Late Arrivals

A reminder that if your child arrives to school after 9:00am, they will need to be signed in at the office. Please ensure that you sign them in on the office iPad prior to providing your child with the green late pass, which they provide to their teachers. If your child is not signed in as late, they will be marked as absent and you will receive a text message from the school informing you that they are absent.

Farmers’ Market

Unfortunately, due to the 5 day lock down, we were unable to run our February Farmers’ Market. Thank you to all of the families who had volunteered to help at the market. As our Year 3/4 families did not get the opportunity to help at the market, our Year 3/4 team will now be organising volunteers for the November 14^th market.

We are looking forward to getting our Farmers’ Market up and running again on March 14^th. For this market, our Year 1/2 team will be organising volunteers. If you are available to volunteer on the gate, set up or pack up, please complete the Google form using this link:  https://forms.gle/XaFRUJsJGqyvEvBZ6

Parents and Friends (P&F) Committee AGM

The P&F Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday 12^th March at 9:00am in the BER. New members welcome! Parents, Grandparents and friends are encouraged to come along for a cuppa and some morning tea and to help the P&F plan some great activities for our students in 2021. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, the P&F were unable to plan and run activities and fundraisers in 2020. We are looking forward to providing opportunities for these great activities in 2021, such as celebrating Mother’s and Father’s Day and fundraisers such as the successful Colourthon. If you are interested in taking on a position in the P&F, please read the flyer and information contained in this newsletter. We hope to see you there! 

Leadership Badge Ceremony

At this Friday’s assembly, we will be announcing our 2021 Junior School Council Representatives and Year 6 leadership positions. Recipients of these positions will be awarded their badge by Sonja Kilkenny. We are planning to hold this assembly outside on the basketball court so that families can attend. Families are welcome to attend and are reminded to please keep your social distance.

Parent Teacher Interviews

A reminder that Parent Teacher interviews have been rescheduled to this coming Tuesday 2^nd and Wednesday 3^rd March. Parents are automatically booked in for the original time they booked. If you need to change your time or have forgotten your time, please contact your child’s teacher.

Mr Rankine will be running his interviews on different days. Parents of students in MFR, please check Compass as you will need to book in a new time.

Under current government restrictions, face masks must be worn indoors and will be required when attending Parent Teacher Interviews. We look forward to seeing you next week.

Mr Akeroyd

It is with some regret that I have to inform you that Mr Akeroyd will be leaving Bonbeach PS at the end of Term 1 and won’t return until the start of next year.

The school has already commenced the process to employ a replacement teacher and you can rest assured that we will be very diligent to ensure we get the best possible candidate.

We intend to have the replacement teacher employed before the end of Term 1 to ensure a smooth transition and handover.

Whilst we realise that this will cause some disappointment from some students, parents and his workmates, we wish Mr Akeroyd best wishes for his time away from here.

School Council Elections 2021

What is a school council and what does it do?

All government schools in Victoria have a school council. They are legally constituted bodies that are given powers to set the key directions of a school within statewide guidelines. In doing this, a school council is able to directly influence the quality of education that the school provides for its students.

Who is on the school council?

For most school councils, there are three possible categories of membership:

• A mandated elected Parent category – more than one-third of the total members must be from this category. Department of Education and Training (DET) employees can be Parent members at their child’s school as long as they are not engaged in work at the school.
• A mandated elected DET employee category – members of this category may make up no more than one-third of the total membership of school council. The principal of the school is automatically one of these members.
• An optional Community member category – members are co-opted by a decision of the council because of their special skills, interests or experiences. DET employees are not eligible to be Community members.

Generally, the term of office for all members is two years. The term of office of half the members expires each year, creating vacancies for the annual school council elections.

Why is Parent membership so important?

Parents on school councils provide important viewpoints and have valuable skills that can help shape the direction of the school.

Those parents who become active on a school council find their involvement satisfying in itself and may also find that their children feel a greater sense of belonging.

How can you become involved?

The most obvious way is to vote in the elections, which are held in Term 1 each year. However, ballots are only held if more people nominate as candidates than there are positions vacant.

In view of this, you might seriously consider

• standing for election as a member of the school council
• encouraging another person to stand for election.

Do I need special experience to be on school council?

No. What you do need is an interest in your child’s school and the desire to work in partnership with others to help shape the school’s future. What do you need to do to stand for election?

The principal will issue a Notice of Election and Call for Nominations following the commencement of Term 1 each year. All school council elections must be completed by the end of March unless the usual time line has been varied by the Minister.

If you decide to stand for election, you can arrange for someone to nominate you as a candidate or you can nominate yourself in the Parent category.

DET employees whose child is enrolled in a school in which they are not engaged in work are eligible to nominate for parent membership of the school council at that school.

Once the nomination form is completed, return it to the principal within the time stated on the Notice of Election. You will receive a Nomination Form Receipt in the mail following the receipt of your completed nomination.

Generally, if there are more nominations received than there are vacancies on council, a ballot will be conducted during the two weeks after the call for nominations has closed.

Remember

Ask at the school for help if you would like to stand for election and are not sure what to do

Consider standing for election to council this year

Be sure to vote in the elections.

Contact Ken Jones for further information.

