Hi all,

It was brilliant to see so many parents take advantage of the information sessions held this week. They were important sessions to continue to build the partnerships between home and school. We view the partnership as vital in ensuring successful educational outcomes to every student. It was great to share with our parents the explicit teaching model and the programs we are using to provide explicit and systematic instruction.

A huge thank you to those parents that were able to attend. We will make the information available to all parents through Compass shortly.

One of the important messages that came out of the night was how vital it is to not only listen to your children read, but to read to your child also. We have introduced what we call a ‘Reading Spine’ at Jamo. This is a list of fantastic and engaging rich literature that teachers read to the whole class.

"The Reading Spine essential reads of quality literature, aims to create a living library inside our students’ minds. Great books build the imagination. A child who is read to, will have an inner kingdom of unicorns, talking spiders and a knife that cuts into other worlds. Each great book develops the imagination and equips the reader with language. The aim is for every child to experience the pleasure and challenge of great literature" - Pie Corbett.

Great stories also build our language because around 75 per cent of our vocabulary comes from our reading. Reading develops the ability to think in the abstract; to follow lines of thought. Reading to children provides a shared and deeply imagined common experience.

2021 marks the 25th year of National Family Reading Month, which celebrates and encourages families to read more together. We all know how essential reading together is and its long-term value to our children’s success in school and in life. Therefore, we are putting out a reading challenge to all our families. Please look out for more information through our school Facebook page next week.

We look forward to seeing all the wonderful books you are reading to your children at home.

Today we had our Prep to Year 2 Cross Country at school, with our Year 3 to 6 students participating on Friday at Albert Park. It was great to see families come along and support the students.

These are great events, and we thank Mrs Owen for organising these successful events.

Have a great week, everyone.

Dean Clements

Acting Principal