How wonderful it has been this week to hear our classrooms filled with excited voices and active learning – welcome back to all our families, and a huge thank you for all that you did from home, and continue to do to ensure our transition back to school is safe and smooth.
We’d like to take the opportunity to also acknowledge our teachers, who continue to be adaptive and contextualize the learning on offer at BBPS in these curious times, always with our students' well being at the forefront.
We wish Kylie White all the best as she begins her Family Leave next week, and look forward to hearing the exciting news in the coming month. We welcome Linda McCaffrey for the remainder of the term into 1W. Linda is our Prep and Grade 1 Physical Education teacher.
This week we have continued to celebrate our students’ achievements, and enjoyed sharing reflections about learning from home. Already, a number of practices have translated back into the classroom, paying homage to the outstanding self-regulation and independent skills our students have developed this term. Please read on for an insight into learning highlights for this week. Of particular highlight, at a whole school level, was our first ever virtual assembly! All of the students have been invited to choose an example of their home learning that was a particular favourite and to share it in our weekly newsletter. Below are Mary's Sea Turtle (4B) and Ariel's clock tower (3B).
Staggered starts and finishes: Many thanks for the extremely smooth starts and ends to our days, with all families remembering to socially distance for ‘drop and go’ and ‘pick up and leave’. A couple of friendly reminders:
Two Minute Zone – start of day
We are expecting higher levels of volume here during the current climate. Please:
Move your car along the line and not leave gaps between cars, prior to stopping and dropping off your child
Remain in your car – you are not able to leave your car unattended
Stop only within the street signs that frame the drop off zone – please do not stop outside the external gates as it causes road congestion
Two Minute Zone – end of day
ALL students, regardless of surname, who are being picked up at the two minute zone will be exiting their classrooms at 3:15pm. Many thanks for supporting us to ensure a safe pick up of students from this area.
Dogs stay outside the fence
Parents walking in with children who also have dogs are reminded to tether dogs on their leads to the fence, and not to walk them through the school yard.
Scooters and bikes are to be walked whilst in the school yard.
Tree Donations - Ron, Ken and Al and Year 6 School Captains and Environmental Captains - Beautification of the front garden has commenced!
Jaime's Speech
Thank you Ron for these beautiful trees. We are all so grateful to bring more life into the school. We know climate change is happening all around us and we are all going to try and do our best to help reduce it. These trees are for the 2 year 6 classes and it is going to be so cool walking past our school entrance in 5 years to see them still growing. Thank you.
Spencer's Speech
We would first off like to thank Ron for the donation of the two golden gleditsia shademaster trees. We have heard that this tree will give students lots of shade and a place where students can sit and eat lunch. We have also heard that the trees will be placed at the front gate and will make a beautiful entrance for the school. Images have shown us that they are large and fast growing and that they will look spectacular. Lastly we think it will look amazing once planted and we know that all students at the school will be very grateful.
Oakley's Speech
Hi Ron, thank you for the trees and we very much appreciate it. We think that it would be great for us Year 6's of 2020 because they will always be there and when we are older we can drive past and remember that those two trees are for 6C and 6B. Thank you so much for what you are doing and the whole of year 6 appreciate it.
Footy Colours Day or Dress Up Day
To celebrate everyone's return to school we are all dressing up in free dress. Don’t forget, children can wear their favourite sport team’s colours tomorrow to celebrate the return of sport (AFL's comeback). In previous years we have supported MND with a gold coin donation but we will delay this until next term. Of course you are welcome to donate direct to this fabulous cause here. It is also a celebration of a great first week back at school.
Canteen
The Canteen will be re-opened as of tomorrow, June 12th. During this current climate, all canteen produce will need to be pre-ordered online. There will be no counter sales until further notice. Please see the "Advertisements and Community Notices" section in our newsletter.
Semester One Reports
Teachers are currently busy writing student reports in a revised format, as shared in Week 7's newsletter. Reports will go live to families via Compass at the end of week one, term three. The three-way conferences that took place this term are in lieu of parent-teacher interviews. There will be opportunities to discuss your child’s progress with your class teacher later in the year or of course at any time by appointment.