Newsletter Term 1 Week 3

Principal's Pen

Newsletter – Term 1 Week 3 2024 – Principal’s Pen

We are thrilled to be back and welcome all our families and students to the 2024 school year. The year has started well and our students have quickly settled back into the routine of their school days. Bellevue Park SS still remains a school of choice, as reflected by our growing enrolments. We had a lot of unexpected late enrolments this year, particularly into Prep, which meant we were able to employ an additional teacher after Day 8 this year, and create an additional Prep class. Our official Day 8 enrolments are 723 students, up from 707 students last year. We now have 30 classes across our seven year levels.

Building Update

We are very excited to announce that our internal carpark refurbishment has been completed, freeing up some much-needed exterior parking spots. Our staff are loving their new, bigger and easier-to-navigate carpark, and our families are appreciating the extra gates around the car park to keep your children safe and away from cars. Can we please remind families to always use one of our pedestrian gates to enter the front of the school, and to not walk into the school via the car gate at any time.

Also completed during the holidays was the ‘Kiss & Go’ drop zone, which has now been extended to include the full section of road from the bus bays down to the car gate. Just a friendly reminder not to park in this section and walk away from your car as it is a 2-minute loading zone only. We’d also like to remind you to pull as far up as you can, to allow other drivers to pull up safely behind you, especially during peak hours during morning drop offs and afternoon pick-ups.

Dogs on School Grounds

Just a friendly reminder that dogs and pets are not permitted on school grounds at any time. If you do walk down to collect your children with your family dog, please wait outside the school grounds and have your children walk out to meet you. Even the friendliest of dogs can become different around large crowds. This is to ensure that all our students and staff are kept safe.

Early arrivals to school

We are seeing an increasing number of students on school grounds prior to 8am. Students should not be arriving to school before 8am under any circumstance. Due to other morning commitments, our staff are not on supervision duties until 8:30am. Any students arriving to school between 8am and 8:30am MUST be seated in the upper undercover area near the tuckshop. They are not to be loitering or gathering in any other area of the school. They will be dismissed from here to go and play when supervision begins at 8:30am.

The ideal time to arrive with your child is between 8:30am and 8:45am, so they have the opportunity to have a play before school under full supervision.

Student absences during term time 

We understand that sometimes is it necessary and unavoidable for students to be absent during the term. For all these absences, it is essential that you communicate the reason to both the school office and your child’s classroom teacher. This allows the classroom teacher to provide information regarding any school work they may be missing, as well as saves our office staff time following up daily absences. 

Daily absences can be reported to our Absentee Hotline: (07) 5504 8266, or by emailing 1925_absences@eq.edu.au .

If your child is sick for an extended period of time (over 3 days), we encourage you to obtain a medical certificate and drop it into the office to explain your child’s absences.

If you are taking a holiday, particularly if you will be absent for 11 or more school days, please contact the office to complete an ‘exemption form’. This form will then be approved by myself (Principal), and means your child’s absence will not have a negative impact on their attendance rate.

Attendance rates will continue to be monitored this year and families will be contacted if we have concerns regarding your child’s absences, or if your students’ attendance rate falls below 85%. Our school expectation is that your child maintains an attendance rate above 92%. Our staff are always here to assist you if you need support with your child’s attendance.

Deputy Principal Prep - 2

T1 W3 DP News – Sam Birch

Our Utterly Perfect Preps!

 Our incredible teachers have provided a flying start for our Prep students. Their confidence, resilience and team spirit are really shining through! Due to an increase in our enrolment numbers, we have been able to create an additional Prep class. We are so grateful for this, as with the addition of this new class, our Prep class sizes will drop considerably in size, meaning more 1:1 adult interaction for our Prep students.

We encourage our Prep students to wear their hats on the red side, so we are able to spot them when they are moving around the school and offer support when required. We think they look amazing!

Gerald the Giraffe Makes an Entrance!

This week, Prep have had a very special guest! Gerald the Giraffe (accompanied by Mrs Birch!) popped in to read ‘Giraffe’s Can’t Dance’. The children loved asking Gerald questions about how he was feeling to deepen their understanding of the story. They really enjoyed giving him a cuddle after the story!

Story Dogs to Return!

Last year some lucky students were able to read with our two valued canine members of staff, Ruby and Murphy. These two gorgeous dogs are excited to return again this year to read with even more students in Years 2 and 3. These dogs are well loved and are now a fixture in our library!

Deputy Principal Year 3 - 6

Student Leaders for 2024

Last week our incoming Student Leaders were fortunate to meet with Federal Member for Moncrieff, Ms Angie Bell. Ms Bell shared leadership advice around the three L’s:

• Listen,
• Learn,
• Lead by example

Ms Bell shared insight into the demands within her role and how she has applies the 3 L’s in her role, as well as some tips to help guide the students during the nerves of public speaking.

Students were presented with a certificate from Ms Bell to congratulate them on their 2024 captaincy.

During the Week 4 Assembly (Tuesday 13 February) the new student leaders for 2024 will officially be presented with their badges. This includes all Captains and Student Council representatives from Year 1 to Year 6. Congratulations to our 2023 Captains:

School Captains – Monah T, Winnie M, Ethan C, Isaac F

Performing Arts Captains – Sharli B, Maxwell L, Charlie B, Seth H

Sports Captains –

ARCHER – Hunter B and Jacob W

GUNSYND – Jessica S and Yulia Y

PHARLAP – Trixie B and Oliver S

STEM Captains – Scout D and Niklas A

Student Council Captains – Rya R and Grace D

Environment Captains – Umniah A and Tazkia T

Jarjum Captains – Ella C and Scarlett C

PBL News

Students achieving through Positive Behaviour for Learning

At Bellevue Park State School we are proud to be a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) school. We also encourage and invite family involvement and feedback on our implementation of PBL.

