The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

** Exact days and time for Yr 4 and 6 to work with Hamish Curry are yet to be confirmed. 

Parent Teacher Interviews

The data from the SOBS website says that almost 300 parent teacher interviews were conducted last week! WOW…WHAT A MASSIVE EFFORT! I know this is not quite accurate as there were a number of parents that saw teachers personally and booked in for interviews for alternate days/times etc. Still, a huge effort by all 🙂

On behalf of the Leadership Team, I would like to thank all staff members for their enormous efforts in preparing for these interviews. I appreciate the time you’ve taken (both in your NCT and of an evening at home) to ensure you were fully ready for these sessions with parents. I know from the feedback I received last week, the parents really appreciate the information given and discussions had. Please do not forget to record your interview discussion (in bullet points or even attached your notes) via a record of contact in OneSchool. It is so important that as a whole, we keep track of these discussions on students as it paints a developmental picture (academically, socially, emotionally, behaviourally etc) of their time at Oakleigh. What may seem insignificant now, may escalate to something next term…next year…or even in 2 years.

Thanks once again!

Teacher Aide meeting – Tuesday 28 March, 1.40 – 2.10pm in the Library (top level)

Unfortunately, I will not be present for the meeting (as I have to attend the AITSL PD), but Belinda will be there to discuss the permanent hours up for offer, ADO agreements and answer any questions you may have. Karen Ryan will also make a guest appearance and discuss Reading Intervention and also PD opportunities for Term 2 in Literacy (reading and Writing) and Numeracy.

This week’s ‘Twilight Planning’ session – 3.15 – 5.30pm 

Next week is our twilight planning session in preparation for Term 2. This extra time (2.5hrs) is make up for our two week Easter holiday! Therefore, as per audit requirements, we will have a sign on sheet for all teaching staff to sign. The actual timing for the session should be 3.15 – 4.15 (our regular staff meeting), then the extra 2.5hrs on top of that, i.e. 3.15 – 6.45pm. But I think it will be fair in saying that you have all worked extra, extra hard in preparing for PT interviews, that we will finish at 5.30pm (reducing it by 1hr15mins).

“It’s like Christmas in March”…. did I hear you say??

Can we all please meet in the Year 6 rooms for a 3.15pm start. We need to discuss a few things

• English committee update and preparations for Term 2 – Heather/Grant
• Digi Tech update – Nicola
• NoTosh update and Hamish Curry’s visit – Brian
• Our next Practitioner Inquiry round – Grant
• Expectations for planning afternoon – Heather

Pokemon and other fads

At the moment there are lots of students bring Pokemon cards to school to play and trade. Whist there are potential problems arising from trading of cards especially when younger year levels are trading with older students, there are also significant benefits from playing in this way.

As a general rule, don’t bring toys to school if they are precious or expensive, unless the student is able to accept that they may be lost or damaged. The school will not be responsible for following this up.  Teachers can decide their own rules about what this looks like in the classroom.

What teachers can do is have a discussion with our classes about appropriate use – and what they should do if they feel uneasy about a trade and even what a fair trade may be.

There have been some stories of students knowingly trading ‘fake’ cards to younger unsuspecting students, they should be aware that fakes are about so to be wary of imposters!

Like all fads this one will eventually subside and marbles or elastics will be the new fad of choice. A similar message will be posted in the newsletter this week to ensure there is a consistent message going home to parents. Basically – students shouldn’t bring them in unless they take full responsibility for them and the school will not act as a fair trade ambassador. There are however powerful lessons to be learnt through these experiences.

QParents

The school is looking to bring this in over the next term or two. Our school admin team will be doing some training early next term – more updates will be published once a timeline for moving forward has been established.

Digital Learning across P-Year 3

Tracking of Vocab Improvement – from Heather

For the 2017 TOVI (Tracking of Vocab Improvement) project this year, in Week 1 and 10 of Term 2, teachers will be doing a short vocab test with their students.

So that Sue and Heather can prepare the assessment sheets for you, please advise Heather by Friday 24th March which STRIVE words you are teaching in Term 2 (just 8-10 of them).

Heather has asked that the following people report back with the info:

Prep – Eliz

Year 1 – Dene

Year 2 – Julie

Year 3 – Chris

Year 4 – Shannon

Year 5 – Heath

Year 6 – Cathie

Once this info has been received and assessment sheets prepared, further information will be forthcoming in Week 10 about the administration of the test, which will be a short and quick written vocab test.

Term 2 Staff Meeting Schedule (at this stage…)

Week 1 – Special Guest Hamish Curry, from NoTosh  talking about Curriculum Desgin through Inquiry

Week 2 – ANZAC DAY Public Holiday

Week 3 – Writing session (In yr levels, mark and moderate one students work)

Week 4 – Practitioner Inquiry

Week 5 – Writing session (In yr levels, moderate 2 upper, 2 mid, 2 lower diagnostic writing samples)

Week 6 – Practitioner Inquiry

Week 7 – Practitioner Inquiry

Week 8 – Time to complete report cards

Week 9 – Practitioner Inquiry PITCHES (more details to come)

Week 10- Twilight Planning

This link below is to the Department’s Healthy Workplace Survey that the WorkPlace Health and Safety committee (led by Eliz) would like all staff to complete. The data from this survey will be used and analysed by the WH&S committee.  It states on the website it should take about 20 mins to complete…. but when Eliz completed it, it didn’t take that long. Thanks for your attention with this.

https://workplaces.healthier.qld.gov.au/member/survey/start/e351cc8cf40dd526d8b0e01860cc7abb

Happy Easter

Without repeating my main messages from last week’s memo, I really appreciate everyone’s efforts in making our school, such a great school to work and learn in! I wish you all a safe and relaxing Easter holiday and look forward to seeing you back, refreshed and ready for Term 2. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Have a fantastic last week everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

Almost there…

Not too much longer to go until everyone gets a well-deserved break from the ‘hustle and bustle’ of school. The beginning of the year is always an incredibly busy time as you establish classroom expectations and routines, develop working relationships with students and their parents and commence the learning journey for the year ahead.

