Welcome to Balnarring Primary School!

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.

It was lovely to see children leaving classrooms at the end of the school day yesterday with their bundles of hot cross buns. Our Year 1 students visited the Red Hill Baker to learn about how the buns are made and decorated them. Well done to our Year 1 students and thank you to all families who purchased through the school as part of this fundraising activity. Thank you also to The Red Hill Baker for hosting all the Year 1s this week to make Hot Cross Buns. The buns are delicious and we appreciate Jill, Ray, Jess and Lucy from the Red Hill Baker for their partnership with our school.

I would like to open this newsletter by highlighting that March 8 is International Women’s Day. A day where we  recognise the achievements of women and promote gender equality. Today some of our Year 6 students, Bianca, Abi and Rosie and I attended the Women of Westernport, International Women’s Day event held at Westernport Secondary College. We heard from key note speaker, General Manager of Regenerate – Claire Bauska as well and a community panel who discussed the importance of encouraging girls and women to peruse opportunities and how boys and men can be allies in supporting our society and systems to be free from gender bias and stereotypes. I want to acknowledge all of the talented and compassionate women we have on staff at Balnarring Primary School as well as the women within our broader school community. I want to inspire the girls in our student community to never place a ceiling on their dreams and aspirations. I also want to thank the wonderful men and boys on my staff, within our community and as part of our student body who take every opportunity to stand with girls and women in support of equal opportunity.

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.