The basic unit of every classroom teaching team consists of a lead educator and a co-educator. The value of having more than one teacher in the room should not be underestimated. The generous teacher student ratio allows us to really know our students. It increases our perspective on students’ interests, strengths, and challenges, helping to strengthen classroom relationships and culture. The energy and knowledge that each adult contributes also broadens the type of learning experiences we can offer to the group. It increases flexibility in the pacing of learning through targeted small group or one on one learning. It expands our capacity for observing and evidencing progress and supporting the development of key attributes associated with successful learning. Our staff utilise multiple viewpoints to carefully monitor each student’s progress in both general curriculum outcomes, as well as social and emotional wellbeing. Through this holistic view, we aim to support.

The way in which students, approach their thinking, self-management and social relationships are among the most important attributes they will develop during their time at school. Research has now identified the types of attributes that are considered vital to the process of successful learning. These include behaviours such as curiosity, focus or empathy, for example. By encouraging behaviours associated with successful learning, our staff can deliberately expand each students’ capability as a learner. To support the development of these specific behaviours, we have made very deliberate choices in ‘how’ we approach teaching. For example our regular use of small collaborative groups where students develop their capacity to co construct ideas and work together towards a common goal. Or, the strategies we use for guiding student behaviour which are based on building empathy, communication skills and restorative practices. Skills that students will take with them outside of the classroom and into their lives. Nature-based and arts-based pedagogies are also central to our teaching and learning approach. The complexity inherent in nature and the arts provides multiple ways for our students to engage with learning and the world around them. By harnessing the vitality of these contexts, we give further shape to the ‘how’ of our teaching and learning framework. 

From the very beginning, learning out in nature has played a leading role in the Bold Park approach. We regularly utilise outdoor learning spaces from our gardens, our Wildspaces, Galup (Lake Monger), to our local communities. The Wildspaces on our Wembley campus provide for deep play and adventurous opportunities from hut building, fire lighting through to tool work. 

The WILD Kitchen is an initiative that permeates throughout the school, not only serving as a designated community hub but also providing an opportunity for students to participate in community service initiatives such as the 5000 Meals project, whilst also learning real world culinary and café skills. The learning is authentic, feels good and builds not only life skills but also a great sense of community and belonging. 

All of our teachers are supported and mentored by their area Team Leader, the Pedagogista and the Principal. As such, each learning program in the school is enhanced by the frame of reference and expertise that comes from this multi-layered team approach to teaching and learning.

This high level of collegial collaboration is only possible due to the deliberate restructuring of the weekly timetable that occurred very early on in the school’s development. Recognising that if we want to create opportunities for learning to be inter disciplinary and designed around the knowledge, capability and interests of our students, then we must provide educators time to regularly come together to plan, evaluate and reflect. For this reason, every Wednesday, our students finish school at lunch time. This provides our staff with a full afternoon, each and every week, in which they can engage in collaborative planning, mentoring, professional learning and reflection all together.

This is perhaps, the most innovative and outstanding feature of our educational setting. Through this professional learning structure, we have been able to create a whole school approach that is responsive to the contemporary context, adapts to new research, and fulfills the objective of our community to reimagine what a school can be. 

Our school prides itself on valuing individuals and their educational and personal rights. If there is a concern in any area, we can enact extra learning support through our Learning Intervention Framework. We also have an Inclusive Education Coordinator (IEC) who further assists teachers to create optimal learning environments for all students. This may include assisting teams in developing a range of teaching strategies or sourcing resources to support particular learning requirements. It may also involve guiding families to seek external professional support and working with external professionals towards successful outcomes for a student. 

Bold Park Community School fully engages with the Western Australian Curriculum and learning frameworks specified by the Department of Education and the Schools Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA). These form the basis for our learning programs and student assessments and are outlined in the table below.

