Year Prep - Year 2

Assistant Principal's Report

Junior School News

What a fabulous time of year it is currently. The weather is beautiful and there is a real air of excitement about the school having come back from a relaxing break and settling into new year levels.  Once again, it has been a wonderful experience getting out into classrooms and hearing all of the talk about the school's 3 core values of 'respect', 'responsibility' and 'resilience'. The large number of students who have earned certificates already, to be traded in at the Froggy Dollar Shop, also reinforces my observations that they are indeed being demonstrated consistently across the school.

Our new Preppies continue to step up to the expectations in place at school, and teachers, both Classroom Teachers and Specialist Teachers, have been blown away by just how settled and school-ready they have been. Our Prep assessments are all complete, as of this Wednesday, and the team have all of the data required to now plan a comprehensive program that meets the needs of all students. 

Year One's and Year Two's have both commenced personal writing as a part of our whole-school writing focus, and it has been great to get into classrooms to share in the learning with the students. Their personal texts have enabled the Classroom Teachers to get to know more about their students and for the students to showcase their writing talents.  In Numeracy, place-value has been a strong focus across both year levels as they develop their understanding of larger numbers; reading, writing, ordering and modelling these in class. Developing this strong understanding of numbers and the place-value of their digits (ie. understanding that 327 is made up of 3 x hundreds, 2 x tens and 7 x ones) will really assist them throughout the year when they start exploring concepts such as addition and subtraction with larger numbers.

As part of our work at the start of the year around establishing an orderly classroom learning environment, we have asked all classes to create a 'classroom motto' that outlines their expectations, and what they are striving to achieve in 2019.  In coming weeks, these will all be placed on our school web-site and I would encourage all parents and carers to log on to have a look and discuss these with their children.  It would be great for students to be able to explain these to their families, highlighting key words and why they were selected. 

Until next time, take care, and make the most of this beautiful weather that we are experiencing!

Regards

Danny Forster 

Assistant Principal in Junior School