Nerae Preece Principal

From the Principal… Final word for 2021

I have been trying to get my head around a concept this year. Reflective practices. It is a bit of an education jargon term. I knew it was an important thing to do, but I couldn’t think of how I should do it.

Let’s take it back a step. I think reflective practice is just a fancy way of saying “spending time to reflect on what you’ve done”. Some people are amazing and do this everyday through journaling, others talk to their friends and colleagues about it and others might do a monthly summary. Everyone has their own way of reflecting.

Today I am going to reflect with you some of the successes from the year, and the things that would be great to work on in 2022. Let’s do it top 5 style!

Designing the dream school

It has been such an honour after working at Badger Creek Primary School for nearly 20 years to be able to have a say in its new design. I have loved every moment of learning about how design and planning works in building projects. It has been a privilege to work with the design team and get to the stage of our early works which will be occurring over the holidays to prepare for the build. As you might remember from previous newsletters, our gym will be converted into classrooms for a little while, while the first stage of the build occurs. We hope that the major project will begin in term 2, which will be so exciting as we see our school become an even better place to learn!

Move to Compass

It took a bit of hard bargaining from David Clingin and a lot of learning from everyone in our community and wonderful support from Brogan and Mel but we did it. We have successfully moved across from Sentral to Compass, and it is so much better! It is great to be able to communicate with you all through an app that functions well, and reports are so much easier to access. We have been really glad that we made the move across. It has simplified our lives immensely.

Smart Spelling

This one wasn’t on the plan for us… When Jess Riley’s former school Port Melbourne Primary School invited Emma, Andy and Jess to head over to their school to learn from Spelling guru Michelle Hutchinson, it was an offer too good to refuse. From there, our school leaders came back and taught what they knew to others, and the results have been nothing but exceptional. This simple and effective method of teaching spelling has opened the door for our students in areas of reading and writing. They are discovering simple patterns and rules around words, and it is so great to see the vast improvement already for our students. Andy our literacy leader has booked Michelle to come in and teach us spelling on our second Curriculum Day in March. We can’t wait to learn even more from her then!

Triangulation of formative assessment

Our team leaders in 2021 Jess, Emma, David and Erin have been leading their teams in collecting information about learners. We use formative assessment which if we simplify means collecting observations and work samples from learners. This is so much better than “testing” as it is informal which often lets our learners show us what they can do. Teachers can then guide by providing feedback or modelling what the learner needs to do next to keep growing. This year triangulation has been so important. Jess Riley our learning specialist has put together some super easy documents to help us track learning. As a result our teams have been tracking the curriculum and moderated work samples to determine what achievement standards have been reached by each child. This is such an exciting space for us to be in as it means we have reliable data and deep levels of trust in the information provided by each of the teachers. I am super proud of our teaching team for their hard work and efforts in making this happen.

Collaboration

This is the one I am most proud of. All of our work this year has been about collaboration, and it has had its ups and downs. There has been an enormous amount of energy, funds and money in building collaboration for our teams. We also cannot forget the biggest collaboration this year, and that is the collaboration with our families. Yet again we had to work through remote learning. The home school relationship that has been strengthened through this has been incredible. Thank you to everyone for communicating clearly, assuming positive intent and putting our learners at the centre of what we do. As a result of this every child has made learning growth in most or all of their learning areas, and that is an achievement we can all be proud of!

So there are lots of good things that have happened, but any good reflection needs for us to think about what will be next…

Essential curriculum

This year has highlighted for many of us just how much curriculum there is. It has also made us wonder, what our kids have to learn to succeed as an adult. In 2022 I think we could work towards identifying what are the essential parts of the curriculum that our learners need to be practicing everyday? How will that be covered? How will we work out what we think is essential to our young people?

Student voice and agency

At Badger we do student voice and agency well, but I think it could be better. I had an inspiring talk with Mahlea D our 2022 Respectful Relationships leader the other day, she was talking about behaviour and how she would like to support our students in being kind and respectful. She mentioned of the success of campaigns that we had done in the past and that it would be great to do them again. It got me wondering about how our learners could be empowered to start their own behaviour campaigns. What would it look like if students could identify the behaviours that needed to change in the yard? What would support look like from the teaching and learning staff to help these changes happen? Would students owning this behaviour data and the campaigns improve overall wellbeing for our students at school?

