Assistant Principal's Report

A heartfelt thank you to the amazing parents who helped make Saturday night's disco such a fun and memorable experience for our students.

I'd also like to acknowledge the dedication of our staff, who have been working hard to complete reports and collaborate within teams and across the school to ensure consistency in teacher judgements.

Cyber Safety Project Incursion

A Cyber Safety Project incursion for our Years 3 to 6 students has been booked for the last week of term. Details about this incursion went out this week. Please see attached flyers for further information.

Teaching and Learning – Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal teaching is a powerful instructional method used to improve reading comprehension skills. It involves a group of students taking turns leading dialogues about the text they are reading, focusing on four key strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarising. 

Here's an overview of the different roles:

1. Predicting: Encourage students to make predictions about what they think will happen next in the text. This activates their prior knowledge and helps them engage more deeply with the material.
2. Questioning: Students ask questions about the text while they read. They are encouraged to ask both factual questions (who, what, where) and inferential questions (why, how). This helps them to think critically and actively about the content.
3. Clarifying: If a student comes across a word or concept they don't understand, we teach them to clarify it by looking for context clues or consulting a dictionary. 
4. Summarising: After reading a section of text, students are asked to summarise what they've read in their own words. This helps reinforce their understanding of the material and allows them to identify the main ideas and key details.

To implement reciprocal teaching at home:

• Choose a book or passage to read together.
• Model each of the four strategies as you read, thinking aloud to show your child how to use them effectively.
• Gradually release responsibility to your child, encouraging them to take the lead in leading the discussions.
• Provide feedback and support as needed, praising their efforts and offering guidance when they encounter difficulties.

Reciprocal teaching not only improves reading comprehension but also fosters critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills. By practicing these strategies regularly, you can help your child become a more confident and proficient reader. 

Below are some photos of our Year 5 students engaging in reciprocal teaching this week.

 Wellbeing at CSPS – Restorative Practice

Restorative practice is a whole school teaching and learning approach that encourages behaviour that is supportive and respectful and is a strategy that is used at our school. Restorative chats (a wellbeing strategy) are structured conversations aimed at fostering a supportive and empathetic environment for students. These chats involve a teacher, who guides discussions to address conflicts, emotional concerns, or behavioural issues among students. The goal is to encourage accountability, empathy, and understanding while promoting a sense of community and belonging within the school. Restorative chats often focus on repairing harm, building positive relationships, and developing social and emotional skills essential for student wellbeing. They can help students learn to communicate effectively, resolve conflicts peacefully, and support each other's mental and emotional health.

Please see below a list of some questions you can use to respond to challenging behaviour and to help those harmed by others.

Restorative questions to respond to challenging behaviour:

• What happened?
• What were you thinking at the time?
• What have you thought about since?
• Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?
• What do you think you need to do to make things right?
• If the same thing happens again, how could you behave differently?

Restorative questions to help those harmed by other’s actions:

• What did you think when you realised what had happened?
• What impact has this incident had on you and others?
• What has been the hardest thing for you?
• What do you think needs to happen to make things right?

Georgia Despotellis

Assistant Principal