Welcome to Murputja Staff Bulletin Number 1

Welcome to the very first Murputja Staff Bulletin to be published in this electronic Inewsletter format. As you will see, there are numerous benefits of publishing our regular staff bulletin in this format. This electronic format will enable us to:

store all bulletin publications in an easily accessed and online environment where previous bulletins/information etc can be re-visited and accessed remotely
publish videos, PDFs, photo, website links and content in various other formats such as MS Word etc.

It is intended that the bulletin will be published on weekly basis, in readiness for the week ahead. It is important that everyone takes the time to read each bulletin thoroughly as it will be our main form of communication and will be the means of ensuring we are all aware of upcoming events etc.

The bulletin will also enable us to share (and centrally store) important material related to our Site Improvement efforts, professional learning, policies and meeting agenda & minutes etc.

Finally, the bulletin will also be an important opportunity for each class teacher to share, acknowledge and celebrate student learning. I really hope that each of you will actively contribute to the staff bulletin by providing regular articles acknowledging the learning being undertaken within your classes. Again, this can include student work samples, photos, videos etc (being mindful of student 'photo permissions').

Please remember that the intended audience for this bulletin is primarily staff, meaning that it is not intended to be for parent distribution.

Thank You

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone for making me feel so welcome since my arrival. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first few weeks here at Murputja and must say that I feel very fortunate to find myself in such an amazing setting and to be working with such a fantastic group of people. I have been very impressed with the level of commitment and the hard work shown by everyone. I have been particularly impressed by the way you all pitch-in and work as a team to support the learning and welfare of students.

I look forward to working with you all and I am confident that together we will be able to build upon the fantastic work that you have all been doing.

I trust that you all had a relaxing holiday and that you are ready for the term ahead.

Berry Street Training in Trauma Informed Practice

One of our key pieces of our learning moving forward will be in area of Trauma Informed Teaching Practice’. It is important to acknowledge that a significant proportion of students in any educational setting present having experienced trauma in some form. Hence, it is important that as educators we understand the impact of trauma upon students and build our capacity to support these students to engage successfully in the learning programme.

All schools across the partnership will be engaging in ‘Berry Street' professional development later in the term which centres on promoting trauma informed teaching practice.

The Importance of Clear Routines in promoting increased responsibility and independence

One of the key ways that we, as educators, can support a trauma-informed approach is by making students’ daily school experience as safe and predictable as possible. Adhering to clear, shared and predictable routines, both in the classroom and across the school, provides students with an increased sense of safety and stability. This also enables students to accept greater responsibility for their own learning as they become increasingly able to self-manage their learning routines.

Importantly, establishing clear classroom routines provides students with the opportunity to accept increased responsibility for their own learning/behaviour, independence and confidence. As a result, as students become increasingly skilled in independently following routines, your time is freed-up to engage one-on-one with students rather than micro-managing the whole-class.

During staff meetings and PDP conversations I will be asking each of you to consider two important questions:

‘What routines do we currently use which enable our students to demonstrate increased responsibility and independence?’
How could we improve the use of routines both in class and across the whole school, to support our students to demonstrate increased responsibility and independence?’

A simple starting point we could consider is the morning breakfast routine, which presents an opportunity for us to develop, with students, a clear routine where students are given greater responsibility for independently managing this routine.

Acknowledging Positive Student Behaviour

I would like to encourage staff to consider ways that, as a school, we can promote and acknowledge positive behaviour in each individual classroom and across the school. I am keen to investigate a whole-school approach which promotes our school values and clearly describes to students the positive behaviour that we want to see them enacting.

'It is important that we actively promote the behaviours that we want to see and then ‘catch ‘em doing the right thing!’

In developing this whole school approach I hope to establish a system for acknowledging and celebrating positive behaviour at an individual student, whole class and whole school level. This could be a system whereby students receive cards/token etc. for demonstrating positive behaviour and then work towards collecting/earning a given amount before receiving an incentive of some sort.

Individual students, classes and the whole school can work towards certain goals. Please give this thought and I would be keen to see what we can come up with?

Classroom Storage/Organisation

A big part of effective classroom management is ensuring that the learning environment is ‘organised for learning’ with resources clearly labelled and easily accessible to students to support their learning.

Storage is clearly an issue throughout the school. I am currently in the process of seeking quotes for built in cupboards to be installed in each classroom. I encourage everyone to consider their learning space and consider the following question…

How does the accessibility of resources support our students to demonstrate increased responsibility and independence as learners?’

Smart Meter Installation

As you would have seen in my recent email, we have received notification from Cowell Electric in regards to the installation of smart meters at the Government Employee Housing properties in Murputja.

The meter installation will occur between 23/4/21 and 4/5/21. Please see the attached document for further information and see me if you have any further questions.

A Message from the Minister for Education

Please find below a message to all DfE staff from the Minister for Education, the Hon John Gardner MP.

POLICIES, PROCEDURES & PROFORMAS

This page contains relevant policies, procedures and proformas.