Term 2 Week 6 2023 Newsletter

From the Principal

As a school, we have a lot to celebrate. Though it has been a busy few weeks, it has been filled with many examples of how amazing our students are, more school improvement, and the growing of our school’s capacity.

Sacrament of Confirmation / Community

I am a firm believer that we enrol children into our school and not into a classroom. This simply means that every child is every staff member’s responsibility. We are all part of every child’s education and development. It is with this belief that we become a school community / family.

This week five students celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation. In most schools, the Principal or leadership team and the classroom teacher would attend this celebration. On Tuesday night, nine staff members attended the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in support of these children. Of course, not every staff member was able to attend but this was a good representation of the support our staff extend to the children in our care. Click on the photo to view the enlarge image of our student celebrants.

National Simultaneous Storytime / Book Fair

Our school joined other educational settings around Australia to read the ‘Sleepy Sloth’. We were fortunate to have the Premier, Hon Peter Malinauskas MP, read the story to our school community.

At the start of the day, I shared my expectations with the students. I spoke about how we needed to show our best selves and represent the school with pride. The plan was that the school community would be seated in the hall five minutes before the Premier was due to arrive. Despite the Premier running late, our students demonstrated how amazing they are. They sat quietly and respectfully in Bilyonendi Hall for 20 minutes waiting for the Premier. Once the Premier arrived, our students interacted amazingly – a very proud Principal moment!

During this week, we also had the Book Fair at the school. Thank you to the staff that supported the Book Fair by supervising and managing it. Families purchased over $2200 worth of books resulting in our school receiving a $550 book credit to be spent on additional library books. Thank you for your support!

Year 6 Camp

Last week our Year 6 students attended Glenhaven Park Camp. The camp was full of activities and challenges which challenged students to move out of their comfort zone. Activities included the Tower Challenge, High Ropes, the Giant Swing, and Leap of Faith, which all required students to be high above the ground to participate. Before attending camp, I spoke with students about how this camp was one where encouragement, support and giving things a go were the focus.

It was pleasing that all students gave all the activities a go, and that many children had surprised themselves by what they achieved. This camp experience will set them up for success as they move into secondary education.

A big thank you to Mr Turbill, Ms Hackett, Mr Drogemuller and Mr Willoughby.

Uniform

I have recently sent out some information about school uniform. During discussions with students, some have asked, “Why have you changed the uniform, Mr Abela?”. My response to them is simple: “I haven’t really changed the uniform; I am just making sure we are wearing it correctly”. All schools and workplaces have some form of uniform the community members must wear; it creates school pride, identity and a level playing field.

There are only two changes that have occurred:

We have moved towards a trans-seasonal uniform (combining the summer and winter uniform into one), and
We are moving away from a traditional black school shoe to an all-black leather runner option.

Both these changes are designed to make life easier and more comfortable for our students and families.

As an enrolling parent of the school, you have agreed to support and abide by the rules and policies of the school. I am expecting the support of all families in ensuring our students are in the correct uniform. We are happy to work with families and support a transition but at the end of the day, the wearing of the correct uniform is an expectation of the school. Looking around the school, our uniform currently looks untidy and inconsistent - I am not sure anyone wants that for their child or our community.

School Improvement

On Friday 9 June our staff engaged with professional learning in writing. We are working to build consistency throughout many areas of the school. The introduction of InitiaLit and Promoting Literacy Development (PLD) have improved the reading and spelling outcomes for our students.

We are now ready to continue to progress in our literacy development, hence our focus on ‘writing’. All in-class staff will be part of the training so that, as a community, we can all support our students in writing.

Last week, construction of our junior Nature Play area began. We appear to be on track for its completion by the end of next week. We will unpack the rules and expectations with students about this space and how it is to be used, especially as it will have water and sand play. Though it is called ‘Nature Play’, it will also be used as an outdoor learning space – everything we do has a connection to learning.

Thank you for your support over the last term and a half. I walk around our campus proud of the students, staff, families and the community. Our school is moving in the right direction and our feedback from the community is positive. It is as a collaborative team that we have achieved this.

Lee Abela
Principal

Literacy update

Our Lady Queen of Peace is committed to improving writing outcomes across the school. As a staff, we wanted to develop a consistent approach and process of teaching writing throughout the school.

On Friday 9 June, all teaching and support staff engaged in a professional development day to begin our 7 step journey.

The Seven Steps to Writing Success program has been very successful in developing students’ writing skills and improving NAPLAN writing scores in a number of schools nationwide and focuses on the craft of writing by breaking these skills into manageable "chunks".

What is the Seven Steps Program?

The Seven Steps to Writing Success program was created by Australian author and teacher, Jen McVeity in 2004. Her Seven Steps to Writing Success program has proved to rapidly improve students’ writing skills and get students engaged in writing. The program is being successfully used in hundreds of schools, both in Australia and the USA.

Pedagogy behind the Seven Steps to Writing Success Framework

The Seven Steps to Writing Success program is underpinned by the principle of chunking writing into discrete, teachable elements of which students attain mastery through repetition. Emphasis is given to the importance of talking, brainstorming and planning before writing and the program encourages group and paired activities. (Jen McVeity, 2015).

The program is based on the following pedagogical principles:

Chunk learning (… “for any learning activity to be effective it has to be taught step by step”, John Fleming)
Repetition and practice reinforces learning (… “we have to process new material in order to transfer it from our working memory to our long-term memory”)
Brainstorm first – write second (…the prewriting stage involves brainstorming, planning and organising)
Verbal is Vital (…verbal language is critical for the development of literacy skills; it develops engaged, responsive and reciprocal learning relationships with children; all the research shows students learn better when they are active participants, not just passively listening)
Consistency creates change (… change can’t happen in a day, but by being consistent, change can happen in a term, Jen McVeity)

The Seven Steps to Writing Success are: