Week 8 Term 4 Update
COVID update
Hopefully we will have no more outbreaks or restrictions for the remainder of the year. At the time of writing this report, classroom activities and excursions are back on with extra COVID precautions. I would like to commend all teachers and staff for the calm way they handled the situation in week 6. We had many teacher volunteer to come in and act as skeleton staff for our ‘essential worker’ students. Unfortunately, we have had to adjust our Year 7 graduation arrangements to allow for COVID restrictions regarding the number of adults at St Francis winery and school.
2021 Reception Transition
In addition to individual interviews, in Weeks 4 & 5 we conducted our first two Transition sessions for our new Receptions, with the final session cancelled due to the hard lockdown.
With limited parent contact for settling in due to COVID restrictions, this cohort of Receptions students demonstrated a high level of independence. The school is confident that together with notes from Kindy and observations from the first two transition sessions we can form classes for next year.
The Transition sessions were structured around school tours, read alouds, fine motor activities, craft, recess with the whole school and Playful Learning. Both groups were observed playing and interacting together and teachers and leadership were able to identify students who will work well together and those that might provide less supportive relationships within the classroom.
Parents and caregivers were invited to stay for the first session and spent time between the Library at an information session conducted by Hazel and Anthea and the Uniform Shop where Trudy talked about the uniform and Sarah spoke about our OSHC facilities.
Pastoral Care Work
With news that Chris wasn’t going to be with us again next year, the School’s Ministry Group were able to advertise and quickly fill our Pastoral Care Worker position. Caragh Larsen has been successfully appointed and she will pop in to say hello before the end of the year. Caragh has crisis support training and has been volunteering with Lifeline. She also has counselling and early years Montessori teaching diplomas and worked within a Kindergarten setting in the UK. Caragh has already spoken to Chris for a lengthy time to ensure a smooth transition to our site and gain an understanding about our students.
Japanese position
Amanda Gunawan has announced that she will be leaving us next year as she has found the demands working across two sites challenging. Jack Beaton has been nominated and accepted into our Japanese position for 2021. He is currently teaching Japanese at McLaren Vale Primary having completed a diploma in languages (Japanese) with his teaching degree. Alongside his 0.4FTE Japanese, he will also teach 0.4FTE within the classroom setting and this placement is yet to be confirmed.
SSO position
A candidate has been nominated for the advertised SSO position. This means that within a week or so, we will be able to announce who the successful person is.
Southern Boundary Fence
The work on our Southern Boundary fence has begun and will be set to be completed over the next few weeks. We will be guided by the contractors regarding access to the fence-line but it’s a possibility that the Southern areas (I.e. reserve side of oval and back of old OSHC room etc.) will be out of bounds at certain times.
Year 7 Transition to High School
As part of planning for the move, the Department for Education identified 3 government high schools with distinctly different school contexts to ‘Lead the Way’ and take part in a pilot program to introduce year 7 from 2020. Mitcham Girls High School, Wirreanda Secondary School and John Pirie Secondary School were selected as the pilot schools to offer insights into the transition process, to inform the statewide move in 2022. The Queensland Government took a similar approach when preparing for the move of year 7 to high school. Their pilot program was highly successful and provided valuable information which supported their system wide rollout. A report has been collated to highlight the experiences of our pilot schools and provides early insights into workforce planning, funding arrangements, wellbeing, curriculum and transition processes between primary and high schools. These insights will be important in informing the statewide transition of year 7 to high school in 2022.
If you would like a copy of this report, please let Hazel know and she can email it directly to you.
Pupil Free Day
We had a very productive day during our Pupil Free Day on the 9th November. The morning sessions involved professional development about the Back to Front Maths program. Back to Front Maths is on our Maths agreement but an audit highlighted that our teachers had a mixed knowledge, understanding and resources. Back-to-Front Maths is a problem-based mathematics resource that gets to the true heart of mathematics by teaching students how to work out new mathematical principles for themselves rather than relying on algorithms and formulae. Teaching students how to think and reason like true mathematicians enables students to really understand mathematics, and transforms mathematics teaching from memorisation and repetition to experimentation and investigation. The facilitator, Leah O’Neill, ran a session with us from Queensland via Zoom, focused on an introduction to the theory and thinking around the resources of the program. Leah will be running a follow up session around mathematical problem solving in week 8 staff meeting via Zoom.
