BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE (BYOD)

PROGRAM

We have been considering the introduction of such

a program at Berwick Lodge since it was raised late

in term 4 last year. It will be scheduled for further

discussion at next Monday’s school council meeting.

We did discuss the BYOD program at length earlier

this week at our Management Sub-committee

meeting. At this stage we will be recommending to

council that we do not proceed with a BYOD

program at our school in the foreseeable future.

The reasons include:

With our increase in enrolments our budget bottom line will be much better, meaning that we

are better placed to upgrade and expand our

computer resources immediately. Feedback we

have received from other primary schools reveals

that the technical support for such a program brings

with it both a substantial increase in costs to the

school plus a lot of work and challenges to ensure

its smooth operation. In addition it places an

unreasonable financial burden on many families.

You are most welcome to provide us with your

feedback on this course of action.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

(FAQ’s)

Q. When will we know the dates for next

year’s pupil-free days?

A. We usually consider this matter early in term 4,

having had time to reflect on how the effectiveness

of the current year’s pupil-free days schedule and

taking into account next year’s DET priorities and

those of our school. I understand some parents are

keen to know as soon as possible so as to enable

them to plan their family schedule accordingly.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

NEWSLETTER N0 27 1ST SEPTEMBER 2016

CANTEEN IS OPEN MONDAYS, THURSDAYS & FRIDAYS

DIARY DATES

Friday 2nd September Professor Maths — Grades prep—2

Monday 5th—7th September Grade 4 Camp Rumbug

Wednesday 7th—9th September Grade 3 Camp Rumbug

Thursday 8th September State School Spectacular dress rehearsal

Friday 9th September State School Spectacular dress rehearsal

Saturday 10th September State School Spectacular performance

Monday 12th September Berwick Lodge Film Festival

Wednesday 14th September PFA School Fun Run

Wednesday 14th September Divisional Athletics

Wednesday 12th October Grade 4’s—Wildlife Xposure

Thursday 13th October Garden Club Excursion Yellingbo Conservation.

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT CONTINUED. . .

NOTICES DUE BACK

Friday 9th September PFA Cookbook pre-order form

Monday 12th September Garden Club Excursion to Yellingbo

Tuesday 13th September PFA School Fun Run forms

Wednesday 14th September Grade 4’s Wildlife Xposure forms

This year we had two pupil-free days at the commencement of the school year. Whilst we have not made

a decision as yet, initial feedback that I have received has been predominantly positive. It is likely, though

not certain at this stage that we will be having two pupil-free days at the beginning of term 1 next year.

That would mean that children would start school on Wednesday 1st February. As soon as we have made

a decision on next year’s pupil-free days and school council has ratified those dates, I will inform our

school community.

QUOTABLE QUOTE

‘Sometimes the things we take most for granted are those over which we have the least control – like tomorrow.’

FATHERS DAY

On behalf of the whole school

community we extend a big thank

you to our hard working PFA and

their helpers who ran a most

successful Fathers’ Day stall today

for all of our students. There were

many very satisfied customers, and

we do hope that all of our Berwick

Lodge fathers enjoy their gifts and

have a wonderful day on Sunday.

DOGS IN SCHOOLGROUNDS

We are reminding all families that

dogs are not permitted in the school

grounds during school hours. This

includes before and after school

drop off and pick up times. Most

dogs are very friendly but we do

have children with allergies to dogs

and also children who have a severe

fear of dogs. We appreciate all

families supporting us and either

waiting just outside the school

grounds away from the gates if you

have a dog or leaving your dog at

home if you are planning on entering

the school grounds.

GRADE 3/4 CAMP

On Monday our grade 4 children will

set off for Camp Rumbug near

Foster returning on Wednesday

afternoon and our grade 3 children

will leave for Camp Rumbug on

Wednesday morning and return on

Friday afternoon. Camp Rumbug is

an outdoor adventure based camp

with activities including the giant

swing, archery, ropes course,

canoeing and lots of team building

activities. Our students, teachers

and parent helpers are going to have

a wonderful time at camp and we

look forward to hearing all of their

stories when they return.

