Assistant Principal's Report

Leasyl Richards - Curriculum

22nd November  

ICAS CERTIFICATE PRESENTATIONS

Just a reminder for parents of Year 2 and 3 students who sat the ICAS tests - we will be presenting the High Distinction and Distinction certificates at next Monday’s Assembly (25 November).

Year 4 High Distinction and Distinction certificates will be presented at Assembly on Monday 2nd December and Year 5 and 6 High Distinction and Distinction certificates will be presented at Assembly on Monday 9th December.

CODING

Earlier this year Nathan Stockton and I were delighted to learn we were the recipients of a grant to enhance the STEM program at our school.

Over the last few weeks, the Prep and Year 1 students have been using one of the products we purchased through the grant - Cubettos. Cubettos are wooden robots that teach children the basics of robotics and programming. They allow children to explore screenless coding and further support them to develop basic algorithmic and computational thinking skills; that is, their ability to work out the steps involved in achieving a goal and then turning them into code.

This week I was fortunate enough to spend time in 1BC who were using the Cubetto’s. It was wonderful to see the collaboration, problem solving, and trial and error techniques that the students were using. Seeing the students so engaged in what they were learning and the way the session involved lots of locational and directional language incorporating both English and Maths skills was wonderful.  I walked out of the room wishing I could go back in time to being a Year 1 student!  I look forward to seeing what this fantastic grounding in coding exploration leads to in the middle and senior years.  I can only imagine what these students will be capable of by the time they are in Year 6.

LITERACY SUPPORT/ MATHS SUPPORT 

As part of our concerted efforts to ensure all children are receiving the support they need to achieve success we have a number of support programs in place. 

Our EAL program supports students for whom English is an Additional Language. This program is run by an EAL specialist teacher (Linda McKenzie) who is able to tailor English language learning skills for those students who enter our school with limited exposure to English.

We  also have a Learning Specialist teacher (Wendy Jarvis) and an Education Support staff member (Kathryn McPherson) who are both trained in MSL (and accredited with the Australian Dyslexia Association- alongside 8 other staff members) who run small group sessions with students in the junior and middle schools.

Other support programs we have in place include a number of parent members of our community who have also undertaken MSL training who provide 1:1 support for some of our students, and a group of volunteers (mostly from the Wheelers Hill Lions Club) who provide Literacy support for some of our senior students through the Toe by Toe Literacy intervention program.

All of these Literacy support groups provide our students with the expertise and intervention to  ensure all students are given the best chance to succeed.

In the last part of this year we have also begun trialing some maths support with the assistance of a couple of our Lions Club volunteers. We look forward to further developing this program in 2020.  

SECOND HAND UNIFORM SHOP

The next Second Hand Uniform Shop will be held in the Staffroom on Tuesday 10th December from 9.30-10.30am. This coincides with the final Kinder transition session.  This is great opportunity for you to bring in uniforms that your child has outgrown but which are still in good condition.  It is also a good time to stock up on some spare uniforms ready for the new school year. 

If you wish to donate uniforms can you please place in the wheelie bin outs outside  the Assistant Principals' Office. 

Leasyl Richards

richards.leasyl.a@edumail.vic.gov.au