10 May 2017

Newsletter Articles

Across the Principal’s Desk…

Upcoming STEAM event this Thursday evening…

As per the above flyer, I would like to invite and encourage the Windsor school community to get involved in the STEAM ‘think tank’ event this Thursday evening from 7 – 8.30pm. There will be representatives from the School Council, P&C Association, Grant Smith – the Metro Region STEAM coordinator, the school Leadership Team and some key staff members in attendance. Along with discussing and collaboratively shaping our school approach to STEAM, Mrs. Emma Kemph and I will be conducting some ‘design thinking’ activities which will generate discussion and spark some creative ideas around how we might ensure our students are equipped with the knowledge and skills for the future that is ahead of them (especially around critical and creative thinking). What are our roles in this and how can we work together to ensure this happens. Everyone’s ideas, enthusiasm and feedback is needed to ensure we develop a strategic and exciting whole-school approach to STEAM. I look forward to seeing you there.

Diversity Matters

As I walk around the school on a daily basis, it pleases me greatly to see and sense the enormous diversity we are embracing within our community. We have families in our school from many different countries, any number of students who have specific needs whether they be academic, social or physical and most importantly an acceptance of such at every level within the school community. It would concern me greatly if I were ever to hear from a member of our community that a child with any sort of special need ‘doesn’t belong at Windsor’. Having such diversity only serves to strengthen our sense of what society is really all about. Accepting that everyone has a place and a role to play in our community and we all have different strengths and challenges to confront throughout a lifetime. It always heartens me when I see a new family and/or students being welcomed and taken care of by our current families.

Windsor’s positive approach to inclusivity was reinforced last week when I met with families in the school playground and evening at the disco, whose children have a disability. They spoke so highly of what the school does and reiterated just how warm and welcoming the school community and staff have been during their time at Windsor. From these discussions and my ongoing observations inside the classrooms, it is clear that, as a staff and community, we believe that every child can succeed in their own way and we are committed to doing what we can within the realm of possibility given our resources and skills. We don’t shy away from any students. We do what we can. When a child is happy to be at school and builds solid friendships and a positive relationship with their teachers, then the likelihood of success in life, particularly on a social level, is increased. I am very proud to be leading a school that, over many years, has cultivated a culture of inclusion and differentiation. As you can imagine, this is an enormous challenge with an ever-growing school and a finite number of physical and human resources to go around.

Do we get it right every time?

The answer to that question has to be no we don’t. It would be unrealistic to think we have all the answers. It’s a bit like parenting! We work very hard to learn new ways of teaching students, from those who require intervention/support due to a learning or physical difficulty, to those who require extension through a variety of means.

Do we give it our best shot and try to do what we can with the resources we have?

Absolutely.

Do we make mistakes?

For sure. It is only through trying different methods and having success or otherwise do we discover better ways to educate children.

Will your child be a productive member of society?

It is our aim that this will happen, but only in partnership with you as parents and by acceptance of all children in our school by the school community.

Last week, we conducted ‘case management’ meetings, where teachers individually discuss the learning and student growth in their classrooms. I must say that Windsor has the most dedicated and outstanding teachers, teacher aides and ancillary staff! Their passion and the will to try new and different approaches and most importantly, to try and accommodate the learning, social, physical and emotional needs of the students is simply second to none. It was very clear that the staff at Windsor care about kids. Long after the bell has rung to end the day, staff are still meeting and planning for ways in which to engage your children. They are pouring over student data in a bid to understand more about each individual child. Teachers meet as a year level team to develop approaches for group and individual student needs. It is through this team approach that we can and do improve student learning outcomes.

There is no ‘magic wand’ though. It can be a long, slow and sometimes seemingly overwhelming task when students are not progressing due to specific learning needs, especially when there are 25 or more students for which a teacher is responsible. Again, the partnership with home is critical. As I said in my article last week, the impact that home has on a child equates to 50% of their capability both socially and academically, with 40% being the class teacher. The notion of ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ is so very alive and well at Windsor! Thanks for being that all important ‘villager’.

Have a great fortnight!

From the Deputy Principal…

ACTIVE SCHOOL TRAVEL & NATIONAL WALK TO SCHOOL DAY… FRIDAY 19th MAY!

The annual National Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) - when all primary school children are encouraged to walk and commute safely to school- will be held throughout Australia on Friday 19th May 2017. It is a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public Transport and the Environment. Get active and walk to school on Friday 19th May to receive a special sticker and a bonus stamp in your Active School Travel passport!

