From the Principal’s Desk

Working Bee Our working bee was held last Sunday morning, with a dedicated crew working to keep our school looking its best. Some of the jobs completed included pruning, sweeping, mowing and general tidying. The working bee finished with a sausage sizzle. A big thank you to the volunteers, including our friendly neighbours at St. Silas. Thanks also to Trevor Cotsworth who has been managing our working bees in recent times. Disco There were certainly some great dance moves on display at our school disco last Friday evening. With “DJ Mr D” in charge of the music, we had lots of students, parents and teachers letting their hair down for some serious fun! Thanks to our wonderful band of volunteers from the Parents and Friends Association, who helped to coordinate the evening and provided such a great experience for our children. Air-conditioning You may have noticed that we have recently installed evaporative cooling in the school hall. This will be a welcome relief for all involved, as we head into the warmer months. It will benefit classes who use the space, as well as the many special events held in the hall. It is anticipated that the system will be ready to go at the end of this week, so now we just need the weather to warm up! Year 6 Camp Reports have come in from the high country that our Year 6 campers are having a sensational time while on camp at Valley Homestead. They have been blessed with some particularly good weather, with lots of blue skies and a light breeze! Students have been involved in activities including camp cooking, cycling, an aerial obstacle course, vertical challenge and abseiling. They are also busily preparing for a talent show this evening. We expect some very happy (and tired) children and staff to return to BNPS on Friday afternoon at approximately 3:00pm. A big thankyou to the staff who gave up their time to organise and attend the camp

Principal Tour to China Miss Bienert reports that the journey to our Sister School in Suzhou was quite a long one, with an overnight flight and stop over via Hong Kong, then a 3 hour bus journey, arriving on Saturday evening. She has had the opportunity to meet the school principal to discuss education in our respective schools and is representing Balwyn North Primary School at the 12th Annual Jiangsu International Forum, which has provided an opportunity to further develop relationships with our Sister School and discuss curriculum construction using key competencies in a global environment. I know that Miss Bienert is looking forward to sharing this valuable learning with the school community upon her return on Monday.

Erika Bienert Tony Stokes Principal Assistant Principal

Thursday 10th November 2016

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

Friday 11th November Year 6 Camp Return Remembrance Day

Monday 14th November Uniform Shop 2:30 –3:15pm Assembly 2:45pm - Maths Olympiad Presentation

Tuesday 15th November School Banking due Prep Transition 2 2:15—3:15pm

Wednesday 16th November Uniform Shop 8:45—9:30am Digital Technologies Expo - 7:00pm

Monday 21st November BNPS House Athletics Uniform Shop 2:30—3:15pm

Tuesday 22nd November School Banking Due Prep Transition 3 2:15—3:15pm

Digital Learning Expo

The Years 3-6 students will be hosting a showcase of student learning using digital tools.

You are invited to come and share in their learning on:

Wednesday 16th November 2016

7:30pm

In the Senior School Building.

1:1 Device Information: There will also be an opportunity to gather information about

our 1:1 BYOD (bring your own device) program that will run from years 4-6 from 2017.

Our LWT (Learning With Technologies) supplier will be on hand to answer questions

and demonstrate the devices that we will have on offer.

Lisa Cuthbert-Novak

Digital Learning Leader

B.N.P.S. Stars of the Week

Term 4, Week 5

Class Name Achievement

FA Zhilong Yao For being Principled by showing a clear sense of fairness and

respect towards his classmates.

FL Kira Uy For being a Communicator by confidently talking to the whole class

and presenting her written work beautifully.

FS

Abigail Lee

Joshua Ang

For being Balanced by giving her best effort at all things at BNPS.

Well done!

For being Caring by always taking care of his classmates and

making FS a lovely place to be! Thanks Josh!

1F Alena Nguyen For being Caring by always looking out for her classmates and

being a kind friend.

1G Joshua Dieng For being a Thinker by working out solutions to problems and

making excellent connections. Way to go Joshua!

2A Shaina De Los

Reyes

For being reflective by accepting and giving feedback about her

work.

2K Yana Malik For being Open-Minded by expressing various ideas and listening

and responding to others respectfully.

2S Alecia Ong For being Reflective by having a mature approach to choices that

impact her learning.

3B Alex Golding For being a Risk-Taker by approaching his new school with

independence and courage.

3C Rochelle Sun

For being a Principled student who is caring, well-mannered and

enthusiastic. A fabulous addition to our class. Welcome to 3C

Rochelle you are a star!

4J Martin Tran For being an Inquirer by showing a willingness to ask questions to

clarify his ideas.

4M Joshua Prakoso

For being Caring by being a great buddy and showing kindness,

empathy and care for others when playing with 4M’s kinder

buddies.

