10-Feb-2022
Dear Families,
Thank you once again for your support and understanding to help us stay open and safe.
Accompanying this week’s update is some information specific to your child’s year level. Teachers have put together an overview of what the learning and teaching will look like in Term 1, and included progress report statements that offer an insight into the targets and goals for each class.
Progress Report Statements
Foundation Term 1 Report Skills
Year 1 Term 1 Progress Reports Statements
Year 2 Term 1 Progress Report Statements
Year 3 Term 1 Progress Report Statements
Year 4 Term 1 Progress Reports Statements
Year 5 Term 1 Progress Report Statements
Year 6 Term 1 Progress Report Statements
School Council Report
This week we had our first School Council meeting of the year.
It was a meeting with a bit of a difference as we worked together to establish some goals for the year for each of our sub-committees (Fundraising, Events, Buildings and Grounds and Community Connection).
It is a really exciting time and we’re eager to build connection within Year levels and across the school. After a long and disruptive 2 years, our proactive and forward thinking members are keen to ensure all families are connected to our great school and are able to keep abreast of the myriad of events and activities that are planned throughout the year.
To assist us with this we are aiming to have volunteers from each Class/Year level to be a conduit between school and other families within each class. We envisage the role one that helps connect like-minded families through social events, conversation and help us promote and support our fundraising events.
If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of and take the journey with us, please contact either Nat Firth (School Council President) at natfirthy@gmail.com or James (Principal) at school edithvale.ps@education.vic.gov.au and together we can bring this plan to life 🙂
At our Tuesday meeting we ratified our Finance Policy (including parent payments- please see below)and ratified our proposed Student Free day on Friday March 11. Please lock this in your calendar. The day will be used to help our staff to dive deeply into the Department’s new Disability Inclusion rollout and understand how this can support all students at school. We are aiming to have DET representatives present to our staff throughout the day.
Our next meeting (AGM) will be on March 8.
Literacy Instructional Model:
As well as the Literacy Instructional models that we use throughout the school that focus on phonics, morphology, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension – a key focus for us in 2022 will be Writing. We know that writing improves reading and that reading improves writing and this is why we are dedicating significant time, energy and resources to getting this right. This week we have all undertaken further professional learning with our Literacy Learning Specialists and enhanced our model.
Reading instruction improves overall writing performance, writing quality, amount written and spelling. Phonological awareness and phonics instruction positively influence spelling and overall writing performance and reading comprehension instruction improves overall writing performance. Additionally, increasing the amount of time students spend interacting with text (directly or via a model) improves overall writing performance, writing quality and spelling (Graham et al. 2018a).
Teaching writing improves reading comprehension, reading fluency and word-level reading. Spelling instruction improves word-level reading and reading comprehension. Instruction in sentence composition improves reading fluency. Teaching multiple writing components or skills improves reading comprehension and increasing how much students write improves their reading comprehension (Graham and Hebert 2011).
The first 50 minutes of each day is summarised in the tables below. Once this work has finished, it is straight into writing. Here we explore sentence construction, grammar and punctuation, knowledge of topics (content), different writing genres and vocabulary/morphology.
This includes the 50 minute Phonemic Awareness session, Reading Comprehension and Writing.
In Foundation – Years 2 the start of each day includes:
| Review 10 minutes | Revisit of letter/sounds learnt in previous lessons using Orton Gillingham Drill Cards. A (name) acorn, a (a) apple, a (o) wash Morphology drill cards: e/es/ ed ing pre |
| Heggerty 10 minutes | The Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum is a systematic 35 week program of daily lesson plans that provide a high level of explicit modelling and student engagement. Each level of the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum focuses on eight phonemic awareness skills, along with two additional activities to develop letter and sound recognition, and language awareness. The focus skills are: Rhyming, Onset fluency, blending, isolating sounds, segmenting, adding, deleting and substituting phonemes (sounds) |
| Phonics or Morphology 20 minutes | Phonics-Explicit spelling/sound lesson- this will include using Dandelion Decodable readers to explore sounds, as well as practising decoding strategies when reading these stories. Morphology-Students Students will continue to learn Morphology Awareness as they investigate prefix/root/suffixes found in words, and will be introduced to a ‘Lexicon’ morphology dictionary. The Lexicon will showcase morphemes (smallest unit of sound in a word) and meaning. Prefix ‘re’ means to repeat or do again Root word ‘vid’ means to see Suffix ‘ing’ present tense- added to verbs |
| Reading Fluency 10 minutes | Students will practise pace and expression in reading. Fluency tasks will include word lists, sentences, paragraphs and or short stories. Fluency lists/passages are practised throughout the week and students have the opportunity to share reading with each other. |
In Years 3-6 the start of each day includes:
| Review 10 minutes | Revisit of letter/sounds learnt in previous lessons using Orton Gillingham Drill Cards. Morphology: e/es- makes plural, ‘i/ng’ is a suffix showing present tense Dictation: Check in of sounds being studied/revised |
| Phonics or Morphology 30 minutes | Phonics-Explicit spelling/sound lesson- this will include using Dandelion Decodable readers to explore sounds, as well as practising decoding strategies when reading these stories SMART Spelling word lists to practise decoding strategies. Students will continue to learn Morphology Awareness as they investigate which prefix/root/suffix is found in words, and will be introduced to a ‘Lexicon’ morphology dictionary. The Lexicon will showcase morphemes (smallest unit of sound in a word) and meaning e.g. Prefix ‘re’ means to repeat or do again Root word ‘vid’ means to see Suffix ‘ing’ present tense- added to verbs |
| Reading Fluency 10 minutes | Students will practise pace and expression in reading. Fluency tasks will include word lists, sentences, paragraphs and or short stories. Fluency lists/passages are practised throughout the week and students have the opportunity to share reading with each other. |
Wellbeing – Digital Care packs to support Kids
The care packs that can be found using the link below provide tips and guidance on how to build positive mental health in children, and offer a range of simple, evidence-based activities that can be used with children aged 5-12 years to provide relief against worry and anxiety, or used to support a proactive mental health approach
Kids Care Packs — Smiling Mind
Just as we promote eating well and keeping fit for a healthy life, meditation is about mental health and looking after the mind. Young people deal with the pressure, stress and challenges of daily life. This program can help with sleep, wellbeing, managing emotions, concentration and school behaviour including dealing with bullying. Smiling Mind programs and the discussions they promote also assist with:
- stress management
- increased resilience
- increased creativity
- better decision making
- a sense of calm, clarity and contentment
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/smiling-mind/id560442518?mt=8
This is the website version of a program developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to people’s lives. Just as we eat well and stay fit to keep our body healthy, meditation is about mental health and looking after the mind. Learn more about how meditation can help you, or your students, or your family.
