Principals' Page

Welcome to Term 2

We are looking forward to a full and productive term 2. Teachers are planning learning opportunities to engage, create curiousity and support the development of knowledge and skills. Our education minister The Hon. Ben Carroll has recorded a message for parents in the following link. Term 2 message from The Hon. Ben Carroll MP on Vimeo

It is important that students are in attendance each day (when they are well) to be able to learn academically and develop social skills that enable them to thrive both now and as adults. It is a requirement in Victoria that every child is to attend school each day and that parents notify school of any absence. Please do this using Compass and note that parent approved is not for a 'day off' for your child but if a genuine absence does not fit any other category.

We understand that family is important and holidays create both a sense of belonging and real life learning. We do ask that you plan for these during the term breaks, as absence from school learning can have a detrimental impact on your child's learning and on their development of social friendships.

Continued staff professional development

An important aspect of HEPS is the professional learning that is undertaken by our staff. This includes our teachers, education support staff and high-level professional learning of the principal class team. 

This term our teachers will be focussing on improving their knowledge and practice in the curriculum area of Speaking and Listening, and in improving the provision of opportunities for students to have genuine voice and agency in their own learning. Our staff will work to enhance our learning with educational consultant Ryan Gill on the 10th May on our curriculum day. 

The principal class team; Lou, Anita and Marcus, will travel to Harvard University in the last week of term to engage with and learn from researchers and educators from across the globe. 

The particular focus of the leadership team’s learning will be centred on leading our school as a culture of thinking. We expect to be challenged and supported in exploring and reflecting on our current practices at HEPS. Through learning together with global researchers and educators, we will be better equipped to lead and support teachers to grow and evolve their skills in planning learning opportunities to improve deep learning. We aim to cultivate a school culture that both values and provides opportunities for students to develop the dispositions and attributes that lead to successful and flourishing lifelong learners, willing and able to positively contribute to their communities. 

We look forward to bringing our learning back to HEPS staff to lead improvement in our school’s teaching and learning programs.

ANZAC DAY ASSEMBLY

We were very lucky to have David Kelly speak to our students at Monday’s assembly. David is the Senior Vice President of the Ringwood RSL Club. He spoke to our students about the importance of celebrating ANZAC Day and what  ANZAC Day means to him. We thank the school captains Maisie and Aritha for organising a wonderful and moving ANZAC Day assembly.

Dry Creek Bed After

We are incredibly pleased with how our new Dry Creek Bed has been built. Thank you to Landstruct Construction for building our new play space and to our Parent's Association for their fundraising efforts which have funded the Dry Creek Bed. The area remains closed for now to allow time for some of the grass to grow back and the new plants to grow. We hope to open this space sometime this Term.

BEFORE

AFTER

JSC

Thank you to our level 6 JSC representatives Isaac C, Jules W and Charli B for using your student voice and presenting at School Council.

How do we assess your child?

Our leadership team often analyses annual surveys, including the Parent Opinion Survey. One of the questions in which we received fewer positive responses was, ‘I understand how my child is assessed’.

It is not possible to explain everything in a short newsletter piece about the different assessments that teachers conduct.  However, it is important to note that analysing and evaluating a range of data is the critical first step for teachers when planning what the students need to be learning. All teachers at HEPS are highly trained professionals who use a variety of assessment methods to make teacher judgments. Teachers also spend considerable time discussing student data in their weekly team planning sessions. 

The school has a range of formal assessments for Reading (including Running Records, PAT Assessment & Essential Assessment), Writing (including regular moderation) and Numeracy (including various online assessment programs). This information provides the information that teachers need to ensure that students are completing ‘just right’ tasks in class – not too easy and not too difficult. It also assists in placing students at the level that you see on their semester reports.

Alongside the formal assessments described above, teachers are constantly assessing students informally. This is most common when they are working with small groups of similar ability students, explicitly teaching and supporting them, whilst also gaining a greater understanding of where their learning is at… and where to next.

Next time you walk in or past a classroom, you will most likely see the teacher working with individual or small groups of students – not only are they teaching the students, but they are also assessing what the students can say, write and do.

Mathematics Curriculum Version 2.0- Changes to reports

On the topic of assessment and reporting, late last year the new Maths 2.0 Victorian Curriculum was released and although we have until 2025 to implement this new content, we have opted to implement it this year.  On your child's previous report, the teacher reported against the three strands of the achievement standard for mathematics (Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability). Under Mathematics Curriculum 2.0, your child’s teacher will report against the achievement standard as a whole, providing a single, aggregated score. As the achievement standards reported on have changed, the first time you receive a report under the Mathematics 2.0 curriculum, it will only show achievement and not progress. For all reports after this, progress will be shown against the single achievement standard. The maths content has also shifted around particularly in the Year 3 – 6 areas. In some areas the shift has been quite significant, and students will not have scores that correspond to their previous reports. The Year 6 curriculum now features many areas of content that were previously covered in Year 7 and 8. These changes will help teachers plan their teaching and learning programs in mathematics, giving them more flexibility to support students to link ideas within mathematics and other curriculum areas.

HEPS Clubs

Lunchtime clubs will continue in Term 2. These clubs are open to all students across the school, however, there may be limited spots in some clubs due to limited resources or space. Classroom teachers will remind students when clubs will be running. We will support students to access these clubs and further develop their social skills and friendships through meaningful and practical experiences.

 Child Safety Standards

Like all schools in Australia, Heathmont East Primary adheres to the Child Safety Code of Conduct which is vital in keeping all our students safe.

Our Child Safety Code of Conduct sets out the expected behaviour of adults with children and young people in our school.

The Child Safety Code of Conduct can be found here.