Teaching & Learning

Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge

Only 61 days left in the 2020 Victorian Premiers Reading Challenge. We have many students who are progressing well with the challenge and are on the brink of completing the required number of books.

As a reminder the challenge requires participants to read the following number of books and register them on the VPRC website:

Prep - 2 Students - 30 books with a minimum of 20 from the challenge book list.

Yr 3-6 Students - 15 books with a minimum of 10 from the book list.

This week we congratulate Penny R and Neve R for completing the challenge. Penny and Neve will join McKenzie G in receiving a certificate at the end of the challenge.

Let’s have a look at the books Neve and Penny have been reading to help complete the challenge.

Re-shaping our Writing Model

During 2020, after analysing feedback from our students, staff and parents, we set out to re-shape our model for teaching writing. We engaged educational consultant Andrea Hillbrick to work with staff to focus on building greater student choice and voice in their writing and to further develop how we create a sense of curiosity and wonder in the way writing is taught. 

At the beginning of the year all teachers participated in a full day of professional learning and with follow-up sessions with each individual year level team. With the onset of remote learning, our process was disrupted and only last week were we able to finish our cycle of professional learning.

During our time with Andrea, staff have been focussing on how we plan using mentor texts and implementing a Writers’ Notebook model.

Over the coming weeks, we look forward to sharing some of the changes your child will be seeing during their writing sessions.

Changing our Spelling Focus - Words their Way

As you will have read last week in the newsletter, we are changing up the way in which we teach spelling due to the restrictions that have been enforced during the COVID-19 situation. The model is called Words Their Way and is focussed on a word study approach.

What can you expect your child to be doing in spelling?

Each week your child will have a sound, pattern or word meaning to focus on. The spelling focus will be presented as a Word Sort. This basically means that students will see how the sound, pattern or word meaning is used in different ways to help them learn effective spelling strategies. 

Your child will be asked to sort out the words, play with the sounds and apply their thinking to other text resources available to them. As they manipulate the letters to form sounds, patterns or meaning, your child will be building deep knowledge of the strategies taught.

Over the next few weeks all classrooms will be working hard to set up the structure of the model. You can expect your child to participate in the following each week:

Monday: Your child will be introduced to the sound, pattern or word meaning.

Tuesday: Sort the words out to match the focus for the week.

Wednesday: Find other words that match the spelling pattern.

Thursday: Testing how well your child has understood how the sound, pattern or meaning is used in spelling.

Your child will be working in one of four stages of spelling as seen in the table below. These stages progress developmentally fom Prep through to secondary level.

As a guide, you can see in the table below the stages of spelling and the skills taught within each. 

Feedback From Remote Learning

Following our period of remote learning we have collected extensive feedback on the processes used to implement and maintain learning continuity. We have gathered feedback from students, parents and staff in 5 main areas:

1. How connections were maintained through video conferencing.
2. How lesson content was presented using Compass Learning Tasks.
3. How feedback was used to assist students, parents and staff.
4. How students transitioned in and out of remote learning.
5. How community connections were maintained.

From the feedback gathered we have been able to identify the following:

• How we can improve our practice should we return to remote learning.
• Moments to celebrate in what was an extremely tough time for all.
• Strategies we have learned that could be explored for use in our regular teaching and learning program.
• Key points to share with the Department of Education as part of our Annual Implementation Plan

The school sends their thanks to everyone who has participated in the feedback process. From here a report will be developed to share with the School Council and DET. We look forward to sharing elements of the findings with the broader school community in the near future.

Communication Circle

In order to complete the area near our STEM shed, we are looking for interested and/or experienced members of the school community to assist with the planning of a communication circle. What is a communication circle I hear you say? 

Well it is a structure that provides opportunities for people to talk, share stories, jokes or even discuss moments of learning. The best example of this is a campfire. I am sure many of you have fond memories of time spent chatting around a fire.

We would love to have such a resource at school where we could symbolically and literally promote such experiences for our students. 

If you have experience or ideas with constructing a fire pit, I would love to sit and have a chat about possible designs.