Newsletter Term 2 Week 1 Dates for the Diary

THURSDAY 2ND MAY 2019

Year 9 Geography excursion

Monday May 6th

School Photos

Tuesday 7th May

Sapsasa Cross Country –Wilmington

Wednesday 8th May

Uni SA visit Years 10,11,12

Wednesday 8th May

8/9 Football Carnival

Thursday 9th May

SAPOL drug & alcohol presentation Years 7-12

Tuesday 14th May

Proposed Student Free Day

Friday 7th June

(pending approval)

From the Chairperson

Hi families!

Welcome back to the second term of school. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday break and a wonderful Easter.

We were fortunate enough to be able to fill all Governing Council positions for 2019 at the AGM last term. Our councilors for this year include Tony Jarvis (Vice Chair), Michele Smith (Secretary), Katrina Kumnick, Alison Arthur, Kristy Arthur, Melissa Koch, Jacqui Jones, Bernadette Cheriton, Trish Wilson and Emily Piggott, along with Andrew Geddes (staff rep), Marianne Clarke (Kindy) and Jenny Stringer (school).

We are, however looking for parental representation on most of our sub committees listed below. * Bus – Wilmington rep and Wirrabara rep needed

* Ag Committee – multiple positions available

* Fundraising Committee – multiple positions available

* Grounds Committee – multiple positions available

* Uniform Committee – one parent rep

* Education Committee – multiple positions available

We realise that life is exceptionally busy – it is for everyone, but if you are at all interested in volunteering on one of our committees, please contact Lisa at the school on 8667 2124 or myself (Nic) on 0417 845 875. It is a great way to meet others within the school system.

As Principal Jenny Stringer has included in her write-up, the Principal’s position is coming to the end of it’s tenure this year. The position has therefore been advertised and a panel formulated to conduct the interview process. I will be holding a position on this panel as a parent representative. As you can appreciate, I am strongly bound by confidentiality, so will be unable to give any information regarding the process or the winner of the position until it is formally announced.

As a council, I hope we can look forward to a productive and positive year. We had a great start to the year with a Jacqui Jones heading the organisation and many volunteers offering their time and delicious baked goods for Steam and Traction. A positive sign of our great community!

My door is always open if there are any concerns or constructive feedback you may have in regard to council matters of the school. I can be contacted on the above number or details can be obtained through the school. I look forward to working closely with both parents and staff to help facilitate the needs of our student body. Cheers,

Nic Carey, Chairperson, BCDS Governing Council

Share the Positives: Nominate, celebrate and recognise an outstanding educator in the 2019 Public Education

Awards. Get involved and say thank you to a director, early childhood worker, teacher or support

staff member making a significant difference to the lives of children and their communities.

Principal News Welcome back to term 2. Hoping all families were able to have a relaxing break from school. We look forward to working with you this term.

As Nic has said on the front page, the tenure for principal position concludes on 24th January 2020. There is a process for selection of a principal where the job is advertised online by the Department for Education with set criteria. When the applications close there is a selection panel organised by the Education Director (ED) for the Flinders Partnership. The applications for the BCDS position close 2nd May 2019. The selection panel will be comprised of either the ED or her nominee, an AEU panel trained member from BCDS, a panel trained peer panellist (a principal of a Band A4 school from outside the Flinders Partnership) and a panel trained parent representative (usually GC Chairperson or counsellor).

The selection panel must follow due process, part of which means confidentiality by all panellists. Nic as panellist is not allowed to comment on who applied, how many applied or comments shared in panel. Please don’t put her in an awkward position by asking specific information. Nic is able to talk about the general process. Please remember too that Nic is not alone in making the decision, there are three representatives from DfE. Protocols must be followed and these are ensured by the chairperson of the panel (the ED or her nominee).

NAPLAN Online is almost upon us and Leanne Opperman has included information about this later in the newsletter. We have had personnel from DfE ICT Services in to speak with me over the holidays and Iocane (a company enlisted by DfE) have audited our ICT infrastructure with the view to be supported in updating this for the proposed Optic Fibre connection scheduled for term 2 2020. If the online aspect of NAPLAN has issues, the school has contingency paper copies to work with.

We welcome Barry Hajisavva to the school as a PRT (Permanent Relieving Teacher) in behind Alby Nicholls whilst he is on leave for two weeks. We welcome back Maureen Waters next week, she is returning from leave in term 1. Many thanks to our SRC who attended dawn services for ANZAC day. Most respectful.

