Bimbadeen Heights Principal Blog

I am very pleased to inform you that we have started to move into our new building today! We have been waiting for this day for a very long time and excitement levels are very high.

The following classes will be moving permanently into the new building: 5MF, 5GB, 5CB, 5ML, 6HC and 6ER. They will be progressively moving in over the next few days as they must vacate their current ‘portable’ classrooms by next Tuesday afternoon.

1MR and 1SD will also be moving into the new building temporarily for a few weeks as their current classrooms are to be demolished and replaced with one of the double classroom ‘portables’. These double classrooms are vastly superior to the single classrooms that 1MR and 1SD are currently in. It is planned that 1MR and 1SD will move into their temporary locations in the new building next Thursday July 28. We are employing some workers to assist with this move. However, if you have some time and would like to offer your help, please speak to your child’s teacher as they may welcome the additional assistance.

Contractors will be here to dismantle and remove one of the Year 5 double classrooms (5CB & 5ML) next Wednesday July 28. They will then return on the weekend of July 30/31 to demolish and remove the two Year 6 classrooms, (6HC & 6ER). On the weekend of August 6/7 the contractors will demolish and remove the two Year 1 classrooms, (1MR & 1SD). The contractors have explained that the reason they wish to do the demolition and removal work on weekends is to avoid undue noise and disruption to the rest of the school. (Audits have been undertaken and there is no asbestos in these buildings that are to be demolished). As soon as possible after August 7 the double classroom will be resited to where 1MR and 1SD are currently. The services will then be reconnected and the children will move back into these classrooms. During all of this work the contractors will be fencing off their work areas and ensuring the safety of the children.

We will be holding an open night here at the school in August when all parents will be able to visit the magnificent new building. We will also be having an official opening later in the year.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we move into the final stages of this project that will see a vastly improved school once the buildings have all been moved and the artificial turf is re-laid.

You may have noticed media coverage in recent weeks on the topic of Access Ministries and the National Schools Chaplaincy Program.  Our School Chaplain, John Vander Velde, or Mr Van as he is known to all here, is employed by Access Ministries, and is funded through the National Schools Chaplaincy Program.  The allegations gaining the media coverage are that Chaplains in schools are proselytising.  That’s a word you don’t hear very often and it means to try to convert somebody to a religious faith or political doctrine.   I can assure our school community that I have never had feedback regarding our Chaplain proselytising.  I have had many requests however for Mr Van to contact and speak to parents and their children to support them through the challenges that have come their way in the course of daily life.  The number of such requests is increasing as the needs increase and as the support that John provides is so valuable.  John shows great compassion and understanding that is backed up with tangible support in the form of access to professional counsellors targeted to specific needs, or being a familiar face at a court hearing, or providing a voucher for a meat tray, or helping out with odd jobs around the house of a family in need and much more.  I certainly don’t put this into the category of proselytising however making life better is at the core of every religious philosophy and this is what our School Chaplain does by supporting parents and children.  Lots of awful things have happened in the world under the name of Christianity or other religious beliefs however it has always been my experience having worked with three Chaplains in two different government schools, that the School Chaplaincy program isn’t one of them.  

I am a strong advocate for Chaplaincy and just as strong in my belief that Chaplains must not proselytise or make any judgements about other people’s religious beliefs.  It has always been my experience that Chaplains, including our own Mr Van, have adhered to this code of practice that is embedded in their conditions of employment.

We are all well aware of the growing phenomenon of social networking and the attraction that it has for children and young people. Social networking is here to stay and is very important to young people.   We are hearing daily in the media about sites such as Facebook and YouTube.

Young people, including many of our own students, have Facebook accounts and use them regularly.  This phenomenon is not going to go away and it is up to us as parents, teachers, mentors and leaders of the next generation, to make sure that children learn to use the technology safely and responsibly.  President Barak Obama, the US President, when asked what one piece of advice he would give to the young people of America, said, “Be careful what you put on Facebook.”

In light of this, and should you be willing for your child to have a Facebook account, I am providing some information, advice and strategies to parents that, I believe, will help keep our children safe and allow them to become responsible users of technology.

