As we progress through the last few weeks of Term 3, I have reflected on what a wonderful term we have had and there is still plenty to look forward to. This Friday 13 September we have our Move and Groove event. We are delighted to bring our community together with the support of Balnarring Football, Cricket, Netball, Tennis, Basketball and Soccer Clubs as well as some of our very talented parent musicians.

I recently completed the recruitment and selection process for an Assistant Principal for our school. I am very pleased to share that Krysha Renison has been provisionally appointed into this position. Next time you see Krysha, give her a pat on the back! This is a fantastic outcome for our school and well deserved by Krysha. I am delighted to be moving forward to lead our school together with Krysha.

I would like to thank our Parents and Friends group for organising our Father’s Day stall and event for dad’s. We also had our classrooms open with a great turn out of dad’s and special visitors coming in to be part of it all. There was a great feeling across the school and I enjoyed dropping in to classrooms to see it all in action.

Last week I had some of our Year 5 and Year 6 students meet in my office to provide some feedback to me about the really important and special aspects of our school as well as potential areas to change or develop. This was a really meaningful discussion with students highlighting our animal shed, connections to First Nations perspectives, wetlands and natural environment, strong community and the care of our staff as strengths in the eyes of our students.

I would like to congratulate all of our students who recently participated in the District Athletics Sports on Friday 29 August. I was incredibly proud to see the way our students represented our school, showcasing the Balnarring Way in the way they accepted a win, a loss, and in barracking for one another. 26 students achieved a 1^st or 2^nd placing in their event. Five out of our six relay teams placed 1^st or 2^nd. I would like to pass on my best wishes to those students who will progress to the Division level of inter school competition.

We had a great time celebrating Book Week from August 17-23 with many great events running throughout the week. The theme for this year was ‘Reading is Magic’ and I feel like we really captured the magic at Balnarring Primary School during our Book Week Parade. What a wonderful celebration of creativity and expression with the range of Book Week costumes student (and staff) came to school in. It was also a wonderful opportunity to bring our community together and I would like to thank the parents, carers and families who came along to be part of it all.

A big shout out to all of our students who participated in our performance of Shordi Krik. I have enjoyed dropping in to rehearsals over the last few weeks seeing students learn the lyrics in both Kriol and English. We even had students lead and coordinate the dance moves and actions to go with the performance. Our performance on Thursday 5 September was a proud culmination of all of this great work.

Have a great end to the school term. Please don’t forget to wear Black and Red Essendon Bombers colours to Footy Day on Friday 20 September! We have a Footy Parade in the morning, pie lunch and students Vs staff footy game in the afternoon. Please also remember student dismissal at 2.30 pm on this day.

Bethany Jackson
Principal

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!

Last week our students performed ‘Shordi Krik’ both in English and Kriol, in front of a jam packed audience of parents and friends!

Events such as these present an opportunity for students to demonstrate The Balnarring Way in a variety of ways, such as-

*being confident to use their voice as they learn (and sing)

*being resilient, as for some performing may be a challenge

*having the courage to inspire action in others, particularly our mini choir for leading the way!

And last but not least of course the event was a fundraiser for The Indigenous Literacy Foundation, which demonstrates as a whole school we are caring for others and have raised $370 so far for this important cause.

Well done Balnarring!

 P.S. Donations are still open