Nerae Preece Principal

From the Principal’s Seat 

Another week has been and gone. Your children are working incredibly hard in their learning. You are probably noticing from all of the sleep they are needing! We are so proud of their commitment to learning, and whatever progress we see on their reports, (we may not see huge learning growth from last year) it’s safe to say, that in many ways they have been learning this year. Learning about themselves as learners, as friends and as members of a community.

Orientation days 

Tuesday the 8th of December is Orientation Day for Kinder and grade 6 students across Victoria. We are still a little unsure of what this may look like. We hope that after Sunday’s announcement we will gain more of an insight into how these days might look. So far our 2021 prep students have had some wonderful success with their transition days.  A big thank you to Emma Griffiths for organising these sessions.

Grade 6 Celebrations 

As we say hello to our preps in 2021, we say goodbye to a beautiful bunch of grade 6 students who will leave us for high school. This year’s grade 6 students may not have been onsite for much of the year, but they have certainly worked hard to be remembered for being caring and kind leaders. I think their efforts to make the playground feel like a safe and fun place to be have been very much appreciated.

To celebrate these contributions, we have set 2 dates. Graduation will be on Tuesday the 15th of December and the Big Day Out/In Thursday the 17th of December. We will know more after Sunday’s announcement as to what the events will look like, but please make sure your grade 6 students have those dates saved!

Book packs 

As I mentioned last week, we are changing our process of fee collection and book packs for 2021. A letter will be coming home to explain the process and give you details of how to order your students supplies in 2021.

Remember to get in touch with Mel or Brogan at the office if you do not receive this information, or if you need some help. They are always more than happy to help!

Reports 

Reports are built, and teachers have been busy collecting evidence from your child/ren. The next two weeks will be time for our teachers to collate this information into what will be your child’s report.

Next week our teachers will be taking what is called a Teaching Professional Practice (TPP) Day. Our teachers have decided to take their day as a team and moderate student work. I have mentioned a little bit about this before. Moderation is when teachers use the student work (evidence) and the curriculum to make a judgement with the help of their team. It helps make our report marking more accurate.

To keep you all in the loop, and so you can prepare your child for these changes, here are the days that teams will be working on their TPP days… Wednesday 25th Grade 5 & 6, Thursday 26th Grade 1 & 2, Friday 27th Grade 3 & 4, Monday 30th Preps.

Icy poles 

A big thank you to Layla, Paige, Olive and Harmony who approached me with some ideas of how they wanted to bring music back into the playground. For some of you that may not know, DJ Sue has not been able to make a lunchtime disco because our portable speaker has broken! This delightful bunch of grade 5 students have decided to raise some money to pay for a new one!

That’s why on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and any day over 28 degrees icypoles will be for sale. They are also planning on organising an out of uniform day before the end of term. We are so thankful for your help Layla, Paige, Olive and Harmony. I know we will be proud and very glad that you brought music back to lunchtimes next year!

That’s it for this week… Have a great weekend. Make sure you rest and enjoy time with friends and family. I get to see my mum this weekend, and I am pretty excited about that!

Take care

Nerae Preece

Principal

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Whole school dates to remember:

Last day of school – Friday 18th December, 1.30pm finish time

Student lunches – Recommencing early 2021

Junior School dates to remember:

Body Safety incursion (Prep students) – Monday 7th December

Senior School dates to remember:

Grade 6 graduation – Tuesday 15th December

Grade 6 Big Day Out/In – Thursday 17th December

2021 Booklist information

Around the Year Levels

IN PREP THIS WEEK

This week the Preps have thoroughly enjoyed creating their narrative stories.

We have explored good and bad character traits of the Three Little pigs. Looked at the setting where our story takes place and interesting describing words.

In Maths we have used number lines to support our addition and subtraction.

While wondering on We had such fun planting our seeds and they have already sprouted!

IN GRADE 3 / 4 THIS WEEK

Wow what a wonderful week of learning in the 3/4 area! We have completed our unit of work on inferring in Reading.

What can you infer from the picture below with your family?

In Writing, we are continuing the writing process from a given prompt and we have been doing lots of interesting work on conventions.

This week we have integrated our Inquiry unit into our maths lessons and have been creating maps with grid references showing living and non-living things in our school yard. We have also been focusing on practising our multiplication facts for our fluency task each day.

