Leadership Report

Dear Saltwater community, 

Can you believe that we are nearing the end of our 2022 school year.  It has been incredible having all our students, staff and community members back onsite for a full academic year. 

Over the past fortnight there have been many events that we need to acknowledge and celebrate. Starting with... 

IB PYP Authorisation Visit

On November 14th and 15th we had Di Fisk and Nicholas Palmer visit our college and meet with all stakeholders. Our IB visiting team met with community members, teaching teams, students and staff discussing our schools journey with the attempt to understand our school context better as we implement the PYP framework. 

To become a fully accredited IB school, takes many hours of paper work to develop action plans and policies, a clear understanding and implementation of the IB philosophy and framework, teacher training and not to mention the financial commitment. Generally the IB framework is implemented at many private schools across the world. To be part of the IB international schools, when you’re a state government school, is presented with added challenges and hurdles that you need to overcome in order to even be considered for candidacy and accreditation. This is because you are trying to implement an existing framework and incorporate it within the department’s Victorian Curriculum.  In our case, we had to find a way to incorporate the IB PYP within the Victorian curriculum and ensure that we were compliant with both policies and guidelines.

At the end of the IB visit, Jackie and Michael met with our IB reviewers for their final comments before they go away and prepare our feedback report. Once we receive that report, we are then officially an IB accredited school. 

In summary this is what our IB Team Visitors had to say...

• A huge congratulations was given to the entire Saltwater Staff for creating such a ‘unique and constructivist’ approach to teaching and learning, thus creating a holistic learning environment where all stakeholders understand and live by the vision and the mission of the school. 
• There was a sense of pride across the college and evidence that our children take ownership of their learning. There was strong evidence of a a sense of belonging at Saltwater College. 
• There’s clear evidence of differentiation across the school and children can articulate what they are learning and why. 
• If they were living within the Point Cook area and had school aged children, they would without hesitation, send their children to our school. 
• They were impressed by what we have managed to achieve in such short span of time. 
• They commented on our flexibility, adaptability and the willingness to solve problems, our can do attitude to push forward despite all the hurdles that we have faced with our growing enrolments, disruptions not just in education but across the world, due to COVID and the COVID aftermath. 
• They talked about a Finnish professor who has done extensive research and written many papers on Constructivist Pedagogy. He is now in Australia and working with the IB. They mentioned that he would be interested in linking in with us to see how that approach and innovative model of teaching and learning operates within our school. 

This is something to definitely be proud of. Congratulations to everyone involved. 

Prep Transition

November 16th and Thursday 17th were very exciting days here at Saltwater College.

We welcomed our future youngest learners of the school, our Prep 2023 students and their families on the school grounds for the first time to take part in transition.

The students were welcomed by our Year 7 student leaders and were escorted to their classrooms for the first time with big smiles and lots of enthusiasm.

The students engaged in a range of entry activities that they are familiar with before settling in to listen to a mentor text, engaging in sharing their thinking, knowledge and future dreams for their primary school journey with us here at Saltwater College. The Prep teachers were enthused to get to know our future students as they shared their wonderings and curiosities about their new future school environment.

It was an absolute joy to see the knowledge, independence and enthusiasm that our future students demonstrated and we are very much looking forward to welcoming the students back for their second transition session on November 30th and December 1st.

Three-Way Conferences

Our Term Four Student Led Three Way Conferences will be held on Tuesday 6 December, 2022. 

Please note that to accommodate the availability for all parents to have an opportunity to book with their home group/subject teacher, we will be having an early dismissal at 12PM on Tuesday 6 December, 2022. 

This will allow our parents to make a booking from 12:30pm until 7:00pm to celebrate student success and achievements. 

Please note that we do encourage parents/guardians/caregivers to attend this important meeting. Student Led Conferences are another way of further improving our school and home partnership and allowing our children to see that their parents and teachers are working together and care about their education.  

Big Child Care is available for those parents, carers or guardians who require extra supervision services.

You can book a student-led three-way conference using the Xuno Family app under the Parent Teacher Interviews section in the Top Menu.

Student Attendance

Look out for a survey on attendance coming out in the next couple of weeks. 

Canteen

Just a notice for closure of the canteen next Monday 28th November as Anna and Lizzi are unavailable for the day. If you are requiring lunch orders can you please make alternate arrangements.

Student Free Days

The last day for students is on Friday 16th December.  We have two student free days on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th December.