Dear Members of the St. Cecilia’s School Community,

What questions do you ask your child about their day at school? At our school, we believe in the importance of fostering student voice and encouraging students to articulate their thinking. Student voice refers to the opinions, thoughts, and perspectives of our students, and we believe that it is crucial to empower our students to express themselves confidently and effectively. At St. Cecilia's, we base our questioning technique on research and use these questions frequently in our learning.

Here are the 5 questions we often use. I invite you to try these also at home when your child is experiencing new learning. Over time, their responses will develop as they learn to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information, and develop their own unique perspectives on the world around them. This, in turn, helps them become better problem-solvers and decision-makers in the future.

Lyn Sharratt is an experienced educator and researcher who has developed a framework for effective classroom instruction. At the heart of her framework are five questions that our teachers ask their students on a regular basis. These questions are:

What are you learning today?
Why is it important?
How will you know you have been successful?
How can you use this learning?
What is your next learning step?

These five questions are important because they encourage students to take ownership of their learning and become active participants in the classroom. By answering these questions, students are able to reflect on their learning, set goals, and monitor their progress. Let's take a closer look at each question and why it is so important.

What are you learning today? By asking students to identify what they are learning, teachers are encouraging them to focus on the content and skills they need to master. This helps students to prioritize their learning and stay on track.

Why is it important? Understanding the importance of what they are learning helps students to see the relevance of the content and engage with it more deeply. It also helps students to connect their learning to real-world applications.

How will you know you have been successful? By setting clear criteria for success, teachers are helping students to identify what they need to do in order to demonstrate mastery of the content. This helps students to focus on the learning outcomes and work towards achieving them.

How can you use this learning? Encouraging students to think about how they can use what they have learned helps them to see the practical applications of their learning. It also helps to reinforce the importance of the content and encourages students to apply what they have learned in different contexts.

What is your next learning step? By setting goals and identifying their next learning steps, students are taking ownership of their learning and becoming active participants in the learning process. This helps to create a sense of accountability and encourages students to continue learning and growing.

When students are given the opportunity to articulate their thinking, it helps them develop their communication skills. They learn how to express themselves in a clear, concise, and persuasive manner, which is a valuable skill that will benefit them throughout their lives. Whether it's presenting in front of a class, interviewing for a job, or advocating for themselves in any given situation, students who are confident communicators are more likely to succeed in their personal and professional lives.

As a school, we are committed to empowering our students to find their voice and express themselves confidently and effectively. We encourage parents to support their children in this endeavor by actively listening to them, engaging them in meaningful conversations, and encouraging them to share their thoughts and ideas. Together, we can create a more inclusive, equitable, and empowered learning community.

Landscape Masterplan

My goodness, what a difference a week makes!

Our Welcome Garden at the front of our school has certainly taken shape and is nearing conclusion. All should be completed before our Open Day next Tuesday!

Why are we building this?

Common themes have emerged about what our community values about the school, what’s important, what’s missing that needs to be added and what’s not working that needs to be addressed.

These are reflected in the landscape masterplan and are the guiding principles for the design of the grounds:

Sustainability – care for our school, care for our environment, light footprint, promoting a respect for the natural environment

Places for all children – need mixes of active and passive play spaces which support children of all ages. Sports areas and equipment for kids to be active, and quiet, secluded nooks for when children need space to withdraw.

Creative play – fostering natural creative play, adventure, sensory elements, climbing, building, making, immersion in the natural environment.

A learning landscape – a landscape for the teachers, with spaces which are an extension of the classroom and support the school curriculum.

Connection to nature – opportunity for children to connect to nature through play and build a love of and respect for the natural environment.

Making the most of what we have – spaces that are flexible, can be used to their best potential and for a range of activities.

Food production – vegetable gardens and composting areas and the way they are incorporated into the curriculum and used to each life skills (this is a later development)

Art – art as part of the landscape and school culture, integrated into the landscape and life of the school (this is a later development)

Practical – needs to be workable, able to be maintained, able to be built, able to be afforded.

We will have a thorough induction for all of our students regarding new protocols involving rock and garden areas and the use of water in this beautiful new space.

We are beyond excited!

2024 Enrolment Process

Numbers are building rapidly for Foundation 2024

We have provided many school tours for prospective parents already this year for Foundation 2024. We have a number of tours booked for Open Day next Tuesday also! The level of enthusiasm and interest is enormously encouraging.

This note is simply a check in to see that we have accurate numbers of siblings that are intending to commence Foundation next year at St. Cecilia's. Several families have indicated that a sibling will be commencing but have not yet submitted an enrolement form. Please ask for one at the front office or download one directly from our school website.

