PRINCIPAL UPDATE 

We hope you all enjoyed a fabulous winter break. We are very much looking forward to the term ahead.

Last week under extremely tough conditions Landon and Angus (Gr 5) competed in the State Cross Country, we are very excited to congratulate them on their amazing efforts. Landon came in 28th and Angus 48th in the under age 11 students in the state of Victoria.  This is such an unbelievable effort, and we are very proud of these students.

Languages survey

Can I start by saying thank you to the overwhelming number of parents that completed the languages survey sent last term.  Your feedback is valued, and to answer a couple of the questions posed by parents I have outlined some points below.

Many families had the great suggestion for ‘Passport around the World’, involving learning about a different country each week/ fortnight etc. We would love to engage students in this concept, but, unfortunately this is not compliant with the Department policy around LOTE (Language Other Than English) curriculum. 

We acknowledge that AUSLAN can support all students in their development of language awareness and fine motor skills, supporting students with additional needs and creating a more inclusive and connected society.  We acknowledge how much the students who have engaged in the lunchtime club with AUSLAN this year are enjoying it. Also, we’ve loved hearing that students along with their parents have been engaging in conversations with local members of our deaf community.

Introducing local indigenous languages can definitely be a way to build a deeper understanding of indigenous culture to students from an early age.  A challenge with this is that even within Wadarwurrung Country, there is multiple different languages.  We currently include cultural perspectives within mentor texts in Literacy, songs within Performing Arts, Visual Art investigations, Humanities inquiry units and within our school environment. These all aim to strengthen our connection to country and explore indigenous perspectives to improve our cultural understanding. This learning will continue and strengthen going forward.

We have looked into the reason behind why Chilwell has taught Italian for so long, and other than feeder schools, we are under the belief it was the qualification of the staff members previously employed.

Secondary Schools teach a multitude of languages these days, there would be no specific one that would align across.

In regard to percentage, it was clear that AUSLAN and French were the two most popular choices with 24% and 21% respectively.

Thanks again to those contributing, we will keep you updated as to our next steps moving forward.

Semester 1 reports

Can we ask parents to spend 2 minutes completing a survey pertaining to the reports last semester.  As it was a new format, we are keen to obtain some feedback in regard to this and support semester 2 reporting cycle.

https://forms.gle/7GjpxfiSdSEct3U57

Have a great week. 

Kind regards,

Meg