At our school we truly embrace the ‘village’ in educating and supporting our children, and we value the role that volunteers play in our community. We love your involvement, it is beneficial to the school and also to your children by way of role modelling and creating school networks. Whether you have a small amount of time to give occasionally or a few hours on a regular basis, you can be involved in our school in the following ways:

• consider becoming a Class Coordinator for your child’s class at the beginning of the school year. You will get to know the wider school community as you help to coordinate the many and varied social and community events on offer throughout the year.
• if you prefer a governance role, and have experience and skills in finance, business, human resources, marketing etc, consider joining the BPCS Board. Each year at the Annual General Meeting new members are sought and applications are welcome.
• we have a Reconciliation Action Group and a Sustainability Action Group committed to developing our school’s impact in these areas, please contact nicole@boldpark.com if you would like to participate in either of these. 
• perhaps you have a specific skill set that you can share with the community on a voluntary basis e.g.: construction, architecture, design, maintenance, gardening, sewing, cooking etc.
• from time to time classes look out for volunteers for specific class project: building a frog pond, felting, construction. Let your teaching team know what you can offer!
• in our younger years you might like to help out with class projects or the reading support roster.
• perhaps you can use your skills to coordinate the staff lunch roster, help manage the lost property, or nurture our potted plants.
• don’t forget our regular busy bees! These are a wonderful way to not only contribute to the school but to meet with other families and strengthen our community spirit. 

At the start of the year, staff may call for parents to volunteer to be class coordinators for their child’s class. Class coordinators assist the school with the following:

• information flow
• social and community activities
• promoting of the Bold Park Community School philosophy

This role is an important link in communication across the school. Consider taking on the role for your class at the beginning of each school year, or alternatively supporting your class coordinator 

Each year all families are asked to commit to one busy bee. Busy bees are scheduled throughout the year and you attend the busy bee allocated to your child’s class. They generally run from 9:00am – 11:00am on a Saturday. If you are unable to attend your allocated busy bee, you are able to attend an alternate busy bee during the year. As a small community school we rely on families to contribute to this important element of the school. We ask that if it is not possible to attend any of the busy bees, you contact your class teachers to discuss options of helping with some tasks at home such as covering library books, sewing cushions etc. 

From time to time, parents have questions and concerns regarding their child and the management of the school. To ensure that all queries can be dealt with quickly by the appropriate staff, use the following plan so that you know who to contact.

Individual queries regarding your child’s class/education should be directed to the following staff:

1. Classroom Teaching Team. Your child’s teaching team are the first point of call for the day-to-day needs of your child.
2. Team Leader for the Appropriate Learning Area. Each teaching team has an area Team Leader who is responsible for the leadership of their area of the school. If a student moves through Wave One Learning into Wave Two or Three your area Team Leader will become a more direct support, both with advice and as a presence at meetings.

Sometimes a parent teacher meeting may need to occur. To ensure these meetings are effective, at our school they are carried out using the “BE HEARD’ principles:

• Best intentions assumed
• Emphasis on learning
• Home-school collaboration
• Examples and evidence
• Active listening
• Respect for all
• Dedication to follow-up

Prior communication is required from both families and teachers that include an indication of the subject to be discussed. We request that you are mindful that teachers are in team planning and preparation before and after school. Meetings may be scheduled from 8:00am to 8:25am and from 3:30pm to 3:55pm. You can share a quick relay of urgent information with a teaching team member from 8:30pm to 8:40pm. Further details may then be communicated by email. 

Newsflash, is Bold Park Community School’s newsletter communication to parents. Newsflash is sent via email to parents dependent on information that needs to be disseminated. The Newsflash is sent from the email newsflash@boldpark.com. To assist your email software in knowing that receiving our newsletters is OK, we suggest you add this email to your contacts. If you don’t receive the Newsflash, we suggest checking your junk mail, clutter and spam.

On enrolment at BPCS, the enrolling parent’s emails are added to our communication’s list. Your child’s teacher and administration staff will, throughout the year, email you with information on things like class excursions, fees,and upcoming special events. It is important that we have your correct details. If you change your email, please ensure you notify us of the amendment by downloading the Update Details Form found in the Resources tab in EDUCA, completing it and emailing it through to office@boldpark.com. 