Information about Facebook

• It is against the Facebook Rules for children under the age of 13 to use Facebook.  Are you aware that your children may be using false dates of birth in order to create their accounts?
• Some children may not understand the issues around privacy and have inadequate privacy settings allowing anyone, anywhere to search the sites for photos or participate in conversations with them potentially exposing themselves to approaches by online predators.
• Children using inappropriate language (swearing, name calling, bullying) on their page. Once posted it can be seen by all of their ‘friends’ on Facebook and depending on the privacy settings of their ‘friends’, potentially seen by thousands of ‘friends of friends’.  Children have always experimented with swear words but in the past it has been in the privacy of a conversation with only a few listeners, not a permanent record for hundreds to see.
• Some children are using Facebook to bully or tease others with inappropriate comments or ‘put-downs’.  Other children then post comments such as “I agree”, “LOL” or click on the thumbs-up button to indicate that they ‘like’ the comment or picture.  These children then become part of the problem by supporting the initial harassment. (Under Australian law, inappropriate use of communication technologies can be a ‘criminal offence’ if they are used to “cause offence, bully, harass or embarrass” someone.  Any person 10 years of age or older can be charged and convicted.)
• I have seen children’s Facebook pages that include photos of other children at school or at school camp that they do not have permission to post. ‘Tagging’ of friends in photos is another area fraught with risk.  Once again, these photos can be accessed by every ‘friend’ and depending on the settings, every ‘friend of a friend’.  If the child has no privacy settings these photos can be accessed by anyone.

The concept of ‘Friends’ on Facebook

Parents should be talking to their children about who their Facebook ‘friends’ are.  The number of ‘friends’ on Facebook is a matter of pride for most children and they will tell you exactly how many they have, and for many of them, it is hundreds, including many who are not even close acquaintances.

Advice for parents

• Log in to our Digital Excellence site with your child and work through the silver and gold cyber safety badges together.  http://www.deaausonline.com  It will take approximately 30 minutes and will provide you with common knowledge as well as a great opportunity to discuss something of immense importance to children’s on-line safety.
• As a parent, you should take a rigorous interest in your child’s online activities including Facebook. 
• As a parent you should be listed as a Facebook ‘friend’ so that you have access to your child’s page.
• Check at least weekly, to see what your child is posting or talking about (or to) ‘on-line’.  This needs to be done carefully and thoroughly as there can be ‘conversations’ that are posted in reference to photos and may not be obvious on your child’s ‘wall’. 
• Monitor their Facebook friends list. Who are they accepting as a friend?

Bullying on-line

If you find that your child is being harassed on-line please report it and print out a hard-copy.  Delete or block the offending ‘friend’ and never ever respond.  Report the abuse to the administrator of the site by using the ‘Report this Page’ link on Facebook or to the school if you know which school they attend.  (In Facebook the ‘Help Centre’ is located under the ‘Account’ tab.)

When we get a report of bullying on Facebook we seek to verify this by getting a hard copy of the offending comments.  Sometimes children will ‘sign-on’ to their account and show us the relevant comments that have been posted.  We treat incidents of on-line harassment very seriously and follow up with the parents of the child/ren posting the inappropriate comments and report matters to the Police if necessary.

The Digital Users Agreement that Bimbadeen Heights asks every child to sign at the start of each year makes it clear that children will not use the Internet for teasing or bullying at school or at home. Point 4 states that they agree “Not to cyber bully other students at school or at home using the Internet, email or mobile phones.”  It is also against the school rules for children to use Facebook at school and it is a blocked site on the computers that the children have access to.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) also has very clear guidelines on acceptable use of the ICT resources.  This policy is available at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/deptpolicies/acceptableuse.htm

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have a great website to help parents understand and deal with cyber safety matters. http://www.cybersmart.gov.au I encourage parents to bookmark this site and refer to it regularly.

The Internet is an important part of our day to day communication with others.  It provides us with enormous opportunities.  It is important that we ensure our children use the Internet responsibly and safely at home and at school.

Should you want further information on this topic or need advice or assistance please contact Mr Matt Laws or myself at the school on 9726 9989 or email via the contact tab on our school website.

The big agenda item at this month’s School Council meeting was discussion about parent payments for 2011. The government provides the vast majority of funding for our school totalling over $3.7 million or about $5,700 per child. (This covers equipment, operational costs and most salaries.) We ask parents to pay for the essential education items that children use in the course of their learning as well as optional extras such as the cost of a school yearbook and voluntary contributions towards a building fund and ground maintenance.

For 2011 the school would like to employ a First Aid Officer whose sole responsibility will be the care of children who come to the sick bay for injuries or illness. We believe that having one person take on this role, rather than the teachers or office staff sharing it as they do now, will greatly enhance the level of care for the children of our school. They will also be able to keep all medication and allergy records up to date and be a person who gets to know the children and can provide the TLC that many children require just as much as a band-aid. To assist with meeting the cost of employing this person we are asking parents to pay a voluntary contribution of $20 per family that will provide about 40% of the total cost.

School Council has also decided to offer the option of paying in two instalments, one before the end of this year and one by the end of Term 1 next year.

