Burwood BUZZ
Aiming for the Stars

Friday, 2023 - Term 3  Week 3

It was wonderful to have so many parents and family members up to celebrate Education Week on Wednesday. The open classrooms showcased our work on maths reasoning and the Assembly was a fantastic showcase of some of our excellent programs.

As part of Education Week celebrations, our dance groups, choir and Strings Ensemble performed at Burwood Westfield. This was a wonderful opportunity and a big organisation effort by the teachers. Thank you especially to Miss Mitchell and Mrs Wijngaarden for all their work in planning and leading this.

Thank you to the P & C from the BPS staff for the Education Week coffee- it was very appreciated!

A reminder that our Athletics Carnival K-6 is scheduled for this Monday. We are all crossing fingers that it is not raining. If we do need to postpone, a message will be sent out on Monday morning.

A reminder to parents and carers that the student toilets are for children only. If you need to use a toilet please come to the school office. This is a child protection issue.

We have a new jacket available from the uniform shop. The jacket has a water resistant outer layer and fleece lining to keep students dry and warm. The jacket also has a hood that can be folded up into a zip pocket. There is no school logo to enable parents to get maximum use of the jacket. The jacket costs $43. There have been quite a few students wearing non-school colour jackets so I encourage parents to look at purchasing this jacket to comply with our school uniform.

If you have a child who will come to school in 2024, please go to our website to complete the online enrolment as soon as possible. The office will then email you to arrange the enrolment interview to finalise your child’s enrolment. Information on starting school, including information about the orientation program, can be found on the school website. If you need any support, please do not hesitate to contact the school office on 97452299.

Our Junior and Senior dancers were selected to perform at the Opera House on Sunday for the Sydney Eisteddfod They did an amazing job in a competition that included students from High School and from private and Catholic schools. Thank you so much to Miss Mitchell for organising this event and to her and Mrs Tarren for giving up their Sunday to supervise the students at the concert.

I had the privilege to meet a talented ex-student Dr Salman Ansari. Dr Ansari attended Burwood PS in the 90’s and has not only gone on to be a specialist physician but a published children’s book author as well. Dr Ansari came for a visit and donated copies of his picture book, Alex and the Spooky night Noises. He was inspired to write this book by reading to his own child. It is always wonderful to hear about the successes of our past students!

Finally congratulations to our debating team who won both debates against Marie Bashir PS this week! The topics of the debates were Students caught cyber-bullying should be banned from devices for a year and Teachers should participate in sport with students. Thank you to Mr Daley for all your work in coaching the team. 

Attendance is carefully monitored to ensure students receive a successful education. Partial attendance also impacts student learning.

Arriving at school and class on time ensures that students do not miss out on important learning activities scheduled early in the day, helps students learn the importance of punctuality and routine, gives students time to greet their friends before class and reduces classroom disruption.

This week 120 of our students were invited by Burwood Westfield to perform in their Education Week local school showcase. Our dance groups, 3-6 choirs, music groups and public speakers were a wonderful representation of the extra- curricular activities we offer at our school.

The students performed in front of members from our local community and enjoyed another opportunity to perform for an audience.

Well done to all of our performers for being excellent ambassadors for our school and to Sana for being a fabulous host!

Ms Mitchell and Mrs Wijngaarden

Congratulations to our senior dancers who performed at the Sydney Eisteddfod on the weekend. Our dancers performed on stage at the Sydney Opera house and gave a wonderful performance!

The feedback from the judges was very positive:  'Clever choreography, clean precise movements from everyone, a very musical group of students who are enjoying themselves, really good job!'

With a score of 82/100, which is high in dance performances, our dancers just missed out on placing in the top 5.

We are exceptionally proud of our students for their continued success with our Addams Family inspired dance!

Ms Mitchell, Ms Tarran and Ms Charli

A huge congratulations to both our junior and senior dance groups who were both selected to perform in the State Dance Festival in September. State dance festival requires an audition and is highly contested by schools all over the state. It is a wonderful achievement for our dancers and a fabulous recognition of the hard work and dedication of our students and choreography by Ms Charli! 

Fabulous work dancers, we are exceptionally proud of you and we are looking forward to seeing you shine again on stage!

Ms Mitchell

The Senior A netball team and the Senior B netball team have both had phenomenal seasons this year, resulting in both teams making it to the semi-finals! This is an amazing effort!

This Friday 4th August, the Senior A team will face off against the formidable and undefeated Haberfield team for a place in the grand finals. 

The Senior B team has finished at the top of the pool, winning every single round so far. They will play against Russell Lea on Friday to secure their place in the grand finals.

 On Wednesday 26 July, we acknowledged 100 days of school for our Kindergarten students with a ‘100 days brighter’ celebration. Students dressed up in their brightest mufti clothes and participated in a range of fun activities inspired by the number 100. We made paper chains with 100 links, we made glasses in the shape of 100 and we played games from years gone by such as hopscotch, marbles and elastics. We even got a sneak peek of what we might look like at age 100 which we then used as a stimulus for writing. We hope you enjoy some photos from our celebration!

Teachers have been engaged in professional learning focused on mathematics this year. The new mathematics syllabus K-2 is being taught this year, while in 3-6 we are preparing for implementation next year.

We are creating classrooms where the culture of the classroom supports strong mathematical learning. We are learning to work mathematically - through communicating, reasoning, problem solving, understanding and fluency.

During our open classrooms did you see…

Students communicating? Were they talking, learning together, using drawings or physical materials (concrete materials such as blocks)?

Were they Agreeing, Building on or Challenging the thinking of others?

Did they use reasoning skills? (We chose this because…..)

These are some of the ways we are learning in mathematics.

Julie Birchley, Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction

At the end of Term 2, as part of the Geography unit ‘The Earth’s Environment’ Stage 2 visited the Field of Mars. Students investigated and recorded the characteristics of the forest and evidence of animals. Students also participated in a range of hands-on fieldwork including invertebrate hunts, sketching, mapping, drawing and developing a sound map.

Stage 2 students are developing a deeper understanding of mathematical skills and concepts by communicating their thinking and using reasons to justify their strategies or choices. Students are not only focused on ‘How did you work that out?’ but also ‘Why did you do it that way?’ Students are actively using ‘Agree, Build On, Challenge’ talking prompts to share their ideas and engage in mathematical discussions.

Enjoy viewing the wonderful artworks Stage 2 have created linked to different areas of the curriculum 

Our Open Day on Wednesday 2 August was a successful day celebrating Public Education.

Thank you to all parents and carers who came to visit classrooms and interacted with the Maths activities. It was awesome to see lots of families and friends enjoying the picnic recess.  The day ended with our amazing assembly showcasing performances and speeches from our students. 

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