Principal's Report

Dear all families, 

Well done to our three students for your achievements during yesterday's Cross Country event. Logan, Dylan and Azaria participated, and each student received a medal for either first or second place.  

Our staff are making strides in embedding Project Based Learning into the everyday teaching pedagogy. With a focus on collaborative cohort planning, teachers are working hard to develop Project Based Learning units that align with the Australian Curriculum. These units are designed to encourage students to take ownership of their learning, with assessments that offer flexibility in how they can demonstrate their understanding. Among the many other advantages of Project Based Learning are an increased student engagement, student accountability, stimulated curiosity and creativity, improved collaboration and communication and stronger relationships. We are in the process of documenting our Pedagogical Approaches and also promoting a diverse range of pedagogies to guarantee the effectiveness of our educational practices. Through building our staff and students capability in Project Based Learning, we will see continued success in our teaching and learning.

Each week our Professional Learning Teams meet as part of a collaborative planning inquiry cycle to discuss student work, look at the next steps in teaching and learning, unpack student work and check alignment to the achievement standard. These weekly meetings are a powerful way of building teacher capability, ensuring consistency across the cohort, collaboratively developing powerful learning experiences and differentiating learning for all students. At the end of each year all teaching staff completes the ‘Maximising Student Access to Learning’ survey. Over the past two years there has been a significant growth in all areas of the Fidelity Matrix. The biggest area of growth has been in the area of students ‘Exposure to Learning’ which has seen a 64% increase, followed by a 42% increase in the ‘Quality of Delivery’. The common factor which drives the increase in student engagement and learning has been the impact of Professional Learning Teams in building each staff members capability. 

We are also in the process of finalising and documenting our Positive Climate for Learning Approaches in our school. All staff members are working hard to implement a Positive Behaviour for Learning Universal Tier 1 approach across the school. I would like to highlight the latest Student Suspension Data for our school shows a decrease of 18% in suspensions from 2020 to current.

The renewed focus on student engagement through high quality lesson delivery alongside a Positive Behaviour for Learning approach across the school amplified a decrease in students displaying Tier 3 behaviours. 

I would like to acknowledge the hard work of every member of our community; families, staff and students, for showing Care, Courage and Cooperation to ensure Rockhampton North Special School is the place to be.

Have a fabulous two weeks and stay warm 😊

Kind regards,

Dehlia