Message from the Principal 

NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK

The National Reconciliation Week 2022 theme is “Be Brave, Make Change”. It is a challenge to all Australians - individuals, families, communities, organizations and government to Be Brave and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so we can Make Change for the benefit of all Australians.

Last year, Reconciliation Australia encouraged all Australians to take action; not just in National Reconciliation Week but every week of the year. National Reconciliation Week 27th May to 3 June is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

The dates (27th May to 3 June) commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. National Sorry Day also falls on May 26th and remembers and acknowledges the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities, which we now know as ‘The Stolen Generations’.   

Reconciliation is an important journey for our school community as we all have a role to play when it comes to collectively building relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories, cultures, and futures.

This year, each class has worked with Emma Bamblett, an indigenous artist. She shared her connection to country and explained more about how indigenous people use art in story-telling. Each class has also developed their own Acknowledgement of Country which is on display in our classrooms.

The next significant step on this journey will be our curriculum day on Friday 10th June. On this day, our staff will work with an indigenous curriculum expert around the theme of “Connection to Country”. The focus will be on developing a deeper knowledge and capacity of how we can incorporate and embed the learning outcomes as outlined in the Victorian Cross Curriculum Priority Area “Learning About Aboriginal & Torres Strait islander History & Cultures” across our Inquiry, Literacy, Numeracy and other key areas. This will have the deepest impact across our school and is something we are very much committed and looking forward to.

Here is a link to the National Reconciliation Week Factsheet:

National Reconciliation Week Factsheet

FULL STEAM AHEAD

Recently our School Priority Sub Committee put a call out for parents and carers who are working in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts or Mathematics who may be able to lend their expertise to help excite, engage and educate our students during STEAM sessions. 

A big shout out to Janelle Browne for sending a very quick response back and an even bigger shout out for working with our Preps yesterday.

Janelle ran an amazing hands-on experiment in our STEAM room. Linking in with our Science Unit on Living Things, students explored how Polar Bear blubber helps to insulate from cold temperatures. Thanks again to Janelle for giving up her time to create what has clearly been a highlight for our Preps! She has also kindly donated some Scientific equipment which our older students will explore in the coming weeks! 

Whilst we have had a few delays accessing and utilising our STEAM room, it will be full steam ahead from this point forward.

Over the next coupe of weeks, Janelle will also be working with the Year 3 and Year 5 team on some very exciting science experiments.

If you are have expertise or knowledge to share in our priority area of STEAM, please contact Nigel Dunne or Janine Hough. 

Nigel.dunne@education.vic.gov.au

Janine.hough@education.vic.gov.au

OUR STUDENTS TEACHING OUR TEACHERS

At our staff professional learning meeting after school on Wednesday, our team participated in a session around student goal setting. This is pretty exciting stuff in itself as we work to build on some of the high quality practice around student goal setting that has been developed across our school over the past few years. However, what was most exciting during the session, was our Year 6 students who were teaching the teachers. Our school has focused heavily on student agency and voice and there is no better way to walk this talk than having our students work with our staff to develop a consistent goal setting model. The session was developed under the leadership of Becc Stephens. 

Becc worked with our students from Years 1 - 5 over several focus group sessions to unpack how students like to set goals and how they like to work through achieving them. Some of the feedback provided by students during these sessions was: 

Year 2 students – liked that they were able to choose different goals from different year levels.

Year 3 students – like the QR codes and the variety of them.

Year 4 students – liked that they could pick their own goals.

Year 5 students – liked that you could pick any goal and the freedom of knowing that they could. 

Our students presented with passion and purpose and gave staff a very clear picture of the importance and power of effective goal setting. This is then supported by effective teaching and tracking which increases student agency and ensures that learning is differentiated, targeted and personalised.

We will keep you posted on our journey in this very exciting area.

STAFFING SHORTAGES 

We hear a lot in the news about the staffing shortages and pressures Covid19 and the flu are having on workforces across the country. Education is right in the middle of all of this. All schools are experiencing higher numbers than normal of staff being absent and this, combined with a shortage of replacement and casual relief teachers being available to cover classes when staff are away, is certainly testing us all.

To date, we have done our very best in working to minimise the impact staff absence has on student learning. We can thank our dedicated regular casual relief teachers and the support of agency staff as well. We know that the next few weeks will be particularly challenging. If staff are unwell they need to stay home and recover and if they have a family member to care for, they will also be absent. 

This will mean that on some days classes may be split, or a specialist area such as Art or Italian may not run for a day or more. If replacement staff are available, there may be situations where the class have different teachers over the days our Greenhills staff are absent. We will continue to try and ensure as much consistency as possible and we will make the best decisions each day around how to manage the school with the staff we have available.

I ask for your continued support and understanding with this. Through challenge and adversity, positive things can be achieved. Our staff team is certainly demonstrating GRIT during this time and we will work as hard and as smart as we can to continue to deliver a Greenhills quality education and environment each and every day.  

SAVE THE DATES – WHOLE SCHOOL PRODUCTION IS COMING…..

Put these dates in your calendar now: Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th September.

Yes – this year our school production will feature the whole school!

Our Year 5 & 6 students will be in the lead roles and main cast with all classes present an item throughout the show. 

More details and information will be communicated over the next few weeks including which classes will perform at our daytime and evening performances on these days. 

James Penson

Principal