BRIS Newsletter, Week 9, Term 4, 2nd December, 2011

Principal’s News

/ Around BRIS this week...
It is with sadness that I announced our staff changes for next year this week. All schools and in particular small schools, experience staff changes every year. While we know that things can never stay the same, BRIS is like a family and so farewells are always an emotional time. With the creation of a P-6 class to replace the Yaks and Rainbow Room next year, I hope you will join with me tonight at our concert in thanking Rosemary for her many years of caring for and teaching the students at BRIS.
We also say THANK YOU for the wonderful job done by both our teacher aides this semester, Mark and Sarah. You both give so much of yourselves and have enriched our curriculum with your varied skills and dedication to our students. Both of these roles need to be advertised now and we hope you both apply!
In addition, we say farewell to Danielle Hicks from the Rainbow Room. As there will be a P-6 class next year Danielle will also finish her contract with us next week. Thank you Danielle for the wonderful job you have done caring and teaching the Rainbow Room kids on Thursdays.
The executive and I will work over the holidays to ensure we have good people ready to start next year. There will be a Parent Meeting next Tuesday from 2-3pm for those wishing to discuss the changes further. If this time doesn’t suit, please feel free to call the office and make a time to speak with me or a member of our executive.
There are exciting plans already underway for next year. Mark, Arlo and Melissa have organised sailing and archery as high school sports, as well as catamaran model building for science. In addition we have a huge focus on improving our writing and numeracy skills next year. Just about all of the students have met our 4 new iPads over the last week and really enjoy the different applications they have that enhance our English and maths skills.
I hope to see you all at our concert tonight. Everyone has worked so hard and it is going to be a great show. The program for the night is:
5pm Dinner
6pm Dance and Music performances
7pm – Graduation Ceremony for Years 7 & 10
7:30 Evening Concludes
Please note that dinner will only be served from 5-6pm this year so that we can all sit down and enjoy the student’s performances together.

Lavina

DATES FOR 2012

/ TERM / DATES / LENGTH
Term 1 / Monday, 23rd January – Friday, 30th March / 10 weeks
Term 2 / Tuesday, 17th April – Friday 22nd June / 10 weeks
Term 3 / Monday, 16th July – Friday, 21st September / 10 weeks
Term 4 / Monday, 8th October – Friday, 14th December / 10 weeks
Student Free Dates for 2012
Monday, 16th January – Friday, 20th January
Monday, 22nd October
Year 10 Finishing Date for 2012
Friday, 30th November

Executive News

/ President: Colin Dixon
Vice Pres: Marguerite Westacott
Secretary: Lynda Tuttle
Treasurer: Nikki Towers
Member: Marcus Bussey
Member: Kelly Chambers
Member: Andy Tuttle
This has been a very full year for the Executive Committee, with many difficult decisions having to be made and some tough changes being implemented.
We would like to acknowledge the tireless work and effort Lavina has put into our school and admire her dedication. We wish you and your family well and hope that with time your health improves. Thank you.
We also wish to thank Rosemary for her loyalty and dedication to our school over the many years she has been with BRIS. Your presence here has always helped promote calmness and kindness within our community. Thank you.

Rainbow Room News

/ Rosemary has been such an integral part of our community and will be very sorely missed. She obviously feels very sad at the thought of parting, but intends to be around helping where she can. She also hopes that when the school is able to have a P – 3 classroom again, she may be able to return.

Yak News

/ Yak News - Volunteers Lunch
A HUGE THANK YOU to Sarah Ridge, Ajuna Bahloo-Chambers, Emily Ridge and Sarah Halverson for the very professional restaurant they ran for our Volunteers Lunch yesterday. Thanks also to the rest of the Yaks and Jacinta for providing a marimba performance to entertain us. Our sincerest thanks to all our volunteers. We think you are wonderful and appreciate your support on the Executive (Colin, Kelly, Andy, Lee, Anne, Lynda, Marcus and Marguerite), as well as all the parents who have helped around the school, in classrooms and on camp. YOU ARE ALL STARS!
Lavina

Chaplain News

One of the stories about honesty we put into pictures.
We have been discussing generosity this week, which is very timely not just for Christmas, but for the celebration and thankyou lunch for our fantastic executive and volunteers. The generosity these special people have shown is inspiring. We (I snuck in for a free feed) had a fantastic lunch, which was all planned, set up and created by Sarah; ably assisted by Ajuna, Sarah and Emily(Sarah’s daughter), who presented and worked very professionally.
In class, the rainbow room students discussed simple acts of generosity we could perform and we committed to doing one act that day. The ideas included washing the dishes, giving a picture or a hug, or cleaning the rats cage. We also created some wonderful art out of leaves and flowers that we gave to each other. I missed out on seeing the older students this week, but hope to get together soon.
We also heard some sad news this week. Rosemary, who is the epitome of kindness and generosity, won’t be in the Rainbow Room next year. Unfortunately, because we have so few students we can’t keep two teachers for the primary school. Rosemary has always been so supportive to me, it has made my experience in the school a very special time. Speaking to others, students, parents and staff, the feeling is wide spread. She is such a big part of the school that we will all miss her, but we hope she comes back often, and continues the lovely work she has been doing all these years for us.
Also leaving this year is Lavina who, in a short time, has done so much for the school. She has worked tirelessly to create a fantastic learning environment in the classroom, as well as running and managing the principal job. I am always amazed that no matter how much work she has and people demanding her attention, when you speak to her, she gives you her whole focus, which shows she respects and is interested in the person she is with, an extraordinary attitude. Thankyou both.
Andrew

LEFT: Ajuna waitressing at the Volunteers’ lunch. CENTRE: Sarah, Ajuna, Sarah and Emily. RIGHT: Sarah waitressing at the Volunteers’ lunch.

BELOW LEFT: Mark, Nikki and baby Rani at the Volunteers’ lunch. BELOW RIGHT: Marimba practice for the big night.

High School News

/ The high school has had a competition on Temple Run – a game on the iPads. We used Excel to record our data and analysed different graph styles to comprehend this. This was displayed on the overhead projector and discussed. Alex has assisted Melissa and ARlo with the end of year slide show, looking for photos in the media archives.
We have also done some clean up and manual labour tasks. The idea is that if we care about our school and show we care, this will be apparent to others.
We farewell our Year 10 students – Allyson (who going into the Headstart course at Sunshine Coast University), Marley (who may be going to TAFE to do psychology), Juanita (who is going to work or to TAFE), Erin (who is currently in Italy), Eden (who will be doing a traineeship in Fitness) and Cassie (who is going to TAFE to do Event Management). Best wishes to you all.
Waterpolo
We have now finished 4 weeks of waterpolo. It’s been lots of fun and our last day is this coming Tuesday.
Melissa and Arlo

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Enjoy the concert tonight and have a great weekend – Lynda