Assistant Principal's Message

Welcome to Term 3

I hope everyone had a enjoyable time with their families during the winter break. As I roved the playground on Monday morning, I saw many excited and chatty students catching up with their peers, whilst some were telling me how hard it was getting out of bed so early this morning after the break.

If your family is still on holidays or planning to go on holidays during the school term, please notify the school office and your child’s teacher in advance. This allows the teacher to prepare a learning plan for your child in a timely manner.

Curriculum Day - Friday 14 July

One may ask, why do teachers need another day just after the holidays? As a part of our ongoing improvement cycle at Toorak Primary School we aim to invest in our staff and provide learning opportunities to enhance and improve their practice. On Friday we welcome an outstanding educator Bronwyn Ryrie Jones who will begin a partnership with our school. The focus of the day will be on ‘Responsive Teaching’ and what this means and looks like in planning and the classroom for both our teachers and students. The professional learning will link in together with our previous learning on Cognitive Load Theory. She will make links between simple model of memory and the connection between checking for understanding. She will further breakdown how checking for understanding throughout the lesson more often leads to improved attention and focus of students and therefore an increase in student outcomes.

Bronwyn brings an in depth knowledge of research about the value of responsive teaching. Elements of responsive teaching model fits into our instructional model and the day will aim at further enhancing our ability to:

Explicitly explain and model concepts
Engage in short cycles of formative assessment by checking for understanding throughout each component of the lesson using a range of techniques such as ‘think, pair, share, turn and talk and cold call to name a few
Provide timely feedback on their performance and progress

Missing in Action…

As a part of my own ongoing professional learning, I am currently completing the Principal Preparation Program. As a part of the learning, I will be completing an internship where I will shadow and work alongside another principal at a different school for a duration of 4 weeks beginning in week 2. I look forward to learning more about the role and to bringing back the learning upon my return to Toorak in August. Should you need to contact me during this time please do not hesitate via email and I will endeavour to get back to you in a timely manner.

Suada Dzaferovic

Assistant Principal