Newsletter 16 - 21 October 2021

Welcome back to school for the final term of the school year. We trust families enjoyed their time together over the holiday break and everyone is refreshed and recharged ready for an exciting and extremely busy Term 4.

The last term of every school year is packed full of learning opportunities, consolidation of the year’s curriculum and an opportunity to reflect and celebrate the school year, and this year is no different. So while students are having assessments and finalising the years’ work, teachers are preparing student reports and already planning for 2022. 

Primary School Staff Development Day

The School Development Day on the first day back this term was invaluable for primary school staff who analysed this year’s NAPLAN data, commencing Learning Areas Plans for 2022 and continued to develop a whole school ‘Lesson Design’. The notion of a whole school lesson design brings consistency to all classes, with more consistent language, a clear expectation of the learning to take place, through a common understanding of the lesson structure. It is also intended that adequate feedback is given to students about their learning so they can continue to demonstrate improvement in learning outcomes.

ESC Staff School Development Day

Congratulations to ESC staff on a very, collaborative,  productive and worthwhile School Development Day. Term 4 is time for reflection on our  progress against 2021 operational plan and 3 year business plan targets, as well as preparing for our upcoming school review visit. 

We were appreciative of Ms Melissa Gillett, Collegiate Principal, facilitating sessions on the day. All staff are now aware of the school review process and the evidence & self assessments we will submit. 

Thanks also to staff who presented various sessions. Acknowledgement of country was key word signed by Mrs Harney to start the day. Mrs Joseph led the school vision and positive culture sessions. Ms Thaung and Mrs Harney created Kahoot quizzes to highlight SBESC health and safety processes. Mrs Rowe and Mrs Salerno provided us with FitBall drumming and chair yoga movement breaks. Mr Hume led a review of our Aboriginal Cultural plan and our ICT scope and sequence and iPad strategy. We will use collated feedback  to create improvement action plans.

In-term Swimming

Over the next four weeks Swimming Lessons will dominate our school days, as our students learn one of life’s all important skills – learning to swim. Thank to Ms Ngatia who has put together a timetable catering for all students across the campus while navigating the challenges of limited space and time availability at the aquatic centre. We really hope all students make this most of this opportunity over the next month. As students tend to get worn out towards the end of the fortnight’s lessons, we seek parent’s and carer’s support ensuring their children get plenty of rest and recuperation each night, before the next day’s lesson.

NAPLAN

Towards the end of last term Year 3 and Year 5 primary students brought home their 2021 NAPLAN Assessment Reports. The reports outline students’ achievement in all areas of the NAPLAN Assessments - Reading, Spelling, Writing, Punctuation & Grammar and Numeracy. The report also indicates the school’s achievement in comparison with the National Average. All schools set targets for all areas of NAPLAN and while some schools work towards achieving a target where the school’s results are at or above the National average, most schools set targets to achieve at or above ‘Like Schools.’ A ‘like school’ is a school which has a similar social demographic to our school. We are extremely pleased to say that in all areas of NAPLAN in Year 3 and Year 5 this year we achieved above ‘like schools’ and hence achieved our targets.  While we are extremely pleased with this result, we will continue to work towards achieving even better results in 2022, as we embark on a process of ongoing and continuous improvement.

2022 Student Leadership Positions

Next week our Year 5 students, who have nominated and have been accepted, will present their election speech for either a 2022 Prefect and Faction Captain position. While many students demonstrate an interest in holding one of these positions, it is a reality not all will get the opportunity to be elected into a position. To those students who will not be moving into the next phase of the election process, we wish to sincerely thank your child for putting themselves forward to become a student leader, and while they were not successful on this occasion, we would like to remind you that there are other student leadership opportunities available in 2022, which we encourage students to nominate for, at the beginning of the new school year.

Remember, you don’t have to wear a badge or have a special title to be a leader.

SBPS School Council

The School Council’s last meeting for the year will be held on Monday 1 November.  The council  is very keen for interested parents/carers and community members to come and join us to find out some more about what we do in the view of joining us in 2022.

So, from 4.00pm – 4.30pm on Monday 1 November, we invite you come for an informal gathering, in the school Library,  to find out some more about the School Council. Light refreshments will be provided.

If you would like to come along can you please let the school office know, by Friday 29 October, just so we have an idea of how much food we may need!

The School Council is formed with the fundamental purpose of enabling parents and members of the community to engage in activities that are in the best interests of students and will enhance the education provided by the school. The School Council meets each term.  Through the meetings the Council provides oversight of:

• School funding and resourcing reported through various reports
• School Strategic Directions and Operations through Principal’s report and Strategic Planning documents
• Monitors school performance
• Endorses policy and procedures
• And provides advice and support as required

World Teachers' Day

World Teachers’ Day will be celebrated across Australia on Friday 29 October, a bit later than the international day due to our school holidays. And, at South Ballajura we are celebrating it this Thursday 21 October.

It’s a chance to celebrate teaching and for communities to thank teachers. When referring to ‘teachers’ I mean every adult that works at South Ballajura PS, as they all have a significant part to play in the lives of educating our children.

There are many ways to thank our teachers and we encourage our school community to do so.  Teachers (with support from parents and carers) have ensured education continues across the country this year, despite major challenges. It’s reinforced the significant role teachers play in the lives of children and students, their families, and communities.

This Thursday we will be holding a special morning tea, just to say Thank you!

TA 19 Assembly

Many thanks to the students from Year 4/5 in TA19 who hosted this Tuesday’s assembly. Ms James certainly knows how to ensure her students are full of extremely interesting facts and anecdotes. Their quirky information was entertaining and informative. Many thanks to Ibu Francis for her support with TA19’s item.  Again this clearly demonstrates the strength of our specialist teachers and how fortunate our students are to experience the learning opportunities provided by all our specialist teachers. And, Mrs Southerland’s conductorship of the whole school sing along, to conclude out assembly, was uplifting and a great way to finish before we headed back to work!

Thank you TA19 and all the staff involved who made the assembly so enjoyable.