5C Harold Moon For being Caring by showing respect and kindness towards

everyone he meets!

5T Jayden Lin For being Balanced by giving more consideration to his learning in

all curriculum areas and most importantly with a smile.

6M Aaron Chau For being Knowledgeable by exploring concepts of global

significance with an open and positive attitude.

6R Caitlin Low For being Balanced by demonstrating a balanced approach towards

all areas of curriculum and with a lovely smile J

MUSIC Ben Liu (1F) For being a Thinker by always sharing thoughtful answers in music

class. Well done!

We are pleased to announce that Balwyn North Primary School has achieved exceptional re-sults in the 2016 Maths Olympiads. BNPS entered 2 teams of competitors from Years 5 & 6. The Year 6 team achieved an Outstanding Achievement, with a Total Team Result in the Top 10% of all schools entered into this National Competition. The Year 5 team achieved a High Achievement, with a Team Result in the Top 25%. This is a strong result for the Year 5 students, who sit the same Olympiads as the Year 6 students. Of particular note is Owen Cai (6D), who achieved a Perfect Score of 25 out of 25 for all Olympiads. Owen will receive a medal for this achievement. This places him in the Top 1.02% of results nationally. The following students achieved outstanding results. Awards and certificates will be present-ed at the whole school assembly on the 14thNovember (at 2:45 pm). Year 5 Highest Overall Score in Team - David Wang Achieved in the Top 10% Of The Competition- Zhi Lin, Ryan Ngo Top 20% - Derrick Ch’ng, Han-Wen Khaw, Karthik Seevanayagam, Parsa Emamjomeh, William Wu Top 30%- Ankith Sreekumar, Callista Leong-La, Joyce Ly, Farjad Safwan Year 5 Team Members: Harold Moon, Vanessa Zhang, Isaiah Chin, Catherine Jeong, Jayden Lin, Terry Yu, Rahul Doloi, Emma Ho, Katherine Nguyen, Eric Tang, Gavin Xu, Tania Batova, Deborah Le, Lucy Mackie, Harini Balashankar, Khoi Vu, Zenan Chen, Dinethsa Aberathna.

Year 6 Highest Overall Score in Team and A Perfect Score- Owen Cai Achieved in The Top 10% of the Competition- Mason Ma, Andrew Ngodinhson, Pasandul De Silva, Nadine Lim, Victor Li, Mark Chua, Marcus Humbert, Sophie Yang, Zac Daily, Anton Huynh, Brandon Leung, Adam Morsi. Top 20% - Amy Jiang, Henry Law, Brendan Park, Tony Tao, Olivier Peios, James Fuller Top 30%- Aaron Chau, Justin La, Hannah Louey, Caitlin Low, Hannah Luo Year 6 Team Members: Adit Chaudhary, Aubrey Tran, Leo Zheng, Andy Chen, Sandaru Wijeth-

ilake, Saranya Kunasagaran,

Congratulations to our Chess Team! On Tuesday, our school competed in the "Chess Kids" State Final. For Ryan Ngo and Zhi Lin, tournaments are a fairly new experience. Sean Hawkins and Oliver Chen are both very young, but they all performed extemely well alongside Callista Leong-La, James Deng, Kovida De Silva and Elizabeth Ngodinhson who are more experienced tournament players. We were not hopeful of being able to win many games against some of the strongest schools in the State, without our top Year 6 players who were all enjoying the excitement of Valley Homestead camp. However, true to form, our students rose to the occasion, shrugged off the overwhelming odds against them and managed to finish 5th from 45 schools! This easily qualified us to compete in the Nationals at Melbourne University, at the end of December! As an additional surprise, Sean Hawkins was awarded a prestigious "Junior Master" certificate. There are only 58 players in Victoria to ever have received this award and, in our school's chess playing history, our only other recipient was Sammy Asaka, last year. Following his success on Tuesday, Sean competed as an individual in the Junior State Finals yesterday. He won 5 games, had 1 draw and 1 loss from his 7 games. This placed him 6th out of 91 players, which anyone would agree is a wonderful result. I am constantly surprised by the dedication, persistence and strength of character that our Chess players exhibit, often under very difficult circumstances. Everyone gives their best effort, no matter how mentally tired they might become, in the course of a long day of intense concentration. They work as a team, supporting and encouraging each other and always making us proud that they are representing our school. We would all like to sincerely thank Mr Mo Ngo, Mrs Sarasi De Silva and Mr Andrew Chen for generously giving up their time (and petrol) to drive the team to and from the tournament. Without this kind assistance, it would not be possible for our players to participate in these exciting competitions. Next Tuesday, we have the honour of hosting the “Chess Victoria” State Finals in our School Hall. If you have the opportunity, you would be very welcome to stop by for a while, to see our team compete. We wish them well in this tournament, which will pit them against the best Chess players in Victoria. Bromwen Dimond

