What a wonderful start to the year we have had. All year levels have settled in well and teachers have been able to get up and running smoothly. The beginning of the year is tiring for all after such a long break, but Preppies really feel it, and so do their teachers! For this reason, things go a little more slowly in the first couple of weeks. Teachers need to take time to set up new routines and build the culture of their classrooms for the year ahead. Most other year levels tend to get going more quickly as so many of our routines are similar across the school.

From this week, you will begin to receive a Term Newsletter from your child/s Year Level Team/s. Please take the time to read through what they will be learning about this term and encourage their continued learning at home by reading texts or viewing related media to help build their background knowledge. When homework starts to come home, this will contain work that consolidates learning in class and/or allows students to practise the skills or solidify the knowledge required to achieve success in their year-level curriculum tasks.

Did you know…

the whole school will be delivering new English and Mathematics units this year to align with Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum? This is an exciting development as we study some new texts and align our lessons to further reflect our knowledge and understanding of evidence-informed best practice.

We will also be teaching and assessing using Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum for HaSS. HaSS was an area of the curriculum that received the most significant reductions in content as it was previously a very large learning area, particularly in the upper school. At this time, we have reduced the content in our current units to reflect those changes, but will continue to develop new and pedagogically aligned units of work over the next couple of years.

You can hear more about these exciting changes at the Meet the Teacher evenings coming up.

Author Visit – Dr Cameron Stelzer, The Story Doctor

On Monday 3 March, we have a special visit from Author and Illustrator Dr Cameron Stelzer. Dr Cameron is visiting Windsor State School to run workshops with our Year 3 and Year 5 students. Students will participate in workshops that will inspire them in their writing, and help prepare them for their own writing tasks. Students and teachers are looking forward to a great day!

In conjunction with the Author Visit, Windsor SS families have a special opportunity to purchase signed and personalised copies of Cameron’s books at special prices. Individual books are $10-$15 each and there are also exclusive book sets available. Students will receive an order form on the day of the workshops (payment is via the online payment portal listed on the form; no cash). Forms can be returned the following day, to the Library.