Primary Bulletin

As Semester one draws to a close, I’m sure that we will all be looking forward to a well-earned rest and cozy sleep-ins. As a teacher, I welcome the break in routines and the opportunity to indulge in some self-care and some long lazy lunches with friends and family. I hope you will take some time to enjoy some simple pleasures with your children and build some warm memories together. 

It has been a productive term in many ways for us all. We have now completed our School Review and set our new goals for the school to move forward. It was a process that gave us much to celebrate, in terms of where we have come over the past four years. Our results for students in Literacy and Maths have improved and we welcome the work that will happen to ensure this continues.   

We will conclude the Gymnastics program at the end of this term. The Prep-Year 3 students count this as their weekly highlight, so I am sure we will hear their groans when we finish our last session. The last session will happen on Wednesday 26th June due to our early finish on Friday 28th June. 

The Year 4/5/6 students will play their last games in Netball and Tee Ball this week against Rosanna Golf Links Primary School here at Macleod. They have represented our school so well this term and we are proud of their sportsmanship and team spirit. They have had more success this year and that has been a bonus for their efforts. Next term, the competition continues with the sports changing over to Soccer and Bat Tennis. We wish our teams all the best for their games to come. 

The Year 4/5/6 students were also fortunate to travel into the city to visit our State Parliament and the Immigration Museum on Friday 7th June. The students were able to go into the parliament chambers and take part in a role play session whereby they are given roles as the speaker, clerk, sergeant at arms and members for districts. They debated  a bill about banning sports betting advertising on television. The whole experience gave the students a real sense of what happens in our legislative system and the process of how our laws are made. Thank you to Cathy Liparota for organising this fabulous excursion for the children. It was a very successful day. 

The teachers are working hard to ensure that their students are completing end of term assessments, at the moment. They are very proud of the work the children have done this term and the conversations at our meetings are very positive in terms of what progress they are seeing in the students. This is particularly evident in literacy, with many reaching very pleasing results in their reading and writing tasks. Keep up the great work everyone! We encourage the children to continue to read even for a short period each day over the break, which will ensure those good habits continue and their progress is ensured into next semester. 

The two curriculum days last week were very valuable for staff. Tuesday had the Primary team and Maths teachers working with Michael Minas learning about the importance of rich maths and problem-solving tasks. Michael is a wealth of knowledge and is an expert at being able to engage even reluctant students in Maths tasks and build on their skills and strategies. We will have another opportunity to work with him for another day in July, to enable us to plan a more cohesive curriculum sequence, which will encompass the new version of the Victorian Maths Curriculum from next year and beyond. 

Friday’s curriculum day was the third in our Berry Street Education Model Series and centred around Stamina and Engagement. This model encompasses a whole raft of evidence based and trauma informed strategies that teachers and indeed anyone who works with children, can implement to support the well being and engagement of students in our schools. The staff have come away from each of these days with many nuggets to use in their work to improve our relationships and management of our amazing kids. 

Please make the most of your time over the holidays with the children and treasure the micro-moments as you go along. Believe me, they grow up before you realise and move out into the world to forge their own paths.