Italian Day: Benvenuti nell'Antica Roma!

Mamma mia, what a day! Despite the rain, our school was transformed into the Ancient Rome of the inner north as students, parents, carers and staff came together to celebrate all things Italiano at our annual Italian Day!

From the moment students arrived, there was a buzz of excitement in the air. The school was alive with colour, creativity and laughter as everyone immersed themselves in our Ancient Rome theme.

Students got crafty, each making their own pop-up Colosseo. They got their gladiator groove on, enjoying a gladiator dance battle and singalong, and tried their hand at some ancient Roman bridge engineering.

Naturalmente, no Italian celebration would be complete without delicious food! The pizza truck was a crowd favourite, while yummy gelato provided the perfect sweet treat.

Students enjoyed sharing the day with their Amici Insieme groups, strengthening friendships across year levels and embracing the spirit of community that sits at the heart of our school. With laughter, conversation and plenty of buon appetito! moments, it was a wonderful way to celebrate together.

A huge grazie goes to our wonderful volunteers. Your generosity and support helped make the day such a success, despite the wet weather. We simply couldn't have done it without you.

A very special thank you also to our own Nancy, Bilingual Engagement Leader, whose boundless energy, enthusiasm and commitment brought the day to life. Her passion for language, culture and community was evident in every detail and helped create a truly memorable experience for our students.

There was so much joy, energy and excitement throughout the day as we celebrated the richness of Italian language and culture together. Rain may have fallen outside, but it certainly didn't dampen spirits. Che giornata fantastica!

Supporting students through explicit, responsive teaching

Our current professional learning focus is Responsive Teaching, an evidence-informed approach that helps teachers identify what students know, what they are ready to learn next, and how best to support their progress.

Recently, our Learning Specialists, Cate and Sarah P, took part in a workshop with colleagues from across Hume-Merri-bek led by Bronwyn Ryrie Jones. Bron is a respected instructional coach and professional learning consultant whose work supports schools to strengthen explicit and responsive teaching practices. This week, our teaching staff participated in the second session of a learning series focused on strengthening responsive teaching practices in the classroom.

A key principle of this work is that students learning new concepts benefit from clear explanations, modelling and guided practice before teachers check for understanding and adapt their teaching. In our bilingual program, students are often learning new ideas while also developing their language skills, making this approach especially important.

By breaking learning into manageable steps and providing the right support at the right time, we can help every student build confidence, deepen understanding and thrive across both languages.

Responsive teaching is sometimes misunderstood as being solely about teacher-directed instruction. At BSPS, we see explicit instruction as one important part of a broader approach to teaching and learning.

As part of our instructional model, teachers provide clear, explicit instruction at the beginning of a learning sequence to ensure students have the knowledge, language and understanding needed to be successful. Students then move into rich, engaging learning experiences where they explore, apply, discuss, create and extend their learning in meaningful ways. In our bilingual setting, this balance is particularly important, as students are often learning new concepts and language simultaneously.

We know that students are most empowered to think deeply, collaborate, solve problems and take ownership of their learning when strong teaching, clear expectations and purposeful learning experiences work hand in hand.

Continuous reporting

As you know, last year we introduced continuous reporting of student progression points alongside our semester reports, and this year we are trialling the new Come Va? Snapshots. Providing families with timely, meaningful information about their child's learning and development is important to us, and we are continually refining our approach to ensure student progress is communicated clearly and effectively.

Based on feedback from families, we know there have been some misunderstandings about the meaning of achievement levels such as towards, at and above the standard. We are currently developing additional information and resources to support parents in interpreting this data with confidence. We look forward to sharing these with you soon.

Open for busy-ness!

Students are absolutely loving our new nature play area and junior courts. It is delightful to see the creative, imaginative play happening in the fairy garden and kids hopping along the stumps and logs. Basketball has been more popular than ever as our ballers have taken to the new court, and everyone is pumped for the upcoming staff v students netball game! There is still a small section awaiting mulch before the bollards are removed, and the sand will eventually be absorbed by the turf.

Work is currently underway on our new junior bike parking area behind the 3/4 portables, and this will be open for parking in the next couple of weeks. The area already looks so much fresher and tidier, and plans are afoot to convert the area along that fence into an outdoor classroom and plant propagation space. Stay tuned!

The damaged section of running track is being repaired this week (finally!), and the main building roof repairs are due to begin in a fortnight. We’ll continue to keep you posted as things progress.

Ciao for now!

Kristie

Marrung Squad