Principal's Report
School Community
Dear Families,
In previous issues I have written about how parents can contribute to the wellbeing of their children by providing a loving and nurturing environment, spending time and helping them to develop their own strategies for resolving problems. This helps them to build the resilience and strategies they need to deal with the many issues they will be confronted with, throughout their lives. Students who are 'rescued' by their parents with issues they could resolve themselves, are at risk of developing a 'victim' mentality. The building blocks of our self-esteem, resilience and confidence are built in childhood and adolescent years. A sense of belonging and safety can be created by not only a family but also a community such as Galilee. This was evident last night at the Art Show with children happily playing and showing their art work while everyone in the community was watching out for them.
Over the last decade we have made great advances in our awareness, acceptance and treatment of those with mental health issues. In my parent's generation, people were less willing to speak openly when experiencing mental health issues, which often led to the worsening of a problem. For some adults, their pride would prevent them from talking about their problems and for some, it would be seen as a weakness. Fortunately, mental illness has been spoken about more positively through public figures such as Jeff Kennett and Julia Gillard (Beyond Blue). If you know someone who you suspect is suffering from a mental illness, try encouraging them to communicate with you or to seek professional help.
This week I attended a memorial service (Mass) from my past school in relation to a tragedy for a family. The children will unfortunately grow up without the presence of their mother, who was a wonderful person. She worked in a job that greatly assisted others in her local community. She loved her family and invested much of her time in the raising of her wonderful children. She will be missed by many in the local community and those in her family.
Below are some strategies from Beyond Blue for dealing with anxiety:
Mindfulness – Grounding exercises: noticing your environment, bodily sensations, and breath
Progressive Muscle Relaxation – Creating a Tension and Release effect with all the muscles in the body
Opposite Actions – By listening to calming music, taking a walk, talking, enjoying sunshine
Safe Place Mental Imagery – Visualising a place where you can go in your mind to feel safe
Calming Affirmations – To help recognise that the moment of panic will pass
Exercise – A valuable way to exhaust excess adrenalin built up in the body
Lifeline is a national charity providing all Australians experiencing a personal crisis with access to 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention services.
Somewhere in Australia there is a new call to Lifeline every minute. People call Lifeline’s 24 hour crisis line 13 11 14.
New Baby!
Darren, Alicia and Aiden (Year 2R) welcomed the safe arrival of a beautiful girl, Ailish Catherall, last Thursday. Congratulations to the family and mother and daughter are both healthy.
Curriculum - Differentiation
Recently our school participated in an External Review process and the report will be produced on November 14 to the staff and the School Education Board. At Galilee, the Reviewer has acknowledged that we currently have a strong emphasis upon school improvement. This means that we are continuously reflecting upon our practices and how we can better grow the learning of our students. The teachers endeavour to individualise the learning for the students to maximise their learning. Despite our many intervention strategies we have identified a need to further develop the strategies of the teachers to allow for differentiation in the teaching to personalise learning. What is differentiation? "Because we cannot teach well without finding out where our students are starting from, we have to assess. Even if all of our students started out at the same point (a highly unlikely situation!), each of them will have reached different understandings of the material studied within a very short period of time. That is why assessment is the bridge between teaching and learning-it is only through assessment that we can find out whether what has happened in the classroom, has produced the learning we intended."By Dylan Wiliam, 'Assessment: The Bridge between Teaching and Learning'. This year we have greatly developed the types of assessment used and this impacts upon the planning of the teachers. Teachers plan pre-tests in Mathematics that will generally include activities across three Levels from the Victorian Curriculum. This will allow them to design tasks at the child's Zone of Proximal Development (point of need). Below is a sample of a S.T.E.A.M. task from Year 4G:
As part of our S.T.E.A.M. unit “All Systems Go” , students were asked to write questions they would like to know about any of the Body Systems. Questions written on sticky notes, were then sorted into categories such as: Digestive, Skeletal, Muscular, Nervous, Respiratory and Circulatory. Using Chromebooks, students were then asked to research a body system to answer their questions. Each student has created a Power Point presentation to present to the class using different criteria. Many students have worked on these at home and have added further questions to the class “Question Board.”
