Principal's News
Welcome Back
We have experienced some really cold mornings this week which have cleared to reveal some beautiful winter sunshine allowing our students to enjoy the opportunity to return back into Term 3 and interact together outside at recess and lunchtime.
I do hope your family enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time together over the holiday break, whether it was some time away or time together at home I do hope this provided our school community with the opportunity to have some time together.
It was noted by staff that the consolidated period of onsite learning that all children experienced during Term 1 and 2 allowed our students to return back on the first day of Term 3 feeling very much like they were re-joining an established community in their own class and more broadly throughout the school. The uninterrupted periods of learning has allowed children the wonderful opportunity to establish routines and develop really strong connections which I hope provides a wonderful platform for our students to launch into Term 3 and 4.
COVID Guidelines
The most recent information from the Department of Education and Training was provided on Tuesday morning, this includes advice strongly recommended by the Victorian Department of Health that face masks are worn in indoor settings, with face masks mandatory for those aged 8 and over who are household contacts and attending school. This is because the wearing of masks is effective in reducing the transmission of COVID-19 and other illnesses including viral strains of influenza.
What does this mean in practice for our school?
It is the Department’s expectation that, through to the end of winter, students aged 8 and over and staff will wear masks when in class, except where removing a mask is necessary for clear communication or when a particular activity requires the removal of a mask. Masks are not required to be worn outdoors but can be worn when physical distancing is not possible. This expectation should not constrain student participation in the full range of school activities, including music, sport and performances. Schools are not required or expected to sanction students or staff who do not meet this expectation but are asked to communicate this expectation to the whole school community and seek their support for this collective effort.
In addition to this, the Victorian Government has committed to ensuring that RA Tests continue to be available for all schools during Term 3 and 4 by providing up to three further deliveries of rapid antigen tests during Semester Two.
It is recommended that rapid antigen tests are used by students and staff when symptomatic. Household contacts are required to test negative using a rapid antigen test on at least 5 out of 7 if they are attending or working at a school onsite.
Another important practical strategy is ensuring that students that are unwell, experiencing cold, flu or COVID symptoms are kept home, this will ensure that we can continue to keep our school community safe and healthy. Please continue to confirm positive COVID cases with the school so this de-identified information can be circulated to our school community.
We are continuing to do everything we can to ensure we are delivering high quality teaching and learning programs for every child, however reflective of the significant case numbers experienced throughout the state, we are also finding this impacting on staff throughout the school. There is a significant shortage of relief teachers that are available to all schools at the moment and this sometimes means that we are unable to have a teacher in every classroom. The least favourable option for everyone in this scenario is to split classes and we continue to do everything we can do avoid this. A recent example yesterday (Thursday) saw a relief teacher that was booked at the school pulled from the booking because of a COVID case; this happened at 7:45am so there were no options available to the school to work on an alternative solution.
We will continue to keep our school community informed of updates and changes are we are working extremely hard to ensure we are making everyday in the classroom extremely rewarding and engaging for all students despite the obvious challenges.
Senior Education Leader Visit
The school had the pleasure of welcoming Senior Education Improvement Leader, Stuart Andrews to the school on Thursday 21st July, Stuart spent some time in our classrooms and viewing our school with a focus on consistency in our pedagogical approach aligned to our teaching and learning framework. We also looked at the school’s midyear progress towards our Annual Implementation Plan targets and the next steps for the remainder of the year.
A core focus for the school in the initial months of the year was the intake into the Professional Learning Communities pathway that the school is currently undertaking alongside other schools in our network. This focused program privileges a non-negotiable framework to discuss student learning and outcomes at a meaningful level. The example I would reference makes a deliberate attempt to narrow our focus to a crumb whilst learning on the whole cake and the slice to influence our work.
The Cake: Improve the percentage of students from Foundation to Year 6 achieving above expected level for Writing from 23 per cent in 2020 to 30 per cent in 2022.
The Slice: Ensure students are provided opportunities to engage with a variety of writing genres and text types to develop confidence in their writing ability.
The Crumb (Prep Focus): Ensure writing has capital letters, full stops and finger spaces whilst making plausible attempts at spelling words using established letter-sound relationships.
The implementation of this work at Caulfield Primary School and within the DET leans on the research of Richard DuFour who identifies that “The weight of evidence from research, our professional organisations, high performing districts and schools, and common sense has made it clear that schools are more effective when they operate as PLCs…. The question confronting most schools and districts is not, what do we need to know to improve but rather, will we turn what we already know into action?”
Around The School
There is some really exciting learning going on in our classrooms each and every day, a snap shot of this can be seen below.
Our Prep classrooms are establishing literacy connections with the work of Mem Fox and her Australian classic, Possum Magic whilst in Mathematics they are developing their confidence to explore ways to make 10 modelling this and counting in Japanese.
Our Year 3/4 classrooms were conducting some interactive science experiments looking at the reactions and differences between mixing in hot and cold water.
