September Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS

From the Admin Team

We hope this newsletter finds you all well. Another busy term is almost done at BBDSH with a few final events for our Term 3 calendar to go, Sandakan, Spellademic and Country Week.

The annual Sandakan Year 9 and 10 student presentations will take place on Monday 11 September. The students having been work very well in preparing their presentations for Monday. Unfortunately, the Leadership team will be away for professional learning in Perth (Leading School Improvement), so we are hoping that there will be as many parents as possible in attendance to show support for this event in our absence.

A big thank you to the staff and volunteering parents that have been organising the logistics and training the students in preparation for Country Week in Week 10. The students are getting very excited. The staff are banking their sleep!

As you will see through reading this newsletter, the students have had a fantastic term with lots of fun events to participate in, including Kindergarten and High School Transitions, Book Week, Science Week, Careers Incursions and our wonderful Father’s Day celebration. These events are a vital component of the educational journey, enhancing student engagement, promoting social and emotional development, and creating a positive and enriching school environment. These events contribute to well-rounded, motivated, and happy students who are more likely to excel academically and thrive in all aspects of their lives.

Within this newsletter you will also see the first instalment of responses of the School Culture survey that parents completed in term 2. The survey spread across six aspects of the school culture: Relationships, Teaching Quality, Learning Environment, Resources, Leadership, and Student Achievement and Progress. In each newsletter, for the remainder of the year, we will share two of the responses with you, beginning with Relationships and Teaching Quality. Additionally, as the School Board value your opinion, we are planning to hold a Community Consultation Forum in term 4, where you will be able to meet with board members to provide your ideas toward strategies for improvement. We will communicate more information about this as soon as possible.

We hope you have a fantastic holiday break, and look forward to seeing you all next term!

High School News

Australian Defence Force Careers Talk

On Tuesday 15 August, all the Year 7-10 students were lucky to have representatives from our Australian Defence Force (ADF) come in and talk with them about career opportunities within the defence force.

Students were exposed to different careers, pathways for acceptance, information on VET and ATAR courses available through the ADF and personal experiences from the two presenting officers.

All students were very engaged and excited to hear about all the opportunities that the ADF can offer them as a career pathway.

If you would like more information on the Australian Defence Force Careers- their website has a huge number of resources and information for you to view. 

Student Piece By Kayden Turner

On Tuesday 15^th of August, two serving representatives from the Australian Defence Force visited our school to talk about the ADF and what it can offer us. They spoke about the jobs they offer and the kind of pay you can earn. The male soldier had served over 30 years in the army, which is amazing and everyone should commend him for that. There are three branches of the Australian Defence Force; The Australian Army, The Royal Australian Air Force and The Royal Australian Navy. I learned that you can be paid to study before you actually get into the Defence Force. Also when you are in the Army reserves you get tax free pay. The Defence Force can help you with buying houses and give you two weeks off to play sport and be paid for it. When you think of the Defence Force, you probably think of guns and blood but that’s not actually what it is, there are medical jobs, jobs in IT and cooking. The Australian Defence Force gives you a chance to serve and protect your country or a home and family atmosphere in your workplace, if you have nowhere to turn. If you don’t know what you’re going to do when your older, what job you’ll have, then you should consider the ADF.

Primary School News

Kindy Transition

This term, we have had our Kindy Transition students and their parents join us on Tuesday mornings for rhymes, songs, dancing, craft and play-based learning. Our current Kindergarten students have been modelling taking turns, sitting on the mat and the routines of Kindy, with the aim to ensure a smooth start to Kindergarten in 2024. If your child is born between 01-07-2019 and the 30-06-2020, please contact our office on 9765 0032 for information on how to enrol for our Kindy Transition program and for Kindergarten in 2024.

Kate Beatty

Kindergarten Assembly

On Thursday 10^th August, the Kindy class amazed the audience with their retell of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and sang a song called "Hairy Bear". Each child had a turn speaking on the microphone and looked fabulous dressed up as little bears.
Kate Beatty

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Whole School News

Attendance

Term 3 has unfortunately seen a drop in our overall attendance rates. Many of these absences can be attributed to sickness, however, we have seen a rise in the number of unauthorised absences over this term.

One of these unauthorised absences is for students who have been taken out of school for vacations within school time.

