Principal Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope this issue finds you all well and germ-free in your households. It is that time of year again when the bugs are out and about. We are seeing an increase in students and staff members being unwell. We continue to work hard to ensure quality replacement teachers are sourced, and grade splitting is kept to a minimum. When grades are split, it is usually because we do not have a replacement teacher, or we are prioritising covering an ongoing absence, rather than the first day of an absence. We also prioritise students having their specialist day uninterrupted, as those days only come around once per week. Please feel free to reach out to me if you would like to talk about absences.

If your child is unwell for any reason, we ask that you keep them at home until they feel better. Airborne illnesses, such as COVID, flu, or gastroenteritis, we ask that you wait 48 hours before your child returns to school. Please add a medical reason to Compass on the day they are absent, or call the office to share that your child is absent.

School-Wide Positive Behaviour

One of our school goals this year is to improve our school-wide processes related to student engagement and behaviour. Since the start of the year, staff have been learning about School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS).

School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support

(SWPBS) is an evidence-based framework for schools for preventing and responding to student behaviour. Instead of using many different behaviour management strategies, a consistent system of expectations for all students is implemented.  

SWPBS practices include teaching behavioural expectations and acknowledging students for following them. It involves the establishment of a continuum of behaviour support that considers all students and emphasises prevention, rather than just reacting to inappropriate behaviour.  

There are three tiers of SWPBS Interventions and Supports:  

Tier 1 – targets the whole school population to promote and enhance wellbeing by increasing prosocial behaviour, emotional wellbeing, skill development, and mental health.  

Tier 2 – targets 10-15% of students who require additional teaching and learning. Support is collaboratively developed and focused on increasing skill development and improving relationships, especially in the classroom.  

Tier 3 – targets 1-5% of students who are identified as having the highest need. Support is highly individualised, comprehensive, and developmentally appropriate.

It is important to note that students do not stay in these tiers. They are able to move fluidly depending on the challenges they are experiencing.

We are making great progress so far, and have been focussing our energy on the Tier 1 structures. We created a whole school matrix that covers all expected behaviours across a number of key settings. This will be ready to share at the start of term 3 with families. You will see it throughout the school.

Staff have been involved in regular professional learning in this space. We have an SWPBS team that has been meeting fortnightly. We have been working together across all staff to create alignment around our expectations.

We have started to work with students on how our school will provide acknowledgment and feedback for the  student behaviours we expect.

We have created lesson plans to support students in understanding what is expected when we talk about positive behaviour. These lessons will begin in term 3. They are short lessons where we show students what is expected, rather than assuming they will know.

The next stage will be sharing in more detail what this approach looks like with families. We would like our processes to be explicit enough that they support you at home with your children and their behaviours.

Tier 2

We have been missing wellbeing approaches that support our Tier 2 students since the start of the year. I am pleased to share that Sharon Hall has been appointed as a student counsellour and will begin working with us two days per week, and will begin meeting with students from the start of term 3. We will reach out to families over the next week who have been waiting for this news.

We are also exploring a low-cost psychologist attending at the school. I hope to share more on this over the coming weeks.

We invited Uniting to be based here at school every second Wednesday to support families who need a more holistic approach to supporting their children. There are already families experiencing huge success with this partnership. Please contact Sam - salem.younes@education.vic.gov.au if you would like more information on Uniting.

Grade 34 Camp

I have had the pleasure of attending camp today. The children are having a blast, although the mornings are a little chilly. Please enjoy a few images and videos taken this morning..

Thanks,

Craig