Principal's Report
Welcome
Dear members of the S Raphael's school community,
Twilight School Tours
We had a fantastic response to our recent Twilight School with over 65 former students from the 1940s - 1970s visiting our school to relive their school days and gain a deeper insight into our school in today's world. Our School Education Board member, Pauline O'Connor, has provided a detailed overview of the day in the SEB section of the newsletter.
Our school children really enjoyed the Twilight School. The children and teachers were certainly tired by 6pm!
The school tours were well attended with over 30 prospective parents taken on tours around the school by two of our Year 6 students leaders and leading teachers. We received 10 enrolments directly from these tours and many of the prospective parents were extremely grateful to have the opportunity to come together to see the school in action.
2019 Enrolments
We have had a positive number of Foundation enrolments for 2019. This is due to a high number of siblings attending in 2019 and from positive parent/ kindergarten teacher talk.
Formal enrolment offers will be sent out at the end of May with each enrolment judged on suitability for enrolment.
We encourage all parents in our own school community to continue to support the school by talking positively to others in the broader community and supporting our upcoming School Open Days on Thursday 15th March (10:30am - 12pm) and Tuesday 24th April (10:30am - 12pm).
Open Day flyers with all upcoming dates and times were sent home at the end of last week and we encourage parents to distribute these to your family, neighbours, friends and extended networks.
Language Program 2018 - 2019
Further to the letter sent home on Tuesday 13th February regarding the exciting language pilot program called Developing Autonomous Language Learners (DALL) that we will be participating in throughout 2018 - 2019.
We have surveyed the children from Year 3 - 6, the school staff and the parents on which of the three languages currently offered by our local feeder secondary schools they would like to see become part of the DALL pilot program. We were delighted with 110 survey responses from our parent community.
These are the results from the surveys:
Students (161 responses): French (43%), Japanese (37%), Italian (20%)
Staff (20 responses): French (35%), Japanese (60%), Italian (5%)
Parents (110 responses): French (19%), Japanese (33%), Italian (48%)
When collated the final responses were: French (33%), Japanese (37%), Italian (30%).
After careful consideration, we have decided to keep Italian as the language for the DALL pilot program over the next two years.
Proposed Building Redevelopment
We have been notified by Darebin City Council that there they have received an application to amend the building plans for two, two story townhouses to be built at 8 Hemburrow Street. These townhouses will back on to the school's Greenland area. We have collected the proposed plans from the Darebin Council. If you wish to view the plans they are available at the Darebin Council Planning Department (Application #: D/748/2013) on Gower Street. 8:45am - 4:45pm (Monday - Friday). The responsible authority will not decide on the application before 16 March 2018.
The school, in consultation with Fr Simon, is reviewing the proposed building plans and will make a decision on the appropriate action.
Email communication guidelines for parents
Teachers have raised concerns over the high volume of emails that parents are sending to teachers. Checking and responding to these emails takes a large amount of time which takes the teachers away from their core business!
In consultation with the SEB, we have decided that teachers will no longer respond to parent concerns or complaints via email but rather, if the teacher feels it is necessary, they will ask parents to make an appointment to discuss the issues.
If parents wish to alert teachers to issues then that is fine but there will not be a detailed email response from the teacher.
We are in the process of updating our Parent Email Communication Guidelines which will be sent home to all parents and includes the times that teachers will read and respond to parent emails.
School Closure Days and Finishing Times
I would like to outline the reasons and decision making process for our school closure days and early finishes on Parent/ Teacher interview days and the last day of each term this year.
We are extremely mindful of working parents and the implications of early finishes and school closure days. There have been a number of factors that have been taken into consideration in consultation with Fr Simon, the Catholic Education Office (Melbourne), staff and parent members of our SEB.
The decision to finish at 1pm on the last day of each term has been made to support the teachers to prepare the learning spaces for the first day of the following school term. The feedback from our staff is that they have high expectations of themselves to ensure that the learning spaces are ready for the children to commence learning at 9am at the start of every term.
In order to get the fantastic student results that we are now seeing in our school, the demands of the Walker Learning Approach (and the additional pressures that this approach places on teachers) does require more time and effort to plan and prepare than a formal learning environment. These demands also require the teachers to work collaboratively as a team to ensure that the learning is authentic and engaging.
As the principal of the school I have a duty of care to take into consideration staff wellbeing.
I have researched many of the primary schools (Catholic and government) in our area and they all finish between 12:30pm and 2:30pm on the last day of each term. Up until last year we were one of the few schools who did not finish earlier at the end of each term.
Having spent the majority of January working at the school over the last summer holidays I have witnessed our teachers spending countless days/hours voluntarily giving up their time throughout January to plan with their year level teams and prepare for the upcoming school year. This happens regularly every school holidays.
A procedure we have in place to ensure the safety of all staff whilst they are on our school premises after hours (over weekends and school holidays) is that they are required to text me whenever they enter and exit the school building. I receive an extraordinary number of texts from our dedicated teachers most weekends and school holidays throughout the year.
