This is an extremely busy time of year, and I would like to start today's newsletter with a thank you to all of our wonderful staff here for their continuous commitment and flexibility during what can be a disruptive ‘silly season’.  Learning programs will continue until the very end of term, with a focus on quality teaching and learning. The end of year reporting process will give parents and families an excellent insight into the exceptional amount of learning opportunities our students have been exposed to this year.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mrs Sophie Sheehan, who successfully won the permanent AST position that was advertised at the end of Term 3. Mrs Sheehan has already made an invaluable contribution to our school as Literacy Coach and Grade 2 teacher, and we are fortunate to be able to rely on her expertise permanently. As a result of this process, Mrs Andrea Curran will also be staying with us in an acting AST position, until at least the end of 2020. This week we also welcomed a new staff member to our Leadership Team, Miss Purdie Hudson. Miss Hudson will be fulfilling our Support Teacher Role, along with some AST organisational responsibilities relating to relief and timetabling. Welcome, Miss Hudson!  At the end of this year we will be farewelling quite a few staff members, and I will do formal goodbyes closer to the end of term.

Planning for next year is well and truly underway, and I am very pleased to let our school community know that class structures, teachers and class lists are now finalised. We have made a big effort to do this early to ensure that we can facilitate successful transitions for those students with high and additional needs, and to provide our new staff with adequate time to meet with our exiting staff for a quality handover.

I am excited to announce that in 2020 we will move to a 16 class model. By doing this will be keeping class sizes at optimal levels and we will be able to remain with the model consisting of two classes of each grade (Kinder-Grade 4) with three Grade 5/6 classes. The additional class will be a composite Prep/1 class. Our current staff room will soon be converted into an inviting new learning space, with access to cooking facilities and as well as a new Smart TV.

It is now my pleasure to introduce our new staff:

Miss Purdie Hudson - AST

Mr Joshua Young - Grade 2

Mrs Kylie Burdon – Grade 1

Mrs Rebecca Kaiser – Prep/1 (0.6)

Mrs Stacy Price – Grade 1 (0.5)

Mrs Katie Hedge – Grade 1 (0.5)

Ms Shannon Hill – Prep

Over the past few weeks we have had many requests from parents around class placement for next year. Many are very reasonable, with specific information that we may not have, e.g. not wanting siblings or cousins together. This helps us greatly as we go about the rather huge task of creating well balanced classes that take in to account each students individual development academically, socially and emotionally. We consult students, parents and staff, and as you can imagine it is a complicated yet well thought out process. The flow on effects of moving one student can be massive, and difficult to achieve while ensuring others are not compromised by the request. Requests for specific teachers are especially problematic, as assigning staff to classes is the final step in the process. Staff may be changing grades, retiring, transferring or changing career pathways, and this information is often confidential at the time I am receiving teacher requests. Of course, we all remember favourite teachers from our own school days. However, in my position as Principal, I realise how detrimental these requests can be to our teaching team. Teachers need to have a deep trust in each other, believing that they can all do a great job with all students. This is facilitated through our Grade Learning Teams, who assume responsibility for all of the students taught by their whole team, and meet regularly to plan, teach and assess together across their classes. They work closely together to share best practice and develop effective interventions for students as needed. As parents we need to trust the teachers too, and consider that a teacher your child hasn’t yet had might just become one of those well remembered favourites!

Kind regards,

Kel Innis

Principal