Principal's Report 

CLASS STRUCTURES FOR 2021

After a great deal of thought and discussion with staff and parents, we have decided on a way forward in terms of the class structure for 2021.  A big thank you to parents who completed the survey last week. Combining the survey results with staff views has provided us with a strong sense of what people think of the various options.  This insight has helped us decide on a way forward, but also will serve as a guide as we prepare for the changes and communicate with everyone along the way.

We have had a number of years of straight classes at Buninyong and 3 full time classes at Scotsburn, so change of this nature can be challenging for students, staff and parents.  As such, we’re glad to have taken considerable time over the past 7 weeks to understand our position, devise options and work those through with staff and parents to come up with what we think is best for everyone. 

When all is said and done, we can only staff the school to a level that fits within the resources provided by DET (Department of Education and Training) and it became clear late last term that we would need to reduce our teaching staff numbers by at least 2. We have decided to achieve this by setting up as follows:

Scotsburn – As per the only model we discussed.  This has 3 classes operating until lunch time each day, but condensing to 2 classes for 3 afternoons each week.  This reduces teaching staff at the campus by 0.2, which is proportional to a saving of 2.0 at Buninyong (Buninyong has more than 10 times the number of students as Scotsburn). 

Buninyong – Whilst we have become accustomed to and enjoyed the simplicity of straight classes, it has become clear that trying to maintain this arrangement would lead to large class sizes, in some instances up to 30 students.  It was also evident that for some cohorts, students would be in classes of that size for 3 or 4 years.  In the end we didn’t think this was fair on the students and staff involved. 

There was the option of gradually moving to the deployment of composite groupings, but we decided it makes more sense to have everyone (except the preps) in the same boat and have composite groups for 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6.  As you can see in the table below, this enables us to develop classes of a manageable size across the school. 

Other features relating to this model worth mentioning include:

• We retain smaller classes for the P-2s, which meets DET recommendations.
• Projecting forward, we think this structure would be achievable for at least the next few years….hopefully long term, depending on where the numbers fall. This is important as changing the structure will come with a number of adjustments and we don’t want to be doing this more often than needed.
• This is exactly the model adopted successfully by a number of other schools in Ballarat and across the state.  That is not a coincidence.  The model works well in terms of teaching and learning, whilst enabling schools to manage class groupings effectively and equitably.
• Having our teachers plan together each week continues to be important.  This is a brilliant way of developing staff knowledge and skills, but also ensures there is consistency between classrooms.  We will continue to use our specialist timetable to facilitate team planning, but it will look slightly different.
• We will need to adjust our themes and transitional events (camps, Story of Buninyong, Scratch & Patch, etc) to fit, but that can be managed.  Given we expect to run with this class structure for at least the next few years (hopefully long term), a new routine will be established and become what we are accustomed to.
• This model increases opportunities for children to be separated from those they might not get along with.
• The model provides students with the opportunity to broaden their friendships to children outside their year level.  We understand some parents will be worried about their children losing existing friendships, particularly those children who battle socially and have a small friendship circle.  We will be mindful of these children and will be happy to work with parents to provide the support required.
• We know some parents are concerned about the capacity of staff to meet the individual learning needs of students in a composite class.  The spread of student learning needs will be slightly greater with composite groupings, but not to the extent that impacts on our capacity to meet individual needs.  It will be our responsibility to continue to differentiate the learning.

So where to now?

Informing and Reassuring Parents – 

• Newsletter - We will use the next few newsletters to answer frequently asked questions. These will be based on the questions that came through in the survey responses.  If you have questions, but didn’t get to complete the survey, please send them through to Dave or myself.
• Webex Sessions - We will also be inviting parents to attend Webex sessions over the coming month where we will explain various aspects of teaching with composite groupings.  Each session will have a slightly different focus and parents are welcome to join 1 or more of these sessions.  The first session will be held next Wednesday (Nov 18) at 7pm in Dave’s Webex Meeting Room (570 965 501).   This session will explore how we manage the curriculum with composite classes.  This includes how we will manage transitional events such as camps, excursions, Story of Buninyong, Scratch & Patch, etc. Other sessions will include:
  • meeting individual learning needs
  • catering for social and emotional needs
  • managing the changes at our Scotsburn Campus

Readying Our Staff for the Change – There is not a lot that needs to be done in terms of teaching practice, as good teaching is good teaching and these practices won’t change with the introduction of composite classes.  The work we do to develop staff knowledge and skills in this area will continue.  But we do have quite a bit to sort out in terms of routines and processes. We have a plan in place to work through all of this and obviously this work will all carry through to next year.  As 2021 unfolds, we will monitor progress carefully and address needs as they arise.

As always, feel free to make contact if there’s anything you’d like to discuss relating to your child or if you would like to talk through any of the above.  Ultimately we want everyone to feel confident and comfortable with what is in store for their child in 2021.