In the afternoon, Dana ran a session to pull together her Learning Design and Moderation (LDAM) work over the last two years, the focus being ‘’A review of Learning Intentions and Success Criteria with time to construct learning intentions for learning units”. Wendy Lane and Lesia Philips also shared their learning as part of the LDAM strategy. Dana would like to thank the Governing Council for their support over the last few years. She will be leaving our site at the end of the year as her SLLIP / Curriculum Co-ordinator contracts come to an end.
Week 3 Term 4 Update
General
The start of term 4 has begun well – we know this one is going to be busy! Planning for 2021 has now started with structuring our classes and staffing. Staff meetings will be devoted to analysing data, reviewing our Site Improvement Plan and moderation around report writing as well as planning for the upcoming year. I would like to commend all of our staff for their efforts and continued dedication.
Sports Day
Sports Day went very smoothly thanks to Dean’s organisation and our Volunteer’s support. All of the students had a super time and the activities ran smoothly thanks to the assistance from volunteers and our local High School students. Although not having the parent community there was disappointing, teachers and staff were able to devote their time to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the students. SAPol and Onkaparinga Council Rangers did pass by during our event to ensure our event was running smoothly alongside COVID regulations.
Perspectives survey
The department’s climate survey, Perspective, gives staff at a school, preschool or children’s centre an opportunity to share feedback on their experience at work. All staff working at a site are eligible to submit their responses. This includes: leaders, teachers, school services officers, Aboriginal education workers, early childhood workers, temporary relieving teachers and early childhood relievers.
At HVPS, we have made huge improvements since the last survey. In 2020, 95% of our staff say that they are highly engaged at our school. This is a huge jump of 73% since 2018 and is the highest rating in our Partnership. 81% of our staff also say there is a high positive climate at our site (an improvement of 50%) which is a testament to all of our hard work and efforts over the last two years.
The Perspective survey was first held in 2018, 58% of staff had their say. In 2020, this increased by 17% to a total of 68% of staff participating. The department received an engagement score of 70% which remained consistent with 2018. This tells us that our workforce are inspired, satisfied, committed and involved in their role.
Enrolments and class structures
Last term, we asked parents to make us aware of any class placement considerations we needed to be aware of for 2021. Our school will be using the Class Creator digital tool for organising class placements. This is the same program we used last year and it was highly successful and saved many hours of work for the teachers and admin SSO’s. We are looking to start with 270 students next year, an increase of 15 students from the start of this year. We have 38 Reception students starting with us next year which is a promising sign. After careful consideration and alongside the PAC committee and teachers, our class structure will be:
Reception 24 students
Reception / year 1 24 students
Year 1/2 23 students
Year 1/2 23 students
Year 2/3 24 students
Year 3 26 students
Year 4/5 31 students
Year 5/6 30 students
Year 6/7 30 students
Year 6/7 31 students
These numbers may change a little but this will form the basis of our class placement planning.
Week 8 Term 3 Update
Parent Engagement Survey – The new parent engagement survey went live last Monday. Our parents have been sent a link unique to our school via either email or SMS. Our school’s unique survey link is https://educationsa.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eJ3AXNw9lsJQcdL?RID=CGC_qN2Nw3uDkhnCKLZ&Q_CHL=email.
If you have not already completed the survey, may we strongly recommend that you do please. By encouraging your parent friends to complete it too, we should receive lots of input and gain an excellent idea or how we are doing and our growth points.
Pupil Free Day – this day was highly successful. Session one was around the highly researched and regarded QAR (Question-Answer Relationship) reading comprehension strategy which teaches students what types of questions they are being asked and where to find the answers. This was led by Lyn Ferenci, our Project Officer within the Learning Improvement Division. It was great to have our classroom SSO’s at this session too. Session two allowed teachers to apply their new found knowledge and summarise it using digital tools. Our third session allowed a few teachers to share recent professional development knowledge – Amanda Sensei shared her Cultures of Thinking knowledge, Lesia and Katharine shared their knowledge of the Kimochi resources. Dana completed the day by guiding us through analysing some data.
