Principal's Message

Next Thursday, we are celebrating World Teachers/ Learning Support Officers (LSO)/ Office Staff Day at SMDP. 

I know many of you would have fond memories of your primary school teachers. Growing up in the country, I went to a small rural school and I clearly remember each of my teachers, especially Mr Hunter in Gr 5/6  with his big burly voice but caring nature. The work that teachers do can sometimes be immeasurable and the teachers at this school are of the highest standard.

We do not take it lightly that you leave your precious children with us. 

At St Martin de Porres the whole staff works really hard to make sure every child is getting what they need to thrive. We plan for every child’s learning needs and we think carefully about the best way to make sure every child is achieving success along the way.

Have you heard of Professor John Hattie? He is a very famous leader in education and his reputation is known and respected around the world. He now lives in Melbourne. Hattie has written many books guiding countries on how to manage their education systems to ensure we create the best learning environments.  Our educational approach at SMDP of ‘Visible Learning’ is based on his research. 

One of his books combined all the educational research available, literally thousands of pieces of research data and he put them all together and found the things that schools were doing that made a difference and the things that schools were doing that had no effect on the student’s learning.

Interestingly, his work is not aimed at parents but I think it should be. He says very clearly that parents shop around for schools comparing things that they think matter a great deal, but actually most of the things that they think matter actually don’t. 

Many things parents value as important, do not have any effect on student learning. 

Parents surveyed in Melbourne believed that private schools made a difference, as did making children do their homework and wearing a uniform. Some parents believed a school being single sex or co-ed made a difference, but actually, it doesn’t. Many parents thought the number of LSO’s employed, the level of autonomy a Principal has to run their own school and how much money a school gets makes an impact.

All these things are factors but Hattie’s research shows these are not major factors at all.  Some don’t make much, if any, difference to the success of the students.

Hattie’s research finds that it is the teacher that makes the difference and that difference can be huge.

What makes a huge difference is the quality of the teacher, the passion, the knowledge, the skills and commitment of the teacher makes the MOST difference of all. You cannot buy passion. You cannot train people to be passionate about making a difference in the lives of our students. You cannot buy an interest in children’s wellbeing. You cannot replace excellent teachers with computers, with software programs or with any other device. Teachers are the single biggest factor in every student’s learning progress. 

I am proud to say that I work with some of the best teachers our country has. The staff at St Martin de Porres believe that every child can learn given the right amount of support and resources and they are always working to improve what they do so that every one of our students can achieve their potential. They work passionately together every day to make a difference. 

I want to thank our SMDP staff for what they do every day with effort and passion to enable our children to become the very best people that they can be. 

We will celebrate this together next Thursday.

With thanks,

Dan Ryan

Principal

St Martin de Porres Primary School is committed to creating an environment where the safety, wellbeing, and participation of all children within our care is paramount. 

2022 School Closure Days

Listed below are our school closure days for 2022. These are student free days. Staff use these days to further develop their learning and keep informed with current practice and procedures. 

NOTE: These dates may be subject to change that may be outside of our control.