The Principal's Report

How was your day?

Everyone will have asked their child how their day at school was and I know that answers might have been short with little detail.  Sometimes you might have to catch your child off guard to get more information or to ask a different sort of question. 

This week I have been attending two days of the Education State: School Leadership Conference. One of my sessions was with Laureate Professor John Hattie - Chair of AITSL - the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.

John challenged us to have conversations with our students about their learning struggles because that is where the challenge and new thinking will come from. One of the thoughts that resonated with me was that a messy problem and the excitement about learning should be our focus. As well as understanding facts, learning to read, write and use many different mathematical skills our students also need to know what to do if they are struggling.

- Does your child know to ask their teacher for assistance if they do not know what to go?

- Do they value the time they spend trying to learn something, as well as the actual learning?

- How can you assist your child to understand the how of there learning is as important as the what of their learning?

Next time you talk to your child about their day at school why not ask them 'What did you struggle with today? Talk to me about this, tell me what you tried when you couldn't do something.'

The role of teacher learning

As a teacher and leader I am responsible to continue my own learning, to grow my knowledge and thinking around the many facets of education. I do this through professional reading, conversations with colleagues, discussions around problems of practice with teachers and at times attending professional learning programs. The Education State: School Leaders Conference is an opportunity to learn from and engage with local and international expert practitioners and my peers. The program focuses on inspiring strong instructional leadership. 

I see my role as knowing what good teaching practice looks like, in my career as a principal and assistant principal I have always been involved in coaching teachers and working alongside them in classrooms to build our skill and capacity.

Each term our staff participate in professional learning, on July 17th we will be working with Kath Murdoch exploring Personal Inquiry and iTime. A reminder that this will be a Pupil Free Day. As mentioned in a previous newsletter article this was the only time our speaker had free all year. I look forward to sharing our learning with you in a newsletter after July 17th. 

Cultural Understanding and Sensitivity Training

Our staff commence Cultural Understanding and Sensitive Training next Thursday afternoon. We will be involved in four hours of CUST learning. The purpose of the training is to increase our understanding of Koorie culture, history and experience to ensure a strong foundation for culturally inclusive practices within our school. This is a system wide initiative under that Marrung: Aboriginal Education Plan. 

We will:

- gain an understanding of Aboriginal culture and society pre colonisation, the impacts of colonisation as well as learn about some of the impacts of post-colonisation.

- learn about the local community demographics and resources, including local Aboriginal organisations and committees/groups, to better support engagement and more effectively support students and families. 

- gain an improved understanding of the importance of equity and inclusion in educational practice.

- learn about challenges faced by some Koorie people in engaging confidently with schools.

- gain an understanding of how the vision of Marrung aligns with the requirement to teach Aboriginal perspectives in the Victorian Curriculum.

- learn what 'Aboriginal perspectives' means, and how this differs from teaching Aboriginal 'culture'.

- learn about the expectations relating to consultation and input from Aboriginal communities, and the process involved

Through this learning we will be better able to teach our students and provide them with the perspective of the first Australians.

This will form the start of our work around Cultural Understanding and how we can work together as a community to learn about each other and provide support and understanding to each other. 

Masterplan update

We have received the last draft of our Masterplan and will shortly provide the final feedback to the landscape architects. I have included the latest version of our plan for your information. The completed plan will include approximate costings and a step by step approach to completion of the work. We are excited to be so close to sharing this plan with you. 

Student voice

This week I have completed undertaking the Attitude to School survey with our Year 4 to 6 students, I have been able to spend time in classrooms, sharing stories, talking about reading and asking some of our students what it is that they love about coming to school. My conversations with students also included a meeting with the Junior School Council asking them - 

- Why do your parents send you to this school?

- What do you love and not want to lose about the school??

- If you could change one thing (not a pool) and one only what would it be?

- What do you want by the time you leave our school?

These questions form part of the work being undertaken by Kristen Schultz and myself around Partnering for Learning - with a focus on parents. We look forward to involving some of you in this work as it progresses next term. 

Directory

A reminder that you will have been sent a final reminder about participation in the school directory for your child's class. The whole community was sent a Sentral message with the links to the Google forms for each year level. We will be putting together the directories in the next week. Please complete the form as soon as possible if you want to be included. 

Baby Batt has arrived!

Congratulations to Cameron and Kerry on the safe arrival on Baby Noah.

Susanne Lowe