ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR
This month we are really promoting our Behavioural Martrix.
Teachers and students have been working hard to deepen their understanding of the expectations for themselves and others as they work collaboratively together in their learning spaces, inside and outside.
It has been great hearing students reflecting on their behaviours based on the expectations outlined in this matrix.
Students are beginning to identify the behaviours they are demonstrating and the positive and/or negative impact these are having on the community through Caring for themselves, Caring for others, Caring for their community and Caring for their school.
I am exciting to continue to celebrate the great work through our Pupil of the Week certificates which are based around the expectations from our behavioural matrix.
Keep up the great work!
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE DAYS
Professional Practice Days In the Education State.
We achieve excellence by consistently focusing on improving the achievements of learners across Victoria, whether it is through improving the quality of educational services or changing the way we teach. The most important thing we can do to improve student outcomes is to develop and improve the skills of our teachers.
The Victorian Government will continue to provide opportunities to develop professional, passionate teachers and principals and equip them with the right knowledge and skills to meet the needs of their students.
To ensure we support the learning and development of not only our students, but our teachers too; we are committed to providing professional development opportunities for our teacher workforce.
Teachers will spend four days per year further developing their skills in areas that are aligned to the school priorities. Students will directly benefit from these improvements in their daily learning.
We have generally allocated weeks 7 -10 in this term for teams of teachers to work on a range of tasks to improve their delivery of teaching and learning through the professional practice days. The professional practice days are part of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2017. Each full time teacher is entitled to one day per term (four days per year), to focus on the improved delivery of high quality teaching and learning.
Equally, it’s important that teachers take the time to focus on improving their professional practice because their learning directly impacts on your child’s learning experience. There is a learning plan in place to ensure that education continues as usual. We are scheduling the days ahead of time and have planned the day so that there is minimal impact.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Social and emotional learning involves students having opportunities to learn and practice social skills such as:
- cooperation
- managing conflict
- making friends
- coping
- being resilient
- recognising and managing their own feelings.
SEL programs set out to explicitly promote these skills in children and young people.
The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) identifies five broad headings under which SEL falls:
- Self-awareness: Identifying and recognising emotions; recognising personal interests and strengths; maintaining a well-grounded sense of self-confidence.
- Self-management: Regulating emotions to handle stress, control impulses, and motivating oneself to persevere in overcoming obstacles, setting and monitoring progress toward the achievement of personal and academic goals; expressing emotions appropriately.
- Social awareness: Being able to take the perspective of and empathise with others; recognising and appreciating individual and group similarities and differences.
- Relationship skills: Establishing and maintaining healthy and rewarding relationships based on cooperation and resistance to inappropriate social pressure, preventing, managing, and constructively resolving interpersonal conflict; seeking help when needed.
- Responsible decision-making: Making decisions based on a consideration of all relevant factors, including applicable ethical standards, safety concerns, and social norms; the likely consequences of taking alternative courses of action; evaluation and reflection.
Why it's important to teach SEL at school
- Positive outcomes for a student's future: As students graduate towards higher levels of schooling, training and employment, social and emotional skills become increasingly important. Social and emotional competencies can help students in managing stress, deciding on goals and planning for the future.
- Postive outcomes for student mental health: The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth notes that schools who ensure that SEL is part of their teaching and learning can give students the opportunity to build the resilience to deal with change and unpredictability. This is an essential skill for positive mental health.
At Aitken Hill Primary School we are working to develop a strong SEL curriculum to ensure positive outcomes.
Stay tuned as we begin sharing the work we are doing in this area.
PLANNING WEEK
A lot of organisation and planning goes into the preparation of the teaching and learning in each community. To support teachers to be best cater to the students in each community we organise a Planning week each term. This planning week occurs in the last couple of weeks of the term. This Term planning week was Week 8 (March 18th - 22nd ).
During this week the timetable is adapted where students participate in specialist subject for the full day so their community teachers have a full day to analyse data, groups students and prepare lessons and resources to deliver high quality teaching and learning for all our students.
Below are the days allocated:
Monday 18th: Xenica Learning Community
Tuesday 19th: Achilles Learning Community
Wednesday 20th: Argus Learning Community
Thursday 21st: Specialist Collaborative Team
Friday 22nd: Learning Community Leaders development day
Samantha Kenely
Assistant Principal