From the Principal Team

Natalie Shanahan, Sam Fleming, Claire Johnston

Welcome to this edition of the newsletter. We hope you read it refreshed from the long weekend.

As always, it's all been happening around here! Professional Learning has been the 'thing' keeping us busy, with the Statewide Government Schools Principals Conference, Tuesday's Curriculum Day and the Banyule Nillumbik Schools Network Principals Meeting.

We are always looking to build our skills so that we can support our students as best we can as a school. As we continue to reflect on our recent School Review and create our new strategic plan, building a strong sense of collective efficacy amongst staff and willingness to 'go the extra mile' for our students was something our school reviewer shared as strengths for BPS.

While a large focus for staff professional learning is heavily dictated by the Department of Education priorities, our priorities at Banyule Primary School align with what's deemed important and often ahead of these mandated initiatives.

Two of the main system-wide initiatives currently include the implementation of the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 and the implementation of Systematic Synthetic Phonics in all P-2 classroom.

Other topics of professional learning we have participated in over the past two weeks include;

-Leading for impact when change is never straight forward

-Responsive implementation of the VTLM 2.0

-Managing unacceptable parent/carer behaviour

-Empowering anxious students for classroom excellence

-Creating a Culture of Child Safety

Whilst we have spent a significant chunk of time out of the school over the past two weeks we are buoyed by how well our school is achieving both as a whole and within the broader system.

On the curriculum day we focused on implementation of the new VTLM with our staff. We employed consultant Dr. Ryan Dunn from Melbourne University to focus on the elements of 'Explicit Teaching' and 'Retention and Recall'. It is again very reassuring to know that our practices align very well to this new directive so the day was spent making connections to the work we are already doing and teasing out small elements to build on our responsive teaching techniques.

Some key celebrations we shared with our staff include;

-How well positioned we are with the sound evidence-based teaching practices that align with the Department' s Teaching and Learning Model. Including our systematic synthetic phonics program. We are now in our 10th year of implementation and can see the positive impact on student learning from our data.

-Our provision of the Peaceful Kids program in all classrooms. It is so important for us to help children understand, recognise and normalise everyday worries. To teach them the language they need to explain how they are feeling and the capacity to understand what happens in their brain and physical responses to stress. The Peaceful Kids program does all of this and equips our children with knowledge and a toolkit of strategies they can learn, and use, to regulate when needed.

Natalie, Sam and Claire

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