News From Mr Smith

Dear School Community Members,

National Reconciliation Week: Next week is National Reconciliation week, an opportunity for us as a community to celebrate the rich culture and history of Indigenous Australians. National Reconciliation Week is a time to build better relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians — and a time to come together to acknowledge the enormous contributions that Australia’s First Peoples have made to shape our nation. It is also an opportunity to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

This year’s theme is: ‘Now More Than Ever.'

Two dates are significant in the history of reconciliation. The 27th of May is the anniversary of the date of the 1967 Referendum, which successfully removed from the Constitution clauses that discriminated against Indigenous Australians. The 3rd of June is the anniversary of the High Court decision in the Eddie Mabo land rights case handed down in 1992. Our students will engage in discussions and activities that will assist them in deepening their understanding about our country’s rich history and realise that our past goes way back before 1788. Each class will also develop their own Acknowledgement of Country that will be displayed and utilised at our weekly assemblies. We encourage our families to use next week as an opportunity to reflect and celebrate the wonderful traditions and customs our Indigenous Australians have.

Tutor Learning Initiative: Last week I sat in on a Tutoring session with Mrs Seeckts and two Grade 2 students. Our Tutoring program includes approx. 24 students per term, whereby these students engage in three 30 minute sessions per week for nine weeks. Students work in small groups and focus on an area of the curriculum requiring additional support. Each session is aligned to our Teaching and Learning model so that students can transfer their learning back to the classroom. The following is a summary of the session I observed last week:

Connect: Students revisited the grapheme pattern words from their last session (this aims to build familiarity, celebrate their achievements and a sense of success)

Questions from Mrs Seeckts included, “What things do your words have in common?”

Responses included, “Two consonants, three letters…”

Teach: Mrs Seeckts introduced three more words to each of the students (individualised).

Mrs Seeckts invited the students to explore their new words.

“Lets look at the different vowel sounds!”, said Mrs Seeckts.

Students chose one of their new words to use in a sentence.

Learn: Mrs Seeckts guided the students to investigate characteristics of their new words.

On their individual whiteboards, the students wrote their new word and begun exploring its different features.

“What is the first sound?”, “What is the second sound?”, “What vowels are in your word?”, and “Lets investigate how many syllables are in your word?”

Learn: Students then engaged in their ‘book study’ that they had commenced in their last session.

They discussed the characters, the setting, and the events that they read last session. This provided them with the opportunity to recall and comprehend the details from their book from their last session.

Reflect: The session finished with a reflection of their learning and celebrating their success, along with a fun game.

Our students love coming to their tutoring sessions and feel very safe and comfortable in this learning environment. Our students are very fortunate to have access to this program and Mrs Seeckts’ passion, skills and expertise.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Manifold Heights Primary School is committed to developing an effective ‘Home – School’ partnership to maximise the opportunities and outcomes for each student. With this in mind, we can confirm our Parent Teacher Conferences (interviews) will take place on:

Date: Thursday, 27th June

Time: 2:00pm – 7:40pm

Please note:

Students will be dismissed at 1:30pm on this day (Thursday, 27th June)
After School Care will commence at 1:30pm on this day – bookings can be made with VillageOHSC

Further details, including times and how to schedule a Parent Teacher Conference will be available in the coming weeks.

Staff Professional Learning – Writing: Our staff forum on Tuesday afternoon focussed on ‘writing’. Led by our Writing School Improvement Team, our teachers participated in a ‘Writing’ moderation session. Writing moderation involves teachers working together to develop consistent approaches to assessing student writing. This consistency plays a pivotal role in teachers co-developing effective writing goals for their students.

This Professional Learning session is part of our School Improvement Plan and our commitment to further developing the Writing outcomes of our students.

School Council: School Council gathered again on Monday night and the key agenda items were:

Welcomed our new Community Co-Opted member: Elly Hanlon
Staff representatives provided an update on our School Improvement Plan: Wellbeing, Writing, Numeracy, and Curriculum and Assessment
Discussed our Capital Works project, including handover date is Thursday, 30th May
Confirmed and endorsed our new cleaning contract with Brighten Services Australia
Confirmed and endorsed our Parent Teacher Conferences for Thursday, 27th June

Each of our School Councillors are deeply committed and invested in our school. Please contact them if you have any feedback or concerns (please visit our school website and select tab, ‘Parent Info’, ‘School Council’, ‘School Council Members Profiles’).

Thank you for supporting our school and have a great week.

Christian Smith