From Mr Ridgway
Learning Progress Meetings
Thank you to all parents, carers and teachers for your positive engagement during this week’s Learning Progress Meetings. These conversations are an important opportunity to celebrate student achievements, discuss learning growth and strengthen the partnership between home and school in supporting every child’s learning journey.
We greatly appreciate the time families and staff dedicated to these meetings and value the collaborative approach that continues to make our school community so supportive and connected.
Following these Learning Progress Meetings, Semester 1 Reports will be distributed to families via Compass on Friday, 19 June.
Parents Committee Thank You
Thank you to our amazing Parents Committee for the recent Bakers Delight Special Food Day, where the students were able to order delicious, freshly baked savoury rolls. We are really fortunate to have such a committed group of parents/carers who provide these opportunities for our students. Thank you also to the Parents Committee for running a second-hand uniform shop this week, and to all the families who donated uniform items to help make this possible.
School Uniform
A reminder to all families of the importance of students wearing the correct school uniform each day. Wearing the school uniform helps promote a sense of pride and belonging within our school community.
Please ensure students come to school in the approved uniform each day. As we move towards Winter, students are permitted to wear non-school uniform raincoats and jackets to and from school. If there are any difficulties in meeting uniform requirements, we encourage families to contact the school office for support.
Teaching and Learning
PhOrMeS Implementation Update
This term, we will continue to strengthen staff knowledge and practice in the teaching of phonics through our work with literacy consultant Shane Pearson and the implementation of the PhOrMeS phonics program.
PhOrMeS stands for Phonology, Orthography, Morphology and Etymology. The program helps students understand how sounds, spelling patterns, word meanings, and word origins work together, which supports them in becoming stronger readers, writers, and spellers by explicitly teaching how words are constructed.
Following a whole-day professional learning session with Shane Pearson in Term 1, staff will continue working with Shane this term through two additional days of classroom modelling and coaching. During these sessions, teachers will have the opportunity to observe Shane working directly with students and demonstrating effective phonics teaching practices in classrooms.
This ongoing support is important, as research shows that one-off professional learning sessions are unlikely to lead to lasting change in classroom practice. Continued modelling, coaching and feedback help teachers refine their practice over time and strengthen consistency across the school.
This work forms part of our ongoing commitment to evidence-based teaching and improving literacy outcomes for all students.
Strengthening Wellbeing and Inclusion for all students
We are also continuing to prioritise our commitment to whole-school inclusion, wellbeing and support for all learners through ongoing staff professional learning and collaboration with the Department of Education's School Support Services (SSS).
During the recent Curriculum Day on Monday, 18 May, all staff participated in a half-day professional learning session led by the Kingston Network’s School Support Services Officers (SSSO) leader, alongside our school’s SSS key contact.
The professional learning focused on strengthening staff understanding of inclusive classroom practices and supporting students through a strengths-based approach. A key message throughout the session was moving beyond viewing behaviour through a “compliance” lens and instead supporting staff to become “behaviour detectives”, building a deeper understanding of why students may respond, communicate or engage differently in learning environments.
Topics explored included:
- understanding the function of behaviour,
- supporting students with social and emotional literacy needs,
- recognising diverse communication styles,
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL),
- practical classroom adjustments that support inclusion for all students,
staff wellbeing and sustainable practices.
Importantly, the professional learning is centred on classroom practices, strategies that benefit all students and help create calm, safe and inclusive learning environments across the school.
The goal of the session was for every teacher and Education Support staff member to leave with practical strategies they could immediately apply within their classroom or learning environment to better support student engagement, inclusion and wellbeing.
This work forms part of the school’s ongoing commitment to creating supportive, inclusive and responsive learning environments where every student feels safe, valued and able to succeed.
Our wellbeing supports have also expanded to small group social skills sessions using the ‘We Thinkers’ curriculum, Friendology, and soon we will implement small group Lego Therapy.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Robert
