Volume 25 Issue 36 Thursday 21 November 2019

www.brentwoodparkps.vic.edu.au

term dates 2019 term 3 15 jul - 20 sep term 4 07 oct - 20 dec 2020 term 1 29 jan - 5 apr term 2 23 apr - 28 jun

21 NOV YEAR 6 2020 BOMBER JACKET/POLO SHIRT ORDER AND PAYMENT DUE BY 27TH NOV, 02 DEC REPORT WRITING DAY - STUDENT FREE DAY 10 DEC YEAR ONE XMAS CONCERT 11.15 13 DEC FOUNDATION XMAS CONCERT 11.15 20 DEC YEAR 6 GRADUATION-PAYMENT DUE BY 9TH DEC jim bell, principal jenny reid, assistant principal jo-anne doran, assistant principal

DATES TO REMEMBER

S RC Representatives Visit Homewood Aged Care Last week, on Thursday 14 November, the SRC

representatives from each of the Year 5 classes visited Homewood Aged Care for an afternoon of games and conversation with the residents. Games such as UNO, Connect 4, dominos and simple card games such as “snap” proved popular. The children certainly brightened up the afternoon for the residents who readily participated and recounted sto-ries of their lives and own children. Thank you to our SRC who gave the simple gift of “time” to the aged with-in our community.

S un Smart In adher-ence to our

Sun Smart policy, students are now required to wear their wide brimmed hat whenever out in the yard during Health and Physical Education lessons or at recess and lunchtimes. An amendment also now encourages the wearing of sun-glasses! Parent support in ensuring the compulsory wearing of hats and wearing of sunglasses is strongly encouraged.

B ellbrook Catering The last canteen day for 2019 is Friday 13th De-cember and the first canteen day for 2020 is Fri-

day 31st January. Bellbrook Catering would like to wish all staff, students and families a safe and happy Christ-mas break and a happy new year! They look forward to seeing everyone in 2020!

P remiers’ Reading Challenge Presentation In an earlier edition of our newsletter, we mistak-enly informed the community that Gary Maas,

Member of Parliament, was to attend assembly on 8 No-vember to present Premiers’ Reading Challenge cer tif-icates to qualifying students. His attendance is actually this week at our assembly on 22 November! The Premiers’ Reading Challenge is an individual challenge made to students and is aimed at promot-ing a love of reading!

S tudent Transfers and Enrolments 2020 In order for us to arrange staffing, grade structure, budget allocations and various other school

functions for the 2020 school year, it is imperative that we are able to ascertain student numbers for next year. The more accurate with our future planning, the smoother we can make the transition for the children from one year level to the next. Parents are requested to contact the office of additional enrolments for Years Foundation – Year 6, if they have not already done so.

If any of our families are aware that their children, other than the current Year 6 students, will not be attending Brentwood Park Primary School next year, could you please notify the office or your child’s classroom teacher.

S tudent Placements 2020 The organisation of classes for next year will soon be underway. When we organise classes, we try to

ensure an even spread of abilities within each class across the year level. Teachers take into consideration how individual children work together and use the knowledge of all teachers at the year level together with specialist teachers and senior staff in the final formation. We endeavour to design each class as a cohesive working and learning unit and, where possible, place children with at least one of their nominated friends. This in itself is a complex procedure but cannot be seen as the primary focus in class organization. Sometimes it is beneficial for students to explore new relationships and not be reliant on the same one or two class friends year after year. Additionally, sometimes it is the teachers’ considered opinion that particular children need to be separated from friends to enable them to develop and realize their potential.

When organising classes for 2020, staff will be placing the children in class groups which are conducive to learning. This will remain as the primary focus.

The staff are aware of the friendship groups and will also attempt to include a friend, however, attaining a positive learning environment will be the primary determining factor.

P rep Transition Program A Transition to School program assists in achieving a positive

start to school. Students who have a positive early experience at school are likely to engage well and experience academic and social success. The benefit of meeting their teachers and making new friends during our transition program shouldn’t be underestimated. We strongly encourage children attend at least one but preferably all of our transition program days. Transition will continue for one final session. The forthcoming date is:

Wednesday 27th November 11.15am - 12:00 pm We continue to look forward to meeting and getting to know the children and families throughout the transition program. The next information session for parents will focus on Investigative Learning at BPPS.

N ew Mobile Phone Policy The Victorian Government takes the safe and responsible

use of digital technologies, student safety and wellbeing, and the development of social skills and positive behaviour, very seriously. On this basis, the Hon. James Merlino MP, Minister for Education, announced that a new mobile phone policy would take effect from Term 1, 2020. Whilst the Victorian Government acknowledges that we live in a technology-rich world where mobile phones are an important communication tool, research has found that mobile phones can be disruptive in classrooms and open to misuse at school. The unregulated presence of mobile phones in classrooms can undermine students’ capacity to think, learn, remember, pay attention and regulate emotion. At recess and lunchtime, opportunities for students to

communicate with each other face-to-face or be involved in physical activity are also valued, rather than students being focused on a mobile phone, particularly when they are using it to engage with social media.

This new policy acknowledges that technology is increasingly affecting how students learn and communicate. Therefore, when a student has been given explicit permission to access and use such devices to enhance learning by the classroom teacher, mobile phones will be permitted for that specific purpose. For a small number of students with particular health and wellbeing needs, an exception to the policy may also be granted. As a school, we acknowledge that the misuse of mobile phones may be more prevalent in a secondary school setting, however, primary schools are not immune from their misuse. At our school council meeting last week, our Mobile Phone - Student Use Policy was presented for ratification. It is available on our school website for reference!

Term 4 Week ending 15 November, 2019

0BC Sanvi for your positive attitude to all of our benchmarking and for writing a great narrative. 0JF Neha we love having you in our class. 0JH Cindel for your fantastic effort during benchmarking! 0LP Jacob for working really hard on his handwriting and spelling. Super effort, Jacob! You are AMAZING! 0SM Jade for great focus in reading and writing. You are a super star! 0TL Taylin for his awesome effort with reading this week. 1AB Amna for your persistence when learning “quarter to” and “quarter past”. Well done! 1HG Tinara for willingly participating in many of 1HG’s discussions. 1KC Neetanya for her wonderful Albert Einstein narrative! Great use of VCOP to “up level” your writing! 1MK Sean for a wonderful presentation about his recycled toy! 1NC Meetra for using “friends of 10” and doubles to solve addition problems. 1NG Jed for concentrating and showing good listening skills throughout benchmarking. Super job! 1TN Yumali for doing an amazing job at presenting her project. Awesome job. 2AD James for writing a well-planned narrative, titled ‘Deserted Island.’ 2AK Charlotte for demonstrating the BPPS values. 2CM Zoya for showing great persistence during benchmarking. 2CV Aarohee your narrative is sensational and well-written! 2RG Zachary for being such a wonderful member of 2RD. We will miss you! 2SY Ryder for a positive attitude to all friends and teachers. Well done. 3CH Muhammad for being a great friend and showing your support to everyone. 3DK Lucy for your academic improvement this semester. Well done, Lucy! 3MF Max for being a kind, friendly and thoughtful member of 3MF. 3MS Saisha for presenting an exceptional homework project on Mauritius Independence Day. Well done! 3SA Xaver for consistently displaying the BPPS values and always being a kind and respectful student. 4BM Ty for writing so much during his cold write. 4CP 4CP for working hard during benchmarking. Well done! 4EC Vidusan for putting in a lot of effort throughout benchmarking this week. Well done!

Term 4 Week ending 15 November, 2019

4SM Alaysa for working diligently and making huge progress all round. Great job! 4VG Natania for her superb research skills and knowledge application in writing her historical narrative. 5EB Julieta for writing an interesting and detailed information report about horses for your passion project. Well done! 5JG Luke for your outstanding attitude and focus with your reading journal this week. Amazing! 5LF Charlie for writing an excellent narrative –Well done! 5LM Mikal for being proactive and making sure that the bins are put away at the end of lunch. You’re the best! 5SI Nisini for creating an engaging and intriguing narrative which was filled with sophisticated language. 6JA Tiannah for always trying her best and working hard on her country presentation. 6JP Kaitlyn for writing an outstanding reading journal using detail and evidence. 6LM Nic because he tries his absolute best and displays a great attitude in his learning. 6MB Sanjana for her support effort during ‘Volleystars.’ Your skills today were amazing!

SPECIALIST CLASSES

LOTE. Chunyan 4CP for consistently demonstrating your excellent classroom routines in the Chinese room for the entire 2019 school year. Well done! LOTE. Daisy 5SI for your fantastic job in the Chinese speaking activity. Great work! P. Arts. Linda 3DK for sharing ideas and concentrating well to learn choreography for ‘Mamma Mia.’ P. Arts. Larissa n/a P.E. Jim 2CM for a brilliant team game of Newcombe, showing excellent throwing and catching. P.E. Mel FLP for their amazing listening and focus during their physical education session. V. Arts. Jessica 6JP for your amazing ideas and planning for your graduation pillowcase. V. Arts. Bree 1HG for a fabulous effort with your weaving. D. Tech. Lisa 1NC for your data and information task using MS Word. You are developing your skills using the functions of the program and you learnt a new skill of searching, inserting and resizing online pictures. Well done!

P LEASE DIRECT MONEY FOR EXCURSIONS, ETC TO YOUR CLASSROOM TEACHER - NOT TO THE OFFICE.

Please hand money and permission slip in sealed envelopes to classroom teacher first thing in the morning. By following this process teachers are aware that your child will be attending the excursion and mark them off

their lists. Money is collected by office staff and processed each morning and a receipt given back to teachers along with permission slips. All money is tallied and banked daily – no money is left on the premises. If you wish to pay by credit card, a proforma is available from the office. This can be filled out with details and placed in a sealed envelope and handed to your classroom teacher

Please deliver cash in a sealed envelope with your child’s name and grade on the front by 9.30 a.m. If you have a number of children attending an excursion you can place all money and permission slips in the one envelope with children’s names and grades on the front and deliver to one of the children’s teachers. The office staff will be able to allocate money to the children’s particular items and distribute permission slips and receipts back to teachers. Enve-lopes are available at the office. If you have a large amount to be paid or need to process an EFTPOS transaction through a savings account you can make arrangements to pay at the office. We also have a new Qkr payment system on our Skoolbag app. If you download our Skoolbag app and Qkr payment app you can now pay for your child’s excursion on line.

All change will be delivered to the children in the afternoon. Re-imbursements will only be made under certain circumstances – they will be made by cheque (no cash transactions are made).

Notices are sent out with a final collection time – please adhere to this time. All money and permission slips are required to be sent back by this date – otherwise your child will not be able to attend. This enables us to confirm bookings and numbers with bus companies and organisations we are visiting. Also we need to send details to the De-partment of Education Emergency Management for all excursions, camps, etc. We also need to accommodate students who will not be attending.

We would appreciate it if parents could please follow these processes.