Principal's Report
PRINCIPALS REPORT
I am pleased to introduce a new initiative to enhance transparent communication about what’s happening in our school. Starting this term, I will write in our school newsletter twice each term to keep you informed about important updates, the goals we are working towards, and the improvements we are making to enrich the student's learning and school grounds. This initiative is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure that our school community is well informed and actively engaged in our shared journey.
I look forward to sharing our progress and celebrating our achievements with you.
Kate Mancarella
Principal
Updating School Policies
At Milgate Primary School, the development and ratification of policies is a well-structured and collaborative process that plays a vital role in our school's governance. We follow a policy schedule to ensure that all policies are regularly reviewed, updated, and aligned with current educational standards. The Department of Education provides us with policy templates, which serve as a foundation. These templates are then carefully adapted to reflect the unique context, values, and needs of our school community. Once a policy draft is prepared, it is presented to the School Council for review, discussion, and final ratification. This ensures that our policies are not only compliant with broader educational guidelines but also tailored to best support our students, staff, and families. Ratification by the School Council is essential, as it provides formal approval, ensuring that our policies effectively guide our school's practices and decision-making processes. All school policies can be found on the school website and Compass.
Grounds Update
In our ongoing efforts to beautify the school, the student-painted wallaby, kangaroo, and koala sculptures from the 2022 Art exhibition have now been given a permanent home at the front of the school.
We have also introduced a new rock play space in the Foundation courtyard, offering a fun and natural area for the Foundation students to explore. Additionally, a group of parents, teachers, and students are working together to revitalise the sensory garden near the Manuka building, creating a peaceful space for all students to use and enjoy.
In the upcoming holidays, we will be replacing the artificial turf in the Foundation courtyard, completing our enhancements in that area, and installing vinyl flooring in the classroom on the blue basketball courts in preparation for its transformation into the STEM room for 2025.
Curriculum Updates
Maths
During our Term 3 Curriculum Day, Jayde Williams and Sian Katsineris led a comprehensive professional development session centred on our Mathematics Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) goal: "If we build teacher curriculum knowledge and confidence in using data, then teachers will create differentiated learning experiences so that they teach to the point of need, increasing students' skills and engagement in Numeracy."
The day began with teachers engaging in a collaborative reading and discussion of an article on the key elements of student-centred learning in Mathematics. This set the stage for a deep dive into the principles that underpin effective, personalised mathematics instruction. In teams, teachers then viewed a recorded webinar focusing on a ‘Big Idea’ in Mathematics that would feature in one of their upcoming units. These webinars were rich in detail, covering curriculum content, learning progressions, essential concepts, potential student challenges, and classroom activities designed to address each Big Idea.
Following the webinars, teachers reflected on the insights gained and identified specific strategies to integrate into their planning and teaching. This reflection was crucial, as it allowed teachers to critically assess their current practices and consider how they could be enhanced to better meet the diverse needs of their students. With these insights in mind, teachers then worked on mapping out the learning progression for their upcoming Mathematics units. This involved creating detailed spreadsheets to record students’ prior knowledge and track their progress throughout the unit, enabling data-driven instruction that targets individual learning needs.
The work initiated on Curriculum Day is not a one-off but part of a sustained effort to refine teaching practices. Ongoing Staff Meetings will provide a forum for continued reflection and sharing of best practices in lesson planning and classroom teaching. Additionally, Learning Leader Meetings will focus on developing the capacity of middle leaders to support their teams in this work, ensuring that the strategies and insights gained are effectively implemented across the school. This ongoing professional development is vital in building a collaborative, data-informed teaching culture that will ultimately lead to improved student outcomes in Numeracy.
Language Arts
The recent mandate for systematic, synthetic, and explicit phonics instruction in Victorian primary schools marks a significant shift in literacy education. Schools must now implement evidence-based phonics instruction for a minimum of twenty-five minutes daily from Foundation to Year 2, ensuring consistency and rigour in teaching early reading skills. Fortunately, Milgate Primary School is already aligned with this mandate, reflecting our commitment to effective literacy instruction.
Our established Phonology, Orthography, Morphology, and Semantics (PhOrMeS) program in Foundation has shown impressive early literacy results. Word reading, or decoding, is taught sequentially, progressing from simple, phonetically regular words to more complex ones. Spelling is integrated with decoding, where students learn to spell words using the same graphemes, spelling rules, and morphological concepts they encounter in reading. Phonemic awareness is embedded in daily activities, and reading fluency is practised with decodable and authentic texts. This comprehensive approach aligns with the Primary Years Programme (PYP), fostering inquiry-based learning and conceptual understanding.
Building on this success, Years 1, 2, and 4 have integrated The Grammar Project into their Language Arts lessons, focusing on syntax and morphology. Year 2 is also enhancing its curriculum by incorporating PhOrMeS. These efforts strengthen our students' language skills, laying a solid foundation for future learning.
Looking ahead, we are excited to develop new Reading units and implement the English Victorian Curriculum 2.0 by the end of 2024. These initiatives, coupled with our ongoing literacy successes, will enhance student learning outcomes. Our goal is to create units that build literacy skills while promoting inquiry, critical thinking, and connections across subjects, ensuring our students become knowledgeable inquirers who can apply their literacy skills in diverse and meaningful contexts.
Wellbeing
This term, the wellbeing focus for Specialist classes has been centred on fostering an inclusive environment that fully supports neurodiverse students, particularly those with Autism, ADHD, anxiety, and trauma. Each Specialist teacher has set specific goals aimed at implementing tailored adjustments within their classrooms to ensure that all students feel safe, valued, and supported. These efforts align with our Annual Implementation Plan (AIP), which emphasises the importance of creating a positive, inclusive school culture where every student has the opportunity to thrive. By prioritising these adjustments, we are not only addressing the immediate needs of our neurodiverse students but also embedding practices that contribute to a more equitable and supportive learning environment across the entire school community.