Nerae Preece Principal

From the Principal’s seat 

We truly are on the home straight now. 3 weeks to go and there is so much to do! Our teachers are working really hard to put together reports and classes for 2021. We have been interviewing candidates for the two classroom jobs in 2021. Mel and I have been doing fire season preparations. We also have to think about moving classrooms. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, I find out that our beautiful school has been given $9 million for our buildings! Can you believe it??? I don’t think I quite can. I am attending meetings through next week to find out what this money can be used for.

To help you understand how it works, Badger Creek Primary School buildings and land are owned by the Victorian School Board Authority, and the School Council (which of course includes me, as the Executive Officer) look after the buildings and grounds for them. If there is a problem with our buildings we refer our issues to them, and then get it fixed.

I will keep you posted with the build and if we get choice in what we need at our school. I think our families should have input into what our community might need for our kids’ education.  Stay tuned!

Staggered pick up 

The new Operations Guide is out and we are in our last step out of Covid! What a relief. That means we can finally resume normal dismissal times. So we will now have our 10 minute warning bell at 3:20 and students will finish at 3:30.

Sanctuary Gates 

While we are on the subject of picking up students, I would like to remind all of our families that we do need to keep all gates at the Sanctuary clear. Our neighbours have a really important goods and services entrance opposite our school, which does get used frequently. We ask that when you are picking up and dropping off that you keep this driveway clear. We thank you for your support with this. We want to make sure all of our animal neighbours get the food that they need!

Parents coming onsite  

Guess what? You are all allowed to come and visit us back on site! There are a few little things we need to remember.

  • If you are going to be onsite longer than 15 minutes sign it at the office
  • If you are onsite have your facemask with you, when a crowd forms (3 or more people) pop your facemask on.
  • If you go inside a building you MUST BE WEARING A FACEMASK!
  • Remember 1.5 metres, social distancing!

I know some of you may be thinking that we are being too cautious and maybe it is unlikely that we could be affected by Covid… Others may think differently, so I think it is important that we show respect, care and support for one another by making sure that we have our facemasks and socially distance. That will make everyone feel safe.

2021 plans 

Next week I will be announcing our workforce plans for 2021. I am extremely excited for the teams we have created. Our key focus next year is around collaboration. We will have 4 teams, led by 4 instructional leaders. These 4 people will be a part of our School Improvement Team/Leadership. These teams will be collaboratively planning and teaching. This will mean that even though your child has been assigned a teacher for the year, they will be building relationships and learning from all of the teachers within that team. There is so much positive research around this approach to learning, and we are so excited to be able to offer this at our school.

Our next stage is to look to employ 2 tutors to help us with our 2021 catch up.

Zones of Regulation 

Over the past few weeks our grade 1 to grade 4 students have been learning about the Zones of Regulation. This is basically a communication system that helps our students recognise what they are feeling and then know what to do to calm down again. It was originally created to support students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but as it turns out it actually helps us all. This work is so good that I just had to share it with you all. Particularly at this time when for some of us there may be a lot of “blue and red” moments in our households. Take the time to ask your child about the zones. It is a great communication tool. Click on the links to find out more! https://www.zonesofregulation.com/learn-more-about-the-zones.html

Well I think that is more than enough news for this week. I look forward to sharing the workforce plan with you next week!

Have a lovely weekend.

Nerae Preece

Principal

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Whole school dates to remember:

Funny Hat Day – Friday 11th December

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

THIS WEEK IN P.E

Hi Badger Creek Community.

It has been a great few weeks in Physical Education!

Our Foundation students have been focusing on their striking skills with various objects. We have now incorporated team competitive games with an emphasis on cooperation and teamwork.

Our grade 1/2 students have been focusing on a side arm striking unit, focusing on hitting a moving ball, through competitive and non- competitive activities. Students had a rich discussion on ‘What makes a good team mate’ and we further discussed strategies to cope to ‘Win with class’ and ‘lose with dignity’

Our 3/4 students have been learning about cricket bowling and batting. We cant wait to be able to get into more traditional competitive games next week.

Our grade 5/6 students have continued to develop their skills in golf, this week we focused on putting and students created their own ‘Badger Creek PS Mini Golf Competition’.

Have a look at some of their mini golf creations!

Have a great day!

Mr. Pitts

Around the Year Levels

IN PREP THIS WEEK

As the term 4 rolls on, our Preps are getting ready for 2021 when they become grade 1’s. What an exciting time it is! They had a wonderful afternoon of cooperative play with this year’s current grade 1’s on Tuesday afternoon and we are looking forward to another session next week.

The Preps are really enjoying their story writing. They are creating their own version of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. They have created their own characters, a little, medium and big one, along with something that wants to EAT them. They are brainstorming lots of great adjectives (describing words) to use in their stories.

In Maths this week we have thoroughly enjoyed ‘sharing’ and working out what the ‘FAIR SHARE’ will be, so that everyone gets an equal amount.

For some fun, ask your Prep who or what entered the Prep classroom this week and is currently in quarantine until December. Our visitor is here to watch our Preps being KIND!

IN GRADE 1/2 THIS WEEK

It has been a very eventful week in grade 1/2. Students are so excited to work on their puppet plays for the preps. We have looked at characters and traits before making a puppet, drawn a background set and this week students have been working hard to write scripts. We are looking forward to entertaining the preps with our puppet shows next week. Stay tuned as we will be posting video of the puppet plays on the Badger Creek You Tube Channel.

If your child has been asking to cut their own sandwiches, it may be because of maths. Recently, we have explored fractions as halves, quarters, thirds to eighths. Extension students have learnt about the numerator and denominator and may be able to cut a cake and describe it as a fraction. Let’s get baking!

Last Tuesday, we had our first transition afternoon. It was a chance for students in grade two to reacquaint with their peer group from last year. It was also lovely to see the preps working with our grade ones in building and constructing activities. We are looking forward to next week’s transition in the classrooms. 2021 grades are yet to be finalised.

Finally, our silkworms have mostly cocooned. However, 12C received a late batch of worms and are still needing mulberry leaves. These worms have been the talk of Badger Creek and have engaged our students endlessly. We look forward to observing the final stage in their life cycle.

We warmly welcome all of our parents back today and look forward to onsite collaboration once again 😊 Have a wonderful weekend.

IN GRADE 3 / 4 THIS WEEK

W8 in Year 3/4

What a busy week we’ve had! This week we’ve introduced ‘sythesizing’ in Reading. We explained this strategy to our students as: When we read new information, we simply add it to the information we already know – our thinking used to be one thing, now it is growing to be something else! It’s kind of like adding jigsaw pieces until the puzzle is complete! 

We also did a tangram activity this week that not only required our knowledge of shapes and how they can fit together, but also tested our Growth Mindset! Take a look at some of us in action!

We also wrote down our preferences for 2021 Grades. Students should be commended for their careful consideration when suggesting appropriate learning partners. We are proud of you all 🙂

Bring on W9!

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!

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

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.

DRINK BOTTLES

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

There are facilities to refill drink bottles when required.

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!

A Boy’s Best Friend

By Lily & Charlotte

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Q. What object is king of the classroom?

A. The ruler!