THE HEIGHTS BYTES

Welcome students, parents, carers and loved ones to the 2025 school year!

Thank you to all the families who are joining us again and a warm welcome to all our new families. I hope you are all strapped in because we have a fun-filled year ahead of us.

It has been an absolute joy seeing all those smiling faces entering the school grounds this morning. The atmosphere was electric as students discussed their holiday (and their excitement at being back at school). We hope families took the opportunity to get a ‘first day’ photo out the front, the school took a number of photos and we will make these available to our families as soon as possible.

As always, there was anticipation in the air, students were eagerly talking about which teacher they would have this year and what friends they might have in their class. As mentioned over the last few years, classing is a very intricate process and one, we at Barrack Heights take extremely seriously. Last year, we spent countless hours working out the best place for all students. We discussed social, emotional and academic needs and made decisions using our experience and professional judgement.

Today your child was not placed in their class for the 2025 school year (except for our Support Unit students). This is to ensure we are certain of what the class structures will look like. It is always a numbers game and as such, we need at least these two first days to make sure there has not been any significant changes in our student numbers over the holiday period. With the Swimming Carnival tomorrow and it being a short week we prefer to air on the side of caution when finalising classing.

Even though classes are not operating as they normally would, students are grouped in their YEAR GROUP and are still participating in engaging learning opportunities and activities which will re-familiarise themselves with how to be an engaged learner and succeed in school life. At this stage, it may not be with their 2025 class or teacher.

Classroom teachers will be in touch with information that will support both you and your child at school as soon as things are finalised.

OUR VISION FOR 2025

At Barrack Heights Public School our vision for 2025 is that every student is not only known, valued and cared for, but they are supported and inspired to be successful learners and thriving citizens.

Our core focus is to engage and motivate our learners to push the boundaries and never give up. Our learners will be resilient, creative and critical thinkers. They will not only learn how to think outside the box, but they will learn how to work collaboratively and as a team. They will be involved in learning experiences that will cause them to have ‘sweaty brains’ and they will learn to love the challenge of thinking. Our students will also be involved in experiences which will broaden their understanding of civics and citizenship; allowing them to see beyond our school gates into the world.

In 2025 we will be encouraging student voice and provide leadership opportunities where students will cooperatively work together on initiatives. 2025 will be a CRACKER! We can’t wait to see how exceptional our children are in tackling learning challenges and engaging in school life.

Updates will be constantly available so our community are aware of the wonderful experiences our students are involved in at our school.

Please stay tuned!

KEEPING CONNECTED WITH BHPS

There are several ways to keep connected with BHPS. The very first way is to make sure you have downloaded the School Bytes application on your mobile device (it is the same one we used last year). This is where all our school alerts and important reminders can be found. If you don’t have a code to join our school, please contact the school and we will issue a new code for you.

In addition to the School Bytes app, we have a school Facebook page which provides important information regarding our school. Please find us on Facebook and like the page so it becomes a ‘favourite’. That way you will get information when we post something. Our school has an Instagram page which you can also follow for photos of what is happening around our school. This page highlights some of the wonderful experiences our students are involved in. The school website is also another great source of information. This has links to policies and procedures as well as Department of Education information.

It is very difficult to update our families on changing arrangements or last minute pieces of information if you don’t have the School Bytes. As a first point of action please make sure you have the School Bytes app. To get best use of the app, please make sure you turn on notifications in your settings so you get alerts from the school.

Contacting the school

If at any point you need to contact the school or classroom teacher, please do so via the office or email the teacher directly. Please note, teachers will not be able to respond immediately (or possibly even by the end of the workday) to emails so if you have something that can’t wait or has some level of urgency, please call the office and we will get the message through.

We will be hosting a Meet the Teacher session for all classes once we are settled into routine. Stay tuned for more information on this event.

Attendance

Attendance is crucial to the success of our students. The nature of education has changed so dramatically, that even one day away can make a difference in the learning and wellbeing of a child. Teaching is individualised to each child’s particular need and it is vital that all children participate in differentiated instruction each day at school. The learning each day builds upon the learning of the day before, significant breaks in this causes disruption to the flow of learning and children can struggle to re-engage in their learning.

At Barrack Heights Public School, we expect each child to attend school every day. Of course, there will be circumstances such as sickness or ill health, which prevent your child from coming to school. However, it is vital that when they are well, they attend school. If you have any issues with your child coming to school, please contact the office at your earliest convenience so we can put strategies into place to ensure their attendance.

