Ryan’s Rambling 

Dear Families, 

A positive week here at Dana Street, with our students locking into their learning well. 

Our staff have been burning the midnight oil writing, checking and preparing semester reports for our students. One key part of the discussions this week is the pleasing amount of learning and wellbeing growth that we are seeing across the board. We are proud to see this growth and look forward to discussing it with you at the upcoming 3 Way Conferences in a couple of weeks. 

On Wednesday of this week, our school conducted a ‘lockdown drill’ as part of our Emergency Management processes. Lockdowns would occur if we ever needed to ensure that no authorised person could gain access to our classrooms or buildings. Lockdown also requires the students and staff to be out of plain sight. A very important drill for the students to practice; one that hope we will never need to enact! The students did a fantastic job and the drill inspection passed with flying colours. We even had a student representative help us on the inspection. 

This week, our staff participated a fantastic professional development afternoon, where we focussed on two key items. The first of these was all about student regulation and being ‘ready to learn.’ Almost all students love recess and lunchtime; however, when returning from an exciting game of ‘Twenty One’ (that’s tiggy when I was younger), the excitement and exhilaration felt during lunchtime play can sometimes hinder our students’ capacity to concentrate in class. We explored this and a number of ‘soft start’ or regulation type activities that are designed to support all students to be ready to learn. 

The other main focus was on conceptual understanding in Mathematics. Essentially, there is understanding a process or skill and the understanding of a concept when considering Mathematics. It is important that our students can do both and we design our learning around this. A simple illustration of the difference between the two is the concept of Area. If I ask a student the question: ‘What is area?’, I am usually presented with two types of answers. One is ‘length multiplied by width’, the other, is ‘the total amount of space inside a 2 dimensional shape’. The first answer shows the student understands the process, or skill to calculate area. The second answer, gives a conceptual definition and shows understanding.  Ideally, our students will develop an understanding of both, as they are both incredibly important. 

As I look to the long weekend I hope that you are all able to timetable some time refilling your cups. 

Have a great weekend. 

Ryan