I wanted to take some time to pause, and reflect on the term so far and acknowledge the amazing work that is occurring across many domains of the school, some you may not even be aware of…

• There are some absolutely amazing works being completed in relation to Prep-Yr1 AAP projects, the teaching of reading, implementing the digital technologies curriculum, inquiry/design thinking units, beginner teacher mentor programs, coaching and the many other learning opportunities that teachers are leading and planning within their classrooms for their students. All of these things individually and combined take an incredible amount of time and effort to plan and prepare for! Thank you for your ongoing efforts with this!
• The student support team and our amazing intervention aides have been working around the clock (and up to timetable draft 4000) on ensuring all students are getting the extra support that they require across many different areas of the curriculum. Creating intervention timetables ARE NOT EASY and I appreciate your support and flexibility with fitting in around these ladies!
• Our Prep teachers have recently completed the initial EARLY START data collection for Literacy and Numeracy on their students (which has taken them roughly 20hrs each to complete!!). This data is SO valuable for them in preparing teaching and learning that builds upon their prior knowledge and also identifies the gaps in their learning. Thanks for your efforts ladies!
• I would like to congratulate Zac on graduating from the Metro Region ‘Aspiring Leaders’ program last week. Zac’s 12-month action research project was focused on Inquiry/Design Thinking process in the classroom. Zac will be leading a component of the upcoming MCC Master Class rounds in Term2 and Term 4 focused on this topic.  Well done Zac!
• The Young Innovator Program continues to grow in popularity and demand with enthusiastic kids (staff and parents) eager to be involved in these ‘hands on’ and exciting experiences. Many of these ideas and ways of working are popping up in classrooms across the school as just a way of how we work and what we do at Oakleigh within a ‘fail safe’ and supportive school culture. It is great to see teachers implementing this and ‘giving it a go’ in their rooms. Have you ever seen Heather O’s Prep Digi Tech lessons in the Library? They are just amazing and I would also encourage you to pop in and see them in action! What the aides and Prep students are doing is just splendid.
• By the end of the term, the writing committee will have met four times outside of our regular staff meetings to ensure the explicit writing agenda maintains the necessary momentum and leadership for the collaborative development of our curriculum resources, which will be used from Term 2. This work forms the first iteration for the project that may take us the next two years to embed.
• The Rainforest Walk Artist-in-Residence project is taking shape. This $25,000 P&C funded project subcommittee (consisting of staff members and parents) received 25 high-quality applications and have recently completed the shortlisting process (it was very hard to choose!). This project will take the remainder of the year to complete and will involve students over the next 3 terms. More information will be provided once the project timeline is confirmed.
• 284 parent teacher interviews have been booked! Each interview takes a considerable about of time to prepare for! Thank you one and all for your efforts with this! (please don’t forget to upload a OneSchool record of contact 🙂 ).
• Our amazing teacher aides have assisted teachers and students in our classrooms for almost 30,000 minutes of reading groups and/or Literacy rotations in just 8 weeks. Your efforts and enthusiasm have been greatly appreciated by all teachers and students you are working with.
• Our dedicated office staff, continue to support everyone at school from phone messages, ordering resources, following up our OneSchool roll marking errors ( 🙂 ), organising TRS, playground duties and the list goes on and on and on…. Thanks ladies!!

The groups of people/activities listed above are not intended to single out anyone or anything specifically, but is purely meant to exemplify just how much has been going on across the school in 10 weeks! Each one of these initiatives (and the MANY others I have not listed) are the reasons why our kids and community choose and LOVE Oakleigh. Your individual efforts contribute to the culture and buzz of our great school. We are each a part of the fabric that makes Oakleigh, Oakleigh. Please don’t ever lose sight of your contributions within a classroom and how your efforts and behaviours form an important component towards the strategic direction of the school.

Staff Bios and images…

I have spoken with our in house photographer, Ian Wilkinson (who has been very busy with work) and it is anticipated we can lock in some dates (early next term) for him to come and take some ‘candid’ images of teachers in their natural surrounds.

Staff Meeting Schedule

Week 9 – Parent Teacher Interviews (Teacher led)

Week 10 – Twilight planning (2.5hrs)

Social Club news

For our end of term function, we are heading to The Grove Establishment, 225 Waterworks Road, Ashgrove, from 4pm. Social club will do the usual few platters and all drinks and extra food are your own expense.

Please RSVP to Wendy or Belinda by Wednesday 22, 2017.

Tracking of Vocab Improvement – from Heather

For the 2017 TOVI (Tracking of Vocab Improvement) project this year, in Week 1 and 10 of Term 2, teachers will be doing a short vocab test with their students.

So that Sue and Heather can prepare the assessment sheets for you, please advise Heather by Friday 24th March which STRIVE words you are teaching in Term 2 (just 8-10 of them).

