News from the Principal - Term 2 Week 4
25 A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
— Proverbs 11:25
Gratitude - that is my word of the week! There is much to be grateful for at BDC and in the last couple of weeks there have been some significant opportunities for our students, our staff, and our parents.
- Ethics Olympiad - our Ethics Olympiad BDC Team 1 Gold has received a silver medal in the senior’s category - congratulations to this team and also to Mrs Brown and Mr Doyle who are developing this new initiative. If you would like to see what this program about please follow the link
- Netball Primary and Secondary - our primary teams struggled last week at the Gala Day but I have chatted with some of the girls and they identified key areas for improvement. Our secondary teams excelled at their Gala Day with our 7/8 girls, 9/10 girls and two of our 7/8 boys teams qualifying for the next round to be held in Port Macquarie. Congratulations to our netballers and to our coaches. Thank you also to Coffs Harbour Netball for supporting umpiring and both Gala Days.
- eSports FUSE Cup - our eSports teams competed in their second FUSE competition. This time they visited a school in Ballina to compete. Our students built skills in collaboration and communication and also had loads of fun. They finished 4th and 5th overall.
- NCIS Cross Country - congratulations to our primary and secondary students who competed in the regions. Overall BDC placed 3rd in both groups with our primary team only 1 point off second place. Congratulations to all the students who were selected in the NCIS team that will now compete at the CIS Cross Country carnival in Sydney later in the year.
- Book Fair - thanks to parents who supported our book fair with over $6500 in resources being raised for the library as well as encouraging reading within your home. Thanks for being great role models.
- Mothers’s Day Success - with over 250 mums and grandmothers attending our annual breakfast it was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends and to meet new ones. We also raised over $700 for Warrina (to support mothers and children suffering from domestic violence) and for BDC Round Square projects. Thank you to all parents and students involved - we had a huge cast of helpers. It was also wonderful to enjoy our year 11 performers who provided the entertainment for this event. I hope all of our mothers enjoyed their special day.
- GRIP Leadership - Our Year 6 leaders visited the GRIP Leadership conference this week to fine tune their leadership skills. Speaking to some of our leaders this week they have returned with some exciting ideas to improve their year level and their school.
I wish our Year 5 campers well as they head to Tyalgum Ridge Retreat. This location is at the base of an eroded crater next to World Heritage National Parks in full view of Mt Warning. It is a spectacular venue for our year 5s to experience their biggest camp so far. I look forward to joining them on Monday morning to be involved in some of the activities.
Thank you to the families who support our weekend events. We hosted the first BDC Barracudas Sporting Club double header with under 6 and 7 Football followed by Under 14 Rugby. If you are interested in helping in this events.
Open Day
The college has our annual Open Day on Tuesday 25 May and a special Kindy pop-in session on Saturday 22 May. Please share this information with your friends and family if they are thinking about joining our community. More information about this event will be shared with our community in the coming weeks.
Stage 3 Mathematics Parent Information Evening
Work on sharing Stage 3 mathematics experiences with parents occurred this week with a parent information session hosted by our year 6 classroom teachers with our Head of Maths, Curriculum Coordinator and our Head of Primary. We discussed the role of Maths Pathways, mini-lessons, rich tasks, teacher and student grouping and how to access and read the learner profile. Thank you to the large group of parents who actively participate in this process. A Q&A fact sheet will be sent to Stage 3 parents to follow up on this session.
Restorative Practices at BDC
Our college has made a very important decision lately and that is to become a Restorative School. Using Restorative Practices is n’ot something we take lightly. We ha’ve been watching what ha’s been happening in the world of education when it comes to creating a strong school culture, to building effective relationships, to resolving conflict and to improving student behaviour and, empathetic decision making. The bottom line is that we think there i’s a better way. This does no’t mean that we are removing our behaviour management processes, we are just adding to the picture.
Working restoratively is really all about asking the right questions to students when things go wrong. You see, most approaches have us putting our detective hats on and focusing everything in the past. It really doesn’t get us very far because we never get to the present or the future.
Put simply, we’ll be asking your children questions like:
• What happened?
• How has that made people feel?
• And what action needs to be taken to make that better?
It i’s all about teaching responsibility for your actions and knowing that nobody is going to do it for you. There’s a LOT more to Restorative Practices, including a focus on practical strategies, grouping and sharing methodologies together with the explicit use of positive language. Our ongoing Partnership with Real Schools is supporting and resourcing us to make this change and you have access to all the resources too. You should also know that we are working on this cultural journey with our sister school, Clarence Valley Anglican School.
This week we hosted Simon Dewar from Real Schools who worked with students and teachers and also hosted a parent information session.
In the coming newsletters I will also share how we are using these strategies in different stages and settings. I will also share the slide deck from Simon’s most recent visit. Stay tuned for more information on this exciting development for our school.
Nick Johnstone
Principal