Assistant Principal Report

Dear Families,

I hope this newsletter finds you all safe and well. I would like to thank you all for the fantastic way in which you are supporting your child/children with online learning. You ALL are absolute champions in this space and your efforts are making a positive difference to your child’s wellbeing and learning.

We have so much to celebrate in terms of online learning and the way in which our students, teachers and parents/carers are working together, to ensure that our children continue to receive a first class education. I thought I would share our progress in terms of the Tutor Learning Initiative and the fact that it’s now gone virtual! Our Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI or Intervention) where teachers identify students who may be falling behind or students who are at level but starting to stagnate, very little movement along the learning continuum.

When we went into Lockdown 6.0 we made a commitment to continue with our TLI (intervention) small groups by taking it online over Webex. Teachers have identified students they are to work with in small groups. These students, in small groups receive explicit teaching demonstrations of a skill in reading for P-4 and our Year 5/6 students are focussing on place value in mathematics. Our teachers support and work with small groups for TLI (intervention) 2-3 sessions per week.

Our prep students who have recently been introduced to Webex will begin trialing a more streamlined version of TLI. This will involve teachers videoing their short, sharp instructional lessons for students to practise any time, for however many times they wish. Our prep teachers will then review this approach and refine their instructional practice accordingly.

It is critical that students who are working in these small TLI groups attend their scheduled sessions online and that our Prep students look out for the instructional videos, which will be posted in Class Dojo. Our students can make great learning gains if they attend these sessions. Attendance online for ALL our students is critical for maintaining strong connection to their peers and their teachers. In turn research is demonstrating that strong attendance online, at this time is beneficial to our students’ overall wellbeing.

At the end of Term 1 we asked our parents and carers to provide the school with feedback on the TLI program. Please see below a sample of responses we received from our community, as a reminder to us all, around the benefits this program is having in terms of supporting students' confidence, motivation and wellbeing.

How has your child benefited from attending small group intervention with class teacher?

Reading:

Understand the message of texts and infer the tone the author left in the book
My child has shown a greater interest in reading and attempting to write.

Small Group:

She loves to be in this small class, she came home telling us what letters she was learning, and she is learning all the letters very quick
Yes my child has benefited from participating in the intervention group.
I think it was a wonderful opportunity for my daughter to have a more focused level of support.
My son enjoyed the activity with their group
Yes my daughter is enjoying it, especially the one on one time.

Letter/Sound Knowledge:

Yes I feel like this program has benefited her a lot, she is recognising letters and sounds and is having a go at spelling her name :)

Many thanks to all our families who took the time to provide us with an insight into their child’s experiences on the program back in early Term 2. We used this feedback to reflect on our practices and strengthen the program. There will be a further opportunity for parent/carer feedback at end of Term 3.

‘When something is important enough,

You do it even if the odds are not in your favour’. – Elon Musk

Warmest Regards,

Kathy Cvitkovic

Assistant Principal