UNDER 8’s DAY 2017

On Thursday May 25th, the children in Prep to Year 2 will be participating in an activities morning to celebrate Under 8’s week. This day is dedicated to celebrating the early years of school and the theme this year is “Children are playing Country to Coast- Inspiring Learning in the Early Years through Play”. Parents of children in Prep-Year 2 are invited to come along and have some fun with your child while they take part in the morning. The cost of the day will be $5.00 and parents will be invoiced to cover the costs of the morning.

Some of the fun and exciting activities that will be running on the day include face painting, a jumping castle, fruity necklaces, a local guest author…and lots more!

This year, the children are invited to wear free dress. Due to the nature of some of the activities, it would be great if they could come dressed in clothes that they can get messy in. This year there will be a cake stall running to help raise funds for P-2 resources. After all the fun activities you are invited to share morning tea with your child at school. A Coffee Van will also be on-site throughout the morning.

As teachers are responsible for a particular activity, children will require supervision. To ensure the day’s success we need as much parent assistance as possible. If you are able to come along on the day to assist your child or a small group of children, please complete and return the form sent home by your child’s teacher. The festivities will begin at 9am and will finish at 11am (first break). We look forward to seeing everyone at the festivities.

RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOUR & CODE OF CONDUCT

The Parenting Style that Builds Greatest Resilience in Kids

Kids are often better than adults at bouncing back and some kids seem to be born with a temperament that provides them with a talent for resilience and an ability to quickly move on from set-backs.

However, according to a group of Iranian researchers, one of the factors that contributes to the degree of resilience in kids is not the temperament they are born with but rather, their parents’ style of parenting. In a recent study, researchers investigated the relationship between parenting styles and resilience including which style seems to build resilience. Researchers looked at three styles of parenting including:

1. ‘Acceptance-involvement’ (warm, firm, involved and sensitive to kids’ changing needs)
2. ‘Psychological autonomy-granting’ (democratic discipline and not pushing kids to comply with rules)
3. ‘Behavioural strictness-supervision’ (shaping, controlling and evaluating the behaviour and attitudes of the child in accordance with set standards of conduct that are usually absolute)

The main question of the study was to ascertain which parenting style can predict resilience.

The effect of the gender of children in this relationship was also examined.

Key findings:

• The strongest relationship was between the ‘acceptance-involvement’ (warmth, support and child-centred) parenting style and children’s resilience, and as such, could be regarded as a protective factor that may increase a child’s ability to overcome negative life events and crises.
• Authoritative (‘acceptance-involvement’) parents may be more attuned to their child’s needs, thereby helping the child to master early developmental tasks and build more skills needed to master significant environmental challenges.
• In relation to gender differences, the results showed there was a significant difference between resilience scores of boys and girls with parents who exhibit a ‘behavioural strictness-supervision’ style, with boys displaying greater resilience.

Things you can do:

• Develop an authoritative (warm, responsive, supportive) parenting style to help support a healthy, whole-family relationship.
• Rather than just chauffeuring your kids to their activities, investigate ways to be involved, perhaps on a committee or as a grounds person, coach, or in a supervisory role.
• Contact your child’s school to ask about ways to be involved. For most of us, employment commitments mean we can’t help in the classroom, but the school will advise you of other ways you can support your child’s education.
• Develop an electronic parent/teacher partnership with your child’s teacher, so that you can stay involved in homework and your child’s academic and social progress.
• Talk to your kids about a resilient attitude. Employ specific strategies and role model these at times when things go off the rails. Coping strategies may include use of the Catastrophe Scale (is it a 2 or a 10 catastrophe?) to put adverse events into perspective, or rational thinking strategies such as the ABC of thinking (A = activating event, B = your take on this (rational or otherwise), C = how you feel and act as a result of what you think about the situation).
• More on these and other strategies can be found at: www.youcandoitparents.com.au and www.youcandoiteducation.com.au
• Allow kids to make mistakes, experience the consequences, and then help them to move forward.
• Talk through the ‘bad’ days, brainstorm solutions together, and encourage your kids to see the bigger picture – any factors they don’t know about that may have contributed to the bad day.

Source: Hamidreza Zakeri et al., Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences,
5 (2010) pp1067-1070.

Takeaway from Professor Michael Bernard:

Life at times is filled with stress, risks and adversity, which has the potential to side-track kids from developing into happy, healthy adults. What appears to determine the difference between those who continue on successfully and those who do not, is resilience. Our parenting style, and an ‘authoritative’ style in particular, contributes significantly to supporting a healthy family relationship and to building resilience in our kids, empowering them to cope with stress, trauma and general life pressures.

Michael E. Bernard, Ph.D.
Professor, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
University of Melbourne
Founder, You Can Do It! Education

Check out the link below for more expert parenting advice.