SENSORY GARDEN ‘ADOPT’

A PLANT

Today a notice went home to all

children about the New Sensory

Garden ‘Adopt’ a plant activity

where the children are able to

purchase a plant through school and

then have the opportunity to plant

this within the garden. This is a

fantastic opportunity for the whole

school to become involved in the

garden and the children will have a

designated planting time and area to

plant with their grade. We will be

placing a bulk order for the plants

towards the end of the term at a

discounted rate and the children will

be involved with planting these early

next term. The children will get to

plant, water and care for their plant

and watch it grow. We hope that as

many children as possible will

become involved in this activity as

the garden is being built for the

children and our school community.

AFTER SCHOOL PICK UP

Please ensure that you remind your

children to wait inside the school

grounds when being collected from

school at the end of the day. We

have received reports that some

children are exiting the school gate

and waiting on the pavement or

entering nearby gardens and sitting

on letterboxes. An announcement is

put out at 3.45pm for children who

have not been collected to wait at

the office. We do not want your

child’s safety to be compromised.

Any children outside of the school

grounds cannot be supervised and

risk not hearing this announcement.

eSMART

eSmart week will be held during the

week of the 5-9th of September.

As part of a classroom program

during eSmart week teachers will

plan and look for opportunities to

introduce and/or reinforce

cybersafety practices. The focus will

be on the behaviour and potential

dangers associated with the

technology as well as how to use

technology safely and responsibly.

Tips for Home:

The most important thing that you

can do is engage in open and honest

communication. Use the internet

together, the more you explore

together the more you will learn

about your child’s online behaviours

and interests. Other ideas you could

introduce could include:

Have a home-based Acceptable

Use Agreement- You have rules

in the real word about what

your expectations are, you can

have similar rules and

consequences for the internet.

Use an internet filter. These can

be downloaded for free, or

purchased from an IT retailer.

Use parental controls. Most

computers, net browsers, tablets,

smartphones and gaming consoles

have some level of parent control,

for example the ability to block

access to certain categories of

websites. These are not default

settings, so you must activate them

yourself.

For everything that you need to

know in relation to cybersafety

please follow the link below.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/esafety-

information/esafety-issues

Make sure that you continually

reinforce to your children that

nothing is so bad that they can’t talk

to you about it. Let them know that

they should come and tell you when

they have any problems online.

LOST PROPERTY:

Please continue to check lost

property for items of missing

clothing regularly. The end of term is

fast approaching!

SUNSMART

We would like to remind children

and their parents that the school’s

SunSmart Policy and our Student

Code of Conduct requires the

wearing of hats during outdoor

activities, including recess and lunch

breaks, from the beginning of

September until the end of April.

Please ensure that your child is

provided with a sunsmart hat as

from Monday. A sunsmart hat is one

that protects the face, neck and ears

such as a broad brimmed,

legionnaire or bucket style hat. Peak

caps do not offer enough protection

and are not recommended by

SunSmart. Hats are often an item

that get misplaced and/or lost, please

label the hat with your child’s name.

Thank you.

Mrs McCrum & Mrs Maskery.

The 2016 Berwick Lodge Film Festival

will be held on

Monday 12th September 2016

At The Drum Theatre,

Dandenong

Please come along and “walk the red carpet” before

watching new, exciting films produced by our

Grade 5/6 students.

Tickets went on sale

Monday 15th August 2016

For tickets contact

www.drumtheatre.com.au

or Drum Theatre on

8571 1666

*** SOLD OUT ***

New Sensory Garden ‘Adopt’ a plant:

Please keep an eye out for the ‘Adopt’ a plant notice sent home today. Each child can purchase a plant

for $2 and they will then have a designated time to plant this in the new Sensory Garden. This is a

fantastic opportunity for the children to learn about the plants, care and look after the garden. We hope

that as many children as possible will participate.

