Spotlight on HOM 

Thinking Interdependently - Principal Class Team

What am amazing week to talk about Thinking Interdependently at Kingswood Primary School. 

Over the past term, the whole community has worked very closely together at a range of different levels:

• The students, Parent Club, School Council and the staff have all come together to think interdependently when planning for Mrs. Cosentino’s departure.  There were presentations to be made, celebrations to be organised, mementos to be created and all within a short timeline.  There was a lovely fluidity to everything because we acted as one giant team made up of smaller sub groups, all working together with a common goal.
• Parents, Teachers and Integration Aides work together throughout the year to prepare individualised learning plans for many of our students.  These plans demonstrate our ability to think interdependently for the benefit of the students.  This work culminated in recent weeks, in Semester Reports and Parent-Teacher Interviews.
• Teaching Staff have been busy planning for Term 3.  This involves sharing ideas, listening to each other, coming up with strategies and approaches, negotiating and finalising one cohesive plan.  This thinking interdependently is one example of our staff modelling the behaviour we seek in our students.
• Many of our teams are working on Case Management approaches this year.  This involves the PLC team examining the student data at a much deeper level than just skill development.  The members of each Professional Learning Community think interdependently when they select one student in the cohort and examine all of the data related to that student – academic, attendance, social, emotional, interventions in place, etc.  While the focus is on one student, the resulting discussion raises strategies and approaches that teachers can use with a wide variety of students.  By owning the data of every student and thinking interdependently, the teachers leave the discussion primed to improve the outcomes for every student.
• The students, staff and parents did a lot of interdependent thinking in planning and running the Year 5 and Year 6 camps.  Parents support the school in a variety of ways, which models the thinking interdependently disposition for the students, thus improving the culture at Kingswood Primary School.

Through Semester 2, the Kingswood School Community will continue to think interdependently as we prepare for our School Strategic Plan Review in Term 4.  This process involves students, parents and staff so please watch out for information on Parent Forums that will take place early next term.  All of the feedback will be used to evaluate processes and practices at Kingswood Primary School at a very formal level, which will be reviewed by a panel of external professionals from a range of backgrounds.  The whole team will then think interdependently again to identify specific goals, on which we will focus our work for the next four years.  This is an important process and we look forward to engaging with you to ensure the direction of the school is strong, directed and relevant to our students, families and staff.