Principal News

On Friday 16 February, we had a student free day and all staff participated in Day 1 of Berry Street Education Model training. The day was full of information and practical strategies that staff can use to create welcoming and safe environments for all students including those who may have experienced trauma. The focus for day 1 is on the body incorporating information around the body's response to trauma and ways that we can regulate the body to be ready to learn. We hosted the staff from Skye Primary School who also undertook the training.  From this training, some practices that you might see in our classrooms include a welcome circle every morning where all students are greeted, agreed values and expectations are set, special announcements are shared, and a positive primer activity occurs. The positive primer is a fun game or activity promoting a brief emotional uplift to increase feelings of positivity, connectedness, and fun. We are also introducing the use of Ready to Learn Scales and Ready to Learn Plans in our classrooms to support students in identifying their readiness to learn and to be able to independently or with support apply strategies that will bring them closer to being ready to learn when needed. This will be valuable work for our school, and I encourage families to ask children about how morning circles are going or how they are going with their ready to learn plans. I have included some photos from our staff training day below.

I recently spent some time in 2M where the students were working on crating their ready to learn plans. I had some great discussion with students about the type of strategies that they would include on their individual plans and why.