Garden Club Cooking:

Today we had 25 excited students cooking vegetable muffins. It was great to see how the children’s

skills have improved and they thoroughly enjoyed chopping, grating and mixing the muffins. It is

wonderful to harvest produce from the school garden and then use this fresh on the same day to cook.

If you would like to make the muffins I have included the recipe.

Recipe for Vegetable Muffins

Ingredients ½ cup Vegetable oil ½ cup spring onions

2 cups self-raising flour sifted ½ cup cauliflower

½ cup broccoli ½ cup grated carrot

½ cup bok choy 1 egg

Water A handful of Parsley or coriander

Pinch of salt Grated tasty cheese for the top.

Method:

Step 1 Wash all vegetables/herbs and cut into small pieces. Grate carrot.

Step 2 Place all vegetables into mixing bowl. Add flour, egg, vegetable oil and pinch of salt. Mix

together.

Step 3 Heat oven to 180°

Step 4 Add water as needed to make into a batter consistency.

Step 5 Lightly grease small muffin tray with vegetable oil.

Step 6 Spoon mixture into muffin tray and sprinkle tops with grated cheese. Bake in oven for 10

to 12 minutes.

Step 7 Turn out muffins onto a cooling rack and serve whilst warm.

NOTE: Always supervise children when cooking with hot equipment/food.

WANTED: Items for the new Sensory Garden

Volcanic rocks or other medium rocks/pebbles to use within the creek bed.

Clean PVC poly pipe to use for chimes and ‘talking poles’.

Outdoor Marine Ply boards – varying sizes

Water tank

Thank you to Jade Thomas for generously donating some volcanic rocks for our garden project. If you

are able to assist with any of the above items, please speak to Sandra McCrum.

Happy Gardening. Mrs. McCrum.

Elise 4W Maddy 3FD

Seb 4W

Kendra 3S

Rad 4C

Audrey 4C

Reiner 3S Ava 3K

Noah 3K

The newly-formed Grade 5 Knitting Club would appreciate any donations of

yarn and/or knitting needles you may have unused at home. Donations can be

dropped off at the School Office.

We are excited to be learning to knit, and one of our projects will be giving the

Yarn Bomb trees in the school courtyard a makeover!

Thank you very much for your support.

Mrs Boyd

Ava 4W

Mini Olympics Day Thanks to everyone who got dressed up and participated in the Berwick Lodge

Primary Schools Mini Olympics day. We started off with an opening ceremony on the basketball courts. Classes then moved around to various activities

throughout the day. The day concluded with a closing ceremony and some

awards. Thanks to all the parents who assisted on the day. Thank you also to the

Sport Captains - Holly and Jenna, for opening and closing the day.

District Athletics On the 18th August, our students competed at the District Athletics. It was a great achievement for the

students to get to this stage. Zoe, Brock, Dylan, Abbey and Olivia will now go and compete at the

Divisional event in shot put, long jump, 1500m and hurdles. Thank you to Lauran, Mrs Rumble and Mrs

Worthington for assisting on the day.

Grade 5/6 Hoop Time 8 teams competed at Dandenong stadium on Monday at Hoop Time. It was a Round Robin competi-

tion for all abilities. Our All Star boys played in the grand final and had a close 2 point defeat. They will

still represent our school at the regionals in October. Thank you to Kate, Mr Pryor and Ms Boyd for

their help on the day.

Grade 3/4 Hoop Time 10 Grade 3/4 teams played in the Hoop Time competition on Tuesday. They were coached by grade 6

students. Our coaches have been training the students this term at recess and lunch time. It was great

seeing everyone representing our school so well. Well done to the Future stars team who won their

final by 1 point. They will also go onto the Regional finals in Term 4. Thanks to Adam, Lauren, Helen, Mr

Kuchel, Mrs Frolich and Ms Cooper for their help on the day.