Heather has asked that the following people report back with the info:

Prep – Eliz

Year 1 – Dene

Year 2 – Julie

Year 3 – Chris

Year 4 – Shannon

Year 5 – Heath

Year 6 – Cathie

Once this info has been received and assessment sheets prepared, further information will be forthcoming in Week 10 about administration of the test, which will be a short and quick written vocab test.

Earth Hour Schools Day – Friday 24th March

This year we’re celebrating 10 years since that first night in Sydney when 2.2 million Australians participated in the first ever Earth Hour. Every year, schools have helped make Earth Hour the incredible event it is. Millions of people worldwide show that they care about the future of climate change and switch off. Oakleigh will participate in this event by turning off the lights and any other power sources you can manage to do without for a day. LET’S SWITCH OFF!

This link below is to the Department’s Healthy Workplace Survey that the WorkPlace Health and Safety committee (led by Eliz) would like all staff to complete. The data from this survey will be used and analysed by the WH&S committee.  It states on the website it should take about 20 mins to complete…. but when Eliz completed it, it didn’t take that long. Thanks for your attention with this.

https://workplaces.healthier.qld.gov.au/member/survey/start/e351cc8cf40dd526d8b0e01860cc7abb

Have a fantastic week everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

Visible Learning Wall

Have you updated any reading levels on your students? Do you now have Prep children on a PM? If so, make sure you head up to the VLW in Heather’s room and update your student cards. If you do this – please just cross out their old level, and write the new level beside it. If you haven’t updated any, don’t worry – we will have a staff meeting dedicated to ‘moving the VLW’ later next term.

Queensland Women’s Week

What a success this event was last week. Thank you to all staff for being so accommodating with guest speakers in your classrooms, visiting Dr Catherine Ball’s presentation last Monday, attending the Year 5 and 6 Leadership panel session and finally the Women in Leadership panel which was on Thursday night.

The week’s events were a P & C event and was a wonderful representation of our community coming together with a clear focus on supporting the women and girls in our lives to be the best they can be.  There was also a clear futures perspective with Dr Catherine Ball on Monday where we were reminded that our students’ futures are going to be very different to ours.   Creating a legacy that redefines the world may quite possibly involve drones!

Thank you to the P&C for their support (and the funding they received) and Nicola for all of the organisation that went on for weeks prior to the event.

Can you please send Nicola a photos and a summary so that we can formally thank those people in the newsletter this week?

Moderation Week 8

Generic MODERATION FACILITATOR

GUIDEMODERATION FOR REPORTING FEEDBACK SHEET

Parent teacher interviews

The parent teacher interview round has been created in SOBS (Student Online Booking Service) https://sobs.com.au once you click on the link you will need to select parent teacher interviews, then click on the staff access login. All classroom teaching staff should be entered, use your MIS id to enter Eg bmars83 then your password. If you have forgotten you can have it resent to your email. For new users Oakleigh,  will be the initial password then it will redirect you to change it.

By default, Tuesday 21 March and Thursday 23 March have sessions before (7:00 – 8:30am) and after school (3:15 – 7:00pm) set to available. To make these sessions unavailable you will have to click on each 15 minute slot. Could shared teacher classes please contact Brian to communicate how you would like to create these booking options.

This should be considered a “check in” for parents and as always we must ensure there will be no surprises for parents when they receive the report card at the end of term 2.  Don’t forget to sandwich any concerns about a child’s learning with positive messages, and be specific about any concerns and outline what intervention is in place to support the student. It is usually the case though, that the parents you really need to see may not book interviews, sometimes a gentle reminder can assist in these cases.

Finally, please remember to upload a brief comment in OneSchool under ‘contact’ outlining what was discussed and raised.

Digital Technologies

Nicola would like to attend a year level meeting for each year level before the end of the term to ascertain where each group are up to and what support you might need in terms of Digital Technologies.

At this stage, the plan for assessment is:

Prep:  assessing in Semester 2

Yr 1:  assessing in Semester 1

Year 2:  assessing in Semester 2

Year 3 assessing in Semester 2

Year 4:  assessing in Semester 1

Year 5:  assessing in Semester 1

Year 6:  being decided this week.

Library Teacher Materials

With only 3 weeks left of this term, can you please return teacher materials – especially C2C materials that you are finished with.  We are finding that some staff are holding on to things which is making it difficult for us to ensure that everyone gets what they need in a timely fashion.

Hardware

In supporting digital literacy, digital technologies (Systems Thinking) and lead-in to Naplan Online, we are currently working to ensure that within Prep and Year 1 – there is access to laptops and/or desktops.   Heather O’Connor does some excellent work in introducing skills early and we need to ensure that these skills are consolidated.   Such skills can easily be worked into daily routines (signing on at the beginning of the day for eg) or literacy and maths rotations.     We will be publishing a list of ideas and/or expectations for the beginning of Term 2.

We will be placing some laptops in the withdrawal room of Year 1 (small group work possible) and ensuring that each Prep room has between 4-6.     Our next focus will be Year 2 and 3.   Purchasing should also be made by the end of this term to boost numbers of iPads and Laptops.

