From the Principal

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS PRAISE OUR SCHOOL

Over the past two weeks, teachers from Japan and Korea have spent time in our school to review the teaching and learning programs. Being an International Baccalaureate school, our international visitors have been particularly interested in how we incorporate the various academic disciplines (reading, writing, mathematics, science, etc) into the units of inquiry while also ensuring we address the mandated curriculum.  

The International teachers viewed a ‘data’ meeting which is when teachers of a year level get together to review student work and analyse what students have learned and what they need to develop next. The visitors then viewed a ‘planning meeting’ which is when the teachers of a year level get together (after the data meeting) to plan lessons to address the needs of the students at the different levels.  When the international teachers visited the classroom, they were then able to see students engaged in their learning and understand how the assessment and planning processes translate to practice in the classroom. 

 Of particular note was their interest in how our students use information and communication technologies (ICT).  The students spoke about how technology, in particular the use of ipads and google classroom, enables them to collaborate on shared projects with their peers, to explore, create and communicate their learning in a range of ways and to choose the learning activities matched to their level.  The students proudly showed their workbooks and the various work they have created including videos, speeches, coded robots and documentaries.

UNIT SHARES

A unit of inquiry generally runs for six weeks. At the conclusion of the unit, students thoroughly enjoy sharing their work with parents and family visitors.  We’d like to thank parents and carers for taking the time to attend unit shares and allowing students the opportunity to celebrate their learning achievements. 

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

The use of information communication technologies (ICT) is an integral part of education and life in general.  At our school, parents are asked to purchase an ipad for their child as they enter year 3 and the students use this until the end of primary school.

Next term (Thursday 12 October 5:30pm– 6:30pm), we will be holding a parent information session to explain the purpose behind the BYOD program and to show new families to the school and Year 2 parents and carers how students use technologies across their school week.

INTERSCHOOL SPORT COMPETITION

Next week the Victorian Interschool Snow Sports competition will be held at Mt Buller. This year we have 8 students in our snow sport team.  We’d like to thank Mr Geoff Lake for being the school’s coordinator and team manager and wish our competitors all the very best of luck for their races next week.  Let’s hope that there’s plenty of snowfall over the next few days leading up to the competition. Good luck to: Harry, Amelia, Harrison and Allyssa (year 5), Suhas (year 4), Zoe (year 3), Claire (year 2) and Ella (year 1).

CLASS PARENT REPRESENTATIVES

We will be holding a meeting for Class Parent Reps in the next fortnight to review the role of the class rep, to identify what has worked well this year and what could be improved in readiness for 2024. If you have any suggestions or feedback regarding ‘Class Reps’ please email your suggestions to the school.

Chellee Plumb