A word from the Principal
Mrs Danielle Heatley
Class placements for 2023
All students have been and will continue to reflect on the new connections they’ve made with peers and their personal growth over the school year. As part of the process of preparing for the transition into 2023, students work with their teacher to confidentially nominate learning partners that they feel they work best with in the classroom environment for the subsequent year. Please spend some time looking through the presentation all classes will go through this week before identifying their best learning partners. The presentation can be found here. If you would like further information on our approach to this process, the Class Formation Policy can be found here.
Tutoring in 2023
In great news we have been allocated some further funding for 2023 to ensure the Tutor Learning Initiative continues. As we move further away from 2020/2021 the amount of financial support has reduced from DET. Our tutors Mrs Murray and Mrs Ellis worked incredibly hard during Term 1, 2 and 3 this year to support a wide range of students in Literacy development. We are currently working with region and looking at our school data to identify the focus for 2023 and how the support will look at Karoo.
2022 Parent / Carer Opinion Survey
The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies - some of these I have outlined below.
While previously a random sample of approximately 30 percent of parents/caregivers/guardians have been selected to participate, this year, all families were invited to participate in the survey. Despite opening it up to all families, 56 families in total completed the survey.
| Framework | 2022 % positive endorsement |
|---|---|
| Parent Participation and Involvement | 70% |
| School Communication | 78% |
| Teacher Communication | 58% |
| General Satisfaction | 80% |
| Physical Environment | 79% |
| School Improvement | 67% |
| School Pride and Confidence | 81% |
| High Expectations for Success | 85% |
| Student Motivation and Support | 72% |
| Stimulating Learning Environment | 67% |
| Effective Teaching | 68% |
| Student Agency and Voice | 71% |
| Confidence and Resiliency Skills | 76% |
| Managing Bullying | 71% |
| Non-Experience of Bullying | 62% |
| Promoting Positive Behaviour | 76% |
| Respect for Diversity | 87% |
| School Connectedness | 86% |
| Positive Transitions | 82% |
The leadership team will continue to unpack the data with teachers and identify areas to improve. We will be introducing Seesaw next year as part of the way to ensure we are communicating students learning with parents. There will be a focus on a Parent Education suite over the year as well a continued focus on wellbeing and high quality teaching and learning.
Kindness Day
We are looking forward to celebrating Kindness Day tomorrow with some whole school cross grade activities and an afternoon exploring Kindness activities. Thank you to Ms Gemma Wild who is leading this whole school event, and is being supported by the Year 6 and Year 3 teams.
Make Kindness the Norm – Excerpt from Brooke Jones, Vice President, The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
‘After recently.... reflecting ...I remember being asked,
“How do you think we can change the world?”
Without even thinking about it, I responded, “We have to make kindness the norm, not the exception.”
...Humans spend so much time and energy focusing on the negatives that affect us. When a moment of kindness appears, it’s as if a fog has been lifted... just for a moment. It’s lovely. It makes us feel good. We smile. But, then the fog rolls back in and we go back to ‘the norm’ of our daily lives. We don’t put in the effort to truly appreciate and reflect on those moments.
What is your ‘norm’? Where do those moments appear in your day and how frequent are they? My guess is that many of us will have a hard time answering that question because we don’t register those experiences when they happen. They are simply short, passing moments of delight.
But, what if we started being intentional about not only noticing and absorbing them when they happen to us, but creating those moments for others? What if we made it a point to go slightly outside of our comfort zone at least once a day to make someone smile? To share a compliment with a co-worker or friend? To reach out to a family member we haven’t spoken to in awhile? What if we stopped thinking about them as random acts of kindness and started thinking about them as intentional acts of kindness?
There are things we do every single day with intention, yet we don’t even think about them. We wake up, take a shower, brush our teeth, get dressed, drive to work or school… all part of our invisible routine. What if we added a moment of kindness to our invisible routine? What if we woke up and as we turn the alarm off, we immediately send an uplifting text message to a friend? Or during the morning commute, what if we let that guy merge into traffic with a wave and a smile instead of feeling upset or slighted?
As we celebrate World Kindness Day (Sunday 13th November) , I invite you to look for ways to make kindness the norm in your daily life. World Kindness Day is a great day to begin building a new routine which means including intentional moments of kindness, laughter and delight. It also means taking a moment to enjoy and recognize when those things are happening.
Kindness starts with one. One smile. One compliment. One cup of coffee. One conversation.
Let’s lift the fog and make kindness the norm.
#MakeKindnessTheNorm”
I look forward to seeing Karoo create a whole school mural tomorrow to recognise Kindness Day. It is one of our new Values Kindness - with courage and connection we belong. In a world were we can be anything, be kind.
Have a wonderful week,
Danielle Heatley
Principal
