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.

Our Foundation students have had a really positive start and are settling in well. It has been wonderful to see them grow in confidence each day. Welcome to our school, we are so proud of you! It is also very exciting that in this week’s edition of the Westernport News, four of our Foundation students featured on the front page. Well done to Alfie, Grace, Billy and Olivia for representing our school so proudly.

You may have noticed that our pencils that were previously at the entrance to the school near the tennis club have now been moved to the entry gate near our relocatable classrooms. They have been refreshed in school colours and have the elements of The Balnarring Way printed on them. This week I spent time greeting students and their families who were arriving at school through this gate to ask them about what they think about the new location and refurbished pencils. Here is some of the responses I received:

Amelia, Year 3 – When you walk in you are reminded of the Balnarring Way.

Harper and Hunter, Year 4 – We like that they are the same colour as our school uniform.

Grace, Year 1 – I love the colours, they are my favourite colours!

Over the last couple of weeks, I have launched with staff and students some work that I am doing around confirming our identity as a school. You may recall that last year I was gathering feedback from parents/carers. I also met with each staff member individually as well as groups of students to further understand our school and our people. After processing all of that information, I identified 5 key themes that continued to come up with all of the conversations we were having. These key themes are Community, Teaching and Learning, Positive Wellbeing – The Balnarring Way, First Nations Perspectives and Sustainability. Now that these key aspects have been confirmed as our identity, I would like to engage the whole school community in helping me to create a collage of images that reflect these themes. The collage is up on display in the office area and we will continue to collect and display photos and images throughout the term. I created a video to share this work with our staff and students and I will arrange for it to be made available on See Saw for parents/carers to view as well.

We have two new staff who have started with us this year. Please join me in welcoming Mr Scott Fraser who is teaching Year 4 this year and Zoe who is working as Education Support.

Hi everyone. I’m Scott Fraser. I’m 38 years young and originally from Aberdeen, Scotland. Yes, that’s right, I’m a Scott from Scotland! 

I moved out to Australia in October 2010 and have lived and worked here ever since. I have been teaching for 15 years, working in schools across Melbourne, Geelong, and on the Bellarine Peninsula. I’m fortunate enough to have taught every year level from Prep to Year 6. I have most recently been the PE teacher at Surfside Primary School in Ocean Grove. I’m familiar with the Balnarring area having been a Visiting Teacher at Somers Camp on numerous occasions, and most recently took on the role of District Secretary to facilitate a camp for 160 students from the Geelong and Bellarine network.

I’m a proud dad to two amazing girls, Indi (8) and Nola (6). When I’m not teaching, you’ll find me playing golf often, kicking a soccer ball, or spending time with my family. I love the outdoors and relaxing down at the beach. I’m a huge fan of coffee and look forward to hearing your recommendations on the best spots around the Mornington Peninsula.

I thrive on seeing students grow both socially and academically. I’m a positive and energetic teacher who deeply values wellbeing and being the best version of yourself. I aim to bring out the absolute best in my students. I’m excited to join the Balnarring Primary School community and I can’t wait to meet everyone soon.

Hi my name is Zoe and I will be joining Balnarring Primary School as an Education Support worker this year! I have a deep appreciation for nature and the environment growing up on French Island and living around the local Westernport area ever since.

I love animals, getting out in the bush and down the beach for walks with the family – spotting a few birds; and just being at home in the veggie garden with my son, watching the chickens scratch around.

I am so excited to become a part of the Balnarring Primary School community.

With the 2025 school year now underway I would like to invite interested staff and parents to nominate for positions on our School Council. School Council nominations will open from 9.00am on Wednesday 12 February and close at 4.00pm on Thursday 27 February.  There are currently three parent vacancies and three employee vacancies. School Council works in partnership with me to oversee the Governance of our school. Nomination forms can be collected from the school office, I have also included some general information about the role and function of School Council later on in this edition of the newsletter.

Bethany Jackson
Principal

Code of conduct for school councillors

School councils in Victoria are public entities as defined by the Public Administration Act 2004.

School councillors must comply with the Code of Conduct for Directors of Victorian Public Entities issued by the Victorian Public Sector Commission. The Code of Conduct is based on the Victorian public sector values and requires councillors to:

• act with honesty and integrity – be truthful, open and clear about their motives and declare any real, potential or perceived conflict of interest and duty
• act in good faith in the best interests of the school – work cooperatively with other councillors and the school community, be reasonable, and make all decisions with the best interests of students foremost in their minds
• act fairly and impartially – consider all relevant facts of an issue before making a decision, seek to have a balanced view, never give special treatment to a person or group and never act from self-interest
• use information appropriately – respect confidentiality and use information for the purpose for which it was made available
• exercise due care, diligence and skill – accept responsibility for decisions and do what is best for the school
• use the position appropriately – not use the position as a councillor to gain an advantage
• act in a financially responsible manner – observe all the above principles when making financial decisions
• comply with relevant legislation and policies – know what legislation and policies are relevant for which decisions and obey the law
• demonstrate leadership and stewardship – set a good example, encourage a culture of accountability, manage risks effectively, exercise care and responsibility to keep the school strong and sustainable.

Indemnity for school council members

School councillors are indemnified against any liability in respect of any loss or damage suffered by the council or any other person in respect of anything necessarily or reasonably done, or omitted to be done by the councillor in good faith in:

1. the exercise of a power or the performance of a function of a councillor, or
2. the reasonable belief that the act or omission was in the exercise of a power or the performance of a function of a council.

In other words, school councillors are not legally liable for any loss or damage suffered by council or others as a result of reasonable actions taken in good faith.

How can you become involved?

By participating in, and voting in the school council elections, which are held in Term 1 each year. However, ballots are only held if more people nominate as candidates than there are positions vacant.

In view of this, you might consider:

• standing for election as a member of the school council
• encouraging another person to stand for election.

What do you need to do to stand for election?

The principal will issue a Notice of Election and Call for Nominations in Term 1 of each year. Council elections must be completed by 31 March, unless varied by the Minister for Education.

If you stand for election, you can arrange for someone to nominate you as a candidate or, you can nominate yourself in the parent member category. You can only be nominated by another member of the same category that you are eligible for (e.g. a member of the parent electorate may only nominate another parent of that electorate).

Department employees with a child enrolled at a school where they are not engaged in work, are eligible to nominate for parent membership at that school.

Return your completed nomination form to the principal within the time stated on the Notice of Election. You will receive a Nomination Form Receipt via post, email or by hand delivery.

Generally, if there are more nominations than vacancies a ballot will be conducted in the two weeks after the call for nominations has closed.

Remember

• Consider standing for election to school council.
• Ask the principal for instructions if you are not sure what to do.
• Be sure to vote if the election goes to ballot.
• Contact the principal if you are unsure about what is required at any stage of the election process.

Wellbeing News

As part of Balnarring’s wellbeing values– ‘The Balnarring Way’, we will be bringing you regular updates of positive wellbeing initiatives that are happening around our school!

Our year six students have begun the year exploring their leadership roles and what it means to be a good and effective leader. They were fortunate to have Mr Shannon and Ms Jackson come and speak with them about their own leadership experiences.

Some of the students reflections on this were

‘You don’t need a badge to be a leader’

‘Good leaders learn from their mistakes’

‘I don’t have to be the best person in the room to be a leader’

‘You need to weather the good with the bad to be a leader’

‘There’s no “I” in leader’