Swansea Public School Newsletter

Supporting Inclusive Education:

The Department of Education have been doing plenty of work behind the scenes to support learning at all levels, particularly in the space of disabilities education and inclusive learning.  We are all committed to every student feeling known, valued and cared for.  We are also committed to ensuring all learners are supported in their learning so they are engaged in an appropriate level of challenge to promote ongoing growth and progress in learning and wellbeing. 

We value parent and carer feedback, and our recent Tell Them From Me – Partners in Learning Survey revealed that in the eyes of our families, we have opportunities for self-reflection and improvement.

As a result, in 2021 we will be employing a Learning and Support Teacher 5 days per week to support staff and students in our endeavours strengthen learning outcomes, recruiting specialist teacher, Kyle Bales, to join Team Swansea Public in 2021.Kylie will be joining us from Lake Munmorah Public School.   

Throughout her career Kylie;

• Has been a Regional Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) Coach,

Has had four years’ experience as a Relieving Assistant Principal,
Has deep knowledge of curriculum and behaviour support, and
Is currently engaged in contemporary university studies in Inclusive and Special Education as a Department of Education Inclusive Education Scholarship recipient.

All staff are also completing 4.5 Hours of online training in Disabilities Education this term in preparedness for 2021.  We are very excited about the future directions of Learning and Support at our school and encourage parents and carers to also visit the Department’s online resources and information for families at:  

New Parent Hub:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/disability-learning-and-support/our-disability-strategy/latest-news/new-parent-and-carer-hub--disability 

Inclusive Learning Support:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/parents-and-carers/inclusive-learning-support 

As we move through our planning for 2021, we are confident that parent and carer feedback in the domain of ‘Inclusive School’ will be reported higher when we run our annual Partners in Learning Survey again next year.        

STEM Classes 2021:

Thank you to our parents and carers who joined our STEM Team last week via Zoom regarding our STEM Classes for 2021.  It’s great to enjoy the levels of support we are receiving regarding our future directions.  Parents and carers are reminded that nomination forms for Stage 2 and Stage 3 STEM Classes are due to the front office by Friday this week (20th November).  Students who do not submit a nomination form will not be eligible for consideration for our STEM Program in 2021.  Forms have been issued to all students in Years 2, 3, 4 and 5.  If you need another form, please contact our front office on 49711267.

The following data is our attendance percentages for the first 5 weeks of Term 4 2020.  ‘DoE State’ is the average attendance for all NSW Department of Education Schools; ‘Network’ is the average for local schools in our region; ‘SSSG’ is the average for Statistically Similar School Groups (schools that we, with confidence can compare to, as they are the most accurate schools we can compare our school performance with).

As you can see, we are recording attendance percentages above all comparable averages!!!  We are very proud of our ongoing improvements and collective commitment to strengthened attendance.  While we are short of our ambitious goal of having 90% of students attending school 90% or more of the time (currently sitting at 71.9%), we are certainly moving together in our commitment to ‘Show Up, Step Up and Strive’. 

Regards,

Brett Carr

Principal – Swansea Public School