Principal’s Report 17th June

As we wrap up the first semester of 2022, it would be easy to dwell on the challenges we have faced and that we continue to face in the wake of the COVID pandemic. However, despite those challenges, incredible things continue to happen in our professional learning sessions, in our meetings and in our classrooms. Every month, we report back to School Council on what the current highlights are in our teaching and learning at the school, particularly as they relate to the current priorities in our School Strategic Plan.

It occurred to me that it would be wonderful, now that we are at the half-year, to share some of these highlights with our whole community. I know that many of you have chosen this school because of the reputation we hold in the education community, as a highly successful school where students learn and succeed in an environment where the joy of learning and engagement in their learning are key factors in their success.

This doesn't happen by accident. It happens by educators across our school prioritising their learning and their development by continually reflecting on the practices in their classrooms and extending their own knowledge and skills. We are all learners at this school, including students, support staff, teachers and leaders. Below are a few highlights from those School Council Teaching and Learning Reports from the first semester.

“6+1 Writing Traits” Professional Learning

Today is obviously a pupil-free day and many of you may wonder what we do on these days. We are spending today, working in teams, working with Writing expert, Narissa Leung (You can look up here OzLit Teacher blog in you’re interested).

The work we engage in today, and the work in which we have been engaging all semester, will continue our efforts to provide consistency of practice by teachers in every classroom, for our children. By using the Writer’s Notebook approach, along with the Ruth Culham’s 6 + 1 Writing Traits book as a guide, we have a great platform for our children to enhance their writing. The main idea is about making children write for the love of writing. It is about moving our students from being good writers, to great writers, writing with purpose, passion and voice.

The work to develop our understanding of effective approaches to facilitate student writing improvement has continued all semester. For example, at a recent staff meeting, we engaged in deep dialogue about the creation of ideas in writing, the organisation of the text and the ‘voice’.

Staff have worked in mixed groups, as well as Year Level or PLT groups, analysing student writing using the 6 Traits to bring some understanding about where we need to focus our work to take our student writing to the next level. It is exciting work. The discussions have been rich and have enabled our staff to continue to develop methods for formative assessment in writing as they work with students during the development of writing pieces, providing constant feedback.

Reading

Similarly, students have been working Reader’s notebook which is something that was developed prior to COVID interruptions. It is an effective way to enable students to document their thinking whilst trying to comprehend the content they read. This has been a wonderful addition to an, already effective, program in the teaching of reading, once again, striving for excellence in everything we do.

Mathematics

Understanding what problem-solving is and the associated thinking behind problem-solving has been a focus for us throughout the first semester. Linking investigations and inquiry-based moments to problem-solving has enabled our children to critically think about ‘the understanding’ and not solely ‘the process' of mathematical thinking. We have been encouraging children to think about problems and challenges in non-numerical tasks as well. Teachers are collaborating in providing problems with students upon which our higher achievers can be extended. Equally, students who require additional support are appropriately challenged with modified tasks. Teachers have begun exploring approaches where students may develop and how they might how to provide explicit teaching for students above, at and below level.

High Ability - School Based Trial

This semester, we have also appointed a High Abilities Practice Leader. Nicole Tolikas, one of our year 4 teachers has taken on the role of supporting our High Abilities Learners and exploring how we might better cater for them across our school and in every classroom. In Term 2, the Grade 4 team selected twenty Year 4 students to participate in a High Abilities Program with a focus on Financial Literacy. These students were identified as high-ability students using an identification tool including a variety of evidence. This program incorporated the Mathematics, Economics and Business curriculum. The students explored and applied problem-solving through critical thinking and learning. Students were exposed to Financial Literacy vocabulary and concepts which enabled them to develop their business plans.

The group applied their understanding of percentages, expenses, profit and revenue to determine pricing which led to developing a monthly budget for their business. This information will be used to complete and present their final business plan to the group by the end of this term. The strengths demonstrated by the students included persistence, teamwork, determination, hard work, eagerness to learn, and a growth mindset. At times, some students found themselves overwhelmed which has led to an opportunity for growth, as they were able to problem solve once they applied a growth mindset, explored trial and error and worked as a team.

Overall, we are very proud of these students and have thoroughly enjoyed witnessing their success and growth this term. They have been challenged and exposed to advanced and real-life concepts which have enabled them to grow as a person and a learner. We are looking forward to a time when we can extend this advanced learning across our school so that all of our High Abilities can reach their potential.

High Abilities Network Initiative

Our school is also involved in a School Network approach to developing our High Ability Learners. Nicole Tolikas and I attend regular meetings with 7 other like-minded schools across our local network to better understand the needs of our High Ability students and to, more effectively, extend their learning. As part of this collaboration, several of our students will have the opportunity to work with students from the other 7 schools on a collaborative, high-level project in which they will, not only learn important life skills but be able to apply those skills in a real-world project, having a positive impact on their local community.

Tutor Learning Initiative

As we have mentioned before, the government has funded the Tutor Learning Initiative to support students whose learning growth has been impacted by the disruptions of the COIVD pandemic. Results from our tutoring program have shown significant growth for many of our students. Unfortunately, for some students, poor attendance has greatly impacted their learning progress.

This year, the program has had interruptions with many of our tutors assisting with classroom teacher replacements. However, overall, we are very happy with the progress of our students and extremely grateful for the efforts of our committed and hard-working tutors.

Engagement and Rapport Building

Engaging and developing authentic relationships with students (and families) have been continual work for us this year. Our Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) have planned, assessed and replanned our content to deliver on student needs. In the junior years, our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 teams have integrated content with a social and emotional learning approach. Although this is commonly experienced during Investigations, our PLTs have found that learning certain school-based routines and experiences that are often developed in kindergarten, has helped children to work more effectively and independently during class time. For example, Prep children have been working on fine motor skills by creating characters (related to their work) with playdough and craft materials.

Relationship building has been helpful for students in the middle to senior years. Re-engaging students into a physical learning environment but utilising some of the effective virtual components of the past two years has been something that teams have been exploring. The use of Google Classroom as a reference point for students from Year 4 up, has continued to be an effective platform to keep track of learning, along with class collaboration.

In Summary

We are very proud of our school, and I know our students and community are proud too. The collaboration between our educators, our students and our community is a key to our success. More and more, we want our students to be able to apply important learning in real-world contexts and to understand clearly how their learning links to their lives, their families and their community now, and in the future. More and more, we want parents and our community to understand the learning that happens in our school and to know how they can support that learning. Working together, we can ensure that all of our students have the opportunity to “Take Flight”.

Greg Lacey

Principal

The Growing Patch