Dear St John the Apostle Community,

Today our Executive Team met to finalise our focus areas for work in 2019. We have some exciting plans ahead that will continue to develop our school capacity to provide a supportive, challenging and innovative learning environment for our students and families.

You would already be aware of the plans for our Outdoor Learning Environment. A few other plans for next year include the following.

Daily Effective Literacy 

We have reflected on the literacy teaching and learning practices trialled and used in the school for the last 5 years and examined their impact. Earlier this year we implemented the Sounds Write phonics program K-2, supported by Sounds Waves Spelling 3-6. We have already seen great growth in the spelling knowledge and skill of our students across the school. We will maintain these programs.

To continue this improvement we are implementing an agreed practice across the school for the teaching of literacy called The Daily 5. The Daily 5 is a structured approach to literacy teaching & learning that takes the most effective elements of the last five years and combines them into a powerful literacy block each day. The Daily 5 is a literacy framework that instils behaviours of independence, creates a classroom of highly engaged readers, writers, and learners, and provides teachers with the time and structure to meet diverse student needs. It includes a number of episodes of explicit teaching each day based on four major areas: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Vocabulary Expansion. 

Engaging Inquiry Curriculum

As previously mentioned we have spent a great deal of time developing compelling, significant and intriguing units of work that provide the opportunity for students to engage in inquiry that develops deep understandings about the world as well as skills for independent learning. These units will combine content and skills from all curriculum areas.

We also have a strong teaching team across the school next year and look forward to seeing just how much our students grow and learn with this new curriculum plan. 

Berry Street: Wellbeing for learning

In schools we now understand that children learn best in environments where they feel safe and happy. Wellbeing is crucial to academic success. While many of our students come to school with already positive wellbeing, supported by loving relationships outside of school, there are also students who have experienced trauma or other circumstances that make it difficult for them to learn effectively throughout the day.

We are joining a number of Catholic Primary Schools to begin the two-year journey to implement the relevant aspects of the Berry Street Education Model. The Berry Street education initiative is based on proven positive education, trauma-informed and wellbeing practices that enable students’ academic and personal growth. The model is unique because it educates schools and their leaders to reinforce and sustain cognitive and behavioural change, thereby re-engaging young people in learning and progressing their academic achievement.

UR FaB

Next year we will also work with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to implement the UR FaB Program. The program will be led by health professionals from the CAMHS Childhood Early Intervention Program who specialise in early emotional and social development, together with the school counsellor and class teachers.

The program aims to support children who are struggling to manage their strong emotions and behaviours. Previous research has shown that helping families and schools work together in the early years can have positive results for children both in their classroom and the wider world. The program specifically focuses on developing children’s understanding about their emotions and behaviours and how to manage them, as well as to improve social skills and friendship skills.

These last weeks the Newsletter will include other announcements about exciting programs we are implementing or part of as well as staffing, fees and communication for 2019. Keep an eye out!

Have a lovely weekend.

Matthew Garton (Principal)