Marlborough Primary School

Acting Principal's Report

Welcome to Term 2

I trust that all of our students and their families had a good break from the rigors of learning over the past two weeks.  I had the chance to get away with my family for a 4-night camping break down at Wye River.  It is times that like that remind me just how resilient kids are and how they are happy to get in and help out - sure it was more the collecting firewood than doing the dishes, but it is these experiences that fill my spirit as a parent and remind me why I got into education in the first place. Working with young people to have new experiences, make mistakes and grow each day. 

 

Term 2 at Marlborough is looking like being as busy as usual with cross country athletics, student reports, first aid courses for all students, open water learning experiences (years 3-6), 3-6 school camps, NAPLAN, Education Week, as well as our wonderful teaching and learning program! 

A HUGE congratulations

For those who are connected to the Marlborough Primary Facebook page (and for those who are not here is the link  https://www.facebook.com/MPSHeathmont/ ) you would have read my post during the holidays about our outstanding student results, some of the top in the state for 2018.  While we were notified in the last week of Term 1 we needed to hold onto the information due to a media embargo. 

 

We were informed that we were one of the highest achieving schools in student growth - meaning our students are achieving a greater increase in skills and knowledge than expected between Year 3-5 and Year 5 -7. This data is based on individual students starting points and looking at 'how much they have grown'. This is a significant achievement for our school, however, is not just sheer luck or a 'good group of students'.  While this has not been a specific benchmark we have been seeking to achieve, over the past number of years, as a whole school we have been working to improve outcomes for all of our students, and this is further evidence of our school achieving this goal. 

 

All members of the Marlborough community are to be congratulated as this really is a team effort. We have an outstanding staff who are willing to critically analyse and diagnose what is happening in our classrooms and have open and honest discussions with each other, school leaders, and also engage in targeted professional learning to improve their own teaching skills to reduce the differences between classrooms (the thing that has the highest effect size on student learning, Hattie, 2018) and work as clinicians in their everyday work. 

 

Our students have been willing to be taken on a learning journey (slightly cliche sounding, but very true) which has pushed their understanding of how they learn, how to provide feedback to their teacher about their experience in the classroom, develop a deeper understanding of their own personal learning needs, and working at their point of need, regardless of what their friends may be doing. 

 

The parent community at Marlborough has placed a lot of trust in us as a school to ensure their child is learning. This development at Marlborough has asked for even more trust and commitment as significant changes have been put into place which at times can feel unsettling to parents who may not be sure if the change is right for their child, so we say thank you for this trust in what we are doing. 

 

It is great to be able to report to our families that:

 

  • in Reading, 40% of our students are making higher than expected growth with a further 52% making expected growth.
  • in Reading, 54% of our Year 5 students are performing well above the expected level, with 70% of our Year 3 student also well above the expected level
  • in Numeracy, 92% of our students are making expected growth or higher (29%)
  • in Writing, 98% of our students are at the expected level or higher

 

These are clearly very positive results however we know there is still work to be done. Over this year we will be continuing to focus on improving Numeracy outcomes, our focus since the beginning of 2018, however, we will be working at analysing our next point of need as a whole school across the remainder of 2019, and formulating a plan of acting for 2020 and beyond. 

Assembly Changes

This term we will be trialing moving our whole school assemblies from 9 am Mondays to 3 pm Fridays.  A lot of schools have done this over the past few years and we can see many benefits from this change. Firstly, it allows for first things on Mondays, which is prime learning time to remain just that. Students being able to walk into class on a Monday morning and have the beginning of the week in their classroom providing a great launching pad for the weeks learning. 

 

Friday afternoon is a time of the week when less rigorous learning may be taking place, and we would rather have this time interrupted. We also have a growing number of students for whom beginning their week at assembly, which is noisy and a public forum is not the best start to their week, and we feel that this will enable them to be more settled in the start to their week. 

 

The change also allows for assemblies to be a celebration of the week that has just passed, celebrating student learning and achievement. We also feel that more families may be able to attend as this is a time where a lot of families who pick up their child are already at school, allowing us to build our community with more families being able to be there for student awards and sharing of news. 

 

As this is a short and interrupted week with public holidays, our first assembly for Term 2 will be Friday, May 3rd in the 4/5/6 building at 3pm. Students will then be taken back to their classrooms and dismissed by their classroom teacher at 3:30pm. 

Staffing Changes

This term we see a couple of staffing changes occurring at Marlborough.

 

Ashleigh McLerie will begin her maternity leave around the middle of May and Melissa Den Elzen will be stepping into Foundation/1B for the remainder of the year. Melissa is a highly experienced educator and will be not only stepping into the Foundation/Year 1 team this year but also brings with her a wealth of experience which we will have at Marlborough for years to come. 

 

Lisa Reiner has been appointed as Acting Assistant Principal at Marlborough while I am in the Acting Principal role for Term 2. Lisa will be remaining with her Year 6 classroom two days a week with Amanda Rethus stepping into 6A Monday-Wednesday. Amanda is known to many of our students as a relief teacher, and we are excited to have her on our staff for the term.