Dear Nativity Community
The beginning of any school year brings about many new thingsā¦ new shoes, pencils, books, friends, lunch boxes, classrooms, teachers, and new possibilities. This year we have many new students and their families, as well as staff who have joined our Nativity community, I would like to extend my welcome to these people. New experiences and opportunities, can bring a variety of feelings; excitement, anticipation, wonder and worryā¦
It was with the above feelings, that like some of our students, I began this year with many thoughts about was ahead of me. This year I have stepped out of the classroom and started in the new role of Assistant Principal, Teaching and Learning. The role involves working with Erika and Sharyn leading Learning and Teaching, Inclusive Education and English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EALD). Please feel free to contact me if you would like to have any information about learning at Nativity.
School Pedagogy
Staff at Nativity have been working with University of Southern Queensland to develop a vision statement with a focus on school wide pedagogy. The learning statement that staff have spent time to develop is: Nurturing and empowering learners to thrive: Engage, Connect, Challenge, Create. No doubt, you will hear about this at the parent information night. You may have even seen our new banners around the school. The learning statement is important as it sets the scene for what staff believe is important for learners at Nativity.
Class Programs
Class teachers have communicated Learning Overviews, and this week will hold parent information meetings where they will share more information about the classes. We encourage you to check Seesaw for more information about learning. This year we are working towards implementing version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum. We have staff attending professional development regarding the version 9.0.
Personalised Plans for Learning (PPLās)
We know that some students require a slightly different approach to support them to be successful and thriving learners. To support this, teachers prepare Personalised Plans for Learning (PPLās) which they work with families to establish what learning and adjustments need to be made for a student to be successful. Should your child need a personalised plan, class teachers will organise a meeting to discuss your child’s goals and have these collaborative documents signed in the coming weeks. If you have any questions about your child and their learning, please speak with your class teacher or myself.
Initial Lit
Research completed over the last five years has shown consistently that students make remarkable gains following MultiLit instruction and other intervention programs. For children who are struggling to learn to read, intervening early is the best way to stop reading problems from becoming more established, and to bring students up to the level of their classmates before they fall too far behind. At Nativity, we provide the following Multi lit intervention groups: SAGE Initial lit, Initial lit and Macq Lit to students who require literacy intervention. Class teachers will carry out assessments to see which children would benefit from this intervention. Class teachers will be in touch if this applies to your child.
NAPLAN
This year students in year 3 and 5 will undertake the annual NAPLAN assessment in March. NAPLAN includes four different tests including writing, reading, conventions of grammar, and numeracy. The official testing window beginning on March 15th. Previously students participated in NAPLAN in Term 2. More information will be shared with Year 3 and 5 families in the coming weeks.
I have been privileged to have been visiting all classes and see the enthusiasm and interest in learning that the students have as they embarked on either their first year at school, the years in between or their final year at Nativity. It has been exciting to see and hear the buzz of excitement and joy for learning in all classes and I look forward to continuing to share information about our learning with you.
Kind regards
Melinda James