Wales Street Primary School Newsletter

Date 11/03/2016 Term 1, Number 4

In This Issue 2016 Fete Poster

Ride2School Day

Improving Student Outcomes

School Fees

School Council Elections and Annual General Meeting 2016

Student Accident Insurance

Social Support Group for Parents and Carers of a Child with a Disability

PYP and Performing Arts

The yard is supervised before school from 8.45am and after school until 3.45pm. Students must not be dropped off and left alone before 8:45am. Any student in the yard

unsupervised before 8.45am will need to go to our school aged care program.

An important reminder that any change of address or contact

phone numbers needs to be

updated with the office. This includes work numbers and emergency contacts. It is very important that the school is able to contact families in the event of an accident or illness.

Recess: 10.40am–11.10am Lunch eating time: 12.50pm-1.00pm

Lunchtime: 1.00pm – 1.50pm School Finish: 3.30pm

From the Principal…

Ride 2 School Day

Congratulations to all of the students and families for walking and wheeling to

school in the Ride to school Day last Friday 4th March!

We had a total of 337 students walk, ride, scoot or skate on the day. From the

Hands Up count we discovered that:

38% of students walked

26% of students rode

16% of students scooted

20% travelled to school by car

Wales Street Primary School would love to see our students keep up the walking

and wheeling though out the year as we believe the benefits greatly assist in

the students’ personal and academic development.

Thanks to the JSC members, the Staff at WSPS and Simon and Heidi from the

Bicycle Network for helping out on the day. A very big thank you to all families

who participated and supported the students on the day!

Events

Sunday March 13 Working Bee Monday March 14

Labour Day Public Holiday Saturday March 19 School Fete Thursday March 24 Term 1 Ends at 2.30pm

Contact Us

Ph: (03) 9484 3949

Fax: (03) 9480 5930

wales.street.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

www.walesstps.vic.edu.au

Improving Student Outcomes – Teacher Coaching Structure

2016 – Literacy and Numeracy

This year at Wales Street Primary School we are allocating human resources to

support teachers through a coaching model with the ultimate aim of

supporting and improving the learning outcomes of all our students.

The model will allow key staff such as Trevor Robinson (Assistant Principal) and

Robyn Jones (Leading Teacher) to work with teachers providing constructive

feedback on best practice within the classroom. Trevor and Robyn will be

working with teachers looking at and consistence in instructional quality.

Trevor’s focus learning area will be in maths. Robyn will be continuing to look

at literacy supported by Sotiroulla Kyprianou our literacy intervention teacher.

I have implemented this coaching structure to support the research of Professor

John Hattie from Melbourne University who was responsible for a meta-analysis

of which classroom practices yield the highest impact for improved student

outcomes.

Hattie found that class size made no difference to student performance if the

style of instruction used by the teacher wasn’t adjusted. Furthermore, Hattie

also found in his meta-analysis that there are other much more important

influences that schools and teachers should be taking into account if they

wanted to improve educational outcomes for students (refer to table below).

What are meta-analyses?

Meta-analysis is more commonly found in medicine and epidemiology than in

education, and it has its limitations, but it can also make very strong points.

Meta-analysis is simply the technique of searching for all the existing research

reports on a particular issue, and combining them to get an overall result.

Hattie’s work draws on a total of about 800 meta-analyses, which

encompassed 52,637 studies, and provided 146,142 effect sizes. “These studies

are based on many millions of students" (Hattie, 2009; 15). Note, however, that

the evidence is collected across all phases of education (primary and

secondary, and some post-compulsory) but dominated by children in the

school sectors.

Maths Puzzlers

Foundation

Katie was given a marble on Tuesday. Then she was given two marbles every day for a

long time.

When did she get her 11th marble?

Grade 1/2

Steve the

milkman had a

square milk crate that could hold

four bottles of milk.

In how many ways can he put two milk bottles into the crate?

Grade 3/4

There are two pirates and four treasure chests on an island. The pirates have one small boat to take the treasure to their ship.

The boat can take two pirates or one pirate and one chest of

treasure.

How many trips do the pirates have to take to get all the treasure and both pirates to the ship?

Grade 5/6

In the farmyard there are some

pigs and some chickens. In fact there are 87 animals and 266 legs.

How many pigs are there in the farmyard?

Students can bring their

answers to Trevor to receive a prize!

Effect Size

The diagram and table below illustrates the “effect size measurements used by

Hattie. Any effect size of 0.4 and above is considered to be having a positive

impact of student achievement.

Volunteer for the Fete!

PYP Learner Profile

Attributes

Open Minded

Principled

Reflective

Courageous

Thinker

Caring

Communication

Inquirer

Knowledgeable

Well Balanced

What are we doing at Wales Street PS then?

Peer tutoring, feedback and instructional quality are the focus areas

across the school for our coaching this year. (These are included in

Hattie’s list below).

Staff have been provided with time to observe best practice and have

conversations about what is working best within classrooms across the

school.

I have put together a School Improvement Team (S.I.T.) consisting of

representatives from all phases of schooling (Prep to Grade 6). The role

of the SIT will be to work on three target areas :

1. Consistent teaching protocols.

2. Learning intentions, narrative & pace.

3. Connecting feedback to data.

Percentages Paid of School Fees to Date

Curriculum Levy 82%

Excursion Levy 56%

Booklist 54%

ICT Levy 56%

Oval Development (lease) 73%

School Nurse 80%

Building Fund 85%

School Council Elections and Annual General Meeting 2016

The election process for 2016 is complete. Neither category required a vote

this year. The successful nominees for the parent and DET categories were :

Parents -

Phillip Papas

Moh Tagliano

Frances Coppolillo

Susan Rennie

Staff -

Jenny Deeble

Sue Losada

The AGM Wednesday will be held on 16th March at 7pm in the staffroom. All

members of the community are welcome.

Kind regards,

Christian Woodcock

Principal

PYP Attitudes

Appreciation

Enthusiasm

Cooperation

Creativity

Confidence

Commitment

Curiosity

Integrity

Empathy

Tolerance

Independence

Respect

Department of Education and Training (DET): Student Accident Insurance,

Ambulance Cover Arrangements and Private Property brought to Schools.

Parents are reminded that the Department does not provide personal

accident insurance or ambulance cover for students. Parents and guardians of

students, who do not have student accident insurance/ambulance cover, are

responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students,

including the cost of ambulance attendance/transport and any other

transport costs. The Department cannot advise parents/guardians on whether

to purchase a student accident policy/ambulance cover, or which policy to

purchase. It is recommended that they seek assistance in this matter with their

insurance broker or find a suitable personal accident insurer in the Yellow

Pages or online. Private property brought to school by students, staff or visitors is

not insured and the Department does not accept any responsibility for any loss

or damage. Parents/guardians can purchase insurance policies from

commercial insurers. The Department does not hold insurance for personal

property brought to schools and it has no capacity to pay for any loss or

damage to such property.

Social Support Group for Parents and Carers of a Child with a Disability

Welcoming all parents and or carers, of a primary school aged child with a

disability. This social support group provides a space to share ideas, take a

break and feel inspired about parenting. This six week program in a child

friendly and community space is free and offers a friendly and confidential

space for parents to talk about what matters to them.

Commencing : Monday 18th April 10 to 12pm

Northern Community Church of Christ at 81 High St Preston

Bookings essential please ring Sue Silk

Melbourne City Mission on 9385 3235

email ssilk@mcm.org.au

This program is supported by the Northern Community Church of Christ—

Developing Community, Deepening Spirituality and Demonstrating

Compassion

Grade 5/6 PYP in Performing Arts Learning about rhythm and demonstrating

cooperation