Follow Windsor SS on Facebook & Twitter!

Get the most up-to-date information and school alerts by following Windsor State School on Facebook and Twitter @Windsor_SS

You can also access important school information and alerts, including Facebook/Twitter, via the QSchools app! Download it now and keep informed of everything that is happening at our school.

QParents…please get on board!

Our school also has QParents. Parents will receive an invitation email or letter to register this week. Prep parents will also receive a Student ID card containing an EQ ID number to register.

If you do not receive an invitation (QPAO), please advise Admin ASAP. QParents is one of the ways we communicate with parents, get on board to enjoy the ease and convenience that QParents offers.

QParents is also the means by which parents access Student Reports. It is important to register now as printed reports are no longer sent home at the end of each Semester. Help us become more ‘paper-less’ by registering for QParents now!

Head of Curriculum

THE WRITERS’ BOX

Each week, students are invited to apply the Seven Steps to a stimulus provided on parade and place their writing in the Writers’ Box outside the office. Due to the public holidays at the start of this term, we have not had a Writers’ Box stimulus yet. However, this week our student leaders selected some great writing from previous weeks’ topics.

Use the links below to read this great writing!

Although not necessarily taught in the below order, the Seven Steps to Writing Success are:

1. Plan for Success
2. Sizzling Starts
3. Tightening Tension
4. Dynamic Dialogue
5. Show, Don't Tell
6. Ban the Boring
7. Exciting Endings

If you would like to know more about each of the Seven Steps to Writing Success, follow the link below for a description of each step.

Roxanne O’Donoghue
Head of Curriculum

Master Teacher’s Report

Master Teacher / STLaN Update

Reading:

This week, I would like to focus on phonics, phonological awareness and phonemic awareness as all these terms have been hot topics in the news lately.

Often we are confused by terminology used. What is the difference between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics?

The following information is taken from, “Sound Waves”, 2017, the basis of our spelling program.

Understanding phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics

Updates to the Australian Curriculum are shining a spotlight on teaching phonological awareness (in particular, phonemic awareness) and phonics. Whilst they are closely related, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics do not mean the same thing. Because they all begin with the Greek root phon meaning sound, it is often thought that they are synonymous.

Phonological awareness is a broad concept that relates to the structure of spoken language. It requires understanding of sounds, words, rhyme, syllables, and onset and rime.

Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness. It relates specifically to the individual phonemes for the words of Australian English. It incorporates the ability to segment words into their component sounds.

As all phonological awareness skills (including phonemic awareness) are sound based, students participating in purely phonological awareness activities would not be expected to write anything down.

Phonics is the understanding that there is a systematic connection between the phonemes heard in oral language and the graphemes (letters and letter combinations) used in writing.

Phonics is also used to describe the teaching of reading and spelling by focusing on sound–letter correspondences.

Unlike phonological awareness, phonics activities integrate sound and print. Students participating in phonics activities are required to write!



Games to play with your children for phonological awareness (including phonemic awareness) and phonics proficiency:

1. Rhyming Clue - answer the clue with an appropriate rhyming word.

Examples: ‘I rhyme with ten and you can write with me.’ (pen)
‘I rhyme with red and you can sleep in me.’ (bed)
‘I rhyme with get and I mean not dry.’ (wet)

2. Whose Name? Explore the sounds in one another’s names.

Examples: ‘Whose name starts with /b/?’
‘Whose name has three sounds?’
‘Whose name ends with /t/?’

3. Build a Word from a given grapheme -

• Nominate a grapheme, e.g. ee.
• Students write the grapheme several times in a vertical list.
• Ask students to create words from the grapheme, e.g. ‘Turn the grapheme into green.’
• Students write letters before and after the grapheme to make the word.
• Repeat this for other words, e.g. sleep, street, cheese, sheep.

Windsor State School’s reading program explicitly teaches phonics, phonological awareness and phonemic awareness in context.

Our Playgroup, the Windsoroos

What an exciting time we had last Friday! Our Phys Ed Teacher, Cam Ross set up a challenging outdoor circuit for us to explore. Thank you Mr Ross! It was lots of FUN!! Our gross motor skills are certainly developing and our parents’ motor skills are being tested again.

Great balancing Eddie!

We welcomed our new principal, Grant Baker to our playgroup last week. He spoke with many of the Windsoroos and their parents. He also participated in our Story Time session.

Indoor play was also very productive. Playdough, construction, craft, home corner and puzzles were popular today.

We look forward to having fun and growing with you and your child/children at the Windsoroos Playgroup.