2022 Term 1 .... Issue 3

Diary Dates

TERM 2 Begins Monday May 2nd

Week 2 - Year 6 Aquatics West Lakes - Friday May 13th

Week 2 to Week 3 - NAPLAN testing for Years 3 and 5

Week 4 - National Reconciliation Week Begins Friday May 27th to Friday June 3rd

Week 5 - Wellbeing Week - Monday May 30th to Friday June 3rd

Week 6 - PUPIL FREE DAY - SCHOOL and PRESCHOOL - Monday June 6th

Week 7 - PUBLIC HOLIDAY - Queens birthday - Monday June 13th

Week 8 - Year 5/6 AFLMax Overnight Camp - Tuesday June 21st

Term 2 ends Friday July 8th

From Leadership

Dear BANB6 Community

As we near the end of what has been another unique school term, I take the opportunity to thank our amazing school community for your support and encouragement during what has been a challenging term at times.

Our school, along with so many throughout South Australia has been affected by COVID19 during first term and it has been quite disruptive for many of our children. Our children have been resilient and brave through the challenging times, and we are looking forward to hopefully having a more settled term 2.

First term has thrown many challenges at our staff as well, but they too have shown great resilience and commitment to the children in their care and on behalf of our entire school community, I offer my thanks and gratitude to our wonderful staff team. They all have most certainly earned a well-deserved break over the next two weeks.

Restrictions have again prevented us from enjoying quite a few activities and events, but we have still managed to come together as a school community to celebrate learning and have some team building times. We are hopeful that during term two, things will settle down and we will be able to resume camps, excursions and assemblies and other community events that are so important to us as a close school community.

BANB6 is a unique and inspirational school of which we should all be very proud. Despite the term 1 disruption, we still have some incredible things happening and the opportunities our learners have to delve deep into their learning continues to flourish. Here are just a few of the highlights of what it means to be a learner at BANB6:

Wakakirri - Great Stories Inspire Change

BANB6 will be entering in the Wakakirri National Story-Dance Festival this year for the first time. Wakakirri is an Aboriginal word from the Wangaaypuwan people from Cobar NSW, which means “to dance.” Wakakirri includes a combination of dancing, creative movement, acting, music, props, costumes and sets to tell a story.

The aims of Wakakirri are to create opportunities for student voice and expression, to build social and emotional wellbeing, to enhance connection and belonging and for student engagement.

Those who were successful in their audition will be announced in week 11, term 1. Our children who are selected will perform at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in August, term 3, 2022.

We look forward to being part of a new and exciting challenge and can’t wait to get our theatrical thinking caps on.

Soccer Specialist Program – One Culture

It is with great excitement and challenge that we embark on a new journey here at BANB6.

For the first time we will now offer a soccer specialist program outside of the traditional PE lessons to our learners. Through this program we are aiming to deliver a great tool for improved health and well-being, gross motor skills, social inclusion, self-confidence, and self-esteem.

Added to this will be the opportunity to follow the Australian curriculum in numeracy, literacy and science concepts provide by outsourced professional coaches and organisations. Given the challenges our demographic and location present, this will expose our children to the requirements, demands and dispositions to follow a soccer pathway for their future.

The BANB6 Soccer Specialist Program will provide easier transition into high school sports and scholarships, exposure to local soccer clubs, and the opportunity to travel to some excellent facilities to excel their development. The process started in week 7 term 1 and students who were interested were asked to come and have a try.

From here 25 children were selected to participate once a week until the end of the year. We have a year 5/6 group of boys and girls and we have also added a year 3/4 age group to continue to the culture of this program for years to come. 

This program began during term one and we are excited to continue with it during term two and beyond.

Sustainability

Stage 2 of the Raingarden project will commence soon, with learners involved in constructing new garden beds and revegetating the space.

BANB6 is one of only two schools to be invited to participate in the Green Adelaide ‘Adelaide National Park City’ initiative. We have been participating in a series of Collaborative Innovation Labs with organisations from across Adelaide and we will be engaging in a project designed to explore how communities can connect through nature. Our aim is to have our learners take part in the project which will be shared through Green Adelaide later in the year.

We have been approached by Green Adelaide to explore the idea of setting up BANB6 as a hub for sharing our learning about sustainability with a wider audience. This could involve guest speakers, masterclasses, workshops, learners teaching learners etc.) 

An exciting new Nature Play playground will be constructed to replace the playground on the oval outside of the Yellow Neighbourhood. This natural play space will be an exciting new addition for our learners to explore and will connect our garden and Raingarden perfectly.

BANB6 in the News

Over the past two years BANB6 has implemented many new initiatives to help and support our learners in the development of powerful literacy skills and we are starting to see great results in our learners’ ability to build and develop their learning power in all areas of literacy. In a recent article in the Adelaide Advertiser, BANB6 was listed with some other city schools as enjoying ‘above average growth in NAPLAN results.’

NAPLAN is only a small piece of the overall learning puzzle and is by no means the ‘be all and end all’ of a school’s success; but it certainly is a very good sign for us that we are on the right track.

I wish all members of the BANB6 school community a safe and enjoyable end of term break.

Yours Sincerely

Darren