Dear Parents and Carers

We are very proud of the school and the great work that has been conducted over the past four years. This week we were reviewed. I have included some of the feedback at the end of my section.

Naplan Online

As children progress through their school years, it is very important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics – skills that will set them upon the path to success as adults.

NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.

Federal, state and territory education ministers agreed to gradually transition NAPLAN online by 2022. NAPLAN Online is a tailored test that adapts to student responses, providing better assessment and more precise results.

 The school is preparing for this transition and is considering being part of a trial to test the school capability in an online forum.

Looking ahead

We are gradually getting back into a post-COVID routine. We are endeavoring to accommodate activities and events that were scheduled in Term 2 and during later stages of lockdown. In terms of incursions and excursions, we must ensure that any provider has a clear and relevant COVID-Safe Industry Plan. Not all events, camps and incursions can be accommodated due to unavailability of dates and restrictions that camps continue to manage. Please be assured that we are trying.

 I have included a message sent to schools, from the DG: While we are all working together to make sure that COVID-19 does not re-establish itself in Queensland, we also know that we must continue to be vigilant to the possibility of break-outs of the virus.

I want to assure you that the Executive Response Team and support teams throughout our department are keenly following the current developments across Australia, planning for contingencies, and ensuring that we have appropriate arrangements in place over the coming months to support our school staff and communities.

Staffing changes

Kate Paynter was offered an acting principal position in Sunnybank State School and has accepted it. I would like to congratulate Kate on this opportunity and the recognition of all the work and commitment to Yeronga SS. The position is short term and begins on Monday. Louise Vaggs will be stepping into Kate’s DP role. Louise acted in this role for the first few months of the year. Clare Triggell will step into the Head of Curriculum role.

Review update

Thank you to parents who received a phone call and spoke to the reviewers. These were randomly selected names from our system. The review was a great success and the school community should be very proud of all the work and the achievements.  Here are some of the initial successes:

·       Curiosity and Powerful Learning is embedded and everyone is invested in the framework. Under this framework, there is commitment to inquiry as a signature pedagogy.

·       The school offers many Professional Development opportunities to support the priorities and build capacity amongst the staff.

·       Student voice is pervasive in decisions made. The students value their teachers, recognise their hard work and compassion.

·       The curriculum is strong and aligned to the Australian Curriculum and has strong quality assurance processes in place.

·       Good transitions programs are in place supporting children entering school and moving to high school.

A couple of areas that could be the next step include:

·       Sharpen the focus of the improvement agenda by consolidating and narrowing – ‘less is more’

·       Track progress against regular checkpoints and targets ensuring that resources are achieving the goals set.

Michelle D’Netto