What an incredibly positive start to the term it has been and how fast the first two weeks have flown by. Not only have our students already enjoyed extracurricular activities such as learning about ANZAC Day and the body’s physiological response to anxiety, but they have so much to look forward to in this term.

Mrs Sewell does an incredible job with scheduling the numerous activities across the school term and no sooner does she capture events and send out the fridge calendar, even more events are added. It will be interesting to know whether parents find the termly fridge calendar handy or whether parents prefer the convenience of the digital calendar on Compass and the school website.

FAREWELL AND WELCOME TO STAFF MEMBERS

This term we thank staff members for their service and welcome others to our school.

Mr Lowe - Thank you to Joshua Lowe who has been a dedicated teacher holding various positions in our school over the past six years. After much consideration, Mr Lowe has decided on a career change and will soon be returning to study. We wish him continued success in any direction he chooses.

We now welcome Miss Thy Do (teacher of 1J) who has already made a positive impression with her new class of year one students.

SAKG – Our garden specialist, Laura Bowe who brought a wealth of horticulture experience and fresh ideas to the garden program will be leaving us toward the end of the term as she is expecting her third child.

We are fortunate to welcome an equally passionate garden expert, Mr Niklas Passmann. Niklas has many years’ of experience in regenerative agriculture, soil health and permaculture and now he is a father himself, he’s looking forward to sharing his knowledge and experience with students.

FUNDRAISING (The Easter Raffle)

The final day of last term saw over a hundred students heading home with Easter raffle prizes. Thank you to our wonderful families for the donation of Easter goodies and selling raffle tickets. As a result of your generosity and participation, we raised $4764.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY TEACHING AND LEARNING

As an International Baccalaureate World School, we endeavour to deliver the content of the Victorian Curriculum through an inquiry transdisciplinary approach. Last week, we enjoyed two days of professional development, so our teachers share a common understanding of this approach. When teachers plan together, they are more effective in selecting and combining the key elements to hone our students’ attention to, which includes: knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills, dispositions and encourages action (learning to life).

So what does transdisciplinary teaching mean?

We can best describe this through an analogy. Imagine the ingredients to make a cake are all sitting on your kitchen bench ready for you. These ingredients are like the different subject disciplines. Each subject is important and a necessary component on its own, but when they are combined together (to make the cake) they provide so much more context and meaning. Naturally there are times when we need to teach some concepts in isolation, but a transdisciplinary approach ‘connects one topic to many school subjects, allowing students to understand the concept much deeper, see the connections, and realise why they are learning about it. This approach also makes it easier for students to remember what they learned’.

This italicised quote is from an explanatory article about transdisciplinary learning and makes for a great read for those interested. (Click the link for access to the article)

ANXIETY WORKSHOP: Behaviour, Big Feelings and Self-regulation

Once again, Karen Young a psychologist specialising in education about anxiety has kept our staff, parents and students enthralled with her knowledge and stories. The capacity to emotionally regulate is one of the most important building blocks for success and social and emotional wellbeing which takes time to develop and gets messy along the way. Karen spoke about how for many young people, big feelings drive big behaviour which can be confusing and challenging for them, and also for the adults who care for them. We all learned more about the connections between feelings and the behaviours they fuel and the sections of the brain responsible for our actions or reactions, and importantly what the child needs most from the adult to help them back. We hope that by providing this opportunity to staff, parents and the students, we can all share the same language and understanding when we speak about or respond to anxiety.

ANZAC DAY ASSEMBLY

Once again, our Global Citizenship team organised and conducted a special whole school assembly to educate our students about ANZAC Day. The assembly is an opportunity to reflect on and share the history and traditions of the day and recognising the achievements and sacrifices of those who have served in all wars.

We’d like to thank the Global Citizenship team with the support of Miss Delane for their preparation and dedication.

MOTHER’S DAY STALL- Wednesday 8 May

Once again, our School Council Social and Fundraising team have organised a Mother’s Day stall which will be held on Wednesday 8 May.

Parent volunteers do a magnificent job setting up a ‘pop up’ shop in the library and each class takes their turn to go shopping.

It will be helpful for each student to bring a plastic or paper bag to keep their purchases together and protected in their bag, not to mention hiding their goodies from mum until the special day. The canteen will not be taking over the counter cash sales on the day of the Mothers’ Day stall so please be sure to order snacks and lunch through Qkr.

Our social and fundraising committee is also organising an event for the mother figures in our lives to be held at Cityfields (Chadstone) for Thursday evening 9 May. Further details can be found later in this newsletter.

COMPLAINTS

From time to time, we all have complaints and the best person to share a complaint with is the person who can do something to help us find an answer. In many cases, complaints arise through a lack of information or not understanding the reasons behind decisions. The school endeavours to provide our parent community with timely information however, if you need more information, please let the Class Rep or the school know. If you have a complaint, please speak directly with the school. We are responsive to feedback and have an open-door policy, so send an email or pop in for a chat.

Our complaints policy can be found on our website.

Chellee Plumb

The Sparkle Times