Hello everyone The delightful sound of the combined voices of the Girls’ Vocal Group welcomed us to Monday’s Assembly. Within a very short time this year, Miss Stephen has this group performing beautifully. Thank you girls. There were Care, Learn and Share Awards aplenty and it’s always a pleasure to acknowledge children who have contributed something special. This list included Louis Ven-ceslau-Sault for very kindly looking after a new student; Jack Casey for being a reliable and diligent assistant with the recycling; Helena Arifovic, Anika Walker, Emily Leonidis and Arjun Reddy for helping to set up the gallery for the Maths Information evening; Lauren Martin, Stephanie Antoniadis, Angelina Liu, Mia Kagiaros and Vandana Pereira for voluntarily caring for our gardens; and Chloe Plant, Scarlett Campbell, Henry Smith and Thomas Hurt for doing an outstanding job assisting on photo day. Well done and thank you. Congratulations are also extended to Alice Zheng and Emma Huang who were both awarded Artists of the Week. Brothers Owen and Michael Roberts made a presentation to promote World Down Syndrome Awareness Day. We will recognise and support this special event by having a Crazy Sock Day on Monday 21st March. Children are expected to wear their normal school uniform but are invited to include crazy socks to supplement and adorn their uniform. The cost for participation is a gold coin donation and all proceeds will go to the Down Syndrome Association. The feature agenda item at assembly was the presentation of badges to our newly elected Junior School Councillors. We were hon-oured to have former BPPS student and current Balwyn High School Captain Lucinda Floyd in attendance to assist with this pro-cess. Luci spoke to the assembly about responsibility and making the best of opportunities before presenting badges to Jesi Chochovski and Zac Karathanassis (3SG), Blake Ashdown-Moore and Ben Reynolds (3CG), Eleanor Smith and Zac McCar-thy (3LA), Leia Ong and Ryan Chandler (3KJ), Taylah Tsinaris and Andrew Zhu (4JH), Tallulah Campbell and Sofia Pandeli (4BM), Jasmine Smith and Daniel Subhani (4CB), Yianna Georgedakis and Remi Steen (4RP), Ava Booth and Charlie Banias (5DJ), Mollie Petruccelli and Vrishin Gandhi (5HF), Stella Nicoll and Amber Stanton (5JM), Jessica Hurt and James Del Papa (5CB), Ananya Singh and Cooper Chochovski (6SR), Michelle Nguyen and James Savage (6CR), Natalie Hudono and George Skrinos (6CF) and Alana Franceschini and Taya Tobin (6NK). Congratulations to all of you. We are sure you will be fine repre-sentatives for your grades. Yesterday, our new Junior School Council met for the first time. In the lead up to the meetings, the children have discussions in their classrooms about issues which fall under the headings of ‘school’, ‘environment’ and ‘world’, and decide on which topics to share with JSC via their class reps. After considering input from all grades, the JSC then decide which issues they wish to take action on, and these are taken to school council by our School Captains. The JSC Meetings are held monthly to correspond with school council meetings. Voting closed in the School Council Election Ballot at 4.00 p.m. yesterday. After tallying the votes we are pleased to announce that the successful candidates are Anna Alexander, John Anderson, Jasmine Featherston, Dorothy Frost and Joanne Huynh in a very close ballot. We are very grateful to these people for their willingness to assist the school in this way and most thankful to Annette Subhani who was, unfortunately, the unsuccessful nominee. Annette has been a great councillor for four years, taking on the role of Minute Secretary and doing a power of good work as Convenor of our Safe to School Committee. Her involvement will be missed. The BPPS School Council convenes next Wednesday (16/3) at 7.00 p.m. for the Annual General Meeting which will be followed at 7.30 p.m. by the March monthly meeting. Our other formal parent body, the Parents and Friends Association, had their Annual General Meeting on Tuesday night this week. Despite there being a good turn up of enthusiastic and committed parents, we were unable to fill the positions of President and Vice President. It is vital that we find some volunteers willing to put themselves forward for these roles lest the viability of this organisa-tion is jeopardised. Anyone considering taking on one of these positions needs to know that we have coordinators in place for almost all of the activities planned for 2016 so the President and Vice President roles are not overly hands-on but more an overseer function. I am more than happy to discuss the role and its responsibilities with anyone who may be interested. Many thanks to Kylie McCar-thy and Sandra Bell who have taken on the job of Secretary and Treasurer respectively and to all our parents and friends who assist in so many ways.