Staff Meeting Schedule

Week 8 – Year level Moderation

Week 9 – Parent Teacher Interviews (Teacher led)

Week 10 – Twilight planning (2.5hrs)

The Golden Bin Award

Introducing the Golden Bin Award. When on duty, if you see a student picking up litter to put in the bin please write their name on a ticket (book of tickets located inside each Duty folder). Tickets issued are to be put in golden bin located on table outside of the Office. A lucky ticket will be drawn at parade each week. The winner will receive a treat from the Tuckshop. Please promote this initiative with your classes. If you have any questions – please see Brenda!

Clean Up Oakleigh Day

Last week we collected 6.5 kilos of rubbish including 500g of recycling. The general rubbish was mainly milo cups, lids and spoons, zooper dooper wrappers, poppers and straws, juice bottles, gladwrap, chip packets (a lot of tuckshop packaging). Please reinforce with your students the importance of placing rubbish in the bin and the FOOD SCRAPS bin is for food scraps only. Thanks!

Brenda thanks everyone for all of their support with this initiative!

Today’s Garden Bee

Staff well-being Survey – have you completed your survey yet??

This link below is to the Department’s Healthy Workplace Survey that the WorkPlace Health and Safety committee (led by Eliz) would like all staff to complete. The data from this survey will be used and analysed by the WH&S committee at an upcoming meeting.  It states on the website it should take about 20 mins to complete…. but when Eliz completed it, it didn’t take that long. Thanks for your attention with this.

https://workplaces.healthier.qld.gov.au/member/survey/start/e351cc8cf40dd526d8b0e01860cc7abb

Have a fantastic week everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

Twilight Conference 

What a fantastic afternoon of collegial discussions, networking and hearing the amazing stories from the boys at Orange Sky Laundry. The afternoon was also the launch of the MCC vision. Thanks once again goes to Brian for creating the video, and of course Alba for her Academy Award performance.

The Regional Director: Mark Campling at last week’s MCC Twilight conference.

Last week’s Principal Conference 

The two-day conference was an outstanding professional learning opportunity where we heard the latest research and findings from John Hattie, Douglas Fisher (who co-developed the Gradual Release model), Dr Catherine Ball (she was amazing), Apple and many more speakers! There was also key messages and improtant information given by the Director General – Dr Jim Watterson, Kate Jones MP and the Deputy Director Petra Walton. I will share the link for their presentations once they are provided to us.

Dr Catherine Ball presenting to the 1300 conference delegates.

I was fortunate enough to meet Doug Fisher

Brian and Zac also got to meet Doug at the Middle Leaders conference over the weekend!

Leading learning for all – This Thursday!

This is a website that is launching, a federally funded project promoting positive messages about school working in an inclusive way with students with disabilities. Oakleigh features in some of these vignettes through showcasing some of the examples of inclusion happening around the school. The website launch kicks off at Oakleigh on Thursday March 9 with approx 60 -70 people attending from 9.30 – 11.00 including the Director General, Dr Jim Watterson and other invited guests. The event will be held in the library and disruption should be kept to a minimum as we will only need to reserve a couple of car spaces. Brian and I will try our best to keep people out of the main building.

Women’s Week – 6 – 10 March

QLD Women’s Week (flyer)

Just a few other reminders from last week’s memo…

1.      Could everyone please discuss and reinforce with your students the morning procedures. We are having a considerable number of students inside A Block before 830am and students not sitting in the undercovered area. I will continue to emphasise this with our community through the newsletter.

2.      Next Monday is our full staff photo!!!!! The theme for this year is “green”. Our photo is at 8:30amSHARP on Monday 6 March. Please wear green!!!!! 

3.       A reminder to staff re if you mark a student away and then they arrive they need to come to the office and collect a late slip…………….

If teachers have marked their rolls, a student arrives late with no slip the student needs to go to the office to collect a late slip.  If the roll is marked after 8:50am and a student presents with a late slip then that student needs to be marked as “A” otherwise we have inconsistent absences.

4.       A reminder from the office ladies… please phone the office (ext 820) when you send a child to the office who is sick? Injured? There have been a number of occasions recently where little people arrive and they have no clue why they are there? And they seem confused why they have been sent? – it’s a long process to extract information.

Staff Meeting Schedule

Week 7 – Writing session

Week 8 – Year level Moderation

Week 9 – Parent Teacher Interviews (Teacher led)

Week 10 – Twilight planning (2.5hrs)

Staff well-being Survey – have you completed your survey yet??

This link below is to the Department’s Healthy Workplace Survey that the WorkPlace Health and Safety committee (led by Eliz) would like all staff to complete. The data from this survey will be used and analysed by the WH&S committee at an upcoming meeting.  It states on the website it should take about 20 mins to complete…. but when Eliz completed it, it didn’t take that long. Thanks for your attention with this.

https://workplaces.healthier.qld.gov.au/member/survey/start/e351cc8cf40dd526d8b0e01860cc7abb

Semester One Date Claimer – (please let me know if you need any dates added)

DATE CLAIMER Semester One 2017

Have a fantastic week everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

Twilight Conference 

This Tuesday, all teaching staff members will head over to The Gap SHS for the annual MCC Twilight Conference. Afternoon tea will be served from 3.15 – 3.45pm, which will be followed by our speakers and guest speakers and conclude at 5.15pm. Nic and Lucas from Orange Sky Laundry will be the keynote speakers and if you haven’t already seen/read about them – I would encourage you to visit their website here.

