Principal's Message

Anthony Jackson (Principal)

Jackson School is a collaborative learning community for all. We aim to develop independence through safety, respect and responsibility. We aspire to offer authentic, quality educational experiences that develop futures, create opportunities and inspire student potential; enabling our students to be valued and contributing members of the wider community. We share and celebrate our successes and achievements.

The Issue Highlights

95% of our students achieved good, very good or excellent progress in their ILP Goals across all learning areas - Great Job!
End of Term Achievement Assembly
Phonics at Jackson School
Jackson / Keilor Downs College (KDC) Farm Project
School Review in Term 3
End-of-Semester Reports & SSG Meeting Changes
School Holiday Activities
Students of the Week from our PBIS rewards system.
Showcase of students' learning from across the school in Primary and Secondary
Health and Wellbeing information to support you and your child.
Community news including from Jackson OSHC provider TheirCare.
School Dates -For the most up-to-date calendar dates, always refer to the Xuno Calendar in your Parent Portal.

Dear Families,

It has been a busy term for all as we completed many tasks in readiness for our Term 3 School Review. Despite the ongoing staffing challenges, our end of semester assessments indicate that 95% of our students achieved good, very good or excellent progress in their ILP Goals across all learning areas. This wouldn't be possible without the effort and attitude of our students, the commitment and resilience from our staff and the support and partnership with our families and wider community. Thank you! Today we celebrated our termly Achievement Assembly. There are almost too many members of community for us all to fit in the hall now. Congratulations to all of our award winners!

Phonics at Jackson School

As you may have seen in the media recently, the Minister of Education announced on the 13th of June for all schools to implement the explicit teaching of phonics in the early years. This is responding to the latest evidence on the importance of systemantic synthetic phonics and phonemaic awareness as part of the reading process (including oral language, vocabulary, reading fluency and comprehension). Systematic synthetic phonics is a structured approach that explicitly teaches the relationship between sounds and letters to read words. In addition to this structured approach to literacy, students will continue to receive exposure to rich texts and authentic literacy experiences.

At Jackson we started a phonics pilot in 2023 and have been rolling out the Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL) program in 2024 in Years 3-6. Our Prep-2 students will be included in the roll out from Term 3. Should you wish to learn more about the Little Learners Love Literacy program or further support your child at home, please visit:

The LLLL Parents and Carers page provides free resources, videos and articles. Here is an activity pack which your child could also complete at home over the holidays:

LLLL Milo's Friends.pdf

LLLL Handwriting.pdf

Jackson / Keilor Downs College Farm Project

This week Ben Carroll MP, Deputy Premier and Minister of Education, visited Keilor Downs College (KDC) for Linda Maxwell's (Principal) retirement. This year myself and Linda have invested in a Jackson / KDC partnership to develop a Farm Project at the back of Keilor Downs College. The Farm Project led by Helena McAloon, Cam Edgar and our Hands of Learning (HOL) students have achieved so much in only 6 months. Linda regularly tells me how much she admires the work ethic and capability of our amazing Jackson students. They are transforming an unused piece of the college into a learning space that both of our communities can enjoy for years to come. This includes veggie patches and an aviary. Thank you Linda for your support and leadership in establishing this project between our schools. You have been an inspirational leader for KDC over the last 9 years and we wish you all the very best for your future.

School Review in Term 3

In Term 3 we have our School Review. All schools must participate in a school review every 4 years. The school review informs the development of the school’s 4-year School Strategic Plan. The review panel will be conducted by a lead school reviewer from Monash University, our school Senior Education Improvement Leader (SEIL), School Council President and three Challenge Partners from the Department of Education or other Special Schools. The review process will analyse our school performance over the last four years and include classroom observations and focus groups (staff, students, parent/carers and other community stakeholders). Should you wish to be involved in a parent/carer focus group, please contact Bern (Assistant Principal) through the school office).

The review dates are:

Day 1 - Monday 22nd July
Day 2 - Thursday 25th July
Day 3 - Friday 2nd August
Day 4 - Wednesday 7th August

End of Semester 1 Reports & SSGs Changes

You should have received your child's end of semester report by email today which outlines your child's achievement and progress against their learning goals based upon the Victorian Curriculum (P-10) or VPC/ASDAN in Years 11 & 12. These are based upon robust end of term assessments and teacher's professional judgement. Parents/carers can also access them online via Xuno Parent Portal. Parents and carers are able to request a hard copy of their child’s report if they would like one through their current class teacher. There is a section for you to provide any comments or feedback to the classroom teacher on your child's report should you wish.

Parents and carers will have an opportunity to discuss your child's progress from Semester 1 and their proposed learning goals for Semester 2 2024 at your upcoming Student Support Group (SSG) parent-teacher meeting in Term 3. In consultation with School Council, our Staff Consultative Committee and feedback collected from our families, we are changing the way we deliver SSGs to increase the meeting times to 30 minutes. This will support with our evidence collection for the new Disability Inclusion process and time-in-lieu requirements of staff. SSG meetings will now be offered over three evenings after school (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) in Week 3 of a term from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. These will be offered in-person, virtually or over the phone to suit family's circumstances. Further information about this will be sent home early in Term 3 and how to book your SSG time through the Xuno Portal.

School Holidays Activities

Today is the last day of Term 3. Here are some activity suggestions for the school holidays:

A reminder that students return to school on Monday 15th July. School buses will run as normal. There is NOT a Pupil Free Day to start the term.

I hope you have a lovely holiday break as a family. Keep warm and dry!

Anthony