Whata postive way to start the year! :)

 

Kunyung is motoring along at a very fast speed…………….as the Leader of Curriculum in the school I have the pleasure of meeting every week for two hours with every level team!! (I think they get sick of me really!) So I get to see what is planned and taught on a daily basis!

What I love about this work is to be able to keep all levels in the school working consistently and collaboratively with planning, teaching, language used, and assessment. We have spent time collecting data and analysing it to really see what our students need to move forward in their learning. Sorry but I wanted to share!!

OK……..Remember when we went to school? Actually I need to be careful when I say that because many of you are young enough that I could have taught you! I don’t mean all of the really young people then!

We had a series of classroom rules! From memory they nearly always started with DON’T or NO………..

MY OWN YEAR 6 CLASSROOM RULES FROM MEMORY- Derinya PS Mrs Ord 1980!!

DON’T run around the room

DON’T use a loud voice

DON’T call out

DON’T talk when working

 The teacher pretty much created these rules and was the chief enforcer! The teacher owned them……..you may say ‘Well it worked’ but did we follow them because we were frightened of what might happen if we didn’t?

Guidelines and boundaries in the classroom are just as important now as they were ‘back in the day’ but the process of developing them falls not just solely with the teacher. It is a collaborative task at Kunyung Primary School- as it is in many Primary Schools.

Working collaboratively with the class enables the teacher and children to have a voice, to drive the classroom boundaries, to own them and to hold themselves and other students to account if they are not followed.

They are written in a positive manner, using child friendly language and most importantly- referred to throughout the year….even modified if the class sees something not working! They are still enforced, but students follow them because they know they need to of the class is going to function well- not because they are frightened! They are displayed in every classroom!

We call them ESSENTIAL AGREEMENTS and, as a school, we have tried to bring this concept into our workplace, outside of the classroom. We work through the process of creating Essential Agreements for the Whole Staff, Level Teams and the Leadership Team!

Please have a look at some examples below and see how articulate our children are……..they are so much more useful and student owned than the DOs and DON’Ts list………………….

Please refer to the School Blog for up to date information on each Level Team’s Unit of Inquiry and current events! We are working really hard to get into the habit of up-dating information on a regular basis!

Finally, please try and come to our Open Afternoon next week……..the teachers and students are really proud of the speed with which we have started the year! Reading groups are up and running, children have all been assessed and placed on the Mathematics NUMERATION continuum and ALL classes in the school have begun creating a ‘Community of Writers’ by introducing a Writer’s Notebook! Some testing is still being finalised this week…….but the learning started way back in the year! Are we only 4 weeks in?????

Cheers

Kim Jackson

Assistant Principal