We would like to acknowledge and honour the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which our school stands. We pay our respects to all First Nations elders, past present and emerging.

Conference

On Thursday and Friday of last week, BNWPS staff got together for our annual two day conference.

This year’s conference focussed on ‘Guiding Playful Inquiry’. Staff began by unpacking and sharing their “images of the child’ and relating these to the way that we teach and interact with our students on a daily basis. We dug into the concept of ‘teacher as researcher’ and talked about how this concept could be applied to inquiry learning. Through Inquiry, teachers are actively observing students to gauge depth of engagement, understanding and relationships, rather than approaching activities with a predetermined idea of the outcome. Staff spent time carefully designing engagement opportunities for students that;

Link to known developmental, contextual, conceptual and curriculum frameworks
Allow for multiple entry and exit points
Allow learners to apply their voice and agency in a variety of verbal and nonverbal, direct and indirect ways
Honor the learner as the active protagonist
Allow for safe and supported measured risk
Allow teachers to observe where students are at in their understandings, relationships and application of skills
Serve as a prompt for future learning

These engagement opportunities are an integral component of our approaches to Guided Play and Inquiry; we call these moments Provocations.

Over the next few weeks, we will share a few of the key terms and ideas from the conference, as well as providing some great examples of this learning as we move into and through term two.

Planning Weeks

This week and next week are planning weeks for our teaching teams. What this means for your children is that they will have one day this week where they will spend the whole day with specialists so their teachers can meet to plan for the teaching and learning experiences in term 2. The timetable will also be different next week, to allow time for our specialist teachers to plan.

Student-Led Conferences

Our Student-Led Conferences are next Thursday, which means students will not be required to attend school - however they will be required to attend the Student-Led Conference. These conferences include students, as this supports our ongoing improvement goals of promoting student voice and agency; teachers will help students prepare for their conference at school.

We know that some parents and carers feel unsure on what kinds of questions to ask their children about their learning, so we have attached some ‘Parent Prompts’ for those who would find it helpful.

We understand that some families like to use this time to talk to the classroom teacher without their child being present and want to remind all families that you are free to make a time to meet with your child’s classroom teacher at any stage, if you have a question or concern.

Bake Sale

Last Tuesday a group of our grade 6 students ran a bake stall to raise money for organisations fighting against bullying. The focus on social-justice that our students have is always incredibly heart-warming. We couldn’t even begin to say how many thousands of dollars have been raised by students to donate to good causes over the years, but even more valuable than the donations made is the role our students play as leaders and role models to the rest of the school community. A culture of giving, compassion and taking action (Deeds not Words!) does not happen by accident, but through the daily practices of being kind, caring for country and others and taking a stand for what we believe in.

We would like to congratulate the grade 6 group for raising $277.70 in one lunch time - a valiant effort that will surely be appreciated by the organisation of your choosing! We want to also thank those students for taking on such a project with energy and enthusiasm; the ripple effect of your good deeds will carry on.

The Nor'Wester

BNWPS is committed to Child Safe Standards and prevention of child abuse

Issue 9 · 27 Mar 2023

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