Boneo Buzz: 4th August

Dear Parents and Carers,

Trivia Night Success!

Thank you to Owen Goodwin and Vanessa Smedley, members of our School Council, for their outstanding efforts in organising the inaugural Boneo Primary School Trivia Night.

The Trivia Night was an overwhelming success, and we owe its triumph to the tireless dedication and hard work put forth by Owen and Vanessa. We also want to extend a warm thank you to Lee Beckett, who hosted the evening. With Lee’s wit and charm, the Trivia Night was filled with friendly competition and laughter, making it a memorable experience for all participants.

The success of this event would not have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors, who kindly contributed amazing prizes that added an extra layer of excitement to the evening.

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to the following sponsors:

Your support and generosity truly made a difference, and we are incredibly grateful for your willingness to invest in our school’s community.

Lastly, but certainly not least, we want to thank each and every one of you who attended the Trivia Night. Your presence and enthusiasm brought life to the event and made it a memorable night of camaraderie and fun.

Annual Parent /Caregiver Opinion Survey

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents and caregivers think of our school. The Parent / Caregiver Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. The survey is optional but we encourage all families to participate. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

All families are invited to participate in the survey.

The Parent / Caregiver Opinion Survey will be open from Monday 7 August to Friday 8 September 2023.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the survey period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. All families will receive the link on Monday via Compass.

Primary School Attendance

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day.

Why Attendance is Important

We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day. If students miss school regularly, they miss out on learning the fundamental skills that will set them up for success in the later years of school.

There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind what is happening in the classroom from an academic and social perspective. It’s vital that students go to school every day – even in the early years of primary school. In Victoria, school is compulsory for children and young people aged 6 – 17 years.

Student Absences

The main reasons for absence are:

• Sickness – There are always times when students need to miss school, such as when they’re ill. It’s vital that they’re only away on the days they are genuinely sick, and developing good sleep patterns, eating well and exercising regularly can make a big difference.
• Family holidays – It’s vital that holidays are planned during school holidays where possible, and not during the term. If you are planning to go on holiday during term time, make sure that you contact the Principal in advance, and work with the school to develop a plan to ensure that learning is not significantly impacted.
• ‘Day off’ – If you are letting your child have a ‘day off’ for a variety of reasons, please liaise with the school.
• School refusal – School refusing children will experience significant emotional distress not only when going to school but also at the thought of going to school; they may be absent from school for weeks or even months at a time. School refusal differs from truancy as children generally stay home with the knowledge of the parents, despite their best efforts to encourage their child to go to school

Year 3 Working with Data

Over the past few weeks students in Year 3 have been planning and investigating methods of data collection, creating displays using lists, tables, picture and column graphs, and interpreting and comparing data displays.

The children recorded the colour of vehicles traveling past the school on Boneo Rd for short bursts of 10 minutes; in the morning, around lunchtime and in the afternoon. Students were interested to observe that factors, such as time of day and vantage point, impacted the information they gathered. One student inferred that it was likely that the afternoon was busier so more cars were recorded as it was “nearly home time and parents were driving to the school to do pick up”. Another predicted that there would be “mostly white or black” the next time because “they were more popular” and had the most in the other times that data was gathered.
Another experience to sort and classify information accurately was to organise a jumbled tin full of football collector cards. The children suggested the following categories to sort them;
-serial numbers on the card
-alphabetical order of teams
-the ladder team order
-least favourite to favourite
-colour of jerseys
-best players.
After discussion, they decided that some of the suggestions were ‘unreliable’ as people had differing opinions about the best team, the ladder can change and they needed a system that didn’t vary.
The children branched out into small groups to sort, using the agreed upon system. Working efficiently, they quickly sorted their cards…however a new problem was discovered; there were cards from 2017-2022 & three display albums! One child suggested that the cards in the “teens should be together” another thought that “special cards needed their own section”.

The Year 3 students were surprised to know that analysing, categorising, rationalising and working systematically could be such fun! Next lesson they will be deciding how to best present the data gathered in a graph.

Students developed their ‘dream team’ by analysing the statistical information available. Each player selected was chosen based upon their performance and merit at goal kicking or assisting their teammates. Some children elected to research players for more current data.
This inquiry into statistics and data, using an interest area (collecting footy cards) to drive learning, has seen a significant surge in enthusiasm and many rich discussions, including comparing collections during recreation time!