PAT testing – over the last two weeks, students from year 2 and up have been taking part in the annual Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) in reading and maths. These tests are done online and comprise of around 40 questions ranging in difficulty. The data from these will be extra important this year due to the absence of NAPLAN. The authority that write and compose the tests (ACER – Australian Council for Educational Research) have excellent resources for teachers and the data provided allows us to unpack areas for growth for each individual child and cohort.
Canberra 2021 – we had our first information meeting regarding our 2021 Canberra camp. This camp will be for our year 6 and year 7 students, which means we could potentially have 66 students attending. We have organized to stay at the A.I.S. and have an action packed itinerary organized through Murrays travel, flying in and out of Sydney. We are all hoping that COVID does not have an impact on this trip but we will keep up to date with the Department’s guidelines.
New Furniture – some much needed new furniture has been purchased over the last two terms. New chairs are now within the Year 6/7 and Health rooms, replacing old and mismatched ones. New tray units have been replaced across all classrooms spaces providing a more cohesive feel throughout the school. New chairs and classroom tables will be rolled out over the upcoming year(s) and thank you to Jo Aylmore for overseeing these purchases.
2021 enrolments – we have recently sent out our 2021 Student Placement Information forms to enable us to start planning for next year. Families can nominate specific information that they would like us to consider whilst placing their child(ren), as well as informing us whether they are moving school next year. We will be using the IT Class Creator program again this year to assist in the class placement process. At this point in time, we have 37 reception students starting the year with us which is a fantastic amount. Thank you to Anthea Bartlett for undertaking the transition interviews over the last few weeks, giving us valuable insight into each new student.
Student Representatives Volunteer Video – our Student Representatives have put together a fantastic video in the hopes of attracting more volunteers. This is available through this school blog on the main page. Please take a look at it. Due to restrictions with permissions it won’t be available through any other social media avenues.
Week 3 Term 3 Update
Year 7 transition to High School – The move of year 7 to high school in 2022 is a big change. It brings new opportunities for our students, workforce and system. Public schools play a role in making the move of year 7 to high school smooth and successful for our students and their families. Implementation Tools are available to help primary and high schools prepare for the change. They will be in use by 2020 and cover areas such as workforce planning, facilities and resource management and parent engagement. The Department’s commitment for moving year 7s to high school is to:
*make sure year 7s thrive in a high school setting in their education and social and emotional wellbeing
*involve schools in the process, and ensure implementation reflects local realities
*provide appropriate support to our employees throughout the move.
We will continue to keep our community up to date as new developments and plans unfold.
School sports – it has been super to witness our winter school sports start up with COVID restrictions lifting. I want to recognize and acknowledge the work of Dean Carter, the soccer and netball coordinators and parent volunteer coaches who managed to get these teams up and running at short notice.
COVID update – we continue to carefully follow the advice and guidelines provided from the Department. We are continuing to get additional cleaning happening throughout the day. The following activities can go ahead as long as SA Health advice (physical distancing and room density requirements) are strictly followed by all adults:
*parents, volunteers, departmental support and other service providers can enter school and preschool grounds. All external service providers and volunteers must complete the COVID-19 site access form on entry
*school assemblies (no maximum capacity)
*class photos
*all intrastate camps and excursions (see more information on the camps and excursions page)
*some interstate camps and trips, in line with border restrictions (see more information on the camps and excursions page)
*all school sport competitions, sports days and carnivals, including inter-school competitions (use of shower facilities is not permitted)
*inter-school choirs, bands and other performing art activities
*school formals, socials and discos
*playgroups and occasional care
*larger face-to-face professional learning activities
*visits to nursing homes and aged care facilities.