We have implemented strategies to record the data more visibly and provide professional learning to the teachers to use the data in their daily teaching. Walking through the school, many of theses strategies are evident but we need to strive for further improvement to improve the growth of our students. Our NAPLAN results demonstrates that our students are not only performing above the State but also other Like Schools. While this is rewarding, we know that there are always ways to improve and throughout the Review process we have identified many strategies going forward. We will release these strategies once the report is released.
Parent Surveys
Over the last week a Parent Survey has been sent home (now closed) being completed by ninety-seven parents. A more detailed analysis will be distributed over the coming weeks.
Overall, the parents have indicated high levels of satisfaction with: their child's wellbeing and education; the specialist programs; communication and opportunities to be involved. Two areas have been identified (slightly lower results) for development, being Homework and Reporting. We are in the process of developing the Reporting format that aims to provide detailed information to students and parents. Next, we will review the Homework Policy with the School Improvement Team.
Thank you to the parents for their contributions and to the following for the formation of the survey: Miss Fahy and Miss Evans (Parent Partnership Leaders) and Viv Gard (School Improvement Team).
2018 Start Date
School will begin for students from Years 1-6 on Tuesday January 30, 2018. The anticipated start date for Preps will be Thursday February 1st, 2018 which will be confirmed at the Prep Information Night on Monday November 13.
Movember
2018 Classes
If parents have concerns, for social reasons, over classroom placements of their child with another peer, they are asked to send the request to Mr Millar in a hand-written letter to the Office, by no later than Friday November 10th (including the reason). These requests will be kept confidential but there is no guarantee that all can be accommodated. Classroom placements are based upon student friendships and the needs of each individual. Teachers are yet to be given placements for 2018 and requests for teachers by parents will not be considered.
Galilee Art Show,a celebration of learning
This Thursday all families were invited to attended our Art Show from 5-7pm. There was an opportunity to vote for the Orrchibald Award from students in Years 5-6 and everyone was eligible for door prizes. Free cheese platters and biscuits were available with wine tasting (gold coin). Food trucks were present for families to eat pizza and tacos for dinner. Thank you to Mrs Orr for her outstanding preparation, to the many parent helpers and the Social and Fundraising Group.
Earlier, I wrote about differentiation, which was evident in the students' art works on display. We were happy to see all those present supporting the students at the Art Show, a highlight of our calendar.
The Teachers' Choice for the Orrchibald Award results are:
- 1st - Callum Mc in 6C
- 2nd - Jacqui N in 5O
- 3rd - Alex P in 5F
"I am very proud to receive this award because when I first came to Galilee in Prep, I won the Eileen Canty Award for my ‘Little Tiger’ drawing. To now win the Teachers Choice Award for my 'Orrchibold' in my final year here, is amazing.
For my Orrchibold, I picked the Formula 1 Driver, Fernando Alonso, because of his work with charity organisations and donating his old racing suits for auction. He has also been an Ambassador of UNICEF since 2006.
Finally I would like to thank Ms Orr for all of her work and her help with my art in the past few years." From Callum
The People's Choice Award is yet to be awarded.
Congratulations to all the students on the quality of their work.
New Cleaning Company
This week we hired Danihers, a new cleaning company. We are already seeing dramatic improvements in the cleanliness of our school and they are costing Galilee less money annually. Danihers have won multiple awards and for more information, read about them in the School Community section.
Student Achievements
On Saturday 28th October, Remy from 3C hosted her second annual Fresh Lemonade Event. The event is Remy's own concept and initiative to raise funds to support research into a cure for a severe disease her brother Van has, called MECP2 duplication syndrome. Remy's desire is to help Van to be able to walk and talk one day. Remy raised $1,962.00 at the event and all of the funds have since been donated to research. In 2012, shortly after Van's diagnosis, Remy's parents Phil and Collene started a global initiative called the 401 Project and established local charity, Van Wright Foundation, for the purpose of funding research to find a treatment or cure for the disease. To date $2.2M has been raised, the disease has been reversed in mice and scientists are edging closer to clinical trials. Remy would like to thank Galilee, the families and her fellow students for their kind and generous support of her initiative and has already decided that she would like to run the event again in 2018!
Congratulations to Mark L (5O) who recently qualified for the Victorian Championships (100 metre Hurdles). Year 5O and Miss Otte arranged to visit Mark in his first heat at MSAC last Monday. He ran very quickly to qualify sixth fastest in the final. I congratulate Mark on his performance and also his class and family for their fabulous support.
Simon Millar