Student Wellbeing Advocates

This year we have created a new team of Wellbeing Advocates.  The advocates represent each of the learning teams in the school and help us to create a whole school inclusive environment where students can feel safe and connected, as well as feel confident, motivated and challenged to learn.

Our 2016 Student Wellbeing Advocates are:

  • Foundation: Jessica Stevens / Debbie Carr
  • Year 1/2: Victor Pody
  • Year 3/4: Roxy Clarke
  • Year 5/6: Molly-Rose Clifton-Williamson
  • Specialists: Angela Huber
  • Leadership: Hayriye Ali, Rebecca Bubeck, Helen Otway, Julie Leech

As a team we can work together to create the right conditions for learning in our school, and look deeply into the programs and initiatives that we have on offer to support a range of different needs, such as:

Miss Rodrigues taking circle time.

Miss Rodrigues taking circle time.

The team has now met twice this year and we will continue to meet every fortnight.

Old Delhi – Day 3

To learn more about the culture and history of India we had a fantastic tour of Old Delhi.  The tour was conducted by outstanding guides from Itihaas Tours, director and founder Smita Vats and Mohsin. We began at Jama Masjid, a very impressive mosque built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan between 1644 and 1656 at a cost of 1 million rupees.

We then wove through the old city streets exploring historic architecture and town planning.  We stopped to visit Jain Naya Mandir place of worship which was serenely quiet. We continued along pathways, ducking riders on motor bikes and scooters, admiring the colorful doorways.

green doorred door

blue door

We strolled through Paranthe Wali Gali, where we tasted lovely pastries made fresh on the spot.

 

Paranthe Wali Gail

We emerged at Chandni Chowk Rd where we boarded a rickshaw and wove through chaotic traffic to get back to our bus.

Ilja , one of the other leaders on the exchange program created this wonderful movie of the day.

Our new school goals – 2016-2019

IMG_0172This year the school has seen a considerable amount of growth and development. We have just completed our four-year review which has been a year long process consulting with staff, students and parents.  Our review panel day included an independent reviewer, school staff, a school council member, our SRC and three other Department of Education and Training leaders.

The review day went particularly well, with deep discussions about the continued high degree of emphasis on quality teaching and learning. Our teachers have gained increased knowledge to progress student learning, and our students have learnt to be more accountable of their own learning goals and next steps. We will continue with this good work and build these aspects of teaching and learning into our future goals.

Peer Review Report
Our goals for 2016 – 2019 are:

Student Achievement:

To improve the learning growth of every student with a focus on numeracy and writing

Student Engagement:

For all students to be confident, motivated and challenged

Wellbeing:

To foster a cohesive school learning community where every student thrives and feels safe and connected

Productivity:

To manage and align the allocation of the existing resources according to school goals and priorities and identified student needs.

These four goals will help to drive the work and improvement strategies over the nest four years. The School Council met and has agreed to take accept these recommendations from the review panel.

India – Australia leadership exchange program.

On Thursday 19th and Friday 20th November, Prity Saxena, the Principal, from Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Amalwas, Delhi joined us at school. She is part of a leadership exchange program to Melbourne organized through the Asia Education Foundation.  The Exchange Program aims to provide Indian school leaders with the opportunity to:

  • Build knowledge and understanding of the Australian education system, its initiatives, innovations and models of schooling.
  • Increase knowledge and understanding of school leadership and school management issues in Australia.
  • Develop and expand understanding Australian society, history and contemporary and traditional culture.
  • Strengthen Intercultural understanding between India and Australia leading to increased capacity to develop school linkages.
  • Foster the development of professional networks of Principals in India and school-to-school relationships.

Our zumba dancers providing a warm welcome for Prity Saxena

IMG_6911

Parents providing the welcome morning tea.

Cake

Meeting with parents and Hub Leader in our Community Hub.

Hub

EAL learners providing a yummy lunch as part of our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.

IMG_6922

Taking Prity to the Museum of Modern Art and learning about Australian art, history and bee keeping!

Heidi Museum

A Melbourne icon – Luna Park in St Kilda.

Luna Park

Learning about Japan

This year our F-2 students begin learning an additional language at school.  After a long consultation process, our school community has agreed to introduce Japanese as our language of choice to study.

Our teacher is still in Japan now and will start in March working with our Year F-2 students,

Here is a short look at Japan and its four seasons.

Enjoy!

Community Market Day @ SAHPS

Did you make it to our Community Market day?  If you didn’t you missed a great day!

Market

Our maths extension students developed a whole school event as part of their Think Tank program.  Each class participated in the Hour of Power each week and planned their market stall in terms of product, cost, size of the stall, and budget spending.  The outcome was a celebration of real life maths learning with many eager students, staff and families participating in a very successful Community Market Day.

We raised around $1400.00 as a result of the good work of all involved.

Thank you to Ciara Stewart and her team of students, and to the rest of the school community for their active participation.

Learning with iPads in 2015

Our school has started to explore options for going 1:1 with iPads in Foundation to Year 2.  Already we have a number of iPads in the school and we use them to support our student learning.

We held a forum recently for parents, teachers and students to learn more about the benefits of using the technology and the ways we could move forward in the future.  Parents, staff and students all felt it was a great idea to have one iPad per student.  This would mean that:

  • students could follow their own progress of learning on their iPad
  • they could use it when needed rather than wait to borrow one
  • the iPad could go home and create a link between home and school
  • learning could be ongoing and supported between home and school

There will be more information to be shared soon as we try to develop a costing plan that could meet the needs of all families.  Our School Council members are supportive of this direction and also keen to see it being implemented in the school.

In the meantime, you can watch a video that was made about the introduction of iPads with my previous school.

Or look on the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development website for other school case studies http://www.ipadsforeducation.vic.edu.au 

To find out more call the school and speak with Helen Otway.

Learning another Language

JapanOver the last two terms at St Albans Heights Primary School, we have been consulting with the community and the school staff about the language we will be offering next year.   As part of the government initiative, all schools will need to offer a language study to at least the Foundation level students by 2015.

With this in mind I collated:

  • Parent choices during the midyear parent teacher interviews
  • Staff choices
  • Local secondary school languages
  • Use of languages around the world

Language consultation

Our School Council met last week and have used all the information provided to decide on JAPANESE as the language of study at SAHPS.  All other languages were considered and valued but we could only choose one.

We will be now looking for an exceptional Japanese Teacher to help us support this program and we look forward to an exciting journey into new learning and intercultural understanding.

Gingerbread tales

Screen Shot 2014-06-22 at 11.12.06 AM

Over the last two weeks, the Year 1,2, and 3s have been exploring fairy tales as a lead up to a visit to the Arts Centre Melbourne to watch Hansel and Gretel performed by the Victorian Opera.  The tale was told in German with English subtitles on a screen.  The Brothers Grimm first published the story in 1812.

IMG_5847The teachers and children explored the tale and created a magical space in the school to prepare the children for the visit. One afternoon as I walked back to my office, I found myself entering a ginger bread house.  A few days later, I spotted some interesting pictures of Hansel and Gretel with the witch on my door!  I’m not too sure it there is a hidden message there!  However, it is most enchanting to have my office so close to this celebration on literature.

photoUsing all the senses to make meaning of the fairy tale, the 1/2 students made some gingerbread men and decorated their delicious treats in the Play and Say room.  

And lucky me got to have one 🙂

Who can guess where I started?