Ibis Flyer

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.

There is excitement building with a couple of special events coming up. We have Astronomy Night as part of National Science Week, and Balnarring’s Got Talent. I have been speaking with students about the talents they might showcase and we have some wonderfully talented students. Here are just a few examples that I heard about.

Stevie, Harriet, Grace, Ottilie, Marlo, Charlotte (Year 1) – A dance that has 2 human pyramids in it.

Bowie, Maisie, Lenni (Year 5) – Dancing

Max (Year 1) – Playing Guitar

Tom (Year 1) – Magic Tricks

There has been some great learning happening across Year 4,5,6 with students learning about poetry this term. I have enjoyed having the chance to drop in for some of the lessons and see our students develop and create various types of poetry.

Ayla (Year 4) – Beautiful blue bower birds bathing behind baboons

Cooper (Year 4) – Alligator ate an anaconda at Africa

This week, schools received the results from the NAPLAN assessments that our students participated in during Term 1. Families of children in Year 3 and Year 5 who have children that participated in NAPLAN will have already received their child’s individual report and classroom teachers can discuss any specific questions regarding these. I am very proud to share that our student’s have performed really well. This is a reflection on our teaching, the support of families and the incredible learning of our students. There are 5 areas that NAPLAN assessments cover, these areas are Reading, Writing, Numeracy, Grammar and Punctuation and Spelling.

For Year 5, our students out-performed similar schools and the state in all areas for the number of students achieving strong or exceeding proficiency levels in NAPLAN.

For Year 3, our students out-performed similar schools and the state in 3 out of the 5 areas for students achieving strong or exceeding proficiency levels in NAPLAN.

Congratulations on these great results.

This term we have welcomed 2 new families to our school and I would like to warmly welcome them to Balnarring Primary School.

Bethany Jackson
Principal

Fostering Kindness Through Words

This term, we’re continuing our whole-school focus on our Balnarring Way Expectation Matrix, with a spotlight on one of our most powerful behaviours: “Speak kindly to and about others.”

Across the school, students have been engaging in roleplays and thoughtful class discussions, exploring how the words we choose can positively impact those around us. It has been heartening to see the empathy and maturity students have shown as they’ve practised recognising kind language and reflecting on the way we speak to and about our peers.

Before heading outside, teachers are reinforcing this focus by reminding students to be mindful of their words in the yard. When students return to class, they complete a “Ready to Learn” check-in using a five-point scale, and many are sharing examples of kind things they’ve heard or experienced. These small but powerful routines help to build emotional awareness and strengthen classroom connection.

There’s strong evidence to support the impact of these practices. Research shows that explicit teaching of prosocial behaviours and daily emotional check-ins contribute to improved wellbeing, stronger relationships, and increased readiness to learn. We’re incredibly proud of the way our students are embracing this focus and showing that kindness really does matter.