DATA CONVERSATIONS

Over the last two weeks, each year level and the leadership teams have met to analyse reading data for each cohort. Teams have identified the next steps to take in order to achieve our school targets of 85% of students in the Upper 2 Bands (U2B) and 100% above National Minimum Standards.

Messages I walked away with were:

• Teachers at this school have high expectations
• Teachers at this school believe every child can learn and succeed
• Teachers know their learners and are working hard to meet the child where they are at, to take them where they need to go
• Our inclusion team are partnering strongly with their year levels to help support and extend learning for all students

It is worth celebrating that nearly 50% of the Year 6 cohort are exiting our school with a reading age of 15 years and over- the point at which reading diagnostic tests stop measuring. This is a great credit to the work teachers, teacher aides and parents do to help our students develop a love of reading.

The problem of practice we are seeking to address at present is to have data where children’s writing results reflect their reading performance. Whilst variance is to be expected, we believe work in this space will help achieve greater alignment. We believe that it is through articulating their thoughts and ideas about reading that children will confidently take risks as writers. The year 6 teachers will be engaging in an inquiry cycle themselves to explore this further.

We are incredibly proud of the work we all do in helping our children to be literate, numerate and curious learners.

ECDP Assembly visit – Be a Communicator

Last week staff from the ECDP came to the Junior assembly to demonstrate how to communicate using AUSLAN. They shared a dramatic interpretation of a picture book. It was wonderful to see such a fantastic presentation and for our children to learn different ways of being a Communicator. 

HOME LEARNING POLICY - CURIOSITY PROJECT

Last term Pablo from 5L created an amazing curiosity project. He was incredibly excited to share his learnings and achievement. Listening to his explanation on the process he engaged to create was all the affirmation I needed that our home learning policy is the right approach for our school at this time.  

Read the following extract and look at the photo of Pablo and his creation. It captures precisely what we are trying to achieve. Be sure to encourage your children to complete Curiosity projects this term.

Yeronga State School strongly values the important role of parents as educators too. The term `domestic curriculum’ is used by Claxton and Lucas in their book `Educating Ruby’ to highlights the importance of the way parents do things that influences children’s confidence, creativity, communication skills, collaboration skills, craftsmanship and critical thinking. Home learning is about providing opportunities for parents to partner with their children to learn some non-negotiables and child interest topics. The importance of rich dialogue in deepening children’s understanding of different topics and allowing them to transfer learnings to different contexts is widely supported. The focus of home learning therefore is to foster students’ automaticity with essential foundational skills such as Reading and Maths, as well as fostering parent children partnerships by providing learning opportunities for rich dialogue and/or fostering a child’s self-regulation of learning. Student agency (voice and choice) and student engagement has been shown to increase greater ownership of their learning.

NAPLAN

Next week is NAPLAN week. Tuesday is Language Conventions (9-10am) and Writing (11:45- 12:45pm), Wednesday is Reading (9-10) and Thursday is Numeracy (9-10). The tests are between 35-45 minutes, with some time for introduction and conclusion.

Our best advice would be to keep operating like business as usual, reassuring your children that they have only to do their best and it is good enough. If you have any concerns, please contact your class teacher as soon as possible.

PREP INFORMATION SESSIONS

Last week we held our first Prep Information Sessions for the year. It was lovely to meet many of our potential parents for 2020. The Year 6 school captains articulating their thinking about learning, and what they value at Yeronga State School, is such a highlight of these sessions. If you have any friends or family who are looking to enrol for 2020, please encourage them to get their enrolment forms in asap.

MET WEST TOUCH FOOTBALL

Congratulations to Hayley R on her recent selection in the Met West Touch Football team. Hayley will participate in the State Carnival which is schedule to be played in early August at Longreach.

Eastern Taipans Girls Football (Soccer)

Congratulations to Milly B and Kate M on their selection in the Eastern Taipans Girls Football (Soccer) team. The girls will participate in the Regional Trial later this month at Ipswich.

REGIONAL CHORAL STUDENTS

Congratulations to the three students Cameron, Morgan and Jerusha, who participated in Regional Choral  Singing program this year. The chidren had to audition and it is a great compliment to be chosen out of the many talented students across Metropilitan area. 

Debbie Spanner
Principal