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

No 06 10 March 2016 boroondara.park.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au www.bpark.vic.edu.au

Tel 9857 5157 Fax 9857 6794

DIARY DATES Monday 14 March Labour Day public holiday. School Closed Tues 15—Fri 18 March Grade 6 Waratah Bay Beach Camp Wednesday 16 March School Council AGM 7pm Staffroom Monday 21 March Crazy Sock Day—gold coin donation Thursday 24 March Last day Term 1 (2.30pm dismissal) Monday 11 April First day Term 2 Thursday 05 May Mother’s Day Dinner—details to come Tuesday 10 May NAPLAN Language Conventions & Writing Thursday 12 May NAPLAN Numeracy Monday 16 May Junior School Concert Besen Centre Tuesday 17 May ICAS Digital Technologies Tuesday 31 May ICAS Science

Grade 6 Camp

Kylie McCarthy, on behalf of the P&FA, has completed the huge task of compiling this year’s School Directory which contains the contact details of all school families who have requested to be included. Prior to full publication and distribution, we ask that all fami-lies check the draft copies to ensure their details are correct. These are available at the office until Friday 18 March after which copies will be sent home in year levels. BPPS is very proud of its past students, quite a few whom have earned roles of responsibility at Balwyn High School for 2016. As well as Lucinda Floyd being the female School Captain, Aaron Watson is a Music Captain, Jessica Bradley and Phoebe Flower are Theatre Arts Captains, Luke Spencer and Timothy Di Natale are Sports Captains, Eva Wu is a House Captain, Jonathan Vello is Year 11 Captain, Sophie Bolt is Year 10 Captain and Alex Karathanassis is Year 8 Captain. We congratulate them all. We wish our Grade 6s fair weather and good surf as they head off to the Waratah Bay camp next week. Over 90 children will spend four days at this beautiful seaside venue. Please note that there was a typo with Sonia Cutugno’s email address in last week’s press. Sonia is interested in starting a parents’ gardening group. If interested you can contact her via soniacutugno@gmail.com Welcome to Gautham (6CR) & Prathik (1RO) Peddireddy who joined us this week. We wish these students and their family a very happy time at BPPS. Eric Regester

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Dear Parents and Friends, Today I introduce our final, new staff member for 2016 who has travelled further than anyone else to work with us at Boroondara Park! Below is Valentine’s (pronounced in French as Valenteen) profile. Staff Profile Name: Valentine Goossens Country of Origin : Belgium Favourite Sports: Dancing Favourite Hobby: Singing and cooking My Background: I finished High School last year (2015) in Brussels and decided to take a gap year before starting University. First, I’ve been to Denmark in an International School from August 2015 to December 2015. It was a great experience and opened my mind to the world. Indeed, I met people from everywhere. It was outstanding! And now, here I am in Melbourne helping Madame Marylou Higgins in the French classes as an assistant. I wanted to come to Australia because in Europe, Australia is like a dream to explore. When I finish at the end of term one, I’m backpacking around Australia, starting in Tasmania first. My Australian dreams: To eat as much Vegemite as possible, to “hang ten” on the surf camp and to go back to Belgium with some Aussie slang (No worries mate!). Favourite Belgian Food: “Carbonnades Flammandes” Favourite Australian Food: Jelly Mint sauce with Roast Lamb. Favourite Place: Prague in the Czech Republic. What have I liked about BPPS so far… The nice atmosphere between the teachers and the principals Teaching French to children who are enthusiastic The air conditioning on hot days…pfiou! When children call out from the playground “Bonjour Valentine” The music from the speaker at the start of the day to wake you up! Please say “Bonjour” when you see Valentine at school. Jane Woodman

Do You Need a Baby Sitter or French Tutoring? Valentine is available until March 28th and from April 9th to May 9th for tutoring or baby sitting. Text or Phone: 0416750352