Kindy/New Reception Interviews and Transition – This term we will begin to conduct interviews with the 2021 New Receptions and their families. Due to COVID we have not had the usual regular contact with the children at Chandler’s Hill Kindy and we are mindful of this. Last year we began interviewing new Receptions and their families which provided us with specific information about our new students, their interests, strengths and areas of growth. This helped the school to plan and prepare for their learning this year.
Information for families about the new Reception transitions will go out towards the end of this term. Three transition visit dates have been set for Term 4.
Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) – Data is collected on all students that meet the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) criteria, including those with learning difficulties and health and mental health conditions, and provides a nationally comparable set of data. The NCCD is used as the basis for determining national funding for students with disability. Education department schools are required to submit quality data to ensure the department is allocated appropriate funding to support these students.
Our teachers have been collecting data on students in their classes that fall within the NCCD requirements. Teachers assess their students for Disability categories which include Cognitive, Social and Emotional, Sensory and Physical disabilities. They are then ranked against levels of adjustments 1-4. These are:
* Support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice
* Supplementary adjustment
* Substantial adjustment
* Extensive adjustment
Week 8 Term 2 Update
Term 2 has now settled into a ‘business as usual’ model in the aftermath of COVID. We are still being mindful of hygiene and safe practices and some restrictions are still in place (e.g. no large gatherings, assemblies, excursions). Our teachers have done a fantastic job in pulling everything together, creating nurturing and safe environments for their students and progressing with learning activities. Teachers are currently writing reports based on observations and the evidence they have seen during learning activities. This is a more complex process for those students who had a significant time away from school during the COVID crisis but teachers are collaborating and brainstorming in their teams.
I am personally very pleased that the COVID crisis has calmed down so that we can regroup and progress throughout the remainder of this term and beyond. I believe we have all learnt many things throughout this year but I believe it has shown us what a caring and supportive school community we have.
Vision for the school – I am very keen for Happy Valley Primary School to have a very clear vision for what the future holds for its students, families and staff in 2020 and beyond. With the changes in leadership over the recent years, I believe now is an opportune time to reflect on the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values that we want our students to have to empower and enable them to be successful lifelong learners of the future. I am going to lead our school community through a vision clarification process so that everyone can have input in how Happy Valley Primary can be the best that it can be for our learners.
National Simultaneous Story Time – Classes had a great time participating in the annual National Simultaneous Storytime last week. ‘Whitney & Britney Chicken Divas’ written and illustrated by Lucinda Gifford was read simultaneously by over 1 million people at 11,500 locations including New Zealand, Thailand, UK, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong. Classes enjoyed reading the story and taking part in the very creative ‘Whitney and Britneys’ hand chickens and our Colouring-in competition! A big thank you to Robyn Overduin in the Resource Centre for her excellent work in coordinating this event for our students. What a great way to promote reading across our school.
National Reconciliation Week – We had a highly successful National Reconciliation Week celebration on Wednesday 3rd Alongside the guidance from Wendy Nicolle, our Eco-leaders put on excellent activities in the pipe garden for our school community, raising awareness of Aboriginal culture from many perspectives. The four stations were Aboriginal art, shelter making, weaving and bush tucker. Each class session started with the Eco-Leaders guiding everyone through a meditation and then an Acknowledgment to Country. Our Student Representatives spent some time in the lead up to Wednesday creating some beautiful artwork to decorate the space. Many students participated to create works to represent this year’s theme, ‘In This Together’.
Pupil Free Day – All staff took part in a busy and productive day last Tuesday during our Pupil Free Day. The day was split into three sections:
The first morning session was spent looking into the “Skill, Will and Thrill” of reading. This was based on a keynote presentation by Nancy Frey (professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University) who spoke at the Department’s Literacy Summit at the beginning of the year. Her work is very closely aligned with our Site Improvement Plan’s three goals. Principal Consultant, Lyn Ferenci, joined us virtually through Microsoft Teams and helped guide us through this session.
The second session allowed teachers to unpack our Maths Agreement. Teachers collaborated in their teams to look at our existing document, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses and then planned for a new improved document. This new agreement document will be closely aligned with the Australian Maths Curriculum, Department for Education guidelines and Back to Front Maths teacher’s resource.
