Assistant Principal Update

Welcome to week 8. There are just over three weeks to go in term 2 and with the King’s Birthday long weekend, hopefully families and students got a mini break and are rested for the final part of our longer second term.

Report Cards

Semester One Reports will be published via Compass on Friday 27 June. An electronic copy of your child’s report will be available for you to view online 3and download as required from Compass. If you wish to receive a hard copy of the report, please contact your child’s class teacher. The reporting on students’ achievements for the semester is an important part of the assessment process and each child’s individual journey. We recommend families sharing the report with their child, celebrating their achievements, and positively discussing the next learning steps.  If you have any questions regarding your child’s report, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

How we report against the Victorian Curriculum

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 comprises a sequentially-developed continuum of learning. This continuum of learning is expressed through a coherent set of achievement standards, with comprehensive and clear content descriptions that enable teachers to plan, monitor, assess and report on the learning achievement of every student.

Achievement standards and content descriptors are key components of the curriculum that work together to define learning expectations and guide teaching. Content descriptors guide teachers on what to teach, while achievement standards guide teachers on how to assess and evaluate student learning. In essence, content descriptors define the "what," while achievement standards define the "how well" or "quality" of learning.

What is the achievement standard?

Students are assessed against the achievement standard for each subject. Achievement standards are more general, describing the quality of learning at a broader level. They focus on what students should be able to do and understand at the end of a specific year or band of years. 

What are content descriptions? 

Content descriptors focus on what students should know and learn. Content descriptors provide the foundation for achievement standards by specifying the knowledge, understanding, and skills that students are expected to develop. They are more detailed, providing specific content points that guide teaching and learning.

STEAM Club – Print-A-Car Challenge

Students in STEAM Club are currently working extremely hard with Brody each week on their entries for the Quantum Victoria Print-A-Car Challenge. The project offers a comprehensive and engaging STEAM experience for students. It combines design thinking, teamwork, 3D printing technologies, and friendly competition to foster creativity, critical thinking, and a passion for STEAM education.

Students have a chance to test their creations against those of other teams. This aspect encourages students to refine their designs, optimize performance, and apply principles of physics and engineering to achieve the best results.

By participating in this challenge, students develop valuable skills that are essential for their future careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

With the various dates along the competition timeline fast approaching, next Monday 16 June, STEAM Club students will have a half day working with their teams and Brody to work on their car development and portfolios. 

Class Splits

In previous newsletters we have discussed our process for splitting classes when we are unable to secure a Casual Relief Teacher (CRT) due to staff absence. Recently there have been occasions when we were unable to get a CRT. This meant we did a class split.  I would like to acknowledge teachers who are flexible and adaptable to ensure that for those classes who were split, we were able to do it across their year level and all students continued their curriculum program as planned.

Term 2 and 3 are traditionally terms when we see an increase in staff absence due to the cooler months. Coupled with staff leave entitlements and the ongoing staffing challenges in education we envisage that we will need to split classes at times as we head towards the end of term. 

We endeavour not to split year levels where there are only two classes. Fortunately, we have a few year levels with small class sizes which can be effectively merged and continue with their curriculum programs.

Off-site Evacuation Drill 

Our planned off-site evacuation drill for last week was postponed. We will now do it on Thursday 26 June prior to recess (weather depending). We will evacuate the site and meet at the offsite emergency evacuation point at Alphington Park. Students in the younger years will be notified of the evacuation drill prior as it is the first one for 2025.

Term 3 Planning

Our staff meetings and team planning time for week 10 is dedicated to the planning and preparation of Term 3. During this time teams are meeting to develop their term unit planners for English, Mathematics, Integrated Inquiry and Wellbeing. Today teams will meet to plan their Inquiry Units. In Term 3 our school wide focus is ‘Historical Inquiry’. Students will learn about a period from our past and investigate the impacts events from these times had upon the people, culture and wider society. From this, students will develop a range of skills to compare, contrast, evaluate, and analyse how learning about history can be applied to our lives today.

Have a great week!!

Shane Wilkie

Assistant Principal