Mr Irwin's Message
Hello Families, and welcome to our final newsletter for 2020.
There are a few things to chat about, so lets get right into it!
Earlier this week we had our step-up day. Students were very excited to meet their home group and cohort teachers for next year and spend time in their learning spaces.
Students brought home a letter on Tuesday afternoon where we explained who their home group teacher and cohort teachers are. This is some new language we’ve strategically used for 2021 that I wanted to elaborate on further.
We’ve been tactical in making sure all of our cohorts are aligned next year so that in Literacy and Numeracy students will work with all three cohort teachers in the subjects depending on their point of need.
For example, in the Year 1/2’s Mrs Wells, Mr Smith and Miss Whyte are the cohort teachers of the 1/2s. In a particular week they might be focusing on place value. In this cohort there will be students ready to practice different aspects of place value. Some may be consolidating their understanding of numbers to 100, whilst some may be ready to partition numbers into the thousands.
At the beginning of each unit the1/2 teachers will meet and determine the skills each student is capable of and ready to practice next. They will then group students accordingly and plan meaningful learning tasks for students to practice. This will be the same for Reading and Writing lessons too. What this means is during the year your child will most likely connect with all of their cohort teachers and children in their cohort.
Their designated home group teacher will remain the primary point of contact if you wish to discuss your child’s learning progress or need to relay any concerns or have any questions etc. You may have noticed this team teaching approach has already been happening in the school this year when we were on-site.
In years 1/2 and 3/4 where we have three home group teachers instead of 2, these cohorts will make further use of flexible learning spaces available to us. Our Gallery in the Junior School will undergo some modifications over the break to make this a more comfortable learning space, and likewise the middle space that houses the library will be used by the 3/4s. I want to reiterate that as we continue to grow we will receive additional learning spaces from the Department of Education, but for the time being we have to be flexible with the spaces we have and we will work hard over the holidays to ensure these spaces are comfortable, suitable and engaging for the needs of students.
Reports
Next week Semester Reports will be distributed to families via the Sentral Portal. This semester these will include progression points which will show your child’s learning progression from this time last year in 2019. Reports will include learning continuum from literacy and numeracy which show the curriculum skills your child has achieved in literacy and numeracy, as well as the next level of learning skills they are working towards.
Special Thanks
I now want to take the time to thank some key groups in our community. Firstly, I want to thank our parent group for their resilience and support during the year. We’ve made it! The work you all committed to at home to support students at home during remote learning was tremendous. As was your patience with the situation we found ourselves in.
To our school staff, I couldn’t be prouder of the work they did during such a difficult year. School wasn’t meant to be remote but the lengths they went to, to support students was incredible. I hope families have a new appreciation for the work our staff do.
And finally our amazing students. This has been a year of disruption like no other. However, our students have all given learning this year their best effort and have achieved some excellent results. They should all be proud of the work they’ve put in and how they have coped in unprecedented times.
I wish everyone an enjoyable last week at school before holidays. Enjoy your Supaworld excursions early in the week, and best wishes to our year 6 students as they graduate from Primary School with our celebration on Tuesday evening.
In Conclusion
Our final assembly will be on Thursday afternoon at 2:45pm. With good weather permitting we will host this outdoors and parents will be welcome to attend.
I wish everyone a safe and Happy Christmas and New Year period. I hope it’s a chance to relax, enjoy the company of family and recharge before we do it all again in 2021!
Bye for now!
2021 BYOD iPad Program Years 3 to 6
A reminder to families, our Bring Your Own Device Program will continue next year to include all students in Years 3 to 6. For parents with students in year two this year, please read the attached information document which explains terms and conditions, the purpose of the program as well as specification and application requirements.
We are excited to offer this opportunity again to all students that will be in Year 3-6 in 2021. We understand this could be a costly outlay for some families. It is an optional program but we have seen its success over the past 4 years in Year 5/6 classes, with over 90% of students participating. We hope that by extending the program to commence in Year 3, the iPad device purchased (whether that be new or second hand) lasts the distance over those 4 years of schooling and that you see the benefit, both financial and academic, in having your child/ren a part of this program.