Principal Team Updates

NAPLAN

Despite the technical issues experienced yesterday, NAPLAN testing went smoothly this morning and we are very proud of all the year 3 and 5 students for giving it their best effort. 

Year 5 Reading will run at 9:00am tomorrow morning (Friday March 13), with the Language Conventions and Numeracy tests next week as planned. 

Year 3

Monday 16 March - Conventions of Language (9am)

Tuesday 17 March - Mathematics (9am)

Year 5

Monday 16 March - Conventions of Language (9am)

Wednesday 18 March - Mathematics (9am)

Teachers are Learners Too

Last Friday, while students enjoyed an extra long weekend, our teachers, leaders and education support staff became the learners. All staff participated in a wonderful professional learning session on ‘Responsive Teaching’ with Bron-Ryrie Jones. We learnt about a range of teaching techniques that support explicit instruction and enhance active participation and engagement of all learners in the classroom. 

Bron’s work is based on the latest research in education and cognitive science and it was great to practice, refine and build on the responsive teaching techniques our teachers are already using in classrooms. 

Senior Gala Days

Thanks to our PE team Jarrod Butcher and Laura Yorke for organising two highly successful Gala Days for our year 5 and 6 students. It was wonderful to see our students demonstrating great sportsmanship and respect while competing with students from various schools in the area. We look forward to hearing reports from the Sports Captains at assembly this Friday. 

Harmony Day - Celebration Assembly this Friday

Next week, 16th - 22nd March is Harmony Week.  A time set aside in our calendar to celebrate that Australia is one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world. It is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all, regardless of cultural or linguistic background.

As next week the Year 6 students and staff will be on camp, so we will be celebrating 'Harmony Day' this Friday 13th March with a dress up day and whole school assembly. Harmony Week classroom activities will be infused throughout next week.

This Friday, in the spirit of Harmony Day, students are invited to wear:

• Traditional cultural dress
• Orange (the official Harmony Day colour)
• Country of origin colours - these need to relate to national/country flag colours
• School uniform if choosing not to dress up

Please note, singlets or tops related to sporting teams (even if they include country of origin colours) are not appropriate to wear on Harmony Day. For example, a Maroondah Magic basketball top, despite being green and gold, is not deemed appropriate. Football jerseys also fall into this category.

We look forward to celebrating our cultural diversity at our whole-school assembly this Friday. See you at 2.40pm in the stadium. 

If you would like to acknowledge Harmony Day at home too, there are some wonderful picture books that celebrate cultural diversity and promote inclusivity and understanding. Here are just three of my top picks: 

Bree Jennings - Assistant Pricipal