Year 3 - Year 5

Assistant Principal's Report

The End of First Term 2020!

I'm going to begin by saying that I want this edition of the school newsletter to remain focused on the learning and celebrations of our marvellous and talent students, our parent community and our staff.

At the same time, I find it difficult to begin without first acknowledging this crazy time in our lives with the COVID19 pandemic being present in all we do, see and hear.  It is something the majority of us never thought we would experience.  I think of my own children being exposed to the non-stop information of these recent world events and of the balance between providing factual information and general discussion.

At PSPS, we are following all DET and health guidelines, in fact, we have even gone above and beyond in sanitisation and cleaning in each classroom each night.  Our supplies of the essentials (toilet paper, soap and hand towels) are stocked!  Breakfast club and fresh fruit are also continuing. This is supporting normality, health and consistency for students, parents and carers.  All students in Years 3-5 now have all of their online learning logins and passwords, these were sent home earlier this week.  These learning platforms are the same subscriptions we already use here at Pakenham Springs.

Whilst the world events are apart of our every day, learning remains on track.  This term we are celebrating the amazing writing across two text types, Personal Writing and Persuasive. Our dedicated teaching teams have taken the time to present students work on the display boards around the school.  Please come and see for yourself just how much work, thought and care our students have applied to their writing.

Students are loving the feedback in maths.  Using Essential Assessment, teachers can share students strengths and stretches with them, set goals and celebrate growth.  Working with Mr. McKinnon (Year 4 classroom teacher and Learning Specialist) all teachers are exploring links to 'real life' maths learning and rich learning tasks to engage all learners. 

Please remind your children that next week is PLANNING WEEK.   This is an important week for our teachers to review and monitor student learning goals.  Teacher teams have been allocated one full day to plan Term 2 learning and ensure all students are making growth in their learning. Ensuring consistency and maintaining high expectations of both themselves and students, supports strong and effective teaching and learning.  To allow for planning day, students will enjoy a day of specialist subjects (STEM, H/PE, MA and VA).   Please see the information below for your child's year level planning day:

YEAR 3 TEACHER TEAM     Monday 23rd March  

YEAR 4   TEACHER TEAM   Tuesday 24th March

YEAR 5   TEACHER TEAM   Wednesday 25th March

SPECIALIST TEAM                   Thursday 26th March

Finally, thank you for reading the newsletter, if you have any suggestions for news items you would like included, please contact me via COMPASS - I'd love to hear from you.

I wish all of our Pakenham Springs families a very safe holiday break.

Jane King 

Assistant Principal (Year 3-5)