The Resilience Project concepts of GEM (Gratitude, Empathy, and Mindfulness) were a key element of our Learning from Home. As we revel in the joy of our students returning this week we are indeed grateful for the strong learning partnership that has enabled the very smooth return to face to face teaching and learning.
GRATITUDE:
We are grateful for our students and teachers, and the energy and effort they have brought to their classrooms this week.
We are grateful for our classrooms being filled with the sounds of learning again. There has been a lot of cheering, laughter and chatter as students and teachers have reconnected.
To hear more of the sounds of BBPS, tune into this morning’s ABC with Sammy J, where our very own Professor Kenny McAlpine (dad of Iona) has a fortnightly segment ‘Sounds of Melbourne’. This week through Kenny's brilliant expertise in sound collection and distillation the 'Sounds of Returning' featuring BBPS students (including our signature lockdown song- “We’re Still Standing”) is well worth a listen.
EMPATHY:
With an extremely smooth transition back to school, we thank our community for adhering to the COVIDSafe processes in place, as per our Return to School Guidelines. Everyone is clearly doing their best to ensure we all remain safe.
MINDFULNESS:
As the teachers and kids are all enjoying being back, its good to see our parents taking time for themselves because that is important too. At drop off and pick up many expressions of thanks followed by '... and now I can...'. As the adults in the equation we have been in this together all along and we so we share and celebrate your relief and gaining back some precious time for yourselves.
Assembly
It was wonderful to begin our return to school this week with a live assembly, celebrating the Year 6 Leaders as they were FINALLY presented with their badges. It was heartfelt congratulations to the 2020 team for their dedication to their roles and making the most of opportunities to be outstanding leaders. Excitingly, now that we are back at school, our Year 6 leaders already have a number of initiatives planned for term 4 for our students. These will continue to be shared via the Year 6 Leadership Blog.
This term, live assemblies will take place every two weeks. In week 4 we will be presenting our Years 2-6 SRC students with their badges. Jodie Gates is currently using her creative genius to organise for our SRC team to meet virtually throughout this term. Parents of our SRC students will be invited to join our virtual assembly.
We Want Our Parents To Tell Us What They Think!
Our school is conducting the annual DET parent survey to find out what parents think of our school in 2020. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst all parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, student engagement and experiences of remote and flexible learning. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. All parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey is open until Friday 13 November 2020.
The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.
The survey link will be sent out tomorrow via compass. The survey results will be communicated to parents through annual reporting at school council and also in the school newsletter.
Operation of school crossing
With face masks being compulsory under Victorian Government COVID-19 restrictions, Bayside school crossings will operate without a whistle for the foreseeable future.
I would appreciate it if you could advise your students and parents to also alert them that our school crossing supervisors will instead be using hand and voice signals to operate crossings.
The Department of Transport has approved the temporary use of voice command, including specific wording, and hand gestures to assist the safe operation of school crossings during this time of mandatory face masks in place of whistles.
School crossing supervisors will use the following procedure to summon children to start crossing until further notice
Hand gesture – Hand will be placed out to the side in the direction of the students
Voice Command – ‘Walk’
Second Hand Uniform Shop - Message from Marnie
Well it’s Term 4 and our kids have only worn their uniforms for for about 12 weeks for the entire year! If your kids are anything like mine, they have grown and their t- shirts are looking more like crop tops!
We are asking for donations of laundered school uniforms. I will be placing a donation box outside the hall (Windermere entrance) from Friday 16th October.
Please no thread bare, heavily stained or ripped items. If you wouldn’t put your kids in it, we probably can’t sell it.
We are currently investigating how we might hold a second hand uniform sale outdoors in the coming weeks to comply with COVID-19 safety guidelines. Stay tuned for the date(s).
It's great to have you all back!
Bev and Kim