FROM THE PRINCIPAL

To the St Nicholas School Community

TERM 3 - WEEK 4

In 2021, St Nicholas School (0.55FTE) and the system's general staffing (0.45FTE), funded a fourth teacher for Kindergarten. Kindergarten is a crucial year in a child’s development, therefore resourcing must be allocated to set these children up for success.

The challenge for the school and for our St Nicholas School Kindergarten teachers was to utilise the fourth teacher in a way that would maximise the impact of student learning outcomes. Simply using the fourth teacher to reduce class sizes would have very little effect on student learning outcomes. 

The first step involved the creation of a learning space for the 4th teacher. The answer was to transform a storage room in the school auditorium (which is conveniently located next to the Kindergarten learning spaces) into a learning space. 

With the space created, the fourth teacher is used  for targeted intervention. 12 children, grouped across the kindergarten grade,  receive 5 weeks of targeted intervention in English (8.45am-11.00am) 5 days a week. Another 12 children receive 5 weeks of targeted intervention in Mathematics (11.40am-12.40pm), 5 days a week.

After each 5 week block, the 12 targeted students in both English and Mathematics return to the general  classroom and an additional 24 students are targeted (12 in English and 12 in Mathematics).

From 12.40pm each day the fourth teacher is used to target students with oral language development. 

Targeted students were identified through the TAC-P screener. In Term 1 the fourth Kindergarten teacher administered the TAC-P screener to all 87 Kindergarten children throughout Term 1, the fourth Kindergarten Teacher also collaborated with one of St Nicholas' Assistant Principals, St Edward’s Tamworth and the System's Speech Pathologist to create a Tier 2 and Tier 3 plan and program for identified students. Tier 2 intervention involves students working in small groups with the fourth Kindergarten teacher, and Tier 3 involves a student working one on one, or in a very small group, with the teacher. The Tier 2 and 3 plan is specifically targeted to their area of need as identified by the TAC-P. 

With the fourth Kindergarten teacher focused on short, sharp targeted intervention, the new learning space has been named the “Honey Pot”. With the Kindergarten and Year 1 Space referred to as the ‘Hive’ (as we want engaged, busy, little bees), the Honey Pot expands on this notion, though supports the concept of sharp learning leaps “sticking” in the child.

Learning data for Kindergarten in 2021 is providing wonderful evidence the fourth teacher working in a targeted fashion is having a significant impact on the learning outcomes for our 2021 Kindergarten students. 

Supporting our Parents with difficult and tricky topics

While I continue to advocate that primary school aged children do not have access to any social media, unfortunately this still does not guarantee they are safe online. Perhaps your child has been bullied online, sent or received an intimate image, or come across pornography online. Conversations about experiences like these can be difficult.  

When you talk to your child about personal subjects, you are trying to balance a number of different things: 

• respecting your child’s privacy while still making sure they are safe and happy
• giving them space to test their own problem-solving skills online but supporting them as they make their own way
• educating them about people’s different personalities but knowing you can’t make their choices for them
• establishing boundaries while being understanding and open

The following resource has been created for parents, as we try to support our children in a vastly different world than the one we experienced: 

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/hard-to-have-conversations

Have a great week.

John Clery

PRINCIPAL