Dear Parents and Carers,

Teaching students resilience is vital in helping them navigate life’s challenges with confidence, optimism and persistence. By developing skills such as emotional regulation, problem-solving and positive thinking, students are better equipped to manage setbacks, build strong relationships and maintain a healthy sense of wellbeing both inside and outside the classroom. Resilience supports lifelong learning and personal growth, empowering young people to thrive in an ever-changing world. As such, I am thrilled to announce that this term, Boneo Primary School is launching The Resilience Project across all year levels. This evidence-based wellbeing program focuses on teaching students practical strategies to build resilience and improve mental health through the key principles of Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM). Staff will be engaging in professional learning to support the program, and students will explore it through classroom lessons and activities. We’re incredibly excited to begin this journey and look forward to sharing more with our community as the term progresses.

A heartfelt thank you to our School Captains—Elliot, Maya, Riley, and Billie—who led last week’s assembly with great maturity and respect, and represented our school by laying the wreath at the Rosebud ANZAC Day commemoration.

Today our Year 5 students returned back from their Urban Camp adventure brimming with excitement. It was a fantastic experience filled with learning, independence and exploration of Melbourne’s city landmarks. Students represented our school with pride and enthusiasm throughout the week. A heartfelt thank you to the dedicated staff who attended and supported the students, as well as those who helped plan and prepare for this valuable opportunity.

This week we welcomed Hollee Gray to our Boneo Primary School community as a new member of our Education Support team. Hollee brings warmth, enthusiasm and a strong commitment to supporting student learning and wellbeing. We are excited to have her on board and know she will be a wonderful addition to our team. Hollee has prepared a short introduction below to help our community get to know her a little better.

I’m thrilled to be joining the team at Boneo! After relocating back to the Mornington Peninsula just a few weeks ago after living on the Gold Coast for several years, I’m excited about this new chapter and happy to be back home!

In my spare time, I enjoy playing AFL with my local club and heading to the beach when the weather permits. I also enjoy travelling as I love to experience new cultures and explore the world from a different perspective.

House Cross Country Day- Monday 12th May

On Monday 12th May, we will be holding our Annual Boneo Cross Country House Carnival.

Students are encouraged to wear their house colours along with appropriate clothing and footwear to take part in.

A timetable for the day is below along with the distance each age group will be running. We will endeavour to run this as close to the scheduled times as possible.

From this event the students will accumulate points for their House, and we will also select our School Cross Country Team for 2025, which will represent the school and compete in the District Cross Country Carnival on Wednesday 21st May.

As in previous years, the car park at the top of the oval will be out of use from 8.00am – 3:15pm as it forms part of the cross-country course for our students. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation with this.

We look forward to another fantastic day of sporting fun!

‘Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program!’

What a vibrant week it’s been in our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program! The garden has been a hive of activity, with our enthusiastic Year 3 and 4 students rolling up their sleeves to clear out old crops, shovel rich compost, and lovingly plant the first of our winter vegetables. Thanks to their teamwork and care, broccoli, cauliflower, and snow peas are now nestled in the soil, ready to grow.

Our Garden Lunch Club has been bursting with curiosity and creativity, from discovering wriggling worms to exploring the wonders of flowers and water through hands-on experiments. Meanwhile, our dedicated Grade 6 garden team has been dreaming big, designing and crafting some exciting garden-inspired creations to sell at a coming Thursday market stall—alongside delicious food, of course!

‘Safe Bus Travel’ Program

On Thursday 1^st May, the Year 2 students participated in a ‘Safe Bus Travel’ program conducted by Stuart Dawson from the Bus Association of Victoria.

Stuart showed the students a video, containing important bus safety messages and bus travel tips, followed by the opportunity for the students to ask Stuart questions. After that the students talked to Jo, a bus driver from O’Shannessy’s Sorrento Travel, who kindly made her school buses available to support the presentation. Jo and Stuart pointed out the safety features highlighted in the video as the students toured around and inside the bus.

Vegemite Sandwich Crew 

‘This week we had the opportunity to paint the tunnels near the oval. We have been preparing to do this since Year 3, we are now in Year 6, so it has been an extremely long time. We were so thrilled to get started after the wait. The painting of the tunnels took around two days, we had to draw our designs in chalk and then with the help of Tyson, bring our drawings to life. They turned out awesome! We would like to give a big thankyou to Mrs Pandza and Tyson for working hard with us over the whole process.’