Dear Armadale Community

This week’s Bulletins focus on Wellbeing. Each year level schedules time in the week to explicitly teach concepts, skills and strategies that aim to support each child’s emotional and social wellbeing. We use resources including URStrong to support children with their understanding of friendships.

You can access this resource via the following link: https://urstrong.com/parents/

The site offers valuable advice to parents and carers and gives simple activities to do at home. We follow a Restorative Practice Approach to give children responsibility to solve problems they may experience with other children out in the playground or in the classroom. Evidence shows that using a restorative model prioritises the relationship. It allows us to address the impact of the behaviour on the relationships and community.

This model enables us to approach conflict restoratively and in doing so, we can model appropriate behaviour and social interaction and provide an opportunity for the development of empathetic responses to others. We also use the government resource Respectful Relationships that aims to embed a culture of respect and equality across the entire school community.

Teachers run Circle Time in their classrooms. Circle time encourages listening, talking, and sharing among the children and modelling opportunities for the teacher. Also, it encourages the development of social skills by providing daily, structured social interactions.

The video below outlines our whole school approach:

If you would like further information, please refer to our Student, Wellbeing and Engagement Policy. This can be found on our website or via the following link: Student-wellbeing-engagement-policy-

Working Bee

This was held on Sunday 21 April and it truly was a community effort. When we returned to school on the Monday, it was obvious the amount of work that was achieved on the day. We thank all the parents, carers and children who were able to come and help make our grounds look amazing and a huge THANKS to Zaim for organising the day and working tirelessly on the Sunday to ensure that the front of the school was ready for our new fence to be installed.

We would also like to extend our thanks to Jon Anderson (Charlie and Lachie’s dad) for organising and driving the digger to help with the removal of the hedge. Thanks also to Danika (Willow and Freddie’s mum) for organising the skip and the removal of the skip as this was necessary for the removal of stones in front of the school to install the new fence.

The new fence will not only allow us to secure the entrance onto our school grounds, but it will also allow for our garden educators, Ariel and Clare, to begin plans on creating new gardens in the front of the school.

Curriculum Presentations

Due to changes in the way we deliver information, we decided to create short videos explaining our approached to specific curriculum areas and we also offer ways in which you can be involved. The following presentations can now be accessed on our website:

Writing – Our writing program and unpacking the 6+1 traits
Spelling – Our whole school approach to the teaching of spelling

We will be uploading the following presentations this term. You will be notified via the Newsletter or Bulletins when they are released.

Assessment and Reporting - What we report on and how to read the report.
Reading – What is reading? How can we partner to promote enthusiastic and willing readers?
Maths – What does Maths teaching and learning look like at our school?
Kitchen – Our kitchen program form P-6
Garden- Our garden program and the benefits of this for our learner.
Investigations/ERPs – The Pedagogy; Understanding the link between Investigations and ERPs.
Leadership – The Year 5/6 Leadership Program
Wellbeing –Whole school approach and classroom programs
Library – The Library program from P-6 and the purpose of borrowing books from the library
The Arts – dance/drama/ music/visual art/media arts
Italian - Our program from Prep -6
Health & P/E – Our program from Prep -6
Sport – The 3-6 Program
STEM – What is STEM? What does STEM look like across the school?
HOMEWORK - Expectations STEM, Writing, Library, Italian, The ARTS, Mathematics, Reading,

Rochelle Cukier and Connie Apostolos

Principals

Rochelle.Cukier@education.vic.gov.au

Connie.Apostolos@education.vic.gov.au

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