Nerae Preece Principal

From the Principal

Today there is someone I would like to acknowledge. As you would be aware through the media there are huge teacher shortages across the state, in fact from one of my courses ( Recently, I was studying with principals in America and the middle east) other Principals were saying there just wasn’t enough teachers to teach classes on a daily basis due to illness (flu and covid). At some point it was going to start affecting Badger Creek, and as many of you would know, many of our staff have been getting sick, and in respect for our learning community they have been taking time to recover at home.

There has been one person juggling our daily schedule to make sure we have classes covered. Our Assistant Principal, Emma Griffiths has been making complicated adjustments to the timetable and booking CRTs (Curriculum Relief Teachers) all before 8am in the morning. Emma also pops herself into classrooms when we really need her, to make sure that the show goes on. A big thank you Emma for your hard work!

The thing that makes me so proud is that despite the high levels of absences, our students are still following the curriculum and doing the learning (no busy worksheets happening here). This is because our learning teams plan together, and if someone is away, the replacement teacher has the planners to follow and the learning can continue.

I want to also thank you as parents and carers for your patience as we try to navigate this covid winter. Our staff are being proactive and making sure that they are immunised for covid and flu. We are doing the best we can to minimise disruptions to ensure that learning can continue for your child.

What were the teachers doing today at the Pupil Free Day?

I overheard a conversation that some students were having about what the teachers get up to on Pupil free days. They were imagining a school for teachers that is only open a few days a year.

To let you know what is really happening today, we are having what is called a moderation/triangulation day. Here is how it works…

Over the past 2 terms our students have been showing us evidence of their learning, we take photos of this, use checklists to record whether they were working at task, enable and extend, we also take notes on conversations that we have with the students (also known as conferences or conferring).

In mid term 2 we get our students to complete some standardised assessments, we use PAT testing by ACER, F & P reading tests, the South Australian Spelling test and we have our own school wide common assessment tasks.

All the results of these are popped into a triangulation document. Teams have already done this ready for today.

So today the teachers are having conversations around what evidence they can see from the students when they compare it to the Victorian Curriculum (that is what your reports tell you). From this they will mark the achievement standards which will help them make a judgement on your child’s progress in relation to the curriculum.

This process is really important, because it means that the report that you read at the end of this term for your child, has a team of people that have examined the evidence of learning and they have made a decision together on what progression your child has made.

We are so grateful that we have been able to have a day to complete this very important work so your child’s report can be thorough. We hope you enjoy that extra bit of time with your family as we have 2 long weekends in a row!

That’s about it for this week. Just a reminder that the ½ swimming is on next week.

Have a great weekend.

Nerae Preece

Principal

PFA…

IMPORTANT SCHOOL DATES

Important school dates to remember:

6/6 – 10/6 – Grade 1 / 2 Swimming

9/6 – School Assembly

16/6 – Special lunch

24/6 – Last day of term

Music News

Greetings to our wonderful school community,

It has been a couple of weeks since I last recorded our music room antics for the newsletter and so much fun has been had I hardly know where to start.

Our grade Prep students are nailing the concept of pitch, high and low sounds, and have been playing all manner of instruments including the chime bars and the xylophones. We are learning that different pitches have letter names and that you have to play the right pitches at the right time to make music work.

Our grade 1/2 students have spent several weeks listening to and learning about the music of Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev. We are also learning about pitch and have been playing I Want a CCC on the xylophones.

Grade 3/4 have been having an absolute hoot learning some fabulous and complicated body percussion and drum stick patterns. We have also been incorporating some Garage Band rhythms into our work. As part of this work we have been learning about the the cannon, or round. (As in Row Row Your Boat)

One of our students, Antony, had a light bulb moment and realised that a song he likes to listen to is sung as a cannon. I have included it here for your interest. Such fun!

Grade 5/6 students have been learning about rhythm and beat and have been playing Seven Nation Army, a song of their choice, in their music class.

School Band and Choir

I am so delighted with our school band and choir. They both performed at the Open Night with such heart and soul. The Choir is currently learning to sing the Fleetwood Mac classic, Don’t Stop, and the Band have been jamming on Wake Me Up by Avici and Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes.

I am currently working with the band to inject a bit of creativity and improvisation into their playing as a group. I am so impressed by these young musicians, their enthusiasm and commitment to the music they play is an absolute delight. LOVE MY JOB!

