18-Feb-2022
Dear Families
As Stephen Covey (habits of highly effective people) has said “We develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and obstacles.” This week has given us all a few obstacles to overcome and as a staff we are greatly appreciative of the efforts of all students and families in helping us to overcome these. Thank you.
Student leaders
Today we were able to present our Student leaders with their ‘2022 leadership badges’. We are blessed to have outstanding student leaders again this year and we know that the badge will not change who they are what they stand for. Our leaders, with the help of Ms. Grindley have created their own School Leaders’ Pledge which they recited publicly for the first time this afternoon.
“As the Edithvale Primary School leaders, we pledge to lead by example by displaying the three-school values kindness, determination, and respect. We are here to work together with students, teachers, and the environment.”
Mr Tim Richardson, our local MP, was on hand to offer some insights on leadership and help present the badges.
March 11 – Student Free Day – Our focus will be on the new Disability Inclusion model that is being rolled out in our Bayside/Peninsula Area. We will spend time getting to understand and learn about this new model and reflect on the numerous daily extensive and substantial adjustments that we make to support our students’ learning and identify changes that can be made to the school environment differentiated teaching techniques to give students success.
We’re well on the way, and the time we will spend together with our Department of Education Support Services team will benefit all students.
Team Kids will be onsite to run their program on this date.
April 1 – Easter Twilight Market – Please pop this date on the calendar and in your diaries. Last year’s event was a huge success, and we can’t wait to hold another wonderful Market with plenty of food, entertainment and stalls for everyone. If you are keen to jump on board and give the hard working Fundraising team a helping hand, please give us a call at school and we can discuss how your support can make this a great School event.
Lesson Structure – The Importance of Review in Learning
To help students to learn we need to understand that the human brain can only process a small amount of new information at once, but it can process very large amounts of stored information.
Information is processed in the working memory, where small amounts of information are stored for a very short time. The average person can only hold about four ‘chunks’ of information in their working memory at one time.
Long-term memory is where large amounts of information are stored semi-permanently. Information is stored in the long-term memory in ‘schemas’, which provide a system for organising and storing knowledge.
We need to move information from our working memory to our long-term memory. If a student’s working memory is overloaded, there is a risk that they will not understand the content being taught and that their learning will be slow and/or ineffective.
This is why we prioritise daily reviews in our lessons. The ‘Review’ component of a morning Literacy session, for example, can be a 10-minute check in, where students reflect, on previously learnt content. The delivery of the review is quick and is aimed at developing skills and cementing understanding of concepts students have recently been exposed to. This session may focus on one specific learning area, or several concepts that need revising. The review sets up the literacy session in a positive way, which enables students to then continue building on their learning throughout the remainder of the 50-minute literacy session.
With extensive practice and review, information can be automatically recalled from long-term memory with minimal conscious effort. This ‘automation’ reduces the burden on working memory, because when information can be accessed automatically, the working memory is freed up to learn new information.
Week 4 Assembly –
Next week we are hoping to run our first assembly with all students together. Assemblies, with the current advice that we have, will be held outside and are therefore weather dependent. Students will remain separated across the basketball and netball courts and we will start at 3:00 pm. The gates will be opened at this time and we ask that if you are attending, you continue to model the importance of social distancing and wear a mask where needed. As restrictions ease and school settings change, we can open up a bit more and get back to safely welcoming our community on-site more often.
COVID Processes
Thank you once again for your patience and understanding as we navigate our school’s COVID landscape together. The response from our community has been incredible and we are very grateful for your efforts to keep our students, families and staff safe by undertaking RATs and informing us of any positive cases.
Unfortunately, we have had a few this week and our thoughts and best wishes are extended to those families impacted. If your child is required to isolate either as a positive case or as a household contact, their teacher will ensure that some learning tasks will be posted via SEESAW in a timely manner.
COVID safe Update
The Victorian Government yesterday announced a 6-week extension of the COVIDSafe measures for schools.
