Principal News

It is hard to believe that we are entering into the last few weeks of the year and the Summer vacation beckons. This edition of the Newsletter captures some but not all of the great activities that have been taking place over the last few weeks.

Next year we will have a Principal’s log that will provide the community with even more day-to-day news about life in and around the College.

Parent Volunteers Celebration

Brookside College has always benefitted from the support of parent volunteers whether it is in the classroom helping with learning, in Hands On Learning, big College festivals or supporting Administration – parent volunteers have given so much. This year under the leadership of Seral Fehmi we have had more volunteers working at the College than ever before. In particular we have introduced the new Parent representative Program; giving more voice to our parents.

This week I had the pleasure of celebrating the work of our Volunteers at a morning tea. With over 40 parents attending it was a wonderful way to acknowledge the contribution made by parents to the life of the College.

Our Community Engagement Program will continue to develop next year as we aspire to ever bigger and better outcomes for our children.

Our new spaces - Portables

Last Friday we received handover of the new Portables. The interior spaces are excellent with high quality finishes, good lighting and efficient heating and cooling.

We won’t be able to use the new spaces until next year – the furniture is on its way!

Thank you for your resilience during the construction phase. In particular I would like to thank our Facilities Manager, Jack Troost, who liaised with the contractors and made sure we were all safe.

Our new learning spaces will enable us to provide new learning experiences including a dedicated Wellbeing and Intervention Centre.

The Q Project

Last week I had the pleasure of representing the College at Monash University for the launch of the Q Project. The Q Project is being supported by the Paul Ramsay Foundation and has the backing of DET.

In an Australian first, The Q Project will investigate high quality evidence use in varied school settings, and equip educators to use quality evidence to improve their teaching and bring out the best in Australia’s students.

Teachers have a crucial role in our society, empowering generations of students with the knowledge and skills they need to choose life-defining pathways. Yet as a profession, teaching lags behind other fields, such as health and criminal justice, in systematically using research evidence to improve its practice.

This issue is particularly marked in Australia, where use of research evidence in schools is not well understood or widely supported. It is in addressing this critical need that Monash in partnership with a major philanthropic has a vital part to play, and an opportunity to contribute to a broader goal of improving the quality of teaching nationwide.

Our invitation to participate in this Project is recognition of the high quality teaching and learning already taking place at Brookside and our desire to continually improve.

2019 Annual Implementation Plan (AIP)

Speaking of teaching and learning, last week the College Executive worked on evaluating the 2018 AIP and construction of the 2019 AIP. The AIP is a formal document that sets out the College’s priorities over the coming year. It is not a summary of all the work we are doing – that would be a very long document! Instead the AIP outlines the most important areas we want to focus on.

The 2019 AIP will have a very narrow focus on;

Whole-College explicit teaching of reading
The continued development of our Numeracy teaching and,
Assessment for Learning

Last Day of Term 4 - Friday 21st December Arrangements

Please find below the outline for the last day of the year.

Session 1 9.00-10.00 (Per Timetable)

Session 2 10.00- 11.00 (Per Timetable)

Lunch 11.00-11.45

Session 3 11.45-12.30 (45 minutes - Home Group Teacher)

Recess 12.30-1.00

Session 4 1.00 – 1.15 (Home Group Teacher Dismissal)

Curriculum Days 2019

Finally, I am pleased to be able to provide the community with the Curriculum Days for next year (subject to final College Council Approval). Our Curriculum days next year are as follows;

29th January – First day of School Year for teachers only

8th March – Berry Street Character Domain

26th April – Assessment for Learning

15th July – Assessment for Learning

Simon Sherlock - Principal

School Council Report (October and November 2018)

Hello everyone.

School Council met in October and November to discuss and decide upon the following:

Activities to be run by the Parents and Friends Committee in 2019 including a BBQ at Bunnings and the Entertainment Book fundraiser
The School’s operating budget for 2019
The status of the new portables (including the purchase of new equipment and furniture) and their impact on the play spaces for the year 3s and 4s.

In addition, I want to acknowledge and thank Council Vice-President Carly Marriner for stepping in to chair the October meeting in my absence.

School Council welcomes members of the school community to attend School Council meetings. If you are interested, please contact myself or Mr Sherlock (School Principal) at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. If you are interested in joining Council's sub-committees, please contact me directly or Mr Sherlock to express your interest.

If you have any feedback or questions about School Council, I encourage you to email me directly (Anderson.Christian.C@edumail.vic.gov.au).

Before I sign off, I want to acknowledge the contributions made by all School Council members this year. Their input into Council business has been valuable and their support for me as President has been greatly appreciated.

On behalf of everyone on School Council, I wish you and your loved ones a safe and pleasant summer break and I look forward to sharing more with you in 2019.

Christian Anderson

School Council President