We encourage families who use Facebook and Instagram to follow our pages. You can find us by searching @boldparkcs . Our social media platforms allow us to capture moments and stories from the wider Bold Park school community and to give you “eyes” on the bigger story. Many parents have expressed their desire to see “what’s next” in their child’s educational journey. These platforms can help parents connect with the exciting things that happen in our whole school community.

BPCS ensures that engagements on our social media platforms are of an edifying nature in line with our Mutual Respect Policy Queries can be directed to marketing@boldpark.com. 

EDUCA, which links from our website is an essential tool for current families. EDUCA is one of the main communication hubs of the school and all families need to access it regularly to keep up-to-date with the school’s happenings. EDUCA serves as the community-only section of the website and requires a login and password, which we will give to you at the beginning of the school year.

Policies

Some school policies are available on the website; however, as a general rule the policies are accessible to parents by clicking on the ‘School’ tab then ‘Policies’ in the sub menu within EDUCA. As a default, the policies will be listed out in full. To find the policy you are after, click on the button ‘Policy List View’ and you will then see an alphabetical list of the policies to select from. https://boldpark.educa.co.nz/centre/policies

Resources

Resources is another tab under the ‘School’ tab that is useful to parents. Items are added throughout the year and include Newsflashes, update medical forms and change of details forms.

School absences are a part of educational life with sickness and medical appointments being the main reasons. Under section 23 of the School Education Act 1999, it is a legal requirement that all students attend school from the ages of 5 to 17 on the designated contact days. You need to be aware that you are legally not allowed to permit your child to stay home from school without reasonable cause, for example; illness. You are required to email absences@boldpark.com or phone 9387 5050 if your child is:

• going to be absent for an appointment. Please notify the School ahead of time or on the morning of the appointment.
• unwell and unable to attend school. Please contact the School prior to the commencement of the school day. 

Students arriving late for school must sign in at the Administration office via the sign-in station (iPad). Primary School students should be accompanied by a parent / guardian when signing in.

Students departing early should be signed out by their parent or the school notified guardian / carer at the front office. 

Parents and families are an integral part of our community and essential to supporting our school environment after hours (e.g. Wednesday afternoon and after-school). Here are some points you will find helpful in this endeavour:

• please be aware that after-hours times are a vital part of our teaching staff’s planning, preparation and meeting times.
• you or your child’s guardian is responsible for the supervision of your own children in the outdoor spaces after hours.
• the Early Childhood Wildspace is ONLY available for use by teaching teams and students during school hours.
• the Outdoor Provocation Specialist’s shed, Mud Hut, Fire Pit and Wildspace outdoor surrounds are not to be accessed after school hours.
• the playground climbing equipment in the Primary School Playground is age appropriate for the students in primary school. Adult supervision is required at all times for all ages but we do not recommend the use of this equipment by any child under the age of five years.
• in the interest of security, families are required to vacate the school grounds by 3:50pm, unless your child is involved in an after-school activity that does not finish until after 4pm. All gates are locked at 4pm with the exception of the staff car park access gate. 
• please supervise and make sure your children clean up the areas they have used after school hours. For example, pack away the basketballs and sandpit toys before you leave.
• some areas of the school, such as the tennis court/ undercover area are booked by external providers for afterschool activities. These areas are not available for meetings, gatherings or other activities while these services are occuring. 

Our school lunch service – provided by LOCAVORA – where our school lunch orders are made fresh on the day of delivery in their West Perth kitchen using ingredients that are packed full of flavour.

Our school lunch order service will be available for Pre-Primary to Year 9 students at our Wembley Campus on a TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY.

All items on our school lunch menu are nut free, although it is important to note Locavora staff operate in a kitchen that contains nuts for their retail sector, therefore we can’t guarantee there will be no ‘traces of nuts’. However, they follow strict measures to prevent any cross contamination where possible.

The same applies to their ‘Low Gluten’ and ‘Low Dairy’ items. These ingredients are utilised in their kitchens; therefore, they can’t guarantee there will be no traces of gluten or dairy in the lunches. For this reason, we have classified items as Low Gluten and Low Dairy.

