Welcome to Balnarring Primary School!

As I write this last newsletter submission for the year I am proud to reflect on what a great year we have had.

What a wonderful but also busy few weeks at Balnarring Primary School. Yesterday I attended the interschool triathlon event in Crib Point. I am so proud of the efforts and team work of our students. I know that our students were well prepared with a number of training sessions taking place leading up to the event.

I would like to thank all of our students and families for supporting our sports dress fundraiser. I am pleased to share that the school raised $501.40 and that all funds raised went towards supporting Jack F (Year 6 student) to represent Victoria and Balnarring Primary School at the School Sport Victoria Under 12 Boys Cricket Carnival in Ballarat. Throughout the tournament the Victorian team remained undefeated and won the tournament.

Welcome back for Term 4. We have had a wonderful beginning to the term with all classes getting straight into learning. Some highlights from my recent classroom walkthroughs included seeing our Foundation students learning about narrative writing and our Year 2 students learning about fractions. I also received some very thoughtful letters from some of our Year 5 students who shared with me some of the happenings from their school holiday break. I look forward to responding to these students soon.

I am pleased to share some wonderful examples of excellence that some of our students have demonstrated recently. Congratulations to Madi (Year 4) and Clementine (Year 2) who received awards for their submissions for the Farrells Bookshop story writing competition. Madi received an award for being highly commended and Clementine won the Foundation-Year 2 category. Well done also to Jack (Year 6) who has been selected in the Victorian Under 12s cricket team. This means that Jack is within the top 13 cricket players for this age group in Victoria. Please join me in wishing Jack all the best as he progresses to compete at the National Cricket Carnival later this year in Ballarat.

We have had a great start back to Term 3. This week we celebrated 100 days of coming to school for our Foundation students. We are incredibly proud to see how far they have come with their learning and settling into school. Students and staff came to school dressed in bright colours to reflect our 100 days brighter celebration and participated in various activities throughout the day relating to the number 100. They also had a dance party which I was lucky enough to be part of.

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.