Principal  Message

At the end of a term, we get our students to reflect back on the term in class and in assembly.  What I am so pleased to hear is that the dialogue they are using is centered around what they've done in the classroom and more importantly, what they have been able to achieve as a learner.  

Preps are voicing their pride at being able to write a page of writing, or edit their narrative.  Year 1 and 2's are proud that the narratives they wrote had a good beginning, middle and end and can use adjectives to make the writing more descriptive.  As an educator, this kind of language being articulated by students demonstrates that clear and explicit teaching of reading and writing skills in the classroom is taking place. They are being exposed to strategies in their lessons to apply during independent worktime and in doing this have learned the cycle of a learner. Setting yourself goals, working with your teachers to guide you towards that goal and then celebrating their achievement and reflecting as a learner their next steps. 

Wow!  What a fabulous sea of colour yesterday as students & staff doned 'crazy' hair do's and socks.  A fabulous $290 was raised for the Red Shield Appeal, well done students, parents and staff.

Today the teachers have participated in professional learning to enhance their teacher practice in Literacy to include 'think alouds' and 'shared reading' as a teacher strategy.  Using the many mentor texts I was able to purchase with your generous donations for good books in the classroom,  our teachers will begin incorporating the think aloud strategy to demonstrate their thinking as they read to their class.  A think aloud is a carefully planned minilesson and the teachers talk openly about how they apply a strategy when reading or writing and how that relates to being a good reader or writer.  Students then work in small groups or independently, focusing on their thinking as they read or write. 

The texts we read to our students are not randomly chosen, but rather selected on the basis of its ability to convey the message or skills the teacher is aiming for in that particular lesson.   Next term you might notice the new books that are in your childs learning space. The children now have access to many high quality texts during classtime and as we build greater voice and agency in our classroom, we will see our students not just develop as fluent readers, but rather as good readers, who think about the meaning and themes in a text, how we connect to the text and what is the author telling us when we read the text. I look forward to seeing our Literacy lessons continue to evolve and follow best practice that is based on research and evidence.

Today our tender process closed for our Out of Hours Care program and there are still some final process's to go through before announcing exactly who is taking over,  I can say we have a very strong application that school council will consider over the coming days.  I can also say that the Department of Education has agreed to work with us to allow all the red tape to go through over the holidays.  All things going well we will be ready for the beginning of Term 3.  I will send through more details and contact/booking information as soon as I can. I know some of you are anxious about booking in and being ready for Term 3. 

I would like to finish up by saying thank you to students, parents and staff here for the remarkable effort put in this term.  Students never faulted from their ability to grow as a learner, parents pushed through the remote learning and teachers held it together in those final weeks when reports, interviews and remote learning all piled up.  I truly do look forward to working with you all again next term as we continue to achieve great things together.  

Have a safe and relaxing holiday.

Nieta