Term 1 - Tue 28th January to Fri 4th April
Term 2 - Tue 22nd April to Fri 4th July
Term 3 - Mon 21st July to Fri 19th September
Term 4 - Mon 6th October to Fri 19th December
CURRICULUM DAYS FOR 2025 - No students required at school
Curriculum days are student free days.
Tuesday 28th January
Wednesday 29th January
Friday 6th June
Monday 3rd November
Please note that the school office may be closed on certain student free days.
AGM and School Council Meeting
The School Council Annual General Meeting is next Thursday 21st March at 6pm for all parents who may be interested in attending. This will be immediately followed by the March School Council meeting.
New and Returning School Council Members
We look forward to welcoming Simone Heywood to the Bonbeach School Council and thank Jenny Ferguson and Dave Griffiths for volunteering to continue on SC for another 2 years.
Staff Car Park
Student safety is a priority at Bonbeach Primary and as adults it is vital that we are responsible and set examples for our children and students. Please be reminded that the staff carpark is not to be accessed for school drop off or pick up and access through car park gates is not permitted, as it is not a safe area.
We thank you for your assistance with keeping everyone safe.
Come and Lend a Hand in the Library
If you are able to assist with the distribution of the Scholastic book orders we would appreciate your help. This is only required 7 times a year and involves distributing ordered books to student’s classrooms.
Scholastic is a fantastic program which raises funds for new books to be purchased for the library. Please see Sharon or Wendy at the office if you are able to assist.
When my child won’t listen
Dr Justin Coulson
One of the most common complaints I hear from parents about their children is that, “The kids just won’t listen.” But guess what. They are listening. They’re just not complying! You’ll typically find that a handful of standard answers permeate the Internet and parenting advice books when it comes to this topic. Let’s acknowledge them first, because they can be helpful.
Short sentences are easier to process than long lectures. Keep your statements and requests simple, clear, and direct.
Making eye contact, smiling, and ensuring your child has heard you always improves the likelihood that your child will act.
Ask your child to tell you what you told them. If you ask them to pick up the wet towels from the bathroom floor and they’re not responsive, ask them, “What did I say just then?” and wait for them to tell you.
Speaking louder (yelling) won’t draw them to you and it’s unlikely to encourage them to want to listen to you. Try speaking softly. They’ll open their ears, lean in, and listen carefully.
A soft touch on the arm, a squeeze or a hug, or an arm across the shoulder… These gentle touches can be enough to act as a circuit-breaker so your child can pay attention to what you’re asking and help move things along.
Say what you want. If you tell your child what not to do (such as “don’t hit the stick against the wall) It requires more effort on the part of your child to redirect their energies. Now they have to stop doing the thing that’s bothering you and think of something to do instead.
When you have to say “no”, spin it into a “yes”. If you’re asked, “Can we stay at the park longer?” you can say, “You bet. We’ll have a longer stay at the park on the weekend when we come back with your friends.” If they plead, “Can we please have ice-cream”, respond with “You sure love ice-cream. We’ll have ice-cream on Friday night with our movie like always.” Your yes is usually going to be a “not now,” but if you phrase it right, it goes down a treat.
If we want to be even better parents, the five suggestions in this next section will help us take it to a whole new level:
The fancier answers
When you ask your child to do something, consider the connection. Connection means feeling seen, heard, and valued. Do your children feel like you see them as more than a convenient way to get something done? Trying to command without connection – like yelling between rooms – is a lousy way to have your kids pay attention and usually won’t lead to anything resembling compliance. (It’s not realistic to expect that you’ll “connect” every time something needs doing. But maybe we can connect more than we currently are)?
If your child is in the middle of something their listening and compliance will be way down. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask our children to be involved in helping when they’re doing something. That’s not realistic. But when we’re sensitive to their priorities, things go better. Consider statements like, “When that episode is done, please turn off the tv.”
We expect too little of our children physically and we expect too much of our children emotionally. Demanding they “calm down” or “stop it” might be more than they can manage. But asking them to clear the table will typically not be too much. Consider their developmental capability, emotionally and physically, before issuing edicts.
Your child might be perfectly capable of going to bed on time most nights, but on a sleepover night (or some other major event), the context changes. Demanding perfect behaviour at a funeral might make sense and be a sign of respect, but if they’re grieving and confused, or if all of their cousins are there and they’re excited, we might need to adjust our expectations. Requiring our children to listen to us the same way in every context is to expect our children to act like robots. Be mindful of context.
Call your child by name. Look at them and quietly remind them of the issue that’s requiring focus. The fewer words you use the better. Two is ideal. For example, “Your bedroom,” “Your stinky socks,” “The dishes,” and so on. Say please, and smile kindly.
regards
Ken and Jayne
Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme
The Victorian government recently implemented an incentive to help reduce waste in our state. This scheme rewards Victorians with a 10c deposit for every eligible can, carton and bottle that is returned to a specific recycle depot.
The money generated from the return of these products will be donated to a charity nominated by our S.R.C. representatives.
As an added bonus, house points will be awarded at the end of the year according to the total amounts raised from our refunds earned.
So, let’s all get together to help reduce landfill, clean up our environment while remembering those less fortunate. PLEASE DO NOT CRUSH THE CANS BEFORE PLACING IN THE BINS.
PFR | Thomas A |
PJT | Hazel R |
PKM | Zara B |
JCS | Georgia C |
JHC | Madison C |
JKB | Emma G |
JKM | James C |
JMG | Cece C |
MAC | Leo C |
MBJ | Ellery F |
MEI | Rose C |
MMS | Bailey C |
SJH | Ollie G |
SLJ | Brigette R |
SMW | Harper B |
SSM | Brock C |
PE | SLJ |
Visual Arts | PJT |
Performing Arts | JKB |
Although it was sizzling on Sunday it didn’t deter enthusiastic shoppers from attending the monthly Farmer’s Market.
Thank you again to all the amazing families who volunteered their time to assist on Sunday, we really can’t express how much your help is appreciated. Thanks to the Strickland, Flemming, Mihalopoulos, Virgos, Eckard, McInnes, Hovic, Carter, Stokes, Kraszewski, Wood, Bighetti, Duke, Lipinski, Yandall, Southgate, Johnston, Russell, Sango, Carpenter, Torcasio, Vallejo, Warren and Gleeson families.
The smell of freshly brewed coffee, bunches of flowers, tasty bahn mi, dumplings, music and the line for freshly baked bread were a few of the many attractions on Sunday.
Pearl and Sylvie sold their home-grown sunflowers to the community and proudly showed off their tallest sunflower stalk to their customers!
We look forward to seeing you at the next market on Sunday 14th April which will be run by the Year 3/4 families. Please keep an eye on Compass for the sign up link to ensure the valuable funds benefit students in the 3/4 area.As the end of the school term nears our busy green thumbs are busy preparing the garden for autumn and winter.
The musquee de provence pumpkins, a French, vatiety, have been harvested and seeds are being saved for future crops and sale at the Farmer’s Market.
Students have been eagerly participating in leaf races in garden club which they absolutely LOVED! Especially finding a lived in leaf and discovering the inhabitants.