The School Education Act 1999 does not allow principals to give permission for families to take holidays during the school term. As students are required to attend school every day, time off for holidays is recorded as an absence

It is important to ensure that your child to attends school regularly, and to try to avoid vacations during school time, as this impacts on student learning as they miss vital concepts and skills that other students have been taught in their absence.

As a school we appreciate your support in avoiding vacations during the school year and ensuring that your child is attending school on a regular basis. 

Science Week

Mr Ridley and the Year 10 students performed a number of mind-blowing science experiments that involved dry ice clouds, elephant toothpaste and loud explosions, all in the name of Science Week. Opportunities such as these can inspire students to consider careers in science-related fields. Exposing them to the excitement and possibilities of science encourages them to dream big and set their sight on becoming the innovators, researchers, and problem solvers of the future!    

After the Science performance the Year 1/ 2 Class excitingly took pen to paper and wrote about their favourite part in the performance.

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Book Week

Our wonderful school celebrated Book Week in Week 6 and I would like to say a huge “Thank You” to everyone.

• My Year 1-3 helpers, who came into the library at lunch times to decorate your library.
• Rebel and Kane for helping with everything else in preparation for the Book Week.
• Parent helpers, Mrs Talitha Hales and Mrs Carolyn Mader, for assisting me during the Larrikin Book Fair.
• Mrs Grace Walsh (English) for all your help with everything at the High School and assisting with the staff dress up.
• To all the staff for your fantastic support.
• To our wonderful P & C.
• Parents and grandparents for supporting the Fair and Fancy-Dress Parade at the Primary School.

You are all so AWESOME!

Ms Carol McMeikan

Father’s Day Breakfast

On a crisp but sunny morning at BBDHS, Dads, Grandads and special people attended the Father’s Day BBQ breakfast. The BBQ was hot and the kitchen was sizzling, and after serving egg and bacon rolls - the students and their special guests enjoyed the sunshine to either play cricket, basketball, soccer or football. There was also a fun photo booth set up where some great photos were captured. After the breakfast and free play, everyone participated in a record-breaking Hokey Pokey. To finish the morning off, the students enjoyed activities with their special guest in the classrooms, which included making art pieces, crafts, playing games and making tasty meat rub.

A huge thank you to the staff of BBDHS for providing this special morning for our students and families, Boyup Brook IGA for the generous donation of buns and bacon, the Harries and Gentle families for the donation of farm fresh eggs. And of course, a massive thank you to all the Dads, Grandads and family that attended - it would not have been the same without you!

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Art News

In Art this term, we have been busy with artwork for the Dinninup show. 

Both Year 4/5 and Year 5/6 students have finished some pretty awesome Paper Mache dragonflies and fish and are now working on their 'art in the night' drawing and painting activities.    

Year 1/2 and 2/3 students have finished their winter bears, night line art activities, and now self-portraits and show theme activities respectively.

Pre-primary have been exceptionally busy and have shown their artistic talent with Monet inspired lily pads and owls at night. They are now completing their 'bats' project looking at primary colours and shape.

The High School students have also been busy making some very close to replica Monet inspired Bridge Over a Pond acrylic paintings.  They have finished a show themed activity and now busy with their 'tree of life' textured clay tiles.  

Mrs Narelle Simpson

Boyup Brook DHS AFL Footy Tipping

Footy tipping is over for another year with 57 staff, students and parents competing across the year.

Teachers took out the top 3 spots with Mr Stephen Franklyn coming from behind to win by 1 game in the final round, ahead of Mr Wells and Mr Carrol. (Mr Ridley could not keep up with his fellow colleagues and finished in 37^th.)

The highest placed parent was Gemma Lee Steere in 4^th and the best placed student was Charlotte Ford in 7^th.

Weekly winners were each given a 3D printed item in colours of their choice.

Congratulations to all who competed and hopefully we will have even more participants next year.

School Culture Survey – Results

In term 2, 2023, a response was sought from all parents using the Department of Education’s Schools’ Survey using the School Culture tool. The responses have helped us understand areas where we are performing well as a school, and areas for further development. Over the remainder of the year, we would like to share the results of the School Culture Survey with you to celebrate the highlights, share information about small ‘quick wins’ that we are able to make to improve in areas, and to facilitate further consultation with you to further develop in certain areas.

