Assistant Principal Report

Curriculum Day with Nathan Wallis

Last Tuesday the whole staff spent the day learning from Nathan Wallis who is an expert in the dissemination of neuroscientific research to professionals. He has been a lecturer at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand and featured on radio and television in New Zealand. We delved into the human brain development in the first 1000 days, gained an understanding of the four parts of the brain and explored the relationship between stress and learning. Nathan also offers resources online:

The First 1000 days – from conception to Age 3

Play Based Learning – from Age 3 to 7

The Teen Brain – adolescents 

eSafety for Parents

eSafety is Australia's independent regulator for online safety. They educate Australians about online safety and the following advice is taken from their webpage for parents.

Choose games and other apps carefully

Use eSafety’s App checklist for parents to think about the positives and negatives when your child asks to download a new game or other app. The checklist covers things like age ratings, managing privacy settings and reporting abuse in-app. You can also use The eSafety guide to check and set up safety features with your child.

Systematic Synthetic phonics approach to teaching reading

The Minister for Education, Ben Carroll, last week announced that “All students from Prep to Grade 2 will be taught using a systematic synthetic phonics approach as part of their reading programs.” I am pleased to share with our community that Glen Waverley Primary School is already using this approach through the implementation of the evidenced- based InitiaLit program which is used in all Prep to Year 2 classrooms.