Hoop Time write up On the 30th August the Grade 3/4’s went to Casey Basketball stadium in Cranbourne. We had to be at

the gym by 8.30am. We played four to six games of basketball. There were 5 Future Stars teams and 5

Rookies teams. The games were fun but challenging. Everyone had a great time. Future Stars 1 lost none

of their games and went to the semi-finals. They won that and went into the grand finals. The team had a

really close game and ended up winning by 1 point. Future Stars 1 will go to Regionals next term.

From Allanah and Sahar. 4K

Wakakirri Results 2016 and Feedback

After weeks of waiting we have finally received our Wakakirri results! We were awarded a number

of performance awards and received some excellent feedback from the judges.

Each student who participated in Wakakirri has been presented with a certificate, photograph

and t-shirt, which they can keep as a memento of their Wakakirri experience.

Canvas Your Imagination

Our Story

Our Wakakirri story told the journey of 4 tourists who were

visiting an art gallery. The tourists were provoked to look beyond

the canvases of Van Gogh, J.S. Lowry, Andy Warhol and Salvador

Dali, as we journeyed into the realms of their imagination.

Performance Awards

· Artwork on sets (this is a great tribute to our dedicated

parents helpers who created our amazing backdrops!)

· Concept

· Direction and Staging

· Group Dance (our students collectively performed with

performance and enthusiasm and this award is a great testimony to that!)

· Overall Costume Design (thanks to the outstanding talents of Krystel Humphries who spent

months creating our spectacular costumes)

· Most Sustainable Production

Judge’s Feedback

“Very Imaginative with creative use of sets and costumes with clear

story telling” – Michael Cormick

Feedback from Panel

Very Imaginative. Creative use of set and costumes. Strong

choreography showing many different styles. Great choice of music in

each section. Really good emotional connection to each of the

paintings.

Student Thoughts

I enjoyed performing to the audience and judges. Milly, 6N

It was entirely different to perform in front of a live audience

to our rehearsals in school. The lighting and size of the stage

was magical. It was nerve-racking and exciting at the same time.

Caitlyn, 6N

I’ve enjoyed all the rehearsals and performing with all the

amazing backdrops and stunning costumes. Tayla, 6N

I was nervous the first time we performed our dance on the stage. I loved watching the

other schools perform when we were backstage. Hannah, 6N

Final Thoughts It’s all over for another year! I am very proud of our students and huge thank you again

to everyone who has helped along the way!

Chookas,

Lorraine Montgomery

#welovewaka

Father’s Day Stall

A big shout out to all the parent volunteers and PFA helpers, for all your hard work, we couldn’t have

done it without you. It was an outstanding success; the children loved their gifts and couldn’t wait to give

them to their Dad. Well-done kids, for your excellent behaviour.

School Fun Run—Wednesday 14th September Hey everybody! Its only less than a week until the school fun run, so keep up the good work with the

fundraising. Its great to see such a great response to the fun run already.

Every child that raises only $10 or more will receive a reward for their effort. If they raise

money online they can go in the draw to win a family holiday to the Gold Coast.

The PFA will also be feeding these hungry kids after the fun run for lunch with a sausage

sizzle and Quelch fruit sticks.

We are looking for volunteer’s that can help out on the day. If this is you, could you please let us know

via the office, Facebook or email: blpspfa@hotmail.com.au.

We look forward to seeing you there.

BLPS COOKBOOK

This week you would have been sent home with your child a notice for pre-ordering our highly anticipated 2016 BLPS Cookbook so we can establish the number of books we will have printed. As

always the key to successful fundraising is planning. So please help support us and your school by pre-ordering the cookbook for yourself or your loved ones. A great gift for Christmas, plus we can even

gift wrap it for you.

Please complete the order form and return it to your child’s class teacher or office by 9am Friday 9th

September 2016. Payment is not required as yet.

Important dates to remember

PFA Meeting - Friday 9th September 2016 at 2.15pm

Cookbook Pre-Order forms — 9am Friday 9th September 2016

School Fun Run - Wednesday 14th September 2016

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