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Welcome Back to Baulkham Hills North Public School Welcome back to school. To our Asian community Kung Hei Fat Choy and may the Year of the Dragon be a great year for us all. To all our families I hope you were able to take time on Australia Day to celebrate the richness of our Australian culture remembering the first Australians who arrived here between 60 and 80 thousand years ago and then the rest of us who have arrived or whose ancestors arrived since, regardless of circumstance from all over the globe, all looking for a better life for ourselves and our families and each contributing in some special way to the tapestry of the Australian way of life. Newsletters commence next week. Our first assembly will be on Monday 13th February. Kindergarten information night Monday 6th February 7-8pm. Meet the teacher breakfast 8:15am Tuesday 7th February.
Staff Changes Welcome to our two new assistant principals, Clare Garnett and Stephanie Vasilev. As a result of our increased enrolments our school will now have two deputy principals, Sandra McKay and Sue Taylor. Both Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. McKay will have a part time teaching load. At this point in time Mrs Taylor will be class free Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning , Mrs McKay will be class free Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday. Welcome to classroom teachers Subinder Sarna and Jessica Lock and Justine Holst our ESL teacher. Welcome back from maternity leave Mrs Smiroldo and Mrs Choo. Mrs Nightingale will be on maternity leave for the year. Farewell to Mrs. Wormald who was appointed to Excelsior Public School at the very end of the school year. Mrs. Wormald has been a very long-term casual staff member and will be missed enormously. I know that Excelsior PS are thrilled at the prospect of her joining their staff.
Class Organisation for 2012 We are currently planning on establishing 31 classes for 2012. The number of classes that we can establish is calculated using a formula that takes into account the number of students who have been marked in attendance at school this year and the grade that the students are in. We cannot establish classes based on students who have not yet returned to school (unless we have written confirmation that they will be returning in February) or for students who are planning to enrol. A half a percent change in the number of students anticipated (4 students) could mean a reduction in the number of classes so it is critical that we get this right first time. With this in mind permanent classes will not be established until late in the first week of school. This will give us sufficient time to confirm the number of students attending taking into account unexpected arrivals and departures. It is my expectation that once classes are established there should be no need to change class structures. When permanent classes are established the children will be sent home with a note confirming the teacher, class name and room number. This week at BHNPS During the first week of school many students will have the same teacher that they had in 2011 and almost every student will be in the same class group as 2011.During this first week teachers will be settling the children back into the school routine. An area of focus for many will be the drug education aspect of the PDHPE program. All Year 5 2012 students will be trained in the Peer Mediation program by three of our teachers who were trained last year. Around the School We are still waiting for an additional classroom to be delivered to the school and I understand that this room should be operational by week 3 or 4 of the term. In the interim the class will be housed in room one (our second computer room). At 8 am this morning the first of the new demountable classrooms should have been handed over to us and we expect that new furniture for the room will arrive soon. We have been down some cleaning staff and the external cleaning that should have been completed has not been done. I expect that there will have been some external cleaning done this morning and that the problem should be rectified by the middle of the week. Notes regarding student fees will go home at the end of the week. We are currently waiting for some costings on excursions for this year so that we can finalise the fee structure. You can anticipate that there will be little change in the fees when compared to those for 2011 Kindergarten 2012 Kindergarten students have a 30 minute Best Start interview scheduled for 30/1, 31/1 or 1/2. If you have lost your appointment time please ring on 9639 6936 and the office staff can assist you. All kindergarten students start school on the 2nd of February and for the first 4 weeks finish school at 2:25pm (up to 24/2/2012) then move to a finishing time of 2:55pm. Have a great week, I know that we are going to have a great year. Peter Robinson Principal |
