Dear Parents, carers, community,

This week we were blessed to have our parents attend our Stage/Class based Information sessions. I would like to thank our community so much as you certainly show us that you really care about your child’s educative journey through our school. Please know that:

·         Our teachers work collegially in stage teams. All curriculum planning for the teaching, learning, assessment and reporting cycle is team based. We work to utilise our teacher’s strengths to enrich our teaching programs.

·         There is an emphasis on embedding technology across the curriculum in authentic ways. There is no such thing as ‘computers’ as a subject. We are also mindful of current research to do with tech time for students.

·         Our teachers meet weekly as a stage and weekly as a whole school for Teacher Professional Learning. We closely monitor our teacher’s journey through the Australian Teaching Standards and we are actively and systemically building capacity in our staff.

·         We have very high expectations in our classrooms and playground to ensure the wellbeing of our students and to ensure that all students are working to their potential.

·         We collect School Data across six domains: Reading (fluency and comprehension), Writing, Spelling and Whole Number. Our data is colour-coded for greater clarity and to allow students to articulate their growth through colour.

·         We collect Stage Data that is designed to capture the learning and deep understanding through the Key Learning Areas that is taught under each term’s ‘Big Idea’ that the whole school focuses on.

·         The ‘Big Idea’ this term is ‘Perspective.

·         RFF (2hrs per week release from face-to-face per teacher) – during this time our students attend a combination of Music, Drama and Dance (Mrs Lawrence and Mrs Pankhurst), Library and /or Tech team teaching (Mrs Turnbull)

·         Our Assistant Principals have their allocated two hours a week RFF plus executive release that equates to one whole day a week. During this time Mrs Nicholl and Mrs McCurdy take their classes and teach the set program for the class.

·         During their executive release our Assistant Principals spend time in the classrooms that they supervise. They connect with the teacher, work with the children to get to know them better and they offer any support the teacher may need.

We are so pleased with the very settles and calm start to the year that we have had and would like to thank our parents for staying connected, ensuring that your child/ren has full school uniform, book packs and access to the enriched programs that your Classroom Enhancement Fee offers.

Congratulations to our school leaders who participated in the Lake Macquarie North Leadership day hosted by Biddabah Public School yesterday. It was a wonderful day of Key Note Speakers and workshops. I was so proud watching our students mingle with other school leaders and watching them shine in such a rigorous setting.

Our LaST team (Learning and Support) will be in touch with families with students with special needs to organise the first Learning Support Meeting of the year, so that we can finalise the ILP (Individual Learning Program) for our students.

So proud of our zone swimmers who are swimming right now, representing themselves and their school and seeking selection for the regional carnival. Thank you to Mr Soorley and his team for their part in organising quality swimming carnivals and representation for our school at zone level.

Please consider attending the P&Cs first community event of the year- Movie Night. Please check out the advertisement currently on the P&C Facebook page and our Skoolbag page. This is a first for the P&C, so we would love to know what your feedback is.

Welcome to Valentine Public School Sally, Michelle and Kate. Sally comes to us from Newcastle Senior School, and is working as a part of our Administration team. Michelle  has come to us from Wallsend Public School and Kate is undertaking her first year of full time teaching. Both Michelle and Kate our on our Year 1 classes. We are excited to have them as part of our Valo Team.