Parent Guide to Bellaire Primary School
Whole School Positive Behaviour Framework
‘Successful teaching is not about controlling student behaviour. It’s about teaching students how to control their own behaviour.’
Bellaire Primary school has a whole school, positive behaviour strategy. This is to ensure that consistent behaviour management strategies are implemented throughout the school. This supports our Values Tree and will again be explored with the students during our ‘Learning to Learn’ sessions at the start of the year and used throughout classrooms on a daily basis. The aim of implementing these within our classrooms is to create a learning climate for students that is consistent, proactive and preventative – one that acknowledges positive behaviour and prevents misbehaviour before it occurs. It is ultimately about celebrating and encouraging intrinsic motivation for each student to do, and achieve, their personal best and contribute to their team’s success.
A-Z of Information
Presently we are trialing a new assembly system. We work on a fortnightly basis, having a whole school assembly every second week. Whole school assemblies begin at 3pm, they are on basketball court, and inside classrooms during wet weather. During assembly we celebrate students’ achievements with Student of the Week awards. These are students who have displayed our school values. Students can also receive awards for displaying exceptional behaviours in the yard. Our School Captains and House Captains run all of our assemblies. Parents are most welcome and encouraged to attend.
Absence – if your child is absent from school a legal requirement is to approve the absence by completing an absence note via Sentral or
calling the office and leaving a message on our dedicated attendance line. Although we do not want children to attend when they are ill, we encourage children to attend whenever possible. The Victorian Government policy states ‘It’s not ok to be away’.
Late arrival / leaving early – If it is necessary that your child is late or needs to leave early this must be done via our school office. Parents must sign students in and out via the office.
We have a school Behaviour Tree. This tree highlights our school values. We work through these with the children and these are the values the whole school abide by. We also use a Behaviour Ladder. This ladder is displayed in every room and is a visual for students to be ‘ready to learn’. It provides consistency in behaviour management throughout the school
At Bellaire Primary School our teachers teach in a collaborative learning environment. This occurs in an extremely structured way to ensure that every child’s individual needs are catered for. Differentiation occurs within the teaching of the curriculum while allowing for focused teaching. Children have the opportunity to experience different ways of teaching and build relationships with a number of teachers.
School Council has approved camp every year for year 3 – 6 students.
Grade 3 attend YMCA Camp Wyuna.
Grade 4 attend Maldon Bike Camp.
Grade 5 attend Kangaroobie.
Grade 6 attend Melbourne City camp.
At Bellaire Primary School we strive to keep parents as up to date as possible with school information in a timely manner. We have a number of different forms of communication in order to cater for different needs of different individuals. At Bellaire PS we have the following forms of communication:
o SEESAW – the Seesaw App allows us to share student work, including the Learning Reflections through a private and secure link.
o SENTRAL – Sentral is the main form of whole school information. A calendar, attendance, teacher/parent communication, newsletters, first aid and unit specific information is all found on Sentral. Once your child begins at Bellaire you will receive a login for Sentral. Sentral is also available in app form.
Communication with class/specialist teachers is welcomed and strongly encouraged. Appointments are preferred as this provides everyone with an opportunity to plan in advance and make the contact more valuable
Curriculum delivery priorities both English and mathematics, incorporates the use of learning technologies and the development of the following skills – researching, working together in a team (collaboration), independent decision making, growth mindset, building resilience and problem solving. We ensure that all assessment and planning is consistent across the classes and within each learning community. We cater for extension and additional assistance with communities. The curriculum allows for each learning community to plan excursions that are aligned to their inquiry unit. Our curriculum is based on the Victorian Curriculum.
The purpose of curriculum days is for teachers to discuss, plan, review and evaluate aspects of the curriculum. There is always at least one day at the start of the year and then three more throughout the year. Children do not attend school on these days, however our OSHC program is offered on these days.
Excursions enable us to extend the opportunities for learning. These experiences are a valuable, planned and integral part of the school
program. You will receive advanced notice about the excursion and the date.
We have a number of teachers at school are Level 2 qualified in First Aid as well as our office staff. If your child is ill or injured they will be
treated at school and you will receive a notification over Sentral. If the need arises you will be contacted. For this reason it is very important to have you and TWO other emergency contacts up to date on file at school.
PLEASE NOTE – if required we will call an ambulance prior to calling you. Please ensure that your ambulance cover is up to date
All children receive homework according to the Victorian Curriculum guidelines. All students are required to read each night and other homework will depend on the child’s year level.
Apart from watches, jewellery is not appropriate for school wear. Earrings, other than studs, can be potentially dangerous as can necklaces and bangles. We ask parents for their cooperation in helping to monitor this please
Our school is divided into four Learning Communities – Prep, Junior (year 1 & 2), Middle (year 3 & 4) and Senior (year 5 & 6).
Lost property is currently kept in the office. We ask parents to clearly LABEL EVERYTHING that comes to school. If it has a name on it and it is found it will be returned.
We run our own OSHC. We use a separate app to manage our OSHC called My Family Lounge. Bookings are essential for staffing purposes.
BEFORE SCHOOL CARE – 7.30am – 8.45am (includes breakfast)
AFTER SCHOOL CARE – 3.30pm – 6pm (includes afternoon snacks and activities)
We have a fantastic Parents group. Information regarding our Parents group will be shared at the star of the year.
Bellaire PS uses the QKR app for financial transactions, including Canteen orders.
The School Council, in conjunction with the Principal and staff, develop and/or approve the policy areas of school operation. Linked with this responsibility is the overall control of the school finances and maintenance of school buildings and grounds. Council appointments are for two years. Each year calls for nominations to occur.