Backed by 40 years of research, PBL is an evidence-informed framework that promotes positive behaviour across a school and helps develop safe and supportive learning environments.

The PBL approach to behaviour and learning means we have clear and consistent expectations for behaviour which are agreed and shared with the whole school community. We explicitly teach our expectations and then reteach if students do not get it right the first time, just like we would reteach English or Maths if a student needed further understanding or practice.

Teachers also build positive classroom environments and take a proactive approach when students need additional or intensive support to reach their learning outcomes and engage successfully at school.

One of the benefits of using PBL is that it provides universal support to all students across the whole school. We then identify the students who may need additional support such as mentoring or learning modifications, and the smaller number of students who will need intensive support. Importantly, since PBL is a framework, we can add other programs or access services to provide the right support for our students.

As a school, we are supported by regional PBL advisors and have the opportunity to work with other PBL implementing schools to share best practice. Regular professional learning and building staff capability are critical in maintaining our PBL verification every year, which gives you the confidence that we are implementing PBL in the best way.  

You can listen to the 12-minute podcast Students achieving through Positive Behaviour for Learning to hear what PBL means for parents and students. You can also visit the Department of Education’s Behaviour website.

If you have any concerns around student behaviour or learning, please see you child’s teacher in the first instance. If you would like to know more or get involved with PBL, please contact Shiree Salazar (Deputy Principal) or Bree Eve ( Student Engagement Teacher).

Over the past few weeks student have explicitly learnt our BPSS 4 school expectations

• We are safe
• We are considerate
• We are respectful
• We are learners

They have also learnt the High 5 strategy which assists in developing problem-solving strategies for students:

• Ignore
• Talk Friendly
• Walk Away
• Talk Firmly
• Report

You can assist your child by talking about the weekly PBL expectation. You can keep up to date through our school Facebook page where we will post our weekly PBL expectation.

Extra Curricular

Introducing our 2024 Classes & Year Level Totems

Finance News

Guidance Officer News

Specialists News

Environmental News

Dear Bellevue Park State School Pupils and Families,

Welcome back to the 2024 school year! We are very excited about the year ahead for environment club. So many projects ahead which we will let you know about as the year progresses.

Last year we, as a community, raised nearly $3000 through recycling! With your support we would love to beat this in 2024. Bottles can be brought in to recycle every second Wednesday before school. Grab a recycling bag from the team and bring it back full of empty bottles.

Not sure what can be recycled? Any of the containers in the image below can be recycled.

In school, children can recycle their lunch bottles and poppas in the orange bags attached to the bins. Children get a Gotcha and a point for each contribution and at the end of the semester the class who has contributed the most bags wins a pizza party!

Our first recycling collection was this Wednesday and look how many bags we have filled already!

What a great start to the year!!

In school, our Environmental club leaders are organising our rubbish rangers and promoting environmental awareness through focus days and projects! Our first event will be School clean up day on Friday, March 1^st. Watch this space for more news.

Thank you so much for your support!

The Environment Team.

Community News

Newsletter article (school newsletters)

School zone safety – advice for motorists, parents and carers

With school back for 2024, we need to keep safety top-of-mind when travelling through active school zones and around our school community.

School zone times have been standardised in Queensland to help motorists remember when to slow down. The standard operating times for most school zones in Queensland are 7–9am and 2–4pm, with some operating all day between 7am–4pm.

Speeding remains a significant concern, contributing to fatalities and injuries, and police will be on the lookout for speeding motorists. Keeping below the signed speed limit in school zones helps keep everyone safe. This simple adjustment may have minimal impact on travel time but has the potential to significantly contribute to saving lives.

Children's crossings are identified by children's crossing flags, displayed near crossings before and after school hours. 

When the crossing is supervised, you, as a motorist, must:

• Wait until all pedestrians, bicycle riders, or personal mobility device riders have crossed the road and the crossing supervisor has returned to the footpath.
• Abide by the direction given by the School Crossing Supervisor.

Please keep our children safe by staying alert, slowing down and obeying our school crossing supervisors who are there to help kids cross the road safely.  

You can also help children become more road safety aware by:

• Showing them how to look for vehicles coming in and out of driveways and discourage them from playing behind parked cars, or with toys or balls when walking to school. 
• Ensuring your child knows the safest route to and from school. This is usually the way with the least traffic and the fewest roads to cross and teach your child to always walk on footpaths. 
• Showing your child how to cross at traffic lights when the green 'walk' sign is showing at pedestrian crossings when vehicles have stopped and at supervised school crossings when the supervisor has signalled it is safe to do so. 
• Accompanying children when walking or riding to school until they are old enough to understand road safety (usually around 10 years or older). 
• Teaching your child if they catch the bus to never cross in front of or behind a bus; wait until the bus goes before crossing the road. 
• Making sure wheeled devices (bicycle, scooter, skateboard, or rollerblades) used to travel to school are well maintained and that the appropriate protective and safety gear (for example, helmet, visible clothing, knee and elbow pads) are used. 

Visit the Street Smarts website for more information about what to do at pedestrian and children crossings.