Assistant Principal's report

Market Day!

Recently, our Grade 5/6 celebrated the culmination of their finance and innovation unit with a very successful Market Day. Students worked in small groups to develop a product that they believed that the Kalinda community would find appealing and spent many weeks preparing their product proposal (and having it approved by the 'Shark Tank' panel of teachers!), budgeting out their process, designing the fine details of product and marketing, and of course creating and advertising their products. In the week leading up to the big day, a real buzz was created by 'radio ads' on the loudspeaker at recess and lunchtime, enticing young buyers to visit their stall. 

Stalls ranged from face painting and games of luck or skill, to carefully created crafts, fidgets and knick-knacks. Some brave (?) staff even volunteered to be the target in the very cold and wet Teacher Target! Students and staff from around the school were able to visit and spend their pre-purchased tokens, and there was a lot of excitement around the school as students compared and celebrated their purchases. 

Such a successful day does not eventuate without months of extremely hard work from our amazing teaching team, and the tireless support from families, many of whom spent many an evening supporting their child to make product after product (after product....). 

Congratulations to our 5/6 team, Market Day was a true example of real-life learning with a lot of passion, creativity and inspiration thrown in!

Understanding your child's progress with the Compass Continuum - reposted for your information

One of the valuable tools we use to communicate student progress is the Compass Continuum, which we use as a companion to the Semester Reports and should be read in conjunction with that report when published.  

The Compass Continuum provides a clear and detailed picture of how students are progressing in the key areas of English and Mathematics. The Continuum breaks learning down into specific skills and concepts as per the Victorian Curriculum. This allows both teachers and families to see exactly which skills and understandings in each area a student can demonstrate and which ones they are still working towards. 

The Compass Continuum empowers parents with:

• Clarity – You can see which specific skills and understandings your child is developing, and what the next steps in their learning will be.
• Consistency – Progress is tracked using a common framework across the school, making it easier to understand how your child is growing year by year.
• Targeted Support – By identifying areas of need, you can better support your child at home and celebrate the progress they’re making. The unchecked skills and understandings form the 'next steps' in your child's journey.

I have included an example below of a Foundation child's Mathematics Continuum (Algebra strand). You can see by the green ticks and green heading that this child can successfully demonstratall parts of the Foundation Algebra curriculum, and has started work on the Grade 1 Algebra continuum already. That green arrow on that second checklist item indicates that they are 'working towards' demonstrating the use of symbols and objects to create a repeating pattern. 

The grey crosses indicate the areas of the Algebra strand that this student has not demonstrated evidence of yet, or has not learnt about yet this year. These form this child's 'next steps' of learning in Algebra.

We believe that learning is a partnership between home and school. The Compass Continuum is just one of the ways we aim to strengthen that partnership, making learning visible and progress meaningful.

Instructions for accessing this report companion will be included with the end of Semester report. 

Lauren Hopkins

We are kind. We are resilient. We are respectful.