Newsletter – Friday 9th February 2024

Welcome back to the start of a new school year! It’s been fantastic to see lots of happy children back in the classroom with a very settled start right across the school. We are ready for another fantastic year of learning and fun at Bellaire Primary School in 2024.

I’d like to extend a special welcome to our new children and families in Prep and across the other year levels who are beginning school at Bellaire Primary School for the first time. I trust that your time as part of our school community will be a rewarding and exciting experience.

A big thank you also to our staff who have worked hard over the last few weeks preparing their classrooms and planning for the start of the year. A lot of work is done in the background preparing classrooms, planning lessons, and the many administrative requirements in readiness for the new school year.

For our teachers and staff, the most important thing at this time of year is establishing relationships and routines with the students. At Bellaire Primary School our motto is ‘Aim High’, this motto does not only encapsulate academic learning, it is about aiming high in all areas of life.

We look forward to a wonderful year ahead.

Please note – our Sentral Calendar will keep you updated with events as well as information posted in the newsletter.

TERM 1 2024

Wednesday 7^th February – School Council Nominations open

Wednesday 14^th February – School Council Nominations close 4pm sharp, No Preps

Monday 19^th February – School Council Meeting 6.30pm

Wednesday 21^st February – No Preps

Friday 23^rd February – District Tennis (selected students only), Assembly 3pm, Welcome Picnic 5.30pm – 8.30pm

Tuesday 27^th February – Parent / Teacher Meet & Greet 3.50pm – 7.30pm

Wednesday 28^th February – Parent Helper Information Session 9am – 10am

Thursday 29^th February – Parent / Teacher Meet & Greet 3.50pm – 5.30pm

Friday 8^th March – Assembly 3pm

Monday 11^th March – Labor Day Public Holiday

Wednesday 13^th March – Friday 15^th March – Year 4 Camp

Monday 18^th March – NAPLAN window opens for a week, School Council AGM & Meeting 6.30pm

Thursday 21^st March – Cross Country – Years 3 – 6

Friday 22^nd March – Assembly 3pm

Tuesday 26^th March – Girls Footy (Senior Students)

Wednesday 27^th March – Lightning Premiership – Senior Students

Thursday 28^th March – Last day of Term 1, 2.30pm

Friday 29^th March – GOOD FRIDAY – School holidays

We are all really looking forward to being School Captains. There are so many fun things like speaking at assembly, helping teachers and classmates and running events like book week and school tours. Some other reasons we are excited to be School Captains are opportunities to be kind and welcoming to everyone at this amazing school. We are so excited about being the 2024 school leaders, and we can’t wait for this fun year ahead at Bellaire Primary School.

Esme: School Captain to me, is being a leader, a role model and being me! Bellaire School Captain is an important role that I’m overly excited to have!

Emily: I think being a School Captain is a privilege that I’m so grateful to have! I’m extremely excited to be a role model, a leader, and help my classmates in the classroom, and out. I can’t wait to go on this extraordinary journey!!

Charlie: Being a School Captain means being a leader to younger year levels. It is being a role model and being a good leader. I am very happy with the role and I’m ready to work for it.

Archie: Being a School Captain is a privilege, not a right. I’m so excited to go on this journey with the other School Captains. As a School Captain, I want to become a better role model and leader.

For our final year of primary school, these tops make us feel special. The design is really significant because it reminds us of the aboriginal people that lived here before us. When we are wearing these tops we are proud because they represent our school in a positive, but beautiful way. Being a Year Six student and wearing these tops is a real privilege.

Early this term we sent out via Seesaw and Sentral email a comprehensive Parent Information Handbook. This handbook will hopefully contain answers to any questions you may have as well as inform you about practices that occur in the school.

Communication – please remember that to communicate with your teachers Seesaw is the best option. Please note that teachers will not check Seesaw during class time. If there is a message you need to get to your child the best form of communication is to contact the front office.

This year we will be holding our annual ‘Meet & Greet’ sessions at the end of February. Bookings for these will open next week. A message will be sent out on Sentral to let parents know they are ready to book. Bookings occur via Sentral.