Leading learning for all

This is a website that is launching, a federally funded project promoting positive messages about school working in an inclusive way with students with disabilities. Oakleigh features in some of these vignettes through showcasing some of the examples of inclusion happening around the school. The website launch kicks off at Oakleigh on Thursday March 9 with approx 60 -70 people attending from 9.30 – 11.00 including the Director General, Dr Jim Watterson and other invited guests. The event will be held in the library and disruption should be kept to a minimum as we will only need to reserve a couple of car spaces. Brian and I will try our best to keep people out of the main building.

Religious Instruction

The religious Instruction timetable has been shared and has now been updated – you can click here to access it. Semester 1 will have year 1 – year 3 and semester 2 will have years 4 – 6. Please go through the role with students early on Monday so they know where to go. If you need a copy of your class Religion list, please contact the office.

Middle leaders’ conference

Brian, Heather and Zac will be attending the middle leaders’ conference next weekend being held at the Stamford Plaza hotel in Brisbane. This is a 2-day conference and has been aligned to deliver similar messages as the Principals’ conference being held prior on Thursday and Friday this week. We know they will bring back some amazing ideas to share with the staff!

Women’s Week – 6 – 10 March (Week 7)

QLD Women’s Week (flyer)

MOONSHOT KIDS…

Last week Nicola led a 2017 Young Innovator ‘Think Tank’ evening with our school community.  The purpose of this was to create buy in for the next stage of our Young Innovator Program which needs to include an entrepreneurial stream for our older students. It was a great evening with many ideas shared and encouraged. To read Nicola’s blog about the evening, click here

Student leaders camp

Our 4 student leaders spent 2 days at the NW district student leaders camp where they had sessions from guest speakers, Michael Jeh and Neil Carrington. They also had to to develop an action plan to ensure they had a project to put into place over the coming year. Keep an eye out for the litter bot in coming months!

Staff Meeting Schedule

Week 6 – Twilight conference
The agenda for this has changed slightly. Instead of it being 2.5hrs, it will now only be 1.5hrs. Afternoon tea will be from 3.15 – 3.45pm, the conference and the keynote speakers from ‘Orange Sky Laundry‘ will run from 3.45 – 5.15pm. The first ‘master class’ (aka instructional round), will be in week 5, term 2.

Week 7 – Writing session

Week 8 – Year level Moderation

Week 9 – Parent Teacher Interviews (Teacher led)

Week 10 – Twilight planning (2.5hrs)

Staff well-being Survey – have you completed your survey yet??

This link below is to the Department’s Healthy Workplace Survey that the WorkPlace Health and Safety committee (led by Eliz) would like all staff to complete. The data from this survey will be used and analysed by the WH&S committee at an upcoming meeting.  It states on the website it should take about 20 mins to complete…. but when Eliz completed it, it didn’t take that long. Thanks for your attention with this.

https://workplaces.healthier.qld.gov.au/member/survey/start/e351cc8cf40dd526d8b0e01860cc7abb

Semester One Date Claimer – (please let me know if you need any dates added)

DATE CLAIMER Semester One 2017

Have a fantastic week everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

2 new classrooms are coming !!

Last week I received the news that Oakleigh will be receiving 2 new demountable classrooms. This is due to the number of ‘undersized’ classrooms that were measured and identified last year. I am waiting to hear of a site visit to discuss and identify where these buildings will go. I will keep you informed about any progress with this. I anticipate that the classrooms will be installed and ready to go by Term 2.

P&C assisting with staffing

Last week at the P&C meeting I presented our final DAY 8 staffing allocation. I have briefly explained it below for you and will briefly explain it to all staff following this week’s staff meeting.

• • On Day 8 we had 497 students = 20 teachers.
  • 501 students was the magic number for 21 teachers! We missed out by 4 students!!
  • I met with and spoke to the P&C Executive in Week 2 about the potential impact losing a teacher would have on all Year 1, 2 and 3 classes (ALL would be at capacity and we’d have 2 x multi-age)
  • Together we made an executive decision that I would explore other possibilities from HR and other sources but we agreed to maintain 21 classes as we knew that for our community that losing a teacher in 2017 would have a significant impact on the students and teachers of these classes.
  • The P&C Executive agreed that after options have been explored, that they would meet half of the costs (50%) of providing extra curricular initiatives for all students through the employment of staff through the specialists program that is provided above and beyond what other schools receive.
  • For 2017, the total costs for the P&C contribution will be $39,500. The same will be matched by the school.

This week’s staff meeting… Technology Curriculum

This week’s meeting will be a practical session – allowing you to investigate a tool you can use with the visual programming aspects of this curriculum.

Nicola has request that you do one of 2 things (depending on your teaching year level):

• Prep – Year 3 – install Scratch Jn on your teacher iPad** AND download this teacher iBook:  https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/creating-stories-scratchjr/id1180408076?mt=11
• Yr 4-6 – please visit https://scratch.mit.edu/ and create your own account.

Women’s Week – 6 – 10 March (Week 7)

The link below is the FINAL draft of the Women’s Week program. It outlines what is taking place at Oakleigh during  Week 7 (March 6 – 10).

Women’s Week – final flyer

MOONSHOT KIDS…

Any staff interested in entrepreneurial education and possible links with new curriculum areas are encouraged to attend Wednesday night’s ThinkTank in the Library.

Religious instruction

This will be starting in week 6 – at the moment the providers are trying to determine numbers etc, it may be that they split the year into 2 semesters and do years 1,3,5 in first semester and years 2, 4, 6 in second semester. A message will be sent out to all teachers during the week once this has been confirmed. A timetable will also be sent our this week – RI (in line with the education act) is to provided during school time and will happen after lunch on Mondays 1:40 – 2:10. In this way there will be less afternoons interrupted throughout the week.

