Nerae Preece Principal

From the Principal

Isn’t it crazy to believe that we have 3 weeks left of school for this term? It’s usually by this week that there are complaints about being tired and I would love a dollar for every time I hear that Mr 8 doesn’t want to go to school today. Once he is there, of course its fine. This is what I define as the not so morning person. But what happens when this is a constant battle everyday met with tears and worries and arguments? It can sometimes lead to school refusal. This is a very real thing for families, and it can often be hard to navigate as a parent.

The first thing you need to remember, if this is happening in your house, is that you shouldn’t try and solve this by yourself. You need a team to work with. The first person to talk to about this is the teacher. In most cases I have seen the teacher can help you and your child work out what is going on for them. Once the worry is worked out you can work out a plan together. If the teacher has tried a few things and is getting a bit stuck, we call for Edwina Whiteside, our Chaplain and wellbeing support person. Edwina can often use her counselling skills with the child to help work out the worries. If attendance of school is a concern Edwina can also help families with a return to school plan.

Always remember that there is a care team that can help you out. Reach out and we will work with you to support your child through this time.

3 way interviews

Just a gentle reminder to book on Sentral or come and visit or ring Brogan in the office for your child’s 3 way interview. This is a great opportunity to have a greater understanding of what is happening for your child’s learning. During this meeting you will create a plan with your child and their teacher, if your child is travelling 6 months behind or 12 months ahead in their learning. This plan will be emailed to you before the end of term. It will also provide you with tasks to support learning at home.

This is also an important reminder that school will dismiss at 12:30pm next Thursday. Please make the relevant arrangements to ensure that your child is able to be collected at this time.

Curriculum Day reminder

Just another gentle reminder that we have a Curriculum Day on Friday the 26^th of March. Please get in touch with CIRE as soon as you can if you would like your child cared for during the day.

PFA and the Special Lunch Day

Our Parents and Friends Association caught up on Tuesday night. They are already organising a few events which is great. Starting next Wednesday there will be a baked potato special lunch day. You can order and pay on Qkr. We ask students to bring along their own container and cutlery for the food to be placed to reduce our landfill waste. A big thank you to the families for helping out on the day.

Badger Creek Community Group

This week I wanted to give an extra little plug to our Badger Creek Community Group that have some pretty cool events that start this weekend. The first one is to attend a survey group to talk about Food Systems in the Yarra Valley. It’s on Zoom from 10am, you can register online, and information is provided below. There are also Nature Walks this Saturday starting from the Old Schol from 1:30-3pm. Afternoon tea is offered afterwards. Next Saturday Dave teaches you how to maintain your small motors. This is available to book in on the Badger Community website.

That’s about it for this week. Have a relaxing weekend.

Nerae

A big Badger Creek Welcome to Stephanie

Welcome, Stephanie Innes, to the Badger Creek Primary School community. Stephanie will be working in the Grade 5/6 space over the next few weeks, and will return later in the year to work in the Junior School. If you see her around, stop and say ‘Hi!’

Name: Stephanie Innes (Miss Innes)

Role: Student Teacher (4^th Year Deakin – Bach. Ed.)

Favourite colour: Definitely blue

Favourite food: Pasta – yum!

Favourite holiday destination: Anywhere where there is a beach!

Favourite book: Princess Bride by William Goldman (it’s hilarious!)

A big passion: Sewing and crafting – I can make my own clothes 😊

Working with: Grade 5/6A

Looking forward to: Getting to know everyone and teaching some great lessons

Term 1 interviews

We are wanting to let all families know, 3 way interviews are now available to be booked through the Sentral app.

The interviews will be taking place Thursday 18th from 1pm. Students will be finishing school at 12.30pm.

If you do have any issues trying to book, please do not hesitate to contact the office.

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Whole school dates to remember:

Thursday March 18th – 3 Way interviews (Students finish at 12.30pm)

Friday March 26th – Curriculum Day

Thursday April 1st – Last day of Term 1

In Art this week…

Our wonderful students have had another great week in the art room!

Our grade 1/2 classes are learning so many different art making processes while working on their Matisse inspired underwater scene. This week they drew fish which they then transferred onto foam printing plates. They will print their fish next week and cut them out ready to be placed onto their sun print backgrounds.

The 3/4 students finished off their Van Gogh inspired artworks this week, by adding oil pastel over the top of their monoprints. They focussed on the art element Line to create movement in their landscapes and tried to use Van Gogh’s signature style of short lines that are both thick and thin.

Grade 5/6’s are so close to finishing their lino prints. I have added some photos of student work in various stages of the lino print process. Some show how students have drawn their images onto the lino and others show the carving process. Hopefully next week we will see some printing!

Enjoy your week everyone

Vanessa Imberger

Art teacher

Music News

Greetings to our Wonderful School Community,

Wow! What an amazing assembly we had last week. It was very exciting to see so many families and friends coming to share our first big music assembly. Congratulations to all of the students who performed. I think we had roughly 140 students performing on the day one way or another! It takes a lot of courage to get up and play and sing in front of other people so well done to all!

It was also wonderful to see our individual and small group performances from Louis and Tegan on the piano I was so impressed as you had obviously prepared your music very carefully. Next time we will have more solo items from other instrumental music students.

It was terrific to have our string students get up and play as a group with our string teacher, Sally. You can see here a video of the performance. A very big thank you to Sally who prepared her group in a couple of weeks and came up to the school perform with the group.

Badger Creek Kindergarten visit Badger Creek to hear some music.

