School News 10/03

Student Leadership – Yesterday the student and staff leadership groups got together for a ‘brunch meeting.’ It was an opportunity to celebrate and share ideas surrounding school improvement. Student voice and agency is an area that we are placing more emphasis on, and we had some good insights from our School Captains of their perceptions on issues confronting our students. We will certainly be taking their opinions on board and will be implementing some of their suggestions.

Our School Captains and Vice Captains after enjoying a ‘brunch meeting’ with school leadership.

Flooding – ‘Oh no not again!’ Unfortunately our Admin Building was once again flooded over the last weekend. We have had to relocate three Foundation classes and one Grade Three class to the BER and new building. Besides the logistical nightmare, it was really sad to see all the hard work and finances invested in restoration after the last flood event, sadly ruined again. All the brand new carpeting has had to be removed and we have also had multiple resources and furniture water damaged. I have nothing but praise for the way our staff and students adapt to unplanned change, and would like to thank staff and families for your patience and understanding. It is extremely frustrating to me as a school leader, that all the relevant professionals and trades have not been able to mitigate flood damage. On Monday I met with representatives from the Victorian School Building Authority, architects, plumbers, project managers and civil engineer to seek an urgent response. We simply cannot continue to be subject to what I believe are preventable events. However, we do need to maintain a sense of perspective, and there are many residents on the east coast who have suffered severe losses that are far more significant than what we have endured.

NAPLAN – This year all Grade Three and Five students across the state will do their NAPLAN Assessments online. We are hoping that there will not be any technological issues with the system and we will also participate in school readiness testing. I am well aware that some students find this form of assessment stressful, and I encourage you to not place any additional pressure on your kids regarding the tests. They simply provide one additional data set, and are not an indication of the overall ability, creativity and skills of your child.

Learning Tasks - This year we have transitioned from sharing learning tasks on Compass to our whole school learning platform, Seesaw. Learning Tasks are a point in time reflection of a student’s achievement based on the Victorian Curriculum. In the past these have been added to the semester reports as they were completed via Compass, however now with our delivery via Seesaw, they will not be included in reports. As the learning task is an individual activity that provides information to parents about their child’s achievement for the task, we have found that by including these on semester reports has led to some confusion in the past as the achievement level is often different to the child’s progression point at the end of each semester, particularly as the task may have been completed months before. It has been wonderful seeing parent engagement with their child’s learning over Seesaw, and we hope that this platform is providing families with an insight into the learning that is taking place in your child’s classroom.

Music Bus - Bellbrae Primary school is introducing the fabulous Music Bus Program in term 2. We will be holding a launch day on Monday 21st March. Parents and students will have the opportunity to learn more about the Music Bus and more info can be found at www.themusicbus.com.au.

8:30am - 9:00am - Parents can visit the bus on site, meet the teacher and ask any questions.
9:00am - 12:30pm - There will be interactive tours for the students.

Following the demo day, you will be given the opportunity to indicate if you would like to join the program via an Expression of Interest form given to the children.

Enjoy the upcoming long weekend. I hope you all get to spend time with your family and are able to have some fun somewhere on our wonderful Surfcoast. I’m certain I don’t need to remind you that from a health and wellbeing perspective, we benefit more from activity than from a screen and sofa!

Adrian Waters