Assistant Principal Update

Dear parent and carers,

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend celebrating their mums, grandmas, nannas and special ladies in their lives. It was great to see such a big turnout of ‘MEPS mums and special friends’ on Friday afternoon at our afternoon tea celebrations and to hear some of the lovely writing from our year 5 students about their mums at assembly.  

Challenge

As we close out week 4 of term, I trust that you and your family are back into your school rhythm. As students become more comfortable with their own routines within the classroom and their teacher and peers, Term 2 is a great time for students to begin to Challenge themselves in their learning. Whether it be displaying curiosity and having the confidence to ask more questions, having a go at something that they have found difficult in the past or sharing their learning with the class. Challenge was certainly a theme at last week’s assembly as we celebrated a number of students who had been recognised by their teachers for showing effort and determination to give things a go both within the classroom setting and beyond – some even at the pool!

Staff Professional Learning

This week’s curriculum day saw our staff team come together to engage in professional learning. In the teaching and learning space, we engaged with the key elements of the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model and specifically looked at implementing consistent ‘Checks for Understanding’ in the form of Mini Whiteboard Routines and Multiple Choice or True/False questions. 

Monitoring students’ progress by checking for understanding helps teachers to determine what students know and can do, identify gaps in their learning, and adjust their teaching to meet student needs.

Establishing consistent, constructive routines associated with checking for understanding ensure that students know what to expect and how to respond, and feel safe taking risks, making mistakes and learning from them (AERO).

We look forward to seeing these routines in action across the school Prep-6.

Together We Grow

Last week I had the privilege of being invited to see the prep classes in action during a writing session. Milo Monkey had visited their classrooms and spread glitter everywhere! Cheeky Milo! It was fantastic to see students applying their letter-sound knowledge and constructing sentences using consonant-vowel-consonant and high frequency heart words. Keep up the great work preps! 

Kind regards,

Jessica Merritt

Assistant Principal

Mt Eliza Primary School

Respect, Resilience, Responsibility, Connectedness and Challenge