Community

Our community has missed out on a lot of rituals in the last 2 years, none have hit me harder than in the last 2 weeks with us losing our grade 6 and end of year rituals. After being at the school for so long, I have never known a time where this has had to happen. In 2022 I want to find those rituals again, and maybe even make some new ones. Our community really needs some time to heal and share together. The things I am wondering around this are… How will this work? What types of events do we want in our 2022? How will we celebrate our successes? How will we acknowledge our gratitude? We have a number of school council positions opening up in 2022 and we would love your help if you would like to come and join us on this journey. Stay tuned for more details!

It is a big thank you to each and every one of you for your commitment to learning and growth. For your support and encouragement over the year. Please find time to be kind to yourself over the Christmas period.

Be safe, be respectful and be responsible, and we will see you on the first day back, Monday 31^st of January 2022, for our Welcome to Country/ welcome to learning Ceremony.

Stay curious,

Nerae Preece

Principal

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Important school dates to remember:

2022 Dates:

School returns – Monday 31st January

Grade 5/6 Urban Camp – 2/2/2022 – 4/2/2022

Grade 3/4 Camp – 9/2/2022 – 11/2/2022

AROUND THE GROUNDS

MUSIC NEWS

Dear Badger Creek Community,

This will be the last music news for 2021 and what a year it has been. I would like to express my appreciation to our wonderful students who have done their best to keep on making music during 2021. You have done a great job!

I want to share with you one last video that, I think, shows the resilience of our students. Our school band have been rehearsing with the little time we have had this term and have managed to produce two fabulous videos. The National Anthem, which I shared in previous weeks, and Oye Como Va, by Santana.

These recordings show, among other things, their skill as musicians and their commitment to making the music as good as it can be. I am incredibly proud to teach these young musicians. Well done school band.

Enjoy the music and have a great Christmas. See you in 2022.

Kind regards,

Jenny Legg

Music teacher.

This week in Art…

It’s that time of year again, when the students are all finishing off their final art projects for the year. We have had glazed ceramics coming out of the kiln, students screen-printing fabrics and our grade 3/4’s enthusiastically sewing that last details onto their Day of The Dead textiles. Well done to all the students for their hard work this term. Take a look at the gallery to see the amazing results of all their hard work.

YAE Project – Youth Art Exhibition…

YAVA gallery invited some of our Badger Creek Primary School students to create an artwork as part of the YAE Project – Youth Art Exhibition. Seven Primary and Secondary Schools in the Yarra Valley participated in the project with over 70 students submitting artworks that will be part of an exhibition scheduled to begin on 13 January 2022 at YAVA Gallery. Students Involved in the project gave up their lunchtimes to work on their pieces. The theme was free choice and each student decided what medium they wanted to work in. The artworks produced are an individual expression of each student and they should feel incredibly proud of their achievements.

A panel of judges were chosen to award prizes to the participants and to my delight, two of our Badger Creek Primary School students have been recognised for their excellence.

Isla from Grade 2 was awarded the Founder’s award for her artwork as well as receiving the Canson Awards – Highly Commended.

Eden from Grade 1 won second place in the Canson Awards – Primary School category.

Well done to both of these students for their amazing work.

Please follow the link below to for more information about this exhibition.

https://www.yava.org.au/yaeproject

This week in Prep…

To all of our wonderful preps and families,

from the bottom of our hearts we thank you.

Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for your kindness.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for your trust.

Thank you for a year which we will never forgot.

We know that your child is more than ready to set off into the grade one sunset.

In the meantime, enjoy all the wonderful things the end of the year has in store for you. We will see you soon!!

This week in Grade 1 / 2…

Thank you for a wonderful year Grade 1 and 2’s.