Our Junior School Council took up a leadership focus by creating a suggestion box for each classroom to input their ideas, such as what kind of term activities they would like to have at school and/or what they want to improve in our school etc. This forms an important part of student voice in the school and provides student some agency over their environment.
Parent and Friends Club
Could I please encourage your support of our Parent and Friends Club, the wonderful voluntary support that is provided to the school relies on the support of everyone helping where they can.
There are a number of events and activities that are organised for the remainder of the year that would greatly benefit from some extra assistance. There is no experience required and there is a wonderful opportunity to be supporting our school.
Could I please encourage you to make contact with Jenni or Kylie and/or complete the form on the PFC page seeking volunteers.
Social Media and Cyber Safety
You only have to read the news, watch the television or have an eye across any social setting to see that mobile phone and technology use is significant amongst all children. Children are spending considerable time interacting with one another online via social media platforms on a multitude of different devices. Providing the opportunity for our school community to learn further about this was an important focus for our school leadership team and in recent discussions with School Council. The following opportunities are all provided by the school to assist our school community to ensure we are helping our students interact safely online.
The eSafety Commissioner provides three webinars focussed on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube and helping to keep your children safe online. These are designed for parents of children aged 8 -13.
To register your interest the link is here – eSafety Registration
Term 3 dates (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
Monday 1 August 12:30 to 1:30 pm
Tuesday 16 August 7:30 to 8:30 pm
Thursday 25 August 12:30 to 1:30 pm
ThinkUKnow Program
The ThinkUKnow program is delivered in conjunction with the Australian Federal Police and is an evidence-based education program delivered nationally to prevent online child sexual exploitation. This program will be delivered for students in Year 3-6 with an additional parent information session provided, we would encourage your attendance and welcome the opportunity to partner with you on this important subject.
Student Session (Year 3 -6) – 31st August – 9 – 11am
Parent Information Session – 6th September – 6:00pm (more details to come)
Parent Teacher Interviews:
We are looking forward to the opportunity to conduct our Parent-Teacher Interviews next week, a reminder that these bookings are still available and can made via SchoolStream and following the link to TryBooking. The sessions will be held on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. In order to coordinate these, a reminder that Wednesday is a student-free day for the whole school.
Please ensure you arrive punctually to your confirmed booking time and we respectfully ask that you work within the time limit available to ensure the day is coordinated effectively. Teaching partners will be working together to ensure you are provided the opportunity to meet with both (English and Japanese) of your child’s teachers. We are looking forward to having some really positive discussions and reflecting on the success of Semester 1 whilst taking an eye towards setting some goals for the remainder of the year.
Thank you for a wonderful first two weeks of Term 3, we appreciate your ongoing support in some challenging circumstances and look forward to working with you over the weeks ahead.
Staff News
As we have settled into Term 3, we have had the pleasure of welcoming three new staff members to our school. Vera Magila, Therese Meiers and Jaime Lowy have all taken on roles within the school and hit the ground running. Vera joins us in the 5/6C classroom as their English teacher, Vera has considerable teaching experience as an English and Japanese teacher and has made a strong impression on our staff and students. Jaime Lowy has joined us to lead our work around the Tutor Learning Initiative for the remainder of this year, she has experience undertaking this work at other schools as well as a considerable base of teaching experience. Therese Meiers joins the school in the role of Business Manager and will be a fantastic source of knowledge and experience. I take the opportunity to welcome these three staff members and look forward to them contributing to a very successful Semester 2.
Victorian Government School Agreement
As we have identified in previous correspondence with the school community, schools have been waiting for the approval of the new enterprise bargaining agreement – the Victorian Government School Agreement (VGSA). After 14 months of ‘negotiation’ between unions, primarily the AEU and the DET and recently retired Education Minister, James Merlino, the new EBA was approved by Fairwork Australia earlier this week.
The new Agreement contains a range of new industrial requirements. One of these is known as Time in Lieu. This requirement is a response to the growing number of after-hours meetings such as Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences and activities (camps, productions, graduations). It must be noted, in an industrial sense, extracurricular events are not part of a school’s core work which is the delivery of the Victorian Curriculum. Extracurricular events are additional and have been provided by school staff, usually before or after hours through goodwill and to provide engaging opportunities for our students beyond what is required by the curriculum.
Time in Lieu (TiL) for all teachers is now mandatory in all Victorian state schools. TiL must be paid to teachers for any hours worked for any school events after hours. It should be known that I unequivocally support teachers being paid for work for after-hours events; however parents should be aware that the government has stated that there will be no additional funding provided to schools to pay for TiL which then becomes pertinent as to how this can be implemented at Caulfield Primary School.
I will be attending a number of principal meetings to discuss all of this with my colleagues, our School Improvement Team and our Consultative Committee will consider the various requirements of the new EBA very carefully during the next month. I will continue to work to keep our School Council and school community informed as we work around the implementation phase of the new agreement.
Edward Strain
PRINCIPAL