Principal News

Dear members of the St Raphael's school community,

It has been another busy fortnight since our last newsletter, and we are fast approaching the end of the school year. The children are looking forward to the upcoming Aquatic Education program and Headstart Week.

Our Foundation 2023 students have started interviews this week and have been coming into the school to meet their teachers. It has been an exciting time for all the children, and the teachers have enjoyed meeting and getting to know them.

Last week, we had visits from the children who attend JS Grey Kindergarten. It was lovely to welcome the children, staff and parents to our school, and we thank Bianca Rose for coordinating these visits.

Year 1 & 2 News 2023

In 2023, the Year 1/2 composite level will be split into two straight Year 1 homeroom and two straight Year 2 homerooms.

After careful consideration and extensive consultation with members of our school leadership team, the school's consultative committee and homeroom teachers, this decision was made to support recommendations from the school's recent quadrennial School Review.

The decision to remove the composite classes has been carefully considered and is based on the following:

• The play-based approach to learning and teaching in the Foundation - Year 2 year levels at St Raphael's 
• The scope and extent of the Years 1 and 2 Curriculum content
• Year 1/2 teacher feedback
• The needs of our current cohort in Foundation (2022) and Year 1 (2022)
• Data and student outcomes for all curriculum areas in the Year 1/ 2 level
• Teacher workload

As you are aware, St Raphael's follows elements of the Walker Learning Approach in play-based education. This approach engages children in authentic, meaningful learning experiences through intentional teaching techniques that are balanced and linked to formal instruction. At St Raphael's, we have successfully embedded this practice throughout the junior levels of the school and value the enormous benefits of this approach on the children's learning and development. 

As a learning community, our staff constantly question and discuss how we can continue to improve our teaching practice so that your child receives the best educational opportunities. With the completion of the recent school review, our staff had the chance to reflect on the current practices throughout the school. Emerging from this reflection process, the staff identified the need to address the diversity of children's needs in Years 1 and 2 that require age-appropriate investigations and provocations in developmentally appropriate play, as well as addressing the needs of the formal curriculum.

International research confirms that classroom teaching and learning tools must be relevant and appropriate to the child's stage of maturity to sustain learning in meaningful ways. Our experience highlights that the Year 1 and Year 2 children are still eager to engage in age-appropriate play-based activities; however, developmentally appropriate practice can differ significantly from one year level to the next. 

The separation of the Year 1 and 2 year levels will allow the Year 2 children to develop the necessary skills in a play-based environment that will adequately prepare them for this next stage of their education. 

As the Year 2 children transition to Year 3, they will move from a play-based approach to a problem-based approach, where they will use multiple ways to research and support their learning. Over the last few years, the staff have identified the need to adequately prepare these children for the transition to middle and senior school.

In addition, towards the end of the 2023 school year, this will also allow the parents of our Year 2 children to be informed on how appropriate technology is enacted in the school environment to support their learning (i.e. Google Classroom).

The Year 1 and 2 children will continue to have opportunities to engage with each other in various events and activities throughout the school week, including during specialist lessons in Physical Education, Art and Science.

In recent years, our Year 1/2 teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to truly personalise the learning for the children due to the expanding scope of the Year 1/2 curriculum in the core subjects of Literacy and Numeracy. In addition, following the children's Foundation year, the breadth and requirements of the Year 1 curriculum are much more extensive and diverse. This places significant additional workloads on the teaching staff, who are dedicated and committed to meeting all students' needs.

At St Raphael's, we believe in a personalised approach to learning and teaching where all children need to be supported in their knowledge in all curriculum areas. We will continue to achieve this, and implementing this change will significantly benefit your children. This change will also assist the teachers with providing age-appropriate play-based activities and specific year-level curriculum content to ensure that we adequately meet every child's learning needs.

Staffing News

Next year we will welcome six new teachers to our school - Lucia Moloney, Carina Di Natale, Megan Quinn, Arianne Bradley, Ye Ma and Erin Longuet. We are excited to welcome these fantastic new teachers into our school community.

Homeroom Teachers 2023

Foundation: Michelle Slattery & Lucia Moloney

Year 1: Samantha Phillips/ Ariane Bradley & Ye Ma

Year 2: Kaitlyn McMillan & Linda Pham

Year 3/4: Belinda Hirschauer/ Lauren Bell , Megan Quinn, Georgia Cavin & Carina Di Natale

Year 5/6: Emma Sbizzirri/ Matthew Vernal, Anastasia Dullard & Erin Longuet

Specialist Teachers

Art: Phoebe Tune

Physical Education: Matthew Vernal

Science: Julie Garbutt

Student Support Programs

Reading Recovery/ Intervention: Alfie Colosi

Year 3/4 Intervention Support: Lauren Bell

Leading Teachers/ Leadership Team

Student Diversity and Student Wellbeing: Annie McNaughton

Maths Leading Teacher: Emma Sbizzirri

Literacy Leading Teacher: Melanie Pizzonia

Play-Based/ WLA Leading Teacher: Lorraine Uzunovski

Religious Education/ Deputy Principal: Rosalba Squarci

Innovation (PBL)/ Deputy Principal: Shane Giese

Administration

Administration: Lynette Gamble & Christine McNiece

Education Support Officers

Giorgia Bonamassa (Italian Program Coordnator)

Lucy McNaughton

Aidan Baynes

Will Ryan

Shae Murphy

Library Coordinator

Maria DeCata

Lorraine Uzunovski has accepted a position as the school's leading teacher of the Play-Based/ WLA progressive approach across the Foundation - Year 2 levels. In addition, Lorraine will continue as the hugely successful preschool SPiCE program coordinator.

Thank you Afternoon Tea: Parent Helpers

It has been wonderful to have so many parents volunteering their time each week to help our students and staff. We thank you for all your support and effort within the learning spaces and with off-site activities.

As a school, we will only stop the Homeroom/Level Parent Helper' roster for 2022 and will resume at the beginning of Term 1 of 2023. For all members that completed the induction program, you will not need to complete it again. We do ask that all WWCCs are updated and valid. We will be running induction programs within the first few weeks of 2023. 

We invite all parent helpers and ask them to join us for a 'thank you' afternoon tea on Monday 12th December at 2.30 pm on the school grounds.

Aquatic Education & Whole School Sports Day

Aquatic Education begins next Monday, 28th November and will take place every day next week except Wednesday. 

On Wednesday, 30th November, the Whole School will participate in a Sports Day at Coburg Athletics Track.  

The children are requested to wear the full sports uniform daily and their school hat and sunscreen. For further information about both events, please refer to the Physical Education page of the newsletter.

HeadStart Week

We look forward to Headstart Week, which commences from Monday 5 December to Friday 9 December. This is a great opportunity for all children to get to know their homeroom peers and teachers for the 2023 school year. Headstart Week has been running for five years and has been hugely successful. Our Year 6 students will participate in Year 7 activities throughout this week.

The staff have been working on class lists for next year. These lists are compiled using a software program that considers the student's learning needs, social and emotional needs, and previous year's classmates and teachers. We appreciate your trust that we will allocate the appropriate homeroom for your child based on these factors.

At St Raphael's, we personalise the learning and differentiate the curriculum to meet the needs of all students. The students in all year levels will often be grouped daily with other teachers in the year level for many core subjects depending on their learning needs. Children also work across the year levels will work in collaborative and open homeroom learning spaces, which removes the physical boundaries of being isolated in a traditional classroom environment.