Newsletter Term 4 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
Celebration of the Arts
What a wonderful week of opportunities. Last night listening to the talent of students from Public Schools across the state come together to sing and perform for the 2022 Festival of Choral music at the Town Hall was pure magic. Thank you to Mrs Anna Harris, Mr Chris Mc Call and Ms Eliza Mc Callister for your commitment to working with our students to prepare them for this incredible concert.
Thank you also to our fabulous P&C Band committee for organising the Battle of the Bands on the weekend. It was a lovely way for families across The Beaches to connect through music. Our parents gave up their time to run the BBQs, bake and sell cakes and also sell second hand books and toys. The money raised will support the band program in 2023.
World Teachers' Day
This Friday we celebrate World Teachers' Day. This is a time to reflect on the care, commitment and dedication that our teacher’s bring to their work. We have a team of teachers who are highly professional, collaborative and place the students at the centre of every decision that is made every day. They make a difference to the lives of many children that our students will remember long after they leave Balgowlah North. Our P&C will be hosting a lunch for our teachers on Thursday to show their appreciation. Thank you.
Thank you
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Richard Wokes, our current P&C President for the last two and a half years that he has held this position. Richard has led the P&C through a challenging few years and has supported the students, teachers, leaders and the school community with unfaltering support. He has worked shoulder to shoulder with us to ensure that we continue to build connections, provide resources and opportunities for all our students and families in the Balgowlah North community. We wish Richard all the best as he heads off on new adventures with his family in Singapore.
Leadership Planning Day
On Monday our school leadership team met to unpack the new Inclusive, Engaging, Respectful schools Student Behaviour Policy and Inclusive Education for students with disability policy as well as plan for 2023. As a first step we spent time pausing to spend time reflecting carefully on our current school behaviour support and wellbeing processes. As usual we always work from a positive pro active approach with school wide expectations and a Positive Behaviour for Learning underpinning all that we do.
Our school takes inappropriate behaviour from students very seriously and responds to that behaviour consistent with the school’s current student discipline and welfare procedures. As part of our reflection this year, with parent and teacher feedback we have been trialling and are now implementing a new behaviour support program, Back on Track, which supplements our existing framework for managing behaviour incidents and supporting our students to make positive choices in their interactions in the classroom and playground.
The Back on Track behaviour support program is implemented when a student is involved in a series of behaviour incidents, indicating that their behaviour is having a significant impact on the learning and wellbeing of their peers.
Back On Track follows a series of steps that provides students with the opportunity to reflect on their behaviour and set behaviour goals that are actively monitored while they are on the program. These goals are co-constructed with the student inline with our school’s code of conduct and behaviour expectations of being safe, respectful and responsible.
In the event a student is unable to demonstrate modified behaviour, they will progress through the steps of the program which become increasingly serious in consequence.
The structure of Back on Track allows our school community to have a clear, consistent understanding of the process taken when managing behaviour incidents. Wherever possible, our aim is to provide intervention strategies to support our students in managing and regulating their behaviour and reduce the likelihood of behaviour incidents recurring.
Parents will always be notified if their child is placed on a Back on Track behaviour support program.
Well Done Chloe and Isaac!
A great end to last week for Chloe G and Isaac R who competed in the State Athletics. Chloe came 2nd in the 100m sprint, Isaac came 2nd in 800, 3rd in 1500, 4th in 200, 7th in long jump and 10th in high jump. Nationals are now calling!.. Incredibly talented students…
Colour Run
We were so lucky that the rain held off for us last Thursday and we were able to host our much-loved colour run. It was absolutely wonderful to see our students dancing, laughing, smiling and enjoying the pure joy of being covered in rainbow dust as they navigated the course.
We are so appreciative of our incredibly generous and engaged parent community supporting the event and contributing to the incredible fundraising efforts which raised a total of $16,200.
These funds will be used for mathematics, English and Science resources. A huge thank you to Amanda Mason, Jess Hardy and Debbie Horsely who coordinated the event!
Owen Taylor Memorial Ceremony
On Tuesday the 29th of November we will be unveiling the commemorative statue installed in our fort playground to honour the legacy of our late Principal, Mr Owen Taylor. Mr Taylor led our school from 2011-2019 and his kindness, fairness and dedication to his students ensured he was held in high regard by students, parents and teachers alike.
Our statue installation will ensure Mr Taylor’s legacy remains at the heart of our school in the years to come.
We will be hosting an unveiling ceremony at 12noon, followed by a community lunch that we invite parents to join us for. We will also be holding a special bbq lunch as Mr Taylor loved nothing more than a sausage sizzle with the kids!
You can place your orders for the sausage sizzle through Flexischools.
If you are able to assist with the bbq on the day and are available between 11:00-1pm please email the school office : balgowlahn-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Kind regards
Brooke Keevers
Principal
School news
ICAS update
We thank our parent community for their patience in receiving their ICAS certificates this year. ICAS have experienced extensive delays in distributing the certificates to schools so we have been unable to send these home until now. Students who participated in ICAS Science, Digital Technologies, English, and Writing will receive their certificates this week.
ICAS have issued an apology for students who participated in the Mathematics competition. We are not anticipating receipt of these certificates for a further 3-4 weeks. We will send them home as soon as they become available to us. In the meantime, we will issue students with a handout which provides you with the code you need to access their results via the ICAS results portal.
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
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
The Week Ahead
26 October P & C Meeting - 7.30pm
27 October Band information evening - 6.30pm
28 October World teachers' day
29 October Mall music school show
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.
Waste free Wednesday
Winners week 1 were 1/KM and 1HRWeek 2 were 1/KM, 1E and 4/3V
Class Snapshot - 2P
Sports news
Eagle Tag (Girls) | Senior B | Junior B |
Opponents | Brookvale | Brookvale |
Score | 7-5 (win) | 5-2 (win) |
Best & Fairest | Talia T | Olivia C |
Eagle Tag (Boys) | Senior A | Junior A |
Opponents | Cromer | Cromer |
Score | 1-5 (loss) | 3-8 (loss) |
Best & Fairest | Max H | Tyler W |
PBL
Band News
Successful Battle of the Bands
We had a brilliant day at the 16th Battle of the Bands on Sunday. Hosted by BNPS, six primary school bands competed for the coveted Battle of The Bands trophy. Balgowlah North, Manly Village, Manly West, Curl Curl, Dee Why and Allambie Heights battled it out with each performing three songs of their choice. The competition was tough and all bands performed brilliantly, making the judges decisions difficult. The judges were very complimentary of the standard of playing and musicianship of each band, making the point that the top four bands were all very close in their scores. Taking home the trophy was Manly West Public School Band with Manly Village Public School awarded runner up trophy, The John Speight Encouragement Award.
Big thanks to all the parents who helped to organise and manage the stalls in the lead up to and on the day. A great team effort.
Community News
School Sponsors