We have a school crossing that operates from 8am-9am and then 3pm – 4pm. We ask that parents use the school crossing and assist in supporting us to remind their children of road safety rules. If you drop off or pick up your child at the school, please ensure you use the ‘kiss and drop’ zone.
The school is organised into four houses RED – ELLIOT, YELLOW – STRICKLAND, BLUE – LANDY and GREEN – CUTHBERT. These houses are based on the history surrounding Bellaire. House activities are focused on sporting activities and we have house captains. On these days we ask students to wear their house colours for example a green t-shirt. Your child will be placed into a house on enrolment.
o 8.45am– Playground supervision commences (please note there is no supervision prior to this and students who arrive prior to 8.45am will be placed in Before School Care).
o 8.55am Music begins to play – students to line up outside classrooms.
o 9am Session 1 (10am – brain food/fruit snack)
o 11am Recess
o 11.30am Session 2
o 1.30pm Lunch eating time (supervised)
o 1.45pm Lunch play time
o 2.30pm Session 3
o 3.30pm End of day
Seesaw is a digital portfolio tool where teachers (and students) can document and share learning using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, recordings, and more! Student work is compiled in one place and shared with families. Teachers approve all items and comments before posting to student journals. Seesaw can be accessed via the web or iOS/Android apps. When a teacher has posted to your child’s journal families can be notified via app notification and/or email. Families can view the work posted to their own child’s journal only – they do not see the work of anyone else in the class/school. Multiple family members can connect to each student’s journal.
Seesaw is the best way to communicate with your child’s classroom teacher and get family and whole school updates.
Please note: Parents that are new to the school will be provided with a QR code from your child’s home group teacher, which will allow you to connect to your child’s journal.
Sentral is a web-based software solution that manages school administration, student data, attendance, calendars and other administrative operations. Sentral is available for parents to access their child’s Sentral profile via the web or iOS/Android app. We recommend downloading the App and logging in at your earliest convenience (instructions should have been emailed to new families to the school).
Sentral includes a calendar which displays important dates and events throughout a Term. Additionally, parents receive attendance notifications through the app and can respond to these easily by following the prompts. Semester Academic Reports will still be published on Sentral, as well as booking Parent / Teacher Interviews.
We have school Facebook and Instagram pages, which are used to share whole-school information.
We have an extremely strong specialist program. Our students engage in Music, French, PE and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering,
Arts and Mathematics).
Your child’s first day at school is very exciting. To make this a fantastic experience your attitude towards it is very important. Your child will react according to your feelings, so it is important to be happy and confident. You can prepare your child to adjust to school by;
o Giving your child responsibility and independence – dressing, managing the toilet, eating from their lunch box, packing away toys.
o Being positive about your child’s abilities. Self-esteem is a vital ingredient to success.
o Encourage your child to try new things and encourage them to grow if mistakes are made. Many skills require practise.
o Establish a morning routine.
Communication with parents regarding progress is an essential part of home-school partnership and we endeavour to keep families fully informed. Learning Reflections are part of our ongoing reporting and are available on Seesaw. Reports are also sent home in June and December.
PLEASE NOTE – parents are ALWAYS welcome to make appointments with teachers to discuss their child’s learning.
As part of our Sun Smart policy students are required to wear a wide brimmed hat during term 1 and term 4. In term 2 and 3 the UV ratings determine the need for hats.
At Bellaire Primary School, we believe in providing our students with the best possible Literacy building blocks, right from the very beginning of their Foundation year. We use THRASS as a tool across the whole school to ensure every student has access to consistent and sustainable knowledge and skills to assist with their Literacy learning. Teaching one letter, one sound is not a sustainable method of teaching phonics. THRASS acknowledges that there are 44 sounds in spoken English and teaches the different spelling choices for each of these sounds. For example the sound ‘c’ like it is heard in the word ‘cake’, can be represented by the letters c (cat), k (kitten), ck (duck), ch (school) and q (queen). THRASS is the explicit teaching of phonics. It teaches the mechanics of words eg. syllables, blends and different representations of sounds. Below are a list of things you can do at home to support your child in preparation for school.
o Teach letter names ONLY. Letters only have names. They do not make a sound until they become part of a word. Eg. the letter ‘a’ can make multiple sounds; ant, baby, banana, zebra, swan, ball.
o Teach that lower-case letters and capital letters have the same name.
o There is no such thing as ‘sight words’. Words such as ‘is’, ‘the’, ‘they’ and ‘why’ etc. are commonly given the term ‘sight words’. We are often told, “these are words you can’t sound out, you just have to learn them”. These words can be ‘sounded out’ and taught if children have an understanding of all 44 speech sounds of English. If a word can be said, the phonemes (sounds) can be heard and represented.
o Teach children to write their name correctly, with a capital letter at the beginning, followed by lower-case letters. Children who learn to write in capital letters have difficulty changing back to lower -case letters
We have three prep transition session towards the end of the year. These sessions give the students the opportunity to become familiar with the school environment and the teachers prior to beginning the year.
We have a transition session during the last week of school for students in prep – grade 5. This session gives the students the opportunity to become familiar with their new classroom and teacher prior to beginning the year.
School Council directs the wearing of correct school uniform according to the uniform policy. Please Note: Long hair should be tied back for health and safety reasons. Please name ALL items of uniform. Our uniform shop is open on a Monday and Friday afternoon 2pm-4pm.
Wet weather – students are directed inside from 8.45am in wet weather and have passive play inside during the rest of the day if weather persists.
Hot weather – if temperature is expected to go over 35 degrees with hot, northerly winds, students are kept inside during play times.
Term 1 and 4 are ‘No hot, no play’ terms. On any day your child does not have a hat during these terms, they will be asked to sit in the designated shade area during recess and lunchtimes. This area is supervised by teachers.