Student leaders camp

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week Brian will be taking our 4 school Captains to the NW district student leaders camp – held at Hilder Rd SS. This is a great opportunity for these students to come together and focus on the year ahead, set some goals to achieve, listen to some guest speakers and meet the other student leaders from around the district.

Social Emotion focus…. Rumbles Quest

This is now working on our network and will be set up ready for our kids to play once we have populated the information and fully tested it successfully. Rumbles Quest is a game that gives an indication of a child’s wellbeing once they have played. This will be really valuable data for us to collect and use to support our community. More information will be provided, and classes will be able to book a time to have all their students complete the game over the coming weeks – it will take 30 mins for the whole class to complete.

Staff Meeting Schedule

Week 5 – Digi Tech session

Week 6 – Twilight conference
The agenda for this has changed slightly. Instead of it being 2.5hrs, it will now only be 1.5hrs. Afternoon tea will be from 3.15 – 3.45pm, the conference and the keynote speakers from ‘Orange Sky Laundry‘ will run from 3.45 – 5.15pm. The first ‘master class’ (aka instructional round), will be in week 5, term 2.

Week 7 – Writing session

Week 8 – Year level Moderation

Week 9 – Parent Teacher Interviews (Teacher led)

Week 10 – Twilight planning (2.5hrs)

Air Conditioning A Block

There was a lot of talk about this at last week’s P&C meeting. There is a working party (being led by the P&C Vice President Susan Munro) that is meeting on March 7 to discuss possible ‘cooling’ outcomes and developing a way forward with this agenda. I will be sure to keep you updated with any new information.

Staff well-being Survey

This link below is to the Department’s Healthy Workplace Survey that the WorkPlace Health and Safety committee (led by Eliz) would like all staff to complete. The data from this survey will be used and analysed by the WH&S committee at an upcoming meeting.  It states on the website it should take about 20 mins to complete…. but when Eliz completed it, it didn’t take that long. Thanks for your attention with this.

https://workplaces.healthier.qld.gov.au/member/survey/start/e351cc8cf40dd526d8b0e01860cc7abb

Semester One Date Claimer – (please let me know if you need any dates added)

DATE CLAIMER Semester One 2017

Have a fantastic week everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

Year Level Information Sessions

A BIG thanks for all teachers who prepared and presented their yearly overviews to the parents last week!  I received some great feedback from parents (about the timings and content) which is great to hear! Thank you for all of your efforts! Greatly appreciated!

P&C’s ‘Welcome to 2017’Whole School community event – WHAT A SUCCESS!

It was absolutely fantastic to see you all out and supporting this event last week! We had  great community support with approximately 400 sausages cooked and served, over 500 ice blocks opened and devoured and roughly 250 poppers drunk! Thank you for attending and supporting this event, I know the community and kids just LOVE seeing us all getting involved in these events!

Technology Curriculum

There is an upcoming staff session on the Technologies curriculum (Week 5) and Nicola is currently working with Heather to prepare some ideas and a school overview of Digital and Design & Tech activities and assessment for the year.   This will be discussed and adjusted through your discussions with Nicola at her session.   If you have already got something planned for Design & Tech, please advise Heather ASAP so that this can be incorporated into the document.

Age Appropriate Pedagogies (AAP) update

Prep and Year 1 teachers have started off the year working on their inquiry into the pedagogy of teaching maths for early year students, using the AAP framework as a guide to maximise learning and engagement.   Trialling and experimenting with how maths is delivered in classrooms is an ambitious and exciting project and I’m looking forward to seeing the progress and work that evolves throughout the year.  There have already been lots of active, collaborative and dialogic as well as explicit and scaffolded learning experiences for our youngest students!

Young Innovator Program

For those teachers preparing, delivering and facilitating a workshop in our Young Innovator Program, there is no cost for your children to be involved in workshops as part of the program.  For those volunteering to participate and/or supervise, you will be able to take advantage of one free registration for one of your children per term. See Nicola or Belinda if you have any questions. 

Women’s Week – 6 – 10 March (Week 7)

The flyer below outlines what is taking place at Oakleigh during  Week 7 (March 6 – 10). Nicola will explain more t this week’s staff meeting.

Women’s Week Flyer

Staff Meeting Schedule

Week 4 – Vocabulary session – please meet in Year 6 classroom

Week 5 – Digi Tech session

Week 6 – Twilight conference
The agenda for this has changed slightly. Instead of it being 2.5hrs, it will now only be 1.5hrs. Afternoon tea will be from 3.15 – 3.45pm, the conference and the keynote speakers from ‘Orange Sky Laundry‘ will run from 3.45 – 5.15pm. The first ‘master class’ (aka instructional round), will be in week 5, term 2.

Week 7 – Writing session

Week 8 – Year level Moderation

Week 9 – Parent Teacher Interviews (Teacher led)

Week 10 – Twilight planning (2.5hrs)

Air Conditioning – Infographic for the school community

This infographic below was created by Sylvia Richmond and Susan Munro and shows the journey of the Air Conditioning. The graphic will be distributed out this week (newsletter) and will be a major agenda item at this week’s P&C meeting. If you get any questions/complaints from parents, please direct them to Brian or I to discuss.