In summary, the parent payments for 2011 will be as follows:

Essential Education Items: $139 Per Student

Excursion Levy $60 Per Student

Optional Extra – School Yearbook $15 Per Book

Voluntary Contributions

•First Aid Officer $20 Per Family

• Building Fund (Tax Deductible) $20 Per Family

• Grounds Maintenance   $20 Per Family

Total $274

The first payment of $135 will be due by December 10 this year and the second payment of $130 will be due by Friday April 1 2011.

I would welcome any comments you may have about the parent payments or the provision of a school first aid officer.

You would be aware of the Federal Government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan – Building the Education Revolution, which is being implemented right across Australia.  You will have also noticed from the sign on our fence for some time now that Bimbadeen Heights Primary School is benefitting from this initiative.  We are having a $3 million 21^st Century Library and Learning Neighbourhood constructed on the southern section of our school between the Hall and the oval.  The new building will include 6 classrooms, meeting rooms, and a large area most suitable for a 21^st century library.  Further information about the BER projects can be found at the following website: www.education.vic.gov.au/about/directions/buildingrevolution/default.asp

The need for improved school buildings is one of our highest priorities.  The majority of our classrooms are relocatable buildings, many of which are undersize and in extremely poor condition.  These old relocatable buildings are unsuitable for just about any purpose let alone providing high quality teaching and learning for our children!  The successful learning outcomes that are occurring in these classrooms are a tribute to the teachers, the children and the quality school programs.  We are very excited by the prospects of even better student learning outcomes and improved teaching and learning that our new building will provide.

At the conclusion of the project six of our relocatable classroom buildings will be removed and our artificial turf playground space will be reinstated.

Unfortunately it is not possible to complete a project of this size without considerable disruption.  At school this involves a significantly reduced playground area.  Despite this being a challenge, the children are managing this satisfactorily.  The Year 1 and 4 classrooms that overlook the building site are also coping with the noise of machinery and the distractions of some very interesting work happening outside their windows that children find fascinating.  Our school community and neighbours are also coping with increased heavy vehicles and more traffic on our usually quiet suburban streets as well as noisy machinery on the work site.  There are two main access points for the construction, one from Hayrick Lane next to the Milk Bar, and the other through the reserve on Orrong Road where a temporary road has been built for the period of construction.  This access from Orrong Road will become the major access point once the building is started.

This will get worse for the next few days as the builders have to use a compactor to prepare the ground for the foundations.  I am told that this will be very noisy and will be felt some distance from the site.  The project manager has told me that it will be finished in 6 – 7 days, we’re hoping by the end of next week at the latest.  I understand that they anticipate pouring the concrete foundations in about four week’s time.  When this happens there will be several concrete trucks lined up each morning, adding to the traffic congestion in Hayrick Lane.

The anticipated completion date for the new building is February 2011.  There will then be some moving of relocatable classrooms and reinstatement of the artificial turf.  We hope that we can get back to improved ‘normal’ school operations by Easter next year.

We have concluded and exhaustive selection process to choose our School and House Captains for this year. Last year in Year 5 a large group of students completed a Leadership Training Day with one of our Year 6 teachers. Children were then able to apply to be considered for one of the key leadership positions.  44 students applied and teachers, (current , past, specialist and Principals), narrow this down to a list of 16, (8 boys and 8 girls). These 16 children then prepare posters and write a speech that they give to all year 5 & 6 students.  The Electoral Commission then come to the school and conduct a ballot where they explain the preferential voting system and all Year 5 & 6 students participate in the voting. (Some Year 4 students assist with the conducting of the ballot.) The ballot determines the final 10 students, 5 boys and 5 girls.  The Principal team, Mrs McConnell, Mrs Lang and myself, then interview these students and determine who will be School Captains and House Captains.  It is a wonderful opportunity to see the outstanding capacity of our Year 6 students.  They are wonderful children and the future of our community is in good hands when you realise how well these students exemplify our school and community values. Every one of them understood the importance of their role and that they represent the school and that the younger students looked up to them for guidance and assistance.  They were able to talk about the challenges of public speaking in front of the whole school and of how they would deal with peer pressure when it arose.  It made me very proud indeed and, of course, made the decision very challenging!  The School and House Captains for 2010 are as follows:

School Captains: Emily Svarnias & Brayden McManus

Lithgow House Captains: Kahla Findlay & Jack Neale

Fletcher House Captains: Vanessa Chasteauneuf & Julian Cooper

Brice House Captains: Molly Dixon & Sean Frost

Blair House Captains: Olivia Cubitt & Jack Beamish

Congratulations to these children who will be presented with their badges at assembly on Monday morning by Mr Tony Smith, our local MHR. All of the final 16 students will attend a National Young Leaders day in the city in March which will further enhance their leadership knowledge and skills and provide them with inspiration to continue to strive for their goals.

