From the 

Shadow Principal 

Dear Parents/Carers,

Election Day Barbecue

A big thank-you needs to go out to the many who contributed to the fundraising barbeque at the Rowville Primary School electoral booth on Saturday May 21st.  Although the Melbourne weather really turned it on the turnout was not as big as we had hoped.  I suspect we were impacted by the pre polling booth at Stud Park and another polling booth in walking distance from the school. Nevertheless, the money raised will contribute to the development of the sensory playground. 

Special thanks to Robyn Wilson our Business Manager and her partner Phil.  Robyn offered great support in planning for the BBQ and volunteered to set up and pack up on the day.  Thanks also our volunteers who cooked up a storm:  Brad Young, Danielle Tepania, Juan Pablo Castano Vargas, Alex Smethurst, Julian Gutierrez, Sally Deane, Sarah Verstak, Vanessa Blaxhall, Lina and Maz.  Thank you also to those families who donated soft drink and water to sell on the day. 

I must also acknowledge Coles Supermarket at Stud Park who donated a large proportion of the bread and Greg from Greg’s Tender Joint in Belgrave South who did us a good deal on the sausages. 

Anchor Charts Professional Learning

I had the great pleasure of participating in the professional learning session for teachers from other schools run by our leading teacher, Jen Mastorakis.  We were visited by a team of teachers to learn about how we use anchor charts to support student learning.  Anchor charts are explicitly planned by each team to capture the learning of the class and make it visible to the students for future reference. 

The visiting teachers were very interested in the process our teachers take to plan these and were very impressed with the quality of learning that was being captured.  As we did a tour of the school to look at how anchor charts increase in complexity as you move up the school, they were telling me that what I was seeing was absolute best practice.  They asked questions about the Four Rooms of Change model and the Catastrophe scale that are used to assist students in monitoring and managing their emotional responses. A number of our visitors asked permission to take photos of the anchor charts so they can talk to their teams about implementing the strategy.

Both the anchor charts and the professional learning session were highlighted as leading the way at the Knox Principal’s Network meeting the following week.  I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all our teachers for the work they do in this area. 

Catherine Ford

Shadow Principal