Boneo Buzz: 8th May

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Building Updates

I am excited to announce that the plans for our outdoor kitchen are currently being finalised with cabinet makers and we expect construction to begin later this term. Additionally, we have been working with the Victorian School Building Authority to finalise plans for our Sensory Garden and expect construction to begin in July.

Check out our new weekly Boneo Master Chef feature. Click on the video and try making spring rolls.

Happiness Project

It has been overwhelming to receive so many pictures and videos from our community, families are excited to share what gives them happiness. Unlike clear advice on hand washing and social distancing, it is less straightforward to look after how we feel.

Experts recommend the following:

Socialise

Research suggests that happy people tend to be relatively social but this is a hard thing to do in the time of COVID-19, social distancing means we can’t physically hang out with the people we care about. However, technology is going a long way to help, which is why our staff are connecting daily through Zoom. Seeing facial expressions, hearing emotion in voices, means we are able to connect with each other. We feel that this experience is actually building stronger partnerships with parents. How wonderful to know that through adversity, amazing things will happen.

Help others

Happy people tend to be really ‘other’ oriented. Meaning that we need to focus on other people’s happiness rather than our own. We have this idea of ‘self-care’, and treating our self, but the research suggests if you do nice things for others, like donate money, that tends to boost wellbeing. Doing random acts of kindness, particularly in this time when we’re all really struggling, can be incredibly powerful. It has a positive effect on society as well.

Be present

Practice mindfulness, happy people tend to be more mindful – present in the moment, noticing what’s happening. Meditation can be an incredibly powerful tool in the midst of this crisis because it causes us to focus on what’s happening in our body at the present moment.

Your mind can’t be ruminating about where you’re going to get your next roll of toilet paper.

May 8 is ‘Be a Good Mate Day’, so I encourage our community to reach out and phone a friend or do a random act of kindness for a mate. If you are a recipient of an act of kindness send a picture and let us know.

HOW TO BE A GOOD MATE IN ISOLATION

Send your mate a text message or give them a call.
Lock in a time to meet. ‘Mate, let’s catch up soon’ just isn’t good enough. Let’s remember it will be via ‘Zoom’ at the moment.
Share what’s happening in your life. It’s amazing how much better and closer we feel when we talk about the real stuff.

Mr Cooper’s Challenge

‘Boneo Community’ Assembly

We hope you enjoyed our first ‘remote student led assembly’ on Monday afternoon. Each week, our student leaders will be creating and presenting assembly to our school community. The assembly link will be shared on Compass each Monday prior to our regular assembly time of 2.30pm.

We wish to congratulate our student leaders and Mr Pollett on the wonderful assembly shared with our community this week. The feedback from our families has been very positive;

‘We just wanted to pass on our “Well Done!” for an awesome school assembly today. The whole family really enjoyed it. It was so nice to hear from the school leaders and to see everyone’s amazing tricks! Please pass on our huge congrats to everyone involved.’

Prep Enrolment 2021

The time is approaching for us to begin offering places for Prep in 2021. To guarantee a place of offer for siblings, we must have your ‘Intention to Enrol’ details registered with the office as soon as possible.

We have a waitlist for families wishing to attend and require confirmation of our sibling and in area numbers before these offers are made.

Please ensure this is actioned before 1st June as we are unable to guarantee late applications.

If you require further assistance regarding our enrolment process, please contact the school office.

Year 6 to Year 7 Transition

Just a reminder to all Year 6 families that the ”Application for Year 7 Placement in 2021′ is to be returned to Boneo PS by Friday 29th May.

Please see the Compass News Feed posted on 22nd April for further information.

Compass News

Snapshot of Learning this Week

The Happiness Project

Thank you to the families who have shared their ‘Happiness Projects’ to be included in our weekly assembly. Here is a sample of ‘happiness’ from our community.