We know this is a very different ending to our school year but we look forward to seeing you all in 2022, with beaming smiles. Thank you to all our families for a wonderful year and for your ongoing care and support.

We hope everyone enjoys a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Switch off and rest up over summer holidays and enjoy opportunities to be outside creating family memories.

Best Wishes,

1/2 Team

This week in Grade 3 / 4…

Well, that’s not how we anticipated the year ending, but here we are on the last day.

Mr. Clingin, Andy and Miss Aston want to congratulate all of our ¾ students for their fantastic accomplishments this year under trying circumstances. You have made the most of the time we had together. Our highlights have been the Healesville Sanctuary Scavenger Hunt, the 2/3 sleepover, our Inquiry lessons outside, Mathletics live (in the classroom and in remote learning), the enthusiasm you have had towards your writing, your news reports from Remote Learning and our exploration of The 11^th Hour.

From Miss Aston, it is a sad farewell to Badger Creek Primary School. We know she has LOVED having 3/4B and wishes them all the good things for 2022.

Mr. Clingin and Andy are looking forward to seeing everyone back Term 1 of 2022 whether in the 3/4 or 5/6 space.

As a team, we want to wish all our families a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

This week in Grade 5 / 6…

Class of 2021 – Grade 6 Graduation

Our sincerest appreciation to the students and families for their flexibility and understanding over this past week in supporting us with the changes to the Graduation plans. We had a wonderful celebratory night and have received some lovely feedback from families and guests. Thank you to everyone for dressing up, decorating their home and celebrating together, virtually. Well done to our incredible school captains, Layla, Olive and Pip, who ran the evening, spoke with clarity, and shared their memories and hopes for the future with the guests. We are so proud of our Class of 2021, each and every one of them. Their creativity, kindness, cleverness, adaptability and courage will ensure these terrific young people will thrive in whatever fields they choose. We wish them all the very best in all their future endeavours.

We would also like to thank; the families who donated icypoles for our fundraiser, Alison, Ben and the team at Kitchen and Butcher, and Dylan and Michelle from Miss Spelts for helping us with the goodie bags, Ryn Wheeler from Patisseryn for the delicious Graduation cupcakes, Katrina and the McKie Family for the balloons, Jenny Legg for her mammoth organising efforts, Zoe, Brogan and Edwina for helping us get it all together. And an extra thank you to Edwina who also helped us deliver the bags to homes on the day! What a team! We couldn’t have done it without you all!

Way back in Term Two, Grade 5/6 students undertook their Entrepreneurship Inquiry unit where students developed a business plan, created and marketed their products and sold them at the Enterprise Fair to the school community.

We are ecstatic to announce that we raised $2200! A school record! On behalf of the Grade 5/6 cohort, the school captains, Layla, Pip and Olive, have chosen to split the profits and give half to The Kickstart Project / Rotary Club of Healesville, and the other half to Mahboba’s Promise.

The Kickstart Project is headed by Badger Creek PS alumni, Esther Rijk, and is supported by the Rotary Club of Healesville. The Kickstart Project changes the future of orphaned and abandoned children living in poverty in the Kibera Slum in Nairobi, Kenya, by developing schools and ensuring the children have access to education. We have worked in mutual partnership for many years with the Rotary Club of Healesville and look forward to supporting their work, and Esther’s, once again.

The second not-for-profit organisation was chosen through connection to our class novel, Parvana (written by Deborah Ellis), which captivated our Grade 5/6s and moved them to action. The story is about a young girl and her family, living in Taliban ruled Afghanistan and the challenges they face to survive. The charity is called Mahboba’s Promise. It was founded by Mahboba Rawi, an Afghan refugee – now an Australian citizen, who experienced the effects of war and civil unrest first-hand. Mahboba’s Promise has a focus on establishing schools, shelters and health clinics across Afghanistan and provided numerous sponsorships to widows and orphans in need.

Two incredibly worthy organisations which we feel proud and privileged to support.

Thank you to all families who supported the Enterprise Fair and making it such a success. It once again gives the Badger Creek PS community an opportunity to have a positive impact, globally.