School Staff BIOS and photos

REMEMBER THE STAFF BIOs ARE DUE BY THIS FRIDAY!!!

Thank you to the many bios that I have already received! I appreciate your prompt attention with this. For everyone else, please have your bio to me by the end of week 4. Here is a summary of what I said last week…

I would like staff to write a short bio (50 – 150 words max) about themselves, their experiences and anything else you would like to share. Something that doesn’t need to be updated each year! Here is an example of what one school has done….

School Board Profiles

Also, I spoke with our resident photographer, Mr Ian Wilkinson, at the Welcome Back to school event and we will meet next week to develop a timetable for him to take some ‘natural’ images of you in your classroom/normal environment photos and not just the ‘cheesy’ ones from a school image group. Similiar to the ones that the QCT took last year and have been used for advertising purposes…

Semester One Date Claimer

DATE CLAIMER Semester One 2017

Have a fantastic week everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

Year Level Information Sessions

To cater for many of our working families, sessions will be as follows (two year levels max per session):
Monday – 6 – 6.45pm: Prep, Year 2
Monday – 6.45 – 7.30pm: Year 4, Year 5
Tuesday – 6 – 6.45pm: Year 1, Year 3
Tuesday – 6.45 – 7.30pm: Year 6

P&C’s ‘Welcome to 2017’Whole School community event – this Thursday – 3.15 – 4.30pm

This will be the 3rd ‘welcome back to school’ event that the P&C have held! It is always such a fantastic event to meet your families, mingle with the community and get to know your kids outside of the classroom! I would really appreciate it everyone could please attend this function and help cook on the bbq, serve sausages/ice blocks/poppers etc and join in on the fun! The more hands make lighter work and it’s a great social event to welcome in the new school year.

You Can Do It

This image didn’t seem to work last week…let’s try again…

2017 Oakleigh YCDI annual Scope and Sequence

Diagnostic Assessment Schedule

This one also didn’t seem to work last week… let’s try again…

2017 OSS Data Collection Schedule Sheet1

Staff Meeting Schedule

Week 3 – Parent information sessions

Week 4 – Vocabulary session

Week 5 – Digi Tech session

Week 6 – Twilight conference
The agenda for this has changed slightly. Instead of it being 2.5hrs, it will now only be 1.5hrs. Afternoon tea will be from 3.15 – 3.45pm, the conference and the keynote speakers from ‘Orange Sky Laundry‘ will run from 3.45 – 5.15pm. The first ‘master class’ (aka instructional round), will be in week 5, term 2.

Week 7 – Writing session

Week 8 – Year level Moderation

Week 9 – Parent Teacher Interviews (Teacher led)

Week 10 – Twilight planning (2.5hrs)

Have you listed your important dates on the DATE CLAIMER?

LAST CHANCE FOR THIS AS IT WILL BE SENT OUT THIS WEEK IN THE NEWSLETTER!!!Please see Anita if you would like to add an important date/excursion/camp etc on the Semester 1 DATE CLAIMER.

School Staff BIOS and photos

Thank you to the many bios that I have already received! I appreciate your prompt attention with this. For everyone else, please have your bio to me by the end of week 4. Here is a summary of what I said last week…

I would like staff to write a short bio (50 – 150 words max) about themselves, their experiences and anything else you would like to share. Something that doesn’t need to be updated each year! Here is an example of what one school has done….

School Board Profiles

Also, I spoke with our resident photographer last year, Mr Ian Wilkinson, who is more than happy to come into school over a few weeks and take some ‘natural’ in your classroom/normal environment photos and not just the ‘cheesy’ ones from a school image group. Similiar to the ones that the QCT took last year and have been used for advertising purposes…

I feel this personal approach would strengthen our profile within the community and ensure our stakeholders know who we are and that individually we each have very important roles in the education of our children at Oakleigh.

Have a fantastic week everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

Four Days Down….

It has been a great start to the year. 496 students returned last week with some more due to return this week. Many families have commented just how excited the kids were about returning to school – which is a fantastic reflection on YOU as they are in your classrooms! Well done on a smooth start to the new year.   

Below are a few snaps from out and about in your classrooms…. They look great! Well done on the Vision/AIP/Strategic Plan posters as well 🙂      

You Can Do It

Below is the YCDI outline for the year, after discussion with a number of teachers throughout the week we have decided to repeat what we started in the first 6 months of last year but continue this from the beginning of the year so we have an annual sequence of topics. Please be creative in the ways you incorporate this into your planning and explore the connections with other learning areas. The year 6s have created some amazing resources (iBooks) for younger grades so feel free to use these where possible. The lesson plans and additional information booklets are in coredata/common/YCDI and also housed in the bunker. Teachers should allow for around .5 hour of explicit teaching per week. If you have any questions, please see Brian.

[embeddoc url=”https://ossmemo.edublogs.org/files/2017/01/2017-Oakleigh-YCDI-annual-Scope-and-Sequence-284m0qu.pdf” viewer=”google”]

Diagnostic Assessment Schedule

The Diagnostic Assessment Schedule outlines when diagnostic assessments are due and which data is entered into Oneschool.  It also indicates when data meetings and reporting periods occur and moderation times.  The blue arrows show when all data needs to be entered into OneSchool.   Additional information about PROBE and PM and diagnostic assessment is available on the OneNote page (G drive>Coredata>Curriculum>OSS Pedagogical Framework).