The cut off time 

Orders MUST be placed by 8am on the day of delivery, 8pm on a Thursday for Friday order. The school is not able to process any orders on your behalf.

How do I place my order? 

Visit https://locavora.com.au/, register your family and then follow the prompts to choose your lunch selection and place your order. You will need to register before you can view the menu. It only takes a minute or two to register and is very simple. 

The Student Health Policy found in EDUCA, sets out the no shared lunch policy for students. In addition, the school works with individual families to address any life-threatening health conditions in order to minimise their risk. To this end, the school is not deemed a nut-free environment; however, there are times when we ask families to work with us in minimising individual children’s risk by eliminating certain foods from children’s lunches. 

Your child will require both a labelled hat and roll-on sunscreen that can remain in class for the year. Please have your child apply sunscreen at home before they come to school. This allows us to get straight into our program for the day.

Your child will also require a school bag, water bottle and a lunch box with a cooling brick of some sort.

As students engage in outdoor activities they may require a change of clothes. A set of spare clothes are to be kept in their bag.

In addition your child’s teacher will let you know what clothing is best for the Wildspace days – usually bathers, rashie and hat for hot days or rain wear and warm clothes in the winter months. On rainy days pack a raincoat so play can continue unhindered.

Please ensure that all your child’s items are clearly labelled with their name.

Our library is housed in five collections across the school. Each year, new students receive a login to our library system via their class teacher and continuing students use their existing login.

Once your child has their login, they can search the school library catalogue (either Oliver or Orbit – links at the bottom of the page) and check availability and their loans and borrowing record. There are also handy links to other resources such as the State Library of WA, The Australian Museum and other school-related websites.

We encourage the children to regularly use our library and acknowledge the fundamental importance of reading and talking about books. We aim to build a community that reads for pleasure. 

Oliver Orbit (Early Years): https://boldpark.softlinkhosting.com.au/oliver/junior.do

Orbit (Middle Primary to College): https://boldpark.softlinkhosting.com.au/oliver/home/browse/list

The BPCS Early Learning Centre includes wrap-around care and holiday program services tailored for 3 and 4 year olds, also operating Short Day and Long Day hours from 7.30am to 6pm for Pre-Kindy and Kindergarten including PP, Yr1, Yr2 and Yr3 children. Additionally, the ELC Playgroup is available on Friday and Saturday mornings for children aged from 18 months to 3 years.

BPCS also partners with TheirCare to provide a before and after-school care program for our students. TheirCare is a family owned program who have been providing care for children of all ages since 2017. TheirCare aims to build a sense of belonging and engagement through incorporating the needs and interests of the child into the service.

For more details, please contact our Early Childhood Coordinator at ELC@BoldPark.com.

If at any point students are required to take medication at school and during school hours, you must complete an ‘Authority to Give Ongoing Medication’ form. The form must be presented to the applicable classroom teacher(s) along with the described medication (labelled with the child’s name) in a zip lock bag. 

You can download a copy of the form here.

Every year, families are required to provide a Student Health and Data Update Form for each child in the family. This is so that our records are accurate in the event of an emergency. This is provided in the information pack you receive at the end of each year. You can also download a copy of the form here if you are needing to give the school an updated version. 

We encourage you to provide as much information as possible regarding your child’s medical needs. For instance, if your child suffers from asthma, please include on the form the severity and the medication required in the event of an attack etc. If your child has a particularly life-threatening medical condition, a more comprehensive form can be completed to detail the medical action plan to be used in an emergency. 

If you notice something out of place, broken or in need of maintenance that could lead to an injury for someone on our school grounds, please let us know. Come into administration or email office@boldpark.com as soon as possible. 

Parent initiated Pop-Up Events including fundraisers are a regular occurance at Bold Park. To help us maintain a calendar that has a good flow for our community we ask that any parent initiated events being advertised for or through the BPCS, must have an approved Pop-Up Events Form before planning begins. To access this form visit EDUCA Resources and complete the form. 

All unnamed property that cannot be returned to the owner is placed into lost property.

Wembley campus: lost property storage cupboard is on the southern side of the multi-function room. 

Maylands campus: is stored within a box in the administration area.

