From Principal Steve - Staffing Update

We’re excited to announce the appointment of Riley Hall as our new Assistant Principal and Deb Barden as the Leading Teacher for Student Wellbeing & Inclusion. Please join me in congratulating them and offering your full support as they transition into these roles.

Congratulations also to Tatjana Linklater who has been appointed to the Teaching and Learning Specialist position starting in 2025. Tatjana brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, strong leadership, energy, and good humour to this incredibly important leadership position. I know you will welcome Tatjana and support her as she makes this transition in 2025.

I would also like to acknowledge Heather Jenkins who has been appointed to a regional role in the Department of Education working as a member of the Intensive Schools Support Initiative to enhance school leadership, learning and student wellbeing. Heather has worked at Brighton Primary School for more than 12 years as a classroom teacher, a Teaching & Learning Specialist and more recently, as our Student Wellbeing Coordinator. Heather has made an outstanding contribution to our school, and we wish her well with her new leadership role.

Congratulations also to Sarah Ashburn who has been our Acting Assistant Principal for several months. Sarah has been appointed to an ongoing position as an Education Improvement Leader for diverse learners (EIL DL) with the Southeast Victoria Region. We also wish Sarah well with this new role.

Momentum Schools Project

Recently, we learned that Brighton Primary School has been invited to be a host school for the Momentum Schools Project. This project is a longitudinal intervention study aiming to attract two key groups of Victorian primary and secondary schools:

1. Visiting schools whose staff are contemplating a transition to a school-wide instructional model that is underpinned by science of learning principles 
2. Host schools which are high-performing schools that have established and embedded a school-wide instructional model that is underpinned by science of learning principles

 Under the project, 3-5 staff in a Visiting school will undertake 6 hours of online professional learning, delivered by the research team, before visiting a Host School. The 3-5 staff from the Visiting school will then attend a Host school to observe practice. Host schools will receive the 3-5 staff, from several Visiting schools to observe practice. Host schools will be briefed before the visit and receive CRT funding to support this endeavour.

The study will collect pre-visit and post-visit data from participating Visiting and Host schools over a three-year period. The research is being carried out by the following researchers from La Trobe University including Associate Professor Melissa Barnes and Co-Investigators, Tanya Serry and Dr Nathaniel Swain. This research has received funding from the Bertalli Family Foundation.

This is a very exciting opportunity for our school to share our learning journey while also learning from other schools as well as the educators at La Trobe University. I will share more information about the project when I receive it.

With best wishes,

Steve