Term1 Wk2 2024

Diary Dates

Tuesday February 13th - Walk of Awareness excursion - Port Adelaide

Monday February 19th - AFL Clinics - Purple Neighbourhood

Wednesday February 21st - Governing Council AGM - from 3.30pm

Thursday March 7th - SCHOOL PHOTO DAY - (catch up day - date to be confirmed)

Friday March 8th - Waterworld Excursion - Reception to Year 6 

Monday March 11th - PUBLIC HOLIDAY Adelaide Cup Day

Tuesday March 12th - PROPOSED STUDENT FREE DAY - OSHC available

NAPLAN Week - March 13th to March 25th 

Friday March 29th - PUBLIC HOLIDAY - Good Friday

Monday April 1st - PUBLIC HOLIDAY - Easter Monday

Friday April 12th - END TERM 1 - Early Dismissal 2pm - OSHC available

From the Principal

From the Principal

Welcome to the 2024 school year. I would like to thank all families, learners and staff for working together to ensure the very positive start we have had over the past two weeks.

I would like to introduce myself as the new principal at Blair Athol North B-6 School. It is truly a pleasure and privilege to lead this wonderful school and I have received a very warm welcome from both staff, children and families over the past two weeks. I look forward to meeting you in the coming weeks.

My teaching career has spanned all year levels, from Junior Primary to Senior Secondary, in both country and metro schools in South Australia (and earlier in NSW). For the past few years, I have worked alongside many teachers and school leaders to design learning. This has included understanding what students need to learn, how students learn and the multitude of ways students might demonstrate their learning. I have loved this work, as it directly relates to my passions as an educator to ensure the learning experiences we design for students is intentional and responsive, and that as educators we reflect continuously on the impact our teaching is having on all learners and their learning. Behind this sits my own values and beliefs as an educator, which are found in both equity and excellence.

Our Learning Advisors have been thinking and discussing their own values and beliefs over the past few weeks as we move towards deepening our understanding of the teaching and learning promise we have for every BANB6 learner. I look forward to sharing more about this journey over the coming terms.

We are looking to continue our professional learning with a Student Free Day on Tuesday 12th March. Please pencil in this date. We are organising for OSHC to be operating on this day for those families that will require the service.

The greatest joy I have found over the past two weeks has been speaking with the children about how they like to learn. Their insights are so thought-provoking. Here are a couple of insights that I have loved:

‘When you don’t struggle, you don’t learn.’ Addi

‘It’s fun learning new skills especially knowing what the end result will be.’ Link

They have also been asking me questions about teaching and learning, such as How can kids help other kids with their learning? and How can Learning Advisors help shy kids to speak up in lessons?

I can’t wait to hear more from our learners!

Kindest regards,

Leonie Shelley

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

Naplan assesments for children in Years 3 and 5 will occur between March 13th and March 25th. 

NAPLAN is an annual program for children across Australia which provides both the school and families information about each child's learning and is a way for us to understand more about our teaching and learning programs.

If you have any questions at all regarding Naplan, please let us know.

Materials and Services Fee / School card

Materials and Services Fee invoices will be sent home next week.  The $100 rebate applies again for 2024 so your fees are automatically reduced by $100 which has been credited to your account, resulting in your schools fees being only $187 for the year. The rebate does not apply to eligible schoolcard applications.

If you are having difficulty paying your fees, please see the Business Manager to arrange payment options.

SCHOOLCARD

If you hold a health care card or have a customer reference number with Centrelink, you may be eligible for schoolcard. Schoolcard eligibility is based on the previous financial years income. This is assessed by the schoolcard team  not the school. If you are eligible, schoolcard will cover the full cost of your school fees.  Please note that schoolcard does not cover Preschool fees.

For further information regarding schoolcard elibibiliy, please visit the below website :

Please note : a new schoolcard application must be submitted each year.

Waterworld Excursion

Our annual Waterworld Excursion for Recption to Year 6 students will be held on Friday March 8th.

Please ensure that you return you consent forms for your child to be able to attend.