There are only 24 days until Christmas! Such a lot to do, so little time. I hope you have all started your Christmas shopping and are gearing up for the festive season.

Community Connection with Minyerri

I was contacted by Murray and Carole Turner, a local couple, who work with remote aboriginal communities and created the organisation the Long Journey Partnership. They have connected Dromana Secondary and Red Hill Primary with the remote community of Numbulwar. Some Dromana Secondary students have had the chance to visit the school. Projects between the schools have also occurred.

They were very keen to connect us with a community too. I have made first contact with the principal of the Minyerri School which is in the Northern Territory. The prospect of this is very exciting as there are opportunities to incorporate this into our First Nations studies, as well as find projects that both of our school communities can be involved in.

One of the very first things that we can do to help the Minyerri community is to provide them with baby capsules that are in good working order. If you happen to have one that you would like to donate, could you please drop it at the office. They are hoping to collect 10 capsules.

Working Bee

We are incredibly grateful to the families that attended our working bee on Saturday 11th November. We were able to clear lots of rubbish and clear out the toilets that are at the end of the portable. We are hoping to get these up and running for the beginning of next year.

There was also lots of pruning done and removal of fencing and a veranda which was a climbing point for roof vandals. Old artworks were also removed.

We would like to thank the following families and staff for their attendance and hard work.

Thank you to the Ray, Stanaway, McAllister, Douglas, Webster, Gilmour, Bell, Noakes, Garside families and Mr Shannon and Cassy for all of their efforts.

What?  A new mud kitchen!

How exciting it was for the Foundation students to find a brand-new mud kitchen in their play space. They wasted no time at all in creating, problem solving and having lots of fun !

A triumph for Grade 3 Campers

Our grade 3s had the opportunity to attend camp at the Briars in Mount Matha. Not only did they have such a great time with many problem solving, team building, challenging and confidence building activities, but their enthusiasm and exceptional attitudes were noted by the camp coordinators. They claimed that our students were the best group that they had ever had attending the camp! Our wonderful staff who attended, Jenny, Mr Shannon, Meagan and Rebecca, all echoed the coordinator’s sentiments and were extremely impressed with our student’s excellent behaviour. We would like to thank Jeff Wall for attending the camp with our students. Well done Grade 3s. We are very proud of the way you represented our school and demonstrated the Balnarring Way.

Walk-A-Thon

Congratulations Amy Welch, Emily Barlow and their wonderful team of Student Councillors for their excellent organisation of the Balnarring Primary School Walk-a-thon. There were some very keen walkers/runners who took up the challenge of completing as many laps as they could in 45 minutes.

Two days of fun

The grade twos recently enjoyed their 2 days of fun. They went for a day of adventure to the Enchanted Gardens and then turned up to school the next day in their pyjamas! They were very excited and so well behaved when having their breakfast in the staffroom.

CCTV cameras

Now that we have our new roof installed, it will be very important to make sure that we protect this asset and avoid the enormous costs associated with fixing damage that has been caused by vandals. We have already taken some proactive steps to prevent this by removing some of the access points for people to climb on, asking the police to patrol the area and also asking for community to keep an eye out if they see vandals around. The next step we will be taking will be to install security cameras. These cameras will only operate outside of school hours with the specific purpose of preventing vandalism. We hope that this will deter any further vandalism so that we can put money into developing the school grounds rather than fixing damage.

Christmas Carols

We are very excited to announce that we will be holding a Christmas carol afternoon on Friday the 15^th December at 2:20pm. This will be held in the gym and will be compered by our grade 6 students. We look forward to seeing you there in your Christmas colours.

Signing off for another 2 weeks

Warm regards

Anne McDonald
Acting Principal

Wellbeing News

The ‘Balnarring Way’  is to

. Respect and care for self

. Respect and care for others

. Respect and care for the environment

. Always do our best

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 RRRR program makes up an essential element of our wellbeing program. This semester students in years 2-6 have been working through units 7 & 8. These are focused on the topics of ‘Gender and Identity’ and ‘Positive Gender Relations’.

RRRR itself stands for Resilience, Rights, and Respectful Relationships; all extremely important concepts when it comes to social emotional learning. In units 7 & 8, students work through themes such as gender stereotypes, gender roles in advertising, gender in sport, types of violence, consent, staying safe, The UN Rights of the Child, and most importantly accepting differences.

Reggie in Grade Two summed it up perfectly, when during a discussion on stereotypes, he stated “Yeah, but that’s the old-fashioned thinking and we are new fashioned thinkers!”. They have certainly been proving that in these lessons!