Teaching & Learning News

Berry St Education Model Professional Learning

Last Thursday 6th June, our staff participated in Day Two (of four) of our Berry Street Professional Learning Days. The focus of this day was building relationships across the whole school. These Professional Learning days are equipping us as a whole school to implement the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) here at Footscray West Primary School. The BSEM is based on classroom strategies informed by Berry Street's approaches to trauma-informed learning and the science of wellbeing. It has been designed by teachers and education leaders for use by all school staff. 

This is part of our whole school vision and approach to Student Wellbeing, moving forward. This education model will help us to help our students by:

• understanding the impacts of trauma on child development and the ability to learn
• creating a supportive and trauma-informed positive education classroom
• bolstering student-teacher relationships (a focus for Day Two) 
• instilling strengths-based practices across the school

Already this year you will have noticed many aspects of the Berry Street model being included in our whole school practice, such as brain breaks, Welcome Circles and Ready to Learn Scales / Plans. We will continue to embed these practices and use the strategies we have learned on our second day by developing and including positive relational classroom management strategies that promote on-task learning for our students. Please feel free to chat to any of us or in fact, your children, to follow the journey of the Berry Street model here at Footscray West in our classrooms and in our learning. A parent / carer information session will be offered in Semester 2 to enable our families to gain valuable insight into these practices to complement our work at school.