Principal's Report
School House Captains
Last week I had the pleasure of announcing our house captains for 2020. I look forward to working with our school sport leaders. Congratulations to:
Bradman: Jye W, Jordin E
Freeman: Conner H, Agatha B-M
Coombes: Kye B, Ella M
Jackson: Jacob B, Ruby C
Social Media Expectations
Our school has developed the following guide using our PBL exectations for all users of school associated social media platforms.
School Improvement Journey
Our second priority is to improve reading outcomes for students through a whole school, evidence-based approach to reading. This is reflected in high levels of ongoing reading growth and achievement across the school.
The key actions we have identified to achieve this are:
- K-6 Establish Reader’s Workshop as the whole school approach to teaching reading.
- P-6 Embed the 10 Essential Literacy Practices.
- P-6 Establish a feedback on practice model aligned to Reader’s Workshop and the 10 Essential Literacy Practices.
- P-6 Build capacity of school leaders to lead Professional Learning Teams.
- P-6 Embed the practices and philosophies of Professional Learning Communities.
We are determined to expand and strengthen our literacy improvement journey in 2020 through our involvement in the Early Years Literacy Initiative . The Early Years Literacy Initiative (EYLI) has been designed to impact early years (P-2) literacy learning through improving the implementation of early years literacy practices and developing leadership knowledge and capacity within the participating schools. The initiative has been designed to support the implementation of 10 Essential Instructional Practices in Early Years Literacy identified by current research conducted by Prof Nell Duke et al (General Education Leadership Network, Michigan). These 10 high utility instructional practices are essential to improving literacy outcomes.
Who is Christine Topfer?
Christine is a past ALEA National Vice President and is the assistant principal of Moonah Primary School in Hobart. She has worked as a school leader, literacy coach and early years teacher. Chris has published journal articles, contributed to publications, co-authored two books Supporting literacy learning in the early years, and Guiding thinking for effective spelling and led literacy action research projects. She has presented nationally and internationally in a range of literacy areas including spelling, writing, reading comprehension and leading literacy improvement. Chris was awarded ALEA Life membership in 2009 and the AITSL award for Excellence in Teaching and School Leadership in 2013.
Term 1
Tuesday week 5 - Christine Topfer and Instructional Mentors from the School Improvement team will be in our school for part of one day. Christine will demonstrate one lesson for all preschool, kindergarten, year 1 and year 2 teachers. A de-brief with Christine and staff will occur after the demonstration lesson.
Term 2
Christine and Instructional Mentors from the School Improvement team will be in our school for part of one day and will be involved in separate planning sessions with the kindergarten and year 1 and 2 teams (or 1/2 team).
Term 3
Christine and Instructional Mentors from the School Improvement team will be in our school for part of one day. A Learning Walk and Talk will occur with the School Improvement team, Christine and the school leadership team. A meeting with the leadership team will occur before and after the Learning Walk and Talk. Feedback will be written by the School Improvement team and emailed to the school on a date following the visit.
Term 4
There will be a leader session in week 5 for all phase 7 schools to support ongoing implementation.
Whole School Professional Learning
In week 0, all staff participated in professional learning to enable us to implement Reader’s Workshop as our whole school approach to reading. By the end of Term 1, all staff will have participated in Professional Learning to deepen our understanding of The 10 Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy.
- Deliberate efforts to foster motivation and engagement within and across lessons
- Read alouds of age appropriate books and other materials, print or digital
- Small group and individual instruction, using a variety of grouping strategies, most often with flexible groups formed and instruction targeted to children’s observed and assessed needs in specific aspects of literacy development
- Activities that build phonological awareness (Years K and 1 and as needed thereafter)
- Explicit instruction in letter-sound relationships
- Research-informed and standards-aligned writing instruction
- Intentional and ambitious efforts to build vocabulary and content knowledge
- Abundant reading material and reading opportunities in the classroom
- Ongoing observation and assessment of children’s language and literacy development that informs their education
- Collaboration with families in promoting literacy
