Principals Message
Dear parents and carers,
We are now in the fourth week of Kinder to Year 4 living and working in the new building. Hopefully you had the opportunity after the Mother’s day morning tea to visit the new space. If you would like a guided tour please give us a call, we would love to show you around.
Currently we are conducting interviews for the 2022 Kinder class. The response of new parents to the way the children are working and the teachers are collaborating, in all our spaces, is really positive. Some of the responses include;
“Wow, I can’t believe I am in Gunnedah. This is amazing.”
“There are so many adults working with groups of children. I did not realise it would look like this. It’s fantastic.”
“It’s so quiet. Everyone is engaged in the work.”
“The kids seem to respect the space and no one is distracted by us walking through.”
A dad who was waiting in the Shared Space said he felt like he was in an airport due to the enormous space. I’m sure he meant the Qantas VIP lounge!
New families are always very impressed by the independent level at which our older students work. It gives them a good idea of the progress a child makes in their time at school.
Our co-teaching model continues to bring us great collaboration and enables us to have rich discussions about your children's learning and well being. No decision is made unless the team has had input and a discussion has been had.
“Both practitioners and researchers widely agree that co-teaching is more than just two or more teachers in the same room. When viewed as a cycle consisting of four stages—(1) co-planning; (2) co-teaching; (3) co-debriefing; and (4) co-reflecting—co-teaching has the potential to change practices throughout the school community. The benefits of this kind of change are both numerous and far-reaching, including improved differentiation, more holistic and integrated assessment, richer continuous professional learning, increased teacher and learner wellbeing, and improved pro-social skills in the learning environment.” School Learning Environments and Change (2020), Co-teaching in contemporary learning spaces: a handbook of evidence for educators, NSW Government.
We loved seeing so many mothers and grandmothers at morning tea today. If you did not make it I hope you have an amazing day on Sunday, you deserve it.
Kind regards,
Jen