Assistant Principal's Report

Leasyl Richards - Curriculum

26 June 2020

PLANNING WEEK

Last week we had our Planning Week which we commit to at the end of each term. Planning Days provide teams of teachers the opportunity to collaborate, discuss and strategically plan teaching and learning units and sequences of lessons for the following term.  Teachers then meet in teams each week during their common planning time to fine tune and adjust activities to ensure our students learning needs are being met and that students are being both challenged and supported based on teachers observation of individual student needs in their classroom. 

Providing teachers this opportunity by having specialist sessions all in one day over the Planning Week means that teachers can work together for a whole day.  This is something we believe to be invaluable to ensure collaborative opportunities. As parents you can feel very confident in the extraordinary commitment of our teachers to ensure we are delivering high quality teaching and learning.  When I walk into the Library during planning days the professional discussions amongst the teams of teachers, the commitment to sourcing resources, and the keenness to continue to challenge themselves as teachers is very evident. There are also usually lots of bowls of lollies and chips -which no doubt helps sustain the teachers during the day!

At Wheelers Hill our teachers work through three levels of planning- yearly curriculum overviews, term planners, and weekly planners. Each document provides the scaffolding to ensure teachers address curriculum needs in a targeted and systematic manner.

One aspect of our planning that we are slightly changing after our Learning From Home program is a continued commitment to an even greater focus on the core learning in literacy and numeracy. This is being reflected in the amount of hours we are committing to the teaching of these areas each week. While this has always been a focus at Wheelers Hill our time spent learning from home as allowed us to have a re-think about what we value most. 

I would like to say thank you to each of our level leaders for running these days and guiding their teams to ensure your children’s learning needs are met, to ensure that we are continually building on students skills and to develop engaging lessons that meet the needs of the Victorian Curriculum. Thank you also to the teachers who work so hard during these days each term. 

AUSTRALIAN MATHS COMPETITION

This year we are offering our year 5 and 6 students the opportunity to participate in the Australian Mathematics Competition. This competition is an engaging 30-problem competition that demonstrates the importance and relevance of mathematics in students’ everyday lives with an emphasis on problem solving. 

Participation in the Australian Mathematics competition is optional. 

The Year 6 competition will be held on 3rd August 2020 and the Year 5 competition will be held on 4th August 2020.

The entries for the Australian Mathematics Competition close strictly at midnight tonight.

Further information, including payment, for Years 5 and 6 parents can be found through the Compass event.

ICAS

Once again Wheelers Hill students are being offered the opportunity to participate in the ICAS testing. 

ICAS is designed to target students’ higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Spelling and Digital Technologies. 

Participation in ICAS testing is optional. 

ICAS tests will be held on :

Further information, including payment information, is available via the Compass newsfeed. 

Entries must be received by July 24th. No entries will be accepted after this date. 

PREMIERS READING CHALLENGE

We now have five classes who have completed the Premiers Reading Challenge. Congratulations to 1EB, 1MG, 1SM, 1MC aand 2DG! What a fabulous effort particularly during this very unusual term.

The Premiers Reading Challenge continues through to the 4th of September so there is still plenty of time for students to compete the challenge. Year Prep -2 students must read 30 books and Year 3-6 students must read 15 books. 

https://vprc.eduweb.vic.gov.au/home

If you are having difficulty adding books or have misplaced your child’s log in details please contact Lamia one of our Premiers Reading Challenge co-ordinators.

lamia.Bouazza@education.vic.gov.au

At the end of Term 2 we have:

5 classes finished- 1EB, 1MG, 1SM, 1MC, 2DG

43% of our students have completed the Challenge 

Our students have read 15,223 books! 

Year level statistics of students who have completed the Challenge

Prep- 5% 

Year 1- 84%

Year 2- 51%

Year 3- 23%

Year 4- 45%

Year 5- 46%

Year 6- 40%

Winter holidays are always are great opportunity to lay around in our pj’s and read books! 

SUSTAINABILITY

Just a reminder to all our families to continue to use the Mondo Clothing and Electrical Bins located next to the car park. Each year the school receives money back based on the kilograms that have been collected.  We use this money to help fund other sustainable practices in the school.  We encourage you to fill our bins as you do some clothing and electrical cleanouts at home.

We also collect batteries, light globes, ink cartridges and mobile phones that we take to recycling stations. These are located just outside Miss Richards office.  Unfortunately you are unable to bring any items from home in at the moment but we will let you know once this can start up again. 

I received this lovely poster from a couple of grade 4 students this morning.  It is wonderful that students are becoming aware of the importance of sustainability.

Leasyl Richards

richards.leasyl.a@edumail.vic.gov.au