From the Principal

Education Week

Learning expo / Open Day and Night

We are looking forward to seeing as many parents and families as possible attending our Learning Expo today / tonight at our school.

Due to COVID – 19 and lockdowns this will be the first time we have held an Open night since 2019 so we are thrilled to be ‘back to normal’.

These sessions will be held on Tuesday, 24th May between 9.15am – 10.30am and 5.30pm – 7.00pm.

During these times parents/grandparents/friends/community members will be encouraged to visit the classrooms and talk to their child/children about their learning.

Visitors to the school will be provided with a list of questions that will help initiate a conversation about your child’s learning. These questions are:

What are you learning? Why?
How are you doing?
How do you know?
How can you improve?
Where do you go for help?

These questions will guide the conversations so you can see how our students can articulate their learning and why they are learning these skills/concepts. These questions are not compulsory but just a guide for parents.

A copy of these questions will be provided to all community members on the night, so you are not required to memorise these!

The ‘Learning Expo’ held between 5.30pm – 7.00pm will commence in the gym at 5.30pm. Our night will commence with our choir performing a few songs. Also, in the gym that night there will be stalls/displays set up by various local community groups displaying their products and services that are part of our community.

Professional Practice Day

For Term 2, 2022, the Department of Education and Training has provided schools with the option to hold each teacher’s allocated professional practice day on the same day for all staff. This is to enable the most effective and efficient use of this day.

As a result, after consultation with and approval from School Council, we have scheduled our professional practice day for Friday, 27th May. Students will therefore not be required to attend school on this day.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of staff, Camp Australia are unable to open on this day. Alternative arrangements will need to be made for this day.

We have chosen Friday, 27th May because we thought that this would be the day that has the least impact on families, and because we have not had any public holidays/curriculum days on a Friday this year.

Students are not required at school on Friday, 27th May.

Reading is Everything!

As the colder months descend on us and the days get shorter, there is no better time to grab a book and curl up under the doona or in front of the fire. By any measure, reading for

more than 15 minutes per day has enormous benefits for life outcomes. 15 minutes is the magic number. Not 14, not 10, definitely not 5. 15+ minutes of active reading helps students achieve higher academic growth than their peers. 30 minutes is even better, and 60 minutes has enormous benefits. Studies show that only 18% of students read for 30 minutes per night and that at 60 minutes, student growth is on average 48% higher than the average, no matter what the child’s background. The table also shows the correlation between high reading engagement against international student rankings. Those coming from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds achieve well above the international average if they read regularly. If we compare a student from a low socioeconomic background who does not read daily, with a student from a high background that does, the difference is massive. That difference is cut dramatically by high reading engagement. The evidence could not be clearer. If you want your child to succeed, read to them and give them plenty of opportunities to read. If you still have pre-schoolers, the research shows how significant being read to is, enabling students to start school with reading skills well above their peers. From my own experience, when my own children wanted to stay up later, our first negotiation led to bedtime being extended by 30 minutes, on the proviso that they read in bed for those 30 minutes. Not only did it help them fall asleep as they disconnected from devices, but it boosted their reading time. Win-win-win! As I have said many, many times, reading is everything and is the key to your child enjoying a successful future.

I have included an article below that further outlines the importance of reading daily.

WHY READING EVERY NIGHT IS SO IMPORTANT:

The following article again illustrates just how important the practice of reading nightly is.

Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?

(Source Unknown)

Let us figure it out -- mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.

Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins. /week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x approximately 4 weeks each month.

Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year

Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.

-Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.

-Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

-By the end of Year 6 if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days.

-Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.

One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance.

How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

Which student would you expect to be the more proficient reader?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write with greater proficiency?
Which student would you expect to have a broader vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in life?

It really is food for thought – so make sure your child/children are reading every night.

Cross Country – Wednesday, 25th May

Good luck to the 60 Year 3 – 6 students that will be representing our school at the Waverley East Sports Association Cross Country event that will be held this Wednesday, 25th May. Many of these students have been training hard for this event and we wish them well.

Athletics day – Wednesday, 6th June

Good luck to all the Year 3 – 6 students that will be participating in our Whole School Athletics day that will be held on Wednesday, 6th June at Bill Sewart Reserve. It is great that we have so many parents helping on the day.

Thanks to Mr Cam Stillman for organising both events for our students.

Year 5 Camp

We would like to wish our Year 5 staff and students all the best for their upcoming Camp to Sovereign Hill. They are leaving on Wednesday, 1st June to return on Friday, 3rd, June.

This is a wonderful camp. Students will learn all about life on the goldfield in the 1850s. They will wear 1850s clothing, attend school, play traditional games and pan for gold. When not in character, students will tour some of the goldmines and learn about the Eureka Stockade. We can’t wait to hear all about it when they return to school.

Thanks to Mr Chris Young for organising this camp, and to the staff who are attending.

Election Day BBQ

Thank you to the following staff, parents and carers for volunteering at the Election Day BBQ on Saturday, 21st May. There was a great turn out and plenty of sausages were consumed. Thanks to these volunteers we raised $525 for the school.

Kerryn W, Sam J, Kim D, David W
Raj G, Vandana B and Subhani G
Bev R and Gillian
Malika T, Sue H and Nadia L
Xin L and Anand J

Matthew Coney and Ben Heys