Leadership and Management
Pre-Review Visit
On Friday, we will welcome Christine Wakeling to Galilee who will be conducting our External Review. Christine will be visiting Galilee on Friday for a Pre-Review-Visit. She will have a tour of the school, meet with Leaders and take away a culmination of work that has been completed over the past four years. Christine will return in Week 1 of Term 4 where she will spend more time Reviewing the past four years and setting direction for the next four years.
External School Review
Every four years Primary Schools are Reviewed by an external reviewer who critiques the performance data, evidence and any additional information gathered by the school. The Reviewer recommends refinements or further development to be considered in the formation of the ensuing School Improvement Plan (SIP). A School Improvement Plan is written during the Review process and sets out the scope of work for the next four years. An external school review report is prepared and provides a basis for further dialogue and planning.
We look forward to working with Christine on Friday and in Week 1 next term.
Peer Mediation
Tomorrow, 8th September, The Year 5 students will participate in The Peer Mediation Program facilitated by Kids Matter.
The Peer Mediation Program aims to create an environment that is positive, caring, safe and friendly. Peer Mediation teaches students to resolve low-level conflicts using their peers as mediators. Mediation opens up communication channels allowing the disagreeing students to discuss their problems and come to a resolution with the guidance of the mediators.
Students may develop improved skills in:
- Communication
- Problem solving
- Conflict management
The school may notice results in:
- Improved yard safety
- Reporting of low-level problem situations
- Increased co-operation within the community
Mediation training and the use of mediation can assist students in the school community in several ways:
- Students are taught skills such as listening, critical thinking and problem solving, which can be brought to bear in solving their own conflicts as well as the problems of their peers
- Mediation is an empowering process in which students learn to assume greater responsibility for resolving their own problems
- Mediation can sensitise students to cultural differences and how to approach these issues in respectful ways
Galilee School Report Format to Change
Galilee's School Reports are currently under review and the format of the Semester Two Report, that will go home to all families at the end of the year, will be different from previous School Reports.
As you will already be aware, all families receive a formal written report on their child’s learning achievement twice a year - in June and December. Teachers are continuously gathering, analysing, reflecting and moderating student evidence to making informed and consistent judgement about student achievement. Student achievement is formally reported on twice a year through the School Report.
Within the School Report, parents are informed of their child’s achievement in relation to age-related expected level of achievement that is outlined in the Victorian Curriculum.
In order to make the School Reports more informative Galilee are currently reviewing the School Report format. In Term Two, a representative team of students, parents and teachers sat to discuss how the School Report could be improved. The recommendations made by this team have informed the new format that will be used for our Semester Two Reports.
The School Reports will continue to display the student achievement against the Victorian Curriculum in the form of a dot that is placed at the stage of the curriculum that the student is currently working at. The dot will continue to show growth since the last report and will display if the student is working at, below or above standard in relation to age-related expected level of achievement outlined in the Victorian Curriculum.
The new Report format will continue to contain a personalised General Comment about the students personal and interpersonal skills, thinking skills, organisational skills as well as behaviour and effort in the classroom.
The difference between the previous School Report and the new School Report, that you will receive in December, will be to Areas of Achievement and Areas of Improvement. In the past Achievement and Improvement have been formatted in dot point comments made by the teacher that relate to the Victorian Curriculum. In the new School Report the Achievement standards, from the Victorian Curriculum, will be presented in a table and each student will be marked on the achievement standards against a scale. The scale will indicate the students level of mastery of each achievement standard. The table will indicate if the students is not able to demonstrate the skill, if they need assistance from the teacher to demonstrate the skill, if they can independently demonstrate the skill or if they have in fact excelled in the achievement standard. There will be a different table for each subject area that the student has participated in. Students will also be marked on their behavior and effort for each subject area.
The aim of this structure is to provide families with more information about how each student is performing within each subject area.
We will continue to update you on the new Report format as we get closer to December, when you will be receiving your child's next School Report.
We hope that you are as excited about this change as we are.