Parental involvement in school activities

It has been wonderful to see so many parents and family members involved in recent school activities. From attending recent school events such as the Easter Hat Parade and Mother’s Day breakfast, joining in and supporting learning during rich learning events or helping out with fundraising events with our school P&C it is no doubt having a huge impact on student engagement. As we continue to experience life after COVID which changed the way we often interact, it is important that we continue to show our kids that education is important and the positive effects of being active in your child’s learning and school life is backed by years of research. We can’t wait to see you at future opportunities that may arise.

New funding agreement between State and Federal Government

The biggest news in respect to public education is that $4.8 billion in federal funding to NSW public schools over ten years has been signed off between state and federal government to ensure all schools meet their 100% resourcing standard. This will see more funds flow into public schools over the next ten years which will help lift facilities and educational support for those who need it most. More details around how and when these funds will land in schools will be announced soon

Reporting to parents

You will notice some changes in your child’s next student report when it arrives at the end of term. Following a change in guidelines for NSW public schools, parents will see a much simpler report, which is much easier for parents to understand. This includes a focus on English and Mathematics, and a general comment to outline how your child is progressing in other areas of schooling. They also include a change of language from SOUND (C) to EXPECTED as this was always concerning to many parents when their child was getting a ‘C-Sound’ when achieving what was expected at grade level.

Small Group Tuition

As part of the NSW Education’s priority of improving literacy and numeracy standards, schools will be receiving some additional funding for Students in Years 4 and 6 who landed in the ‘Needs additional Support’ category of NAPLAN last year. At our school this will include a 10 week intensive program to uplift identified students in these years (approx. 3 times a week for 20-30mins) in Literacy and Numeracy which will start this term.

High Potential and Gifted Education

Along with other NSW Public Schools, Bellbird devoted one of their school development days in Term 2 towards a focus on High Potential and Gifted Education to ensure we are catering for the individual needs of all students. Our school focused on developing our knowledge and practice around the four domains of high potential including:

• Intellectual domain – refers to natural abilities in processing, understanding, reasoning, and the transfer of learning.
• Creative domain – refers to natural abilities in imagination, invention and originality.
• Social-emotional – refers to natural abilities in self-management and relating to and interacting with others.
• Physical domain – refers to natural abilities in muscular movement and motor control.

It was great to improve our knowledge and understanding in this space and reflect on the many initiatives and activities already offered at Bellbird which fit within the domains. We have some great plans on how to further build on these going forward.

Parking Reminders

Can I please remind all parents and visitors to our school to ensure they are both following parking rules around our school, and being considerate of our school’s neighbours when dropping off and picking up children or visiting our school.

This includes:

• Obeying all parking signs such as no stopping, no parking, bus and kiss and drop zones.
• Not parking across laneways or driveways
• Driving cautiously around our school and neighbouring streets to keep our kids safe.

Winter School Uniform Reminder

As we head into Autumn, it is now time to start organising those school jumpers ready for those cooler mornings and days ahead. These can include official maroon jumpers from Flanagans menswear or plain maroon jumpers from other suppliers such as Big W, Kmart or online.

Wearing school jumpers each day is an important part of school uniform which:

• Easily identifies our students as Bellbirdians, keeping everyone safe
• Promotes unity and a sense of belonging for all students
• Reduces bullying, pressure or social comparisons based on student clothing.

We understand that at times, there may be a time that students can not wear their uniform jumper to school (e.g. lost or in the wash). To ensure that they can still wear uniform and fit in with other students we have a supply of clean loan jumpers we lend students on any given day. If your child comes home with one of these, we ask that you wash and return as soon as possible.