Our afternoon session looked at the technologies curriculum and how we can best prepare our students for a future integrated with IT. We investigated the work of Dr Ruben Puentedura and his ‘SAMR model’, looking at how teachers can use technology to modify and redefine how students learn at our school. The last part of the day was spent discussing the norms and expectations staff and students will have around using our new iPads when they are deployed into units.
Thank you to our volunteers!
As a way of recognising and appreciating our fabulous volunteers at the end of National Volunteer week, we have begun handing out these ‘goodie packs’. Arrianne Coad and her family have helped out our school in many ways. To her and to all of our volunteers, we say a big thank you for all of your assistance.
News from Debbie Hemming
News re Principal role for 2020
Please click on the link above to view a letter regarding some news from Debbie Hemming.
Week 2 Term 2 News
It was lovely to open up our doors and welcome everyone back at the start of this term. We hope you all had a restful and socially distanced holiday break! Here are a few updates for the start of term 2:
Attendance – our attendance at the end of week one was at 85%, with 13% of our student home learning. We will continue to be guided by Department of Education advice and teachers will continue to provide home learning materials for these students during week 2. Our teachers, parents and students have embraced the use of technology and are coping well with the new learning style. We will continue to keep you updated with any further news from our Department.
Southern boundary fence and new obstacle course equipment – you may have noticed that we have new equipment on the oval as part of the fundraising committee’s obstacle course. This equipment still needs a retaining border with soft fall inside to ensure it is safe for students (and any energetic adults) and we will let you know when it is ready to use. The school has also been provided with a grant to have our southern boundary fence replaced. This is the fence which runs along side the reserve. Engineers and surveyors have been out to the school and a design has been picked. The aim is to have this completed at some point during this term.
Mothers Day Stall – the Governing Council’s Fundraising committee have managed to organise a modified Mother’s Day stall for our students. $5 orders can be placed on Qkr under the Mothers Day gift option. The students will then receive a token (or tokens) at school where they can then go and choose a gift on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday next week. We would like to wish all the mums, grandmas and mother figures in our community a very warm and happy Mother’s Day.
New report format – this year we are changing our report card format to ensure that it matches the Education Department’s reporting guidelines. Anthea Bartlett and our teachers have been collaborating to ensure that it is clear and easy to read. We look forward to hearing your feedback about the new format when they go out on Wednesday of the last week of term.
Year 7 transition to High School – the registration process for students starting High School in 2021 has changed. From this year, the process has been automated to make it simpler, more streamlined and without the need for the old paper form (ED176). Year 7 students who are attending school this week would have received a “Starting Secondary School in 2021” brochure. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with the information in the brochure which contains details on registering for High School. You should have also received an email that contains further information in relation to registering for High School. This email contained a link to the Registration Form which is unique to your child. Registrations need to be submitted by 22nd May.
If you experience any issues or have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact the Front Office. Please also advise us if you did not receive the email this week.
National Simultaneous Storytime – we are taking part in the annual National Simultaneous Storytime on Wednesday 27th May. This year’s book, Whitney and Britney Chicken Divas by Lucinda Gifford, has lovely illustrations and rhyming text within it’s story line and we are looking forward to taking part in this event.
Covid-19 Update number 4
Please find a copy of the latest COVID-19 update here.
Welcome Back to 2020
Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful summer with friends and family. All signs point to another incredible and productive school year. We are all part of a caring community school culture with the common goals of nurturing responsible, caring students and promoting high-level learning. I am very much looking forward to the rewarding challenge being Principal at Happy Valley Primary will bring over the next two terms and I wish Sue Schmidt all the best in her retirement.
Please find a copy of the first leadership letter here.
Term 3 Week 8 News
Student Leadership Day
Amanda Rishworth, MP runs an annual Student Leadership Day at Cove Civic Centre, Hallett Cove and invites four year 6/7 student leaders from each local Primary School to come along. On this day (24th September), students will hear about the value of leadership and contributing to their community from a number of inspirational leaders. Students will also participate in activities designed to develop their leadership skills.
Olivia M, Riley M, Matilda A and Josh B have been selected to attend this year’s activities and we will look forward to hearing how they get on.
