023, to join our band program next year. Playing an instrument and being part of a large team such as a band is an enjoyable, social experience, benefitting the children in many ways. There is a sense of pride and accomplishment that comes from playing an instrument as well as many other benefits including improved literacy and mathematical skills, better coordination, social development, organisation skills, leadership and much more.
Parent Information Evening – to hear about joining band. Thursday 27 October 6.30pm – 7.30pm
Please make a diary note to come along and hear about our fabulous band program. This session is a good opportunity to learn about the band program. Our concert band is putting together a special presentation where you will enjoy their performances, learn about the instruments from the players themselves and hear from our Director of Bands about the opportunities and positive experience your child can have as a member of the band. Plus there will be plenty of time to ask questions. Please bring your future band member/budding musician along also. They will really enjoy it.
Community News
School Sponsors