Please note that there are changes in the schedule, so please ensure you are aware of what they are.  For Term 1, PM Benchmark and PROBE reading assessments are required only for those students who require it – for example, a student you may wish to retest, is new to the school or has no current data for some reason.  All students will require a reading assessment in Term 2.  Soundwaves diagnostic assessments being completed are not required to be entered into Oneschool, but used to inform practice.  Soundwaves diagnostic tests and Soundwaves Placement tests are two different tests.  Choose the one which provides the information you would find most helpful.

New PROBE folders are now available if you don’t have one, or need a replacement.  Please see Heather.

[embeddoc url=”https://ossmemo.edublogs.org/files/2017/01/2017-OSS-Data-Collection-Schedule-Sheet1-1ut2t2z.pdf” viewer=”google”]

POSTERS

Just a reminder to see Heather if you need reading comprehension posters/text or the Gradual Release poster.

GUIDED READING RESOURCES
I know many teachers are busy planning and organising their reading groups for the term.  If you are searching for resources for guided reading please see Heather.  She can point you in the right direction or make a note of new resources we may need to purchase to support your work.  Don’t forget that Year 3-6 classes have access to the Nelson Literacy Direction box and guided reader sets in the Reading Room (Student Support Room).  If you need an extra pair of hands as you begin your reading groups to your class, Heather is more than happy to assist in your room.  Just ask!

SCIENCE RESOURCES
If you will be needing any specific Science materials and resources for Term 1, the Art/Maths/Science room is the first point of call.  Anything you still need, see Heather so these items can be ordered ASAP.  Remember equipment lists can be found in the C2C units.

Year level meetings

Please dont forget to email Grant or Brian THIS WEEK with your Year Level meeting day and times! Thanks

Staff Meeting Schedule

Week 1 – Operational items

Week 2 – Year level planning

Week 3 – Parent information sessions

Week 4 – Vocabulary session

Week 5 – Digi Tech session

Week 6 – Twilight conference (3.30 – 6pm – this is 2.5hrs of the SFD make-up hrs)

Week 7 – Writing session

Week 8 – Year level Moderation

Week 9 – Parent Teacher Interviews (Teacher led)

Week 10 – Twilight planning (2.5hrs)

Year Level Information Sessions

To cater for many of our working families, sessions will be as follows (two year levels max per session):
Monday – 6 – 6.45pm: Prep, Year 2
Monday – 6.45 – 7.30pm: Year 4, Year 5
Tuesday – 6 – 6.45pm: Year 1, Year 3
Tuesday – 6.45 – 7.30pm: Year 6

If you would like to switch with another year level, please see them and then let me know BEFORE TUESDAY (as it will be going into the Newsletter). I have tried to put the younger grades first as I am aware the parents need to get home for dinner/bed routines.

Have you listed your important dates on the DATE CLAIMER?

Please see Anita if you would like to add an important date/excursion/camp etc on the Semester 1 DATE CLAIMER. This will be included in the week 3 newsletter.

School Staff BIOS and photos

Each year I have many parents, community members and future families asking me about the school and more importantly about you, the staff. I was amazed last year, at the end of the year, that some families (who have been at Oakleigh for a while) didn’t know who some staff members were by name or face, or that we had a GO or Speechy that visited the school. They didn’t know some year level teachers or who John was in the tuckshop. I want to fix this so everyone knows who were are and what our roles are at Oakleigh. It is imporatnt that our community know who we are and how we are here to help and support their children with their learning.

Therefore, I would like staff to write a short bio (50 – 150 words max) about themselves, their experiences and anything else you would like to share. Something that doesn’t need to be updated each year! Here is an exmaple of what one school has done….

School Board Profiles

Also, I spoke with our resident photographer last year, Mr Ian Wilkinson, who is more than happy to come into school over a few weeks and take some ‘natural’ in your classroom/normal environment photos and not just the ‘cheesy’ ones from a school image group. Similiar to the ones that the QCT took last year and have been used for advertising purposes…

I feel this personal approach would strengthen our profile within the community and ensure our stakeholders know who we are and that individually we each have very important roles in the education of our children at Oakleigh.

In the meantime, could you please forward your bios to me by the end of week 4. I will then speak with Ian over the coming weeks and organise something low key and non invasive for everyone for week 5/6. Please come and see Brian or I if you have any questions about this.

Have a fantastic first two everyone, Grant.

The Fortnight Ahead (click to enlarge)

Student Free Day ‘wrap up’…

It was a fantastic start to the year last week. Thank-you everyone, for your enthusiasm and positive attitude towards these days. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the professional learning sessions, the Visible Learning Wall, our Master Chef experience and the time dedicated on Friday towards classroom setup and cohort planning. 

There were some very clear messages that Heather took us through about Reading, Writing and the 10 happy thoughts! Be sure you reflect on her PowerPoint for the main points from her session.

Nicola and Brian covered some very important Digital Technologies information and how technology can be incorporated to cater for all student learning styles and offers alternative pathways for curriculum coverage.

Both Heather and Nicola are very keen to work alongside you this year so please see them if you’d like some extra help, assistance, information or just a chat.

A PDF version of my presentation from Thursday is below.

 [embeddoc url=”https://ossmemo.edublogs.org/files/2017/01/2017-January-SFD-2-2igvzbh.pdf” viewer=”google”]

We will meet on Tuesday in the Year 6 classrooms for some operational information, key dates etc.

Have a fantastic first week back everyone, Grant.