Jenny Stringer Principal

Kindy News

Welcome back to Kindy for Term 2. We had a great day settling back in to Kindy on Tuesday. We shared with our friends our favourite thing about our holidays. Sounds like they received lots of eggs from the Easter Bilby/Bunny. We will send home a term planner on Thursday, with planned activities for this term including visits to Mt View Homes and the school.

On Thursday Harriet bought in a special visitor for Show and Share. We fed him some milk and then he stayed for a play. He had a great time exploring our Kindy with lots of children following.

Advanced notice - Kindy Student free day on Tuesday 2nd July (Week 10) so that staff can be undertake Learning Design and Reflection training with other educators in our partnership.

Kindy and Rural Care Staff

School News

2018 Year Book

The 2018 Year Book is on the way! Unfortunately, we were exposed to a cyber attack/virus over the Christmas

holidays which meant a lot of our work on the Year Book was lost. Having to wait for our internet service to be at

the standard required for uploading, and then re-doing and re-uploading work, has meant a delay in Year Book

publication. However, we are onto it now and are hopeful that the 2018 Year Book will be on the way soon. Thank

you for your patience and understanding.

Gayle Bury and Margo Sismey

Primary News

We held our celebration assembly on the last day of term 1. Well done to award winners from this assembly: R/1/2: Emily Watts, Harper Waters, Zander Sims and Clancy Jones 2/3/4: Geoffery Garden, Olive Smith, Olivia Roocke and Henry Zwar 5/6: Jasmine Martin, Shayla Arthur and Harrison Roocke

Also at assembly we drew the winners of our Easter competition. Thanks to all students who entered the

competition.

In the R-3 category our winners were 1st Henry Piggott 2nd Darcy Jones

In the 4-6 Category our winners were 1st Jasmine Martin 2nd Rhys Brinkley

A reminder for the children doing online NAPLAN this year that it is about giving it a go and putting in the best effort you can do. We hope students see it this way and not put so much stress on themselves regarding NAPLAN. As a school it provides us with some information on skills and concepts we need to teach more explicitly to help our students. So, all we ask is that students aim to give it their best shot.

Emma Branson Primary Coordinator

Student Photo Day Next Tuesday, the 8th of May, is School photo day. Student photo envelopes were sent home on Monday the 29th

of April. Students will need to keep these envelopes and hand them to the photographer on the day of school

photos, regardless if they are ordering or not. Please do not return these envelopes to the front office, students are

required to keep them. If families would like to have a family photo, there are family envelopes available from the

front office.

Public Education Awards Nominate, celebrate and recognise an outstanding educator in the 2019 Public Education Awards. Get involved and say thank you to a director, early childhood worker, teacher or support staff member making a significant difference to the lives of children and their communities. The Public Education Awards recognise excellence in South Australian public education, and nominations are open 1 to 31 May. Visit www.education.sa.gov.au/awards to nominate and find out more about the awards. #PublicEduAwards2019

NAPLAN NAPLAN online 2019 Our School is scheduled to undertake this years NAPLAN testing online, except the year 3 writing test which will be in a hand written format. Last term we held practices with each of the year levels, in order for the students to familiarise with the test format and also to test the capacity of our IT system. With some minor adjustments, the practice test indicated that our IT system should support the online testing format. If you wish you can go online and have a look at the test format by visiting www.nap.edu.au . You will need to click on the NAPLAN Online tab and the select the public demonstration site on the left hand side of the screen. You then will be able to scroll down and find examples of each of the tests for each of the year levels. The testing will start on Tuesday the 14th of May and continue for a 2 week period until all tests are complete.

Further details will be provided to all parents of year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students early next week outlining specific

details. If you have any queries or concerns, please contact Leanne Opperman on 86672124.

Community News

Woolworths Earn & Learn 2019 From Wednesday 1st May until Tuesday 25th June 2019, Woolworths will be issuing earn and learn stickers. As a school, we are participating in this program again. We would welcome any sticks/sheets that are collected as we have a box in the office ready. Thanks in advance for any donations.

Southern Flinders Netball Club

FunNet for students in years Foundation and Year 1 at primary school, commences on

THURSDAY, MAY 16th at Wirrabara courts

4:30 – 5:30 pm

This 10-week introduction to Netball will be run over terms 2 and 3.

Cost - $35.00

Inquiries to Kelly Zwar 0412 189 883

All welcome