TEAM KUNYUNG……………it’s a group effort! :)

Dear Kunyung Families! 
This week has been all about Team Kunyung…………..

Not only has it been a build up to our Kunyung Fair (A massive community team effort, but also planning week for each Level Teaching Team.

Each Teaching Team has spent the day together, working through our focus areas for Term 2 whilst each class of students has worked together as a team in each specialist class for the day!

Teachers have started each day by discussing how we promote Learner Agency in our classrooms- the little and big things that we do. We have kept Learner Agency in the back of our minds as we have gone through the day.

We have rigorously discussed our next Units of Inquiry and what we can do to improve from Term 1. Our central ideas, concepts and skills were agreed upon and excursions and incursions planned to support the learning. Many teachers asked their students for feedback from Term 1 and brought this feedback to our planning session.

We then moved onto planning, discussing and organising our Reading, Writing and Numeracy for Term 2. This involved breaking down maths and literacy outcomes, preparing pre assessments and discussing our Term 1 data. Finishing with Blog development, excursion planning and general business.

The days are full of thinking, discussion, debating and reaching consensus on many ideas……..all to reach the best possible outcomes for our students- we wouldn’t want it any other way!

Our staff are so incredible professional in their approach to everything they do………we provide them with many professional readings that are discussed and ideas implemented almost immediately……their effort to be on top of world’s best practice amazes me……….we finished our planning days with a recent TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson and even now I am receiving emails from staff who watched it again and just wanted to comment on it straight away!

One staff member commented ‘I think you guys have mastered the art of treading softly on our (teaching) dreams. Sometimes we might not be right, in fact we (I mean me) may definitely be wrong, but you never make it feel like that. I will head Sir Ken’s words and tread more softly on my students’ dreams…’

What a powerful reflection of our teaching staff! Your beautiful children are in good hands!

Go TEAM Kunyung!!

Inquiry @ Kunyung! :)

Dear Kunyung Families!

What a wonderful community spirit we are lucky to have!

Just to name a couple of highlights……..Fair organisation, Family Picnic, Open Classrooms, Lucy K driving the Eco Schools Program with our Eco Monitors,  including the Kitchen Garden design which is nearing completion, Fiona M working quietly and regularly in our Resource Rooms, Mr Jepson and the Year 6 ‘I See I Care’ Leaders swimming with the dolphins, hosting the Dolphin Research Institute student/teacher meeting, Bronwyn B meeting with all of our enthusiastic Contact Parents……the list just goes on…….

Whilst all of these supporting acts are going on………our students are learning, learning, learning!!!


THIS COMMUNITY SPIRIT SUPPORTS OUR CURRICULUM (Teaching & Learning) 
OUR CORE BUSINESS!

Last week we looked at one of our BIG curriculum ideas- ‘Learners Teaching Learners’…..
This week we move onto INQUIRY!
“Inquiry based Learning” (The process initiated by the students or the teacher that moves the students from their current level of understanding to a new and deeper level of understanding.)

At Kunyung it can mean students:
• exploring, wondering and questioning
• experimenting and playing with possibilities
• making connections between previous learning and current learning
• making predictions and acting purposefully to see what happens
• collecting data and reporting findings
• clarifying existing ideas and reappraising perceptions of events
• deepening understanding through the application of a concept
• making and testing theories
• researching and seeking information
• taking and defending a position
• solving problems in a variety of ways.

It can also look like students working through the stages of an Inquiry Cycle as they explore their Unit of Inquiry! The Kunyung Inquiry Cycle looks like this…….

Our teachers and students will spend this year deciding as a class what we might ‘think’ and ‘say’ at each stage of the inquiry cycle, what they might do at each stage and what it might look like if they were successful at each stage of the cycle!

Inquiries can be personal, teacher driven, student driven or collaborative………throughout the year our students will have the chance to experience all of these different types of inquiry! 🙂

Inquiry isn’t the only way to best learn but it is our lead way @ Kunyung….

To finish with a lovely experience, I met with the Preps last week! When I asked them what they thought my job or responsibility was in the school, these were some of their responses…..
‘You use a computer’
‘You walk around the school’
‘You check to see if we are learning’
‘You make sure we are happy’
After our conversation they left my office with the understanding that ‘I am a teacher and that I teach the teachers!’
They thought this was very funny but seemed to be impressed at the same time!
Ahhhh…….working with Preps……gotta love what they think and say! 🙂

Have a lovely week everyone!

Kim Jackson