Assistant Principal News

Dear Parents and Carers

Stand-Up Paddle Boarding

On Tuesday the students of Year 5 and 6 walked to Batehaven with their teachers for the first of their two Stand Up Paddle boarding sessions which are being facilitated by Surf the Bay. Seeing the happy students and excited vibe made it very clear just how fortunate the students are to live in this location and to have the opportunity to be on the water with their peers. Many of the students were learning this skill for the first time which was a positive experience for them. We are very grateful for the grant we received to support this wellbeing initiative.

Personal Learning Pathway Meetings

Over four days Personal Learning Pathway meetings will be held for Aboriginal students in our school. Personal Learning Pathway Meetings are designed to provide an opportunity for collaborative goal setting for Aboriginal students, their parents and teachers. Cultural and learning goals are set, with a strong focus to ensure that students are able to develop their sense of identity as Aboriginal people. Trish Ellis will be attending many of these meetings, collaborating with students and families as we discuss the gifts and talents of the students and how we can support their continued growth. We especially look forward to meeting with the 9 Aboriginal students in Kindergarten for their first Personal Learning Pathway meeting in the coming weeks.

Classroom Mastery

Leaders of our three Catholic Schools on the coast recently undertook professional learning in Classroom Mastery, facilitated by leading classroom management expert Tim McDonald.

Schools who adopt Classroom Mastery require teachers to plan how their classrooms will run and teach this explicitly to their students. Learning is as successful as the culture, expectations, routines and rules taught to and reinforced with students.

Key goals of this classroom management approach are to:

Create consistently productive, safe and calm learning environments
Improve student wellbeing and create the classrooms they need with belonging, mastery, generosity and responsibility
Increase safety of classrooms and schools by proactively reducing disruptive behaviours
Dramatically improve student learning outcomes through increased engagement
Provide teachers with the knowledge, practice, demonstration and coaching they need to get the outcomes they desire
Apply evidence from the science of learning and the insights of cognitive load theory

All teachers in our schools will participate in this training on January 30 with collegues from our K-12 Pathway schools with planned implementation in the three schools at the commencement of the 2024 school year. We feel very fortunate that our schools were selected as the first schools in the Canberra Goulburn Catholic Education to be supported in implementing this program with the rest of the schools in our system to soon follow.

I hope that many of you were able to join us for the dance concert this afternoon.

Please note that next week Year 5 will lead our last Awards Assembly for the year on Thursday 23 November at 8.45am.

Have a lovely weekend.

Warm regards

Karen