Welcome to Balnarring Primary School!

Yesterday I spent time attending the Year 3 and 4 Geography Land Forms Expo which was a great celebration of learning for our students who have been working on this topic all term.

With a wonderful school community and the Balnarring Way at the heart of what we do, I am already very convinced that Balnarring Primary School is a pretty cool place to be however, since having Indigenous Outreach Projects on site last week I feel that we have become 25% cooler!

This week, we acknowledge Reconciliation Week, a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

I hope this newsletter submission finds you all enjoying Term 2 and that all of the mums, grandmothers, carers and special people in our students lives had a wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday.

It was lovely to see children leaving classrooms at the end of the school day yesterday with their bundles of hot cross buns. Our Year 1 students visited the Red Hill Baker to learn about how the buns are made and decorated them. Well done to our Year 1 students and thank you to all families who purchased through the school as part of this fundraising activity. Thank you also to The Red Hill Baker for hosting all the Year 1s this week to make Hot Cross Buns. The buns are delicious and we appreciate Jill, Ray, Jess and Lucy from the Red Hill Baker for their partnership with our school.

I would like to open this newsletter by highlighting that March 8 is International Women’s Day. A day where we  recognise the achievements of women and promote gender equality. Today some of our Year 6 students, Bianca, Abi and Rosie and I attended the Women of Westernport, International Women’s Day event held at Westernport Secondary College. We heard from key note speaker, General Manager of Regenerate – Claire Bauska as well and a community panel who discussed the importance of encouraging girls and women to peruse opportunities and how boys and men can be allies in supporting our society and systems to be free from gender bias and stereotypes. I want to acknowledge all of the talented and compassionate women we have on staff at Balnarring Primary School as well as the women within our broader school community. I want to inspire the girls in our student community to never place a ceiling on their dreams and aspirations. I also want to thank the wonderful men and boys on my staff, within our community and as part of our student body who take every opportunity to stand with girls and women in support of equal opportunity.

Welcome to Balnarring Primary School for 2025. It is wonderful to be back and I am delighted to confirm that we have had a great start to the school year. Our year has started with classrooms developing routines and clear expectations so that students have certainty about what success looks like and staff can then provide lots of positive feedback and acknowledgements to students. Having safe and predictable routines makes our classroom environments more welcoming and inclusive for all students. Classrooms have made a start on developing classroom based ‘Balnarring Way’ matrix documents where students and staff have articulated what is expected in different parts of our school. During the student free day on Friday 7 February, staff will examine these documents to consider what comes up most consistently across the school. This will then allow us to all be on the same page when it comes to living the Balnarring Way in our every day activities.

Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas everyone. I would like to send my very best wishes to the Balnarring Primary School community and express my gratitude to our wonderful students, staff and families for a fantastic school year.

I had a great time visiting our Year 4 students on Camp at Pt Leo earlier this week. I have been lucky enough to attend various camps during my 21 years as a teacher but have never been to a camp quite like Pt Leo. When I arrived parents and carers were just leaving having dropped off students, they were all settled into their glamping tents with sleeping bags all made up and getting ready for their first activity rotation. What a great experience this is for our students that really captures who we are as a school making the most of our beautiful natural surroundings and caring for our environment. I was lucky enough to join in with our students discovering the wonders of the rockpools and participating in bike ed while on camp. Best wishes to our Year 5 students who head off to Pt Leo camp later this week and to our Year 3 students who go to camp at The Briars on Monday.

We have had an exciting start to Term 3, I can’t believe we are 3 weeks in already! I can honestly say that I have really enjoyed reconnecting with our students, staff and school community after the school holiday break. Since returning for Term 4 we have already seen some warm days. I would like to take this opportunity to remind students and families that students must bring their broad brimmed school hat to school each day during Term 4.