The teachers here at St Raphael's, more than any other school I have ever worked in, are hard-working, dedicated, committed and professional in their preparation for the children's learning. They appreciate the value of the Walker Learning Approach and are more than prepared to give over and above what is expected of teachers in other schools.
I would also like to remind parents that in addition to all of these extra hours, our staff give a huge amount of time to after school hour meetings for Sacramental programs, masses on Sundays, School Education Board meetings, parent information evenings, school camps, parent/teacher interviews, level planning and staff meetings on a weekly basis.
Many of our teachers are also working parents and need to juggle the demands of work and raising young families. All of these additional demands are exhausting for our staff but they do these things readily to ensure that we are providing the best possible education for the children at St Raphael's.
At St Raphael's our unique approach to learning and teaching is supported by our staff participating in whole school professional development and not just sending one teacher off to a professional development day (as can happen at other schools). The research clearly shows that individual professional development has absolutely no impact on whole school improvement. In line with our requirements from the Victorian Institute of Teaching, all teachers are required to complete a minimum of 20 hours professional development per year.
Most Catholic primary schools have a minimum of 4 school closure days (in addition to public holidays) each year and more, if required. Every year, one of these days is dedicated to all staff participating in Level 2 First Aid training to ensure that we can provide appropriate care for the children and are adequately prepared to deal with emergencies.
At St Raphael's we have always held a biennial staff conference. The dates for the conference this year have been set for Thursday 26th and Friday 27th April according to venue availability, the competing demands of the school calendar, and guest speaker availability. This year's conference is critical as we are undergoing our school review in August which requires whole staff input and is a huge undertaking with countless hours of preparation required in the lead up to the formal review process. This is in addition to meetings, teacher planning, set up and preparation for the day-to-day teaching of the children.
I hope that I have explained the process of consultation and the level of thought and consideration we take into account with all of our decision making processes to ensure that St Raphael's remains a progressive, engaging and comprehensive school.
NSIT School Review (August 2018)
The school leadership team met with Sandra Ritchie on Monday 5th March from the Catholic Education Office to discuss the new National School Improvement Tool process for our quadrennial School Review process.
SEB members and other parent members will be requested in the week on Monday 6th - Friday 10th August . Further details to follow.
St Paul's Coburg Principal Appointment Panel
I have been asked by Fr Raymond Bugeja to sit on the St Paul’s, Coburg Principal Appointment Panel to select the new principal of St Paul’s Primary School in Coburg.
There is a significant process for the principal appointment which is due in late March.
It is wonderful that Fr Raymond values what we do here at St Raphael’s and would like to see reflected at St Paul's.
ICT News
We are pleased to announce that we have purchased 55 brand new Google Chromebooks for the children to use for testing and various Google Ed programs and applications.
On Tuesday 8th May there will be a parent information night on 'Being Safe Online' Cybersafety/ Appropriate Use of Technology at Home'. This session will be run by Mrs Kelly Moore. Kelly is a Google Educator who works in our school one day per week and has been doing some terrific work in coding with our senior children.
At this parent information session Kelly will also explain the program 'Seesaw' which will go 'live' to parents at the start of next term. The teachers have been trialling 'Seesaw' since July 2017 and we look forward to your feedback. We have implemented the program 'Seesaw' to inform and involve you in your child's learning. App and program information on how to use the program will be sent home in the coming weeks.
Camp Australia
Unavailability on School Closure Days
It is unfortunate that Camp Australia, as the external After School Care provider of the school, can not open on some these school closure days. I have had extensive discussions with them on this matter and relayed some of our working parent's concerns. They have explained that as a business they can not afford to provide adequate staffing or open when they don't have the required number of children attending. I appreciate that this would be extremely frustrating for working parents and that the same thing happens in other schools when ASC numbers are so low. I can assure you that I will continue to work for a better outcome for working parents. In the interim, I encourage you to develop and broaden you friendship/ family support networks with people who may be able to assist you on these days.
Access Issues
Access to and from Camp Australia is being addressed with some parent frustration over the door bell not working on Cooper Street. The door bell has been replaced and was only a temporary solution whilst we have been searching for a builder to complete works for us. We are in the process of redeveloping the existing entrance on Breen Street (via the roller door) to provide an easier and more effective entry and exit point for all activities conducted in the school hall. It is anticipated that work will commence in the upcoming school holidays with the relocation of the current Uniform Shop into the existing old tuckshop area.
Camp Australia Parent Behaviour
A reminder to all of our parents in our school community who use the Camp Australia ASC service to be mindful of our Parent Protocols Policy (see attached) and to be respectful to all Camp Australia staff who work at our school.
If you have any concerns with Camp Australia please contact them directly or visit: https://www.campaustralia.com.au/
Date Reminders
End of Term 1: A reminder that the school will close at 1pm on Thursday 29th March
Thursday 26th and Friday 27th April: School Closure Days (Staff Conference)