The above picture shows Pippa, Oscar and Harvey constructing a bird feeder and planters, and is a perfect example of how everyday activities can be an integral part of the learning experience of children who are learning from home. These kids are developing their fine motor skills, learning how to interpret instructions, using communication skills to cooperate with one another, and creating an opportunity for further learning through retelling or explaining this experience. As Kim and Bev so often say - do what works for you. You'd be surprised how much your kids will learn from cooking, gardening, and helping around the house and noticing nature when out walking, riding or running and keeping a tally of kms for Awesome August!
When the Daffodils Dance
When the daffodils dance in the sun and the rain
Then we know that the springtime is coming again
Tra la la la la la, tra la la la la la
Then we know that the springtime is coming again
When the bees in the blossom trees busily hum
And the birds are all singing then springtime has come
Tra la la la la la, tra la la la la la
When the birds are all singing, then springtime has come. Anon
What do our teachers do during remote learning? In a recent staff wellbeing survey, teachers were asked to describe their workload when they aren’t in front of the screen with their students facilitating a live session. Here is what they had to say …
Planning lessons, creating lesson plans for teams to follow, getting daily planners ready for Compass
Emails, responding to kids, daily help desk
Providing student feedback, calling parents
Supporting parents with additional extension/support for students academic and emotional needs
Preparing for professional learning sessions, completing DET required modules
Creating slideshows and lesson resources – finding resources, links, relevant exemplars
Team meeting, planning Zooms, following up on emails
… and the list goes on.
We again thank all our staff for their unbelievable persistence in the face of ongoing COVID-19 restriction changes, and for continuing to place their students at the centre of everything they do, while navigating their own personal challenges and family responsibilities.
Professional Development: As we go in and out of lockdowns, our commitment to professional development remains and our teachers continue to engage in whole staff training during our routine afternoon meetings. Most recently, teachers have completed:
Bi-annual staff anaphylaxis training, thanks to Kellie Sneyd for facilitating this session
Initial course work for annual First Aid Training through HealthGuard
Annual Child Mandatory Reporting professional learning, in line with our commitment to Child Safety
Cultural Understanding and Safety Training: focussed on building understanding of First People perspectives and our country’s history. We thank Steph Briggs and Brian Walker (from the DET) for facilitating these sessions for us.
For the remainder of the term, teachers will be engaging in a series of Mathematics workshops linked to our 2021 focus on Maths and facilitated by our Maths Learning Specialist, Shanti Treloar, with the support of the Maths Curriculum Team (Ryan Bolger, Alison Coutts, Kate O’Hara, Kylie White). You will have noticed that our Curriculum section of the newsletter is, this term, all maths related to complement that continued growth of our Mathematics Teaching and Learning program at BBPS.
Staffing Update: We congratulate Paul Thompson (who left us last year to return to Wollongong) and his wife Fernanda, on the safe arrival of Miguel Oshiro Thompson, a beautiful baby boy.
And we wish two of our wonderful staff well as they embark on new adventures. Congratulations to Bonnie Anderson, 1A, who has accepted a position at Gymnastics Australia and to Michael Berrill, who will be moving to Mt Eliza North Primary School, closer to home. We thank them both for their dedication to our students and community and will miss them both terribly. Shanti Treloar and Claire Paitaridis will be working with 1A for the remainder of the year. Georgie Hellier and Linda McCaffery will be supporting 4M until the end of this term. The school has a position advertised on Recruitment On-Line for a replacement commencing term 4.
An update on Term 3 Events
AWESOME AUGUST continues (see below)
Grade 5/6 Movie Night has, obviously, again been moved. We VERY tentatively have moved it to Thursday 2nd September and will keep you updated via Compass
At this stage, our Book Character Parade will go ahead on Tuesday, 24th August. We are to expect that this will be a student only celebration of reading this year.
At this stage, Grade 3-6 will still have their Athletics Carnival on Wednesday, 25th August.
Our annual Art Show is postponed to week 3, term 4 to ensure sufficient preparation time is provided to all students and staff. We thank Anoushka Prockiw and Georgie Hellier for their vision to date, it is shaping up to be a wonderful celebration of learning.
Awesome August is on! – Benita does 10,000 steps daily and has currently clocked up 96kms.
The Academic Captains have put together a short video to explain the Awesome August challenge and to help get everyone excited about getting involved.
For all of August, Brighton Beach Primary is participating in an exciting new challenge! Together with Hampton Primary School and Beaumaris North Primary school, have commenced tracking how many kilometres we can cover over the course of this month - hence the name Awesome August!
Why??? Well read on;
Data submitted by the children each week will be fed into a central pool which will then be churned out as sets of statistics which can be transformed into a number of charts and graphs. This presents real-life learning for the students to apply skills in Mathematics & Inquiry. By interpreting and comparing the results week on week, predicting future data and contributing to the ‘story behind the numbers’ this is an opportunity for learning and healthy exercise to come together. The competitive factor is the motivator...Which year level is winning? Teachers vs students? School vs school? How did a rainy weekend of weather impact the numbers etc
Health & Wellbeing – Awesome August presents a unique opportunity to focus on the positive impact of physical activity on mental and physical well being.
Students can be sponsored along the way to raise funds not only for our school, but 15% of ALL funds raised will also be donated to the Children’s Cancer Foundation. For BBPS this aspect is optional because we have come off the back of our Walk-a-thon.
How???
Throughout each week, from August 1st, students and families are encouraged to keep a track of how many kilometres you have covered whether walking, running, cycling, playing a soccer match that week. Total those up each week and submit to the school through a Google Form link which will be provided. Everything counts, sport matches and training, walks to school, weekend bike rides, skate-boarding, swimming etc!
The ‘Awesome August team’, will then be turning those numbers into fantastic charts and a report distributed to families every week, plotting the progress of each sub team around Australia, pitching year levels against each other and other charts to really get the excitement building throughout the school….see our first data update.
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