Message from the Principal 

STUDENT AGENCY MODEL HAS LAUNCHED

Our Student Agency Model has been launched in our classrooms.  Our model revolves around different levels of growth or competence that can be demonstrated through five identified learning traits that directly correlate to our core values. The traits evolve and grow from below surface level (submarine) on land or base level (represented by a bus symbol) through to sky (represented by a balloon) and onto space (represented by the rocket). In this way, our students can see and explore how each trait develops in stages and can therefore be built and developed. It is very similar to our bump it up walls or 1–4-star examples that we use across the school and that our students are very familiar with.

Over the next four weeks, the students will begin using the model through a focus on our core value of Grit. 

STUDENT AGENCY CONFERENCES

This is a reminder that our Student Agency Conferences will be held on Thursday 31st March. On this day, students only attend school for the duration of their conference. These are 15 minutes each and they will run between 9am and 6.30pm. Bookings are now open via Compass and they will close on Wednesday 30th March. 

Please note that the conference structure will be 15 minutes with the teacher, student and parents. As is always the case, should you wish to discuss any issue with your child’s teacher throughout the year, you can contact them to make a suitable time.

Student Agency Conferences give students the opportunity to articulate and reflect on their learning. It is recognised that if our children are to be successful in the future, they must be given the skills to know how to learn. We want them to understand that learning is something they do, it is not something done to them or something that just happens. Strategies like conferencing assist in leading students towards becoming self-directed, independent learners. Student agency conferences ensure that the focus remains on the students and the critical role they have in determining their own next steps for learning.

HARMONY WEEK

Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. We are home to the world’s oldest continuous cultures, as well as Australians who identify with more than 270 ancestries. One in four of Australia’s 22 million people were born overseas.

Harmony week is all about celebrating this rich cultural diversity. It began in 1999, coinciding with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21. It has now grown to a week-long celebration. 

Harmony Week is a celebration of our different backgrounds, different cultures and different experiences. Our diversity is one of our great strengths. We are one nation, and we are all Australians.

This week, one of the celebrations that classes across the school are involved in is creating a mosaic. This is based on the idea that a society’s diversity of ethnic groups, languages and customs being referred to as a “cultural mosaic”. Students have been creating and arranging mosaics using scrap and coloured pieces of paper. These are then combined in a one large mosaic. 

You can get involved with Harmony Week at home by discussing your own family heritage and talking about your family experiences. You could locate your family origins on a map and look at the different flags of the countries where students, parents, grand-parents and even great grandparents have come from. You could even learn some basic vocabulary from another country. It is always a great thing to be able to say hello in a few different languages. 

RIDE TO SCHOOL

Next week on Friday 25th March, it is National Ride2School Day. We are encouraging as many students as possible to ride, school or walk to school. If this is a normal day photo, I can’t wait to see what it will look like next Friday!

GRADE 6 ANGLESEA CAMP

On Tuesday morning, a very excited group of Year 6 students boarded the buses for the Anglesea Camp. I am pleased to report that they are all having an excellent time and really enjoying the activities and adventure. Camps are one of those really special extra-curricular activities that allow students rich experiences that just aren’t possible within the normal school environment. Look out for a full report in the newsletter next week.

PARENT HELPERS

Thank you to all of our parents and carers who have completed a Parent Helper Induction session. We are so fortunate to have such strong community support for our school. Our Parent Helper Inductions are a very important process that helps our school community understand that our school has a clear and public commitment to child safety in the form of our Child Safe Code of Conduct and Child Protection Reporting Policy. By including these policies as part of our parent helper requirement, our School Council has clearly defined and explained acceptable and unacceptable behaviours for staff, volunteers and children.

The next sessions will be held on:

Friday 18th March – 9am in the staffroom

Tuesday 22nd March – 9am in the staffroom

Tuesday 22nd March – 6pm Webex

Thursday 24th March – 3pm in the staffroom

We will officially start our parent helpers in our classrooms with a maximum of one parent helper per day in each of our rooms from the week beginning Monday 21st March. This will be a deliberately slow and steady process to start with as we monitor any impacts this has on our school Covid safe operating environment. Over time and next term, we hope to increase this number and really build back up to what this looked like in pre-Covid times. 

SCHOOL TOURS FOR 2023 ENROLMENT

Each week I host a tour of our school with a particular focus on students beginning school in 2023. If you know of a family with a child ready to start school, please encourage them to go to our website to find out about the tour dates and times for this term. I am pleased to say that our school continues to have a very strong reputation in our local community and people attending the tours often share the good things they have heard about our school.

Next Wednesday 23rd March from 6.30pm -7.30pm I am also hosting an evening tour and information session. This is an open invitation event to all parents of pre-school children considering schools for 2023.