Thank you to those who have put themselves forward to help. There are many days still left to fill; please complete the Canteen Helpers form if you can help. If you feel you cannot commit to the canteen the whole day remember anytime you can help is appreciated If you are unable to work on your selected days, could you please let me know on 0419 506 318. Di Cleary, Canteen Manager

9—11am 11am—1pm

Friday 11 March Help Needed Help Needed

Monday 14 March Public Holiday Canteen Closed

Tuesday 15 March Graeme Cruise Help Needed

Wednesday 16 March Fernando Tinoco Daniela Ciavarella

Thursday 17 March Sonya Dingle Help Needed

Friday 18 March Franca Cantone Steph Louey Mary Georgiou

Monday 21 March Help Needed Help Needed

Tuesday 22 March Graeme Cruise Help Needed

Wednesday 23 March Moni Schelbach Rebecca McMenamin

Help Needed

Thursday 24 March Help Needed Help Needed

Friday 25 March Good Friday School Closed

SPECIAL DAY COMING UP

23 MARCH

HOT CROSS BUN DAY

WATCH THIS SPACE!

ARTIS OF THE WEEK For all of this term the grade 5 and 6 classes have been working on a piece of sculpture. Many of you will have seen the works in progress throughout the term as they have been stored in the corridors. The stu-dents have managed to transform ordinary wire coat-hangers, knee-hi pantyhose and blocks of wood into amazing, colourful and mesmeris-ing art works. They began this work with the premise that they were designing a piece of major community art, for possible installation alongside a freeway, or in a city park. For inspiration we looked at photographs of the art installations on Eastlink, as well as those closer to home, such as “Sentinel” which watches over the Eastern freeway where Doncaster and Greythorn meet. We also considered the artworks of Pablo Pi-casso, as it was determined that the children would use aspects of his style in the decoration of their sculptures. It was so very hard to choose an Artist of the Week from amongst the many exemplary works finished this week, but I am sure you will agree that Michelle Nguyen of 6CR is a worthy recipient of the award. We chose her work because of its aesthetically pleasing, fluid form, her use of all the materials on offer, her adherence to the criteria regarding including some facial features in the style of Picasso, and in the way that her sculpture is pleasing to look at from any angle. Bravo Michelle!! Chris Trollope & Jennifer Hortin

Expression of Interest Miniball is commencing on the 15th April please let me know if your prep/Gr 1 child is

interested in playing by the 22th March by emailing susanbeckter@hotmail.com No experience required

Say Hi To Our Student Leaders

Today we meet Student Wellbeing Captain... Maryam Abdekhodaee! Q1. Why did you put your name down to become a leader? I wanted to boost my confidence by taking a chance. It's not every

day you get a chance like this. Q2. What are some of your hobbies? My hobbies include: public speaking, drawing, swimming, writing,

reading, sewing, sport and debating. Q3. What have you learnt so far about being a leader? I've learnt that it's not about me, it's about putting others before myself. Q4. What do you want to be when you grow up? When I grow up I want to be a Human Rights lawyer. Q5. Who inspires you? Why? My sister inspires me because she always teaches me new things that help me grow wiser. Q6. What's your favourite subject in school? My favourite subject in school is English because I love expressing my ideas in a different

form. Q6. What's the funniest moment in your life? The funniest moment in in my life was when my two friends accidentally took each other's shorts home ( we were changing for the 5/6 disco ), and it was a big size difference!

ORDER BY FRIDAY 11 MARCH TO AVOID A LATE FEE

Save the Date! 2016 BPPS Fair Saturday 19th November 2016

This year’s BPPS Fair will be held in November, offering a fun community day full of stalls (for some early Christmas shopping) rides, food, free activities and more. Further information will follow as we will need plenty of volunteers to help with all aspects of planning and preparation leading up to and at the event. Thank you to those who have volunteered already. Any ideas or enquiries contact Bek and Jacquie and BPPSFair@gmail.com

2016 SCHOOL DIRECTORY

Draft copies of the 2016 School Directory are now available for checking. Please come to the office between now and Friday 18 March to ensure your correct details are entered.

The Department of Education and Training (DET) does not endorse the products or services of any private advertiser. No responsibility is accepted by DET for accuracy of information contained in advertisements or claims made by them.