This is a time to meet the teachers and make the teachers aware of any information about your child you think they should know about your child, as well as the teacher letting you know how they have settled into the year.

There was a lot undertaken over the summer and we are still waiting for more work to occur.

Bellaire Parents Group Fundraising

The wonderful fundraising from our community, organised by our Bellaire Parents Group, meant the over the summer –

• A new Cubby House was delivered. Paid for by fundraising and built by the Mr Dunned Men’s Shed. Another one is coming soon!
• New Gaga pit that is located behind the Senior building

Still to come  –

• Flag Poles

Other works undertaken in the school included –

• Repairs to the oval. Unfortunately, the oval was, and still is, unfit for use by the students. Hopefully it will be ready to go in a couple of weeks.

As we let everyone aware last year, via feedback from teachers, students and the community, our new school values are –

• Be Resilient
• Be Kind
• Be Respectful

Miss Kite (art teacher) and a number of students worked together to develop designs to represent our new values. The work undertaken by the students was amazing, incorporating our natural environment and Australian animals. Miss Kite then took the students’ work and made them into digital images we can use. I would like to thank the students and Miss Kite for all of their wonderful work.

We will be using the following three images as our main values images. We will then be using other designs created by the students in stickers representing the values for students. Our Leadership Awards will also be based on our school values and new awards will be designed.

This year we are extremely excited to announce we are partnering with The Resilience Project. Over the year we will be sending out more information regrading The Resilience Project. To begin with we have attached an information sheet introducing our community to The Resilience Project. We are excited to be able to bring this to our community.

It is important to remember that children feeling anxious or reluctant to come to school some mornings is very normal at this time of year as they grapple with new people, routines, and structures.

There may also be an initial ‘honeymoon’ period before fatigue sets in and anxieties may heighten. Helping to regulate these emotions by reassuring your child that it is completely normal to feel nervous is very important. Reminding them of the many adults and children who will be there for them throughout the day is also very reassuring to them. Children quickly settle into the day after drop off, even after a difficult morning of meltdowns and tears, distracted by their friends, teachers, and learning.

Similarly, establishing new and old friendships, conflict with peers, and issues involving games during break times are also common factors at the beginning of each year as the children readjust after the break.

Experiencing these negative emotions and learning to problem solve and compromise is an essential part of growing up. Through these experiences, our children become armed with a bank of strategies to draw on when they are inevitably faced with similar situations in the future.

Resilience is developed through experiencing hardship and negative emotions in safe and secure environments, and knowing there is support around us when needed. When we attempt to solve these problems for our children or ‘take over’ the situation, we teach them that these emotions are bad or abnormal or that they are not capable of dealing with issues themselves. If their memory of a negative emotion is an adult taking over and solving the issue for them, they are left with no way of navigating their way through a problem when they will inevitably be faced with problems in the future by themselves.

If problems are ongoing or escalating however, please don’t hesitate to contact the school for support. With hundreds of years of collective experience in education between us, there is very little we have not seen before or supported families through in the past. You are not alone with these issues and there is always someone at hand to help.

I would strongly encourage families to send students to school without their mobile phones and smartwatches.

If these devices are necessary for safety reasons, such as when commuting to school, the devices must be turned off before they enter the gate and not turned on again until they exit the gate at the end of the day. Mobile phones must be given to the teacher at the start of the day and collected at the end of the day. Parents who need to contact their child can do so by contacting the school office.

Those children who have watches that receive messages or phone calls need to either turn the settings to ‘airplane mode’ or leave the watch at home. A watch at school is for telling the time only.

These devices can become a distraction in the classroom, and we are seeking to minimise these distractions. There are so many extra pressures for children these days with having to have the latest gadget or app so it is always better for children if this is delayed as long as possible. I thank you in advance for your support with this.

Principal

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PE: Jacob S (2BG) & Jack H (6GD) French: Memphis J (1CB) & Levi S (4SM) ART: Tori S (2BG) & Oliver G (5DJ) STEAM: Ben S (2TC) & Harry E (5DD)