This year we will again be having a termly draw for a student to win a 'Family Experience'. To be eligible to be in this draw a child needs to have a termly attendance rate of 90% and above. Classes will also have a weekly 100% attendance draw where one child will be randomly selected each week to receive a prize.

Change of Details

If you have had any change of details over the holiday period, please make sure you inform the office. This can be anything from a change in emergency contacts, home address, medication changes or any other information the school needs to know to support our families and students. Thank you for your assistance in updating this information.

Open Gates

Every day at 2:45pm our back gates (at the Basketball Courts) will be opened by our student leaders. Please take this opportunity to come in and wait for your child. This is a great chance to mingle with other parents and catch your child’s teacher if you want a chat.

Crossing Safely

It is critical to the safety of ALL our students that children ONLY cross the road at the two dedicated crossing areas. Please do not call your child to cross the road because it is quicker to where you are parked. We need all our students to understand where it is safe to cross the road and where it is dangerous. Although it might be easier for you, PLEASE model safe behaviour and cross with your child at either the Captain Cook Crossing or the crossing outside our office gate on Hunter Street. We open the Basketball gates for everyone as it is halfway between both crossings, and we plead with our loved ones to keep our children safe by only crossing at the designated areas.

2025 BHPS Staff

We have a wonderful team of educators on board for 2025 to ensure every student at Barrack Heights Public School thrives and succeeds. As mentioned, classing is a very intricate process and we needed to see what students returned to BHPS to ensure we were making the best classing decisions possible and ensure we have the correct number of students in each class. We have a few new faces joining Barrack Heights this year and over the next few weeks we will be introducing them to our community, so stay tuned.

Once again, thank you for your continued trust and support of our school. We are looking forward to working with you in your child’s educational journey and can’t wait to see their success over the year. We know things are constantly changing, but we will try to keep you updated as much as possible in the coming weeks.

No Parking Zone

You may have noticed some new 'Enhanced No Parking Zone' signs outside our school! These are part of a new initiative rolled out by the Shellharbour Council Parking Patrol Team.

2025 SCHOOL LEADERS

Congratulations to our 2025 School Leaders Darius & Sophie!

2025 SCHOOL SUPPLIES

To help students to get organised for the 2025 school year, we have put together a list of items students will need in their classrooms. These items can either be purchased or brought in from home. The items don't need to be new, they can be items your child used this year or ones you have around the house.

If you are wanting to purchase these items they can be found at Kmart, Officeworks, Newsagencies, Coles and Woolworths and the Back to School sales are a great time if you don't already have these items.

You will see there are some individual items for students in the older years, please make sure items, where appropriate are labelled with your child's name. Other items are for general use in the classroom and do not require names as they will become a classroom resource.

Having these items available for the start of Term One will ensure your child is ready to engage in learning from the first day.

Barrack Heights Public School appreciates the support with these listed items.

BHPS COMMUNITY PANTRY

Barrack Heights Community Pantry would not be possible without the strong partnerships we have with South32 and GrainCorp

Thank you for your support and involvement in our community!

Friendly reminder to please return borrowed Community Pantry crates

BARRACK HEIGHTS WELLBEING NURSE

SCHOOL BYTES

Barrack Heights uses School Bytes for communication, reminders, payments for excursions and sports, attendance submissions and statements of accounts. If you haven't already downloaded the app and linked your child/ren please select the appropriate link below to setup.

App Store - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/school-bytes/id6463097826
Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=education.schoolbytes

If you have any questions please contact the office for assistance.

GENERAL REMINDERS

If you moved house or changed your phone number or email address? Please update your details at the office or by sending an email to the school at barrackht-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Please see the office staff if your child has any medical requirements or if medical information needs to be updated.
School times are 8.55am - 3pm. If your child is late, they must come to the office for a late note. All absences, both whole day and partial absences, need to be explained. You can do this via the School Bytes app, email, phone or at the office.
If students are marked as absent on the school roll, an SMS will be sent out before 11am on the same day advising you of the absence. Please respond via schoolbytes advising the reason for their absence.
At Barrack Heights our school hours are from 8.30am to 3.00pm. Students must NOT be on school grounds before 8:30am without parent supervision. A Teacher is on duty from 8.30am onwards.

GET SOCIAL WITH BARRACK HEIGHTS PUBLIC SCHOOL

Are you following us on our social media platforms? You can find us on

Facebook: Barrack Heights Public School

Instagram: barrackheightsps

Twitter account: @BarrackHeights

These forums are wonderful ways to see what is happening in our school. Take a look and give us a like to stay informed.

25 Hunter Street,

Barrack Heights NSW 2528

(02) 4296 4222

barrackht-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

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