Have a great week,

Jenny Legg

This week in Prep…

We have had another fabulous week in our wonderful world of prep.

Reading took us on a mindful journey, as we focused on visualising.

“Visualising is when we play a movie in our mind and we need to guess what the pictures look like.”

“Visualising is our brains painting a picture.”

Each day we listened to different podcasts from the Little Yarns series. (Here’s one we really enjoyed if you’d like to take a listen. https://www.abc.net.au/kidslisten/little-yarns/water-yorta-yorta/13843200)

We took a lot of pride in drawing the images that came to our mind as we were listening along.

Their attention to detail in this space was just beautiful.

SMART spelling this week had us jumping like a frog.

A big special thank you to Sarah Boyd for coming to visit us on Monday and answering all of our questions about Corroboree Frogs. Your expertise sparked a true love of learning across the classroom.

We found out that corroboree frogs can only walk and do not jump. They enjoy eating ants. They lay copious amounts of eggs at once. Sarah even modelled the sound a corrobboree frog makes.

We discussed the little things that we can do to support our froggy friends’ fight against extinction due to climate change.

A few important ones include: turning lights off, picking up rubbish and minimising the time the tap is left on.

To keep our frog momentum going, our writing prompt was a corrobboree frog photo taken by Sarah.

Our writing pieces were taken to new lengths with the students carrying their prior knowledge of these slimy critters into their key words. Ask your child what their sentence said this week. We bet you’ll learn something new!

In word knowledge, we continued to practise the skill of segmenting sounds in words. Word knowledge supports our mastery of reading as we are following the similar initial process of sounding out the unknown words, as we would when we are reading. But instead of starting with the sounds, we’re starting with the word and working backwards. Breaking up the word into it’s sounds. This time, we ‘stepped out the sounds’. We had a lot of fun with this strategy! The preps have already asked when we’ll be stepping out some sounds again.

In Maths, we’ve been learning about 2D shapes. Visualise this: shape hunts, rotational activities, tracing various shapes, Spingo (bingo in space with Pevan and Sarah), games of ‘which shape am I’, describing and sorting shapes based on their characteristics. So much learning, so little time!

Thank you for another delightful week of learning, team!

This week in Grade 1 / 2…

Dear Grade 1/2 Community,

What an eventful week it has been! So much learning and fun has been happening in our Balit Space – especially because of the wet weather. Our students have been very resilient with a lot of wet day time tables! Over the week grade 1/2 have been busy with their assessments. We have seen countless examples of students taking pride in their learning and giving their best effort.

In Reading this week we have been looking at ‘just right’ books to make sure that we are reading things that are a good fit for us. On top of this, our students have been categorising books into different themes and genres.

We are continuing to be persuasive Writers and will be developing this over the next week. Students will have been forming opinions on topics, creating arguments to back up their opinions and having a go at writing a persuasive letter.

In Mathematics, students have been looking at different 2D shapes and some 3D objects in our learning environment. Through fun learning experiences, students have been finding and classifying these shapes & objects and even having a go at drawing a Rubik’s Cube.

You might like to see what 3D objects are around your house!

Just a quick reminder, next week is Swimming. So remember to bring all your swimming gear and bag to put all your wet clothes in! As the weather gets colder, don’t forget to bring your school jumper or jacket everyday too!

Have a wonderful weekend,

The Grade 1/2 Team

This week in Grade 3 / 4…

This week in 3/4, students have been working towards personal learning goals in literacy, numeracy as well as thinking about their study habits in the classroom. Can you tell from this it’s assessment and report writing time for us teachers? It’s been extremely busy!

We have embarked on a new unit around Non-Fiction texts and are super excited to research topics including, prehistoric and wild animals, space, and natural disasters. This week, students had to think about these topics, write their own pros and cons about researching these topics and finally had to select their preference and justify their decision. This process allowed student to ‘dip their toes’ into each topic, helping them to make rational and informed decisions rather than choosing a topic that their friends like.

We have examined language features of non-fiction texts and how these help readers to locate specific information. Let the research begin!

In maths, students have developed their skills in making and solving number patterns. Using operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, or a combination of these, they have developed their rule to change a sequence of digits.

We look forward to seeing all students on Monday ‘Ready for Learning’ after this student only long weekend!