Newsletter – Term 4, Week 7, 2022

NOVEMBER

• Friday 25th November – Prep – 2 Athletics Day at School
• Monday 28^th November – School Council Meeting
• Tuesday 29^th November – First transition for current students

DECEMBER

• Wednesday 7^th December – Second transition for current students
• Thursday 8^th December – Year 5 ‘Funtastic Fair’
• Monday 12^th December – Current and new students (not 2023 Preps) last transition – meeting teachers and class for 2023
• Tuesday 13^th November – Prep – 2 Excursion – Movies
• Wednesday 14^th December – Year 6 Graduation
• Thursday 15^th December – Year 5 Excursion – Adventure Park
• Friday 16^th December – Reports released, Year 4 Excursion – Melbourne Zoo
• Monday 19^th December – Year 6 Excursion – Adventure Park
  *furniture / class moving day across the school

• Tuesday 20^th December – LAST DAY 2022 1.30pm finish

2023

TERM 1

• Monday 30^th January – FIRST DAY FOR ALL STUDENTS
• Friday 10^th February – School Photos
• Monday 13^th March – Labour Day public holiday
• Thursday 6^th April – last day of Term 2

TERM 2 – first day will be a curriculum day as the second day is ANZAC Day public holiday.

Term 2 begins on Wednesday 26^th April

Today we had our final 2023 Prep transition. The Preps met their buddies for 2023! It was an exciting morning for all involved. We can’t wait to welcome our Preps in 2023.

We had the pleasure of hearing over 40 of our Year 6 students present to the Year 4/5 students, teachers and leadership last week. Our students, teachers and leadership team then voted. We have undertaken our voting a little earlier than normal this year as Belmont High School have offered our 2023 leadership group a leadership experience day at Belmont High School next week.

It is our pleasure to announce that our 2023 School Captains are –

SCHOOL CAPTAINS

• Molly C
• Ryan C
• Owen G
• Maddie E

I look forward to working with our School Captains in 2023.

Our Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 students, teachers and leadership also got to hear some wonderful House Captain speeches. The students, teachers and leadership then voted for our House Captains. I am pleased to announce our 2023 House Captains are (please note when there was a tie we have three House Captains) –

HOUSE CAPTAINS

Landy (Blue)

• Peggy G
• Heath D

Elliott (Red)

• Emily C
• Bianca C

Cuthbert (Green)

• Mienna O
• Finn L
• Isabel K

Strickland (Yellow)

• Xanthe G
• Oliver S
• Poppy M

The 2022 NAPLAN national results were published last week, and I am pleased to inform our school community that our school’s results well exceeded both the National and Victorian mean results in Year 3 and all bar one area in Year 5.

Of course, NAPLAN results are not everything. They focus on two particular aspects of learning – literacy and numeracy – not the full range of knowledge, skills and attributes that we seek to develop in our students.

While not everything, they are one important measure we can use to assess the progress of our school, and the learning of Victorian students relative to their peers across Australia.

While our key focus is on each of our individual students, you may also be interested in what the NAPLAN results show about Victorian schools overall.

The Department of Education and Training has analysed the results for Victoria and found that Victorian students have achieved some of our highest results ever, maintaining our place as one of the highest performing jurisdictions, along with NSW and ACT.

For example, in 2022, Victorian Year 3 students achieved their highest Reading results and were again the strongest readers in the country.

Indeed, Victorian students performed strongly at the primary level, with Victoria ranked first or second on eight out of 10 NAPLAN assessments, including all five assessments at Year 3.

I do want to take a moment to recognise these achievements and acknowledge the very hard work of not only the teachers and staff in our school but in all schools across Victoria, especially given the substantial challenges of the last two years. I also want to acknowledge to support of parents during the Remote Learning experience.

That said, the Department has identified areas where further work is needed. These priority areas for improvement are shared with other States and Territories facing similar challenges, such as lifting Numeracy results.

At Bellaire Primary School, we will continue to work together with you to do all we can to ensure every one of our students have a strong sense of belonging and connection to our school and that we continue to help each student reach their full potential.

Thank you for all your support and all the work that you do to help us ensure that our school is one of the best places for children to learn.

We love celebrating achievements of our students outside of school. This weekend Duncan (2SK) is competing in the under 11 Freestyle BMX National Championship. The competition runs over the weekend and involves the best 11 year old riders in Australia, including Olympic gold medallist Logan Martin. We wish you all the best Duncan!

We are excited to announce that our Capital Works project has gone to tender! We look forward to announcing the selected builder during the school holidays.

We are excited that our Christmas Trees are on display in the city. The Christmas Trees were completed by our students based on Jocelyn Proust’s designs. The students were lucky enough that Jocelyn has seen the trees and commented – ‘Oh wow! How Gorgeous! Congratulations to all the kids.’

Congratulations to all involved and to Ms Kite for leading the students. Make sure you go and see our Christmas Trees in town!

While we are blessed to have spent the full school year at school on site, the reality is that we are still managing cases of COVID in schools. The Department have the following information below for schools and families in an effort to keep our community safe.

The Department of Health recommends that a person who tests positive to COVID-19 report that result to their employer, school and household.

Where a student or staff member is identified as a positive case, the following steps should be taken:

1. Parents/carers should complete the Student COVID-19 COVID Test Portal if a student tests positive to COVID-19 (via a PCR or rapid antigen test). Where a parent/carer informs the school by phone or written notification, the school will complete the school’s COVID case Management Tool
2. Students who report a positive result are recommended to isolate for a minimum of 5 days and not attend school until their symptoms have resolved. Students will be provided with learning materials via Seesaw to support their continued learning.
3. There is no longer a requirement for Principals to inform the school community of a positive case associated with the school.

Principal

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