Nerae Preece Principal

From the Principal’s seat

Hello everyone!

Welcome… I hope you have had a lovely Christmas and New Year, and that you have been able to make the most of some of the warm summer days over the break. I managed to get away to Phillip Island for a couple of days, I had time to read some books and really enjoy some walks. It was pretty relaxing. After a good break, the team has come back together to get ready for a great year ahead with your children.

Back to school is an exciting time for students and families. It can be a big step – particularly for those starting prep or moving to secondary school.

Click on the following link to see how you can help your child have a positive start to school, refer to Tips for starting school.

If you need some help with school costs please come and have a chat with myself, Mel or Brogan. We have access to programs like Affordable School Uniforms and the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund which can help with the cost of school uniforms and other essential school items as well as school activities for eligible students. For more information for parents, refer to Help with school costs and fees.

Health and wellbeing is important at Badger Creek and we encourage you to have a look at this resource health and wellbeing staff. You can access these supports by reaching out to Edwina Whiteside our Inclusion Coordinator/Chaplain or Emma Griffiths our Assistant Principal, both of them will be more than happy to provide guidance in the health and wellbeing space. You can also read the department’s mental and wellbeing health toolkit, which offers guidance to help you support your child’s mental health and wellbeing at home, and advice on working with your school and seeking help if you have concerns. You can also find out more about Attending school and Building a positive relationship with your child’s school.

Swimming Sports

We are so excited to have our very first Swimming Sports for many years, which is due to be held next Tuesday. This is the first event where we will be introducing our School Houses (if you are not sure what house your child is in, please check on Compass or ask your child’s teacher).

If you are able to assist on the day, please let us know by sending us through a copy of your working with children’s check to badger.creek.ps@education.vic.gov.au

We are very much looking forward to a marvellous day of fun!

Schedule changes and term overview

Our daily schedule has changed a little this term, with regular reviews over the coming weeks. It looks a little like this…

8:45am students can enter their classroom for calm start

9:00am learning begins

10:00am short fruit/veggie snack

11:00am Break time

11:45am Eating time

12:00pm learning begins

1:00pm short fruit/veggie snack

2:00pm Snack time/break time

2:30pm learning time

3:30pm End of day

We will trial this, and survey the students, staff and parents in the term to see how it is working. We welcome your feedback.

We have a number of events coming up for the term. A hard copy of the schedule has been sent home this week. More copies are available at the office, or can be emailed to you. We hope that it helps with your forward planning this term.

Attendance

We would like to remind parents that attending school is so incredibly important in supporting your child’s learning. If your child is absent you can use Compass to let the teacher know. Brogan can help you with this if you are not on Compass yet.

I also ask that if you are planning to take an extended period of time away that you email me at badger.creek.ps@education.vic.gov.au

If your child is experiencing school refusal, please reach out to your child’s teacher, Edwina or Emma, so we can support you and your child.

School Council

This year we have 4 positions available for School Council. School Council govern the school. They meet on the 4th Wednesday of the month from 6:30-8pm. By being a member of the School Council you are also able to join one of the committees that helps support the governance of the school, including Buildings and Grounds, Curriculum, PFA and Finance Subcommittee. Nomination forms are available at the office, please reach out to Brogan and Mel if you wish to nominate yourself. The nominations close on Friday the 17th of February at 4pm. If there are more nominations that positions the positions will go to a vote.

Before I sign off today, I invite you to complete this survey for us, it will help us as we prepare for our next strategic plan. We are about to undertake a review, and we would like our community voice in this space to help us create the best Badger Creek PS as possible.

Have a lovely weekend, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

Nerae Preece

Principal

Back to school ready…

Working with children check…

Throughout the year we have some amazing opportunities for parents/carers to help out both in the classroom and to excursions.

If you would like to and can help please bring your working with childrens check up to the office.

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Important school dates to remember:

7/2 – Whole school swimming carnival

16/2 – Grade 5/6 surf life saving event

Breakfast club…

Breakfast club.

