Principal's Desk

Providing a helping hand

This morning saw our senior school (Year 5 and 6 students) attend Winter Interschool Sports. In their absences we had three wonderful Year 4 students, Robbie, Callum and Lucas who confidently and calmly stepped into the Masters of Ceremonies role and led our school assembly with ease. They also helped me share with the school community our bonus prize for the chocolate raffle - a 10kg block of Cadbury chocolate! Every $25 donation and each time one of our families sell a box of chocolates the more chances they have of winning this grand prize!

A big thank you to Lucus, Callum and Robbie.

Reminder: Open Night - Monday 27 May

This year Victoria will celebrate Education Week from Monday, 13 May to Friday, 17 May. As we are now at the end of our successful camping program, Park Ridge is holding our Education Week Open Night this Monday 27 May.

Please join us in this year’s theme, Spotlight on STEM, highlights the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in our everyday lives, in the classroom and beyond. We will be holding a sausage sizzle outside the Library. There will be sausages in bread and drinks available to purchase. Also, our EarlyAct student team will be holding a bake sale, raising money for The Make a Wish Foundation and Back Packs 4 Vic Kids.

Classrooms will be open from 5:30pm to 7:00pm, with a fun family activity trail in the  classrooms and specialist areas across the school. 

Here are the activities planned for our classrooms:

On Open Night this year there will also be a whole school display of Art in The Wentworth Building to celebrate both Education Week and Reconciliation week. This term Mrs Oakham has been working with students across all year levels on a range of  Art work, both 2D and 3D, inspired by Indigenous artists. There will be samples from Foundation to Year 6 for you to enjoy looking at on the night. We hope you pay a visit to the display during the night to see what our amazing Park Ridge artists have created.

Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) 2024 Pulsecheck

Each year, every Government School is required to make a plan for the successful implementation of their 4 year strategic plan. For Park Ridge Primary School, our 2024 AIP (Annual Implementation Plan) focussed on two main goals:

• Learning - Support both those who need scaffolding and those who have thrived to continue to extend their learning, especially in numeracy
• Wellbeing - Effectively mobilise available resources to support students' wellbeing and mental health, especially the most vulnerable

As it currently stands, we have already made significant inroads to these two goals in the first term of 2024. As a result, we will continue to focus on these implementation strategies and refine them to ensure their effectiveness. Some of the already implemented strategies are:

• Teachers using a range of data analysis tools to inform teaching and learning eg: rubrics and continuums 
• Implementation and refinement of a consistent school planning document
• Greater focus of small group instruction across the school with a specific focus on Reading
• Providing pathways for greater community involvement
• Vertical Leadership Teams for Literacy, Numeracy, Student Voice and Engagement and Culture continued, and are the key drivers in whole school consistency and whole school days like Harmony Day, National Action Against Bullying.
• Refinement and implementation of key areas in our Pedagogical Approaches Handbook to embed increased consistency and understanding 
• Refined frequency of communications with families. For example: specialist termly year level newsletters (via newsletter) and individual Year Level provide fortnightly compass post of classroom highlights, future learning, key dates, excursions/incursions and opportunities for parent helpers
• Weekly whole-school newsletter
• Revised student reports based on family feedback to provide greater clarity on individual student learning

Whilst a lot of early success is due to, in part, the structure and organisation, it is our wonderful staff who put all of these strategies into action. As a whole school staff, we are looking forward to analysing the evidence and data to view the growth of learning outcomes of our students.

Home Learning

From time to time, parents stop me in the yard to talk about our approach to home learning. Research shows that home learning may not be the panacea we all expect it to be, however there certainly is some benefits.

How effective is homework?

It is certainly the case that schools whose students do homework tend to be more successful. However it is not clear whether use of homework is a reason for this success. A number of reviews and meta-analyses have explored this issue. There is stronger evidence that it is helpful at secondary level, but there is much less evidence of benefit at primary level.

There is some evidence that when homework is used as a short and focused intervention it can be effective in improving students’ achievement, but this is limited for primary age students. Overall the general benefits are likely to be modest if homework is more routinely set.

This is why our approach to home learning at Park Ridge Primary School centres on our nightly reading and our Super 7. We expect all students to take part in nightly reading and where possible, share this experience with their family members through reading together, reading the story to a family member or even just discussing the book in which your child is reading at night. The added benefit of having the discussion about what has been read, further cements their comprehension and understanding as well as reinforcing their oral language skills and their metacognition. The most important take-away from home learning is the practice of setting the routine and belief that learning does not stop once you leave the school grounds. Once this habit and mindset is formed, the intrinsic motivation to continually improve goes a long way to setting future work ethic beyond schooling and school hours.

Make the time for Non-Fiction!

Many of our Park Ridge students love reading and this is something that our teachers and parent community are very proud of. Today, I would like to point out the importance of including non-fiction, as well as fiction texts in your child’s regular reading material.

Whilst reading fiction helps children interpret and infer, build empathy, and develop focus, non-fiction reading builds background knowledge, curiosity and is often the springboard for new learning and interests. Through non-fiction, we learn about history, science and about other cultures and places. Non-fiction builds overall general knowledge and makes one more ‘well-rounded’. By reading memoirs and biographies, we can deepen our understanding of the human condition and learn valuable life lessons. Research recommends that around half of children’s reading material is fiction and the other half is non-fiction, so I encourage you to expose your child to information texts and model reading non-fiction in your home. Borrow non-fiction when you visit the library with your child and read non-fiction online to balance out their reading diet. You never know, your child may discover a new interest or passion from their widened reading!

Lost Property

I am continually amazed by the number of school jackets that are left in the yard after recess and lunchtimes. Students need to be responsible for their belongings. With our current weather conditions of cold mornings followed by warmer afternoons, students need to remember to pick up their school jackets if they put them on the ground. My mum made me tie my jumper around my waist if I took it off. And if I lost it, it would have been a very cold winter for me. I am also amazed by the number of students’ jackets that are unnamed. Please make sure that all students’ clothing is named so that all found clothing is returned to the owner.

If you are missing some pieces, please pop down to our lost property, found in the Foundation building, opposite 3-12’s classroom.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please feel free to pop in for a chat with either Carrie, Brendan or I, should you wish to discuss anything. 

Our doors are always open! 

Take care,

Mr. Dale Blythman