Newsletter – Week 7, Term 2, 2022 – Message from Admin Team, Student Photos, Cross Country, Canteen, FREE: Navigating Autism Support for Children (Online), Celebrating Success

Message from the Executive Administration Team

Dear parents and caregivers

I hope the long weekend gave families the opportunity to recharge and reconnect. It is amazing what an extra couple of days can do, especially when the sun is shining. Whether you managed to get away or just spend a few days at home together, I hope it was enjoyable.

Teaching and Learning

National Reconciliation Week:

First Nations culture and histories were shared and celebrated in classrooms across the school last week. The theme of ‘Be Brave, Make Change’ was a topic of discussion in addition to connecting to the Country we live and learn on, Whadjuk Noongar Country.

On the Student Development Day, our staff engaged in some singing in Noongar. Our wonderful music specialist teacher Kate Humphreys has been teaching students to sing the 2^nd verse of the National Anthem in Noongar over the past few weeks. We warmed up to some Apples and Bananas by The Wiggles, accompanied by Kate on the ukulele. We then spent some time learning how to pronounce the Noongar words and sing along. The translation has been provided by the Massed Choir Festival with input from Elders. National Reconciliation Week is a time to celebrate the culture of our First Nations people but we will continue to do so each and every week as we work towards the goals in our Reconciliation Action Plan, which is still a work in progress.

Student Development Day:

In addition to a little singing, staff also engaged in lots of deep thinking, learning and connecting on Friday. As we approach the last six months of our Business Plan, it was as a great opportunity to come together and reflect on all that has been achieved in the first 2.5 years of the three-year cycle, noting areas for continued development and thinking about ways we can continue to refine what we do.

We also started to explore how we can create some common language around teaching and learning that aligns with current evidence and the science of learning through an instructional model. We have amazing teachers at our school who are highly collaborative and dedicated, working in professional learning communities every week. The goal is to continue our never ending journey of school improvement through the development of a contextual instructional model, to ensure connected practice is a shared belief and understood by all teachers who come to work at our school.

Finally, the last part of the day was an excellent hands-on session facilitated by STEAM teacher-leader, Ms Leila Sugden. This was focused on bringing the Creative Habits of Learning into the classroom, with staff challenged to create a catapult with a STEAM resource called Strawbees. Each staff group had to consider the specific learning dispositions they were displaying throughout the task, using rubrics and checklists to evidence their learning. It was lots of fun seeing teachers and EAs persist through difficulty and being put in the seat of the learner!

Learning Environment

UV Meter and SunSmart School:

On Friday, the school’s new UV meter was connected to the network and is now displaying live UV readings on the display. After years of trying to attain the meter, it is a very significant step for our community in raising awareness of being sun smart. With the launch of our new Sun Smart Policy, we have now been successfully awarded SunSmart School status by the Cancer Council. Thank you again to parents Lisa Oliver and Suzie Turner for partnering with us on this journey.

You can check the live readings for the Wembley PS UV meter here on the MyUV website.

‘Collaborate, Connect, Communicate and Care’.

Yours in learning

The Senior Leadership Team

Tamara, Milani, Rachel, Stacey and Natalie