Next week on Wednesday March 17^th between 9.30 and 10.30, we will be having a visit from the Badger Creek Kindergarten to hear our students share what they have been learning so far this term. The mini concert will be held in the gym and will begin at 9.45 and finish by around 10.30. The following grades will be playing. (If you missed assembly and would like to come along, we might just be able to fir you in!)

Grade 3/4 C: Just a Little Bit
Grade 5/6 B: Uptown Funk
Grade 5/6 C: “Can’t Stop the Feeling
The School Choir: Sing Together
The Badger Creek School Band: Viva La Vida

Have a lovely week and enjoy the beautiful autumn weather.

Jenny Legg

Music Teacher

Badger Creek String Students playing the traditional tune, The Irish Washerwoman

AROUND THE GROUNDS

This week in Prep…

Hello families,

It has been an amazing week, the preps are such a fabulous group of learners.

We have been learning about…

Showing our “STARS” when the speaker is talking.
having a personal space bubble and to respect other peoples bubbles.

Also, we have been busy…

performing a science experiment for our inquiry topic of ‘Change’. We made Elephant Toothpaste, making predictions and recording our findings. The students were mostly relieved to see the reaction didn’t create a big explosion.
reading and making text to text connections.
learning about rhyming words and using them in for our writing.
learning about yesterday, today, and tomorrow for maths.

Reminders:

Take home reading books are changed on Mondays. You can change the books anytime if your child has finished their stories.
3 way interviews are on Thursday, please book a time through Sentral.

A special congratulations to Miss Eagleton who is getting married on the weekend to her beau Sydney. Thanks to everyone who gave a beautiful flower to Miss E as you can see, the bouquet was amazing.

Thanks for a fantastic week everybody,

The Prep Team.

This week in Grade 1 / 2…

What a short but fun week we’ve had this week in Year 1/2! In Reading, we have begun to ‘make connections’ (text-to-self) with our class texts and our own ‘Just Right’ books. In Writing, we wrote up a storm after learning about why we write. Children brainstormed ideas such as letters, reports, postcards, wanted posters, comic strips, stories, and even shopping lists! We have been working hard on our letters and sounds, including using some great hands-on learning materials to help us make and write words – check out our photos to see the clever ways we are using these materials! In Numeracy, we have been working hard on our addition strategies including making friends of 10, 20 and even 100! We’ve been working across our double spaces, with a variety of learning partners.

Next week, we are focused on text-to-text connections, and continuing to write with purpose. In Numeracy, we are extending our addition strategies to include doubles. In Inquiry, we are learning more about things that change and using these as Writing inspiration!

This week in Grade 3 / 4…

Despite the shortened week, it’s been a busy week of learning for 3/4 students.

Our exploration of the Visualising reading strategy has segued nicely into our new unit of Making Predictions, where students combine information gleaned from the text with their own personal experiences and knowledge, to guess what will happen next. To consolidate this strategy with your child, you might like to have a conversation with them before they read and ask what they think will happen next. Feel free to really get them thinking by posing the golden question: “What makes you say that?”

We’re developing some passionate writers throughout 3/4, with students proudly sharing their work during reflection time at the end of each session. Writer’s Workshop classes draw to a close with a rotation of students sitting on the Author’s Chair to share their writing with the grade, who volunteer feedback to both celebrate and suggest improvements for writers to consider in future writing lessons.

Now, we’re wondering…has your child been measuring the height of a door at home using hand spans or shoes? Well, they’ve been doing plenty of it at school as we’ve been measuring length using informal units, with a focus on improving the accuracy of students’ estimations as they develop a deeper conceptual understanding of measurement. It’s also been a lot of fun.

What a fabulous week we’ve had, 3/4s!

This week in Grade 5 / 6…

Wow what a huge week it’s been!

Students created posters to finalise their Space Science Inquiry projects and collaborated in designing a rubric to assess their own work. There have been some amazingly informative and creative posters developed, which will be on display in the BER later in the week for everyone to enjoy. Moving on, we have started exploring physical sciences focusing on electrical circuits, which ties in with a school excursion next week which ties in with both space science and physical science.

In Maths, we’ve started assessing students strengths and weaknesses, as well as continuing to focus on how to identify and implement strategies to solve practical maths problems. Watch out for some future mathematicians growing right before our eyes!

Students have also continued using CAFÉ literacy strategies to help improve themselves as readers, as well as focusing on how to improve their writing from good to GREAT.

Finally, preparation for next weeks parent teacher meetings, we have been completing reflection templates designed to help us consider our strengths, goals and elements that help us improve our learning.

Have a wonderful week!

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF)

We are currently taking applications for CSEF.

Please find below information in regards to the funding and if you could be eligible.

If you do have any queries or questions if you may be eligible please do not hesitate to contact the office.

Healesville High School Visit

We are opening Healesville High School for a brief visit on Tuesday the 16^th of March from 3.45pm until 5pm. This is not our official Open Night, just an informal chance for families to have a look at the school and ask questions.

If you feel like visiting, it would be great if you could let us know by emailing:

Scott.fisher@education.vic.gov.au

This will help us to ensure that we have enough staff on site to answer any questions.

If you are happy to wait, we will be having our official Open Night on Wednesday the 28^th of April.

Vacation Care Program

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

Hats:

Please remember during term 1 hats will be required when playing outside.

Rubbish in the yard

The Grade 6s did a school yard rubbish clean up during their leadership session this week. They want to remind everyone to nude their food before going out to play and to aim for rubbish free lunches to help keep our environment clean!