21/09/18
To The School Community,
A short post from me for the last day of the term!
I would like to thank the students, staff and families for what has been a wonderful term for the students.
Term 4 is always exciting for the students, especially for the Year 6’s preparing for their graduation and transition into secondary school. We will also meet our 2019 Foundation students for the first time during our whole school transition. In 2019 we will have 4 Foundation classes with numbers of 18 per class providing an opportunity for the best possible scenario for their first year of school. Our Year 5 students will also begin the process of visiting the 2019 Foundation students at their Kindergartens to kick off the transition process. A reminder that we will be carefully planning our 2019 groupings early in Term 4, so if you have any information about your children you would like us to use in during this process please email the school to let us know. Remember this can’t be requests for specific teachers but things that you would like us to remember about your children to assist us in making these decisions. At this stage the class structure is as follows:
4 x Foundation Classes
3 x Year 1 classes
3 x Year 2 Classes
3 x Year 3 Classes
3 x Year 4 Classes and
5 x Year 5/6 Composite classes
This model is based on a number of factors that include consideration of:
- The recommendations in the Victorian Government School’s Agreement highlighting the expectations about numbers of students in early years classes.
- Inclusion of students with disabilities and language difficulties.
- Workforce planning that needs to be carefully planned to ensure the delivery of all elements of the Victorian curriculum. Including the delivery of a specialist program that includes Visual Arts, Music, Physical Education and Languages.
- The employment of a Learning Specialist to support Learning and Teaching across the school.
- Physical spaces available in the school.
I am confident that given all of the factors that need to be considered the model presented is the most effective plan moving forward. Over time the model of class structures does change and I ask the community to trust the decision making process we follow and the expertise we have at our school.
School Lunch Orders The School Council and team in the office have worked alongside me to respond to the requests regarding lunch orders. Firstly I would like to thank Mitzy for her service to the school in providing delicious Japanese food for our students. She is moving onto other ventures but it is clear that she will be missed. We are looking at trialing a service from Hungry Hampers, an experienced provider of lunch orders to schools, beginning in week 4 or 5 with the aim to evaluate for the start of the school year.
Student Arrival at School Our students are safe and respectful at BHPS – so much so that we at times have 20 or 30 students at school prior to 8:15 am playing and socialising with each other. Although this is wonderful we are asking that students do not arrive at school so early unsupervised by their parents. Starting in term 4 students arriving before 8:30 am will be asked to come in from the yard and taken to Before School Care. This will unfortunately incur a cost. We ask that parents manage this situation with their children as it maximises the safety of our students and the supervision that can be provided before school. Students coming to school independently each day must arrive from 8:30 onwards. Before School Care provides a quality program that we encourage you to access if supervision prior to 8:30 is difficult for your family.
Over the holiday break there is a Sports Clinic and Soccer Clinic be held that students can participate in. Info about this has been included in our recent Community news posts on the Website.
Enjoy the school holidays, I hope you can spend quality time together and I look forward to seeing you in Term 4, our Christmas Fair term.