PAT M/R
All of our Year 2 to 7 students sat the tests last week. These ran very smoothly and I would like to say a special mention to Katharine Pooley for shifting her Digital Tech lessons into the library to allow us to use the Computer Room all week. The teachers have already received the results from these test and these will help guide their teaching to tailor to each student’s individual needs.
Interoception Room
Towards the end of last term, we were lucky enough to win an Interoception Grant for our school. This will be used to set up a sensory room as well as purchase resources for our classroom spaces. All staff had some training this week during staff meeting and will embed these strategies into their classroom spaces. We have also formed an Interoception Working Group of teachers and SSO’s for those people who are keen to lead out in setting this area up.
For the remainder of this year, we are going to set up a mini version of our Interoception room within the current Cubby House. This week, we began to order some furniture and products to set this room up. Cheryl has very kindly created space for us within the Cubby House and we hope to get this set up as soon as possible.
Pupil Free Day
Our highly successful Pupil Free Day was on Friday 30th August, with our staff attending three engaging sessions: Building our Understanding of the Big 6 Literacy Principles (with Jackie Morgan), Using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to Move Learning Forward (with Dana Lauck) and finally Shifting from Engagement to Empowerment (with Lyn Ferenci). Our SSO’s attended a tailor made session around Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder with our Special Educator Puneet Gill.
Not only were these sessions highly informative, it was also nice to collaborate and share with the staff at Thiele Primary.
Class Placement for 2020
Our thoughts and plans have already started for 2020. Our enrolment numbers are looking ‘healthy’ with many new families attending school tours and filling in Enrolment Forms.
To help streamline our class placement process this year, we will be using a program called Class Creator. This program will save around 15 hours of SSO time (preparing paper resources) and has these added benefits: balances classes instantly, drag and drop editing, teacher surveys, student friendships / pairings / separations, instant placement alerts, eliminates human error and is highly secure (Australian Microsoft company).
More information will follow soon along with a Family Input form for you to fill in.
Kindy Transition
Anthea has been working closely along with Rachel Douglass at Chandlers Hill Kindergarten to facilitate a smooth and successful transition for all of our enrolled Kindergarten students as they start Reception in 2020. Three sessions have been timetabled next term and information will be going out very soon to parents. The Department has brought in a Transition Interviews to be conducted by Leadership with all future Reception students and their families. This will not only allow us to get to know the students before they arrive at Happy Valley Primary but also allow us to make a strong initial home school connection. I would like to thank Anthea and Rachel in advance for all their efforts in this.
I hope you all have a great two weeks. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any question or queries.
Hazel Robertson
Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)
All schools are required to collect information about the numbers of students that they provide
adjustments to under the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) and Disability Standards of Education
This data is used as the basis for national funding.
The NCCD involves the collection of;
* the number of students receiving adjustments to enable them to participate in education
on the same basis as other students
* the level of adjustment provided to students
* student’s type of disability if known
Under the model the definition of disability is broad and includes learning difficulties, health and
mental health conditions. If your child is identified for inclusion in the Collection, the required information will be included in this year’s data collection.
If you have any questions about the data collection, please contact Hazel Robertson via email Hazel.Robertson500@schools.sa.edu.au or phone (8381 7166). Further information can also be found at:
http://www.education.gov.au/nationally-consistent-collection-data-school-students-disability.
Pupil Free Day – 27th May 2019
What do teachers do on a Pupil Free day? The answer is learn, collaborate and plan!
Today we were very lucky to work with Jackie Morgan and Jan Polkinghorne around our literacy programs. Jackie took us through ‘The Big 6’ elements of reading: phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension, fluency, vocabulary and oral language. Jan revisited the importance of phonics from Reception to Year 7, allowing us to consolidate our understanding of the Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar program.
General News
With the latest catastrophic news from New Zealand, it is an unsettling time for all. For children and young adults, it can be an especially worrying time and it may raise some questions and fears in their minds.
This post by Hey Sigmund provides 10 valuable age appropriate tips on how to talk to kids and teens about world trauma.