There were 49 responses from parents.

The Survey was spread across 6 aspects of the school culture, and in this newsletter, we will be looking at Relationships and Teaching Quality.

WAAPA Summer School 2024

Join us at WAAPA in January 2024 for a fun filled time, you’ll make new friends, learn new skills and best of all - do lots of performing! This summer WAAPA is offering a range of performing arts courses as part of our school holiday program for secondary school students. Classes for young people from Year 7 to 12 in Acting, Improvisation, Dance, Acting for Camera, Jazz and Music Theatre means there is something for everyone with a passion for the arts. This year we have a course especially designed for students from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds. Our wonderful staff cater for all abilities and experience levels. For information about the many courses on offer please visit Summer School 2024 or contact Gabrielle Metcalf at explore.waapa@ecu.edu.au or 9370 6775.

No Dogs on School Grounds

We would like to remind our school community that it is Department of Education policy that dogs are not allowed on school grounds unless part of a school organised event or program. Please contact our friendly Admin team if you would like to arrange to bring your dog on school grounds for an event.

P&C News

COUNTRY WEEK FUNDRAISING

What an incredible two terms of fundraising for Country week! With the extremely generous donations from businesses and our Country Week Committee’s dedication, the total amount that was raised was over $20,000. With the $2000 financial support given to some families our amount per student was reduced to $270. What an incredible achievement. The break-down of all of this will be in the financial report at the next P&C meeting.

The photo of the Winner of the raffle that Mr Kim Llyod held at the football/hockey game raised an awesome $455. The generous donations from the Boyup Brook Pharmacy, Boyup IGA, The Treehouse Café and The Yarn and Co, made this very successful. Finally, a huge Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket/s and sold the tickets on the day and to Lillyanne Caldwell and Sophie Kay (Year 6), for the hours you sat at the raffle ticket station. You are superstars.

The last fundraiser which received $500 for Country Week is the Football Gates for the Lower South West Football League. Thank you to the wonderful people that have offered to do a session on the gates to make this run smoothly.

DINNINUP SHOW

Our local Dinninup Show is always a special time in our community. This year we are pleased to announce that the Upper Blackwood Show Committee is hosting many fun activities and therefore we don’t have to provide as much in our P&C area. We are selling Show bags and are providing a “hangout area”. We would love as many volunteers as possible to do a shift to assist with this running smoothly. If you can help, please contact me on 0428316516 or rickliztwigg@gmail.com

P&C BANNER

Thank you to Sally Larkin and Kelly Kay for creating and ordering our P&C Banner. This was voted on at the meeting as an important way to display our P&C contribution to events around the town. We will literally be flying the P&C flag!

TELETHON FUNDRAISING MONEY

Last year we began the Telethon fundraising campaign with smoothie and treats to buy for morning tea. We have decided to have this once more before the 2023 Telethon in hope that we can donate more money. On Friday 15^th September (just before Country Week) we will be having a “buy a muffin/Milo/Juicebox” recess at both sites for a gold coin. If anyone would like to volunteer time to this, at either site, or bake a batch of muffins, please send me a text message or email ASAP. At Telethon the BBDHS money will be donated and hopefully read out. This is another way to display the wonderful school community we have at BBDHS.

CANTEEN TERM 4 NEWS

With such an incredible response to the POP-UP Canteen over the course of Country Week fundraising, we are excited to announce that in Term 4 we will have two POP- UP canteen days. A huge thank you to Vicki Dulex for volunteering her time to provide this. We will need volunteers to help with the POP-UP canteen and will send out the dates very soon so please keep an eye out for this announcement.

NEXT YEARS P&C POSITIONS

As we approach the end of Term 3 and fly into the final term, P&C positions will  be  cleared for 2024 and the below positions will be advertised.

PRESIDENT – VICE PRESIDENT – SECRETARY – TREASURER

All these positions are very fulfilling and rewarding when you create a year of P&C events to develop the BBDHS resources and community spirit. Over the next little while please consider this and feel free to contact the P&C or myself with any questions. We will be heavily advertising this in Term 4 as it would be a massive shame to not fill these positions for 2024.

Next Meeting is Monday 16^th October 3.40pm at the BBDHS Primary School Library. Would love to see you there.

Lizzie Twigg

From the School Nurse

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