Welcome to the Week 6 Newsletter. It is hard to believe that we are halfway through our first term of the school year, it is certainly flying by. Recently, I have had many students from across the school visit me in my office to showcase some of the learning they have been doing in class. I have been particularly impressed with the quality of the Narrative writing that many of our students are producing. The students are using interesting and varied vocabulary which makes their stories a pleasure to read. Congratulations to those students for their exceptional writing and I thank them for sharing their learning with me.

NAPLAN Online

Our Year 3 and 5 students will begin their NAPLAN assessments next week. The testing period is open between Wednesday 15 March and Monday 27 March. A timetable of scheduled testing times for each class has been posted to class dojo.  All of the Year 5 assessments will be online, Year 3 Reading, Language Conventions and Numeracy will be online, Writing will continue to be a paper test again this year. If your child is absent on an allocated testing day, Catch-Up tests will be administered throughout the testing period. Good luck to all of our Year 3 and 5 students.

BPS School Board

The Byford Primary School, School Board has two vacant parent position to fill this year. The School Board is comprised of the School’s Principal, School Staff, and up to 10 elected Parent and Community representatives. The Parent, Community and Staff Representatives hold office for a period of two years from the time of their election. The role of the School Board is one of setting the long term future for the school and maintain oversight (not management) of the school’s operation. It is about providing additional expertise to help the school achieve the best outcomes for the students. Unfortunately, we did not receive any nominations for these positions in our last nomination round. If this is something that you may be interested in, then please keep your eye out on class dojo and the facebook page for information on how to nominate, or come in and see me if you would like to know more about the position.

BSSA Summer Carnival

Good luck to selected Year 5 and 6 students who made the Basketball, Cricket and T-Ball teams for the interschool Summer Carnival this Friday. We hope you enjoy the day and we know you will make us all proud by showing the Byford Way in competition. Thankyou to Mrs Diedrichson, Mr G, Mr Way and Ms Winmar for training the students and accompanying them on the excursion.

Harmony Week

Harmony Week is being held this year from 20 – 26 March (Week 8). Harmony week celebrates and recognises our diversity, it is about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. During week eight of the term, students will be participating in class activities to celebrate Harmony Week. We invite all students and staff to wear orange (the colour worn to show your support of harmony day) or cultural dress on Friday 24^th March.