Message from the Principal 

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

G.R.E.A.T. GAZILLIONS DAY

Our students had an awesome time last Friday during our Gazillion’s Day. This was part of a whole school reward after our students have earned $3,000 worth of gazillions! For me the best things about days like this is the chance for students to connect with each other, be curious and enjoy the different range of challenges provided. You can read more about the day in the Student Wellbeing section of this newsletter. A big shout out to Brad, Janine, our Connection Team of Tegan Smith, Sam Marmo, Alex Katsogiannis, Tracey Watts, Suzie Hussein, Abby Drapper, Gemma Correzzola, Betty Hajichristou, Jordan Daley & Roberta Iebbiano and of course our Year 5 & 6 leaders who helped put it all together. Another example of Greenhills at is best!    

SEMESTER 1 - STUDENT REPORTS

Next Wednesday, you will be able to access your child's Semester 1 Report via Compass. This report forms one element of our Continuous Reporting Program and follows the student work samples and matching teacher assessments that have been shared this term. Our effort behind Continuous Reporting is to provide parents and carers with more frequent communication about your child/ren’s progress and assist you to develop a deeper understanding of how your child is assessed throughout the school year. Whilst our Continuous Reporting process is still being developed and implemented, we don’t want you to have to wait until a semester report before you find out about your child’s learning progress.    

This semester, Janine, Brad and myself have been impressed by the effort that our students have put into their learning. Whilst we keep a close eye on the academic outcomes, we also looked carefully at the assessment of each student’s effort, attitude and wellbeing. To us, these are the most important indicators of future success and being able to fulfill potential.

I was also really impressed with the way our students have reflected on their learning through detailed and insightful comments in the “Student Self-Reflection” section. This part of the learning cycle, which is known as metacognition, is critically important. Effective learning involves planning and goal setting, monitoring ones progress and adapting as needed. By supporting our students to develop agency in their learning (which can be learnt) our students can improve their learning outcomes.

The key in all of this is to remember that a student's ability to become a self-regulated (i.e., metacognitive) learner is understanding that one's ability to learn is a skill that develops over time rather than a fixed trait, inherited at birth. Students who believe that the ability to learn can improve over time have greater levels of achievement, even after controlling for prior achievement (Henderson and Dweck, 1990). These students set reasonable learning goals for themselves and have the self-efficacy to choose and use productive learning strategies. These strategies then result in learning gains. Moreover, students can be taught that their ability to learn can improve over time; those who learn this simple lesson show increased motivation to learn and improved grades (Aronson et al., 2002; Blackwell et al., 2007).

Here is a selection of student reflections from our 2023 Semester 1 Reports. I think you will agree that they provide clear evidence of our student’s increasing ability to articulate the specific strategies they are using in their learning in different subject areas, and most importantly their growing commitment to being responsible learners. 

“A goal I have achieved this year has been my writing goal. It was to use similes. I achieved this goal by working on it in goal setting sessions and writing sessions. My personal goal is to use strategies to help with my negative self-talk. Some strategies are breathing slowly and to stop expecting perfection and to know that failure is OK. I’ve been working on this goal by using them in my basketball games. I’ve used it a lot but I think I need to work on it a little bit more to perfect ” – Year 6 student.

“A few highlights for my first semester as a Year 6 are probably Anglesea camp because the teachers made it so much fun by being enthusiastic and making every second count and getting me to do something I have never done before like the zipline or surfing…….I have also used my agency in the readers notebook because when I’m behind I need to use my agency to take it home or knowing that I can work on it another time. I have also leant in the past year or so to use my time management skills to manage my time better…..I want to be remembered as the girl who would always try her best to fix a problem and a hard working role model. My plan to do that is to just be me, to help people in need and to always show the G.R.E.A.T. values” - Year 6 student

“This semester I really enjoyed STEAM. It was so much fun. I had a great laugh with my friends and was so proud of my controller. We had to make them out of tin foil and cardboard….the value I have shown most this semester is respect. I have shown this value in group discussions (Reciprocal Reading groups). I have done this by trying to encourage people to have a go, trying to keep the conversation on track and listening to other feedback and opinions” – Year 4 student.

“An achievement I have had in my learning is my counting goals in maths. My goal was counting by 5’s starting at any number. I am feeling confident with my goal and I think I could teach someone else how to do it..….something I would like to improve on is my spelling because if I know the word and how to spell it, I won’t need to sound it out. I can improve my spelling by sounding out the words and seeing if it has any graphemes in it, if it is a compound word, seeing if it has a diagraph (where two letter go together to make one sound) or trigraph (where three letters go together to make one sound ) in it which will help me spell it” – Year 2 student.

You can see what I mean! How wonderful are they and this is just a very small sample! I was particularly impressed with our students growing reference of their learning goals which of course is one key component of student agency. This is something that we have been focusing on in recent years and will keep doing so as part of our next four year school strategic plan.

I encourage you to download and print your child’s report and then read it with them. In particular, have a close look at the Learning Confidence / Attitude section completed by both the teacher and the student. You might like to discuss any differences that you notice between these two assessments and unpack more of what that could mean with your child.  

NDIS & PRIVATE PROVIDERS PROCESS AT GREENHILLS

At our last School Council meeting we had a discussion around the process our school uses to co-ordinate onsite visits for NDIS and other private providers. This includes speech pathologists and occupational therapists working with individual students during school hours. Our school always tries to be as inclusive as we can be, but the level of administration and documentation required to facilitate this is becoming increasingly challenging. 

As such, we are hosting an information and feedback session for any families who have or who currently are arranging private providers to visit our school or who are thinking about that in the future. In this way we hope to make some of our decisions clearer and get some feedback about how we might be able to best manage this moving forward.

The forum will be next Wednesday (21st June) evening at 7.30pm via Webex. The link is below and it has also been sent out via Compass:

Meeting Link: https://eduvic.webex.com/eduvic/j.php?MTID=m04645ad23d99abbf88e335b825c3b9cc

Meeting Number: 2650 228 4890

Meeting Password: greenhills

SOME IMPORTANT DATES FOR TERM 3:

With the newsletter next week, I will include the Term 3 calendar. This provides families with a list of dates for the different activities we have organised next term. 

Two of the most important dates to remember a:

• Wednesday 16th August – Curriculum Day – School Review & Curriculum Planning Focus
   
• Wednesday 6th September - Student Led Conferences (Variation to School Hours Day). On this day students only attend school for the duration of their conference. We will then be running individual Student Led Conferences for students and their parents / carers from 9.00am until 6.30pm on this day.

LAST DAY OF TERM – FINISH AT 2.30PM

A reminder that on our last day this term, Friday 23rd June we will finish at 2.30pm. Our assembly will be outdoors (weather permitting) at 2pm.

James Penson

Principal