We continue to receive extremely positive feedback for what we are doing here at BBPS, and reciprocate this feedback for everything you are doing at home. Thank you for the reassurance and encouragement, especially as we respond to the latest DHHS announcements and corresponding DET guidelines. We really do feel like this is such a community effort, and we are all truly in this together.
Poetry Perfection:
On Wednesday, our Year 6 Library Captains, Lauren, Ayane and Abby along with Ms Gadea, Mr Thompson and Mrs May took part in the judging of our school wide poetry competition. This was such a privilege and a very hard task indeed. There were so many excellent writing efforts put forward, as part of the culmination of the learning from all our poets across Prep-6. Many factors were considered as the judges searched for pieces that connected to the author's audience, or were inspired by the poetry forms that had been explored throughout Term 3 and poetry recitations or unique performances that either jumped off the page or captivated their attention. We are so proud of the level of creativity and inspired writing that this English unit has generated at BBPS and are very proud of our next generation of young writers. Stay tuned for the unveiling of the winners. Fantastic job by all who entered!
(From Ms Gadea and the BBPS Team)
Prep Readiness Night
Many thanks to our outstanding Prep Team for their organisation of our first virtual Prep Information session, held Tuesday night via Zoom. And thank you to our incoming 2021 community who have reached out in support to share in the information that was presented. David Anderson presented his usual 'preparing for transition' session and in his very down to earth style, shared some practical strategies to assist parents as they support their child for the start of school. Interestingly, many of his dos and don’ts not only made complete sense, but were a timely reminder for us all as parents as we start to entertain the idea of preparing our child (regardless of age) for a return to school. We thank David for his common sense and candid thoughts and provocations:
DO
Build a relationship with your child’s teacher
Provide genuine feedback
Use open ended questions and communicate readily
Seek to learn more about supporting your child with authentic literacy and numeracy through the school
Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs
Consider the model you are providing (kids naturally mimic what they see and hear)
Embrace the power of play
DON’T
Do anything for your child they can do themselves, e.g. carry their school bag
Pack too much food for a school day
Reinforce separation anxiety (e.g. by reminding your child how much you will miss them, or lingering at the classroom door or doing a drive by the playground)
Ask ‘Why?’ when unpacking a problem (e.g. sibling altercation). Try asking “What happened just before?’
Let your child stay up all night – establish healthy bedtime routines
Expose your child to language that you don’t want them using (either on TV or by modelling it yourself)
Allow your child to have private use of the internet
Overuse praise such as “fantastic” or “great” when your child does something that helps and contributes to the family, ie something they should be doing anyway (e.g. unpacking the dishwasher). Be specific with the feedback you give (e.g. “thanks for unpacking the dishwasher, it means that our kitchen is kept tidy”).
Transition dates for our Prep 2021 Orientation program have been tentatively set for December in response to the latest government announcements. Please see the newly edited Parent Readiness Handbook and our Compass calendar for details.
2021 Planning
If your child is not returning to Brighton Beach Primary School in 2021 can you please let Benita know via email at brighton.beach.ps@education.vic.gov.au
with “2021 Student not returning” in the subject line. This greatly assists us with our planning for next year.
Coming Up next week …
Three Way Conferences: Please see this week’s Compass posts for details about how to be involved in the parent/student/teacher Three Way Conferences, taking place next week. A great opportunity for a touch base about learning progress. We thank our teachers for the preparation for the provision of Zoom links and times, a format that we have become more adept in using.
End of term Book Parade:
'Where there is a will there is a way' and once again the ingenuity of the extraordinary team of Year 6 Leaders to come together to pull this off is typical of the BBPS can do spirit! So let's support our student leaders and the behind the scenes teachers and make this parade a virtual best! Our Library Captains will be hosting our annual book character parade on Friday the 18th of September, in lieu of a final term assembly. Parades to take place at 12:00 pm, watch out for the Compass Post.
End of term early finish:
A reminder that school finishes at 2:30pm on Friday 18th September. This is of particular significance to those families with children receiving onsite supervision.