School News 24/02

Thank you to everyone who have been supporting the ‘Active Travel Project’ and encouraging students to walk from the Bellbrae Reserve down to school. It has gathered momentum and the initiative has been featured in the latest edition of Surfcoast Times. Tomorrow will see the final (for now) visit from the Coffee van, which certainly has been well patronised and enjoyed by our families. However, please continue to be part of the project which not only further develops the health and general wellbeing of students, but also relieves traffic congestion around the school.

Edible Garden – Representatives from Bunnings and the Surfcoast Times visited our Edible Garden yesterday to witness the erection of the new sign to welcome people to the entrance of the garden. Bunnings have donated a variety of things that will be utilised in the garden and provided outdoor learning experiences for the students. Thanks to Lachie and Tony for their ongoing work in this space.

Parent Teacher Information Sessions – It was pleasing to see so many parents participate in the information sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. It’s always good to be aware of what activities students participate in across the different year levels, and our teachers are keen to keep open lines of communication with all parents. Please keep in regular contact with your child’s teacher if you have any concerns about their learning or wellbeing, or alternatively, contact one of the Principal Class if your concerns are of a more serious nature.

Literacy Focus - In Foundation to Grade 3 we have introduced a MSL (Multisensory Structured Literacy) approach to spelling.

This evidence-based approach involves the simultaneous use of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic-tactile (hand/body movement) pathways to enhance memory and learning of written language. We provide direct instruction to ensure links are consistently being made between the visual (language we see), auditory (language we hear/perceive), and kinaesthetic-tactile (language symbols we feel).

Throughout our daily phonics lessons (30 minutes) our teachers provides review of prior learning and explicit instruction of new concepts, which is modelled and then followed by the students on individual whiteboards (I do, we do, You do). This follows a sequence of decoding (reading) and encoding (writing) to strengthen neural pathways.

Our MSL Phonics Lesson Sequence is:

Sound Pack – review of previously learnt sounds

Handwriting – correct letter formation and directionality of letters

Phoneme encoding – written letter representations for learnt sounds to build quick recall

Review – Decode (read) word using learnt letter representations and spelling rules

Teach new skill (Explicit and Direct Instruction) – modelled by teacher and followed by students (I do, we do, you do). This includes isolation of new sound/concept aswell as sounding out/writing words that include the new skill.

Irregular Words – practising words that are true ‘sight words’ - words that cannot be decoded (sounded out) using known/conventional spelling rules

Spelling Dictation – application of new skill into sentences.

Oral Reading – to practice accuracy and fluency skills when decoding learned spelling patters in application, including attention to punctuation – this occurs within MSL lessons and/or our Literacy Block.

We are extremely excited to be following this approach, and students are highly engaged in their lessons. We look forwards to sharing more about this approach with you throughout the year – via our website, SeeSaw and newsletters.

Moving back into buildings – This week we have been slowly transitioning into some of the classrooms that have been subject to remediation work, which is now complete. (This includes the reopening of the toilet block in the Amin Block.) The following classes are now back in their allocated spaces: FC, 3C, 1A and 2C. Hopefully all the rooms will be back in action shortly.

Enjoy the last weekend of summer, and a special mention of ‘GOOD LUCK’ to Mrs Kahle who is playing in her Cricket Grand Final this weekend. I have no doubt she’ll soon get a call up to the Aussie test squad!

Adrian Waters