A message from the Principal

I want to welcome all of our students and families back to school after the recent term break and I hope that everyone managed to use the opportunity to recharge batteries and get ready for a big final term of 2024.

There is plenty that we will be fitting into the next 11 weeks and the first big event is Celebration of the Arts taking place in two weeks time. Further information is included later in the newsletter and we hope that all of our community can make it on the evening of the 24th October for what is always a wonderful celebration of everything great about SKiPPS.

Despite so much happening, we are already well into the process of planning for 2025 and I am keen to keep you updated on some planned changes at the school.

You may have picked up that there are some significant changes taking place in Government education in Victoria. 

Starting from next year, all government schools will follow the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0. This places explicit instruction as the centre of teaching and mandates that all students in Foundation to Year 2 will receive a minimum of 25 minutes of systematic and synthetic phonics instruction each day. 

This will be a core component of a comprehensive reading program that also includes explicit teaching of oral language, vocabulary, reading fluency and comprehension.

The evidence is clear from Victorian schools and reviews conducted by research organisations like the Australian Education Research Organisation and the Grattan Institute – showing explicit teaching works best for the largest number of students, particularly capturing those who may be struggling.

In addition, the weight of evidence at home and abroad has become clear and compelling – with studies from the United States, United Kingdom and across Australia now recommending systematic synthetic phonics as the most effective method to teach children to read.

At St Kilda Park we are lucky that these approaches are not brand new and we already employ explicit instruction and evidence-based literacy approaches to an extent.

This state-wide shift does however represent a chance for us to review what we do, engage with the emerging evidence and literature that informs the new Victorian Teaching and Learning model and, as always, seek to improve what we do.

Staff have already begun this work and are energised and enthusiastic about the professional learning, dialogue and changes that they are already starting to engage with and put into place in their classrooms.

Alongside these changes to the way that we more explicitly teach ideas and knowledge to students, we have also made the decision that, in 2025, we will move from our current composite, multi-age year level structure to individual year level classes. This means that instead of students being in Year 1/2, Year 3/4 or Year 5/6 classes, next year we will run 'straight' year level classes (Year 1, Year 2, etc). 

Whilst we have successfully run with composite classes across the school for around 15 years, we believe that students being organised into individual year levels may support the shift to a more explicit approach to teaching and, ultimately, better learning outcomes. 

Research shows that structuring instruction around specific grade-level outcomes (such as those detailed in the new Victorian Curriculum) can allow for a more focused, granular exploration of the key knowledge and concepts, making it easier for students to grasp and retain information. When curriculum outcomes are clearly defined for individual year levels, educators can chunk instruction into manageable segments, facilitating deeper understanding and mastery. 

Next year will allow us to trial this new class structure and see whether it is a good match, both for our school and the new Teaching and Learning model. All being well, it is something we would look to continue with however, we understand there may be a number of reasons why a return to composite classes may be necessary in the future. 

This means that, in 2025, our school will have;

• Three Foundation classes
• Two Year 1 classes
• Two Year 2 classes
• Two Year 3 classes
• Two Year 4 classes
• Two Year 5 classes
• Two Year 6 classes

As we start to plan for next year, we will soon be creating these 2025 class groups and will run a number of transition sessions later in the term to see them in action and to ensure we get the balance and dynamics right for each group.

We understand that parents and carers often seek to share their views about their child's class for next year - flagging particular dynamics or combinations that are positive or negative. We welcome this input and ask that you share any thoughts or requests with me via email at neil.scott@education.vic.gov.au . Please note that we are unable to guarantee that we can meet these requests but we will always take them into account and do our best. We cannot accept any requests for particular teachers.

As a school we are excited about the upcoming changes and look forward to keeping you updated on them as we move into 2025.

Neil Scott

Principal