Principals Report

Hello Sunshine Families, 

STAFF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

This week l would like to share some of the Professional Learning our staff undertake on a weekly basis. Education is dynamic for very good reasons and that means, as a school, we must keep up to date on educational changes, modifications, current research and theory.  We also have a responsibility to implement any Department of Education policies and processes.

Each week our entire staff attend Professional Learning (PL) on a Tuesday afternoon with our Teachers also attending a Wednesday afternoon session as well. The PL is always focused on the goals of our Annual Implementation Plan (AIP)– this is Sunshine SDS’s yearly plan of goals and outcomes we work to achieve to improve our schools educational and wellbeing delivery for our students.

Through the year we monitor our achievement toward our goals and assess our efforts at the end of the year. Then, as Principal, l write a Report To The School Community to share what our school achieved in the previous year and what barriers we encountered and what we will focus on in the coming year. I am writing this report currently and will post to our school website by the end of March for our families and community to read.

So far this year our Professional Learning Calendar has included a focus on the re-vamped Victorian Curriculum called VC 2.0 for short. The Department revised the Curriculum refining the subject areas because they were quite overwhelming in content. The VC 2.0 is now ‘skinnier’ and more focused. For Sunshine SDS the addition of curriculum content in the Foundation levels A-D (this is pre-Prep learning content) - was welcome! Many of our students learning needs are captured in the levels A-D and so having a scope and sequence of learning in Literacy and Maths for our teacher to follow – is great! Of course, as a Special Developmental School, we know our students require lots of modifications to enable our students to access learning content – so we spend time modifying our curriculum to encourage our students to engage with learning.

Assessing our students learning is a tricky process. This is because most assessments are not suitable for our Learners- Most struggle to respond to typical assessment tasks that require verbal or written responses to show knowledge or competency. So, we assess our student's learning growth through observations. Knowing where our Learners are at – means our teachers can plan the next step in their learning journey.

This term we have undertaken PL in assessment Cross Checks- so we can follow the progress our students make in thier IEP goals. We have also undertaken PL with our Speech Pathologists sharing the ROCC assessment – this assesses a student communication competency.

Our Occupational Therapists have also shared really helpful PL about Sensory Toolboxes – what our staff can use in the classroom to meet student sensory needs so that students are able to be calm and focus on the learning.

Coming up in the next few weeks we have PL for Protective Intervention Training – this training helps staff respond safely to incidents where students escalate physically and become unsafe. The training helps staff to use strategies that keep students safe in the moment as well as keeping themselves safe from being injured.

I will share further professional learning with you over the year so you have an idea of how important learning is for everyone at Sunshine SDS!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE – ENSURE STUDENT NAILS ARE CLIPPED 

Many of our students communicate with their bodies and scratching others is a common way of saying they are a little unhappy! While the school has invested in long arm guards for classrooms to protect staff from bites and scratches- making sure nails are clipped short helps keep our staff safe.

This week OUR NEW PICK UP DROP OFF TIMES CAME INTO PLAY!

YOU CAN DROP OF OR PICK UP YOUR CHILD FOR AN APPOINTMENT BETWEEN

11:40 AND 1:15 ONLY

Of course, situations do come up like emergencies, and the odd forgetfulness so just talk to our lovely Administration staff in the Office.

Non parental pick-ups OR Family or Parent Holiday – a REMINDER

If families are taking extended holidays or as parents you are leaving students in the care of others – PLEASE LET THE SCHOOL KNOW. The school cannot legally hand your child over to a carer or Care worker- we must have permission from you as parents and also have the details of the care worker or family member.

CAR PARKING – FRONT OF SCHOOL

Please use parking spaces when DROPPING OFF OR COLLECTING STUDENTS - parking ‘anywhere’ is unsafe and blocks others cars.

Remember my door is ALWAYS OPEN for a chat, share a worry or provide feedback.

Wishing a Happy and safe weekend to all,

Lisa