To the School Community,
Welcome back to school after the recent holiday period. They seem to come around quickly and the start of term 4 has certainly arrived in the blink of an eye.
The students have settled straight back into their learning and the school routine with all students starting the term with a whole school writing task that the teachers are using as an assessment and goal setting tool. The students from Foundation – year 6 demonstrated tremendous stamina in completing this task which has provided us with detailed information about each and every student.
We have a positive group of students at BHPS and their behaviour should be recognised and commended as much as possible. The observations from staff of the student behaviour is that the students have settled into term well. I appreciate that we have wonderful students at our school who are always a pleasure to teach, talk to and see interact with each other.
SUN SMART
During term 4 it is essential that all staff and students adhere to our Sun Smart policy that can be found at https://bhps.education/home/policies/ on our website. Students and staff not wearing the correct protection will be asked to remain in shaded areas of the school during outdoor activities.
Sun protection is compulsory for excursions and camps that involve outdoor activities. Hats can be purchased from the School Office $8 for a bucket hat and $10 for a broad brim hat.
Year 4 Camp
Next week our year 4 students will be off to school camp at Camp Wilkin in Anglesea. This is a great venue for camp and I look forward to hearing about the students engagement in what will be a great experience. The students leave on Monday morning and return on Tuesday afternoon.
Swimming
Our Foundation – year 2 students have an opportunity to attend the School Swimming program, an initial post was published on Compass last term for P-2 families only and further information will be available soon.
Arrival at School
I would like to thank families for their responsiveness to our request regarding student safety and arriving at school after 8:30. There has been a positive change in behaviours that is appreciated.
Students arriving before 8:30 am will be taken to Before School Care, this will incur a cost charged to the parents of that child.
If you are in need I encourage you to access the Before School Program provided by Camp Australia. Numbers have improved slightly but to make the program viable we need more consistent attendees.
Parent Opinion Survey Data
Thank you to all of the families who responded to the Parent Opinion Survey sent out prior to the end of term 3. The web-based survey was sent to a random sample of 146 families and analysed by Orima on behalf of the DET and the school.
The results were overwhelmingly positive with improvements in 16 of the 19 categories measured. One measure was equal to last year’s data and 2 areas demonstrated a reduction when compared to 2017 albeit in minimal.
Despite a slight improvement, the data shows that there is still a fair bit of work to do in understanding the parent’s opinion about bullying at the school. We have tried a number of initiatives and strategies this year like Bystander Training, Respectful Relationships and Peer Mediators and will continue these strategies along with reviewing in detail the concepts and approaches being used to understand and respond to the perceptions, realities and ideas about Bullying and turn this data around.
There are also comments from the survey that I will publish and respond to in next week’s post.
School Fencing
As mentioned in previous posts we will soon see the inclusion of some fencing at the school that will increase the monitoring of people going through the school grounds and entering the buildings during the school day. I know we are a respectful and safe community but this will ensure we are maximising safety, particularly during community use of the library hours as well as ensuring we follow recommended tracking of visitors, including parents, tradesman and the like who need to enter the school.
Working Bee – A working bee will be held on Sunday 21st of October between 10:00am and 1pm. We look forward to seeing as many families as possible for what will be a productive and enjoyable time.
Important upcoming dates:
Tuesday 16th October:
- Parent Partners meeting – 6:00 pm
- School Fair Planning Meeting 7:00 pm
- Region Athletics – (Selected Students only
Sunday 21st October:
- Working Bee
Wednesday 24th October:
- Geelong Cup Public holiday
Monday 29th October:
- Year 5/6 Cricket ( Selected Students only)
Wednesday 31st October:
- Year 5 Camp
Thursday November 1st:
- Grade 6 Region Volleyball (Selected students)
November 5th November:
- Curriculum Day