West Lakes Shore School Newsletter

Dear Families,

Connected Curriculum

A vital part of our whole-school connections comes from our joint approach to the curriculum. Staff and students co-designed the overarching Connected Curriculum 2020 themes and sought hard to secure a huge ‘active’ focus for Term 4. Students want more outdoor learning experiences with physical and hands on learning opportunities. House Leaders have reviewed the missed Sports Day opportunity and have worked with Mr Dixon to plan a ‘Be Active’ Children’s Week in week 3 of Term 4. This ties in with National Children’s Week and we will look at a wide range of events wth competitive and fun aspects. The Sports Day shield will be awarded to the house team winning the most points from the team events. Community links will be supported via some live streaming and classroom technology tools will keep families involved and connected.

Partnership LDAM Pupil Free Day

Staff worked across partnership school sites to share effective practice and moderate student learning outcomes in English and Maths. Staff unpacked student achievement at the highest levels and discussed what needs to be done to challenge and elevate students working at expected levels into higher achievement. There was productive discussion, chance to listen to other people’s ideas and an opportunity to visit other sites and classrooms. In the afternoon staff recapped their knowledge of effective formative assessment and were able to see Mr T demonstrate a ‘just in time’ formative assessment tool, 'Plickers'. Formative assessment is the ‘check in and act’ response of teachers to ensure what they are teaching is aimed to the gaps and needs of students. Expert integration of formative assessment sees the teacher working to unpack what each child knows, and needs to know next, to plan differentiated responses to meet student learning needs.

Better School Funds

We are delighted that the site building works is being fast tracked and SENSUM has been appointed to deliver this. SENSUMs strength is in modular building design. As we look to improve our world class facilities we aim to upgrade our site to reflect a community school which brings the staff, students and families together and supports our vision and values. To get the best value for money the school will be seeking feedback on initial ideas and future concepts from experts and all members of the community. The Department is working closely with site and informing us of requirements to ensure any new building is built to Department regulations.

School Day Times

Thank you to families who have provided feedback on the proposed school day times for 2021.

• 8.50 – Start of School Day
• 9.00 – Lesson 1
• 9.50 – Lesson 2
• 10.40 – Recess
• 11.00 – Lesson 3
• 11.50 – Lesson 4
• 12.40 – Eating Time (key year levels extend this to enable students to eat)
• 12.50 – Lunch Play
• 1.20– Lesson 5
• 2.10 – Lesson 6
• 3.00 – End of School Day

The end of the school day will change to 3.00pm as opposed to the current 3.15pm.

Governing Council will meet on Monday 14th September to review and finalise school day times 2021.  Any additional feedback can be provided to Helen Grant via email - helen.grant8@schools.sa.edu.au  before 4pm Monday 14th September 2021.

Kind regards and have a great weekend

Carol, Helen & Fay                 

Organising the wealth of information to be used to support our class placement process for 2021 takes a considerable amount of time as we aim to ensure fair and equitable creation of classes.

2021 classes will be created based on a wide range of information including gender, students with additional needs, academic abilities and teacher, student and parent input. We create all classes with the needs of your child’s learning at the heart of the decision-making. Students are asked by teachers to nominate others with whom they play and learn successfully. We acknowledge student friendships as an important part of your child’s schooling, though this is balanced with teacher and student input to ensure children develop their resilience and can connect and make new friendships. Teachers have the overall responsibility to work with their colleagues to ensure consistency in allocating information to each student across a year level. Key software is then utilised by staff to create and adapt classes for 2021.

As part of our partnership in learning we invite parents/caregivers to provide any significant information to be considered for the 2021 class placement process.

Please submit information in writing for any of the following:

• Your child has a social and emotional, health, behaviour or learning issue.
• There is confidential information relating to issues between families that needs considering as part of class placement.
• Your child has a disability and recognised school NEP/OCOP plan and key information needs to be considered linked to this.
• Other mitigating factors that may impact significantly on your child’s learning in 2021

At West Lakes Shore School all teachers are qualified and we ask that you are careful about not making judgement based on the information provided by others. In every class across school students work in a range of ability levels. We differentiate the learning to support each child’s needs. Whether your child is in a straight class or a composite class does not affect the level of their learning.

Key Information that parents cannot provide to be considered for class placement includes:

• Requests to have a specific teacher
• Requests to not have a specific teacher
• Requests NOT to be in a composite class
• Requests for separations – these can only occur if there is significant history involving ongoing issues

Please ensure the information you wish to provide is sent in writing, addressed to carol.press854@schools.sa.edu.au, with Class Placement 2021 in the subject line, by 4pm Friday 25th September 2020 - Week 10, Term 3. Please note: Previous parent information is not kept on record. Information from parents is required to be submitted annually and in writing.

If a large number of separations are requested then these cannot be met due to the overall requirement to ensure fair and equitable classes as part of the agreed Educational Industrial Agreements for teachers. The school PAC committee finalise classes based on this agreement. Final class placement allocations are then approved by leadership due to consideration of confidential information.

Information regarding your child’s class placement and teacher for 2021 will come out with the end of Year reports in the final week of Term 4.

We thank parents/caregivers for their support and understanding of this complex and time-consuming class placement process.

Jacqui Thomas has stepped into the position of Wellbeing Teacher and is working hard to build proactive and preventative strategies to support students as individuals and groups. Gordon the dog has been a huge success with staff, family and student feedback being wholeheartedly positive. Jacqui took key students to visit Gordon and they presented expectations to the whole school at the Book Week assembly. A site risk management has been compiled considering all feedback such as allergies, rubbish in the play and safe handling and hygiene practices. Please communicate with us if you have any queries or feedback about Gordon.

School Ambassadors Ben, Shyla and Riley took prospective families on a recent tour of the school to highlight our outstanding facilities and discuss the wealth of programs and our excellence in learning. We are seeking many ways to build the responsibilities of our students as leaders of our action groups. This newsletter highlights the roles and responsibilities of the Nature Play Crew supporting site Learning Landscapes; the Assistant Grounds Team helping our Groundsperson Jarrod to maintain the upkeep of the school; and the newly established Eco Warriors who support our Sustainability focus. They have been working with Groundswell to audit and plan school strategies to keep our environment clean. Senior Leaders did an excellent job of organising the recent school disco and were fabulous helping to run the stalls and clear up at the end of the night. Immersion students will soon lead a whole-school Culture Day they have been planning and we look forward to the vote for the school Japanese Mascot design.

If you have indicated that you will attend as a spectator on Tuesday 15th at Point Malcolm Reserve, your name has been forwarded to the COVID coordinator for the event.  Please maintain expected social distancing and comply with COVID marshals.

For those parents who are volunteering on the day, please meet in the school gym at 8:45am.

A huge thanks to all members of the school community for the hard work and effort that went into the school book week events and annual parade. We ensured, despite COVID restrictions, that the community could be involved through our virtual live assembly feed. Feedback from this has been overwhelmingly positive with family members keen to ensure we keep a live feed for future events. Big thanks to Ms Cook, Ms Grant, Lee and Michelle for going above and beyond to ensure this occurred. If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out the feed on our school Facebook site. Staff and student costumes were once again outstanding and the teacher play demonstrated sharing and the importance of being kind. Enjoy the showcase below of our 'Curious Creatures, Wild Minds' .