http://www.smilingmind.com.au/
Parent Payments
As a school we pride ourselves on providing students with the best possible opportunities for future success. Your voluntary contributions have been invaluable in creating a successful, holistic education program – made possible through the support received from our student families.
Specifically, this support has funded a range of initiatives including:
- Expansive wellbeing programs for development of mental health faculty
- Robotics resourcing and programs to aid STEM learning
- Digital learning opportunities and devices
- Decodable readers for English & READ programs
These initiatives offer tangible benefit and learning experiences beyond the basic curriculum and your continued support through voluntary contributions will allow Edithvale Primary School to continue to offer these programs and opportunities to our students.
2022 Voluntary Contributions
Our 2022 contribution amounts have been established to continue to provide the level of curriculum, support, and facilities to our students to best prepare them for future education. We understand that COVID-19 has impacted a number of families within the community; and we have consciously lowered amounts for 2022 to assist families in maintaining voluntary contributions. Information on this year’s fees and how these can help our school provide a First Aid Officer, Additional Education support and engaging Digital technologies can be found on our school website at
https://www.edithvaleps.vic.edu.au/parents/parent_payments/
Student Photos
A reminder that Monday February 21 has been set aside for this year’s school photos. Please refer to an earlier Compass message for details or contact our amazing office staff directly at school.
Kind regards
James Whitla
Summary of COVID Scenarios
| Scenario | Required actions for the staff member or student/family | Required actions for the school |
|---|---|---|
| A student or staff member tests positive to COVID-19, either through RA test or PCR test | Isolate at home or in private accommodation for 7 days (inclusive of weekends) and do not attend school during this period. Inform the school, that they have tested positive to COVID-19.
A negative test is not required to return to school following the completion of 7 days of isolation. Follow the Checklist for COVID cases. |
The school must notify DET of positive student cases via the Vic Ed COVID Tool.
Staff members must report a positive test result and submit a leave request via eduPay on the first day of leave See COVID-19 Leave Management Guidance for details. The school should notify the school community that there has been a case at the school using the communication templates available. |
| A student or staff member is a household contact or house-like contact*.
You have spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility. Contact at school is not included in this definition, unless contact has occurred in a school-based residential setting, e.g. school camp or boarding school. |
Notify the school that they are a household or household-like contact. Follow the Checklist for COVID contacts. Students must quarantine for 7 days (inclusive of weekends) and must not attend school during this period. Staff members must quarantine for 7 days (inclusive of weekends) and must not attend school during this period unless a critical work exemption has been agreed (see Page 9, Exemptions for staff who are household contacts). |
No further action. |
| A student or staff member has been in contact with a case of COVID-19, including at school or at work. | If asymptomatic, students and staff should continue to attend school and monitor for symptoms. If symptomatic, all students/staff must stay/return home, take a rapid antigen test, or get a PCR test if a rapid antigen testing kit unavailable. On receipt of a negative test result, the student/staff member can return to school. If staff/students are too unwell to attend school, usual leave/absence policies apply. Follow the Checklist for COVID contacts. |
No further action.
The school is not required to seek rapid antigen test results from the students or staff unless a positive test is returned. |
| Staff/student has contracted COVID-19, completed their 7-day isolation period and is asymptomatic. | Staff/ students can safely return to school. They do not need to be tested for 30 days. |
No further action. |
| Staff member/student has completed their quarantine period as a household contact and has returned a negative test result. However, during the quarantine period an additional member of the household has returned a positive result. |
Student/staff household contacts should quarantine for 7 days from the date of the first positive test of the household index case. Household contacts are not subject to rolling quarantine periods. If the index case remains in the household, or if subsequent cases are identified within the household, the quarantine end date for the close contact is unchanged. Staff/ students can safely return to school and do not require negative test documentation. Please note, if the staff or student becomes symptomatic, they should get tested and not attend school. |
No further action |