The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) has allocated five Pupil-Free Days for 2010.  Three of these days have already happened, (January 27 – 29).  The final two Pupil-Free Days for this year for Bimbadeen Heights students will be on Friday May 28, that the teachers will use for the purpose of assessment and reporting, and Monday August 9, a state-wide Pupil-Free day for the purpose of professional learning on the use of the Ultranet, a state-wide ICT resource that is being introduced to all government schools this year.  (See the media release regarding this initiative at www.premier.vic.gov.au/component/content/article/7415.html )

Communication is the key to any successful organisation and in our school there are many ways to contact us, your child’s teacher or any of the staff members.

Personal, face-to-face communication is always the best way if possible and making an appointment or catching a member of staff personally at the start or end of the school day is a good idea.  This is sometimes difficult as the teacher can have 25 little people requiring their attention or may have a meeting or other after-school commitment.  Making an appointment for a suitable time is the best option.

Telephone contact is always welcome.  The best times to speak to teachers on the phone are before or after school or during the break times, 11:00 – 11:30 or 1:00 – 2:00.  Sometimes teachers do have commitments at these times such as yard-duty or meetings but a message can always be left and the teacher will return the call as soon as possible.  If it is an urgent matter please make sure you let the office staff know when you call.

Notes, handwritten or otherwise, are very useful forms of communication, particularly if you are giving important information to the teacher relating to medications or injuries etc.  Any message that has the potential to be ‘lost’ in translation between you, the child and then the teacher is much better if it is written down.  (You may be amazed at some of the things the children tell us!!)  Communication diaries are also used in some classes and with some children.  These are great for written messages between home and school.

A less well known way of contacting staff is via our school email addresses that are published on our website under the tab ‘Contact’. I draw your attention to the important Email Use protocols that are on the website.  Should users breach these guidelines staff are instructed to block those users.  Email is a convenient way to communicate a non-urgent message at the time that suits you.  Should it be an urgent matter that you still wish to use email for, please follow-up with a telephone call to the office so that the staff member can know to check their email as a matter of priority.

Thanks to a very kind donation from the Brodie Family and their business ‘Anything Reptiles’ we have two Bearded Dragons living in their enclosure near the school office. They are a male and female approximately 12 months old and are very placid and quite used to being handled. There is a group of children being trained to feed and care for them on a daily basis. They are fantastic looking lizards and the children are fascinated by them. We will be holding a competition to name them in the next couple of weeks.

There has been much written and spoken about education in recent weeks with children going back to school and politicians encouraging debate about effective schools and comparisons between so-called ‘like’ schools.  If you have taken the time to look at the My School website you will see that it does not tell us anything that we don’t already know and have not already informed our community about.  Much more extensive Student Achievement results, parent, student and staff opinion survey results, attendance and financial details are published every year in our school Annual Report and have been in Victorian Government Schools for many years.  The My School website is limited to simply NAPLAN (National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy) results of Year 3 & 5 students for the past two years.  It also shows that Bimbadeen Heights comes out as being in the ‘middle of the road’ with the exception of writing results.  This is not a surprise to us and confirms what we found in our School Review last year.  It is also the reason we have identified Writing as a goal and have written this into our 2010 – 2013 Strategic Plan.  It is also important to keep in mind that the data provided on the My School site talks about large groups, not individuals.  It is still the case that the best way to find out how your child is going at school is to read the student assessment portfolios each term and student reports distributed at the end of each semester, and to talk to teachers at Parent-Teacher Interview Evenings and whenever you have questions or concerns about your child’s progress.

My opinion on this website is that it underestimates the capacity of parents to make decisions about schools based on the right things.  I don’t think that Julia Gillard has the same trust in parents, or in schools, that I have.  My experience is that parents judge a primary school on a lot more than just the NAPLAN results of children in Year 3 & 5.  Bimbadeen parents know what a good school looks like and are also good at working with us to make our school even better.  I also believe that the site is lacking crucial information such as Finances spent on education in each sector.  At present the available information is very limited e.g. basic Naplan test results. This only provides one snapshot of student learning and no context.  In comparison the Victorian School Performance Summary is an alternative and richer way of evaluating and comparing school performance.  This has been available on the web since last December at www.vrqa.vic.gov.au and provides much richer information and adjusts for the nature of the students’ intake.

I, along with many of my principal colleagues are concerned about the potential misuse of the simplistic data on the  My School site.  Overseas experience has shown us that deep student learning has not improved by publicising basic measures.  Our students deserve the best education system from our federal government – not one that shames and blames.

I would draw your attention to an excellent ‘opinion’ article published today in ‘The Age’ on this topic; http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/my-school-fails-the-test-20100207-nkpw.html

If you are interested in this topic it is well worth the read.  I would welcome any comments about this topic.