Once a term, tables are set-up outside the administration building and the lost property is put out for collection. Following this, any uncollected property is given to charity or added to the school’s secondhand stocks. 

Personal property, in particular items of value, must be taken home at the end of each day. Bicycles and scooters need to be secured and locked within the school grounds during the day and must be taken home at the end of each day. If items are stolen, our insurance excess can prevent us from lodging a claim.

We strongly encourage you not to leave computers, phones, keys, bags, wallets or purses in your car, even if you are just popping in and out. Our car park area is sometimes targeted by quick-fingered thieves! 

As part of the school’s strategy to keep staff and students safe and to protect school assets, Bold Park Community School makes use of a video security system. This system will be in operation outside of normal school hours (4pm – 8am on school days), weekends and holiday breaks. Signs are placed at entry points to inform the community that the School has operational video camera surveillance and a video surveillance policy has been developed and is available via EDUCA.

The cameras at the main entry gate, and Principal’s Office operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

During spring, we will often receive reports from our community of swooping koorlbardi (magpies).

To read the suggestions for reducing risk and protecting yourself on the way to and from school follow this link: https://www.cambridge.wa.gov.au/Community/Rangers/Magpies 

Staff are rostered as a physical presence in the car park areas at the front of school at the start and end of each school day. As well as offering security, they enjoy welcoming and farewelling students and families each day. A few quick reminders in relation to arrivals and departures in our car park:

• follow all road signs when you drive into the Lake Monger Reserve car park. • follow drop off / kiss and drive procedures (located on EDUCA)
• 20km p/hour is the speed limit for our car park.
• be aware of cyclists who enter from multiple locations around Lake Monger.
• please do not park at the front gate for drop off or pick up because the children walking in front of your vehicle to cross the road will not be visible to the other drivers behind you.
• students arriving at school by bike or skateboard are reminded that a helmet needs to be worn. A bike and skateboard rack is located behind the staff car park.
• please ensure the school’s entry gate closes after your entry or exit.

Your generosity and gratitude for our wonderful staff is both warming and appreciated! We know that many classes organise a ‘class gift’ – we only ask that you are careful about the size of the contribution being requested from families who may not feel they can say ‘no’.

Gifts are not expected. In 2017, the school introduced a “Staff Code of Conduct”. A portion of this agreement requires staff to also be mindful of gifts received. The general guideline for schools (across WA) is that gifts of over $50 value should be declared and more sizable gifts may need to be respectfully declined. Class gifts and special celebrations (e.g. farewells) are a noted exception.

Excursions are any learning activity organised by the school, that is conducted away from the school premises for educational purposes. We incorporate excursions into our educational programs through all years of the school to enhance student learning.

You always receive communication notifying you of upcoming excursions and any associated costs and requirements. Before the excursion you can pay any costs at administration. For more information on payments of excursions please see the ‘Other Charges’ section within the Fee Schedule. This can be accessed in EDUCA under the Resources tab. 

BPCS fees and levies are set out in a schedule that is provided to parents after the end of Term 4 each year. The fee schedule covers information such as tuition, infrastructure, resources, and payment methods. 

The Bold Park Community School Advisory Board approves the annual fees. The infrastructure levy assists us to pay for the lease of our site and maintenance of the buildings and grounds. Parents are not required to supply books and stationery; however, a fee for portfolios and/or book resources used in the school program is included in the first instalment of fees. In addition, family discounts on tuition fees are available for siblings of students already enrolled at the school.  

There are a range of payment options for the fees and levies, for more information, please email business@boldpark.com. 

Supervision 

The supervision of students is available from 8:30am through to 3:30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday each week during school term times and on Wednesday from 8:30am through to 1:00pm. Supervision outside of these times is the responsibility of parents and the school cannot supervise students who arrive or depart outside of these times. 

Lunches 

College students are permitted to leave campus twice a week to take advantage of the food establishments within our community. In order to access this privilege, students are required to sign a conduct agreement, they must sign out and sign back into campus. In addition, local businesses, Council and police are made aware of the days and times that students will be off campus.