Breakfast club is back.

Each Friday morning between 8.30-8.50am toast and Fruit cups will be available from the canteen area.

We are always looking for help with breakfast club as many hands make light work.

If you would be interested in helping please contact Nicole on 0413 910 918

This week in Prep…

Welcome to Week One of Foundation at Badger Creek Primary School!

We have had a wonderful first week in the Foundation classrooms and the preppies have blown us away with how well everyone has settled into school already! We have spent the week getting to know each other, learning the rules and expectations of school, practising daily routines and of course having lots of fun! We love the way the preps are getting the hang of our calm starts in the mornings by putting their bags in their lockers, sitting at their tables and practising their careful colouring.

This week we have been focussing on the school value ‘Respect’ and have been speaking about this each morning and concentrating on using kind words both in the classroom and in the playground. The fabulous prep students have also worked together to make a classroom promise as well as an acknowledgment to country that we can say each morning.

The preps are proud of their work from their first day of school where they have done a drawing about their first day and even had a go at writing their name! These pieces of work are up on display on the wall in the Foundation classroom for everyone to come in and have a look at.

Everyone in Foundation is so excited to start learning, we have already set up book boxes for reading at school, take home folders for reading at home, spelling books to start learning letters and sounds and we’ve made a birthday chart with all the numbers from our birthdays!

Reminders:

Blue communication folders to be returned on Monday.
Please ensure swimming permission forms have been returned.
On Wednesdays we have no school for preps, unless they are coming in for their learning meeting appointments.

We can’t wait to see all the wonderful things we will achieve this year in Foundation!

– The Foundation Team: Miss H, Miss R and Lis.

This week in Grade 1 / 2…

Dear Families,

It has been an amazing and very positive start to the year for the 1/2s. Our students have quickly settled into the dern dern space and have been busy making new friends and getting into the positive routines that create a great learning space.

This week we have focused on classroom routines, finding good-fit books, learning about the writing process, practising counting, understanding place value and developing the skills to work together in a team.

Next week in reading, we will be continuing to establish the Reader’s Workshop. In writing, we will be using our Writer’s Notebook to learn how to develop our personal ideas. In Maths, we will focus on strategies to help with adding numbers together.

Please note…

We will be sending home reading diaries and take-home reading books on Monday, so please ensure your child brings their communication folder to school on Monday.

We are swimming on Tuesday. Please check Compass and the Newsletter for the details.

The 1/2 teachers have really appreciated the families who have come to say ‘hello’. If you haven’t yet had a chance to say ‘hi’ to your child’s teacher please don’t hesitate to come and introduce yourself.

This week in Grade 3 / 4…

What a week it has been in the 3/4 area!

It’s been so pleasing to see the children seamlessly settle into their new grades and classrooms throughout the week. There have been smiles all round as we have introduced our class routines in preparation for the commencement of literacy and numeracy learning next week.

We’ve been getting to know each other through a range of games and activities targeting social and emotional wellbeing, with a healthy dose of fun thrown in too. It’s safe to say that we have some budding young actors amongst us, with students enjoying performing role plays that demonstrate our school values and respectful relationships. Each class also wrote their own Acknowledgement of Country, which we will be using at the beginning of each day during Circle Time. Keep an eye out for these on classroom walls soon.

As we look forward to next week, we know the kids are champing at the bit to set-up the class libraries and fill their book boxes with books. We can’t wait, either!

Well done on a fantastic first week, Grade 3/4s. Have a restful weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.

Miss Gwen, Mr J and Andy

This week in Grade 5 / 6…

Welcome back 5/6’s!

What a start to the year! We have been exploring our new Balit space, and what our learning will look like in this space. We revisited our school expectations, and began setting up our resources. Students enjoyed reading for enjoyment and writing about things they did in their holidays.

We are looking forward to our whole school swimming carnival, and our House Captains are excited about their first leadership activity.

Just a reminder that we have out Surf Life Saving excursion on the 16^th of February! Please check our Compass for more information!