If you have a child starting school in 2024 please ensure you have submitted your application form asap! (available on our website). http://www.scgleniris.catholic.edu.au/

Congratulations

I thought I'd share some wonderful news with you all.

I would like to congratulate our music teacher, Stefania Miller, and acknowledge her publicly for some of her recent achievements. Stef was recently involved as a presenter at the Kodály Vic and the Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association (VOSA) for their annual Back to School Day! This was a PD Day held at Carey Baptist Grammar where music teachers from both primary and secondary could come along and attend workshops run by Kodály and Orff experts!

And look who one of the experts was!!!!

Stefania Miller – Lower Kodaly

Stefania Miller has taught classroom music for 11 years and is currently the Classroom Music Specialist (Prep- Year 6) and Choral Conductor at St. Cecilia’s Primary School in Glen Iris, Melbourne. Stefania’s enthusiasm for Kodaly based music education comes from her love of singing and musical theatre. She completed the Australian Kodaly Certificate in 2018 and since then has been passionate about creating fun and exciting musical experiences for her students which are engaging and inclusive of all abilities.

Session Description:

Musical Manipulatives: A hands on, inclusive approach to teaching music literacy

A manipulative is anything a student can put their hands on to assist them in developing and learning a new concept. This session explores songs, games and practice activities that include concrete objects to manipulate as well as why they are useful for creativity and inclusivity in the music classroom.

Not only was Stef one of the handful of presenters - she excelled (as you could imagine).

Some of you may know Ruth McGurk who used to be the music teacher at St. Cecilia's a few years back. Ruth was present at this PD session and sent me this wonderful email.

I am getting in touch to say that I was at a Music PD on Saturday that was led by Stefania Miller and she was exceptional. We had a small insight into the energy she puts into her planning and the colourful, hands-on activities she is using in her classroom - it was very inspiring!

I wanted to give her a little shout out and make sure the staff and students know how lucky they are to have such a dynamic and passionate music specialist in their school!

Kind regards,

Ruth McGurk

(Ex St. C's teacher)

Sometimes it is nice to pause and acknowledge the truly remarkable staff members we have in our midst. Stefania is a perfect example of this. Her commitment to excellence, professionalism and knowledge - combined with passion, adaptability and kindness makes her an amazing educator and one of the best music teachers in the business!

On behalf of all of us at St Cecilia's, thank you for your work with us, Stef. And congratulations on sharing your talents with others and inspiring them with your messages.

We look forward to seeing what else this leads to!

Here are some happy snaps!

Year Six Leadership Program

As part of our Year Six Leadership Program, our students are invited to speak termly at our staff meeting.

On Monday we had the pleasure of hearing from eight of our Year 6 students about their recent experience at the Voice for Parliament Forum for Higgins. Our Year 6 leaders spoke confidently about what they had learnt and the impact the forum had on their thinking. The students were very proud to have been invited to open the forum by leading the Acknowledgement of Country.

We are so proud of all of our Year 6 leaders of 2023 and the positive impact they are having on our whole school community!

Swimming Lessons

From Monday March 20 to Friday March 31 the Foundation to Year 4 students will be participating in daily swimming lessons. Details of the program were sent home today on Skoolbag. Please make sure you read through the information carefully and submit the Google permission form by next Wednesday March 15. If you have any questions about the program you can direct them towards Matthew Mooney who is liaising with the Maccabi Swim School who will be running the program.

School Disco

The St Cecilia’s Annual Disco will be held on Friday 31st March in the School Hall!

Get your dancing shoes on!!!

Times: 4:00pm to 5:00pm (Foundation to Year 2) 5:15pm to 6:30pm (Years 3 to 6)

Cost: $10 per child (includes Pizza and an Icy Pole. Please BYO filled water bottle)

Please pay via CDF by Monday 27th March.

Note: if your child requires gluten free pizza, lactose free or vegetarian pizza, please advise by this date.

Dress-code: Casual with a touch of FLUORO OR SPARKLE!

Contact: if you have any questions about the event please contact:

• Claire Clark (Amelia 2H, Grace FG) – vet_chick@hotmail.com 0402 852 960

• Bona D (Amber, 2H) – van.bonny@mail2me.com 0449 745 678

Click here to order and pay for tickets

Social Media

Our school social media platforms are continuing to grow this year! The purpose of these pages is to share with our families and community the great things that are happening at our school.

I encourage you to take a look, and follow if you would like.

Follow Us on Facebook and Instagram:

@StCeciliasGlenIris

@StCeciliasGlenIris

Enjoy the rest of the week,

Marty McKenna

Principal

St Cecilia’s School

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