Principal's Report

Week 8 already.  There's nothing like the busyness of school life to make the days and weeks just whiz past.  I was delighted to share the great news that I will be continuing as the Acting Principal for Term 2, 2023.  I look forward to leading the school into a bright future with our students at the very heart.   Having our 3 core values of:  Respect, Responsibility and Inclusion, will act as our guiding compass and help us make better choices.  

Over the past few weeks the teachers have been co-constructing our Instructional Model. The Model is a visual based around the clock so students can easily see and understand what part of the lesson the teacher is up to.  The Model is based around a 60 minute lesson as per our timetable and uses the colors of the rainbow.  The Instructional Model is used by the teachers to plan and structure lessons using best practice. Each class will have the Instructional Model displayed as a point of reference.

Last week the Year 3 and Year 5 students sat two of the tests for NAPLAN; Writing and Reading.  It was comforting to see how calm and engaged the students were during the tests. This week two more tests will be completed; Conventions of Language (spelling and grammar) and Numeracy.  Any students who are absent on the test days will be given an opportunity to sit any missed tests.

Over the past 3 weeks the students in Years 1 to 6 have had the opportunity to learn about the game of Chess in a free 60 minute demonstration and practice session.  The feedback was that the students were really engaged and enjoyed the lesson.  The purpose of the demonstration was to give the students a 'taste' of the game.    So far, 12 families have expressed interest in signing their child/ren into Chess Club and Code Club.  Notices are being prepared for a commencement in Term 2.

School-wide positive behaviour support (SWPBS) is a framework that brings together school communities to develop positive, safe, supportive learning cultures. SWPBS assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioral and academic outcomes for students with the aim of setting clear, consistent expectations and positive values. To complement our new School Values of Responsibility, Respect and Inclusion, we are going to use Value cards as a new approach to rewarding positive behaviors seen in the classroom and in the school yard.   The Value cards system will work like this:  each student will collect them (they are not transferable) and when a student has 10 of any card they can trade them in for an agreed class reward.   A reward may be: 10 minutes of free time, 10 minutes on the ipad, eating lunch with the Principal, House Points, choose something from the lucky dip etc.

Resilience Survey

I would like to encourage you to complete a Resilience Survey in order to collect some key data to support the wellbeing and mental health of our parent community. The Resilience Survey is free and takes around 30-minutes to complete online. To start surveying go to: 

https://rysurvey.org/  

School Name: Marlborough Primary School : PARENTS All parents use your 2023 Resilience Survey six-digit Access Code:  Access Code: 045750.

Last Friday it was a pleasure to meet with The Hon. Michael Sukkar MP, Federal Member for Deakin to discuss what makes MPS a fantastic school.  Michael presented the Student of the Week awards at the Assembly.

So many great things are happening at our school.  Marlborough Primary School is certainly the "place to be".

Kind regards

Sharon Jacobs, your Acting Principal.