Dear Parents and Carers,
Once again, it has been a very busy start to the final term. The deputies and speech pathologists have been completing the Year 1 grid marking. We also have been working through the referrals to ensure we place as many suitable referrals for 2021 as we can. As with previous years we have a lot of referrals but we have too many for some sites and not enough for others. We continue to have a shifting trend with high referrals for kindy for Quinns Beach and pre-primary for East Hamersley. We continue to have high referral numbers for our Quinns Beach site. The kindy referrals are slightly down and this is due to COVID-19.
This term we will be looking at the student data during each staff meeting and the upcoming school development day (during week 7 on Wednesday 25th November. This is a time when we look at whole cohort data (Kindy, PP, Year 1) and determine strengths, areas of concern and possible focus for the next year. We specifically look at the targets we set and determine if we have met them and to what degree. Overall the staff each spend 12 hours examining and discussing data with an additional 15 hours’ pre-analysis completed by the leaders and data groups (groups of 6 for a total of 90 hours). Add around 30 hours for writing the Annual Report and you can see it is a big commitment for all staff. A summary of our findings will be included in the 2020 Annual Report and I will provide a brief overview in the week 9 newsletter.
We will be running an online ‘Parent Workshop’ for parents of students who are exiting at the end of this year. This is because of the restrictions we have in place due to COVID 19. The pre-recorded session will discuss issues around transition to new schools and how you can support your child. The bonus with it being pre-recorded is parents can access the session at any time. Once we have it online, we will send you the link. The online space might be one of the few benefits of the COVID 19 pandemic. Please make sure that you have informed the office of the school your child will be attending in 2021.
If you have not accessed the bus services before and you live within the boundary for your site, you will need to apply for bus access for 2021. If you are shifting sites you must re-apply for the bus or a conveyance access allowance. I would do that as soon as possible.
On Tuesday this week we officially launched to products that we have developed at the Centre. The I Do It! program that we use to provide key tools and routines in the social and emotional area is now formally completed. The communication during the height of the pandemic from Emma McFarland was linked to this program. The other was the KAT assessment tool. This is designed for use in mainstream during the kindergarten year. Both products are made available to our mainstream schools. It was great to acknowledge the commitment and dedication in the development of these resources.
Ms Shelley Blakers
Principal