Rockhampton North Special School Newsletter

Principal's Report

Dear parents and carers, 

 

Welcome back to Term 4. I hope you had a lovely holiday and made the most of the beautiful weather with your friends and families. 

 

New Facilities

The Department of Education is proposing to deliver new infrastructure that will include the following: 

  • Construction of a new two-storey learning facility that includes 10 learning spaces and associated student and staff amenities spaces.
  • Upgrade and expansion of car park to provide 11 additional spaces.
  • Internal refurbishment of existing Block B to create functional learning spaces.
  • Additional to the above, and subject to future programming, availability of funding and school population growth demands, the proposal also includes a new two-storey administration and learning facility.

This project will ultimately increase our student enrolment from an existing capacity of 120 students, by 84 students, to 204 students.

 

The new buildings will be constructed at the front of the school and the majority of work is to be completed towards the end of 2022. Over the December school holidays, a new carpark will be constructed in the space in front of the library. We will be discussing the impact of the new buildings at our P&C meeting on Friday, 15 October at 9:10. A Webex link will be shared with our community via Facebook if you would like to participate but are unable to physically attend

 

eSmart

We can use technology to learn things, create things, connect with friends and family, reach out to people who are having a hard time, enjoy great entertainment, and even boost our fitness and mental health. While the internet is great for learning and socialising, there are everyday challenges and pitfalls. These range from children being exposed to inappropriate content, fraud and scams, and being bullied – these can and do contribute to anxiety and depression. As a school, we should all be working to ensure that we invest time and resources into raising a generation of smart, safe and responsible children who are capable and compassionate – both on and offline. 

 

Our school applied for and received a grant to improve cyber safety for our students accessing the digital world. The grant that our school applied for is through the Alannah and Madeline Foundation and is called eSmart. eSmart Schools is a behaviour-change initiative in over 2, 200 schools across Australia. The eSmart Schools Framework is designed to help schools improve cyber safety. Here are a few cyber safety tips that you may want to have a look at: https://www.esmart.org.au/news/top-10-cyber-safety-tips/

 

Senior Secondary

Our students have been accessing VET Programs through SETA over the past few years. SETA is an accredited training provider that offers courses and/or qualifications within the services industry and that are in line with the relevant standards of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Unfortunately, many of our students weren’t able to access the VET programs due to transitions and their abilities to access the programs provided. Our goal is for all of our students to finish year 12 with a qualification where they are able to apply and transfer new knowledge and skills in various settings.

 

In recent months, our Senior Secondary staff have worked with Queensland Education to become an accredited Registered Training Organisation (RTO). This means that all Senior Secondary students will have the opportunity to participate in obtaining a VET qualification. We therefore won’t be accessing SETA as a training provider from next year onwards.

 

The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) is the policy for regulated qualifications in the Australian education and training system. The AQF was first introduced in 1995 to underpin the national system of qualifications in Australia, encompassing higher education, vocational education and training (VET), and schools. One of the key objectives of the Australian Qualifications Framework is to facilitate pathways to, and through, formal qualifications. QCAA as delegate for the Australia Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), has been working  closely with our school to support us in becoming a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). We are very proud to announce that we are now a fully qualified training organisation and are able to provide the following VET subjects to all of our Senior Secondary students:

  • Cert 1 in Agrifoods
  • Cert 1 in Active Volunteering
  • Cert 2 in Applied Digital Technologies

Thank you to Troy, Donna and Bec who have worked diligently and very hard over the course of this semester to ensure we are able to cater to the needs of all students. 

 

Seesaw:

We are currently trialling the Seesaw application in a few classrooms. Seesaw is an application where teachers share student work and learning with their families almost instantaneously. I enjoy reading the families comments on student work and am very proud of the work that teachers and students are doing. The trial is going very well and we will be rolling Seesaw out to all classroom from next year onwards.

 

Specialist areas:

From next year, all students will be able to access more specialists subjects in order to cater to the broader interests of students and to prepare them for an ever changing landscape. We will be providing students with more specialised opportunities through Science, Technology and The Arts. The Arts have the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students, exciting the imagination and encouraging them to reach their creative and expressive potential. The Arts subjects in the Australian Curriculum provide opportunities for students to learn how to create, design, represent, communicate and share their imagined and conceptual ideas, emotions, observations and experiences. The Arts contribute to the development of confident and creative individuals, nurturing and challenging active and informed citizens.

 

Science provides an empirical way of answering interesting and important questions about the biological, physical and technological world. The knowledge it produces has proved to be a reliable basis for action in our personal, social and economic lives. Science is a dynamic, collaborative and creative human endeavour arising from our desire to make sense of our world through exploring the unknown, investigating universal mysteries, making predictions and solving problems. Students can experience the joy of scientific discovery and nurture their natural curiosity about the world around them. In doing this, they develop critical and creative thinking skills and challenge themselves to identify questions and draw evidence-based conclusions using scientific methods.

 

Technologies ensures that all students benefit from learning about and working with traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies that shape the world in which we live. By applying their knowledge and practical skills and processes when using technologies and other resources to create innovative solutions, independently and collaboratively, they develop knowledge, understanding and skills to respond creatively to current and future needs.

 

Inclusive Education Policy: Every student with disability succeeding plan 2021 – 2025

This system wide reform aims to build an inclusive culture and improve outcomes for all students with disability. The key focus is on school improvement to ensure the success and wellbeing of every student with a disability. Some of the key consideration in creating an inclusive culture are:

  • Building the capacity of staff to make reasonable adjustments for assessments
  • Building the capacity of teachers to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to enhance learning access and engagement
  • Developing a curriculum that models approaches to differentiation 
  • Strengthening the partnership with families 

What are we doing as school to comply and implement the Inclusive Education Policy?

  • Our classrooms will be more inclusive from next year onwards and not streamed into ability groupings
  • Jeff Suiter (Assistive Technology guru), is working with our school in building staff capacity to use Assistive Technology to ensure students have access to their learning
  • A few staff completed a short course on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and will be building the capacity of staff to investigate ways to remove barriers to learning
  • Prepare all senior secondary teaching staff to deliver Cert 1 and 2 VET Certificates to ensure all students have a qualification when they leave school for a supported pathway option
  • Purchase technology and build capacity of staff to facilitate the implementation of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) capability. The ICT capability involves students learning to make the most of the digital technologies available to them, adapting to new ways of doing things as technologies evolve and limiting the risks to themselves and others in a digital environment. Students develop capability in using ICT for tasks associated with information access and management, information creation and presentation, problem-solving, decision-making, communication, creative expression and empirical reasoning. This includes conducting research, creating multimedia information products, analysing data, designing solutions to problems, controlling processes and devices, and supporting computation while working independently and in collaboration with others.
  • Celebrate students work through Seesaw and create opportunities at the end of each semester for families to celebrate students learning. Increase the involvement of the P&C in the school. 

Thank you for all of your continued support in transforming our school into a school for learning. 

 

Kind regards,

Dehlia