These measures were introduced for 4 weeks at the beginning of Term 1 and will now be in place for the remainder of Term 1, subject to any changes in health advice. For us here at Edithvale Primary, not much changes and this offers us some certainty and consistency for the remainder of Term.
RATs
The next shipment of RATs is due to arrive early next week. These tests are designed to be used in weeks 5 and 6 (Feb 28 – March 11) and there are again 5 test kits in each box. This will ensure that the recommended twice weekly tests can again be undertaken to help us all stay safe and keep our students at school.
We will distribute these on Thursday February 24 by again placing them in your child’s school bag.
If you would prefer to collect these directly from school, please let us know before midday on Thursday and we can arrange a time for these to be collected from the Office.
Air purifiers
Additional air purifiers will be distributed to our school ahead of winter to supplement natural and mechanical ventilation during the cooler months. This should ensure enough purifiers to cover all of our classrooms based upon current student numbers.
Masks
Mask rules will remain the same, with students in Grade 3 and above required to wear masks – although they will not be required outdoors.
Attendance at school
We know that the last 2 years have thrown us a few curve balls and that face to face teaching and attendance at school has been disrupted. Despite our current restrictions and requirements to isolate for 1 week at a time if we are COVID positive and/or close contacts, it is timely to keep at the forefront of our thinking, the importance of attending school.
Put simply, our school is better when your child is here
Why attendance is important
We all want our students to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with students coming to school each and every day.
If students miss school regularly, they miss out on learning the fundamental skills that will set them up for success in the later years of school.
There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes.
Each missed day is associated with progressively lower achievement in numeracy, writing and reading.
Getting in early
Attendance patterns are established early – a child regularly missing days in kindergarten or in the early years of school will often continue to miss classes in the later years, and receive lower test scores than their classmates.
It’s vital that students go to school every day – even in the early years of primary school.
Being away from school for one day a fortnight equals missing 1.5 years over 13 years of school
eSafety
Thank you for discussing the school’s digital technology Acceptable Use Agreement with your child and returning these forms to school. During Wellbeing sessions in class we have the opportunity to promote the appropriate use of devices by referring to the eSafety Commissioner website.
There are also plenty of resources available for families to help keep children safe in online environments that can be found at https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide Included in the link are suggestions to help you start the chat about online safety issues and strategies with your child as well as useful tips about the latest games, apps, social media and protecting personal information. It’s well worth taking the time to explore this ever changing landscape.
FREE Positive Parenting Resource
The Victorian Government has proudly supported access to the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program since June 2020. Now, all families in Victoria can do FREE Triple P programs to help support every child’s emotional wellbeing and every family’s mental health.
If you are looking for some assistance to help your child learn to manage and reduce anxious feelings, now and in the future, the link below may be for you
- Online support for parents of anxious kids (6-14 years)
- Find out the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of child and teen anxiety
- Learn more about what’s helpful and what can accidentally add to anxiety
- Start applying new strategies immediately
- New online program based on proven principles
- Improve your child’s emotional wellbeing in the long term
- Reduce your own stress, too!
https://www.triplep-parenting.net.au/vic-uken/triple-p/
Bike shed
A gentle reminder also that our Bike shed is not locked between 3:30pm and 9:15 am. Please let us know if your child has ridden or scooted to school on a day they may have to leave early through illness, injury, appointment etc, and we’ll aim to store the bike or scooter securely overnight inside so that it can be picked up the following day.
Emergency Management Practice Drill
Next week our school will complete the first Emergency Drill for the year. It will be a LOCK DOWN in classrooms and is undertaken annually to ensure that our processes for helping keep our students safe are solid and that our students know what to do in each Emergency Situation. Staff will talk through the steps that students will need to take to successfully participate safely.
Later in the Term there will be other safety drills, including on and off site evacuation drills. We will plan for these and communicate them with you too.
Kind regards
James Whitla