IN GRADE 5 / 6 THIS WEEK

This week in 5/6, it’s been quite a fun-filled week. In reading, we’ve been working on summarising non-fiction & fiction texts, making checklists to help us improve our summarising skills.

In writing we have been learning to use clear sentence structure, paragraphing and many more skills. We have also been working on a free choice writing piece due today.

In maths, we have been learning about giving directions, using landmarks and a grid reference system to help direct people around. We’ve also have been working hard on the cartesian plane, placing points on a grid.

In inquiry, everyone has been working super hard to complete their inquiry project. We have almost finished decorating the projects. Over the next few days we will be working on making the instructions for the game and posters for the game day.

We hope you have a great weekend!  \(^-^)/

  • Olivia (5/6A) and Ayumu (5/6B)

LUNCH TIME ACTIVITIES

This term some of our senior students have decided to organise lunch time activities for the whole school.

A list of the amazing activities can be found below.

There are different activities on different days, which I know all out BCPS students will love.

Enjoy your activities!

Happenings in the Garden

Seeking Solace in the Soil

Is eating soil a thing these days? It certainly was when I was a kid. We ate it by the mouthful, not because we dared each other to do so, but because it actually tasted good. My father did the same. Rather than soil testing, he did soil tasting. I think he had litmus paper for a tongue, and if his amazing garden produce was anything to go by, it appeared he was right on the money with his soil assessment. And he lived to a ripe old age to boot.

Now I’m not suggesting that you head out into your vegie patch and chow down on a mouthful of soil. After all, soil can contain some nasty pathogens which can do a great deal of harm, and these pathogens can even be absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin via cuts and abrasions. But almost everything you need to know about your soil you can learn through your senses. Assessing how your soil feels and smells is particularly important. It will tell you a lot about your soil’s composition, and therefore it’s suitability as a growing medium (availability of nutrients, water and air, and drainage capacity) An incredibly talented French gardener once said to me ‘Ecoute ton sol’. ‘Listen to your soil’. According to Jacques, if you listen carefully, your soil will tell you what it needs. It’s not too wacky a concept. After all, good soil is alive with living organisms such as earthworms, insects, bacteria, fungi and protozoa, and where there’s life, there’s communication in one form or another. You just have to learn the language.

You can also tell a lot about soil simply by looking at it. Some soils you can assess from a mile away, others you may need to look more closely at. Healthy soil has a certain look about it. I would say it even has a certain vibe, which isn’t surprising given the extraordinary amount and diversity of life that exists even within a mere handful of the stuff. When you dig your hands into healthy soil, the energy is tangible.

There’s a whole lot of science that can be incorporated into the creation of healthy, nutrient dense soil. There is of course a wealth of information online, but if you only have time for one of the many elements that go into building healthy soil, I would suggest the gardener’s mantra: compost (no surprises there). Just as our gut bacteria thrive on fibre, so too does soil life. As my father always said, ‘Feed the soil, not the plant’.

Remember to stay vigilant in the veggie garden and hone those all-important observation skills. Be on the lookout for pests and diseases, in particular tomato blight. This common fungal disease can systematically destroy your precious tomato crop if not caught early. Remember that healthy soil equals healthy plants, and healthy plants are far less susceptible to pests and diseases. So, don’t be content to grow your veggies in run-of-the-mill soil, aim for super-charged soil!

Stay safe and happy gardening!

Just letting you know issue 7 of the scholastic book club is now available.

Closing date will be 30/10/20

Please see link below for all details:

https://www.scholastic.com.au/media/5667/bc-620.pdf

School uniform orders:

Please find below the link for the school uniform orders.

http://www.aplusschoolwear.com.au/SearchResult.aspx?Labels=BADGER%20CREEK

All orders are to be completed through the website

Drink bottles 

Please ensure drink bottles are being brought to school each day.

There are facilities to refill drink bottles.

EGGS

Here at Badger Creek we are lucky enough to have our very own chickens, chickens which have been busy laying lots of eggs.

Eggs are available for purchase at the office at $5 a carton.

Eggsellent news for all you egg lovers.

Badger Creek – Turtle comic

For the next few weeks we will seeing the adventures of Turtle – The most fast animal in the world. Turtle has been created by one of our students, Charlotte. Please come on the story with turtle with us.

We hope you enjoy!

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Q. What did the left eye say to the right eye?

A. Between us, something smells!