Term 4 Working Bee – Sunday November 6th

Thank-you to a dedicated group of parents, staff, students and local community members who helped at our final Working Bee for the year. We had a very committed group of volunteers help the school on the day. We were particularly pleased to see so many students pitching in to help our school! We were also lucky enough to be greeted by beautiful sunny conditions! Some of the tasks we completed were shovelling and spreading sand into the Foundation sandpit, cleaning drink troughs, sweeping and removing leaves, weeding and trimming, tightening play equipment and fixing soccer nets. We would like to acknowledge and thank the following families for volunteering their time: Gulding, Cowhey, Chen, Batova, Fan, Deng, Gan, Hu, Chow, Ch’ng, Aberathna, Campbell, Feng, Korte, Nguyen-Doan, Di Natalie, and Doan. Once again, we were very fortunate to have members of the St Silas Anglican Church offering their assistance. A big thank-you to Winnie, Roy, Theresa, Jo, Conrad, David T, and Tammy. Thanks again to all who have assisted this year! J Trevor Cotsworth Working Bee Coordinator

PFA NEWS

CADBURY CHOCOLATE FUNDRAISER FRIDAY 11th November: A table in front of the Hall will be set up to give parents the opportunity to pick up a Box of Chocolates for this Fundraiser.

MID TERM SNACKS SALE FRIDAY 18TH NOVEMBER This Term the Snacks will be sold in the middle of the Term. Children only need a $2 - $3 for a treat. Remember, this snack sale DOES NOT replace LUNCH. Parent volunteers from 10:45am -lunchtime are asked to email Athina: stratina.v@gmail.com

CHRISTMAS STALL

WEDNESDAY 7TH, THURSDAY 8TH DECEMBER The students get a chance to do some Christmas shopping of their own!! Volunteers are needed to help out with the sales. Wednesday 9am - 10:45am or 11:15 - 12:45pm Thursday 9am - 10:30am Please email Athina : stratina.v@gmail.com

VOLUNTEER PARENTS NEEDED

SCHOOL BANKING - Please email Lan : lantranster@gmail.com UNIFORM SHOP: Contact Helen Zannis at the Office

PFA Monthly Lunch - ALL ARE WELCOME! Date: Wednesday, 30th November Time: 12 Noon Venue: The Jolly Miller Cafe 315 Doncaster Rd, Balwyn North

http://www.thejollymiller.com.au/locations/balwyn-north/ Please reply to this email by 25th November, if you would like to attend. Thanks and Kind Regards, Nam

Front garden fundraising chocolate drive. Thank you to all families who have already contributed funds for the front garden. Thanks to you, we are well on the way to achieving our fundraising goal. This Friday (Nov 11th) chocolates will be distributed to the eldest child of families that requested a box. We've included a note with tips for selling, you have two weeks so have fun. If you don't want to miss out and now want a box of chocolate but forgot to return the form we have a few extra simply drop by the school hall Friday Nov 11th after school. Thanks for your support, Julie and Janet.

Dear Students and Parents, We’re about to kick off a fundraising drive to raise money for the front garden of our school. It would be great if you could roll up your sleeves and help. The good news is that this fundraiser is super simple… and delicious. Cadbury Fundraiser: we’re selling Cadbury Freddo and Friends Fun Pack or Goody Boxes Every box of Cadbury Freddo and Friends Fun Pack or Goody Box we sell will raise $20. So we’re asking all members of our school to sell at least one box for us. Feel free to grab another box if you’ve got lots of hungry buyers lined up! Or you may wish to send in a $20 donation if you can’t help out in this fundraising drive. Please let us know by T hursday November 3rd on the form below if you’d prefer that chocolates not be sent home (or e-mail jwhe1@hotmail.com or text 0423 305 063). Your box of Cadbury Freddo and Friends Fun Pack or Goody Box will be sent home with your eldest child on Friday November 11th 2016. For year 6 families your boxes will be available at the school when you pick up your child from camp. Tips for selling your treats

Each item sells for $1

Sell to family members, colleagues, friends or neighbours

We don’t recommend that children sell the products – if they are involved, please ensure an adult is with them at all times

Other useful information Please return your money collected to school in the envelope provided no later than Friday 25th November 2016. We’re confident that this fundraising drive will help us reach our goal of raising $2000 for the front garden. Thanks for your support. Julie Muliana and Janet Wheeler FA Parents Balwyn North Primary School Parents and Friends Association

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

2016 BNPS Chocolate drive complete below and return to school by Thursday 3rd November

Student name:_________________________________________________ Class_________

Yes we’re excited to get selling, send our chocolates home

No, we’d like to donate directly. Enclosed is $20 or another amount

No, we will not be able to participate this year