Notice of Election and Call for Nominations

An election is to be conducted for members of the School Council of Bonbeach Primary School

Nomination forms may be obtained from the school and must be lodged by 4.00 pm on Friday 26/2/2021.

If there are more candidates than vacant positions then there will be a ballot and the ballot will close at 4.00 pm on Monday 16/3/2021

Following the closing of nominations a list of the nominations received will be posted at the school. The terms of office, membership categories and number of positions in each membership category open for election are as follows:

regards

Ken & Lisa

Bonbeach Primary School Parents and Friends Association (P&F)

The Bonbeach PS P&F are a group of parents who are responsible for organising fun activities for students and families at school and for coordinating fundraising events. Some of these activities include, the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day stalls, School Disco and Colourthon (colour run) to name a few. Without the support of the parents on the P&F, we wouldn’t be able to run these activities for our students.

 The P&F are in need of people to join the committee in 2021. No experience is required, just a desire to be social and have fun. The committee meets once a month for around an hour and then as and when needed for events. 

The P&F will be holding their AGM on Friday 11th March 9am in the BER. We encourage you to come along and join our association. If you are interested in taking on a role as part of the P&F, please see the details below.

If your only concern is you haven't been involved in anything like this before, be assured most of the current committee hadn't either! You will be provided with help and support.  

Please contact the office or Lisa Roolker if you would like further information, or come to the meeting on Friday12th March. We hope to see you there!

                 P&F Roles

President

• To provide respectful and transparent leadership – including a commitment to following proper protocol when addressing any issues.
• To oversee the P&F involvement in the school year – including the committee’s running of special events, stalls and fundraising or support for Junior School Council and special
• Chair and determine monthly
• Work with P&F Secretary and Bonbeach Primary School Office staff to effectively communicate P&F information and notices of meetings to the whole school
• Liaise with school principal in the preparation of agenda
• Responsible for overseeing that resolutions have been acted upon and that all “actions” are in process.
• To be available, wherever possible, to represent the school and to attend and / or speak at assemblies, “information nights”, “graduation evenings” and other school functions.

Vice President

• To assist the President with his / her duties through an informed understanding of his / her role.
• A Vice President who is an experienced committee member might act as a mentor to a new or inexperienced
• To chair meetings in President’s absence.

Uniform Coordinator

• Open the second hand shop once a month and receipt sales of stock and liaise with Bonbeach Primary School Office.
• Report to Parents and Friends

School Council Representative

• Attend both P&F and School Council meetings. You will be the link between these two important committees.
• Present a report to School Council, usually the minutes of the previous
• Present the proposed dates of P&F activities e.g. stalls, Colourthon, to School Council for approval.
• Present proposed P&F fundraising activities e.g. raffles, stalls, to School Council for approval.
• Present a report from School Council to P&F.

Secretary

• Attend Parents and Friends meetings. Liaise with President as to what is required on the agenda.
• Prepare and copy agenda for
• Take minutes of
• Prepare and distribute minutes to members of Parents and Friends, Office (for School Council)
• Check mail. Forward mail to relevant Parents and Friends coordinators e.g. Uniform mail to Uniform Shop coordinator.

Welcome to Art  

There is a wonderful energy in the Art Room at the moment and the kids are really enjoying spending time together whilst creating art. The art room is full of positivity and playfulness, which is the perfect environment for building skills and self-confidence.  

This term we focus our attention on drawing and painting. Foundation students have had a welcome tour of our exciting Art Room and have begun making some creative memories. We are starting off the year with a focus on "All About Me" and are busy measuring ourselves and thinking about what we want to be when we grow up. Students from Year One through to Year Six have been learning about the technique of mark making; using various materials and tools to express ideas through shapes, texture and colours. We will be looking at techniques used by Australian artists and tapping into our wonderful local environment for inspiration. Year One and Two students have created fabulous ‘Pobblebonk’ frogs using oil pastels, Year Three and Four students are using the patterns and shapes in seashells to create Port Phillip Bay fish, and the Year Five and Six students are in the process of creating mixed media representations of the human impact on Australian landscapes. Look out for some of the students’ work throughout the school, in future newsletters, and on SeeSaw as the term progresses.   

Jodie Wicks (Foundation) 

Bethea Fregon (Year 1 – 6) 

Artz Blitz 2021, Kingston Arts’ annual all-ages and all-abilities community arts and creative writing competition returns this March with new prizes for both visual artists and creative writers. Artz Blitz is a great way to challenge and inspire young people and we encourage you to get your students, colleagues and families involved in this year’s exciting event. Junior entrants are 12 years of age and under and Youth entrants are between 13-17 years.

Entrants may register for visual arts (2D/3D) or creative writing. For information about adult categories, including terms and conditions, please visit our website or call 9556 4462. To view images from last year’s event, please visit our Facebook page.

 School group & family registration process

To simplify the group registration process, please call our Box Office on (03) 9556 4440 between 9am – 4.30pm weekdays to enter your students over the phone. This also applies to parents wishing to enrol multiple family members. Registrations must close Monday 15 March, 5pm.

• Register for Artz Blitz 2021 – Facebook event
• Award Presentation and Opening – Facebook event
• @KingstonArtsAU (Instagram)